"[Great earth answer my call, coalesce into mud and rend apart all those that stand in your path, wrathful nature [Mud Storm]]" As Eha chanted the aria for the 4th circle spell [Mud storm] a massive, elaborate crest formed beneath Kiba, stretching to a diameter of roughly 10 metres.

Kiba the sole target of this spell felt a chill run down his back as the floor beneath his feet started to spin, twirl and rise around him. Within moments his vision was obscured, and he was surrounded by thick revolving walls of mud. He felt a pressure pushing him down, preventing him from escaping by air...he was trapped.

Gulp. The young tiger audibly gulped as he braced himself for the inevitable assault. He used his large wings to cover the vast majority of his body, lowered his centre of balance and used chakra to conjure a layer of ice armour. He wasn’t as skilled with chakra as his master, but he was good enough to up his defences when needed.

Crash, swish, ting, crack.

An assortment of sounds reverberated around him as the mud walls increased their speed of revolution and pulsed, reducing their radius to the point that they viciously crashed against his body, beating him with blunt concussive force and razor sharp slashes.

"Grrr." A painful groan escaped Kiba’s lips as his chakra was shredded after a couple pulses, exposing his softer flesh. His hide was cut, his feathers torn out and his bones cracked from the onslaught, the pain was difficult to endure but he couldn’t react, the moment he left his current defensive form his wounds would only become worse, so he grit his teeth, festered anger towards both Eha and himself and endured until the spell had concluded.

From the outside looking in a large tornado of mud trapped Kiba, growing in size and velocity as the mud from the [mud floor] spell was incorporated into it turning a relatively average 4th circle spell into something far more dangerous.

Eha slumped against her staff, her face ghastly and pale, dark blood dripping from every orifice and her breathing significantly laboured. She was exhausted and in immense pain. Her mana veins had burst apart, damaging her muscles, blood vessels and even internal organs, there wasn’t a single area that wasn’t on fire and screaming bloody Mary. Her vision was clouded, blurry and dark, her mind practically shattered, a dead woman walking or in this case kneeling. She could pass away at any second, but she stubbornly resisted the call of the reaper standing silently behind her, whispering in her ear and placing its cold hand around her heart. This moment was both her final and her greatest.

With the cost being everything she managed to successfully cast the 4th circle spell [Mud Storm], a feat that only the truly talented could ever achieve. Just like how there’s a clear defining gap between C-rank and B-rank the same held true between the 3rd and 4th circle. She had reached beyond her base potential and for that she couldn’t help but smile, a frightening smile given the blood covering her body but a smile, nonetheless.

The agony rippling through her body and the splitting headache assaulting her mind were inconsequential, put to one side as she desperately clinged to life, to see everything that was happening in this last, brief moment.

"Beautiful." She whispered as the destructive mud tornado pulsed faster and faster and with greater and greater force. 4th circle was far beyond what she had ever expected, so majestic and powerful. A dream she held close to her heart finally achieved in her final moments....a fitting end.

As the seconds passed her vision grew darker and darker, her thoughts fizzling away and the calling of the reaper grew ever closer.

’Please just a few more seco....’ She silently begged as her eyelids started to close completely but the answer she received was a resounding no.

Crunch!

Just before her life was about to end naturally the frost drake who had been the target of her earlier magic sauntered up behind her and brought his voracious down on her head....his revenge achieved and for it he was greatly awarded.

"Oh he reached max level good for him." Commented Frost from the private space, several screens set up around him showing multiple angles of the battle between Kiba and Eha.

"Master." A communication came through the Dungeon menu.

"I’m here."

"We’ve completed the cull line, if either of the two fleeing adventurers head this way they’ll be met with certain death."

"Good, we can’t have any survivors." If a report was ever filed about a group being attacked by a glacial winged tiger it’d be inevitable that some eyes would be drawn in his direction. To ensure such a thing never came to pass Frost ordered the officer in charge of the 9th floor’s 2nd room to establish a culling line near the entrance to the 1st room. Kiba if he was fast enough could likely still catch up to them but unfortunately it wasn’t a chance he was willing to take.

"Well Kiba you’re getting ever closer to receiving punishment, what will you do?" This little trial managed to reveal much of Kiba’s current strength, areas he needed to improve and areas where he surpassed expectation.

Back on the 9th floor shortly after the frost drake chomped down on Eha’s head the raging mud tornado started falling apart, unable keep its form now that the caster had perished. The mud dissolved, fragmented and turned back into harmless mana particles, revealing a heavily wounded Kiba. His beautiful white fur that had been covered in a deluge of viscous mud was now slashed in all directions, blood leaking from innumerable shallow and deep wounds. Bone could be seen, cracked and even broken in some parts. His majestic wings all but shredded, half bare and twisted. His wounds were extensive and debilitating, he tried to rise to his feet, to show that the powerful and proud tiger was unhurt but ultimately he failed, falling prone and moaning in pain.

The frost drake he had enlisted in this little operation moved to his side, let out a few grunts in monster language and tried to help him up but Kiba’s wounds were too great, a miracle he was even conscious.

"Haaaaa guess I have to step up after all." From within the private space Frost let out a disappointed sigh. He really wanted Kiba to pass this trial but unfortunately his arrogance and naivety led to failure. With his current state there was no chance of him running down the twin escapees, Khiran and Nanuk.

Seeing that despite the frost drake’s ardent efforts Kiba was unable to rise to his feet Frost prepared to teleport, a health potion already rising to the surface of his storage ring but at the last moment he stopped. There was a fire present in Kiba’s eyes, a fire that refused to give up. Even with his inability to move the young tiger was determined to finish his trial.

The edges of Frost’s lips turned upward, his heart moved by such persistence and a moment later he was thankful he delayed his aid.

With his body wracked with searing pain, the cuts and gashes from the mud tornado reaching his bones and the concussive force of the mud walls crashing against him resulting in no small number of cracks and fractures Kiba wriggled and squirmed, trying to rise to his usual magnificent stature. Such a pitiful state was unworthy of his ancestry. Alas his efforts fell on deaf ears, his wounds too severe so eventually he gave up his pride, his stubbornness, allowing his body to slump down, prone and vulnerable.

The frost drake by his side growled with worry, not sure how to help its superior. He and his partner were enlisted to aid Kiba in his trial, to attack and hold down the attention of the adventurers while Kiba slaughtered them one by one, but things didn’t go quite as planned.

While Kiba engaged with the mage Eha the two of them fought Nanuk and Khiran, battles that held a low level of danger over the short term given their superior endurance and thick scales, but Nanuk and Khiran had no need to defeat them.

A few minutes into Kiba’s duel Khiran reached Nanuk’s side, fighting two on two instead of one on one but not long after the two of them suddenly bolted, abandoning any will to fight. Khiran pushed through their blockade, enduring a bite to his waist and before they could even properly react the two were sprinting for the nearest exit.

Angered by this the two frost drakes obviously gave chase set on killing their cowardly opponents, but where they had ample reserves in regards to defence they sorely lacked in speed and more importantly agility. A straight charge wasn’t so bad but sharp twisting routes, zig zag patterns were far too onerous for them to handle thus within minutes they had lost sight.

Disheartened by this one continued their pursuit, aiming to keep up the pressure while the other turned back to seek Kiba’s support yet when he arrived the young tiger was trapped within the depths of an intimidating mud tornado and the mage was a half-step into the afterlife.

A quick crunch of its maw brought about their current situation. Kiba was informed of Khiran and Nanuk’s attempts to flee but was powerless to help the drakes in their pursuit at least in his current state.

"Grrrr." Kiba quietly growled ordering the frost drake to give him some space before focusing his mind on a necklace or rather a ring attached with a chain hidden beneath his fur. This was his personal storage ring that Frost had given him before they left for the Glacial mountains. Within, it held several potions as well as some of his personal equipment as it wasn’t exactly comfy to sleep with armaments attached to his wings, claws and fur.

He withdrew a mid-level health potion and without any dignity or grace chomped down on it, vial and all.