Kaios's body slammed into the ground, his bones making rattling sound, signifying its broken state. He rolled onto his back, a violent cough tearing out of him, bringing blood and painting all his clothes crimson.
As he was about to roll lightly towards right, came another surge— his body jerked forward, like he flung by a slingshot.
The momentum for his is light roll became multifold, finghing and slamming into a wall that just appeared on his path.
His shoulder crashed with the wall, spreading an intense amount of pain through his body, as the shoulder of his snapped out of its socket, with a crunching sound.
Ghhaa—! His vision blurred from the impact, as his skull rang due to the shockwave, but— the trial gave him no mercy.
This was the Isle of Temporal Eclipse. The rule here was as cruel as it was simple: time and momentum was not constant and changed with each instant.
One second, he was a blur— moving much faster than hypersonic, and in the next, he was slowed to a snail, as if trapped in a temporal stop.
Ten minutes in, and Kaios had already tasted both extremes of this.
When he was fast, obstacles appeared suddenly—walls appearing from the ground, large pits appearing in front of him before he could even stop and devouring him at once.
He simply had no time to react before smashing or falling into them. His durability and Gravistone alloy had saved him more than once, before being broke by them.
And at the time he was slow, it was worse. Massive spiked boulders, like hailstones from the sky, dropped above him, making holes out of him. Gigantic beasts charging at him before being crushed by them, which can be dodged in normal speed, but with his body crawling behind like this, it was simple impossible.
Each change was unpredictable, trapping him in an endless maze of fluctuation.
Kaios coughed, blood spilling over his lips as he steadied himself again, his muscles were wearing down, torn between the two extremes.
Though with each transportation he was being healed, but it was only for life threating level wounds or ones that would prevent him to cross the island, for anything else it was still there.
Even the ones those were left behind the scars for him, which could not be healed— mental scars and exhaustion.
So… this is how it is going to be?! Is this it? he asked in his mind, he tightened his jaw, refusing to let show his weakness.
But deep inside, Kaios knew— this was by far the worst trial he faced till now.
As always when the threshold for his pain tolerance, he was transported to the starting point. His shoulder joint snapped back to his position, lessening the pain.
Kaios pressed his palm against the shattered stone of the starting surface, as he tried to stand upright, from his lying position.
His injuries slowly starting to close, as his eyes burned with defiance.
His eyes were now filled with determination and burning desire to pass this island. Then again he dove deeper to face these adversaries of his.
While he was facing these as he dove deeper, his mind wondered somewhere. He knew that for the previous ten minutes, his body was shattered and broken beyond many times, before being healed later.
But he observed something in between, little by little his body was beginning to respond, the Psion inside him was being stirred.
Though the first ten minutes had left him half-dead and bloodied, but now, as the trial continued, his bones were no longer shattering as easily from the impacts.
Yes, it still was screaming and rattling in pain, but with the each fracture that healed, it returned tougher and stronger— enforced by the Psion itself.
The same thing was also true for his internal organs. When once every sudden momentum tore his vessels and tissues, now these insides began to harden, while adapting to withstand the crushing pressure of the instant acceleration.
His heart was beating steadily despite in the over timing due to his condition, forcing the blood through his body with crazy efficiency.
At first Kaios left helpless because of the emerging of the sudden walls, pits, and falling stones. But by the twentieth minute, he was now began to react, to those he laid useless before.
Due to his improved reaction time, Kaios finally began to use the countermeasure aginst the cruelty of isle.
When he slowed due to the rules, he pressed the alloy on his command deeper into the ground, anchoring himself like a nail before the crushing impact struck.
At time his momentum got sped up beyond reason, his torso twisted, as redirecting this to his advantage— slamming into the walls at an angle that bounce him forward, and spreading the impact evenly in his body instead of just breaking his spine.
Though his timing was still far from perfect, he was not as helpless as before, that fire of survival was emerging from him.
Each time he got a bruise, it became a lesson for him.
Each fracture he endured, reforged him further into the perfection.
While this cruel Isle shattered him mercilessly, it also refined his existence further.
His body was no longer just enduring the extreme duality of time and momentum— but was evolving like metal under a forge.
Slowly, but surely his totality was being strengthened into that of tempered metal, resilient beyond limits.
He was gradually becoming a Metalborn in the truest sense, inheriting the essence of every metal, unyielding and unshakable against any force.
Kaios spat blood to the side, his back now straightened, his eyes filled with challenge.
Keep throwing these… I'll withstand it all, and break it— no matter how many time it takes.
As he said mentally, his thoughts burning with the determination.
With that, he again dove back into that storm of walls, pits, and monsters. His figure now blurred and surrounded in the fractured flow of momentum— but no longer as just a victim of the Isle, but as a predator who was now learning its beat.
By the twenty-fifth minute, there was not any semblance of thought behind the Kaios's movement. He was now moving based on pure instinct.
After repeating this island for about seventy, he could now grasp the change beforehand and use his technique to counter that.
As he was crossed the pit by jumping, his speed much faster than the sound, suddenly became that of sloth.
Due to that, he began to pummel in the pit, but Kaios used the property of Gravistone, anchoring him to both side.
But instead of pulling at one, he slowed the descent of his, because he knew even if he do that, his speed will remain same that as sloth.
So he slowed himself, and stalled for the next shift. Then he heard, a subtle click, signifying the change.
As Kaios heard it, he pulled himself towards the front lightly. But that was anything but light.
He was yanked forwards with full force, covering many distance in just a second before being crashed with the ground.
Still, the momentum didn't extinguish, as he dragged down before slamming onto something that felt like a somewhat solid.
But as he gazed upwards, he finally saw the thing he crashed onto.
It was a wyvern, its skin reflecting a shade of blue under the sun, while jagged bones were protruding from its spine.
Before Kaios could do anything, its slightly longer neck streched, eyes focused above him.
Kaios gulped as he saw it, the wyvern was towering above twenty meters in height, before it he looked like a children toy.
As he was about to rise his hand as if conveying his surrender to it, he was hit by a sudden wave of fire.
Even before he could feel the prickling sensation of his body being burnt, he found himself in the starting point.
As Kaios came to his sense, he felt the fear that he felt when he saw the giant maw in the hovering platform.
He didn't even feel anything before being burnt by the fire breath of its.
But this time there another thing along side with the fear, it was panic. Because he didn't have much time.
The clock above was already in last minute. It only had sixty second before the thirty minute limit was expired, and if he didn't pass the island before that, his life bar was going to be drain slowly.
Although he had two more lives, he didn't want to risk it because of the penalty.
If a life was lost, then he had to start the whole trial from the first island. This thought alno terrified Kaios more than anything.
He absolutely didn't want that, his very body shruddered when he thought about going through those five hell once more.
Ohh... Heck no, I will die here more rather than to go through all those again.
Kaios said it mentally, as his body became super charged, and the reaction of his as well sharpened.
He was now ready to face all things that will stood before him and his rest.