New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Inside that simulation, Rodney was sweating bullets. The trap that had just sprung had hit so close to the palanquin that, a few feet to its left, and it would have swallowed it whole.

That would have been an instant failure.

Even with his senses already on high alert, he hadn't felt the trap until a few seconds before it sprung. This didn't leave him any time to warn his soldiers.

But Rodney knew he wasn't at the end of his troubles. A few moments before the trap had sprung, he had felt the intense glare of a powerful enemy on him.

The timing of the trap hadn't allowed him to pay attention to the direction it had come from, and this made him nervous.

'Where the hell did it come from? How many are there? What are they? What will they target first?'

Questions blazed inside his mind, to which he had no answers.

Although Rodney usually kept a cool mind and maintained logical thinking in times of crisis, this situation was different. The prize on the line for this challenge's success was putting untold amounts of pressure on his mind, and he was losing his cool.

The men and women under his command were also insanely nervous.

Some of them had also felt the same glare as their commander, and they were trembling slightly. This was the pressure of a stronger being, pushing down on their minds.

Their advance significantly slowed down as they fell into high alert, watching for traps and watching for monsters.

The rustling of leaves in the surrounding forests made them twitch. The cracking of branches made some archers shoot arrows into the thickets, only to be met with silence.

Something was stalking them. And by how the directions of sounds were all over the place, it was not just one enemy.

Rodney was unsure whether the king had arranged simulated monsters, or if he had sicced some of his summons on them. But one thing was sure, they were threats.

Genie and White were using the tether to Astaroth's soul and mind to communicate with each other and were enjoying the hunt. Their tactic at this moment was to wear the soldiers' minds down.

Doing this made them more susceptible to mistakes, and with the traps on the road, it would be fatal.

Both of them knew that Commander Levine was more than capable of taking them on alone, so they couldn't just rush into the fray while he still had so many men under him. It would be suicide.

Astaroth had tasked them with testing this man's mental fortitude and ability to protect his quarry. And they intended to do just that.

The minutes crawled by, like snails sliming their way forward, as time seemed to stretch in the nervous soldiers' minds. And a few hundred meters from the first trap, the road reminded them they needed to focus.

The first trap had been a sudden pitfall. The second one, which popped from the forest itself, had caught a few unsuspecting guards.

Poking out of the forest with insane speed, dozens of vines, animated with a will of their own, latched on whatever was closest to them, dragging the soldier back into the forest, where their screaming lasted only for a few seconds, before subsiding.

Rodney lost six more Royal Guards to this sudden vine trap and cursed under his breath.

His regiment was not the smallest of the three, but also far from the biggest. His fifty somewhat Royal Guards had already dwindled to less than thirty.

At this pace, he wasn't sure he would reach Bastion City. The massive tree's bough, which he could still see in the distance, wasn't getting any closer.

His mind strayed to his fellow commanders, wondering how their challenges were going. But he promptly shook the thoughts away.

He had no time to think about them. His own chances for glory were on the line.

Rodney might not have been hungry for glory, usually. But when the chances for it suddenly dance right before your eyes, only a fool wouldn't try his best to grasp it.

A tingling sensation on the back of his neck alerted him to danger, and his focus became razor sharp.

A sudden spike in mana came in from the left, and he could tell what was coming.

"Every down! Mages, protect the palanquin!" he shouted, jumping upward of his steed.

There was nothing he could do to save the horse here, as a massive wind blade sheared through the contingent, cutting everything in its path.

Luckily for his soldiers, Rodney had been quick enough to sense it, and the blade only took two soldiers, who had frozen in surprise and couldn't get down in time, as well as his horse.

The three mages he had in his regiment reacted promptly and erected a sturdy barrier around the palanquin, with themselves inside, and watched as the wind blade crashed into it, making it flicker before the offensive spell vanished.

But their troubles weren't over.

Two more wind blades rushed out of the forest, all from the same direction, this time in a cross pattern, gouging out the earthen ground on its path.

Rodney couldn't let them hit the barrier. He immediately understood the three mages wouldn't be strong enough to hold the attack back.

With his shield raised, Commander Levine rushed in between the attack and the palanquin, blocking it and slamming his shield into the ground to keep himself from getting pushed back.

The wind blades shattered after pushing against him for a couple of seconds. But he could feel this wasn't over.

"Everyone around the palanquin. Something is after us."

"Yes, sir!" the guards shouted, getting to their feet and encircling their quarry.

They would be damned if they let their commander down.

But when howls began echoing through the woods, a shiver ran up everyone's spine.

Throngs of dire wolves started sauntering out of the woods, their maws drooling, and their throats rumbling with growls.

Ten wolves.

Twenty wolves.

Fifty wolves.

And then came two much larger ones, whose glare made some soldiers immediately tremble in fear. They recognized the pressure.

Even the commander felt uneasy.

'So this is the real challenge, huh? Well, it's good to know he at least gave us a chance…'