Chapter 267: Mid-term Exam [3]
The fight was over almost as soon as it began.
"Is that all you’ve got?!" Kyle yelled, his booming laugh echoing through the trees as he smoothly sidestepped a wind blade.
He completely ignored his heavy sword’s edge, instead slamming the flat of the massive blade directly against an earth-mage’s chest, sending the boy flying into the brush.
I didn’t waste time on theatrics. And slipped inside the guard of a dual-wielding scout, parried his frantic strike, and twisted my wrist to send his blades clattering into the dirt.
A quick sweep of my leg dropped him hard onto his back. I pressed the tip of my sword to his collarbone.
"Stay down," I told him calmly.
He swallowed hard and nodded. That was two members of the other party dealt with in less than thirty seconds.
From the mud puddle behind us, Adrian finally scrambled to his feet. He looked absolutely deranged.
His uniform was completely caked in thick, foul-smelling sludge, and leaves were stuck in his hair.
"My clothes!" Adrian shrieked, his voice cracking. "Do you know how much this silk costs, you absolute filth?!"
He channeled a reckless, volatile amount of lightning into his rapier and lunged at the third member of the other party.
He ruthlessly shocked the disoriented student, who collapsed into the dirt, twitching and unconscious.
That left only one.
The final caster was frantically backing away, but Emma already had him completely boxed in. Four glowing light-lances hovered just inches from his throat, tracking his every movement.
"I wouldn’t cast that if I were you," Emma warned, her voice perfectly steady.
The boy looked at the glowing lances, then at his three defeated teammates, and immediately dropped his wooden staff. He threw his hands up in the air.
"I surrender! I yield!" he yelled frantically.
"Just take the tokens!" He reached into his pocket and tossed a small, embroidered pouch onto the moss.
I walked over, picked up the pouch, and checked the contents. Two Academy tokens clinked together inside.
"Smart choice," I said smoothly, tossing the pouch into my dimensional ring. "Grab your team and get out of here."
"Get out of here?" Adrian’s voice hit a hysterical pitch. He stomped over to us, dripping mud and sparking with excess mana, his face twisted in pure rage.
"Absolutely not! They ambushed us! They ruined my uniform! You don’t just let them walk away!"
"The rules say we take the tokens," I replied coldly, crossing my arms. "He surrendered. The fight is over, Adrian."
"I give the orders here, Raith!" Adrian spat, taking a threatening step toward me. "You deliberately set me up to take that opening blast! You knew they were there! You’re nothing but a cowardly brat who uses his betters as bait!"
"Hey, watch your mouth," Kyle growled, stepping up beside me and hefting his sword.
Adrian ignored him. He turned his furious, bloodshot eyes to the surrendered student, who was still standing perfectly still with his hands raised.
"And you," Adrian hissed, raising his rapier. "I’m going to break both your legs so you remember who you messed with."
He stepped forward to strike the defenseless boy.
"Adrian, don’t—" I started, my hand dropping to my hilt.
But before I could even draw my blade, the forest was illuminated by a blinding flash of golden light.
CLANG!
Adrian didn’t even have time to blink, let alone swing his sword. A perfectly hexagonal, incredibly dense dome of hard light slammed down directly over him from above, completely caging him inside.
"What the hell is this?!" Adrian yelled, frantically slamming the hilt of his rapier against the glowing barrier. It didn’t even leave a scratch.
"Let me out! Release this immediately, you worthless commoner!"
Emma slowly walked up to the dome. The sweet, cheerful girl who had been clinging to my arm all week was entirely gone.
She glared right through the glowing barrier, her bright blue eyes icy and completely devoid of mercy.
She let out a sharp, visceral hiss.
"You know," Emma said, her voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register, "you talk way too much."
She looked him dead in the eye and closed her fist.
The dome violently shrank inward. The sudden, immense pressure slammed into Adrian’s automatic safety ward, tricking the artifact into recognizing a critical, life-threatening crush.
POP!
A bright red emergency flare shot out from Adrian’s chest badge, rocketing through the heavy canopy and bursting loudly in the sky.
The Academy’s teleportation failsafe triggered a fraction of a second later, engulfing the screaming noble in a column of white light.
When the light faded, Adrian was completely gone. Forcibly extracted from the woods, and instantly disqualified from the mid-terms.
The forest went completely, stunningly quiet.
The surrendered student stared at the empty space where Adrian had just been standing, his jaw practically hitting the dirt in sheer terror.
He slowly looked at Emma, grabbed his unconscious teammate by the collar, and began furiously dragging him into the bushes without a single word.
Emma exhaled a soft breath, the golden light completely fading from her hands.
She dusted off her palms, turned back to me and Kyle, and offered a bright, completely innocent smile.
"He was annoying," she stated simply.
Kyle’s heavy sword slipped from his grip, the tip burying itself in the dirt.
He stared at Emma, then slowly turned his head to look at me, his eyes wide with absolute shock.
I just stood there, staring at the empty patch of mud where Adrian used to be.
Then pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting the overwhelming urge to let out a long-suffering sigh.
"Remind me never to get on your bad side," Kyle muttered, pulling his sword out of the dirt. He was looking at Emma like she was a ticking bomb.
Emma just giggled, skipping a little to catch up with me and looping her arm right back around mine.
"Don’t be silly, Kyle! We’re friends."
Kyle mouthed ’She is crazy’ to me over her head.
I just ignored him, shaking my head as we pushed deeper into the Obsidian Woods.
The rest of the afternoon was basically a blur of slashing through thick underbrush and ambushing smaller squads.
Without Adrian loudly complaining about the mud every five seconds, we actually moved pretty fast.
We racked up about twelve tokens between monster drops and a couple of scared, low-tier teams who basically handed us their pouches the second Kyle flexed his sword.
By the time the sun above the woods started setting, turning the thick canopy a dark, bruised purple, we were deep into the high-tier zone.
The mana in the air was so thick it felt like breathing water.
"Man, I’m starving," Kyle complained, swatting a glowing, oversized mosquito away from his face.
"You think we can roast one of those armored boars if we find another one?"
"If you want every squad in a two-mile radius to see our smoke and jump us, sure," I said, keeping my eyes peeled on the dark tree line.
"Just eat your dry rations."
"They taste like actual sawdust, Jin—"
Before Kyle could finish complaining, the ground violently shook.
Thump!
A flock of dark birds scattered from the canopy ahead of us, screeching loudly.
Thump!
My Debugger interface instantly flashed red.
[Warning: High-Tier Entity. Class: Earth-Rending Ursa. Threat Level: Severe.]
"Get back," I ordered, immediately drawing my blade.
"That’s a territorial boss."
The heavy trees ahead of us violently splintered apart as a massive, ten-foot-tall bear crashed into the clearing.
Its fur was replaced by jagged, heavily compacted rock armor.
Its eyes burned a bright, toxic yellow, and it let out a deafening roar that actually made my chest vibrate.
Most people would slowly back away. Kyle’s eyes just lit up like it was his birthday.
"Oh, hell yes!" Kyle roared, completely ignoring my order. "That thing’s core has gotta be worth at least fifty tokens!"
"Kyle, don’t rush it!" Emma yelled, quickly raising her hands to cast a support barrier.
But Kyle was already gone. He charged straight at the massive bear, dragging his sword through the dirt to build up kinetic momentum.
"I got the big guy! Jin, go for the legs!"
The Ursa roared, rearing up on its massive hind legs. It brought both of its stone-covered paws down in a devastating, earth-shattering slam.
Kyle didn’t dodge. He planted his feet, grinned, and swung his sword upward to block it head-on.
"Wait, your—!" I shouted, realizing exactly what was about to happen.
CRASH!
Kyle successfully blocked the hit. He didn’t break a single bone, and his aura flared perfectly to absorb the actual damage.
But the sheer amount of force from the bear’s slam violently compressed the air around him.
His Academy safety badge registered the massive shockwave.
POP!
A bright red emergency flare shot right out of Kyle’s chest.
Kyle blinked, looking down at the red light starting to rapidly envelop him.
"Wait. No. I blocked it! I’m totally fine! Aw, come on, you stupid piece of junk—!"
FLASH!
Kyle completely vanished in a pillar of white teleportation light, leaving his sword clattering loudly onto the dirt.
The massive bear, suddenly lacking a target, blinked in stupid confusion. Then its glowing yellow eyes slowly turned toward me and Emma.
I stood there in the quiet forest, staring at the empty spot where Kyle had just been standing.
"Well," I sighed, tightening my grip on my sword as the giant bear growled at us.
"I guess it’s just the two of us now."
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