Do Something

Reaching the 'rhino's arched back, Lauri put a foot onto its tail. The 'rhino' immediately reacted, swinging its tail up, "Wait what-" launching Lauri into the air. Flying upwards for a few moments, Lauri's descent quickly began. Now falling, Lauri tried to look at where he was landing. His eyes grew wider, "Wait wait wait- no, no, no, no!"

Landing on the 'rhino's long neck, Lauri immediately wrapped his arms around the creature's neck. Taking a deep breath, Lauri winced as the 'rhino' let go of Lucent Guardian's shoulder. 

'I meant to get up here, but not like that-' 

Lauri's train of thought was quickly swept away as his body was thrown around by the 'rhino'. The 'rhino's chunky neck was big, but not big enough for Lauri to wrap his arms around. Squeezing tighter, Lauri let out a few yelps as the 'rhino' whipped its neck continuously from side to side. 

'Stop, that!' Feeling his grip quickly beginning to slip, Lauri cried out. "I've got its neck, do something!"

Spurred on by Lauri's cry – Lucent Guardian broke free from the clash – Lucent Guardian threw the 'rhino's legs to the side. Charing the 'rhino's main body, Lucent Guardian opened its upper arms out wide. Moving its arms under the 'rhino's body, Lucent Guardian lifted the 'rhino' up. As this happened, the 'rhino' stopped whipping its head around so it could see what its opponent had just done. 

As the Fiend's neck stopped, Lauri had to wait a second for his body to adjust to not being whipped around at inhuman speeds. Looking down, Lauri winced, at what he saw. Unable to hit Lucent Guardian with its forelimbs, the 'rhino' was powerless as its body was pushed further and further upwards.

Shimmying to the side, Lauri moved his hands so he was squeezing onto the side of the 'rhino's neck instead of all of it. Squeezing his eyes, Lauri clenched his teeth.

Pushed too far back, the 'rhino' let out a loud growl as it could no longer maintain its balance. Its body was the first thing to fall backwards, quickly followed by its neck and passenger. Lauri yelped as the Fiend slammed into the ground. Having moved his hands out of the way beforehand, Lauri was unharmed, the 'rhino' on the other hand, was momentarily stunned.

Wasting no time, Lauri let go of its neck and began running along the length of the neck. Quickly reaching the end, he skidded to a stop as he came to the head. The 'rhino's eye darted to look at him – and with what was left of his knife – Lauri stabbed it into the 'rhino's large glowing eye.

It landed with no effect. The 'rhino' blinked once, its head shot towards Lauri, its mouth open wide.

Lucent Guardian rushed to Lauri's side, knocking him out of the way with its arm. The 'rhino's teeth landed with a crack on Lucent Guardian's outstretched arm.

Lauri had the wind knocked out of him as he collided with the ground and rolled a few metres. 'What,' He blinked, trying to steady himself. 'How did that not work? I definitely landed my knife right in its eye, but, how could it deal no damage? It only blinked.' Palming his face, Lauri dragged his palm down. 'Damn right.'

Lauri remembered one of the lessons Laurence had taught him.

Awakened creatures were stronger than non-awakened creatures. Be it human, or otherwise. Starting at the Awakened rank, things such as knives, bows and other normal mundane weapons would be more than useless against Awakened creatures. This is why Imprints were so important.

Looking up, Lauri's eyes fell on the Awakened soul core that had been knocked out of his grasp as he collided with the floor. Lauri's eyes sparkled. The 'rhino' would be on its guard against Lucent Guardian, but it thought of Lauri as nothing more than a nuisance. Lauri grinned, picking up the core with his left hand. 

'Let's see how long it takes before I'm a little more than a nuisance.'

Lauri sighed, seeing what was now happening.

The 'rhino' had managed to stand up, its teeth still squeezing Lucent Guardian's arm. Not that Lucent Guardian was taking this, offering nothing in return. It rained blow after blow on the 'rhino's head with its free arm, but the Fiend didn't seem to budge even as its skin grew bruised and bloody.

Lauri looked at the core in his hand, suddenly questioning his plan, 'If they're of the same rank and even Lucent Guardian's punches aren't doing anything. What am I supposed to do with a core a whole rank lower?'

Another boom shook the room. Lauri looked up in time to see Lucent Guardian collide with the giant statue in the middle of the room, cracks began to run through the body of the statue.

Looking on in fear, Lauri began running away from the statue.

The cracks that had run up the statue began to grow wider and wider, pieces of stone falling off of the statue shattering on the floor below. Suddenly, a large chunk of the statue's chest dropped, and then piece after piece, its left leg gave way, causing the statue to fall. Making it back to the entrance of the room, Lauri jumped out of the way as a piece of the statue's head crashed into the entrance, sending dust blowing past Lauri.

Breathing, Lauri felt a weird sensation in his chest. Ignoring it, he immediately picked himself up.

Turning back around, Lauri was breathing heavily. Looking at the entrance to the room, Lauri frowned. Whilst the entrance wasn't completely blocked by the head of the statue, Lauri could fit through cracks on the side if he tried his best. And so he did, turning his head, he pressed his body into the crack. The pressure on his body caused him to bite his lip, Lauri paused. 

'Not a chance.'

Reaching the other side, Lauri looked at the wreckage. The statue had almost completely shattered as it hit the ground. Looking up, Lauri looked at the vacant space that used to belong to the statue. Clambering onto the top of a large piece of stone, he looked for his ally and his enemy. Sliding down the stone, Lauri fell to his knees. Picking himself up and dusting himself off, Lauri continued forward.

Looking around, Lauri almost reached the middle of the room when he heard a growl to his left. Freezing, Lauri looked in the direction of the voice. Standing not too far from Lauri, the 'rhino' slowly walked towards him. Many shards of white stone stuck out of its skin, a particularly large bit sticking into its underside. One of its forelimbs had been crushed by the falling statue, overall the 'rhino' was not in the best of conditions as it limped forward. 

Lauri chuckled, "What's wrong, you don't look to be in the best of conditions right now." Reaching down, Lauri picked up a chunk of the statue. "Come on then," Hurling the stone at the 'rhino' it growled as the stone hit its body. 

Beginning to charge forwards – as fast as its broken body could move – the 'rhino' let out a loud roar.

Following his instinct, Lauri ran straight towards the first enemy he made during his trial. Snatching another piece of stone off of the ground, he threw it, aimed directly at the 'rhino's eye. This time, the 'rhino' closed its eye, causing the stone to hit it and bounce off.

At that moment, Lauri ducked under the 'rhino's head. Grabbing the large chunk of stone stuck in the 'rhino's chest, Lauri pulled on it, causing it to come loose, a waterfall of the creature's black blood began to spew from the hole in its torso. Dropping to the floor to avoid its tail, Lauri turned to watch the 'rhino' ram into a chunk of the statue.

Lauri stood, the 'rhino' turned to face him.

Neither made a move, Lauri knew he was now out of options. There were only so many small tricks he could perform before he ran out of luck.

Lauri staggered to the side, 'To be honest, I think I'm out of time anyway.' Lauri's vision wavered. His body had hung on for a long time, longer than any human had the right to. 

But he wasn't human, Lauri was a Postulant. Not quite human, not quite superhuman. 

He was bruised, battered, bloodied and broken. But he still held on until he couldn't any more.

Dropping to one knee, Lauri chuckled. "Damn, I was so close." He looked in the direction of the altar. "I really was this close, wasn't I." Raising his head, he cast a smile at the 'rhino'. "What do you think? Was I close, or did I not even stand a chance?"

The 'rhino' stood motionless, its glowing eye merely staring into Lauri's soul.

The mysterious voice whispered into Lauri's ears – unlike when Lauri had last heard it – the voice held a slightly excited tone.

[You have slain an Awakened Champion, Light Stealer.]

Lauri froze, 'Wait, wait, what?' Taking a step forward, he stopped. 'It's,' he blinked in shock. 'The 'rhino'... Light Stealer is dead?' Lauri looked into the Light Stealer's glowing eye, although it still slightly scared him. It no longer gave off an intimidating aura. "So I was right in thinking, that that rock was close enough to whatever you call a heart." A single laugh escaped Lauri's lips, "You rat bastard, you really had to die standing up…"

Trailing off, Lauri dropped to his knees again. Squeezing his eyes closed, Lauri shook his head.

"Does it even matter that I killed it if I'm just going to die anyway…"

Then another noise came to Lauri's ears, a silent cry, a small weak cry for help.

Forcing himself to stand, Lauri knew where this voice was coming from. Staggering through the walls of white stone, Lauri quickly found the source of the sound. Lucent Guardian was trapped under a pile of rubble. It seemed it wasn't able to escape in time, or not. As he moved closer, Lauri realized that Lucent Guardian hadn't tried to run away, it had chosen to protect the altar.

Dropping to his knees in front of the altar, Lauri smiled. "It's dead, the Light Stealer is dead. I hope you can feel some comfort in that. Although," Lauri's smile began to loosen as his eyes began to blur. "I don't know how long I'll be here for…" 

A warm light touched Lauri's skin, the pain in his body lessened to a numb feeling. Lauri's eyes began to come back into focus, blinking, Lauri saw the source of the light. From Lucent Guardian's broken lower limb, the soft light of day shined on Lauri's face.

"No, no… You can't." Looking into its eyes, Lauri crawled towards the altar on his hands and knees. "You're more beaten than I am… You're carrying the weight of that statue on your back… Reserve your strength, I'll be fine." Lauri winced, the pain in his chest was still there.

Lucent Guardian turned its head to the side, the large eye on the left side of its head had been damaged during the fall. Looking at it, Lauri felt a sense of happiness.

"What, why, why are you happy? It's obvious this is the last of your strength, or else you'd heal both of us at the same time, no!?" Reaching the altar, Lauri propped himself against it. "Stop this… Please…"

The healing provided by Lucent Guardian didn't stop, Lauri could feel his body pulling itself back together, and then abruptly stop.

[You have slain an Awakened, Caretaker.]

[The beast's experiences left an Imprint...]

The announcement of Lauri's new Imprint fell on deaf ears. 

A dry chuckle escaped Lauri's mouth. "Ha, haha, haaa. So I was wrong, these two, were just, really, strong, Awakened..."

Looking up, Lauri stared at the Lucent Guardian, he stared at Caretaker. The creature that had brought him back from the brink of death, the creature that had given its life to try and heal his wounds. Lauri looked at it with sadness in his eyes. Caretaker had given what remained of its life to heal him, but it was still not enough. Pain returning to his open wounds, Lauri climbed onto the altar.

Curling up into a ball again, the Awakened soul core tightly gripped in his hand. Lauri whispered. "There you go. I made it… I made it to the end…"

Light began to shine from the surface of the altar.

[Congratulations Postulant Lauri, you have reached the end of your trial.]

[Beginning evaluation.]