Seeds of Discordia

Liam ran forward again and repeated the steps he performed before getting kicked by the statue.

As he juked the statue to the right once more, he watched for the kick it performed to knock him back.

As the statue threw his kick at Liam, he dropped to his knees and slid across the ground while arching his back. As he performed this, he watched the statue’s leg go over his head.

Liam smiled as he felt triumphant over this, but that feeling quickly disappeared as a purplish-yellow color filled up the area he had entered.

He looked to his right then left to see where the lightning bolt was going to start bouncing from but failed to catch it in time as it appeared from the middle.

A small bit of static from the bolt hit Liam’s left leg and ran up his body. He felt his muscles tense up from the attack, but he was lucky enough to not get paralyzed from it.

He took this chance to run forward, but then stopped as the next statue appeared in front of him.

Liam took a step forward towards the statue and placed his right foot down in front of it. As soon as his foot touched down, Liam’s left hand reached over to the left side of the statue.

As the statue reacted to his hand, Liam spun in the opposite direction and made it passed it.

Before he could celebrate internally, Liam quickly jumped up to dodge a jet of constant fire that rotated clockwise, like he was jump roping. Liam took this moment to think about how he was going to get past this part.

Before he could dwell on it, the flame started to grow bigger.

Crap, can’t dawdle here for too long. Liam thought as he jumped once more then ran at a forty five degree angle to the left.

As he ran and jumped to dodge the flame, he watched the statue bolting to intercept him.

Liam jumped once more to dodge the flame rope. As his feet touched the ground he slid and placed a hand on the ground. He gripped his hand and feet as much as he could and changed directions to get behind the statue.

He barely dodged it as the statue changed directions and tried to block his entry.

Liam’s breathed heavily as he continued to keep this up for another twenty five yards. Each Statue he passed got harder and harder to trick.

However, with each trap and statue he had passed he felt he was starting to get a better feel of the danger sensation. He was starting to get an understanding how it worked and how dangerous or less dangerous something was when it was about to collide with him.

Not only that, but the spots where the attacks were aiming for were starting to become a lot clearer instead of a vagueness of where it was going to land.

That sensation wasn’t the only thing he was getting a better understanding of. He was starting to use his agility and reflexes better with each yard he passed.

Ever since he came to this world, he felt like his body’s movements were sluggish and a little harder to adjust to. Back on Earth, juking, dodging, pivoting was really easy. Here on Paracosm, it felt like he really needed to relearn how to move. This challenge was helping him understand his limits, where he needed to improve, and what he was currently capable of.

It really felt like this challenge was meant to help him fine tune and readjust his old understanding of his body to properly move his current body.

Liam was enjoying this challenge full heartily and thought he would be able to pass the last ten yards with ease until he passed into the forty yard line.

As soon as he entered the area, the danger sense he had suddenly buzzed on the top of his head. Before he could do anything, a heavy pressure slammed down upon him making him drop to a knee.

“Shit!” Liam cursed.

I forgot about the gravity area. Liam thought as he looked to his left and right to see if anything was coming.

Luckily for him nothing was flying at him from the sides.

Liam pushed back up to his feet as he faced forward.

This statue is going to be a bit harder than the last few. Liam thought as he took a step forward. It feels like someone cast Gravitational Force Increase on me, but the force pressing down feels like its stronger than that.

The force pressing down on him slowed his movements considerably as he took another step. It felt like he was trudging knee deep in sludge.

The amount of time it took Liam to get as close as he could to the second to last statue made him feel like an eternity had passed.

The statue stood in front of him with its hands on its sides.

Not wanting to wait, Liam decided to try and get by it, by juking to his right.

This, however, was a failure as the statue was able to not only keep up with him, but also punched Liam across his face. The force behind the punch made Liam fall backwards onto his back.

“Ow,” Liam groaned as he lay on the ground. “God damn that punch hurt.”

He went over what had happened. His movements felt so slow that even though the danger sensation he grew to understand told him where the punch was going, he was still unable to move properly to dodge it.

How in the hell am I supposed to get passed this? Liam thought as he started to get annoyed.

He felt his frustration start to cloud his thoughts as he stared at the gravity debuff and back at the statue.

The more he stared the more he just wanted to rush forward and force his way through.

He got up and stomped his way over to the statue, but before he could do something stupid, a voice in the back of his mind whispered, Calm down.

He froze before he took another step.

“Calm down?” Liam muttered as he looked forward with a confused look.

Liam shook his head trying to get his frustration under control. He knew he needed to calm down to think this through properly. However, his annoyance and frustration at hitting this wall wouldn’t shake away.

Calm down Liam. Liam thought to himself as he took a deep breath in.

The deep breath didn’t work either.

As he released the gust of air quickly and forcefully he decided to do what he learned to do when his annoyance and frustration flared up. He tried to calm the storm.

Calm the storm. Liam said in his mind as he closed his eyes.

His frustration slowly dissipated.

Calm the Storm. Liam repeated.

His annoyance started to slowly disappear as well.

Calm the storm.

Liam’s mind calmed down even more.

Once his mind became tranquil, he felt something within him start to stir. It started at the center of his body and then pulsed out throughout his veins. His bones and muscles, as sore as they were, hummed as this sensation touched them as well.

Liam tried to think what this was. It didn’t feel like a power building up nor some sort of emotion. Instead, it felt like his body wanted to move on its own. Like some sort of autopilot.

 Not wanting to fight this and eager to see where this would lead to, Liam allowed his body to move on its own as he opened his eyes.

Liam pulled the two daggers from his hip sheath while he calmly and slowly took a step forward.

Liam noticed he held both his daggers in a normal grip.

When he was in attacking range of the statue, his right hand pulled back enough to turn his body a bit and then swung for the neck, with the curved end at a downwards forty five degree angle.

The statue brought his hand back and then palm thrusted it against Liam’s wrist to push it back.

Liam felt the power in that thrust and almost yelled at the pain, however, Liam’s body used the momentum to spin around and rammed the pommel against the statue’s head.

This made the statue stagger a bit to the left. However, it was still able to throw a palm thrust at Liam’s face with its right hand.

Liam tilted his head to the left to dodge it. As he did this, his right hand switched his grip on his dagger into a reverse grip, then hook the curved edge into the section where the statue’s arm and shoulder connected.

Liam then felt his right leg snake around the statue’s left and hooked it as well. He then pulled himself swiftly behind the statue.

As he somehow expertly made it behind the statue, Liam’s eyes saw a purplish-yellow color spark to life as a small stream of electricity emerged from the ground and made its way towards him.

Liam placed his hands on the statue’s back before repositioning his feet behind the it’s knee caps.

Even with the gravity debuff still going on, Liam pushed off of the statue with his back arching. As he did this, three icicles shot at him.

The icicles flew under him as he soared over them.

Liam landed, crouching, in front of the last statue with his back towards it.

However, Liam quickly jumped rolled forward over a jet stream of fire that shot out, connecting to the other side, and started to circulate in a circle towards him.

Liam rolled to his feet and quickly jumped to his right to dodge a stone spike that suddenly emerged from the ground.

He then jumped back, spun around, and jumped into the air again to dodge both a stone orb that had flown at him and the jump rope of flames.

Three set of icicles shot out again. They came to him in the same formation as the previous areas they were in. Two at knee cap level and the middle one at head height.

Instead of ducking in the middle to dodge them all, Liam twisted his body and angled it enough to fit within the gap between the back icicle and the middle. He timed it so he could follow the middle icicle as it flew by. Before it could get away, Liam gripped it while still spinning. He kept the momentum of the icicle going by redirecting its path at the statue’s head.

The impact of the icicle hitting it caused the statute to falter, back.

Liam’s autopilot took the opportunity to rush at the statue, with the flaming rope coming at him hot.

The statue went to reposition itself to intercept Liam, but as it went to palm thrust, the statue froze.

A dagger appeared from behind it, across its stony throat.

Everything in front of the statue ceased all movements. The fiery rope puffed out, the icicles melted away, and the stone spikes and statues crumbled to the ground.

Liam breathed heavily. As the autopilot ceased functioning, Liam felt his body give way and he dropped to the ground.

Throat dry and on fire, Liam opened an eye to see his stamina bar at zero.

I don’t know what the hell that was. Liam began to think. But that consumes way too much stamina way too fast.

Liam’s eyes looked at the stretch of room he had gone through while gasping for air. He let out a cough as a bit of sand drifted into his mouth.

He moved his hand to pull out a water bottle, but he found that trying to move his arm was difficult.

His bones and muscles screamed and complained. He didn’t want to move, but he knew he needed water quickly.

Through sheer will power, Liam pulled a water bottle out, sat up, and drank it greedily. He knew it was bad to drink a lot of water as quickly as he could after doing all that, but he didn’t care. He needed it.

While he drank as much water as he could, chimes echoed in his mind.

Since I’m no longer in the middle of the trial, I should probably check out what sub-stats just leveled up. Liam thought as he brought up the notifications.

 

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“Congratulations! You have completed the 2^nd challenge!”

“Congratulations! Body stat Constitutions Sub-stat Resilience has reached level 15! Progression to level 16: 1%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Agility has reached level 16! Progression to level 17: 100%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Agility has reached level 17! Progression to level 18: 11%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Fine Motor has reached level 16! Progression to level 17: 2%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Reflex has reached level 17! Progression to level 18: 100%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Reflex has reached level 18! Progression to level 19: 0%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Speed has reached level 16! Progression to level 17: 100%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Speed has reached level 17! Progression to level 18: 7%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Endurance Sub-stat Stamina Endurance has reached level 15! Progression to level 16: 100%!”

“Congratulations! Body Stat Endurance Sub-stat Stamina Endurance has reached level 16! Progression to level 17: 42%!”

“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Luck Sub-stat Lucky Break has reached level 15! Progression to level 16: 0%!”

“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Will Sub-stat Will Power has reached level 16! Progression to level 17: 100%!”

“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Will Sub-stat Will Power has reached level 17! Progression to level 18: 5%!”

“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Will Sub-stat Zen has reached level 18! Progression to level 19: 0%!”

“Congratulations! You have received a new Ailment Resistance - Paralyze!”

“Congratulations! Ailment Resistance – Paralyze has reached level 2! Progression to level 3: 100%!”

“Congratulations! Ailment Resistance – Paralyze has reached level 3! Progression to level 4: 0%!”

“Description of Ailment Resistance – Paralyze – Through amounts of lightning being shocked into your system your body has begun to form a resistance to it. The higher you level this, the harder it will be to paralyze you through shock of lightning or electricity.”

“Congratulations! Due to having a better understanding of your Reflex Sub-stat you have received the ability Danger Sense! Danger Sense has reached level 2! Progression to level 3: 5%!”

“Danger Sense –Ability to sense incoming danger around certain areas of the body. Raise this ability to be able to accurately sense where the danger is aimed and how powerful it is. Skill Type – Passive.”

---

 

Liam stared at the description of his new Ailment Resistance. He was trying to figure out how he got it, but then remembered what happened at the last bit of the first half of the trial as well as the instance during the second half.

“Huh,” Liam muttered. “Well now I know why I didn’t get paralyzed that time.”

He looked at his hand and added, “Still, that lightning trap sucked. Like the poison I’ve had running through me, that lightning hurt like hell!”

Liam stared at his new passive ability, Danger Sense. He remembered Nabal talking to him about the buzzing sensation he felt when he was training with him and how it relates to his reflexes.

During this challenge it really felt like he was understanding the ability as he went through the hardships of dodging the traps and statues.

“I didn’t think I would get it as an ability, much less it being a passive one,” Liam muttered. “Oh well, its still a big score.”

Liam closed his notifications and laid down again on his back. He stared at the bare stone ceiling above him and muttered, “If my challenges are this hard, I wonder how the others are doing.”

He started to feel a bit worried, but then shook his head. “I know they’ll get by just fine,” Liam said with a small grin. “They’re tougher than they look. Including Artem, that teddy bear of a guy might seem like he can’t handle things, but he’s tough when it comes down to it.”

Liam eyed his stamina bar and noticed it reached a quarter full.

“I’ll just rest a bit here before moving on to the next area,” Liam said as he made the decision. “A little rest will help my body out.”