Wonderful

His breathing growing ragged, Lauri put his fears aside and yelled at the top of his voice. "Come on then! Let's do this!" About to reach for his knife, Lauri frowned for a moment. Pushing away from the wall he staggered into the middle of the cave. "What," Throwing out his arms, Lauri continued yelling at the 'rhino'. "You found me, didn't you!? Gods know how but you found me! What, did you smell my blood!? I've sure lost enough of it!"

Standing still, the 'rhino' made no motion to move. It simply stood in place, its dull laugh echoing around the cave.

His arms dropping to his side, Lauri exhaled. 'What are you waiting for you rat bastard...' Staring into the bright light of the 'rhino's eye, something dawned on Lauri. 'That's exactly it, you're waiting aren't you, you smelt blood and came running.' Swallowing, Lauri took a deep breath. Turning his back to the light, Lauri took a step forward and then a haphazard step on his ragged leg, and then another step. A dozen steps later Lauri paused hearing something behind him.

The sound of something heavy moved behind Lauri causing a chill to run down his spine.

"Ah, so I'm right. Just because you're on top of the food chain doesn't mean you can't be a scavenger right? I guess whilst living in a cave you have to take whatever food you can get." Grunting Lauri turned around again yelling at the top of his voice. "What are you waiting for!? Kill me! Do it! Rush me and just finish this!" Panting from the effort, Lauri's bloody fist squeezed the Awakened soul core tightly. The pain of squeezing his fingers sent a slight shock through his body keeping his adrenaline high.

Yet the 'rhino' didn't move, it seemed content to let Lauri bleed to death and then devour what remained.

"Oh fine then…" Turning around, Lauri began to stagger forwards. "Let's see how patient you are."

***

Two hours after surviving his confrontation with the weirdly named shadow. Lauri stumbled his way through the cave, his path forward illuminated by his stalker. The 'rhino' was still following, waiting for its easy meal to come to a dead stop. Lauri refused to give up – every now, and then he would shout profanities at the waiting Fiend – despite the fact thinking was starting to become hard. It seems – even with the ever-present intimidating aura of the 'rhino' – Lauri's body was losing its ability to keep its adrenaline running. A mixture of pain and exhaustion began to mix inside Lauri's chest.

He just wanted to stop, to sit down and relax. Looking back on it, Lauri wasn't even sure how long he had been here, in this weird cave system. It could have been a day, or he could have been unconscious for far longer than he knew.

Would Laurence come looking for him, to bring his body home for a proper burial? Or would Laurence leave him here, leave his body to be eaten and pooped out and just become one with the trial- Tripping over his own feet, Lauri fell face-first into the ground.

Spluttering, something sticky down the poor boy's lips. Reaching his hand up Lauri rubbed at it, looking at his hand Lauri bleakly smiled. It seems slamming his face into the ground had given him a nosebleed.

'Wonderful,' Pinching his nose, Lauri tensed hearing the 'rhino' come to a stop. Looking back, he smiled at the Fiend. "Don't worry bastard, you haven't lost me justt yet."

Continuing to take heavy breaths, Lauri huffed.

'Come on, where are you… I don't know how much more of this I can take.'

Attempting to rub the blood off of his hand on the dusty stone floor, Lauri's eyes shined.

The dust parted to reveal shining white brick, the same as the bridge that had happened to save his life. Lauri's pained expression diminished slightly, a small smile appearing in its place. Thoughts rapidly ran through Lauri's mind. 'Was this path here the entire time? Lying buried under decades, centuries of stone dust knocked down by the Fiends that traversed it their entire lives.

His determination refreshed, Lauri grit his teeth as he stood.

'There's not much left surely, this cave hasn't split off at all, just a single… A single straight path.' Standing, Lauri stretched his back. Not bothering to give the 'rhino' any more attention, Lauri continued onwards. A smile planted on his lips.

***

Crawling across the ground, Lauri was at his wits end. It had been another half an hour, probably – what even was the time at this point? No longer having the strength to walk, Lauri was reduced to crawling across the white stone.

The only thing driving Lauri forward was the surrounding cave. The grey, rough, cracked stone surfaces around him had given way to smooth, flat white stone bricks. There was practically no darkness any more – the white stone was just like it had been on the bridge – amplifying any and all sources of light, the light Luminescent Helper emitted was overpowered by the light of the 'rhino's eye. Lauri would have dismissed it if he even had the strength to.

It seems the 'rhino' realised something was happening. Slowly it began closing the distance between them. If they had been at a constant one hundred feet, now the 'rhino' was only fifty. It either knew Lauri's life was nearing its end, or that Lauri's destination would not be beneficial to it.

'Come on, come on,' Raising his head, Lauri found himself breathless and not because he was finding it hard to breathe – even if he was – Lauri's destination was nearing its end.

The tunnel he had been walking down, through all its twists and turns, seemed to be ending. Not too far ahead, the cave opened up into a room of the same white stone.

Punching the ground, Lauri, stood up. The moment he was standing again, Lauri felt something in the air change. The suffocating aura of the 'rhino' intensified. Trying to fight against the pain, Lauri continued to move.

Despite the damage in his body, despite the pain and anguish he had been through. Lauri could feel his trial coming to an end. The end of this cave was the end of his trial. But Lauri knew he would still have to reach the end. The 'rhino' was fast, incredibly fast, unrealistically fast. Lauri knew he couldn't beat the 'rhino' in a fight, hell, he only just managed to beat the shadow with the weird name because it had a crippling weakness to the light. A fight against the 'rhino' was nothing but suicide, so the best plan would be one that didn't involve fighting the damn thing.

Stopping, Lauri took a breath. "Well. Not like I've got any other option, I guess."

Pushing his broken body to its limits, Lauri began to run as fast as he could.

Almost immediately the sound of shattering stones reached his ears. The chase had begun.

With a single thought, Lauri sent Luminescent Helper to fly backwards towards the 'rhino'. This plan worked – if only for a few moments – the 'rhino' stopped about to try and eat Luminescent Helper. Recognising the thing fluttering in front of its face. It continued past it.

The few seconds Luminescent Helper brought Lauri were enough to cover a small distance. The sounds of breaking stones quickly resumed.

'Come on, come on, I can do this. It's not that far!'

Lauri was only a couple of seconds away from the end of the tunnel, but how far away was the 'rhino'?

Focusing on the problem in front of him, Lauri ran faster.

Reaching the end, the small tunnel opened up into a large open space. Lauri immediately threw himself to the side.

A fraction of a second later, the 'rhino' flew past, its teeth snapping at the space Lauri was moments before. Unable to stop its momentum, the 'rhino' slipped on the smooth stone. Falling over, it rolled over.

Resting against the wall, Lauri had to stop. His body was hurting beyond belief, it hurt to breathe, it hurt to move. Looking to the right, despite himself, Lauri couldn't help but smile.

The room was large, built from pristine white stone bricks. Pillars of white stone stood up from the ground, holding up the high ceiling. A large crack ran across the top of the ceiling. And from it, sunlight shone down through the crack, illuminating the room with its beautiful light.

Surrounding the room, hundreds of eggs the size of apples spanned around the room circumference of the room. In the middle of the room, a tremendously large statue held its hands open, its palms raised towards the sunlit crack in the ceiling. Its gender was ambiguous, the statue's face was the same smooth white stone everything else was made from, and its body showed no signs of gender. The only other thing that was sticking out of its body were seven large sets of wings, which were all stretched as wide as they could manage, the tips of the wings brushed against the walls of the room. A block of intricately carved stone rested at its feet, the block had carvings of the sun, of a house, of different tools.

Lauri's laughed, 'That's it, the altar, the Goddess' altar.' Feeling tears run down his cheek, Lauri just couldn't help but laugh. Even as the 'rhino' picked itself up and began walking towards him. Lauri just kept laughing. 'I made it, I really made it. Bless the Goddess, I made it.'

The 'rhino' stopped, grunting, it turned back to the statue of the Goddess.

"What!" Lauri yelled. "You think I was trying to reach the end just because I was scared of you!"

From out behind the legs of the statue, something large emerged. Carrying itself on its large arms and smaller legs, a creature with a green glowing exoskeleton stopped.

Lucent Guardian and the 'rhino' locked eyes.

In the next moment, all hell broke loose.