Zarek checked the state of his body, cursing inwardly as he was escorted toward the location of the so-called new recruits and their training grounds.
He had been in the middle of using the toxins but had no choice but to dismiss his Lurker's Godsfall. After using it to pretend to pull a parasite out of him, obvious usage of his Lurker's Godsfall would no longer be possible, but now he was driven into an even further corner.
Because he had to dismiss it in such a hurry, he ended up wasting so much of the Elixir.
The good news? It was still soaking in the bathtub.
The bad news? It was mixed in with a whole bunch of the toxins he had left.
Still, because the Elixir was so good against poisons, it had sublimated away from the rest of the toxins in the tub and was separate. Theoretically, he could skim it off the top and reuse it, as the amount he had left wasn't enough. But he would have to wait until then to see if that was possible.
As of now, he had managed to expunge about 50% of the toxins out of his body. All things considered, his body was cooperating a bit more now than it had been before, but it still wasn't optimal.
"Here we are," Belladoll said with a smile, taking Zarek's hand.
Zarek frowned and moved to pull his hand away, but Belladoll tightened her grip so much his hand was nearly crushed beneath the pressure. The combination of that and the pain nearly crippled him.
His Strength stat already seemed to be far below Belladoll's, and the toxins only further exacerbated the issue. He physically couldn't pull his hand away even if he wanted to.
'Son of a bitch.' He cursed inwardly again.
Soon, he was pulled onto a perch above a training ground. Everything here seemed to be underground as he expected, but down below, there was still the same sand and dirt grounds one might expect from an outdoor facility.
Dozens of sparring sessions were happening down below, and Zarek actually managed to find Mitch and Snooz among their number, beaten and bruised quite terribly, but forced to continue their sparring sessions nonetheless.
Maybe it was because he had been avoiding those with her size and shape all the while, but he only found Priya last.
She was down there, gasping for breath. Her cheeks were swollen with blackened wounds, her lips split and pooling with blood down her chin. An arm hung limply and she stood almost sideways to protect it from her opponent, her silvery-blue eyes focused on the enemy in front of her.
It was clear she had no martial arts training, and knowing the world she was in, it was simply impossible for her to use her Talent.
Zarek could sense her actively blocking the Godsfall from naturally pooling into her body just like he had taught her, causing her wounds to remain open as they steadily grew worse.
The dust and sand from the battlefield coated her from head to toe, darkening her complexion and dirtying her clothes. This sight alone would have been enough to fill Zarek's belly full of fire.
He knew how clean Priya liked to be. Forced to stand here, fighting with all her might against a behemoth of a man twice her size—it took every fiber of his being not to snap.
His hand flexed almost involuntarily, but Belladoll's palm might as well have been a block of steel.
"This is our training ground. Beautiful, isn't it?" Belladoll asked with a smile. She responded in kind to Zarek's squeeze, fracturing several of his bones with ease.
The pain he experienced spiked tens of times over. However, one would have never been able to tell from Zarek's expression that he was experiencing such a thing.
There was nothing worse than watching what was happening down below.
Nothing at all.
"The Head Priestess is speaking to you. Aren't you going to respond?" Sona asked with a frown.
Zarek didn't even look at her. He didn't seem to hear what she had said at all.
His expression became harder and harder to read, his eyes losing their glow, any fire that was within him so well hidden one wouldn't have guessed that he had the slightest hint of emotion at all.
He stood there in silence.
"No, no, no need to worry, Little Sona. He's just experiencing this sort of grand event for the first time. Maybe we should just distill it down for him."
Belladoll cleared her throat and her voice spread out.
"Attention. Line up!" she called out.
The others rushed over.
Priya looked over with some relief until she froze at Zarek's appearance. Her gaze shifted down to Zarek's hand in Belladoll's and she looked down quickly, biting her lip.
Zarek didn't think that he could be any more infuriated right now, but unable to even do something as simple as pulling his hand away, he found that it was difficult to even breathe.
He forced himself to.
Slow, shallow breaths, his chest moving in a rhythmic cadence that still gave away nothing of the sort.
"Instructors, who would you say your worst performers are? We will have to give them a chance to either sink or swim. Our enclave exists for the purpose of protecting our nation. Many give up their lives to be here.
"We cannot allow the rest of the group to be dragged down by their presence."
The burly man who had been fighting Priya stepped out.
"I will be honest, Head Priestess. This woman you've had me pay special attention to has not lived up to your expectations. As for the others, I would have to point out him and him."
It wasn't too much of a surprise that they picked out Mitch and Snooz afterward. None of them had formal martial arts experience, and they couldn't rely on their Talents either or else they'd be branded as Heretics and executed.
Belladoll smiled. "What do you think I should do with them, then?"
"We should throw them into the Trial of Fire, Head Priestess. If they die, then they die. If they come out reborn, then maybe they can be used. Otherwise, they are a worthless investment of time and resources."