The leading dummy ran straight at him, going for an overhand punch. Fionn ducked down and met them with a hard body shot. When the dummy stumbled back, two more dummies rushed after Fionn. He flipped backward, dodging the first dummy's kick, then blocked the attack of the second dummy. Fionn headbutt the second dummy, grabbed them by the neck, then threw them at the other dummy. Another dummy tried to attack him from behind, while another dummy attempted to distract him. Fionn spawned a barrier in front of himself to block the first dummy, ducked under the strike of the second dummy, and kicked the back of its head into the barrier. When the other dummy tried to throw a jab at him, Fionn kicked its wrist in the air, and with the same leg, slammed his heel on top of its head, punched it in chest, leading into an uppercut, before he grabbed it head, and threw its whole body away from him. The leading dummy, alongside the last two dummies, tried to corner him. One went for a kick at his back, another with a jab at his neck, and the last attempted to punch him in the face

  None of them landed, all met with blocks

  “Should I increase the difficulty? I just made them resemble ordinary goons,” he thought to himself. He flipped backwards and made all the training dummies disappear. He thinks to himself. “Yeah, simple crooks aren't good training material. Who should I train with…?”

  He spawned a ball of clay, needles, a tooth pick, and scalpel. He started to carefully and slowly craft the head of a human from a ball of clay. He leaves it with no eyes, no nose, and no mouth

  “Male or female?” he thought. Just for practice, he decided to go with a female. He gently started to sculpt her face, giving her a beautiful face, kind eyes, and small nose. He started to work on the body next. He kept it slim, but did add details such as abs and breasts to her body, no bigger than B. Her arms were more muscular, along with her thighs, legs, and calves. Once structured to fit the occasion properly, he started working on clothes, accessories, weapons, hair, and other details

  For the hair, he took another piece of clay and started to model it into a bun with two strands of hair framing her face. The bangs were swept to the right, made to cover her right eye, with the bun being held in place by two silver pins on both sides. He added lines to the hair model for detail, then placed it on top of the model’s head. It fit perfectly

  For her clothes, he worked on each separately, starting with the body

  “Which style… Oh!” he thought, grabbing a piece of clay and started working again

  Back at the camp, Ann stepped away to check on Fionn. When she saw he wasn’t there, she was slightly worried. She looked around, thinking he just stepped away to think. Nothing

  “Fionn?” she called out. No response. “Fionn, honey?” she called again. A member of Division 2, Harold, walked to check on her

  “Hey, you okay?” he sounded concerned, his voice sounding casual

  Ann jumps at his voice. “Oh, Harold, you scared me… But kind of. I can’t find Fionn. I hope I didn’t make him uncomfortable.” It was clear in her voice she would panic soon if nothing about him came up

  “We’ll just ask Captain Julius to help find him. His senses are crazy accurate.” he offered

  The two walked back to camp, seeing Julius reading a report from Owen, the lieutenant of Division 2, about the Trick Anomalies observations

  “Sorry to interrupt Captain, but have you seen the rookie?”

  Ann elbowed his side. Mason didn’t realize it until he remembered that Julius was blind. Before he could correct himself, Julius responded with a laugh

  “No, I haven’t seen him. You mean sensed?” he grinned

  Mason’s cheeks lit up slightly in embarrassment. “Yes… Sir.”

  “He went just over the river–” he pointed in a direction. “–I felt his presence drifting off that way.”

  “How do you… Just know?” Mason asked

  “Enough Trials will do that to you.”

  Ann clasped her hands together in joy before sprinting to the river. She jumps over it with ease, running into the other side without waiting. She could see a clearing in the distance, and despite her age, she had enough stamina to continue running. Upon reaching the clearing, she was expecting to see Fionn alone, but was startled at her sight

  Fionn and a random woman were fighting as if they were trying to kill each other. He had some wounds on his body while the woman ignored the fact she was missing her left arm and right leg

  The woman had black hair, one glowing purple eye, and looked as if she was an assassin. Slim body, 5’7 in height, and a piercing gaze. She was wearing a plain scarlet scarf with dirt on it, a black leotard with a deep cut just above her breasts, bandages around on her right wrist, a white sash around her waist, baggy black pants that were ruined by the severed leg, and black military boots. She had a sword sheathe across her lower back, with the sword being a katana. It had a white handle, black guard, and a crimson design etched into it

  “Don’t get sloppy!” she ordered

  “Wanna try that cheap move again?” he shot back

  The woman smirks as she ducked one of his slashes to her head, using the small given time to attack from three different angles at once before Fionn could breathe. When Fionn blocked the closest slash, the other two slashes cut deep into his body

  Ann’s heart sank, tears filling her eyes immediately

  “FIONN!!” she screamed, the voice tearing out of her throat unintentionally. The two stopped fighting and turned towards Ann. Fionn’s eyes widened in shock. “Shit! Why didn’t I sense her?!” he panicked. The woman sheathed her sword, hopping backwards on her one leg. Fionn stood up right as Ann rushed over to him, bawling her eyes out and holding his face

  “Fionn, honey, please be okay! Please, please, don’t die! Hey, hey, please!” she panicked

  Fionn was too embarrassed to respond, but remained standing. “I-I’m fine, Ann,” he whispered. The woman sighed, healing and restoring her missing limbs. She puts a hand on her hip before speaking

  “Miss, he’s fine,” she said with another sigh

  Ann’s face scrunched in pure anger. “SHUT UP!” she shouted. The woman looked at Ann like she was crazy. Fionn restored his wounds, fixing his outfit and the woman’s. Ann was confused, sniffling her nose. “W-what?” she muttered in disbelief

  “Sorry, Ann… I didn’t think you’d come check on me,” he said, avoiding eye contact. “She’s a doll I animated to train with. Her name is Yoshi.”

  “If you call me a dinosaur, I will stab you,” she said immediately

  Ann tries to understand the situation. It was clear, but why make a walking woman to fight against? After calming down… Ann grabbed Fionn’s left ear, yanking it

  “YOU HAD ME SCARED TO DEATH, FIONN!!” she shouted

  “Ow!” he muttered in pain

  Yoshi spawned her own chair, crossing her legs as she watched Ann scream at Fionn. “Is that why we were out here?” she thought, looking down at her legs. “When he severed it, I didn’t feel pain… Probably to avoid fatigue.” She glances up at Fionn. “He didn’t stop either… Or, he just ignored it.”

  She looked up at the sky. “Hopefully Master learned from me… And this altercation,” she glanced at Ann still pulling Fionn by the ear. A small smile formed on her face. “Don’t make moms angry.”

  That night, Fionn was forced to sleep beside Ann to keep an eye on him. His ear was still stinging in pain as she told him that he couldn’t heal it as punishment. They slept back to back. Yoshi didn’t need to sleep, so she kept watch outside for both Divisions

  When morning started to come around, Fionn woke up to see Yoshi wasn’t there. Confused about her whereabouts, he searched for her presence. After just a bit of searching, he finds her on the other side of the village, searching for the Trial Code

  A Trial Code could be anything, from a simple contract to a living vessel. The Trial Code is able to transport the whole Rift and everyone inside, only being able to be activated by the person who retrieved it. Trial Code wasn’t its original name as many adventurers in the past found them when exploring Trials, but never knew what to call them and only kept them as treasure, not knowing they still had many lives stuck in them. While Nolan and Dean were exploring, three months after establishing Chrona Riftworks Protocol, they had a man named Eric Hollington retrieve an artifact to use for science. When Eric realized he left his armor in the Trial, he unintentionally activated the Rift again, allowing Dean and Nolan to get even more information about them. From there, they asked over fifty people to help with their experiment. Each and every person, after being granted access to taking the Trial Code from defeated Rifts, were able to access the Trial again post-defeat. The citizens weren’t affected with the movement, placement, or use of the Trial Code being activated again. Nolan came up with the name after seeing Eric open the Rift again like he was implementing a code for a game

  Fionn teleported straight to Yoshi who was praying for a Trick Anomaly she had slain–hands together and eyes closed

  The true form of these Trick Anomalies was a huge black reptile in the shape of a scorpion. Its stinger was visibly a mixture of yellow-ish venom and purple poison, ten legs, five on each side, and a pincher noticeably bigger than the other. Fionn could identify it had armor on its back, hidden with the skin. The most secured part was along the stinger, with the back being thinner

  “You provoked one, didn’t you?” he asked

  Yoshi, after finishing her prayer, straightened up. “I did. They were in fact deadly, strong, and aggressive,” she answered, glancing back at him. “Even if they’re evil, I pray they’re reborn as someone good in the next life.”

  “I’m surprised you actually wanted to experiment for yourself,” he teased, looking over at the scorpion. “Was that a male or female one?”

  “Male,”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Hmph… I’ll see if the females hold a different entity,” he said casually. Yoshi squinted her eyes at him. “I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, Master, but is that really a good idea?” she asked, skeptical of his motive

  “Why, what’s wrong with my idea?” he asked, sounding slightly confused

  She pinches her nose. “Other than the fact you’re purposely endangering yourself, it might cause a chain reaction between the other Anomalies,” she warned

  “You make it sound boring,” he said, nearly brushing off her warning. “Trust me, I’ll be fine.” Yoshi flicked a rock at his head. He caught it effortlessly

  “You’re not invincible, Master!” she stated

  “I’m a lot of things. You just don’t know what those things are though,” he grins

  Yoshi lets out a sigh. “I don’t know why I bother…,” she muttered under her breath

  “Because you care,” he teased

  She didn’t say anything, only staring at his grin. He had a point, but she would rather die than admit that to him. Fionn teleported off, leaving Yoshi alone

  “Made from clay… Yet more common sense than a human. Mortals, I swear…,” she thought. She ran off back to camp

  Fionn stood on top of a house, looking down at the Anomalies

  “Eeny… Meeny…,” his voice trailed off before he summoned chains, randomly striking a female Trick Anomaly. Upon being provoked, she transformed right into a hairy gray spider with ten different red glowing eyes, ten black hairless legs, and human-like feet on each. It screeched at him before jumping at him

  “What the fuck is that?!” he said in disgust. He teleported into the air to dodge, staring down at the Anomaly’s true form

  “Ew… I don’t even have archnaphobia… But you…,” he said, looking at its many eyes. “You’re one ugly motherfucker.” When it attempted to jump at him, he bombarded it with chains, restraining it in the air

  “Lets test… endurance,” he thought. He started to fling it all around the village, destroying buildings and provoking other Trick Anomalies. He repeatedly slammed it against the ground like he was nailing a portrait to the wall with a hammer, dragged it against the dirt, and even bashed its skull against trees. The chained Trick Anomaly lost three legs and an eye, but, even after being dragged around, it still moved. “Huh… That’s cool. The women are more natural with their durability,” he thought to himself

  He looked down at the other Anomalies, slightly surprised at the sight. They were all killing each other from being provoked. A scorpion pierces a spider, while the spider bites down on the stinger, only for its fangs to break. That same scorpion was pierced almost immediately by another scorpion. Elsewhere, two spiders were fighting each other, neither landing a stab but only slight scratches. Fionn grinned wide at the chaos below

  “One less village to track,” he said aloud

  He raised his right arm into the air–palm facing the sky

  “You’ll live to regret your actions by–” A ball of fire spawned. “–the heat of your regrets coming back to bite you.” The ball of fire grew to the size of an apartment. “Be crushed by your own weight! Heat of Regret!” he shouted with a wide grin, making the ball grow to the size of a small house. “And die!” he flings the ball of fire down at all of them. On impact, the ground shook slightly–waking up everyone back at camp–as a ground erupted into flames

  In the matter of seconds, Fionn incinerated the village without remorse, as well as leaving a crater in the Earth

  “Damn… Didn’t think they committed that many sins,” he thought, glancing over at the Trick anomaly he kept restrained. It recognized that display of power, transforming back into its hidden form

  “H-human not human… Boy is… Anomaly!” she thought

  His grin returned, aiming a finger at the Trick Anomaly. “No witnesses,” he said, shooting a light beam through its head, killing it instantly. He floated down, stretching slightly. “Maybe I at least should’ve held back. But then I actually would’ve put people at risk.” he thought

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” a woman’s voice shouted. Fionn turned his head to see that the voice belonged to Shakti, followed by Julius, Ann, Yoshi, and other members walking to see the destruction

  “Yo,” he said casually

  “I’m not surprised… But jeez, dude,” she said, sighing

  “I can fix it.” he said calmly

  “How?” she asked, almost like she was demanding an answer

  Fionn snapped his fingers, and like clockwork, he returned the destroyed area back to its former self. He teleported straight to Shakti just to grin at her

  “Oh… Right… Creation Anomaly,” she thought

  That didn’t stop Ann from grabbing Fionn’s ear

  “Strike two, Fionn! I told you about this yesterday!” she shouted

  “Ow! Not even a thank you?! Now we can progress,” he said

  “That doesn’t excuse you from waking all of us up!”

  “What’s the difference from your usual alarms?!”

  “I wake up specifically at six o’clock on the dot. My sleep always leaves me well rested and what I need after a long day,”

  “What, talking to me all day is considered long?” he said jokingly

  Ann yanked harder on his ear. “Ow! Okay, I’m sorry!”

  Julius didn’t say anything, but smiled wide. “No need to yell at him… Ann does it herself,” he thought

  After collecting everything, Ann was allowed to keep watch of Fionn, while Yoshi was assigned to scout areas for Anomalies. They started to progress further into the Trial, slowly but surely.

  What made the journey fun was the beautiful scenery they passed as the days progressed. A huge lake in the shape of a messy circle with the bright sun making the water glisten with warmth and calm, a plain open grassfield they used for training, filled with daisies, lilies, and dandelions that cushioned landings and softened throws, and even wild life such as deers, robins, and passive wolves. It was a beautiful time for everyone. Fionn, for once so far, was quietly watching everything. No intrusive thought to destroy, no impulse to cause chaos, only sincere peace. Ann noticed, smiling softly each time she saw his calm face

  “You’re still a child at heart, aren’t you, Fionn?” she thought to herself

  After a couple days of exploring, Julius and Shakti were given details that they were near another village. Fionn could overhear them talking to each other, but didn’t feed into it. He didn’t care enough for the moment. Julius and Shakti walked out of their quarters, standing in front of their Divisions

  Julius cleared his throat before speaking first. “There’s an upcoming village of refugees. Further south leads to a power plant of corrupted Anomalies. There’s no intel yet of what those Anomalies are, so keep your guards up,” he explained

  Fionn was lying in a tree, arms behind his head. He made his left eye golden, seeing into what they’re going to have to come across

  It was brutal–specifically for Shakti. Many members of Division 5 were dead after a bombing went off at what looked like a safehouse for injured villagers. Shakti was bleeding from her skull, nearly about to pass out and potentially die. Julius, Ann, and Division 2 were elsewhere, taking care of what seemed like a much easier corrupted Anomaly. Julius displayed his swordsmanship, splitting the Anomaly’s tendons and weak points despite being blind. Fionn noticed a difference in the two Anomalies

  In the vision, the corrupted Anomaly Shakti was pinned to fight was able to tank her punches, slashes, and cuts regardless of how strong they were, even in her weakened state. It would regenerate almost instantly–the blood tendril mending on its own. Fionn took note

  However, the Anomaly Division 2 was fighting looked almost pathetically weaker. It couldn’t see Julius, despite having thirteen eyes all over its face. Division 2 members could predict where it was going to strike and could stop each attack it tried very easily. Fionn took note of that as well

  “They stalled Division 2… And their main target is one of the villagers,” he deduced. “To occupy the stronger team with a weak person far away from the real target… is such a pussy move.” he slightly laughs to himself. He sits up, glancing over at Shakti

  “I’ll stay to help her. She doesn’t deserve to die that easily,” he thought to himself

  As the explanation from Julius and Shakti was coming to a close, he hops out of the tree to finally join everyone, catching Shakti’s attention first. Her eyes narrowed slightly at him

  “That’s where you were?” she said, startled. “What are you, a squirrel?”

  Fionn grinned, purposely making his two front teeth transform into buck teeth. He grew a thick and fluffy squirrel tail, looking at her as if he was cross-eyed

  “Like this?” he said mockingly, earning a cheap laugh from Julius

  Shakti crossed her arms, pouting. “That’s a beaver, dumbass,” she snapped

  “But I have a squirrel tail,” he teased

  Shakti drew her sword, pointing the tip of the blade to this throat. “And I’m a hunter,” she said, narrowing her eyes more. “Your move, Joker.”

  That made Fionn’s grin widened more, but he decided to not press further. He transformed his teeth back to normal and lost the tail. Internally, he wasn’t laughing. “She’s skilled… But that Anomaly wasn’t supposed to be that strong. Gold Tier Anomalies are only as hard as fighting a Diamond Tier, just slightly more flawed and weaker. Difficult, yeah, but not overly powerful to completely nullify a Division 5 Captain,” he thought to himself. He walked a bit away from the group, Yoshi trailing behind him to make sure he did nothing stupid

  After some distance away, Yoshi finally spoke up. “You weren’t really laughing, were you, Master?” she asked calmly

  “No,” he replied softly

  “Did you see another fate you want to change?” she asked, her curiosity peaked after his confirmation

  “Yeah… the main Anomaly attacks Shakti, not Julius. It was going after someone with the Trial Code… one of the injured villagers.” he explained

  Yoshi was momentarily silent. She was disappointed that Shakti would’ve been killed due to being paired against the wrong enemy. For all her might, Yoshi could identify her flaws:

  She hesitates to hurt someone

  She plays defense, but even then, it’s not much

  Her offense leaves her more open and vulnerable to strong strikes

  She’s very agile and flexible, but that’s all she had

  “I see…,” Yoshi finally said, solemnly. “Will you stay to help her, Master? Or do you wish for me to assist her instead?”

  “I’ll do it. If the opponents change, I’ll correct it,” he answered–no playfulness in his voice

  Yoshi nods in agreement. “Understood,” she agreed, leaving in a flash. Fionn looked at his hand–a pulse of golden light sparked in his palm

  “Wendigo,” he thought

  He continued his little walk in the forest

  Elsewhere, three figures were walking on corpses. Crushing skulls beneath their foot, stepping on already broken limbs, and even eating the head of a skull that was scalped

  The lead figure had what looked like a woman’s body, but hard to determine correctly. The only visible parts were her pale skin and lips. Her body was covered in a black robe with the hood up, shielding half of her face. It was hard to make out what she looked like

  She was mumbling to herself in Latin, almost as if she was talking to herself

  To her right was a muscular male Anomaly. His whole body had blood red tattoos in the shape of slashes all over his body. His skin was coconut white with the texture of tree bark. There seemed to be a tree root-like guard on his face, shielding his face as a whole. He was much taller than the woman, standing to reach 7’1 in height. All ten of his fingers and the back of his hands were black, while his palms were crimson red. He wore no clothing, as his tree bark skin didn’t show anything. His toes were sharp black thorns. He was calmly walking on bodies as if they deserved to be crushed. “Such pitiful lives…,” he said, his voice incredibly deep and booming. “No better than a smart dog.”

  To the woman’s left was another male, although he was shorter than her. He was clearly a humanoid, having the appearance of a young boy, but baby blue skin, black sclera, and green irises. His figure was more feminine than masculine. He wore what appeared to be a nun outfit, slightly clinging to his small figure. He had slightly spiky cobalt blue hair that made him noticeably a boy. He was timidly holding a wooden casting staff in his right hand, eating the nose off of a scalped head. Each time he took a bite, his fangs were visible

  “Big Sister is going to punish me again… She’s so angry right now,” the boy thought, glancing over at the woman. “I maybe shouldn’t have lied about securing the Trial Code. But she was super slippery to catch…,”

  “...Illumi… By dear big brother…,” she started, her voice clearly hiding her anger. When Illumi glanced at her again, she kicked his head straight into a tree, dropping the scalped head and his staff

  “WHAT ORDER DID I GIVE YOU?” she shouted, her green eyes visibly angry. The Tree Anomaly stopped walking, sitting down on a crushed house as if it was a mat

  Illumi softly rubbed his head. “Ow… My order was to secure the Trial Code… But she was so quick I didn’t see her,” he said lazily

  “Then get off of your ass and actually do something, you lazy fuck!” she shouted. She grabbed him by the hair and slammed the back of his head into the tree, making it bend. “We could’ve been done here, but no! You just had to go and ruin the plan! Why did the Boss ever adopt you?! You’re too stupid to even do the simplest missions!”

  Illumi made no attempt to defend himself. When she rammed her knee into his face, he was blushing with a wide smile on his face, accepting the full force. “She’s abusing me again~!” he happily thought. The Tree Anomaly watched the “spectacle” in front of him. “My… Mortals are so weird. It’s almost ironic that she’s the younger sibling, but taller and stronger than him,” he thought

  The woman continued to punch and hurt Illumi, finally stopping when she was tired. Illumi was face first on the ground, bleeding from his eyes, nose, mouth, lip, and side of his head… But he was filled with nothing but joy. “Big Sister got stronger over the years~! Hehehehehehehe~!” he thought, struggling to stand up straight. When he finally did, he dropped to his knees out of pain, but it was overshadowed by the pure pleasure he was feeling. “I should disobey her more~! She might finally kill me, hahahahahahaha!” he thought. The woman fixed her cloak, walking again. “Lets go!” she snapped. Illumi, out of sheer will, ignored the pain to catch up with her. The Tree Anomaly sighed before joining her again

  “Mortals are so weird…,” the Tree Anomaly thought again

  I’m… S-so sorry, honey…