Awakening Of The New Emperor

POV: Recruit 79

The voice rung loud in my ear, except it wasn't from man, nor machine. It was like it was in my head, rather than the walls of which I originally had believed its source was.

'What the hell did that scanner do to me?' I thought.

[ We may proceed with participant 37 ]

The voice spoke again, this time calling me a participant. 37, at that. Could I have been the 37th person to try this? If so, did the others get out?

And if this was a trial, what the hell is the trial exactly? Try to survive?

It had been but a mere few moments as I watched the statue before me begin to shake uncontrollably, like a violent earthquake was sweeping through. However, I wasn't shaking at all, neither was the floor below us.

This was just the statue.

And then, simultaneously, one of the statue's legs and arms moved at the same time, as it slowly dragged it's cracked stone body off of the platform.

"The statue... is alive?" I screamed, letting out a terrifying gasp.

It's once deformed head began reshaping, nexus particles hovering around it in a perfect symphony, such control of which I've never seen before, even from the most experienced generals that served under Zhang.

The particles traversed around the statue, filling into cracks and creating anew. Once the particles fizzled out, it didn't even look like the same statue.

It now had full armor plates, along with a helmet to cover up it's face now.

The sword, of which was slightly shattered, pieces broken off—clearly unusable, got a fresh coat of makeup, or not even that. It looked like a brand new sword, freshly crafted by some of the finest blacksmiths in town, no—the entire region even.

The once still statue had finally stepped off the platform.

It stared directly at me with killing intent.

The platform, of which once was raised high, began lowering into the ground at a rapid pace, and just before I knew it, it was fully submerged like it wasn't even there.

What was left is just a gaping hole into a dark void, one that falling into would surely mean death.

I didn't take my eyes off the statue, as neither did it. However, as I chose to not move a muscle, it decided to walk towards me.

"Uh... hello?"

'Did I seriously just try to talk with a statue?' I thought.

The statue wasted no time, lifting up it's heavy sword and hurling it directly at me.

"Seriously?" I yelled, just barely able to push my body back to dodge the incoming swing, the blade crashing into the wall just to the side of me, smoke enveloping the room.

Just as I thought I avoided the worst for now, the statue's fist came flying in, cracking against my jaw, a resonating sound that knocked me upwards.

The force of the blow sent me all the way to the ceiling, sticking to it like glue. Coughing up unholy amounts of blood, I slowly felt my body slipping away from the indented crater that I had formed from the impact.

"N-No, Shit!" I could barely hold on to another breath as I began falling back down to the floor.

With my distance from the statue, I thought that I could soften my landing, get back up on my feet for its preemptive strike.

However, I was far from wrong.

Just as I got close the floor, I watched as the statue slammed it's sword into the ground, causing a barrage of rocks to fling upwards, some grazing the tips of my skin as blood began to drip out.

I had managed to dodge the brunt of the flying projectiles, but that was just the beginning of that attack alone.

The statue held out one of it's hands loosely as it began emanating a nexus glow.

All that rocks that were already coming back down were now levitating, a bit of that emanating glow encapsulating each and every one of them.

With a flick of his wrist, the statue sent the rocks back up, this time they were targeted, no longer brainless array of stone as before.

As the rocks flew, they began spinning at a rapid race as the nexus energy gathered around them slowly shaved off the impurities, sharpening the rock into a powerful almost spike-like figure hurling towards me.

"If one of those hits me at my core, I'm for sure dead!" I plead with myself to no help of course.

Without a second to think of a plan, they began rushing it at me like loose drills. I twisted my body mid air, barely squeezing past the first set of spinning rocks—spikes now, I suppose. The wind from the velocity cut against my skin like razor-thin blades, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. I had become good at that these past few months.

Reaching out, I managed to grab on to the rough surface of one of these spikes, wincing in utter agony as it began to slice my palm open.

Using the momentum built, I swung myself around, just barely able to plant my foot on the stone's rough surface, using it to launch my body away from the incoming spikes, dodging a few more just by a hair.

"I just—have to—land!" I muttered in between rushed breaths.

Spotting a thin opening, I hesitated for a moment.

"Shit, I really don't have any other choice!" I finally mustered up the strength to dive down, twisting my body in response.

My legs burned, my breathing became ragged, and my heart was pounding at my chest.

Just as I thought I made it in the rush for the clearing, an ominous shadow loomed over my fall. Not even making it to the ground yet, the statue rushed into action, without any hesitation and it's sword still stuck deep into the ground, it bolted towards me.

Right as the statue finally made it over to me, my chest was met with it's back leg, crushing into my ribs with a loud and painful crack. The powerful hit mixing in harmony with the swirling energy caused me to gush even more blood just before I was getting sent back to the wall. Similarly to the ceiling, my ruined body now laid without much life against the hard, broken wall.

More blood began rushing out, just as I felt my legs try to give out on me.

"Was this really it?"

"Would I not even make it home?"