The world seemed to stop.
Ren contemplated his inevitable fate. Nothing could save him now, there was no way the snake's tail wouldn't crush him.
He closed his eyes and waited for his demise.
"…" Nothing happened.
Ren reluctantly opened his eyes again, to see the beast's tail stopped by some transparent wall that appeared in front of him, he looked around, wondering if that power came from him, before his eyes landed on Rita.
Her hands were emitting a white light as she seemed to be the one creating that barrier.
Ren, despite his growing suspicions, decided to crawl out of the way despite the pain.
The second he got away, Rita collapsed, her nose bleeding.
The tail of the confused serpent hit the ground at astonishing speed.
Ren shivered.
'If I hadn't escaped.. I'd have become Exp for that beast..!'
Eric immediately ran towards the bleeding Rita and took her away before the serpent decided to attack the problem at its source.
Karma, helped Ren back up and got as far as possible from the serpent.
It seemed confused, looking back and forth at its tail, and Rita.
Eventually, a terrifying screech left its maw.
It slithered towards Eric at full speed, who barely managed to dodge its attack.
"We need to do something..!" Karma explained as he looked at Eric and Rita.
Ren looked around the room one final time.
'Is there really no escape..?' He asked himself while analyzing the whole room for an out.
He did not find anything, that is, until he remembered seeing light.
When the tail of the serpent was about to crush him and Ren looked up at it, he saw a very dim light from above.
He raised his head, and there it was. On the very ceiling of the room, a crack letting light pass through, and the blue skies of the outside world.
"Karma..! Up there! An exit!" Ren shouted in Karma's ears.
"What- holy crap! G-GUYS! Up there! We can escape from up there!!"
Karma screamed at Eric and Rita, Rita, who was not busy dodging the monster's attack by a hair, was the first one to look up.
"How do you even want us to get up there?!"
Just as she asked that, Eric also looked up in curiosity.
"Maybe we can climb-" he tried to suggest just before the beast's tail sent him flying into a wall with Rita, the spikes on it pierced his skin.
"ERIC!" Ren shouted, as Eric quickly stood back up and fully concentrated on the snake's movements.
Rita did not suffer too much damage as Eric tanked most of it, but was still quite disoriented.
"We need to find a way to get up there!!" Karma loudly said, panicking.
"Oh, you sure? I couldn't have figured that one out myself!" Ren said sarcastically.
'How do we even do that.. It's too high!.. maybe if we climbed the snake..? But how would we even do that..?' Ren stopped moving, lost in thought.
"Hello?! Ren?! What do we do?" Karma shook Ren hoping to force an answer out of him.
Ren pushed his hand away, "I don't know..! Our best bet would be to climb that damned monster but good luck doing that!" Ren frustratingly shouted back.
"I'll take care of immobilizing it!" Rita confidently said from Eric's shoulders.
Before Ren could object, Rita told Eric to stop moving and raised her hands towards the Serpent, white light emitting from them again. The serpent froze again, looking at the light from Rita's end, just as white strings came out from the walls and the ground holding it in place.
"What the f-" Karma said before being pulled away by Ren.
Quickly, the whole group climbed up the snake towards the crack in the ceiling as Rita was still concentrating on her strings of light.
Upon reaching the breach, they realized that, it wasn't big enough. They couldn't pass through it and the serpent was slowly breaking one string after the other, moving more and more by the second.
"Wh- what do we do?" Asked Karma, terrified by the situation.
Before Ren could say anything, Eric summoned his stone tablet and started using it to break the ceiling even more, so that they could pass through.
Karma quickly followed understanding Eric's intentions.
Ren summoned his own and handed it to Eric, since his strength surpassed his own in every way.
The crack widened, and a string broke. One after the other.
They kept on hitting faster, and the monster struggled more each time a string broke.
Eventually, the hole was big enough for them to get through.
The first one to pass was Karma, who immediately jumped out by climbing on Eric when the exit formed.
Then there was Ren, who was thrown out by Eric.
And then Rita who was carefully thrown at Karma and Ren as she was now bleeding from her nose and her eyes.
Just as she left the room, the Serpent broke free from her restraint.
But Eric wasn't out yet.
Ren and Karma immediately jumped forward to catch Eric and help him up, but he was heavy. Very heavy. And Ren was still hurt.
Even so, they pulled with all the strength they could muster.
And Eric was finally out, just before the serpent bit his lower half.
Just then, each of their tablet appeared in front of them:
{Congratulations! You managed to escape from the ruins of a lost king who had once ruled over these lands! Your ability to survive this extreme trial that no other passed before has been acknowledged. You will be rewarded after completing the first sorting.}
Ren barely read his before collapsing to the ground. Shortly followed by the others. They were finally out of this hell. All they had to do was continue forward, and if what the tablet said before entering those ruins was accurate, they should eventually reach one of the safe bases.
Ren stood back up and then froze. Something was wrong. He felt the sand vibrate under his feet.
"GUYS MOVE-" He shouted to warn them of incoming danger.
But it was too late, a black scorpion-like creature rose from the ground, and its metasoma shot forward towards Rita.
She didn't have time to move, she looked straight at the stinger about to go straight through her.
A gross sound of flesh being torn apart and breaking bones could be heard.
Eric stood between Rita and the defiled, its stinger piercing through his stomach.
"RUN!" Eric ordered. No hesitation, no stutter.
Karma grabbed Rita from the ground and ran away at full speed.
Ren stared at the scene in front of him.
He looked at Eric, he couldn't hear him, but he knew what he was saying: "RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!"
It took him a bit, but he quickly turned away and ran towards Karma and Rita as Eric held the beast in place.
Each step felt heavier than the last. But he ran without looking back.