It was less a trial and more a land of horrors, and the youths looked visibly shaken.
Some had entered expecting little more than a few skeletons and cheap frights.
What stood before them was something far worse. Their masters noticed at once. A few pinched their disciples hard on the arm or shoulder and followed it with stern looks, the kind meant to drive fear out before fear could settle too deep.
Courage was not optional on the long road of cultivation.
"There is good news, however," Eldric said.
He raised a black skull in one hand. Within its hollow eyes, yin and yang symbols slowly turned.
"I can place a curse upon you," he went on. "It will keep a fatal wound from claiming you. The creatures inside may tear at you. They may even play with your bodies like toys. But when the true killing blow comes, the curse will drag you out of the secret realm and return you here, to the arena grounds," Eldric said, tapping his foot against the stone floor.
