BAM!

  Another loud explosion went off in the distance. Ian climbed his tree to get a better look. Far in the distance, different elemental blasts were flying around. A huge fight was occurring towards the southwest. Ian wasn’t a hundred percent sure who was fighting, but he had a good idea.

  Ian gathered all of his belongings alongside the lynx’s hide and head. He used a vine to secure the head to his waist and wore the hide like a cloak. With everything safely secured, Ian started running towards the fighting.

  After a few minutes, Ian arrived at where the sounds of combat were coming from. While hiding within some bushes, Ian saw a group of eight students fight a tortoise the size of a small car.

  Two students were fighting close to it, using weapons they brought. One had a spear, while the other had an axe. However, their attacks barely left scratches on its shell.

  The other students were shooting blasts of different elements at it. Fire, ice, lightning, and stones were constantly hitting the tortoise.

  As for the tortoise itself, it looked injured but not severely. It swung its tail around to smack the students away. It would also hide in its shell when multiple attacks tried to land at once.

  This tortoise’s shell was extremely tough. Most attacks just bounce off. However, it couldn’t land a proper hit or dodge. It had to resort to defending and throwing rocks. It would also stomp its feet to create small quakes and sprout stones from the ground.

  “Keep on attacking. Kyle and I will continue distracting it,” the man holding the spear said.

  “We can do this. It's badly damaged, just a little bit more,” said a girl shooting ice from her hands.

  “If we defeat this tortoise, we can secure the top score in the class. 140 points. No one can beat that,” said a guy throwing stones at the tortoise.

  The guy attacking with the spear kept swinging it around, slashing at the tortoise's shell and legs. Eventually, he ended up cutting one of the tortoise’s eyes.

  It screamed out in pain, a low guttural roar. All the students covered their ears. Even Ian did so.

  In the next moment, the tortoise stood up on its hind legs, lifting its heavy body. Then, it slammed down on the ground, creating an earthquake that knocked all the students off balance. As the ground continued to shake, large stone spikes popped out of the ground in a wave.

  The two students in the front weren’t able to react. They were hit by multiple spikes, teleporting them out instantly. As for the other students, they tried to run from the approaching wave, but all of them, except one, were teleported out. The last student was a girl who was stabbed in the leg by one of the spikes, but wasn’t severely injured.

  The tortoise turned to look at her. Anger filled its one good eye. Slowly, it approached her, each step shaking the ground. When it was right in front of her, the tortoise crushed her damaged leg.

  She cried in pain, yelling for help. Fear covered her face as she watched the tortoise open its mouth.

  In the second, a dagger stabbed into its already damaged eye. The tortoise stumbled back in pain once again. While it stomped around in pain, a figure landed on its back, driving another dagger into its shell.

  Upon closer look, the girl saw it was Ian who landed on the tortoise. He was holding onto the handle of the dagger as the tortoise spun around, trying to get him off.

  The tortoise slammed into a tree, trying its hardest to get rid of Ian. No matter what it did, Ian held on tightly to its back.

  After a few minutes, the tortoise started to slow down. A mix of pain and exhaustion filled its body.

  Seeing a moment of opportunity, Ian jumped down its back to grab onto its neck. He dug his feet into the ground, holding the tortoise in place long enough to remove his other dagger from its eye. He then drove the blade into its neck before pulling it down to cut it open.

  Blood gushed down as Ian cut the tortoise’s throat open. With one final swift move, Ian spun around, slicing through its neck fully, lobbing its head off.

  The severed head flew in the air before landing in front of the girl. A mix of pain, fear, and awe filled her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she had witnessed. The tortoise that she and her group failed to defeat was easily killed by Ian. She wasn’t sure if it was the pain and blood loss, but she thought she was dreaming. The girl opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, her bracelet began to glow, teleporting her out.

  Ian saw the girl get teleported out, feeling slightly bad for not stepping in sooner. However, this was a test. It was survival of the fittest in the forest. If someone got teleported out, that meant they weren’t fit to survive in such an environment.

  Turning back to the body of the tortoise, Ian removed the red band from its leg, placing it in his pocket. For as much as he would like to keep and eat the tortoise, he didn’t have enough time. The test would end within a few hours.

  He pulled a piece of jerky out to eat. The moment he swallowed his bite, he felt himself gain another point. Though it was only one, even the smallest boost would help him

  Without wasting any time, Ian began to make his way towards the southeast territory. His final target was waiting for him there.

  While walking to the southeastern territory, Ian realized the forest had gone quiet. But it was different from when a predator was near. There were no more sounds of fighting, no more cries of pain and battle. If he had to guess, most of the students had been teleported out. The chances of encountering someone else seemed slim.

  Once Ian entered the southeastern territory, the air seemed to shift. It was like the wind itself was telling him to leave. Regardless of how things felt, Ian pushed forward. There was only one of two outcomes for him: either he kills the purple monkey and claims the last red band, or he gets teleported out.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The further Ian walked in this area, the thicker the vegetation got. The forest was becoming too dense for him to see anything. He had to resort to using his daggers to cut a path.

  For nearly an hour, Ian didn’t encounter anything. There were no signs of anyone or anything. He wasn’t sure if another team had already killed the purple monkey or if he was just unlucky.

  For the past three days of the exam, there was constant fighting within all the territories except the southeastern one. There was some fighting, but it was barely anything.

  Ian was starting to have a bad feeling. He could tell something was watching him.

  He listened carefully, separating the sound of leaves rustling from the wind blowing. Every little sound was, Ian paid attention to.

  However, the moment he heard something out of the ordinary, it was too late. He felt something speed by, scratching his arm. He looked down to see four claw marks on his bicep.

  He quickly started to look around for what had attacked him, but the thick vegetation made it impossible. As he looked around, more claw marks appeared on his body. The claw marks weren’t deep, but they still drew blood.

  Ian tried his best to see what was attacking him, but all he saw was a purple blur. Each way he turned, only leaves and bushes moving remained.

  After getting attacked multiple times, he had had enough. Using his daggers, Ian began to cut down the vegetation. Within a couple of minutes, Ian created a small clearing. Even so, the purple haze kept attacking him, leaving claw marks all across his body. Whatever was attacking him was too fast for him to keep up with.

  He had to resort to an unconventional method. He closed his eyes, focusing his hearing. While still being attacked, Ian listened carefully to his surroundings. He made a mental note of every little sound.

  Eventually, Ian was able to identify one sound from all the others. Before being attacked, there was always a soft scratching sound. He listened closely, trying to time the scratching sound.

  After a bit, Ian reached out his hand, catching something midair. He opened his eyes to see what it was, only to smile soon after.

  In his hand, he was holding a small purple monkey the size of a lemur. It was trying to claw at Ian’s gauntlets as he held it by the neck. However, its small claws didn’t even leave a scratch on them.

  Ian looked annoyed, seeing what had attacked him. He looked carefully and saw that the small purple monkey had a red band on its arm. Seeing the red band, Ian smiled. He found his target.

  Without hesitating, Ian slammed the purple monkey against a tree. He then grabbed it by its tail before whipping it around, slamming it against other surfaces.

  Ian continued this for a few seconds until he felt something was wrong. While swinging the monkey towards a tree, Ian felt himself leaning forward. His hand let go of the monkey’s tail as he fell down on all fours. Suddenly, it felt like his surroundings were spinning.

  Ian’s vision was slowly getting blurry. He tried to stand up, but kept falling. Soon, his stomach started to hurt. In the next moment, he began to vomit.

  “What the-, what’s happening to me?” Ian’s mind was becoming foggy as he tried to process everything.

  As his senses became more jumbled, Ian heard a small laugh. He turned his head to see the purple monkey laughing to itself. The monkey was badly injured, holding its chest. A sinister smile was plastered on its face.

  Finally, Ian realized what was happening to him. “Poison,” the word came to mind quickly.

  “So this is why it was considered the most dangerous of the four. Dammit! I need to…run…fight…I can’t think straight. Everything is becoming a fog. Stand, I must stand.” Ian once again tried to get up, but stumbled down.

  His balance was being affected the most by the poison. Soon after, Ian vomited again. This time, however, he threw up blood.

  “Dammit. This poison is meant to deal with silver ranks. I can’t handle it. Any longer and I’m going to get teleported out. I have to test it.”

  Ian lay flat on the ground, regaining some control. He then started to remove his gauntlets; the task became more difficult than it should’ve. The mind fog made it challenging to do anything. Eventually, he managed to unstrap his gauntlets, throwing them off to the side.

  Without having to think about it, Ian unleashed his full power. His power increased to its max, sending his body into overdrive. The effects of the poison started diminishing. However, it was soon replaced by a searing pain across his body.

  Ian was able to stand up now, even though he still felt dizzy. In this state, he wouldn’t last long. Quickly, he turned to the monkey. In the blink of an eye, Ian moved in front of the monkey, nearly losing balance from the power.

  It looked like he was going to fall forward, but in reality, he was angling himself to throw a powerful kick. For him, everything was moving slowly. His leg appeared to be swinging down in slow motion.

  He watched as his foot made contact with the monkey’s chest, caving it in, but it didn’t stop there. His foot kept moving forward through its chest. The force of the impact made the body of the monkey implode for a moment before ripping into pieces.

  Even as the monkey’s body was torn apart, Ian’s kick did not stop. It continued its trajectory into the base of the tree behind the monkey. His foot went straight into the tree, splintering it before ultimately breaking it in half.

  However, the force of the kick didn’t stop there. The immense power from the kick pushed the tree back, knocking down a few more behind it.

  From the moment Ian activated his full power to the moment the tree came to a complete stop, it all happened within a few seconds. Sadly, it wasn’t over.

  Ian collapsed on the ground, feeling his body go into overdrive. This time, though, he wasn’t going to resist it. He needed to rid himself of the poison inside his body, so he allowed his energy to run rampant.

  His muscles were aching, feeling like he was on fire. His veins bulge across his body as his blood flows quickly. But in this situation, his liver was under the most stress, filtering his blood and dealing with the toxins within.

  With the little control Ian had over his body, he focused his body and energy to deal with the poison. Slowly, he felt the effects of the poison leaving. The toxins were meant to kill silver ranks, but his body and power were currently at gold rank, allowing him to neutralize it.

  Within a few seconds, Ian was cured, but his power was still rampaging inside of him. Ian focused himself, crawling towards his gauntlets. Quickly, he put them on before passing out from the pain. Once on, he lay on the ground, feeling sore. His energy swiftly returned to normal.

  Even so, he was exhausted. He had gone through a lot these past few days, fighting so much and sustaining a multitude of injuries. And yet, it wasn’t enough to teleport him out. If he had to guess, a student would only get teleported out if they took lethal damage.

  Ian lay on the ground for an hour just staring at the sky. The afternoon sun was slowly moving down. Soon, the test would be over. All Ian had to do was wait.

  After almost three hours had passed since his last fight, Ian decided to finally get up. The forest was quiet. It was almost like no one was left. Maybe only a few students and creatures remained. But that didn’t matter. Now, all that mattered was getting ready to leave.

  Ian collected his belongings, making sure to collect the last red band. Due to him completely annihilating the purple monkey, the red band was sent flying. Thankfully, it would only take him a few minutes.

  Ian checked himself, going over everything that had happened over the duration of the test. His clothes were dirty and torn, he had cuts and bruises all over himself, and his gauntlets were down to their last crystal. He was running on reserves.

  Once he gathered everything, Ian began to make the longer journey to the exit. The walk was long and uneventful.

  He was almost at the exit when suddenly, his bracelet began to glow. He was being teleported. Ian panicked, thinking to himself, “What? But I haven’t taken substantial damage.”

  With a sudden flash, Ian found himself back at the training grounds.