"Now hurry up. You have a time limit. If you don't finish it in time, you won't be able to get past this tile at all. You don't get second chances," She hurried him up.
He quickly went to the next glyph on the pedestal surface. The total time he had was just 30 minutes, and he had already spent 5 minutes talking to Nefrati. On the bright side, he figured out how the trial worked and knew how to control the blood threads from each glyph.
When he touched the next glyph, another drop of blood emerged from his finger. It seemed like every single one would require a drop of blood. This time, he immediately started to direct it toward the receptacle glyph.
Because of his decent perception, he knew exactly where each thread had to go. When the thread reached its destination, it transformed into a line on the ground and wall like before.
Twenty minutes later, all 17 of the glyphs were connected to their respective duplicates. The minute the last thread sunk into the ground, the whole area glowed brightly. The pedestal sunk to the ground and the blood patterns sank to the ground, but the lines remained.
The walls also sank to the ground along with the pedestal, but he wasn't focused on that. He was looking at the lines he had drew. He wasn't paying attention to the pattern they were creating, but now that there wasn't anything else to look at, he noticed there was a distinct object the lines measured out to.
It was a rune that was made out of these lines. It said a simple word - Pass. He didn't realize what that meant, or if it was useful information. The lines glowed a bright red for a couple of seconds before sinking into the ground like the rest of the tile.
He sat down, taking a deep breath. What he had done wasn't too strenuous for him, but he wanted to get himself ready for the next task. After taking a five-minute break, he stood up to go to the 9th tile.
He only had two more tiles to go and he would reach the two treasures. This excited him, but Nefrati's warning kept him focused. If the tiles would give harder challenges the further he went, it meant that the last two tiles would be giving the hardest tests of them all.
He wasn't planning on wasting aura, but he wasn't going to be as frugal with it as before either. This was a place where he could die, so he would rather be careful than try to conserve his aura.
"What's the tile you are up against?" Nefrati asked him.
"Beast," he replied. "I have a guess of what it might be, but do you know anything?"
"I haven't come across this tile, so I don't know what you will face exactly. But I can make a good guess that I am sure you already have," she replied.
He nodded and took a step forward. The minute he took the step, he knew that he was going to be facing off against something strong.
With that step, a wave of blood rose from the ground, forming a figure in front of Leo. The aura emanating from the beast wasn't that of a Middle Stage 2nd Circle Aura Knight but that of a Late Stage. This would be his first time trying to face off against someone that was stronger than him.
The figure in front of him completely formed, revealing the structure of a wolf. It looked a lot like the wolf that chased him down in Valkyr's Forest the first time he went. It had the same shape but was red all over.
It immediately sprung at him, making him take a few steps to dodge it. He quickly released a few Shadow Blades to help him defend against the attacks. Even though it missed, it didn't lose any of its ferocity.
It quickly changed its direction and leaped at him again. He dodged again by rolling away from it and then quickly ran to the center to get away from it and give himself enough space.
At that point, he was getting cornered to the edge of the tile. One was already hard enough for him. If he accidentally ventured into another one and activated it, he would have to deal with them along with the wolf. That would be suicide.
Once he got to the center of the tile, he got his blades near him and stared down the wolf. It was looking at him keenly while charging at him again. This time, instead of charging, he hurled two of the blades next to him at it. After this, he still had two next to him.
The wolf jumped and swung both of its claws, deflecting the two blades that were rapidly approaching it. Leo expected this and quickly sent the other two after the wolf once it used both of its claws.
He thought this would work since it did against both the guardians he had gone against previously. However, to his astonishment, the wolf bit the first blade with its teeth, completely stopping it in its tracks. After that, it swung the blade in its jaw at the incoming one, shattering both of them.
It opened its mouth, letting the remnants of his blades disintegrate into aura. After that, it lunged toward him. Still in surprise that his attack failed, he rolled away from the wolf and started to maintain a distance.
He was running around the stage they were fighting in, avoiding confrontation as much as possible. When it got too close to him, he would summon a new batch of blades to throw at it.
The Obsidian Blades which were normally a trusty technique for him were not doing anything to the wolf at all. He could only use them to slow it down and give him a little time to run away from it. The battle was not going his way at all.
At this point, Nefrati spoke to him.
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
"Running away?" He responded to her.
"Are you dumb?!" She shouted back at him. "You are being given the best opportunity to take the best Aura Treasures available to you in the entire world, and you are squandering it by running away from your opponent! Do you know what you are doing?"
He smiled helplessly. "I don't think you understand. Did you not see how my attacks are essentially useless? I'm trying to keep my life intact at this point. Forget the treasure boxes," he said.
As he said that, the wolf finally got so close to him that he had to erect a Shadow Dome to keep it from directly hitting him.
The first claw strike from the wolf created a small crack in the dome. The wolf took a second to understand what was happening and bit at the barrier in front of it. Another crack formed, this one bigger than the previous one. Inside, Leo was trying his best to figure out what to do.
"Okay. I know that you don't have the best training, so I'll help you out. Listen to what I say, and you will win this fight," Nefrati said.
