The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Chapter 12: Confronting a Wild Beast

However, Erik knew the trial wouldn't put them in a situation with no way out. He looked down at the altar with its 5 coloured gems and read the single word beneath each.

The purple gem said 'Teleport', the pale blue gem was 'Freeze', the sunny yellow crystal said 'Restrict', the grey crystal said 'Spear', and 'Vines' was written below the green gem.

Erik knew it was down to him to stop the Kelpie using the effects of these gems. The coded message had told him to crush them to use their effects, but he had to wait for the right moment. After all, he also needed to get past the Kelpie and swim to the other end of the chamber.

For now, he just observed the situation.

The Kelpie had already noticed the intruders and started galloping across the water towards them. It was a wild beast 'wild' as in dangerous and naturally aggressive so it immediately attacked the first person it saw. Unfortunately for a woman with dark black hair, that happened to be her.

Everybody had scattered and swam in different directions, so she was essentially on her own. She noticed the Kelpie was targeting her and desperately swam towards the nearest person, hoping the Kelpie would attack them instead of her. However, that person was a better swimmer than her so he just swam away quickly when he noticed her plan.

Soon, the Kelpie was charging directly at her. Without thinking twice, she dived underwater to try and get out of the way. She managed to narrowly avoid the Kelpie as it ran across the surface of the water, going over her. Then it turned around, ready to make another pass.

However, it saw the girl was still underwater and dove under the surface itself. When it was underwater, the Kelpie's tail spread out like a fan; it was possible to see thin webbing between some of the hairs.

With two flicks of its tail, the Kelpie shot forwards like a shark. When it resurfaced above the water, the girl's corpse was decorating its crest of coral spikes.

Isaac who was swimming down the left side of the chamber saw this and redoubled his swimming efforts.

The Kelpie neighed before charging towards the guy to its right. The man had swam as far as he could while the Kelpie chased its first victim. He wanted to reach one of the pillars near the side of the room and hide from the Kelpie but he hadn't made it in time.

Isaac saw the man reach the pillar and pull something on it. Then crossbows appeared higher up the pillar and fired a hail of arrows at the Kelpie.

The arrows barely left a mark on the Kelpie's skin, but then it suddenly vanished!

Isaac hurriedly looked around to find the Kelpie and saw it was now in the back left corner of the room, not too far behind him.

After seeing this, Isaac immediately swam towards the nearest pillar. Hopefully he could do the same as the other man and teleport the Kelpie away.

However, his hope, was misguided. The Kelpie was not teleported by the lever on the pillar, but by Erik crushing the purple 'Teleport' crystal on the altar. He knew he would need other people alive to distract the Kelpie while he tried to escape, so he saved the man by teleporting the Kelpie into a corner. Putting it on Isaac's side was just a small measure of revenge for when Isaac had baited a wolf towards him.

Not knowing this, Isaac swam towards the pillar. He was exhausted and lacked physical power, so he lagged behind the others despite his strong swimming technique. The Kelpie was obviously aiming for him and was closing the distance between them at breakneck speed.

Just as the Kelpie reached him, Isaac pulled the same trick as the girl from earlier and swam under it. The Kelpie careened past him and slammed into the nearby pillar, destroying most of it.

The lever system was destroyed but some of the gears higher up the pillar became exposed. Isaac resurfaced and quickly clambered up the crumbling concrete pillar. He grabbed hold of an exposed gear and pulled it down, engaging the mechanism hidden in the pillar.

Just as the Kelpie charged at Isaac again, there was a series of subdued explosions underwater. The explosions caused a wall of water to fly up, surrounding the pillar and blocking the Kelpie. The Kelpie didn't care and continued to charge through the water, but Erik saw his chance.

He broke the blue 'Freeze' gem to freeze all the water around the Kelpie, trapping it. Then he immediately broke the crystal which said 'Restrict', reducing the Kelpie's strength and stopping it from escaping right away. After that, Erik broke the grey and green gems to send a giant spear into the Kelpie's side, then summon thorny vines to bind the Kelpie when the spear disappeared.

After doing that, Erik jumped into the water himself and started swimming down the right side of the chamber.

Isaac let go of the pillar and dropped down. Instead of splashing into water, he landed on the ice caused by Erik's gem. Isaac ran across the ice, catching up with those ahead of him. In fact, he overtook those to his right and became one of the closest to the exit.

There were 3 pillars between him and the exit when he reached the end of the ice. Without hesitation, he dove into the water and swam frantically towards the first one. All the while he heard creaking and cracking sounds behind him.

Isaac reached the first pillar and hid behind it, but the Kelpie broke free from its bindings shortly afterwards. It looked around with bloodshot eyes but couldn't see Isaac, so it chased the 2 people to Isaac's right. While it was occupied with them, Isaac made a dash for the second pillar.

Isaac reached the pillar just before the Kelpie finished playing with its victims. Since Isaac had hidden himself again, the Kelpie decided to pursue the last 3 people on the left side of the chamber.

The final pillar was a long distance from Isaac but he had to try and reach it quickly. However, he was already tired from the long swim and was slowing down. As he swam, he kept looking over his right shoulder at the Kelpie.

He watched it tear the other 3 to shreds and then look right at him. There was a large gap between those on the left and right sides of the chamber. Since Isaac was the only one remaining on the left, he was closest to the Kelpie and it quickly pursued him.

Fortunately, Isaac was already near the final pillar and he reached it before the Kelpie reached him. He reached up and pulled the lever down, hoping for a similar result to before.

The lever created a whirlpool-like current around the pillar. For the Kelpie, it was like trying to run while the ground under you moved at high speed. It stopped to glare at Isaac before diving underwater to try and swim through.

Isaac saw this and knew he couldn't just wait in the middle of the whirlpool. The Kelpie was behind him and the strong current would slow it down. Meanwhile, the platform with the exit was just tens of metres away.

Isaac pushed off of the pillar and entered the whirlpool. He used the current to slingshot him forwards at a higher speed. The Kelpie had just broken through the whirlpool and reached the pillar, only to find Isaac wasn't there.

The Kelpie did the same as Isaac and used the current to accelerate forwards. However, Isaac was already pulling himself up onto the platform.

As Isaac sprinted towards the exit, the Kelpie came flying out of the water and onto the platform. Isaac was just 15 metres from the exit and the Kelpie was over 30 metres behind him, but it was moving like a train.

With just a couple of metres to go, Isaac could almost feel it breathing down his neck. He gave everything he had to put on a final burst of speed and he managed to cross the threshold of the exit. His 3rd trial was complete.