Chương 25: 24. Dream Beast Encounter

I didn't trust the person one bit. He was way too confident for his own good, not to mention that not a single person on the boats—other than him—was smiling. Did he have something on the people there? It was difficult to believe that Marcus would fall into an obvious trap, although if deities were involved anything was possible. Carl, on the other hand, jumped at the opportunity to scamper to safety. Grabbing the life ring, he jumped into the pool, then started splashing his way to the boats.

"You think something is wrong?" Cathy whispered as she came up to me.

"I'm not sure," I replied.

"He's way too calm for someone in an enclosed space." That was the other thing that was bothering me. Making a floating fortress in the middle of the pool eliminated any means of escape. All the undead had to do was to fill up the room and wait. They didn't have to worry about sleep or food. We did.

"Go ahead, if you want." I told the woman.

"I'll be fine."

"What's the matter?" Sebastian shouted.

"Too good to be with the rest of us?" The provocation was pathetic, only making me even more cautious.

"I think I'll explore a bit more," I said.

"I'll be back later." I made my way back towards the entrance. The moment I tried to pass the threshold, a crimson wall of light emerged before me.

"Congratulations, participants!" Harlequin's voice boomed, even more echo-y than usual.

"You have managed to survive the first day of the trial." Whispers came from the boats. There was no way that morning had arrived, and even if it had, there wouldn't be a reason to keep us locked in here. Something else was in play, and now we were going to find out what.

"Everyone in this room represents the remaining participants in the trial. By gathering here, you have shown that you are willing to take the challenge head-on rather than escape. And since no one managed to complete the trial up to now, I have decided to change the condition of victory." Always playing the same game… In the past I was too terrified to notice, but now I could see that he did the exact same thing as he did during the original second trial.

Reaching the goal was close to impossible in this amount of time, but even if someone had miraculously managed to succeed, that wouldn't have changed a thing. Harlequin was still going to add his new rules, under the pretense that he was giving the rest of us another chance at a reward.

"From this point on, the trial will become an escape survival," Harlequin continued.

"As some of you have found, there are several ways of obtaining Arcana cards aboard this ship. From tomorrow onwards, the number will increase even further. Some cards will be guarded by monsters. Others will simply be hidden in unobvious locations." A contest trial… I hated those. During them, more people died at the hands of each other than getting killed by the monsters. And, since everyone dead was going to be revived, people would feel a lot less guilt than they usually did.

"Each day, the person with the greatest number of cards would be given a choice: leave the ship or remain. Of course, should you remain and get killed, you will lose everything you have gained." Even without looking, I could tell that everyone was considering the obvious: can I kill someone else to get their cards, and if so, do I dare?

"It is important to note that only the number of cards matters, not their rarity. A card is a card, regardless if it's a minor or part of the Grand Arcana." I raised my hand.

"Good luck, participants." Harlequin completely ignored me. Providing additional information during a trial was considered tampering. Only deities could do that, and after my standoffish behavior, they remained silent, evaluating whether I was worth the effort to go after. The red barrier remained where it was. For whatever reason, Harlequin wasn't eager t give me, or anyone else, an advantage so early.

"I think I'll stay here," I turned around.

"Don't want it to get too crowded on the boats." Carl was already in the process of being pulled aboard. That was one more reason for me to remain where I was.

"I'll stay here as well," Cathy replied. That was a rather good turn of events. Sebastian would hardly be willing to try anything with an archer at the edge of the pool. One shot and he, along with everyone else, would spontaneously turn into sitting ducks.

"I guess I'll be seeing you in the morning." I sat on the floor. Sleeping during a trial was among the most dangerous things one could do, especially when no cooperation was needed in order to achieve victory. Several people aboard the boat probably took me for an idiot, but there was one thing that they were missing. People needed sleep. Whether it was now or later, there could come a time when they had no choice, and I preferred to do it on my own terms.

The floor wasn't comfortably any stretch of the imagination, though I had been through a lot worse. At least I wasn't sleeping in the icy cold or in a pool of monster blood. Remaining always on guard, I closed my eyes, forcing myself into the world of sleep. Dreams came and went, none of them long enough for me to make any sense. I went through images of my past, people I had known, faces I'd seen. Monsters emerged, then vanished away into the greyish fog. Then I heard a snarl.

A black sabertooth beast leaped out of the greyness, fangs bared, claws extended and ready to plunge into my chest. Instinctively, I thought of my swords. The thought alone caused them to appear in my hands. The moment they did, I met the creature with a dual slash attack. A roar sounded, causing the air itself to tremble. Then the creature vanished, transforming into a puff of mist. Normally, this was the point at which I'd wake up. That didn't happen.

The ground beneath my feet solidified, but I remained in a nondescript space surrounded on all sides by a wall of fog.

"So, that's how it is?" Someone was attacking my dreams. At present, even if I didn't have the Sleeper card, things wouldn't have been particularly troublesome. I would have just woken up tired and afraid. The really dangerous beasts wouldn't run away so easily, which suggested that someone was going at me blind. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I steadied my breathing and waited.

My current weapons, even if divine, didn't have the means of actually hurting it. The only way I had to stop the creature was to destroy its form for long enough that it chose to give up or whoever was commanding it to lose control. Twelve of Rings. I covered my blades with flames. Controlling my breathing, I kept an eye out for fluctuations in the fog. From what I had been told, fighting dream beasts was the same as facing dream monsters. It took a few seconds for them to obtain a shape that could do harm.

The really nasty ones acted subtly, spreading the fog around their victims. Miss the signs and it pretty much didn't matter what cards one had. The outline of a paw formed in the mist just right of me. I rushed in that direction, slashing the paw before the creature could fully emerge. There was an audible snarl, but it was obvious that I hadn't hurt the beast as much as before. Avon used to call it the risk-reward dilemma.

Risk your life and you get to do a lot more damage, possibly even kill the monster with a single blow. Play it safe, and the fight could drag on for hours. Of course, he was talking about mist monsters back then. SPONSORSHIP REQUEST! A deity wants you to claim the heart of the dream beast to with an undisclosed reward. Playing that game again?

"I'll do my best," I smiled. So, someone was eager to guide me. The fact that they could see me narrowed down the pool of beings a bit. Strictly speaking, every deity could view the dreams of the participants while during a trial. Most just didn't bother to do it, since that wasn't their nature. It was too much to think that someone of Hypnos' caliber had taken an interest in me. He was the type of entity that waited until after the tenth trial to pay attention.

This felt a lot more like a minor deity, a mischievous one at that. Once again, the fog shifted. This time, I let both legs appear along with part of the head. The strike caused a loud howl, only to have the beast immediately shape the fog from the opposite end in an attempt to catch me off guard. Turning around, I charged forward, performing a thrust attack that sing my right sword into the sabretooth's mouth. No noise was made, but the creature's head quickly dissolved into strands of grey.

"Any hint what I'll get?" I asked, looking around for the next attack. The dream creature was getting more annoyed, and that made facing it a lot more dangerous. SPONSORSHIP REQUEST! A deity wants you to claim the heart of the dream beast. If you do, they will share the reason you were betrayed. My heart skipped a beat. Was there someone in this timeline who knew I had been brought back? According to the rules of the Grand Arcana, it was supposed to be impossible. The laws surrounding the Jester card were absolute.

Harlequin didn't know, and up to now, none of the deities seemed to, either. And yet. It's a trick, I told myself. That was what dream tricksters usually did: drew a strand of a person's dreams and led them on with vague promises. It had to be that. There was no other possibility. And yet, I found that I couldn't risk not knowing for certain. Even if there was a one in a million chance that I might learn something more, I had to take it. I closed my eyes for a second.

Concentrating, I expunged all doubts and emotions from my mind. In order to win this fight, I would have to finish the sabertooth with my next blow. Prolonging the fight further would only dissuade the dream beast or its unknown controller. Feeling the internal nothingness fill my conscious self, I opened my eyes and looked around. Constantly moving in a circle, I focused on the mist. Suddenly, wrinkles appeared on the curtain of fog. I held my ground, waiting for the beast to fully emerge.

When it didn't, I briskly turned around. A paw emerged, but I still didn't attack. I was familiar with the creature's attack pattern. There would be two more feints followed by the real attack. Playing my part, I turned around again. As expected, the false attack took shape. This time, the entire jaw formed in the mist, snapping at me in an attempt to provoke an attack. Now it was time for the real thing. Holding my breath, I made a ninety-degree turn. The saber beast emerged straight at me, as I expected.

Its fangs alone were larger than my blades. Not yet. I reminded myself. The beast's front paws were several feet away. I could almost see the rest of its body. If I were to strike now, I'd inflict so much pain that the creature would remember me for the rest of its existence. And yet, it still wasn't the right time to strike. The sabertooth's tail remained unformed. Ignoring the claws approaching my face, I focused all my attention on the tail.

With every fraction of a second it grew more and more until finally detaching from the rest of the fog. Using the lethal slash I had learned in my previous run, I crouched and sprinted forward. Both blades ripped through the monster's stomach, while I evaded its teeth and claws. If I had tried to perform this with my physical body, there was a good chance I might have torn a few muscles in the process. The benefit of being in a dream was that physical damage didn't exist.

Mist came out of the massive wounds, like blood trickling out in water. I didn't stop my attack, briskly turning around and following up with a dual arc slash. A geyser of mist erupted as chunks of the sabertooth's belly dissolved. It was the first time I had seen such an occurrence, both disgusting and horrifying. In order to achieve my goal, I let go of my swords, then reached into the monster with both hands. Everything had the consistency of cold-water vapor. That was until I felt something solid.

It was squishy, no larger than a child's fist, yet a grabbed hold and pulled it towards me. There was a loud snap. The rest of the monster's body quickly dissolved into mist that floated away. The thing I held remained very much there. Slowly, I opened my hand to take a look. A single pulsing blob of grey remained, jiggling like a jellyfish. Dream Puppy Level: 1 Cards: None Special: Dream walker, Fate bound"Fate bound?" I asked. As I did, the heart exploded in a puff of white smoke.

Famous flew at my face entering my both through my mouth, nose, and ears.

"No, you don't!" I squeezed the clump of smoke in my hand tighter. It squirmed with a tiny yelp, instantly stopping its attack.

"If you want to join me, it's under my terms," I said, squeezing even further.

"You're my minion, not part of me. Understood?" The entity pulled back its tendrils of smoke. We had come to an understanding.

"Better," I relaxed my grip.

"I'm offering you a pact. Serve me and I'll save you from extinction and protect you." It wasn't the best offer one could make. It was the only thing I'd seen a participant with the Beastmaster card say during my previous run. He was quite the character and drunk most of the time. There was no guarantee that the creature would agree or even if the pact would work. To my slight surprise, it changed form again, transforming into a mist bracelet around my fist.

"Good choice," I said.

"I'll be counting on you." A split second later, I woke up.