One, two, three, four, five, six... one after another, sand crawlers emerged from below the gray dunes and without hesitation charged right at Theo. And one after another, Theo dispatched them, leaving nothing bust burnt corpse behind.
[You have slain a Dormant Spawn: Sand Crawler]
[You have slain a Dormant Spawn: Sand Crawler]
[You have slain a Dormant Spawn: Sand Crawler]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have...]
Over and over again, the divine voice of the world echoed in his mind repeating the same phrase over and over again. Dodge, weave, strike, kill, repeat. This was all Theo did and could do for as long as he was stuck in this wave of beasts. He dashed across the sands, shattered bones, ripped apart flesh, burnt their bodies asunder, he did anything at all to come out victorious and with the trait he was granted, it seemed as if there was no other outcome.
That was until, for the first time, since he understood his abilities he faltered.
He threw another blazing fist at a sand crawler, colliding with its chest and nearly blowing a hole right through its body with the sheer force.
[You have slain a Dormant Spawn: Sand Crawler]
But that same force was what doomed him. The energy from the recoil which he would have absorbed and used for the next attack travelled through his arm, shattering every bone in it.
Theo yelled in agony as he pulled his arm out of the spawns corpse. Drawing a yelp louder than any scream, the pain was immediate and highly overwhelming.
Theo stumbled back, clutching his shattered arm, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The world around him blurred for a moment as he fought to regain his composure, the only thing keeping him conscious was adrenaline still surging through his veins. Despite the pain, he couldn't afford to rest.
Cradling his inured arm, he continued to dodge and weave, but as it stood, he was utterly incapable of using his trait.
'Its not that is don't want to, I just can't! The damn thing isn't working!'
It was almost as if as his arm gave out, he had reached a limit he didn't know he had. And it cost him, much more than he thought as the more time passed, the more damage he took. Cuts, bruises, and fatigue, both physical and mental continued to build.
'Come on... Its been hours already.... haven't I 'survived' enough?'
By this point, Theo had fought for hours and hours, then dodged, weaved and ran for an even longer stretch of time. By now, he was covered in injuries blood and was on the verge of giving in again. But he had come too close to his goal to do that, so he kept going.
And that goal was simple. To survive! Just like the divine voice had told him to do at the start of his trial. It had now been nearly exactly a day since he began his trial, at east this round of it. He only had minutes left till his hypothesis was proven right.
'No I have to be right....'
Because if all he needed to do was survive, and he was placed in such a hellish place in the world of ygdrassil, of which he wasn't sure anyone had even heard of, let alone been o before, surviving for one day against this endless wave of beasts was the only possible way to 'survive'.
'Please let me be right... please, just let this nightmare end...'
Turning back to the rumbling behind him, Theo's heart nearly sank. Chasing him wasn't a few dozen sand crawlers, now after many, many hours of running, he had amassed an army of these monsters. And with the only part of his trait, his perception still working, he could feel and see even more stirring beneath the sands all around him.
Every now and then an arm would burst out, reaching for him, but saving him every time was the ability to sense when and in what direction the surprise attack comes from. Over and over again, they swiped and lunged at him, but he avoided them nearly every time. But by now, the built up fatigues had begun fully taking its toll.
His breathing had become ragged, his body became heavy and he slowed down significantly, eventually being tripped by an emerging sand crawler. Soon, he was quickly surrounded and more poured in from all sides. The beasts all lunged at him, snarling and leaving a trail of saliva as they readied to devour him whole. And without any strength left in his body, Theo lay there accepting his fate.
'Guess I've gotta try again... damn it!'
The first beast chomped down on his arm, the next his leg, another his other arm. They ravaged his still conscious body, ripping him apart piece by piece to quell their insatiable hunger. But he didn't scream, fight back, or even flinch. He had no strength left in his body to do so. And like before, he was on the verge of death, ready to start his trial over again.
'I'm tired of this.... please.... if you aren't going to let me live... don't force me to relive this night mare over and over again.... just... just let me... just let me die.'
In that moment, Theo had forgotten about all the fatigue that plagued him and simply surrendered to his fate. He was tired of fighting against what fate had laid out for him and just, gave up. He closed his eyes, ready to embrace the darkness that was death.
But as fate would have it, his time had yet to come, as at the last possible moment, with him on the brink of death, as if to grant him the mercy he had been asking so desperately for, the reality before him began distorting. The sky, the sun, the moon, the sand around him and the beasts devouring his flesh followed suit.
As the horizon continued to distort, colours shifted and blended together. Before his eyes, reality itself began taking a new shape until he once again found himself in his sea of soul.