Kaios cursed himself as six nightmares emerged before him.
Damn my mouth… I jinxed myself. I shouldn't have said that.
The six horrors looked like they had crawled straight out of a nightmare film. Without warning, they attacked him simultaneously.
The first was a centipede-like beast that dragged itself forward, but instead of legs, rust-stained tangled chains scraped against the ground. Its maw was full of jagged gears, and a single eye slid along its bloated body, creaking with every jointed movement.
Beside it, a wolf-shaped creature swarmed with iron quills, each twitch threatening to launch like missiles. Molten iron dripped from its jaw, slithering into its paw before being absorbed back into its body.
Above, a horror with a faint resemblance to a crow circled, its blade-feathers slicing the air. From its split head came a cry that sounded like tearing steel, while its spine dangled below, writhing like a living snake.
A boar, its tusks constantly melting and reforming, charged forward. A hollow bear-shell lumbered beside it, screaming through its empty chest. And towering over them all—a bull with glowing veins tore chunks of its own body, reshaping them into crude, brutal weapons.
Lastly, the one that had remained behind revealed itself: a floating metallic orb, splitting into countless jagged shards, each writhing independently. Hollow, screaming cavities filled across its surface, while the molten veins coiled outward like the laser sparks.
Kaios stumbled back, chest heaving, eyes darting from one nightmare to another. Only one thought crossed his mind:
Fuck me sideways… Who in their right mind created this?
Meanwhile, far away, Raion sat in his office, observing his student. He felt a faint tickle of amusement at Kaios's predicament.
"Who is daring enough to curse me?" he asked rhetorically, not realizing the words were coming from his own student.
Though he quickly forgot that thought and returned to watching Kaios, casually munching the popcorns from the basket in his hand.
Kaios on the other side was now sprinting away from the six nightmares who were chasing him relentlessly, trying to buy himself some time.
As he ran a thought he count down mentally, 3... 2... 1... Now.
Just as he said the weapon in his hand changed again, he had previously calculated the time for the transformation. The weapon transformed into another after 13 second delay and currently it was a bow.
Kaios seeing the weapon changed to a bow cursed himself.
That shit luck of mine...
Even though bow would be a good weapon for the present situation, he didn't have the time required to make arrows for it. So he sped up again to bid for another 13 second.
And to rub the salt, this plain was totally barren excluding those twisting metal trees, there was not a single place where he can hide himself. That's why he had been running straight for fifteen minutes at his full speed, while dodging the attacks from the nightmares.
As he sprinted, Kaios's instincts screamed at him. Trusting them, he ducked—and thank the god he did. The crow nightmare's dangling spine stabbed into the ground where he had been, leaving a gaping crater.
A chill ran down his back as he imagined himself skewered there, had he been a moment slower. As he was playing with life the thirteen second completed.
Please be something good, please be something good.
As if answering his prayer, the weapon transformed into a bladed whip. A evil smile appeared on his face as he held it firmly.
"Your time came, you deformed fucker..."
Saying this Kaios lashed the blades whip towards the half-split head of the crow, with a sharp snap. The whip then coiled around it, and then he yanked it with all his strength. Sparks appeared from the friction of the grinding metal and then a harsh sound echoed.
Daang...
It was the sound of the half-split head thrashing on the surface. As that happened the crow nightmare gave out a gut wrenching shriek. As Kaios heard it he became dizzy suddenly, but he calmed himself. Then he ran again, he just injured the nightmare he was not going to risk all in that.
As he sprinted away, he took some of the parts from the split head. The alloy it was made from, had the higher quality than the current one he is using. With this he could create two weapons and be more confident to pass the trial.
He started to shape the alloy, as he was running away. Kaios shaped it into a giant needle and then shped the other one into a chain, as the previous one is already had the shape simillar to it, this took less time.
From all the transformations and manipulations, Kaios reached several conclusions. The first he had already noted—the weapon would shift into another form at random, in every thirteen seconds. The second he discovered was that reshaping the weapon himself would reset the timer.
But the last, and perhaps most important realization, was this: whenever the weapon changed on its own, it always transformed into something better suited for the situation, even if he didn't understand why at the time. This could be seen with when it transformed into a bow, as that was better suited to maintain the distance.
He chose not to reshape the weapon himself before, mainly for two reasons. First, the process took time, which he didn't have—and if thirteen seconds passed while he was at it, all that effort would be wasted. Second, though the random shifts were inconvenient, they were also oddly helpful, providing the needed form.
But now it was different. He already had a clear image of what he wanted, and shaping it took far less time— as the weapons seemed to be aligned to the forms he envisioned.
Kaios fused the chain with the needle, the two merging into one seamless weapon. With a sharp flick, he hurled it at the crow nightmare, with its one side of head cut off its balance was not like previous. The creature tried to evade by diving, but Kaios yanked the chain, twisting the needle midair. Then a metallic screech split the air as the weapon pierced through its warped body, dragging out another pained shriek from it.
It slammed into ground in front of Kaios, who was running from the remaining four nightmares. As he approached it, he manipulate the chain in his hand to a spear. The he drove inside, already lying nightmare, finishing it for good.
He then collected the needle from it and detached the spine of its by manipulating trunk vertibae as his prize.
After doing that, he ran away, fully aware that it would be difficult to recreate this. The only reason he could kill the crow nightmare was because it was faster than the rest, and had come to attack him first on its own.
He didn't let this one time success to rise on his head. The other four were still out there, circling him like predators that had all the time in the world. One wrong move, one wasted breath, and he'd be gang bacough..ripped apart by them. So, he started planning to separate them, His grip tightened on the weapons, and eager to see the next three forms of it.