Wu Chen's heart skipped a beat. It was a human voice, weak and desperate. He quickened his pace, following the sound until he came upon a small clearing.
In the center of the clearing, lying on the ground, was a young girl. Her clothes were torn and bloodied, and her face was pale and drawn.
Wu Chen rushed to her side, kneeling down beside her. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.
The girl looked up at him, her eyes wide with fear. "Please... help me... they're coming..."
Before Wu Chen could respond, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned just in time to see a group of shadowy figures emerge from the trees.
They were humanoid in shape, but their features were twisted and grotesque, their eyes glowing with a malevolent light.
Wu Chen's heart sank. He had stumbled upon a group of demonic humans, creatures that had been corrupted by demonic energy.
These were not mere beasts—they were —they were once people, their humanity stripped away by forces beyond their control.
And they are far more dangerous than anything he had faced before.
But Wu Chen Tried to stay calm. He tightened his grip on the spearhead, his mind focused and his body primed for battle.
The demonic humans lunged at him, their claws slashing through the air like blades.
But Wu Chen met their attack head-on, his movements swift and precise.
His spearhead met their claws in a shower of sparks.
Wu Chen's muscles screamed in protest as he barely parried the coordinated strike—the impact rattling his bones.
The battle was intense, Because this Time Wu Chen wasn't fighting a single creature But three.
And at the same time this ones are far more dangerous and stronger than the ones he faced Before.
Wu Chen moved like a man possessed—parrying, dodging, striking—but the three figures pressing him back were faster and stronger.
The air itself seemed to recoil as the three figures struck as one—a whirlwind of claws and gnashing teeth.
Wu Chen barely twisted away in time, feeling the rush of displaced air as talons raked past his face.
Every block sent shocks up his arms.
This isn't like the wolf or Panther that he faced before
That had been a test.
But this..
This is an execution!
If not for his increase in power he would have definitely been dead, even with the terrifying clarity and split-second foresight of his supreme Intelligence.
Each creature moved with terrifying synchronicity.
Their attacks flowing like water.
where one struck high, another went low, while the third circled like a vulture waiting for its moment.
Their eyes burned with cold intelligence, their movements honed by something beyond animal instinct.
Predators.
This people are definitely hunters before.
He wondered what had turned them to such beastly demonic beings.
The demonic humans strength and coordination are pushing Wu Chen to his limits.
He is at a disadvantage, but what can he do?
It's not that he can flee.
Although there was a time—not long ago—when Wu Chen would have already vanished into the trees.
Fleeing wasn't cowardice.
It was wisdom.
The slums had carved that lesson into his bones: Only the living get second chances.
He'd run from enforcers' clubs, from gang ambushes, and from hunger itself.
Each retreat was a calculated step toward another sunrise.
Honor?
Honor was breathing.
But
The problem is that, if he run now, He could still hear the girl's shallow breathing behind him, each gasp thinner than the last.
What will happen to the girl?
The math was brutally simple
If he run's, she die's.
A brutal death.
And that is not an option, Wu Chen would like to consider.
Wu Chen's grip tightened around his weapon.
Because putting aside the fact that it would affect him morally, to run and Leave a weak girl Behind without trying his possible best to help and save her life.
This isn't just about morality.
It is his survival.
The Voice had thrown him into this nightmare for a reason. Every challenge, every creature, was a piece of some greater design.
Let the girl die?
He might as well slit his own throat.
Without her—without whatever knowledge or role she possessed—he'd be stumbling blind through this hellscape until the forest picked his bones clean.
So its either She lived.
Or neither of them did.
So far even though Wu Chen has given his all fighting and killing two Demonic creatures, he is still as clueless as he starts on how to end and finish this trial.
He didn't get any information apart from the broken spearhead in his grip.
Its presence whispered of human involvement in this nightmare, but still it revealed nothing of the trial's true purpose.
The Main reason he had choosen this treacherous path with eerie noises in the beginning When the fork in the road had presented itself - safety to one side, danger to the other was...progress.
The choice had been simple. Survival without progress was just a slower death.
He didn't want to take a path that would allow him to survive but without making any progress towards completing the Trial.
But The moment he allows this girl to die, Its like he has killed his Chances of completing the Trial.
And the consequences.
Even if the voice did not kill him.
He can't even imagine going back and living his previous life.
The thought of returning to that squalid existence in the slums, knowing he'd failed when it mattered most...
No
He do rather die here if that is the faith that awaits him in the end.
So by all means the girl must survive.
So Wu Chen fought with everything he had, his determination unwavering.
He moved like a storm given form.
Every strike, every pivot, every breath became an extension of his Supreme Intelligence—the world slowing as he anticipated attacks before they came. His spearhead became a silver blur, finding gaps in the creatures' defenses with surgical precision.
A downward slash severed tendon from bone.
A sidestep turned a killing blow into a glancing wound.
A feint drew one creature into another's path.
He used his Supreme Intelligence to its fullest, striking with precision and landing blow after blow and evading those of the creatures.
Even though they were still stronger the gap wasn't as enormous as before.