Noah released a deep sigh. He picked the sword up, and moved his gaze towards the berserk puppy rushing at him. He gave a warm smile as he looked at him. "I'm sorry Manny. I have to do this again to you."

Manny jumped at Noah, about to bite at his neck. Noah closed his eyes, and with a pained expression on his face, he swung the sword without even looking at Manny. The steel sword slashed through Manny, separating its head and body into two.

His dissected body fell on the floor, blood gushed out and painted the surrounding red. A drop of tear trickled down from the corner of Noah's eyes.

"Hahahaha! That's my son! You have to be ruthless." Miachael laughed out loud. ecstatic at Noah's decisiveness to kill his beloved puppy. "You have passed the ritual of killing emotions perfectly. Now duel your brother and awaken your sword talent."

CLINK! CLANK! CLINK!

Noah threw the blood laden sword back towards Michael, stopping near his feet after bouncing off a few times.

"I've told you already father. I don't want to use the sword. I promised this very day when you made me kill Manny, that I'll never use the sword again in my life." Noah said firmly.

"I know this is not real. But still, I won't back down from my conviction. I will not take a sword in my hands again. I will be a protecter. I will protect my loved ones with my shield. And break my enemies with the hammer. Just like how mother protected you."

Everything stopped. Noah's father, his brothers, Manny, the training ground, everything started turning into dust and vanished away slowly, leaving darkness all around.

Just then the flame letters appeared and formed a sentence in front of him.

SECOND TRIAL CLEARED

MOVE ON TO THE NEXT FLOOR

A door appeared a few meters ahead of him, with a bright light coming from the other end. Noah looked at himself, he was back again from his eight years old form.

He released a deep sigh. A wide smile spread on his face. He had finally let of the regret of not speaking up to his father that day finally. Though he couldn't bring back Manny again, at least he got to see him once again.

"So that's what the trial was. Wasn't that too easy?" Shane looked confused as he said.

Luke and Ruby looked at him with a frown, no words were enough to make him understand. So they just gave up. Stormbreaker chuckled at Shane's words, and kept his silence.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Shane asked, confused at their reactions.

"Keep your thoughts inside Shane. That's the best thing you can do." Luke said in an annoyed tone.

"What the hell man! I was just confused."

"Alright! Stop it. Noah's going for the third trial." Ruby said, stopping the two of them.

With determination filling him, and his mind now cleared, Noah stepped forward, passing through the door towards the third trial.

Noah found himself in the floating platform in the sky, with clouds passing below him and a few birds flying in groups in the distance. While he was looking around, the flames letters then appeared.

THIRD TRIAL: TRIAL OF STRENGTH

YOU'VE PROVED YOUR GROWTH AND WILL

NOW PROVE YOUR STRENGTH AND DEFEAT THE DRAGON WARRIOR

Just then the stone platform at a distance from him turned fluidic and rose up, morphing into the dragon warrior. Everything was same just as it was during Luke's trial. But this time, the dragon warrior was holding a shield and a hammer in his hands.

The dragon warrior abruptly opened his eyes, revealing the yellow iris and the vertical slit pupils. The dragon pressure fell on Noah, making him twitch. Dark grey mana started rising from the dragon warrior's body as he moved his leg back and raised his shield and hammer up, taking his stance.

Noah channeled mana into his shield and hammer. He lifted them forward and took stance too. Both of then then vanished from the spot.

CLANG!

Their hammers struck each other's shield, producing the metallic clang. They separated from each other and then came again. There was a blur on the platform along with metaling clangs resounding in intervals. The two of them clashed multiples times in that short period.

With both of their hammers hitting hard on the shield, the two of them were pushed back. stopping after sliding a few meters on the platform.

Before Noah could hold his ground. The dragon warrior channeled mana into the shield as it got covered with the dark grey mana whole. He threw it in the air and with his hammer struck at the edge like a baseball bat hitting the ball.

The shield flew towards Noah like a bullet. In a hurry he raised his shield forward, but just then his foot slipped and he fell on one knee and the shield got inclined. The dragon warrior's shield hit right at the top of Noah's shield and flew away, creating sparks as it slid along the inclined surface of the shield.

Noah's eyes opened wide in shock, the slip came as a blessing to him, or else he would have been pushed back to the edge of the platform. Seeing the dragon warrior without a shield, he dashed forward.

Just when he was about to reach the dragon warrior, he saw the shield flying back. Noah channeled mana into his hammer and threw it back. the hammer struck the shield and deflected it to the side.

Noah rammed into the dragon warrior with his shield, while he was holding him back with his hammer thrust forward. Noah moved his other arm back and opened his palm, calling his hammer back. the hammer stopped midair and rushed back towards him.

When the hammer shaft touched Noah's palm. He grasped it tight and leaving the shield, he held it with both the arms and swung it hard at the dragon warrior's head after moving to his side.

The dragon warrior was taken aback and couldn't react in time. The hammer fell hard on his head, slamming him down on the floor. Noah immediately rushed to strike again but then froze, discarding the swing.

The dragon warrior's body started cracking up, and slowly the cracks spread all over and his body crumbled into dust, getting dispersed in the air from the wind.

THIRD TRIAL CLEARED

MOVE ON TO THE NEXT FLOOR

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