Reaching the bottom of that hole full of water took longer than he thought and the pressure was pretty high. Before he could use the teleporter wall though he got a system announcement that the third vote was starting and it concerned a permanent addition to the system that would train children in magic or martial abilities before they get access to the system. With Tara being pregnant he felt particular about this one and thought that he might actually want to try and convince others to vote for the martial training since his magical knowledge was growing so fast that he could teach that himself.

  However, he had other concerns right now, like getting to the next room so he could leave and join the vote. He didn’t care if he missed it but Bethany would care how it made him look, she took great pains to explain to him how important it was that he appeared connected to what everyone was doing. She said it was to create the impression that he actually gave a crap about what they did because if he didn’t they would worry that he would kill them all arbitrarily. He shook those thoughts out of his head and touched the teleporter wall to move on to the next room.

  Expecting to appear in a third cave he had relaxed all of his concealment but he instead appeared in the middle of an underground lake or some kind of deep ocean cave. Still without any light his instincts were screaming at him to hide, but not to run so he did what he learned in the last two rooms. He already couldn’t breath since he was underwater, he stopped his heart and pulled in his magic like in the second room. He was getting faint hints of bloodthirst in what little magic there was in the water, there was something in here with him and it was large and a predator. His leg was still hurt but it wasn’t bleeding so he thought if he stayed still awhile he would be able to hopefully stay hidden a bit longer.

  The hint of bloodthirst, or more accurately, magic with killing intent was moving but not quickly and it was large. It felt like a murderous passenger jet was moving around, at least that was the feel he got from it. So there were two options that he could come up with, rather the first two rooms were designed to train him to get past this enormous thing, or he was supposed to fight it. It didn’t seem like the room prepared him to fight but he just couldn’t pass this up, a chance to fight something so large and dangerous. He had every disadvantage, but he still wanted to fight it even though the pressure of the deep water was starting to get to him.

  Without being able to sense where the exit was, he would have to move around, which might draw its attention. The creature or monster or whatever seemed to be just patrolling around down below so he had some time to figure out the best way to fight something so large. He didn’t see a way to attack it without immediately knowing where he was and with its size it could close the distance fast. Two tactics came to mind, he could try and attack from a distance, or get up close and try to attack with his mace. He didn’t really have a lot of distance options so this was going to have to be up close and personal.

  He started by undoing all of his concealment to give him more focus and spent the magic to fully transform into his 4 armed, armored pale rider. He checked his magic sense and the large creature was headed straight for him at a steady pace. Right before it was going to hit him he blinked to the side a few feet, but it wasn’t far enough and it bit him right down the middle of his torso leaving his head on the outside but his left arm and leg on the inside. He was focusing hard on his resilience and the creature's teeth were not penetrating but not deeply. Using his right arms and the bladed bone maces he extended them and swung wildly burning through magic but doing some head damage.

  The creature let him go and tried to move away but he switched hands with one of his maces, extended and swung them like a pair of tongs then pulled himself close to it riding on its back. It was apparently not a fan of this and crashed itself into a cave wall to try and dislodge him but he held tight and got smashed in the face for his trouble. Then Eli started using his 2 free arms and his smash skill to obliterate the flesh under him with repeated strikes. It took some time but he made it a few feet into the creature and he began casting his air explosion spell inside the creature. However since he was deep underwater there wasn’t much air to use and after three casts and not much bang, he needed to change strategy.

  There wasn’t much coming to his mind and his magic was running low, the size of the creature was making any damage he did seem meaningless. The only idea that came to him was for him to do damage from inside the creature and with his magic running low he needed to do it now so he pulled his weapons away from it and it swam away quickly turning around to chomp down on him. Again he did his best to blink out of the way of the teeth but was not fast enough and he lost both left arms and his left foot, all of them being bitten off. He was in a lot of pain again but he was inside its mouth and he immediately extended one of his weapons and it jammed into the roof of its mouth puncturing and going through several feet before coming out the other side.

  It didn’t feel like his weapon was going to last much longer so he moved fast and retracted it only to extend it again, hoping that its brain was somewhere beyond the roof of its mouth. The creature was thrashing and its tongue was trying to eject him from its mouth but he held on with one right hand and worked his weapon with the other. After eight more hits it finally stopped moving, but he could see where it was starting to heal in places so it wasn’t dead. With the pause in motion Eli reached into the last hole he had made and poured the remainder of his magic in as purified death magic. This stopped the healing and started rotting its flesh rapidly.

  The fight was over but he still needed to get out of this trial, it was one thing to hold your breath for a long time and another to know you can’t take in a breath if you wanted to. His injured and magically drained body was starving for air to aid in his magic regeneration and he was starting to feel it. He climbed out of the creature's mouth and started swimming down deeper as best he could, cancelling his pale rider transformation and ignoring the pain of his lost limbs that had been mostly numbed by it. He wasn’t dying, but he wasn’t healing either so he was in a hurry made all the more difficult by his entire right arm being missing.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Almost at his limit he could feel the teleporter wall below him in a small cave and moved to it bracing himself for the spectacle he was about to create and the probable tongue lashing he would get from Bethany. He teleported himself straight to the voting floor and appeared in a large splash of blood soaked water. Suddenly having to stand but not having his foot he fell to a knee and decided it was time for everyone to see one of the cards he had been playing close to his chest.

  “Umber, come out here and give me a hand will you?” Eli said loud enough for the room to hear. His tattoo leaped off his body as a cloud of smoke then Umber appeared in all her glory roaring and snapping her jaws at the people who were close to him. The entire room, which had almost everyone present, stepped back with some moving into side rooms for cover. He put his arm over Umber, who was the height of a horse but three times as long, and moved over to his throne and sat down. Umber curled herself around the throne and placed her head in his lap, Eli began petting the top of her head and she purred-growled in response.

  Bethany and Alora came up and pet her as well and she was soaking up all of the attention and praise. Aria was off to the side seemingly afraid of Umber, but not because of what she was, more of how their relationship would affect her relationship with Eli. The whole room was still in shock and just kind of vacantly staring as Aria slowly approached Umber and Eli. She lowered her head and reached out to touch her neck and when she reached it she could feel subtle feelings coming from Umber. Feelings of protection, family, and contentedness made Aria relax and she just stood there petting her happy that they were getting along.

  It seemed that everyone was calming down and some were returning to their seats. Liasandra, Ornori, and Figula had not moved the entire time, not because they weren’t scared or shocked but because they had trained themselves to stay calm under pressure. It looked like Liasandra wanted to ask about a thousand questions, and the other two just looked green with envy. The others in the room were clearly subject to Umber’s panic aura and they were all twitchy and anxious like they really didn’t want to be in the room. Eli was worried that it was sending the wrong message but he also knew it was a massive show of strength and in the long run would be beneficial.

  “May I ask a question?” Figula asked. Umber raised her head and growled at her and to her credit, she did not flinch.

  Eli sighed then coughed then sighed again, “Isn’t that a question?” Both Bethany and Liasandra chuckled.

  “What is this creature and how did you get it here?” Figula asked. Umber growled again and made a move to get up but Eli stopped her and pet her some more.

  “I have a question for you Figula, why do I owe you answers? I asked you for information and you refused so I think I’ll take that option as well.” Eli said then slouched back in his throne with another sigh.

  “I think the more pertinent question is, are you alright?” Ornori asked. “You seem to be quite injured, and are those giant teeth marks?”

  “They are teeth marks, that's a good eye Ornori. I will heal in time, and until then my girl Umber here will be joining us.” Eli explained and gave Umber several enthusiastic pats.

  “Is this something we should be concerned about? Something that could injure you to this extent would be something we should all know about.”

  “I’ll just say that going swimming while you are here comes with risks.” Eli said with a smirk.

  “I think we should move on, can we discuss the vote?” Liasandra asked the room.

  “No,” Winston said. “We need to address the literal dragon in the room. Why is it making me feel anxious?”

  “I’ll address this,” Bethany said. “Umber is a panic drake, that feeling most of you have is her panic aura. It clouds your judgement.” Bethany paused and tapped her chin thinking. “You all can consider this free mental resistance training.”

  “Well at your are charging us for attacking us, this is ridiculous. I demand you send it away at once.” Winston said with clenched fists and wild fear in his eyes. It was plain to everyone in the room that he was fighting the effects of the panic aura, fighting and losing. Others from the middle continent just silently left the room leaving just four, Winston, Jasmine, Ghost, and someone they didn’t know. Ornori and Liasandra were quick to pass along instructions that they would not show any weakness and no one was allowed to leave.

  Eli sighed loudly as he used his will to pull Bethany back a few steps, this would be another moment where he took another step towards embracing his transcendence. He used a forceful version of will speech that bordered on a mental attack that affected the whole room. “The demands of prey mean nothing to the predator. When you display such weakness Winston, make no mistake, you are becoming prey to some in this room.”

  Winston looked around at how everyone was looking down on him and sat back in his chair clenching his muscles while trying to fight off the panic aura. Aria had noticed something but was not sure how to bring it up so she just stood nervously to the side fidgeting. Bethany noticed and called her forward to stand in front of Eli and Umber to share.

  “Speak your mind Aria, you have nothing to fear from me, you are family now.” Eli said in a dramatic voice. He wished he could have thought of a more dramatic way to say it but he couldn’t think of one fast enough.

  “Well, um, divine sir, um, when Winston made his demand Liasandra made a slight sharp breath out and I noticed she had the slightest hint of a smirk on her face. I think she put him up to it.”

  “I saw as well, or rather Umber saw and informed me, but I am impressed with your skill, well done!” Eli said with pride in his voice.