"Hey Drake, wait. I think we should try finding others first, let"s go back," said Billy who was walking behind Drake.

They were on a dark pa.s.sage filled with skeletons and bones. By the looks of it, these were the remains of people who died here, but their clothes or any other belongings were missing.

It was dark with no signs of light anywhere. Drake had created a small fireball to light the surrounding, but they had no idea where they were going. Normally creating a fireball in a dark place would attract the surrounding monsters but since it looked like this place had no such monsters, it was probably safe.

"The only way to move is forward, we are trapped," replied Drake.

Billy tried manipulating the air around him using wind magic and enhanced his hearing. It was then that he realized that the pa.s.sage they were in was completely isolated from the outside world.

At first, he had thought it was some kind of teleportation magic that separated them from others. He had heard about that happening in some other labyrinths that were used for hunting and training. But what he found out was completely out of the range of possibilities that he could think of.

"Man, he always beats me when it comes to accessing the surrounding," thought Billy. Though the difference between their abilities was narrow since both of them had their own strengths and weaknesses, Drake was clearly superior when it comes to accessing the surroundings without using magic.

"Drake, I think the pa.s.sage is going to end soon," said Billy since he could only hear the noise that wind was making up to a little further.

Drake didn"t respond and just kept on walking forward. After a while, they came across a rusty looking metal door.

Both of them prepared themselves in case something dangerous was inside. Drake turned his fireball off and slowly put one of his hands under his coat and moved his other hand towards the door. Right when he touched the surface of the door, the door automatically slid open without him needing to push it.

First, they looked inside to see if it was safe to enter or not, and when they saw that it was empty, they slowly stepped in. Both of them were aware that in a place like this, the places that usually looked safe were the ones that were filled with most traps. So, both of them didn"t let their guard down and tried to find out if there were any traps.

It was a big empty room with a bright blue crystal s.h.i.+ning at the center of the ceiling. The walls, ceiling, and the floor, all had irregular surfaces and all four walls had a similar-looking metal door.

While they were looking around, the door that they entered from slid itself close. Drake tried to stop it by throwing the knife, but the door didn"t stop. Instead, it ended up breaking the knife.

"It looks like some kind of deathtrap where they leave people inside the locked room to die of starvation," said Billy while picking the broken knife on the floor.

"Welcome to the trial of strength, unchosen challengers."

Both Billy and Drake looked towards the crystal at the center of the ceiling.

"Who are you? And, where are we?" asked Billy. Even though it looked like he was trying to stay as calm as possible, he sounded hasty. He was usually confident but because of the trauma that he had to go through in his childhood, some part of him felt scared.

The voice didn"t respond, instead the door on their left slowly slid open. A heavy footstep of something coming towards them was heard.

Both of them prepared themselves for what was about to come. Right when they were focused on the left door, the door at the right-hand slide slowly slid open.

When they heard similar-sounding heavy footsteps, both of them backed down a little bit.

With every pa.s.sing second, the footstep sounded closer and closer. And right when it was just about to enter through the door, Billy gulped in fear.

Slowly two giant humanoid creatures carrying war hammers entered through the door.

"Trolls?!" said Billy in a surprised tone.

Trolls weren"t exactly the creature that liked fighting unless they were provoked. At this point in age, they were thought to have gone extinct in this continent, so it was natural to be surprised to see one.

"HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY!"

"Uh-oh. This doesn"t sound good. Drake please tell me you have got a plan."

A popular fact about trolls was that the hungrier it gets, the more active and aggressive it becomes.

"This explains why this room has no bones and skeletons," though Billy as he was looking for a way to get past this trial.

Trolls could pretty much eat anything organic including tree trunks and bones. They had st.u.r.dy green skin and their regeneration abilities were impressive. The only effective method of dealing with them was large scale fire magic.

"Billy, try distracting them. I will attack them using fire magic."

Hearing that Bill ran towards one of the trolls while attacking the other using the air slash. His aim was to attract the attention of one of the trolls and make it collide with the other.

If his plan had worked, it would have given Drake enough opportunity to attack. But things rarely went as planned. Like in this case, he only later realized that trolls can"t feel a thing if the wound isn"t deep enough. The "air slash" that he just used, barely scratched its skin.

The troll that he was running towards noticed him and swung the war hammer towards him which he barely managed to dodge by jumping backward but things didn"t end there. The troll moved forward and attacked him with another two consecutive swings that he barely survived by being inches away from it.

Watching Billy in trouble, Drake shot the fireball that he had prepared towards the troll. It managed to burn the troll"s back and right shoulders, but it wasn"t powerful enough to kill it completely and it started regenerating soon. While the troll that got hit was crying in agony, the other troll came charging towards Drake.

Billy"s attempt to attract its attention by throwing the series of air slash didn"t work. And before he could try anything else, it was too late. He was cornered. The troll was standing right in front of Drake and the wall was right behind him to restrict any backward movement.

Next Chapter: Brotherhood - Part 2