I Received System to Become Dragonborn

Eccar moved before the monsters could reach the first group of people.

He stepped between them and the advancing horde without hesitation and lowered his stance as the creatures rushed toward him.

He could have unleashed his Earth Magic and buried the entire tunnel beneath tons of stone, but he immediately rejected the idea. The temple was already unstable from the collapse above. One careless attack could bring the ceiling down and crush the very people he was trying to protect.

If he wanted to save them, he had to fight without relying on the overwhelming power that normally made him so dangerous.

The first monster lunged at him with both claws raised. Eccar shifted to the side and let the creature pass before driving his fist into its ribs.

The impact cracked its body and sent it stumbling sideways.

Before it could recover, Eccar grabbed one of its arms and used its momentum to throw it into another creature. The two monsters collided and crashed against the stone floor.

Another monster came from behind him.

Eccar heard its claws cutting through the air and turned just in time. He caught the creature’s wrist before it could hit him and twisted hard.

The monster howled as its arm bent at an unnatural angle.

Eccar followed with a brutal knee to its stomach and then slammed his elbow into its skull. The creature collapsed immediately.

Three more monsters immediately charged him.

Eccar stepped backward instead of meeting them head-on. He allowed the first monster to come within reach before striking its throat with the edge of his hand.

The creature staggered. Eccar seized its shoulder and pulled it into the path of the second monster’s claws. The attack tore through its own ally instead.

Eccar then ducked beneath the third creature’s swinging arm and drove his shoulder into its chest.

The impact lifted the monster from the ground and sent it crashing into a stone pillar.

The people behind him watched in stunned silence. Several of them had stopped praying. Their eyes fixed on the strange man who had suddenly appeared between them and the monsters.

They did not know who he was. They did not know where he had come from or why he had chosen to stand in front of them. Yet every time a monster tried to reach them, Eccar was there.

One of the younger men slowly lowered his hands from his face.

"He’s protecting us..." he said.

An older woman clasped her hands together again. Tears gathered in her eyes as she bowed her head. "Our god heard us."

Others began praying more fervently. Some of them whispered words of gratitude while others simply stared at Eccar as though they had witnessed a miracle.

But not everyone shared their certainty. A few of them remained tense and suspicious. They watched Eccar carefully and kept their distance from him even as he fought.

To them, he was still a stranger, with motives they could not understand.

Eccar noticed none of it because his entire attention remained on the monsters right now.

The horde continued pouring into the temple passage. Eccar met them one after another. He ducked beneath snapping jaws and struck upward into a monster’s chin.

He caught another monster by the neck and drove it into the ground.

When two monsters attacked from opposite sides, he jumped between them and kicked one into the other before spinning around and smashing his fist into the exposed skull of the remaining creature.

He relied on his physical strength and combat instincts rather than destructive Magic, carefully choosing every movement so that his attacks damaged the monsters without destabilizing the structure around them.

The battle spread through the chamber.

Claws scraped across stone. Bodies slammed into the floor. The monsters shrieked and snarled as Eccar moved through them with relentless precision. Blood and black fluid splattered across the ground, claws and pieces of decayed flesh scattered around his feet.

Even when several creatures surrounded him at once, he didn’t panic. He kept moving and never allowed himself to become trapped between them.

One monster managed to slip past him and rushed toward the people.

The people screamed and stumbled backward.

Eccar turned immediately.

He crossed the distance in a few powerful strides and caught the creature just before it reached them.

His hand closed around its throat, lifted it from the ground with one arm, and held it there as it clawed desperately at his wrist.

Eccar’s expression hardened. Then he threw it across the chamber.

The creature struck the stone wall, it cracked the surface before collapsing motionless.

The people fell silent again.

Eccar turned back toward the remaining monsters.

There were much fewer remaining now.

The creatures that had once filled the tunnel had been reduced to a scattered group of wounded beasts. Some of them limped or dragged their broken limbs behind them.

Their bloodlust had not disappeared, but their movements had become frantic. They had finally realized that the man standing before them was not an easy target.

Eccar advanced. The next monster attacked with a desperate roar.

He stepped inside its reach and drove his fist into its chest.

The creature folded around the impact and fell. Another monster tried to strike him from the side, but Eccar caught its arm and twisted until the bones snapped before finishing it with a single blow to the head.

The last few monsters hesitated, seemed uncertain. Eccar did not give them time to recover. He charged.

The final clash lasted only for a few seconds. Eccar broke through the remaining creatures one after another until the last monster stumbled backward with a deep wound across its torso.

It tried to raise its claws again, but Eccar stepped forward and struck it once, and the creature died.

Silence descended over the temple.

Eccar stood among the bodies and slowly lowered his fists. His breathing was steady even from the prolonged battle. Around him, the monsters lay dead. Not one remained alive.

Behind him, the people stared at him, nobody said anything.

Then someone began to cry, or dropped to their knees and bowed their head toward the floor.

"Our god protected us..."

The words spread quietly through the group. The people started to pray or whispered their thanks. A few continued staring at Eccar with uncertainty, unable to decide if they had just witnessed the arrival of a divine protector or just a powerful stranger who happened to save them.

Eccar turned toward them with a serious expression.

He had defeated the monsters, but he still had no idea what this place was or why the Trial had placed these people in front of him.

More importantly, he still did not know whether killing the monsters had been the answer the Trial wanted from him.

He looked across the ruined temple and then toward the people who had survived.

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