All Chapters of THE CULLING TRIAL: Chapter 81
- Chapter 90
94 chapters
CHAPTER 81 — CARNAGE
Not even a day out, and we're under attack. Around me, everyone scrambled into gear. Straps snapped. Weapons clicked into place. "Come on, Kae. Hurry up." Vira's hand found my shoulder. "They are planning to open the door. We don't want to get caught in it." My fingers fumbled with the buckles, I won't want to get caught in that again. My first encounter in the Ironwyrm flashed through my mind. I remembered how it all went down there. I would have been dead meat if Pierce hadn't pulled me through. Now that won't be the case. A champion by the name Lyra moved to the driver's section as I yanked my chest plate tight. "Any movement?" Raven shook his head. "Not yet, but we need to get the hell out of here before it comes back." Static crackled over the radio. "I repeat!" The voice pitched high with terror. "All units, we are under attack—!" A roar cut through both from the radio and outside. "We need to start moving!" Raven grabbed the door handle and wrenched it,
CHAPTER 82 — A TOUGHER FIGHT
The creature kept roaring as it staggered, the wounded leg buckling slightly. "Again!" Roland commanded. "Keep hitting it!" But the Ravager was learning. It shifted its stance, protecting the wounded joint, moving in ways that made targeting the same spot twice nearly impossible. Its remaining clones formed a protective barrier around it. "The clones are making it difficult for us to get to it," Drake frowned. "We need more than what we have if we want to destroy it." "I'll lure them away," a female champion said. "I'll need one more for that." "I'll go with you," Vira volunteered, which forced me to swing my head in her direction. Why did she come back? "What are you doing here?" I asked. "If you're worried about the others, they've gone. They said they need to keep moving." Then Jabari appeared by her side, equally determined. Not him too. "We are a team, remember?" he smirked at me, which made me scoff. "Suit yourselves." "We haven't got all day," the female champion h
CHAPTER 83 — IN THE BLIGHT
Uncertainty hasn't been more clearer for us. We all glanced at each other, wondering what the hell are we going to do? "We can't even go because of distance." Roland complained. Maybe if I can salvage something from the wreckage, I might be able to pull out a solution." Drake insisted, but I totally damaged it more with my plan. "Its no use, it won't shield us from ambush." Then everyone went silent again. When we have completely accepted our reality that we were all going to die, stranded here, we heard the radio crackle. Another voice came through the radio. "If you can hear me, meet us at Rendezvous Point. Coordinates being transmitted now. You have twelve hours. After that, we're gone." The coordinates appeared on Raven's system interface. Fifteen kilometers northeast. We counted survivors; No fewer than twelve of us remained. Raven instructed: "Scavenge the damaged transports and casualties for any important item. Take only what we can carry. Food, water, weapons, pow
CHAPTER 84 — THE MUTANT CHASE.
We scattered as terror tried to paralyze us Roland laid down suppressing fire. Drake and Lyra hurled grenades, creating walls of flame. My legs decided to buckle at the wrongest time, luckily, Jabari was near and hauled me forward. The mutants were everywhere from ground up. My Radar Sweep useless due to this venom so I had to rely on Jabari's reflexes and let him pull me through this situation. Unfortunately for me, that didn't stop my oxygen from depreciating faster as it went from twenty percent to fifteen in less than thirty minutes because I'm struggling to breath to relief myself from the burning in my lung. Guess the Venom and exertion draining reserves catastrophically. Couldn't spare breath to warn them. Vira yelled. "My oxygen is critical!" "Mine's not much better," Drake shot back. "There!" Roland pointed. "There's an opening.” We all began with Jabari finding it difficult to carry me along while trying to fight them off. Vira grabbed my other side and took me a
CHAPTER 85 — BURROWED DEEP
The tunnel pulsed with movement as hundreds of them were approaching us. "Get ready," Raven declared as he turned to face Drake and Jabari, who were the last two in the queue. "The two of you should prepare to fight. The rest shield us from behind." He turned to me. "We could use that talent of yours again, Renshaw." "Are you sure about this?" Drake muttered. "I don't know how we will be able to defend the team in this tight situation." "We defend, hoping Renshaw figures out a way." "And if he doesn't?" "We will have no other choice than to push through." Drake threw me a glare. "You better not fumble this again. It's because of you we are in this situation." I pressed my lips together, a mixture of anger and guilt battling inside me. "That's enough," Raven raged. "If you don't stop this childish play this instant, I'm going to use you as a meat shield. Got it?" Raven glared at Drake, who 'tsked' and looked away. "They're here!" Vira's voice cut through the chaos.
CHAPTER 86 — THE DESCENT
We were all now battling the swarms since we were in a much bigger space now, wondering how we would defeat these ones that kept coming while we awaited our doom on the other side. I spoke too soon as the tremor grew bigger until there was a sudden crash, flinging us farther due to the impact. We looked up to see the parent. The grim reaper. It roared, and the smaller ones came to a halt like someone flipped a switch, then they all turned and ran straight into its mouth. It began to swell in size, making it look impossible for us to attack it. "Can we kill it?" Drake's weapon was already trained on vulnerable points. "There's a way." I looked at Raven, waiting for permission. He took a minute, then nodded. "It better be good." He turned to the others. "Stall it while he works." I hoped this wouldn't get us all killed if I calculated wrong. "Lyra, do you still have power cells?" "A few. Why?" "Rig them to overload. Jabari, help her. Target the ceiling. Create a cascade failur
CHAPTER 87 — BENEATH THE GROUND
The descent into darkness was violent and disorienting. I couldn't tell which way was up. My body tumbled through space, bouncing off tunnel walls that seemed to close in from every direction. The creature's talon still gripped my leg with crushing force, dragging me deeper into earth that should have been solid but gave way like water. My helmet slammed against something hard and the faceplate spider-webbed with cracks, alarms shrieking warnings. I tried to activate Radar Sweep but the system wouldn't respond, overwhelmed by the chaos or damaged by the impacts. I see nothing but darkness and pain and the occasional glimpse of the creature's scaled body as it keeps pulling me through passages too narrow for something its size. We were descending at impossible speeds. The tunnel walls blurred past, and I realized with growing horror that I was going straight to the creature's lair with an impossible idea on how I'll get out of it. My suit had an emergency release mechanism f
CHAPTER 88 — PARALYZED
I stared at her, entertaining many questions that kept racing in my mind. How did she even get in here? Who is she? Is she a mutant? Before I could piece it together all my thoughts to actually talk to her, she swatted my hand off her and slammed me hard. My body hit whatever I was on hard and decided to pin me down. My shoulder blades pressed against the cold surface, sending jolts of pain through my arms. "Hey! That's enough!" I gasped, trying to twist free. "Stop! You're going to break my arm." She said nothing, neither did she loosen her grip. She just stayed there, silent and unmovable, like a statue pressing the life out of me. "Please!" The word tore from my throat in a cry that echoed off the walls. And that's when she finally released me. I sucked in air as I still couldn't move my body. Using my other hand to massage the pain swelling in that arm. “Who are you?” I asked but got no response from her. “Where are you taking me to?” still she didn't answer the questio
CHAPTER 89 — A NEW WORLD
Something soft cradled my body. It was too soft, too cozy and too comfortable. Was back in the sphere? Maybe finally in my new apartment I haven't gotten the privilege to visit since I passed the trial. Wait! Am I home? My eyes snapped open and I launched myself off the surface, stumbling as my feet hit solid ground. Pain shot up from my injured leg, but it held my weight. I spun around, staring at the strange cushioned thing I'd been lying on. This is definitely not home to me. "Easy there, you're going to ruin the work I'd just finished." The female voice came from my left. I whipped around to see her standing at the other side of the room. She had bronze skin with black hair that was packed up in an uneven way as loose strands were seen around, almost similar to Sorayah's style but with no braids. That's when I really noticed what she had on. Rough fabric, almost like rags, held together by rope from head to toe. The material looked weathered, patched in
CHAPTER 90 — THE UNDERGROUND CHASE
The guards yanked me to my feet, their grips like iron vices around my arms. My injured leg buckled, sending a fresh wave of pain shooting up my thigh. "Wait……I didn't know—" I started, but one of them shoved me forward, cutting off my words. "Save it for the Council," the taller guard growled. The crowd parted like water, faces turning away as we passed. No one would meet my eyes. The woman whose bag I'd recovered had already disappeared into the maze of bodies. My heart hammered against my ribs. I scanned the crowd desperately, searching for the girl, but she'd vanished too. Of course she had. She'd warned me. She'd told me exactly what not to do, and I'd done it anyway. The guards hauled me down a narrow alley between two crumbling structures. The walls pressed in from both sides, close enough that I could touch them if I stretched out my arms. Ahead, I glimpsed what looked like a checkpoint with more guards, a makeshift barrier and some kind of processing station. This w