Pulled back to the castle, May jumped up from the table. She saw Ermelinda be thrown back and fall from the chair. The sensation of the eye as it observed her still lingered on the girl’s skin. Who was that person? And what was that place? May didn’t have the answer for those questions.

  She walked up to the disciple and noticed that the woman not only had died, but had become dust and bones.

  “Something destroyed her. In that vision, it vaporized her from existence.”

  And the hunter felt relieved. She didn’t know how, but she had won the fight. Now she had to wait a little, for the time to come back to normal and let her friends be free. Would they be surprised by the result of the fight? May knew they wouldn’t; they trusted her.

  Some of the servants moved again, and the girl looked at Wren and Karina; they were also able to move.

  “What the hell happened here? Where’s the disciple? I was about to say that Karina and I should take advantage of that old hag being in her chair and run to the exit…” Wren said.

  “There’s no need for it. I defeated her.”

  “You did what? When did you do that, May?” Karina asked, amazed by the scene.

  “It’s a long story, but somehow this castle froze you and everybody here, except for the disciple and me, in time. It was a long fight, but I guess for you two it was a split second.”

  “And how do we know that you are May and not the old witch in a disguise?”

  “Funny you say that, Wren, should I remember the time when you forgot your… What is it called?”

  “Okay, you can stop at that, you’re May.” And the girls laughed.

  Some of the servants got close to them, but they were scared and unsure. So May held her hands up to demonstrate peace.

  “Did-did we hear that right? You defeated her?” One of the servants, a young man, asked.

  “Yes, I did. And now you’re all free to go. You can go back up these stairs. The castles before this one are all empty.”

  Relief washed over all the servants there. They started to thank the trio before they left through the front door.

  “Now it’s our time to move on. Onto the next castle.”

  “Well, we can rest for a while. We need to recover properly.”

  “Especially you, May. I can feel that you used a lot of your magical energy. I don’t know how the fight went, because that place doesn’t seem destroyed. But I have the feeling that you had an intense fight.”

  “And you would be right, it was some sort of game.”

  May proceeded to explain the game to her friends. The divination and the visions, the stuff about the future and the past. She decided not to talk about Ermelinda's last prophecy. That one she would hope for not becoming true. And the girl didn’t want to scare her friends. When she finished talking, Wren spoke.

  “Yeah, you were the only one who could do that. I’m grateful you’re here.”

  “He’s right, May. You were tough, fighting on your own. Especially that kind of fight.”

  May couldn’t see her face in a mirror, but she was sure that it was completely red.

  “Okay, but now let’s move on. That was enough for us to recover.” The girl said and walked in the direction of the door. Karina and Wren followed her closely.

  ---

  Much like the ones before, the path to the fifth castle was mostly dark, only illuminated by the obsidian lights. But somehow, it felt longer than the previous paths. And if someone asked any of the trio, they would share the feeling of going even further down.

  “I hope I’m the one fighting in the next castle. I don’t say it’s going to be me for sure, because it can be a surprise. But I won’t lie if I say that I hope it’s me.” Karina said.

  “Well, you never know for sure. But thankfully, the last castle gave you more time to rest, K. Now you’re fully charged, I bet.”

  Karina smiled and agreed, and May felt relieved. Wren was immersed in thoughts, as he said:

  “I hope we’re able to get to that Master. I mean, at least one of us. And in condition to battle.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. But it’s crazy, how when we started it all, we didn’t even think we had a chance. And now we’re talking about getting to the master and fighting him.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “I guess you can say that fighting a couple of disciples can sure make a hunter grow.”

  In the distance, they watched as the shapes of the fifth castle appeared. And although it seemed to be very similar to the ones before, there was something different about it. The trio couldn’t tell what it was, whether it was the energy that emanated from the castle or something else. But they felt something different.

  Wren raised his head, like he was trying to feel the energy in the air.

  “The air currents are different at that castle. Don’t ask me how I know it. But they’re different, very different from everything else here.”

  “I’m not questioning you. It’s just… strange.” Karina simply said, and May got what the girl meant.

  But they kept running, after all, the only way of discovering what was different about the place was getting there. And the closer they got to the castle, the stranger the feeling got.

  “There’s something very wrong about this castle. If I could skip it altogether, I would do it in a heartbeat.” Karina said.

  “If we could skip castles, we would already be in front of that Master. I wanted to do it like those two, Bianka and Moritz, did before. But I don’t think it would work out for us.” Wren replied, lost in his own thoughts.

  “He’s kind of right, K. We can’t skip castles. It seems to be some sort of rule about this place. We must cross each and every castle in our path.”

  ---

  When they reached the castle, Wren entered first, but he stopped midway.

  “Hey, Wren, why did you stop? I want to get in too.” May protested.

  “Ah, okay. Just be… careful, I guess.”

  Inside the castle, the girl understood why their friend had stopped. The castle was mostly empty, but right in the middle of the hall, there was a sleeping dragon. It was almost as tall as the room itself, and large enough that it could cover the whole passage. It had dark red scales and horns on the top of its head. And it had a long tail with spikes on the tip. The creature had a presence, and it made the trio weak in the knees.

  In front of the dragon, on the throne, the three hunters recognized Bianka.

  “Oh, you’re finally here! I knew you would come here! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Your love for me is too strong.” The girl laughed, her hair a mess and her eyes glowing with manic intention.

  Wren looked at both of the girls, his face tinted with worry.

  “So maybe at this one, we should try to fight the three of us. I mean, come on, it’s a dragon. How strong that beast must be?”

  “I’ll fight here.” Karina stepped ahead and said. “I’ll try to create an opening. You and May should run at the first chance.”

  “Wait, why. Are you insane? I know you’re strong, K. But this is something else.”

  “Wren, if you believe I’m strong, you should trust in me.”

  Wren wanted to protest, but he saw the resolution in the girl’s eyes. He knew nothing would take the idea out of her head. Not once was she fully committed to it. But he also saw strength, and so, he would trust his friend.

  “I hope you win that fight, K,” May said, looking at her friend. Their bond was strong, and so May trusted Karina wholeheartedly.

  Bianka observed the interaction of the trio, a smile on her face. She had gotten up and was on the tip of her toes. Like she wanted to hear the conversation even better.

  “So let me get this straight. You think that one of you is enough to hold me and make the other escape? Oh, man. I hadn’t taken the three of you for the delusional type. But I guess I was wrong.”

  But Karina didn’t even let the woman take a breath. She jumped and punched the disciple with full force. Bianka deflected the punch, but the sheer power of it sent shock waves through the whole place.

  “Oh, a bold girl. But you should know better than to challenge me here. This is the temple of Asmodeus, the powerful.”

  Bianka tried to punch the girl, but the hunter also deflected the punch. And once again, shock waves echoed through the place. The dragon opened an eye to observe the fight.

  “You can go back to sleep, silly. I can kill the three of them on my own.”

  The dragon huffed and closed its eye once again, back to sleep.

  Karina and Bianka started a hand-to-hand combat. None of the girls seemed to have the upper hand, and their strength was matched evenly. At a distance, May and Wren waited for a moment to run, although the dragon scared them. But they remembered, it was a good thing they got trapped together, back in the maze, because now they had a good understanding of each other’s powers. They took advantage that Bianka was not only focused on Karina, but was waiting for them to try to run. May recited the chants, and it boosted Wren’s strength and magical power. And Wren focused all the power in a single point. He grabbed May’s hand and made the air explode behind them. The disciple didn’t even have time to react as they crossed the room at full speed in the air. They landed on the other side, and May trembled when they passed the dragon. But the creature seemed to be deep in its sleep.

  May looked back and saw Karina as she smiled while fighting the girl. It was easier fighting now that she didn’t have to worry about her friends.

  “We’ll be waiting for you at the next castle, K. Don’t you dare lose this fight.” Wren screamed, and Karina replied simply: “I won’t.”

  The girl didn’t even look back, as May trusted her friend, but she knew that if she took a look at Bianka and the dragon again, she would be tempted to go back and help her friend. So she crossed the door at the other side, with Wren by her side, ready to go down the steps into the next castle.

  ---

  “Do you want to die so much that you sent your friends to the other castle just like that?” The disciple laughed in Karina’s face. “You felt the punches, I know you did. And to think that you masked the pain and the damage it caused to you.”

  “Shut up, demon. I didn’t want to worry my friends. They need to focus on the mission.” Karina said as she coughed blood. The girl was on par with Bianka’s strength. In fact, Karina was giving her all to survive each punch. But she felt everything, and it passed through her body. The sensation could only be described as if all her bones were breaking, and mending, and breaking once again.

  “But don’t you think that I’m going to give you an easy death. You know I can calculate the power I put into each punch. So I’ll make you suffer. I’ll make you wish for death. Yeah, you will be on your knees, begging me to kill you.”

  “I would never do that!”

  Karina ran once again, and she tried to hit Bianka. But the disciple dodged the attack and tried to hit the hunter. Karina jumped back and evaded the attack for a bit. But the pressure of it was enough to make the girl lose her balance. It would be a tough battle, that was for sure.