Trials

"Now how about we talk about your hunting jobs moving forward." said the beast in a very deep and intimidating tone.

"Hunting?"

'I had just heard that correctly right? He said hunting right?' Jason thought while staring blankly at the devil like being.

"Umm excuse me but who are you?" a voice said coming from Jason's left.

Jason looked to his left and saw a scrawny looking 12 year old boy lying next to him. He had brown hair, green eyes and couldn't even reach his chest while standing on his tippy toes.

"You may call me Gore!" the beast said while raising both of his fists in the air as if he had just won a great prize.

"What about you mister? Where are we? Who are you? Where's my mom?" the boys eyes began to fill up with tears.

Jason could see that this Gore fellow wasn't someone that coddled. He moved toward the kid trying to reassure him that everything was going to be alright but as he was starting to move a loud roar blasted through the air.

"ROAR!!" a massive 10 foot tall flaming lion jumped out to Gore's side.

"Ah Vermir! How'd today's hunt go?" Gore turned to face this new flaming creature that just appeared.

"I was able to eliminate 7 mid tiers and the rogue humans that were worshipping them!" the lion said with a wide grin stretched across its face.

Jason moves over to comfort the boy while taking a better look around at his surroundings. They were both in the middle of a coliseum type of build with hundreds if not thousands of empty spectator stands surrounding the arena.

Gore and Vermir seemed to be catching up while almost forgetting about the 2 new humans on the floor before them. After a few minutes Gore turned back to Jason and the boy and addressed them both.

"You two seem to be getting along." Gore scanned them both with his eyes seeing how Jason was holding the young boy in his arms trying to keep him from crying.

"Well, hold each other as much as you want, after the trials only one of you will be left standing. Now follow!" Gore screamed his order with a firm and commanding demeanor.

Gore and Vermir turned around and began to walk. Both boys stood up and followed Gore heading towards one of the exit gates of the arena. Jason had to hold the young boy's hand and practically drag him as the boy seemed to be frozen from fear.

As they passed through the gate, they walked through a dark and damp tunnel filled with chains, mud and rats. Many of the chains were strung up against the walls and were clearly designed to hold things much physically stronger than humans being almost 5 inches thick.

The 4 of them had walked for almost 15 minutes before they saw a light signaling the end of the tunnel. Upon exiting the tunnel, Jason found out that they were in the middle of what seemed like a bustling city. He would have mistaken it for any of the major cities back on earth if not for the red, fiery and hellish landscape.

The city appeared to have more than a few skyscrapers and hundreds of tall builds with glass windows and automated doors. It all seemed so familiar only there were countless beings that were spitting images of the demons straight out of legend.

Gore led the 2 boys into the lobby of the tallest building while Vermir went on his way down one of the streets. More than a dozen guards wearing red and black full plate armor each holding a full metal spear in one hand and a body sized shield in the other were spread out along the inner walls of the lobby.

"Here is where the trials shall begin" Gore said while glancing back at the 2 humans.

"Trials? I thought you said we were going to hunt something?" Jason said looking both confused and a little concerned.

"The trials are conducted by the great demon noble Storn as we have no need for pawns that have no will to fight!" Gore exclaimed.

Before they knew it, a fiery red portal opened along the surface of one of the walls of the lobby. Gore gabbed hold of both of their shoulders and pushed them through the portal. Jason felt as though his whole body was being ripped apart and being put back together before exiting the other side of the portal.

They found themselves standing in what looked like a large military training ground. There were several small buildings surrounding a large open field. Jason saw over 200 other humans standing in a group in front of a stage with 5 well dressed demons standing in formation.

Gore led them both and told them to stand with the others before joining the 5 demons on the stage.

"Good afternoon everyone, my name is lord Storn and I want to thank you for coming here today" the forward most demon spoke to the crowd with a polite tone of voice and bowed ever so slightly forward.

"We were dragged here by your goons!"

"Ya we had no choice!"

Yelling from the back of the group were 6 different people who started as soon as the demon finished his sentence. All 6 were yelling and complaining while throwing insults at those up on the stage.

" I see, I do apologize for your treatment thus far and believe me you will be treated like royalty from now on" Storn exclaimed with a smile on his face and open arms.

Not 2 seconds later a loud explosion erupted where the 6 people had been standing. The entire crowd ducked while looking horrified at the sight of 6 scorched and charred remains lying on the ground.

'Was that magic or some kind of bomb?!' Jason thought to himself.

"Do you all think you are so important that you could talk to your masters this way! Take a lesson from those imbeciles and stay silent like all good vermin should!" Storn had an almost disgusted look on his face like he could barely stand the site of all these humans.

'Of course it was all an act' Jason thought putting one of his hands on his forehead.

"Now if there are no more interruptions how about we get down to business. We only have space for 10 new servants in our ranks thus you shall have to weed each other out."

The crowd all looked around hoping that the demon didn't mean that they had to all fight to the death in a giant mosh pit.

"Those that survive this trail shall be trained into hunters, those that don't well I suppose there is no more explanation necessary. Oh and if you all are thinking that death is impossible since you are in a spirit body let me tell you that if your spirit body is killed, you will sink into an endless nothingness."

Everyone was now terrified down to the bone. Not one person could be heard even taking a breath.

"I shall give you all an hour to settle this before my soldiers begin killing you at random."

At that signal everyone in the crowd turned on each other and became like wild animals. The chaos was intensified by the weather as it began to rain as soon as the first punch was thrown.

Jason still keeping close to the young boy from earlier was just dodging and keeping out of as many fights as he could since he didn't know how long he could last once he started to fight back. He had played a few sports in his life but never took the time to learn any self defense and was definitely regretting that decision right about now.

"Don't worry just stick to me and I'll keep you safe!" Jason said looking the boy straight in the eyes.

The boy nodded and the 2 of them began to run as fast as they could to the edge of the group. If they could get away from most people then they would have less potential enemies to worry about is what Jason had thought. Jason kept pulling the boys arm while dodging kicks and punches from random directions, still trying to make his way out of the crowd.

A large 6'5" man with muscles bulging out of his muscles was tearing through opponents like there was no tomorrow. He was clearly some kind of pro weight lifter or body builder in his previous life before he died. Jason locked eyes with him while moving through the crowd to try and move away from him. Too bad for Jason, the man had decided that he was the next prey to fall at his feet.

The man charged through the crowd with a scary ferocity, knocking dozens of people over while moving straight for Jason and the boy. Jason's mind was moving so fast that he couldn't complete a single thought. Just as he was almost at the edge of the group, the man caught up to the 2 of them and with a single punch to the chest sent Jason flying 10 meters outside of the crowd.

Jason was now lying on his back, looking up at the rain clouds barely able to take a single breath. His hearing had left him, all the energy in his body was gone and he could do nothing but turn his head to look at the scene before him. Men and women of all ages, killing each other trying desperately to be the last ones standing to avoid a fate worse than death.

The boy seeing what happened to his helper and new friend tried to defend him by attacking the massive muscular man. Before Jason had even realized what was going on, he saw the man walking towards him and behind him was the boy laying in the ground.

Jason's eyes went completely red with anger, rage and despair. He might have only known him for an hour, but he was still just a kid and Jason had promised he would keep him safe. That's when Jason heard a whisper in his mind.

'Don't you want to show them their place? To give them hope before stealing it away at the last second?'

'Who's there? Who's speaking to me?' Jason couldn't make any sense of it, he was sure there was no one close enough to him to whisper like this.

'Give yourself over to your rage. Let it course through every cell of your body and give them something to despair over!'

'Yes' Jason replied.

Within a second of accepting the offer, a black aura began to envelop Jason. He was lifted up to his feet and his wounds began repairing themselves. Jason didn't know what was going on but he didn't care, all he could think about was the boy who had been killed before his eyes.

The muscular man began running towards Jason like a bulldozer and held one of his arms back ready to swing and crush him as soon as he was within range. Jason didn't care in the slightest, he began walking toward the man with nothing but a single thought in his mind...

'He dies first.'