Apparently, asking five beasts capable of ripping you apart to come at you, whilst not being in the greatest of shapes was not a good idea.

And Darius was currently finding that out the hard way.

"When I said come at me," he muttered as h dodged a claw swipe, "I didn’t mean all at once."

His body was riddled with claw marks here and there, but nothing that would get him out of the fight just yet.

As for the bleeding, he was just too stubborn to allow that to cause him to fail this trial.

Besides, he wasn’t the only one with damages right now, two of the five beasts were currently limping way behind since he had tried running, causing space to be created between them.

There was also one was completely out of the fight with a branch stuck in its eye.

So there were only two that posed much of a threat to him, unfortunately, those two were more than enough of a problem

"Tch!"

Darius twisted his body, barely avoiding a bite aimed at his shoulder before immediately ducking under another swipe from the second beast.

The damn things weren’t rushing anymore and had become more cautious when they realized he wasn’t easy prey. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Instead, they had gotten even more coordinated.

Darius kept his eyes on them for a short while before glancing behind him, a plan forming in his mind as he spotted a large spiked branch standing just a distance away.

Unfortunately though, that momentary distraction almost cost him his entire right half as one of the beasts suddenly lunged at him.

Its lupine form giving it a boost that made it almost impossible for him to react....almost.

Darius managed to avoid most of the attack, unfortunately, the beast’s claw managed to graze his side, opening a large wound on it.

But before the beast could fully move past him, he grabbed its tail, and using every bit of adrenaline supplied strength he could, he slammed it into the direction of the spike.

Though it wasn’t enough to impale it through the spike, it was enough to stun the beast and keep it out of the fight for now.

Darius then quickly lifted both hand, grabbing a claw mid swipe from the other beast.

That, was not the most brilliant of ideas since he suddenly earned a large claw mark in his palm, but right now, he didn’t care.

Nor did he feel the pain that came with.

With his Adrenaline pumping within him, in large amounts, he couldn’t feel anything right now.

Instead, still going with his barely formed plan, he pulled the beast forward by its front limb and without hesitation, he headbutted it?

This caused the beast to be momentarily stunned and that was all Darius needed.

He shifted his weight and slammed it into the already staggered first beast, this caused the two beasts to collide and tumble directly into the large spike, impaling both at once.

"Hah..."

Darius staggered back slightly, clutching his side as blood seeped through his fingers.

His vision blurred for a moment, but he forced himself to focus, after all, he had a feeling that if they shut for even a second, those limping bastards will attack.

Still, he was just human and there was only so much time he could borrow on Adrenaline, especially given his current state.

His legs were the first to suddenly give in, causing him to fall to his knees and that’s when he noticed that the two beasts he had left behind earlier, were finally catching up.

"Of course," Darius let out a weak, breathless laugh, "couldn’t just stay down, huh?"

The two beasts were clearly in a much better state than him, still, he wasn’t ready to give up just like that.

With whatever little strength he had remaining, he pushed himself up with his good hand standing on two trembling legs.

His red eyes looked at them with defiance, as he muttered, "alright then, come at me again."

If he was going to fail the trial, he might as well do so fighting rather than letting a few wounds stop him.

{....}

The two limping beasts looked at his wounded form for a while and that’s when they noticed the heat rising from him.

Hell, even his eyes were currently glowing, and his mana was currently weighing down on them.

But that wasn’t what terrified the beasts, instead, what terrified them was the figure looming behind him.

With their tails tucked between their legs , the beasts suddenly turned around and dashed into the opposite direction of the forest, completely ignoring the pain in their legs.

"..." Darius watched them run with a blank expression as the beasts ran away, wondering if he truly looked that scary.

"At least I’ll get a chance to rest before that geezer dragon —" before he could complete his words, a wave of heat suddenly hit his back.

That’s when he finally noticed the shadow cast on him and he slowly turned around.

"Give me a damn break," was the last thing he managed to say before falling forward, completely passing out.

The creature looked at him for a while before muttering, {what a weakling.}

***

Adrian meanwhile, stood with both hands in his pockets as he looked at the ’dead’ Darius laying on the ground.

The shadow spike through his chest had long since been burned away and his temperature was rising by the second, a sign that his gamble worked.

How was he so certain that it would work?

Well, he wasn’t, according to the author, the chance of awakening the dragon bloodline using this method was thirty percent.

Fortunately, that percentage was more than enough right now.

Renelle quietly looked at the body on the floor with the baker’s experimental drink in hand.

One of Adrian’s shadows had been more than willing to go get it.

Beside her was both Crystal and Noctis, sleeping without a care about what was happening around them.

She took another sip before turning to Adrian, looking at the serious expression on his face as he looked at Darius.

She knew that he wasn’t completely certain that the red haired idiot would awaken, but he was more than willing to force him to, for her sake.

[Does my lady find me attractive enough to stare?] His voice was suddenly heard in her mind, catching her off guard for a bit.

But unlike previously, she did not get flustered in the slightest, instead, she just continued staring before replying,

[I don’t know,] she started, [you seem a lot more attractive when staring back at only me.]

Adrian let out a chuckle before turning to her, his grey eyes locking with her blue ones as he asked, [is this better.]

[Hmm,] Renelle nodded looking directly into his eyes.

Till now, she wasn’t completely certain that he was actually still alive, but little moments like these worked to reassure her.

But their moment was suddenly interrupted when the temperature in the training room suddenly started rising.

Adrian suddenly turned towards Darius again, and noticed that the wave of heat was definitely rising from him.

Cracks started appearing on his visible skin, and what seemed to be molten flames were flowing within.

Visible heat could be seen coming from him, but even through this, his uniform was fully intact.

Darius then started twitching, something that started with just his fingers, soon spread through his entire body.

A visible glow appeared beneath his uniform and his heartbeat was so loud that it could be heard by both Renelle and Adrian.

[Is this supposed to happen?] Renelle asked.

[I’m not sure,] he honestly responded, after all, there was only an explanation of what was tried to get others to awaken the [Dragon Bloodline], there had never been a single successful case.

[I see,] Renelle muttered before gazing at the heat waves in the air before adding, [then let’s get him cooled off before he starts damaging the magic tools around.]

With that, she pointed upwards and a small ice shard was was launched from her finger.

The next second, snow began falling, creating a light steam the moment they came in contact with Darius.

The temperature visibly dropped and even Darius’s twitching seemed to subside, though the lava flowing through cracks on his skin still continued.

Adrian continued observing him for a long before suddenly, his eyes snapped open, revealing an orange one with vertical reptilian pupils.

Slowly, he moved himself off the floor and stood up straight, heat eminating from him as he looked around, only for his gaze to rest on Adrian.

They silently looked at each other for a long while before Darius suddenly blinked and the heat suddenly receded and his eyes went back to normal.

He then looked back at Adrian before muttering,

"I guess I did it."