Fallen Fate Online

Lightning Beast left, but the next beast had already shown itself in his sight.

A huge spider, with eight legs and a green body. The spider had six purple eyes and a powerful jaw that could easily tear through even the toughest hide or armor. 

Zayne flinched at the sight of the spider, he didn\'t even realize where such a massive creature had come from. He didn\'t have time to think about it as he quickly prepared for battle, clutching his sword tightly.

However, the spider seemed not to notice Zayne as it headed straight towards the river, not paying Zayne any attention.

"Agh...? He\'s just thirsty...?" Zayne muttered, baffled. He had fought a strong spider once before, but he realized that this one was far superior to the past. This was a whole other level.

Even without going through the Awakened Process, Zayne could feel a powerful aura emanating from the spider, like an invisible flame slightly warping space. 

As Zayne anticipated, the spider lowered itself into the river, easily and calmly as if it had done it thousands of times before, and it was its favorite place.

But, very soon the spider\'s eyes went wide as he jumped away from the water like a deadly enemy.

"What\'s going on?" Zayne looked puzzled at the spider\'s strange reaction. Could plain water be dangerous to a monster of this level?

The spider trembled as its body began to squirm at strange angles as if the spider was in real agony, a death agony.

After a few seconds, the spider stopped moving, everything happened so fast that Zayne could hardly believe it.

"Wait... It\'s dead...? Given how confident he was, he didn\'t expect the water to be poisoned..." Zayne uttered with a complicated expression before approaching the river.

He took a long stone with a sharp end from the shore and dipped it partially into the water. After a while Zayne pulled the stone out of the water, it remained unharmed.

\'I see... So it\'s actually poison and not some acid or something, but why is the whole river poisoned, what\'s going on here?\' Zayne pondered, rubbing his chin as his gaze traveled toward the tree.

The tree looked like it had something to do with it, especially since some of its roots were submerged in the water as well as the green vines.

Bam.

At the same moment, a black fruit fell from the tree, exploding with cloudy and thick sap. Zayne was on the other side of the river, but he could smell the horrible odor coming from the fruit.

\'Shit... It\'s definitely spoiled already. Something tells me it shouldn\'t be like this, though... Maybe the ripe fruit has already been taken by someone? Zayne pondered, trying to figure out what was going on here.

He needed to protect someone to pass the Chaos Trial, but so far he didn\'t realize who his target might be. All he could see was a creepy tree, a dead spider, and a tainted fruit.

Zayne looked towards the fortress and saw the main gate open. It was too far away for him to see anything, but he could clearly see dozens of torches giving light amidst the night darkness.

\'Hmm... Looks like something\'s starting to happen. If they\'re heading towards the village, I\'ll most likely be able to recognize something.\'\' Zayne pondered for a moment before walking lightly back into the forest area.

Zayne decided to hide in the shadows, watching the group closely.

As they approached the tree, Zayne was able to get a proper look at them. It was a group of more than ten knights in heavy armor. Leading the way was a man in a purple mantle, a long staff in his hand. The rest remained out of reach for Zayne for now. 

The man looked at the tainted fruit, lifted his head up, and a grimace appeared on his face. Then, he stomped his foot with all his might, obviously furious at what he had seen.

Carefully inspecting every patch of ground around the tree, as if hoping to find something, the man pointed his staff in the direction of the village. The knights swung their swords and followed him, stepping forward at the same time.

\'Given what I saw, he came here for the fruit... So the villagers took the fruit that belonged to the knights from the fortress?\' Zayne thought, shaking his head, \'Well, it\'s entirely possible, but it probably won\'t be that simple. Otherwise, the shield wouldn\'t have split.

Zayne wasn\'t the only one who had thoughts about what was going on. The spectators watching him closely as he passed the second stage were making their own theories. There were many more of them since the first stage, as even those who were far outside of the Dark Mist Forest had managed to get here.

Step.

Two shadows appeared on the hill where Kota, Toruf, and Edvin were. They were unnoticeable, for it was only when one of them took a few steps that Kota noticed it.

Kota\'s fur stood up as she abruptly turned around, immediately attacking. Her instincts told her that there was an enemy behind her, only enemies could come up from behind like that.

Crackle.

However, before Kota could do anything a pale hand with soft skin gripped her neck tightly.

Kota\'s eyes went wide as it seemed to her that the grip was ironclad, at any moment, her neck could be broken, only a slight movement was needed.

"Hey, couldn\'t you teach your pet that you shouldn\'t attack your friends?" Karin said, with a sly smirk on her face, she looked at Edvin, who didn\'t even turn around.

"If you wanted to you would have killed her already, so spare me this useless chatter." Edvin shrugged nonchalantly.

Karin sighed, "You can\'t even have fun with you. You\'re always too serious."

Karin loosened her grip slightly and Kota immediately snapped out of it, quickly stepping aside. She remained wary, as she hadn\'t expected someone so strong and aggressive to suddenly appear.

"Who the hell are you?" Kota growled with narrowed eyes, looking at Karin and at the second guest.

It was a girl with long purple hair and gray eyes. Her hair was very thick, sticking to her skin as if it were wet all the time.

The girl slowly turned her head, glaring at Kota, making her shiver in fear. Kota could sense on an instinctual level how powerful this girl\'s aura was.

"Hey... Fride, maybe you should stop looking at her like that?" Karin suggested, with a slight wave of her hand.

However, Fride didn\'t react in any way and just continued to stare at Kota, making her more and more nervous by the second.

"Fride, stop scaring her. She\'s already been through too much stress this day." Edvin said calmly, continuing to stare ahead, watching as Zayne moved amongst the forest. 

"Sure! No problem!" Fride energetically replied as her eyes shone brightly as she immediately turned away, "I was just wondering what that cat was doing here. It\'s not often you see a Terror Grade monster around those who have gone through the Awakened Process."

Karin scratched the back of her head, as if she had expected it to happen this way, but had no way of dealing with it.

"Didn\'t expect you both to come. Did you really have a mission together?" Edvin asked.

"Nah." Karin waved her hand, "We just met on the path, so the rest of it we decided to walk together and talk."

Then, Toruf turned around. He was slightly worried, since Edvin was stronger than him, which meant Karin and Fride probably were too, but that didn\'t stop him from remaining serious and calm.

"Are you both from Moon Shattered Order too?" Toruf asked with a hard stare.

"Yes!" Karin quickly replied with a cute smile, "Zayne is going through Chaos Trial, I couldn\'t miss something so important. Although, I won\'t be able to watch the first stage anymore, too bad."

"That young man... He fought in the first stage, didn\'t he?" Fride asked in a calm tone.

Edvin nodded, "His opponent was an injured one from the Arisen Grade. It was a humanoid monster with the water attribute, strong and capable, most Terror Grade creatures wouldn\'t have been able to handle it."

Karin smirked, "Hah, Zayne made even me get serious for a moment. So, sure, at first, he was losing, and then things changed dramatically. It\'s like he has some sort of stipulation that only after the middle of a fight does he start fighting at full strength."

Fride with a thoughtful expression nodded, "If that\'s the case, then no wonder Mr. Gael personally invited him. Surely Mr. Gael must have seen potential in him, though any talent needs opportunities to grow."

"Sure, and he\'s doing a great job with it." Edvin sighed, with a calm gaze looking at Zayne.

Marcus who was in the distance got a worried expression at the sight of the three Moons, three members of the Shattered Moon Order, was not what he expected to see.

\'Damn... Why are there so many of them here...?\' Marcus internally muttered.