Chapter 97: COME!!!

Chapter 97: Chapter 97: COME!!!

Kenny stepped through the opening.

The moment he crossed the threshold, the chamber behind him disappeared.

He turned around.

Nothing.

Only a smooth wall stood where the entrance had been.

"Kenny?"

His own voice echoed back at him.

He frowned.

"Tolu?"

No answer.

Kenny’s hand tightened around his sword.

He slowly turned.

The space ahead was enormous.

Unlike Tolu’s white room, there was no illusion of wealth or comfort.

It was a dark, empty plain.

The ground beneath his feet was hard and grey, stretching endlessly into darkness.

Then he heard something.

A growl.

Kenny’s body tensed.

Another growl followed.

Then another.

He looked into the darkness.

Two glowing eyes appeared.

Then four.

Then eight.

Then dozens.

Kenny’s breathing stopped.

Figures began emerging from the darkness.

They were beasts.

Dozens of them.

Then hundreds.

All Level One.

Some were wolf-like.

Others resembled large cats, boars, hyenas, and creatures Kenny had never seen before.

They weren’t particularly powerful individually.

That wasn’t what frightened him.

There were too many.

The beasts spread across the plain until Kenny could no longer see the ground between them.

He raised his sword.

"Seriously?"

The closest beast charged.

Kenny swung.

His sword cut through its neck.

The creature fell.

Another attacked from his left.

Kenny twisted and drove his elbow into its face before finishing it with another slash.

A third came from behind.

He turned.

Blocked.

Countered.

Killed it.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Kenny barely had time to breathe.

The beasts kept coming.

He stepped backward while fighting.

His sword moved constantly.

Slash.

Stab.

Block.

Step.

Turn.

Strike.

A beast leapt toward his face.

Kenny ducked.

It passed over him.

He drove his sword upward.

Another creature attacked before he could recover.

He barely blocked it.

The impact forced him onto one knee.

Kenny gritted his teeth.

"Get off me!"

He shoved the creature away and killed it.

But before he could stand, three more were already coming.

Kenny rolled across the ground.

Claws tore through the place where his head had been.

He rose and swung wildly.

One beast fell.

Then another.

His breathing was becoming ragged.

Sweat ran down his face.

His arms were beginning to ache.

But the beasts didn’t stop.

Kenny looked around.

The bodies were piling up.

Yet the number of enemies wasn’t decreasing.

If anything, there were more now than when the test began.

"What the hell..."

A beast slammed into him.

Kenny was thrown backward.

He hit the ground hard.

His sword slipped from his hand.

For a moment, he couldn’t breathe.

A shadow covered him.

Kenny looked up.

A beast was standing over him.

Its jaws opened.

Kenny rolled.

The creature’s teeth snapped shut inches from his face.

He reached for his sword.

His fingers closed around the hilt.

He thrust upward.

The beast collapsed.

Kenny scrambled backward.

His chest rose and fell violently.

He stared at the endless swarm.

There was no exit.

No wall.

No place to hide.

No end to the beasts.

He killed one.

Five more appeared.

He killed five.

Ten more came.

His sword arm was trembling.

His legs were getting heavier.

His breathing hurt.

Kenny had fought beasts before.

He had even killed them.

But never like this.

Never without a caravan.

Never with guards nearby.

Never knowing that if something went wrong, someone stronger would step in.

There was no one here.

For the first time in his life, Kenny was completely alone.

A beast charged.

Kenny raised his sword.

The impact nearly knocked it from his hand.

Another attacked.

He blocked.

A third came from the side.

He turned just in time.

Its claws scraped across his armor.

Kenny kicked it away.

He stabbed the beast in the chest.

It fell.

Another replaced it.

Kenny stared.

His heart sank.

"How many are there?"

There was no answer.

The swarm simply kept coming.

Kenny’s grip tightened.

His thoughts began racing.

I’m going to die.

The thought appeared suddenly.

He tried to push it away.

No.

He killed the next beast.

Another.

And another.

But the thought returned.

I’m going to die here.

His sword arm felt like it was on fire.

His legs were shaking.

His armor was scratched and dented.

Blood ran down his cheek from a shallow cut above his eyebrow.

He wiped it away.

Another wave came.

Kenny charged into them.

He couldn’t retreat anymore.

If he kept moving backward, eventually he would fall.

So he moved forward.

His sword flashed.

One beast.

Two.

Three.

He ducked beneath a claw.

Turned.

Cut.

Blocked.

Stabbed.

The fighting became instinctive.

There was no room for thought.

Only survival.

Kenny’s body moved before his mind could.

He had learned from his first fight.

Don’t waste movement.

Don’t swing too wide.

Don’t chase.

Don’t panic.

He stepped between two beasts and let them collide.

His sword cut through one.

He kicked the other away.

Another lunged.

He sidestepped.

Its claws passed beside him.

Kenny drove his sword into its side.

He pulled it free.

Another beast was already behind him.

He turned.

Blocked.

The force pushed him backward.

He grunted.

His boots slid across the ground.

Then another beast hit him from the side.

Kenny fell.

The sword slipped from his hand again.

He looked up.

Five beasts were approaching.

Kenny’s heart pounded.

His body refused to move for half a second.

He thought of his sister.

Her voice.

Her hand pulling his ear.

Her expression when she told him to become a man.

He remembered how she had looked at him.

Not with contempt.

With concern.

She believed he could become stronger.

Kenny clenched his teeth.

"No."

He reached for his sword.

"I haven’t finished yet."

He grabbed the hilt.

He rose.

The five beasts attacked together.

Kenny screamed and swung.

The first fell.

The second bit into his armor.

He slammed his elbow into its head.

The third clawed his shoulder.

Pain shot through him.

He ignored it.

His sword came around.

The beast fell.

He turned.

The fourth lunged.

Kenny caught its jaw with his free hand.

His muscles strained.

The beast pushed him backward.

He could feel his strength failing.

"Get..."

His teeth clenched.

"OFF!"

He threw the creature aside.

The fifth beast was already on him.

Kenny barely managed to block.

The impact sent him to the ground again.

He rolled.

Rose.

Killed it.

Then stood there.

Breathing.

Waiting.

More beasts emerged from the darkness.

Kenny stared at them.

His entire body was exhausted.

His sword felt impossibly heavy.

His vision blurred slightly.

He knew he couldn’t keep doing this forever.

And that was when he understood the cruelty of the test.

It wasn’t asking whether he could kill Level One beasts.

He could.

It was asking whether he would continue fighting when he knew there was no end.

Kenny swallowed.

He looked at the endless swarm.

Then at his sword.

His hand was shaking.

"I’m not dying here."

He raised the sword again.

The beasts charged.

And Kenny charged to meet them.

The horde came again.

Kenny’s breathing was ragged. His chest rose and fell beneath his battered armor, each breath burning his lungs. His sword arm had begun to tremble, and sweat ran down his face, mixing with the blood from the cuts across his cheek.

Another beast rushed him.

He swung.

The blade cut through its neck.

Before the body even hit the ground, three more creatures were already coming.

Kenny stepped back and raised his sword.

Then a voice spoke.

"Why are you fighting?"

Kenny froze for half a second.

The voice was calm. Almost gentle.

"You are tired."

Another beast charged.

Kenny blocked its claws and kicked it away.

"Your body is telling you to stop."

He cut down another.

"You don’t have to keep doing this."

More beasts appeared across the endless darkness.

"Just give up."

Kenny’s breathing became heavier.

"Sleep."

His knees felt weak.

"You can rest if you just stop."

For a moment, Kenny stared at the horde.

The voice continued.

"You have already done enough."

Kenny’s grip tightened around his sword.

His mind wandered.

He saw himself back home.

He saw his father’s business.

He saw his brother managing everything that would one day belong to the family.

He saw the caravans leaving without him.

He remembered the opportunities his father had given him.

The chance to travel.

The chance to make his own money.

The chance to prove that he wasn’t simply someone’s younger brother.

He thought about the trading routes he wanted to build.

His own caravans.

His own merchants.

His own name.

A business that people would recognize without needing to mention his family.

Influence that belonged to him.

A life he had built himself.

Kenny slowly raised his sword.

"I’m not fighting because I have to."

The beasts began moving toward him.

"I’m fighting because I want something."

The voice became silent.

Kenny’s exhaustion remained.

His wounds remained.

The endless horde remained.

But something inside him had changed.

He smiled faintly.

"I want my own name."

His grip tightened.

"I want my own business."

One step forward.

"I want to become someone who doesn’t need to stand behind his family."

Another step.

"I want to build something that belongs to me."

The horde charged.

Kenny lowered his stance.

"So no."

His eyes hardened.

"I’m not going to sleep."

He rushed forward.

The first beast leapt.

Kenny met it head-on.

His sword flashed.

The creature fell.

Another came from the side.

Kenny twisted, caught its attack on his armor, and drove his sword into its chest.

A third lunged.

He didn’t retreat.

He stepped into its attack.

His blade rose.

And the beast fell.

Kenny kept moving.

He wasn’t stronger than the horde.

He wasn’t less tired.

He wasn’t suddenly healed.

He simply refused to stop.

The beasts surrounded him.

Kenny charged straight into them.

For the first time since the trial began, the endless swarm did not look like an impossible wall.

It looked like something standing between him and the life he wanted.

And Kenny had never been very good at letting other people stand between him and what he wanted.

He roared and swung his sword.

"COME!"

The horde answered with a deafening wave of snarls.

Kenny met it head-on.