"I'm out of water again. Shit," she mumbled to herself, cursing under her breath. For the past seven days of the trial, she was able to keep a low profile by staying far from the main town. Wandering off into the ruins nearby past the dunes, her raven always flying close. Getting clean drinking water from different oases sprinkled throughout the desert.

  Travelling to the nearby oasis, she had to be very wary as the trial was nearing its end.

  Rustle.

  Her armor kept crunching and rustling as she walked over the dune, the white cloak wrapped around her with the hood up. Protecting her from the sun's scorching heat. She raised her hand over her eyes, sheltering them from the sunlight as she looked over the horizon to see trees and bushes surrounding a rge ke. A sight she was far too familiar with for almost the past week.

  But she knew what it entailed every time she needed to fill her canteen. She had to fight off some monster. Scorpions, lizards, bugs, etc. Walking past the bushes and towards the body of water, she grabbed her canteen and screwed the top open. As she crouched down, she reached out for the water and filled her canteen to the brim.

  She cautiously scanned the environment around her. "No seekers or critters in sight...", she said as she sighed in relief.

  After drinking a fair amount and quenching her thirst, she washed her face with water and dried her face and hand with her cloak. Looking at her own reflection in the water, she stared at her hair. Running her right hand through the ends, she then stopped to stare at the palm of her right hand, clenching her fist as it creaked. Covered in metallic armor that she could control. She sighed and stood up, preparing to leave.

  Crunch

  Lost in thought, she accidentally stepped in the middle of eight rge branches.

  "Shit." Her eyes widened before she could react—

  A massive spider jumped out of the sand, throwing her off bance and making her fall on her back in the sand. "Ah!" she excimed in pain as she nded. She immediately got up on her feet and stared at the spider as it prepared to lunge at her.

  The spider was a macro recluse, as the name suggests. It was a recluse spider, but unlike its smaller retives, this thing was big enough to feast on humans and other monsters as a snack. She unsheathed her sword immediately as it lunged at her, but it stopped the moment it saw her red sword.

  Studying her every move, Eine knew that this one was troublesome. Baring its fangs at her, as Eine stared into its beady eyes, she knew fighting it would be a bad idea. One graze would be enough to paralyze her, and she took a risk by being further away from the main town. The coordinators might not be able to rescue her if she gets fatally injured.

  She turned tail and ran, running as fast as she could, which caught the spider off guard. She ran along the body of water, her metal boots making rustling sounds in the sand as her cloak flew behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see the spider chasing her, gaining speed.

  "Shit," she cursed under her breath as she slipped and fell headfirst into the sand. As she pulled her head out of the sand, she looked back to see the spider lunging at her, fangs first, and its front legs pointing upwards. She raised her sword, ready to fight it head-on, but—

  As the spider was in midair, something leapt out of the oasis beside her and bit its main body and dove back into the sand. Eine was stunned at what she just witnessed. Two of the spider's legs dropped to her feet as she stared at it; her eyes then wandered off to her side to see... a trail of sunken sand?

  As her eyes followed the sand, they widened in shock and fear. Something was swimming under the sand. She saw a massive fin almost the same size as her shoot up the head of the sand, with two gradually smaller fins trailing behind it. As she studied its movements... it changed directions.

  It was heading straight for her.

  She jumped back a few meters purely out of fear and instinct. Making the monster jump in front of her, missing her by a few inches. However, she was able to get a gnce of it.

  The size of a small house, with razor-sharp, jagged teeth and multiple fins that shot out from its body. Scars all over its pointed face, blue blood spttered all over its front half from the spider it just ate. It was a Dunemaw. A sand shark with sand-colored scales that shared the same roughness. It was one of the top apex predators of the desert.

  Its eye twitched.

  In the split second that she was able to catch a glimpse of this semi-aquatic monster. It gnced back as it dove back into the oasis. She almost fell back, her heart pounding in fear. She stepped away from the oasis as slowly as she could, as she could feel her heart in every part of her body. The monster didn't seem to look for her, but she didn't want to take chances. She immediately ran as fast as she could.

  The Dunemaw immediately chased after her; as she looked behind her, she saw its fins gaining on her. She stopped in her tracks and ducked, covering herself in her cloak.

  The Dunemaw leapt over her with its jaws wide open as she stared at the underbelly of this monster. Its shadow peered over her. She thought it would be over, but the shark dove back into the sand. Instead of eating her, it just swam around the area. It's fins are revealing its position. Frantically swimming about... as if it was searching for her.

  As her heartbeat mellowed down, she pieced together the information given to her. Raising her right hand towards the oasis, she threw metal spikes into the water. The shark immediately switched directions and dove into the water, and as she called the bits of metal back, she realized the situation at hand.

  'The shark... it senses vibrations or sounds. If I'm really quiet... I should be able to escape; it might just be poor eyesight,' she said as she hoped to escape.

  It was not as dire as she thought it was; there was hope for escape. She stood up and slowly, cursing her boots for making sounds in the sand. As she took steps towards escape. Towards the ruins, she looked back every time any ounce of sound was made, praying that the desert beast doesn't notice her. As she carefully climbed the dune, she saw the ruins she was hiding among, a bright smile spread across her face.

  But her joy was cut short as she looked over the ruins. A gust of sand flew back, originating from a single point that was heading straight towards her.

  "I'm in hell," she mumbled. These words were enough to alert the Dunemaw; now she had two of them to worry about. She immediately ran for the ruins, thinking that the solid ground would keep her safe. As she dashed towards her destination, she left behind a gust of sand herself. The Dunemaw and the other beast followed suit. As she was able to get closer to the ground, she jumped onto the ruins.

  As she rolled on the ground, tumbling to safety, she looked up. In front of her the other beast revealed itself.

  A serpent, a gigantic, fully grown serpent. A head resembling that of a horned viper; its thick, muscur snake body was the color of a deep brown. It had two fangs as long as two different swords. Its eyes were yellow with bck slits down the middle. It was a dune strangler. Unlike Dunemaws... these had no issues traversing solid ground.

  As it bared its fangs, venom trickled down. It was hungry; Eine almost gave up on life. But she didn't; she picked up her sword one st time. Raising it to the sky and summoning as much metal from her armor as she could without hindering herself.

  As the metal formed around her sword, it grew in size drastically, as if it were a great sword. Preparing to fight, the snake just ignored her and lunged towards the Dunemaw. She dropped her sword and looked back in horror.

  Under the sand were what looked like explosions; spots of sand turned red as the battle raged on. The shark dove up over the sand, spshing it everywhere; the snake lunged itself towards its body, its fangs sinking into its flesh as the shark looked in pain. The snake then coiled around the monster, prepared to feast upon it.

  However, the Dunemaw took this opportunity to bite the serpent in half. Killing it immediately as blood showered everywhere. Eine simply witnessed the incident in horror. Her eyes were sunken and her body was frozen. As the shark y there, dying. She walked up to it with her giant sword and finished it off, then immediately returned the metal back to her body.

  She took a moment to sit down on solid ground and pulled out the pack of cigarettes she stole from Diaz, the vender joint shaking in her hand as she held it near her mouth, lighting it with her sword.

  "What. The. Fuck.", she cursed as she was shaken to the core.

  ***

  As night fell, Eine had roasted shark meat and serpent meat over her sword for dinner. Lost in thought and exhausted, she compined.

  "When will this end?" she said as she looked to the sky.

  Almost as if her prayers were heard, her raven pulled at her hair. As she looked over, she saw bioluminescent whales pulling a ship. She smirked and took up her sword and raised it to the sky, intensifying the fmes that engulfed her sword.

  As it burned brighter than it ever had before, she walked towards the ship. As the red glow grew closer in distance, a very strong gust of wind was summoned from beneath her.

  "WOAH!" she screamed as she was thrown far above the ship. Her cloak then spread itself open like wings and guided her towards the ship. As she glided down, she could only smile in utter admiration. The mighty whales glowed majestically as the ship was under her. As she nded on her knee, her coat settled down.

  The coordinators simply cpped as they congratuted her.

  "Congratutions, candidate number 26. You have passed the trial," one of them said.