Chapter 96: Hurt

"What the absolute F…" Alex's eyes opened wide when he saw the Reaper with the bow and arrow, only a few meters ahead of him, aiming its arrow straight at Alex. 

Alex was confused about what to do but he quickly thought of an idea, 'Reaper's Slice attack… If I time it correctly to cut the arrow?' Alex thought. He looked at the reaper, determined. He was ready to do anything at this moment. It felt like Time moved slow, The reaper let go of the string, hurling the arrow towards Alex. Alex breathes in and used the reaper's slice. It felt like time went even slower. Alex had his eyes closed, He didn't know what was going on, his only hope was that the reaper's arrow was cut in half. 

A sudden burst of pain filled Alex's hand. Alex's attack missed but it also helped Alex. The Arrow, which was aimed at Alex's head, hit his arm. Alex grunted in pain but felt relieved. He pulled out another arrow and struck the reaper in front of him. Alex then turned his attention towards The final Long ranged reaper. It didn't run away or jump towards Alex. It just stood there. Confused, Alex looked behind him to see where the other short ranged reapers were and saw that there were right behind him. 'I forgot to pay attention to them for a moment.' Alex thought and he jumped away from him, just digging a cut from the reapers. 

Alex then jumped towards the final reaper, He didn't know why it stood there without doing anything but it didn't matter to him at this moment. He wanted to end the big problem at hand. Just before Alex was going to strike it, the reaper pulled out a dagger hidden behind it and struck towards Alex. Alex, who was in the air couldn't do anything but lean back to dodge the strike. He watched as some of his hair flew into the sky.'Bastard cut my hair.' Alex spoke and he punched the reaper. However, unlike the other physically weak long ranged reapers, this reaper didn't do down that easily. This reaper goes back up quickly and jumped at Alex, attempting another strike. "It wasn't a long ranged reaper?" Alex was confused by this reaper. His mind was on this certain reaper to the point that Alex forgot to check his back. A few daggers sliced Alex's back, causes many deep cuts. 

[Health Points low - 15 remaining.] 

Alex looked at the prompt in shock. He knew that he made a huge mistake. Alex shook his head and ran away from the huge group of reapers, 'I need to regroup.' As Alex ran away, in the main room, Midnight and the scientist watched the entire match closely. Imani smiled, "It's getting serious now. I didn't expect him to survive that reaper's arrow. But to think he tried something so crazy as trying to cut arrow mid-air. It didn't work but it did help him avoid an arrow in the eye. But now, things get more interesting… He's hurt and bleeding. No one to help him. I think he can't heal anymore as well so I want to see how he does. Of course, if things seem like they're getting dangerous, I'll stop everything." 

The scientist looked at Midnight and nodded, his anger and irritation on Alex seemed to have died down. He looked at Alex with a smiled, "Boy might be stupid but he still is doing a good job. Remember to stop the simulation when it seems like he can't do anything anymore. If he dies in the simulation, his mind will be taking a huge hit as well. It might only be like a game right now but if he returns here with brain damage, It's all your fault. The punishment will be even greater because it seems to be an S rank candidate just by looking at his abilities…" The Man looked at the screen and nodded. 

Imani shook her head, "Don't need to worry about that, I've done this plenty of times to know how it works and when to stop. This has been interesting so far so I want to let it continued. He ran away because he knew he was in danger so let's see if he does make a plan. If he doesn't, I'll just stop it and let him rest. Healing in the simulation is easy so It won't be a problem." Midnight said as she looked back to Alex who rested on the street. He was a distance away from the reapers and could take a small break without needing to run. Alex looked at his stats.

[Health- 15]

[Mana- 1- regenerating]

Alex looked confused by the text. He pressed on the small question mark and a voice came in his mind. [Once mana is completely empty, The system will help regenerate Mana for the player during battle.]

Alex smiled when he heard the system, 'That makes sense. After the battles yesterday as well, my mana had regenerated pretty quickly… But that was out of combat so it must have been faster or something like that. But now, at least I get to use some Mana. I only wish that the Mana would regenerate faster so I could heal more. It takes 3 mana to heal 5 health points so I just have to make time for it to return to 3. I'm sure that It can stop this burning feeling all over my body, especially my back." Alex said as he rubbed his back. He was in a lot of pain from the slices on his back but he held on. 

Imani looked at Alex smiled and spoke, "he seems to be planning something… I was about to pull him out but it seems like he has some form of plan… Might as well wait and watch." She continued looking at the screen, waiting for Alex's move. 

Alex stood up and ran towards the reapers. As he got a bit closer, a few arrows flew into the air. 'That reaper really does both close and long ranged combat… I'll need to take it out as soon as possible. I've lured the Short Ranged Reapers pretty far so I have some time to take on the final long ranged reaper while it's on its own. Alex said as he jumped past five short ranged reapers. In front of him, stood the remaining 4. He pulled out his dagger again and stabbed one in the head before jumping towards the long ranged reaper again. 'One more reaper down. It has his hands down so I had an easy strike to take it down in an instant. It seems like the other reapers are the same, it's just this final long ranged reaper that's being a pain.' Alex thought as he dodged more arrows being shot towards him. 

After Alex finally got close to the reaper, it pulled out its dagger once again. Alex looked at his Mana and saw that it was at two now. Alex smiled and ran back towards the 8 remaining short ranged reapers, 'I'll just run across them and if I see any that are open, I take it down.' Alex thought. He ran past the reapers once again but didn't see any open guards. He ran back, trying to do the same. At this moment, Alex was just running loops around the reapers as he waited to strike one down. 

Finally, after some time, a reaper tried to attack Alex but it missed and had a dagger lodged in its throat. Alex looked towards another reaper that was aiming to strike Alex as well but before Alex could attack it, another arrow flew right past Alex's leg. Alex took a breath of relief when he saw the arrow miss. He looked at his stats once more. 

[Health - 15]

[Mana - 3]

Alex had a huge smile on his face and jumped back. He ran away for some time. Seeing Alex run, Imani was ready to stop the simulation but the scientist stopped Alex and spoke, "wait… I might not be a good fighter but I do have this position for a reason… I can tell you one thing from that young lad's face before he ran, it was filled with confidence. Alex took a deep breath and looked at the reapers with anger. His back, his shoulders, his thigh… Everything felt like it was burning. Alex quickly applied his heal ability on his back wound and felt some relief. 'The cuts aren't bleeding anymore… It isn't fully healed but it stopped hurting. So I think I can pull more power into my attacks.' Alex felt more confident. 

He watched as his health increased to 20 and smiled. 'It's showtime.' Alex ran towards the reapers but he paid no attention to them. Alex had one target, the final long ranged reaper, that stood far away with its bow and arrow in hand and ready to fire towards Alex.