The Devil’s Cage

The raging north-east wind that went on for the whole night finally stopped during at first light.

A thin layer of mist spread throughout the whole island.

After searching for a whole night, many trial-goers were exhausted and started to find places to rest, however, a sudden beastly roar interrupted their plans.

When they saw a 5 meter tall and extremely buff monster with a body of white fur, running rampant throughout the island, they were energized instantly because they saw a transparent box on the monster’s neck holding two scrolls that were sought after so much.

The exhaustion from the night went away just like that, each of them transformed themselves into the best hunter, starting to hunt down the rampaging monster.

As the number of trial-goers increased, almost 80% of the trial-goers gathered around the monster’s trail. The bunch included Orgeton, Fenix and an alias known as Black Hound, which were the three that Kieran had his attention on and the ones who started the fight back in the cottage.

The other 20% though, other than Kieran and Schmidt, none of them could come forth. Not that they didn’t wanted to but they couldn’t.

The night on Final Island was not only cold but dangerous. The potential dangers came from mother nature herself and also from the other trial-goers, but all of them were not concerned about that.

In other words, such an outcome was already expected, if they had chosen the path, they had to accept their fate.

”Not going to strike eh?”

Orgeton, the muscular guy looked at Fenix who was hugging his long sword and Black Hound who he had to maintain a certain level of focus on to not lose his presence; Orgeton giving away a slightly provoking smile.

During the night, three of them were searching for the scroll as well and in the process, they had fought more than a dozen times but every time ended in a draw as they were evenly matched.

Orgeton was unwilling to submit to the outcome, if it wasn’t at the last moment, both of them teamed up against him, he would have disqualified both of them when the trial started.

”Hmph!”

Fenix glanced over at Orgeton and gave out a cold grunt, he didn’t show any intention of striking.

Just the look at the transparent box that was tied around the monster’s neck with the two scrolls in it was clear enough to explain the situation.

Fenix wouldn’t believe anything he was told if this situation wasn’t purposely arranged.

As for who the arrangement was for? The answer was self-explanatory.

Among all the trial-goers, there were only one pair that traveled together.

One would easily know if he wasn’t an idiot.

The situation before them was arranged specifically for that duo.

Why would Fenix waste his energy to help the other two?

No doubt the majority of the trial-goers shared the same thought, hence none of them struck first even though they had been trailing around the monster’s side. Everyone was waiting for a fierce fight to break out between formidable opponents.

Though, not exactly every single one of them shared the same thought.

The silent Black Hound disappeared on the spot and appeared near the monster’s neck, extending his hand into the transparent box for the scrolls.

Every other trial-goers were shocked by what they saw, their breaths went dull for a while because of how easy Black Hound acquired the scrolls in the box.

”What!?”

”What in the f*ck!?”

The trial-goers couldn’t believe what they saw, it was a total opposite of what they imagined.

The seemingly powerful monster was that clumsy?

But if the monster was specifically there to deal with that devilish guy, wasn’t it supposed to very powerful?

All sorts of thoughts appeared in the trial-goers’ minds, however after excluding all the possibilities and extra thoughts, they were left with one option.

Grab the scroll from Black Hound!

The burning gazes from the trial-goers were laid all over the transparent box.

Everyone of them dashed out towards Black Hound in a frenzy. Black Hound himself turned around immediately and ran for it.

The scene was exactly the same as the one back in the cottage from the day before.

The only difference was that, Nicil was there to stop the previous one but this time around, it was that monster who took Nicil’s place.

ROAR!

The heavy loud roar sounded like an explosion of thunders in the sky.

That seemingly clumsy monster suddenly grew in size and raised its front limb that looked like claws and palm, smashing down at the ground with unimaginable force.

BOOOOM!

The trial-goers felt the ground trembled fiercely. Then before their sight, the whole area of snow was whipped up like a rising tide from the ocean, crashing towards them.

The wave of snow was like the breath of the legendary Frost Giants, as tall as 10 meters and those trial-goers who were at the front row vanished under the white wave within seconds.

Signs of life were no longer present after that.

The remaining trial-goers started to retreat in panic, trying their best to avoid the snow wave. Though they felt something was wrong through their instinct, Orgeton and Fenix were the fastest to retreat.

Everyone of the retreating trial-goers saw those that those in the front row were swallowed by the snow wave and instantly turned into ice statues.

They didn’t even have the ability to resist, not even a slight struggle. The snow wave wiped out at least a dozen of the trial-goers as if it was breaking twigs from a dead tree.

Orgeton and Fenix were struck by fear and panic because they themselves couldn’t pull of such feat.

”What kind of monster is this?”

After the snow wave gushed out at least 50 meters, it finally started to slow down to an eventual stop. The retreating trial-goers could easily spot the ice statues of their peers among the snow, one of them even gave out a cry of shock uncontrollably.

Following the cry of shock, all of the surviving trial-goers had doubts in their hearts but none of them could provide a precise answer.

Many of them had involved themselves in the mystical realm in one way or another but against the monster before them that looked like a yeti or a snow beast, they really couldn’t tell it apart.

Following the basic rules of categorizing, the long white fur belonged to a yeti and the claws belonged to a snow beast but the monster before them had both distinctive features and its size was bigger than both of the mentioned species. Even the power that it displayed was not of ordinary means that other yeties or snow beasts could contend with.

ROAR!

The monster gave out another loud roar.

Black Hound who was not far away threw back the transparent box to the monster, displaying an unusual cooperative behaviour. Then he disappeared again as if he never existed.

The monster extended its claw like palms and caught the flying transparent box. It looked at the box in doubt and uncontrollably neglected Black Hound’s presence. Its lowered intellect didn’t allow it to understand what happened but it knew since the order was released, it could enjoy a full meal!

The devouring instinct of the monster made it turn around to the remaining trial-goers.

Instantly, the survivors’ backs were soaked in cold sweat that resulted from fear.

A pressuring presence from the higher level of the food chain was suppressing them mentally, causing the surviving trial-goers under the monster’s gaze to quiver out of control.

They couldn’t even lift their swords and blades with their quivering, let alone put up a proper fight.

Without a second delay, one of the trial-goers turned around and ran for it, leading the others to scatter around like birds and animals from lower levels of the food chain without exception.

The speed of their running was ten times faster than the speed they had when they gathered around the monster but compared to the monster itself, it wasn’t enough.

The snowy environment was the monster’s natural habitat, it was like a tiger with wings gliding on Final Island.

The monster gave chase with its lightning speed, swallowing the escaping trial-goers entirely, one after another.

The agonizing screams from their peers made the others run even faster, they were eager for another pair of legs so that they could escape their demise.

Orgeton shared the same fate as well. Under the cold weather, his forehead was covered with sweat and giving out steamy mist from his body because of the running. He clenched his teeth and ran with all his might, running past the other trial-goers one after another.

He didn’t need to outrun the monster but just his peers would do because he had such confidence.

Surprisingly, he even managed to spare a couple of leisure moment to glance at the surroundings.

When he noticed a couple of trial-goers that were falling behind were running towards a single direction, even though Orgeton was running himself, his sweaty face was astounded by the direction that they were heading to.

If he remembered correctly, that direction was supposed to be the little cottage that arrogant bastard built over the night.

”Diverting the catastrophe to another?”

Such a thought bloomed in Orgeton’s mind, not only Orgeton alone saw the scene, those who were in front him saw it too.

They were as astounded as Orgeton was, or was it just a ridicule expression instead?

Even more so when they saw the monster run towards that direction, most of them started to take pleasure of the misfortune of that arrogant bastard.