"Are you morons done?" Came my girlfriend''s slightly shaken but still  acid voice. She''d intercepted all those rocks, shifting them away from  us, and had used plenty of power doing it, so she wasn''t in the best  mood. "Because you just blew up a MOUNTAIN and there''s no way everyone  in this damned trial didn''t notice it. So we need to leave before hordes  of them show up to kill us all."


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    I groaned, stumbling  forward. My whole body had cracked under that attack, but the healing  burst I''d used was mending me way too slowly. It wasn''t made for a magma  body. I let Belial drop, and then almost fell over as I realized what a  terrible fucking idea that had been.


    My arm was  shattered, my shoulder blade and collar bone were cracked, and every rib  on the left side of my body was fractured. Not to mention my hip was  broken, my leg had been snapped and I was just generally wrecked on my  left side. Forget a train, I felt like I got hip checked by a collapsing  star. Callie appeared next to me, catching me under my good arm.


    Abel  whistled. "Damn kid. You look rough. Kudos for keeping it together  enough to stay in the temple at all. You going to be alright?"


    Grunting,  I tried to nod, then realized it was probably going to kill me to move  my neck that much, so I just gave him a thumbs up with my free hand.  "Yes. You bastard. Callie''s right though, we better get out of here.  It''ll take hours for my bones to heal, and I don''t want us to get  caught."


    I wasn''t even sure how the hell heal burst was  working. I was a soul fragment right now. The Ruined Soul Temple  was...weird. I looked longingly toward the flag, but Callie just shook  her head. "Don''t even think about it. I think we need to miss this one.  We don''t even know when the round will start anyway, or how long until  the one after. Maybe taking a few hours to rest will be a good choice."


    "I  know." I sighed as she helped me through the trees, away from the site  of our little exchange. "Sorry I got us mixed up in that, but I really  think having Abel on our side will make a huge difference going  forward."


    She sighed. "It probably will. Tactically it was the right choice, but that doesn''t mean I like seeing you get hurt."


    "See."  I said with a sigh. "Now that you''re stronger than me again you''re  totally patronizing me. I can''t even shatter fully half of the bones in  my body without you nagging me." I winked at her to make it clear I was  teasing, and was pleased to actually get a giggle for my trouble.


    She  put on a serious look. "I guess I''m just controlling like that. It''s  part of my devious master plan to completely do away with all the fun  you have. Today its life threatening injuries in meaningless battles,  tomorrow who knows? Maybe I''ll make you cut out red meat."


    We  both dissolved in peals of laughter, quickly cut off by howling  wracking screams from me as I remembered that laughing makes extensive  use of the torso and neck.


    Callie''s joking expression  faded to concern as she held me through the fits of agony until my body  stopped feeling like a wafer cookie someone fed through a woodchipper.


    "Come  on." Said Abel from behind us. "I know a place nearby we can hole up.  Found it just before I found you. We''ll have to negotiate with the  shitbag squirrel that lives there, but I''m sure one of us has something  it wants." He muttered something uncomplimentary about the squirrels  parentage, and I wondered what the thing had done to leave such a  negative impression after what had to be a very short meeting.


    He  led us down a side path, through a copse of trees, and down a small  hill into a little crevasse where we found a hole leading into the base  of a very short buy VERY wide tree. We stopped at the base, and within  seconds, a pair of huge red eyes opened in the darkness.


    A  chittering sound came from the dark. Abel scowled. "No I didn''t bring  any acorns you asshole. My friends and I need a place to lie low."


    I blinked at him, then looked over to Callie. "Can...can he speak squirrel?" I whispered in Stealth.


    She  shrugged, which caused a wave of pain to rip through my shoulder as it  tilted, but I bit back the curse. "Who knows with him."


    Despite  the stealth, Abel seemed to know what we were saying. He shrugged as he  looked back at us. "This thing is a total monster. It follows the Path  of Blood like I do, and I can SORT of understand its intentions. This  kind of thing is usually only a factor in battle, but I''m not going to  look a gift squirrel in the mouth. Anyway, it says it wants fruit.  F-rank or above."Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    I blinked at him. "Exactly where the  fuck do you think I''d have gotten F-ranked fruit? Also, can it even eat  shit in here? We''re all SOULS. How is it even hungry?" Actually, how had  I been eating earlier. This whole temple gave me a huge fucking  headache.


    "Don''t think about it too hard." He chuckled.  "You don''t have any fruit? I know what a foodie you are. I''m surprised  you''re not holding."


    I chuckled guiltily. "I mean...I HAVE  fruit. But it''s all G-rank. I don''t carry F-rank food. I''m not a good  enough cook to make proper use of it anyway. Realistically I don''t make  the best use of G-ranked food either, but at least I can put in the work  to come close. Will it accept G-ranked fruit or nuts?"


    He  turned back to the red eyes. After a second, he scowled.  "That''s  absurd. Why would he even have that much?" He paused. "Because he''s not a  fucking squirrel. We don''t stockpile food for the winter." His  expression became a scowl. "How is that speciesist? That''s a notable  thing that squirrels do!"


    Callie groaned in annoyance. "As  funny as this would normally be, my boyfriend''s left side is currently  the next best thing to a tube of toothpaste full of drywall screws, so  can we please hurry it up? What exactly does it need to let us in?  Someone might come through here soon. I have some fruit too, how much  does it want?"


    Abel rolled his eyes. "Your body weights.  It wants you to hand over your entire weight in comparably ranked  fruit." He shot a dirty look back into the cave. "You just try and eat  us, you overgrown guinea pig. I just blew up a mountain over there,  let''s see you live in a hole in the ground instead of your cozy little  tree."


    Shoving him aside, Callie stepped forward, leaving  behind a shadow clone to hold me up. It was a smooth shift, and I was  pretty damned impressed. She came within about a hundred feet of the  tree and bowed slightly. "Mr. Squirrel, can you understand me?"


    Abel  paused before nodding. "It can. It can''t speak but it knows human  language." He frowned. "It''s weird that this thing is here. What is  going on with this temple?"


    "Shut up an translate."  Growled Callie. She looked back at the cave. "We''re willing to hand over  all the fruits and nuts we have on us. It might be a simple offering,  but I know that such a majestic and powerful creature must have an  equally broad heart."


    There was a chuffing sound, and the  darkness shifted as a MASSIVE russet squirrel emerged from the hole. It  towered over Callie, chest puffed out, before eventually nodding.  Turning around it knelt down, and Callie looked at me uncertainly before  shrugging and climbing up onto its back. It''s huge fluffy tail came up  and wrapped around her snugly before the squirrel scampered off down the  hole.


    "Thanks." I called sourly. "I''ll just walk. You furry asshole."


    Abel  threw his hands up in triumph. "See!" He shouted. "I TOLD you! We  should probably go though, who knows if its coming back, and it did kind  of run off with your girlfriend."


    I shrugged. "Callie can  teleport, it''s not like she would be there if she didn''t want to. But  yeah, come on. You want to help me with the walk, this shadow clone  isn''t exactly intelligent, and this IS kind of your fault to begin with.  Playing walking stick is the least you could do."


    "In point of fact." He said dryly. "The least I can do is nothing. Also don'' you actually HAVE a walking stick?"


    Scowling  at him, I gestured vaguely with my destroyed arm. "Yes, but I can''t  fucking USE it right now because you injured me too badly, now shut up  and help me walk."


    He did, slipping  under my arm as he helped me hobble into the hole in the ground. As I  walked, I was able to get a better look at the burrow. The walls were  made from twisting tree roots that seemed to have grown into a passage,  the roots were thick and gnarled and looked incredibly sturdy.


    Something  seemed different about this trial. The first few had seemed...isolated.  Like we were in special small worlds made just for this purpose. This  place though, it seemed almost like a complete world. I''d tried looking  off into the distance and I could see land for miles and miles.


    Was  this trial different than the rest? What was the temple and how was it  here? Were we really just soul fragments being rendered in some kind of  magic virtual environment? The more I saw of this place, the more  confusing it got. What was the Ruined Soul Temple really? Where had it  come from?


    After  about ten minutes walking down a very steep tunnel, we entered a large  wooden room. The walls were lined with acorns, fruits, and nuts of  various kinds, and when we arrived I found Callie reclining on the soft  looking bushy tail of the squirrel and feeding it an apple. She waved as  I came in and I rolled my eyes as I looked around and found nothing to  sit on at all.


    Luckily  I still had my own chair, and removed it from my ring to take a seat,  with some help from Abel. The heal burst was still working, but it  seemed like it would take a while for me to heal so I reclined in my  seat and closed my eyes, considering taking a nap.


    The  next round hadn''t started yet, but it was only a matter of time, and  while we''d sat this one out, who knew if someone would stumble on our  hiding spot soon. Of course, we did have the squirrel to chase them off,  but who knew how effective the furry bastard would be.


    I  needed to rest and recover as best I could and get ready for future  rounds, having Abel with us was a big advantage, but eventually we''d be  up against someone strong, if not here, in the later trials. I also  wondered about Gabriel, would he leave after he broke his soul shackles?  The Adamant couldn''t afford to lose, and he was unlikely to survive  staying here until the end.


    All  of these things swirled around in my head as I drifted off, and more.  I''d worry about that when I woke up and wasn''t in so much pain. As I  started to fall asleep, I let my mind drift to potential second stances  and combinations that could produce powerful attacks. I had some ideas  that would really blow the competition away, I couldn''t wait to try them  out later in the trials. For now though, Belial still needed polishing.  So much work to do here, but damn if I wasn''t having a blast.