Location: Rajasthan Desert – Tower Authority Combat Zone Gamma
Time: Two Days After Blackhunt Registration
The sandstorm howled like a beast denied blood.
Ankit stood at the edge of a sun-bleached arena, flanked by his newly recruited guildmates. Before them, a half-ruined coliseum carved into the sandstone ridge awaited. Its jagged stone teeth cast long shadows as dusk fell, and banners marked with the Tower Authority's sigil flapped in the wind—black and silver, impersonal as a guillotine.
This was it.
[Guild Trial: Initiated]
[Trial Type: Combat & Command Simulation]
[Objective: Survive 3 Waves of Elite Combatants]
[Bonus Objective: Defeat the Trial Champion]
[Penalty for Failure: Guild Revoked | All Members Banned from Floor 3 for 6 Months]
🛡️ Blackhunt, Assembled
Ankit Kumar – [Leader | Soul Weapon: Twin Talwars | Trait: Bladeheart Resonance]
Raghav Sinha – [Tactician | Soul Weapon: Phantom Arm | Trait: Battle Insight]
Asha Mehra – [Assassin | Soul Weapon: Whisper Blades | Trait: Shadow Vein]
Kaido Verma – [Frontliner | Soul Weapon: Ogre Spine Gauntlets | Trait: Monsterblood Mutation]
Riya Singh – [Stormcaster | Soul Weapon: Thunder Bracers | Trait: Storm Core Sync]
Raghav adjusted his black artificial arm.
"Remember, this isn't just brute strength. They'll send combinations that test our strategy. First wave's usually bait. Second's the chaos. Third… that's where most fail."
Kaido cracked his knuckles. "Let 'em come. I haven't broken anyone's ribs since yesterday."
Asha, polishing her twin daggers, whispered, "I'll take out any ranged units. Cover me when I vanish."
Riya rotated her shoulder with arcs of lightning flickering across her bracers. "Hope they've got someone fun."
Ankit sheathed his talwars behind his back. "We fight like we've already died once. No heroes. Just precision."
⚔️ WAVE ONE – "Ironhide Phalanx"
A thunderous gate opened. Ten heavily armored soldiers in full plate surged out in formation. Each bore shields enchanted to reflect soul energy and spears that crackled with blue mist.
[Elite Combatants – Tower Rank C+]
[Type: Defense-Oriented | Coordinated Assault Formation]
"Kaido, Riya, pressure center. Asha, flank left. I'll breach from the right. Raghav—call patterns," Ankit snapped.
The battle unfolded like a deadly waltz.
Kaido slammed into the formation like a boulder, breaking their center line with a ground-pound that sent two phalanx members flying. Riya followed with chain lightning, disrupting their ranks.
Ankit blurred into the side, his talwars flickering like twin moons, carving past one shield before the wielder could raise his weapon.
Asha darted in behind, slicing tendons with surgical precision, disappearing between blows like smoke.
Wave One ended in 92 seconds.
⚔️ WAVE TWO – "Shadowbind Cultists"
Fifteen robed figures emerged, each cloaked in black smoke and wielding cursed chains. One spoke in a voice that echoed from all directions:
"Your souls are forfeit to the Chains of Yez'ar. Repent."
Chains erupted from the sand, attempting to bind the minds of Blackhunt.
[Elite Combatants – Tower Rank B]
[Type: Mind Control | Binding | Ritual Magic]
"Asha, take the high ground!"
"Riya, interrupt the ritual!"
"Kaido—guard Raghav!"
Ankit pushed forward even as the world around him twisted. A chain wrapped around his arm, glowing red-hot—
—but his Soulmark shimmered. He snarled and cut through the chain with a surge of bladeforce.
Behind him, Riya shouted, "THUNDER WHEEL!"
A massive shockwave of rotating lightning spiraled outward, breaking the ritual circle and knocking down half the cultists.
Asha appeared behind the leader and plunged both blades into his back.
Silence.
Wave Two collapsed like rotted paper.
⚔️ WAVE THREE – "The Forgotten Blades"
They didn't walk in.
They descended.
Seven figures clad in black tower gear dropped from the upper ruins. Their weapons gleamed with authority symbols, and their aura felt wrong—twisted, corrupted. Failed guild leaders who once tried to rebel against the Tower.
[Elite Combatants – Tower Rank A- to A+]
[Type: Soul Weapon Masters | Adaptive Tactics | Tower-Tuned Bloodlines]
[Trial Champion Among Them: Arion Graves, the Bone Whisperer]
Raghav flinched. "That's Graves. I thought he was executed two years ago."
"He was," Ankit said, unsheathing both talwars slowly. "The Tower doesn't bury its mistakes. It recycles them."
🩸 The Blood Trial Begins
The battle was pure carnage.
Arion Graves manipulated bone like a conductor—summoning skeletal constructs, launching spear-tipped ribs, even weaponizing his own spine into a serpent whip.
Kaido lost a chunk of his shoulder to a spinning bone disc.
Riya got locked into a soul chain trap, screaming as a red mist tried to forcefully unbind her bloodline.
But Ankit moved like a phantom of war—calling out commands while cutting through enemies with surgical fury.
He had grown.
Floor 2 had carved him into something far sharper than steel.
Asha reappeared behind Arion, stabbing him in the kidney—but the man just laughed, bones reknitting instantly.
"Pathetic."
Then—he froze.
Because Raghav, from afar, had trapped Arion in an illusion field, making him relive his own execution.
"NOW!" Raghav yelled.
Ankit roared and dashed forward, crossing fifty meters in a blink.
"Soulcut – Dual Spiral Fang!"
Both talwars twisted through Arion's armor and spine—shattering the Trial Champion's soulcore.
🏆 Guild Trial Complete
[Trial Success: S+ Rating]
[All Guild Members Approved]
[Blackhunt Officially Registered in Tower Records]
[Perks Unlocked:]
– Tower Guild Quarters on Floor 3
– Group Transport System
– Access to Guild Vaults
– Monthly Challenge Participation Rights
Later that night, the team sat around a small bonfire outside the coliseum ruins. Wounds bandaged. Spirits high.
Ankit looked at his team—not just fighters, but allies. Asha sharpening her blade. Kaido gnawing on a mango candy. Riya humming under her breath. Raghav scribbling new tactics in a small black notebook.
This wasn't just a team.
This was Blackhunt.
And he didn't climb alone anymore.