Shane didn't know what the man was thinking. He could only grit his teeth and stare at the scene in front of him with a hint of hatred flaming in his eyes.
Tess opened her mouth, "How are we going to fight these things?"
"Didn't we manage to survive that trial? This is nothing!"
"But we had a place we could go, but here…." Tess frowned as she asked, "Bro, do you have any ideas?"
Shane frowned. He said nothing after that. According to the rules, he just had to survive no matter what. If only he could access his powers….
Let's try again.
He closed his eyes and focused on the feelings that he had back then. At that time, all of his senses concentrated only on that emotion and the feeling that he wanted to have something awakened to protect himself. He had directed all his feelings of desperation toward the thought that he wanted to protect his sister.
Maybe he could use the same method in a desperate situation to save them both, but did it have to be a near-death experience to use his dark cosmic energy powers?
Shane groaned internally as he kept thinking, but no matter what, he didn't find any feasible solutions. Slowly, the timer went off. At this time, a familiar female robotic voice echoed in the background:
[System 28369's live stream is on.]
[11878563 viewers are online]
[You have been given 10,000 crana]
[You have been given 200,000 crana]
"Mute all," said the bald man as he smiled out into the air, "Now then, the session has started. I'm going to show y'all an exciting event. Bring out your popcorn. These two here are going to survive in the world without magic."
He read through some comments and muttered to the camera, "No, this is yet again another made-up show. Nothing's serious. Everything is under supervision, and whatever you'll see is made through my robot like before. It's all holographic. So enjoy it. No one's getting killed here."
Shane glared at the man above as he saw a Goblin finally stepping forward. Here he was facing a life and death situation, and this damned bald instructor was having fun and earning money! What a creepy dude!
Soon, he didn't get enough time to even think about anything. One after another, the Goblins thrashed their huge weapons towards the duo. Of course, the knives was smaller as compared to a spear, but for Shane and Tess, it was bigger than the two of them combined!
Shane pulled the girl behind him as he dodged the attack at the same time. The moment he moved, the Goblin's spear hit the ground with a thud. The floor trembled from the impact as there seemed to be a crack at the place where it hit.
He instantly rushed away from Tess after making sure she hid behind the bushes. He was a little worried if these things could smell humans—er systems, or whatever they were, but his worries were useless. Once he ran toward the Goblins, directly entering the group by running between a monster's legs, he could see that everything else had ignored Tess's presence totally, now running after him.
His shoulders relaxed as he continued to run and dodged attacks. It was good that his sporting skills were top-notch, or else he wouldn't be this agile.
Even after reaching his highest speed, it wasn't always possible to keep avoiding the brutal attacks. One of the attacks hit his back, throwing Shane off guard. He became imbalanced as blood crawled up his throat and puked out of his mouth. His entire body, especially the place on his back where that spear hit him, was covered with spike injuries.
Blood spurted out of the wound constantly as he felt dizzy after a few minutes. He looked back at Tess's hiding place and gritted his teeth.
He couldn't stop here. Not when his sister was in danger! If he happened to die here, these things might end up heading toward the girl in an instant!
No, he would have to keep himself alive no matter what!
But how?!
He couldn't think of anything. At this time, he felt that almost all the Goblins got closer to him. If it weren't for his running ability, he would have died already under the feet of these monsters.
As he continued, sweat drops started piling up on his forehead, making him curse under his breath. His body was also on the verge of giving up. With no healing and medication, his body lost too much blood from that one single attack just now.
He didn't know how long he could continue to manage to do this until the end.
He turned to glance back at the monsters as he noticed they were coming closer.
Closer.
Even closer than before.
There was only a foot's distance between the two of them.
At this point, Shane couldn't continue running anymore. His body had become too tired to move. He found it hilarious, though. His body that couldn't be injured after jumping from the first floor ended up bleeding because of a Goblin's attack. Perhaps these beings were more powerful than he imagined.
If they had hit him in his human body, perhaps they might have just crushed his body in an instant with their strength.
And these things weren't even using magic! It was pure raw strength of muscles!
Shane's body swayed at this time as he struggled to focus. The more he ran, the more his body weakened.
No.
He couldn't sleep.
He would not let his sister be alone anymore.
No!!!!
In the end, he couldn't continue walking forward anymore. His body gave up soon as he fell flat on the ground with a thud. His cheek was against the grass as he opened his half-closed eyes to glance at the scene one last time.
Just then, he saw someone's figure standing in front of him. That person gave him a familiar feeling for some reason, but he couldn't tell who it was!
He could make out that the figure of that person was that of a human, but since his eyelids were heavy, he couldn't see the appearance. All he could see was someone covered in a black hood, raising their hands toward the Goblins. A bright light shone from those hands as a sword appeared that aimed at the monsters heading toward Shane.
The latter felt a warm current of energy flooding his veins at the same time that calmed the throbbing pain on his back.
So comfortable.
Shane closed his eyes and fell unconscious.