255 Chapter 255: Strength against Strength

With a thunderous roar, the Inferno Kong lunged at me. Despite the terrifying visage drawing closer, I stood my ground in determination and straightened my right arm, almost as if I was pointing at the approaching gorilla monster.

"Bankai!" I shouted.

Nothing happen. Whoops. Maybe this wasn't the best time to be ripping off Bleach, but I couldn't help it. I love that manga.

"Hercules!"

My most powerful Constellation weapon materialized as shiny golden armor, covering my entire body. I didn't bother with the sword this time, not that it was going to be necessary against an opponent that didn't use swords.

Instead, I faced the Iron Kong with strength against strength.

The flaming fist hurtled toward me, but I caught the Inferno Kong's punch with a hand, stopping its attack dead. The Inferno Kong's hideous face twisted in surprise, and I improved its features by punching it right there. I felt bone crack underneath my golden gauntlets, breaking the Inferno Kong's nose instantly.

"Gr…?!"

The Inferno Kong grunted in pain and surprise as it was sent flying back, blood streaming from its crumpled features and flattened nose. It tried to get up, shaking its head but obviously unable to clear the red haze from filling its vision. Before it could recover or blink away the crimson cloud, I was already in front of it and delivered another devastating punch to its chest.

Ribs snapped and punctured the Inferno Kong's lungs, and it crashed onto the ground a few meters away, its breathing ragged. It struggled to its feet, blood dripping from its mouth and nose, but it hadn't lost any of its bloodlust despite suffering such severe injuries.

"You monsters sure are tenacious, huh?" I murmured. Still, I was impressed at how I was currently overwhelming a rank B Inferno Kong. It was too bad Hercules took such a long time to summon, otherwise I would be using it more often.

Around me, Canis Major, Aquila and Black Tortoise gathered, getting ready for another rumble, but given how I was just stomping the poor Inferno Kong to the ground with my most powerful Constellation weapon, there was nothing for them to do. Even so, I kept them around because I was aware of other threats.

Watch out for other monsters and students aiming to capitalize on my vulnerability right after I defeated the Inferno Kong.

Hercules expended a lot of mana, after all. Even after I destroyed the Inferno Kong, it wasn't as if I would be able to fully recover immediately. I needed to find somewhere to rest to restore my depleted mana, much like how a runner needed to rest after completing a full-length marathon. While I clearly wasn't going to expound BS like MP and how I had exactly zero mana left because the real world didn't work like a game and relied on concrete values, it didn't alter the fact that I wasn't going to be able to fight much when I was exhausted.

For now, I focused on the enemy before me. I should finish the battle as quickly as possible with decisive action.

The Inferno Kong stood up again and began casting a powerful fire spell. The same Flare Blitz as before, where it tore through my Black Tortoise's water barrier without much difficulty. In other words, defending against such a powerful attack wasn't an option.

Fortunately, at that moment, I finished casting yet another spell. Even as the Inferno Kong charged toward me, flames engulfing its form, I stood my ground calmly and raised my left hand. A golden bow materialized in it. In my right hand, a single arrow appeared and I notched it to my freshly summoned bow.

"Trigger off," I whispered. Pulling the arrow as far back as I could even while the Inferno Kong bore down upon me, striking a hellish figure with all those flames raging around its demonic body, I continued to complete the incantation. "Nine Lives Blade Works."

Then I released the arrow just as the Inferno Kong drew within five meters away.

Five meters. That might sound like a long distance, but in reality, it was but a blink. It was so short that the Inferno Kong could clear it in a single bound, could cross it in a blink of an eye – less than a millisecond. It was dangerously near, and I was testing my luck too much.

Even so, at this distance, I could not miss. And with this arrow, I did not want to miss.

The arrow struck true, piercing the Inferno Kong's forehead and sinking all the way to the bone. Even so, it didn't have the impact that my other seemingly more powerful arrows had. The Inferno Kong was able to shrug it off and continued barreling forward, its flaming figure set on course to collide against me.

Dismissing the bow, I threw out both hands and stopped the Inferno Kong right in its tracks. The massive momentum behind its charge caused me to skid backward, the ground breaking underneath my feet and leaving two deep furrows in the ravaged soil. Even so, I continued to dig my feet in to halt the monster's charge. Flames washed over me, but I stood my ground determinedly, trusting in my armor to absorb the flames. The lion crest on my breastplate glowed, the Nemean Lion of legend providing it an invulnerable property and incredible resilience.

And then the Inferno Kong finally stopped. Its veins were bulging, it was frothing and foaming at the mouth, and it was beginning to go into convulsions. Not feeling any pity for it, I hammered it in the solar plexus and sent the poisoned Inferno Kong flying several meters away. It slammed into the ground and began to dissolve into a smoking, toxic puddle.

There was no way for the Inferno Kong to survive the hydra's poison that coated my arrow. I watched grimly at its demise, then raised my head to glare at the people hiding amongst the trees. Not that there were any of them, given how the Inferno Kong had cleared them out earlier, but I was sure that my subsequent battle with it had definitely attracted some attention. Unlike Harrison or Craig, I didn't have very sensitive senses that could detect the presences of others, especially if they wanted to conceal themselves. That was what I had Corvus for, but currently I couldn't spare the mana to summon them. Especially after expending so much mana to summon Hercules.

Any enemy who was watching didn't know that, so I put on a brave front.

"Who's next?"

Silence filled the forest. I frowned, and wondered if there really was no one else here. If that was the case, then I felt silly talking to myself. Sighing, I shook my head and decided to head in the direction where Harrison and the others had went. Like our leader had instructed, I should catch up with them. I sure as hell wasn't very enthusiastic about trying to survive in the forest on my own.

Before I left, however, I noticed something. The corpses of the ten students that the Inferno Kong slaughtered while they were watching us fight off its Fiery Ape lackeys were still lying scattered on the ground where it had discarded them. Particularly something about their corpses caught my attention. Despite the macabre sight, I swallowed back my nausea and steeled myself to approach the grisly collection of disembodied body parts.

"Oh, right. The blood tokens."

There were ten blood tokens, each corpse sporting one. Remembering that our objective was supposed to collect these blood tokens, I started picking them up and clearing the soot, flesh and dried blood off them while grimacing. No matter how much combat I experienced, I just could never get used to death.

Gulping, I placed the ten blood tokens into a bag and stored them safely. As I did so, the corpses disappeared from my sight.

"…eh?"

Oh, that was correct. I recalled the teachers in charge informing us that we would be forcibly teleported outside from this Spiritual Road the moment we lose our last blood token or something like that. Turned out it was true.

But damn. If they could kick us out of this artificial realm once we lost all our blood tokens, why couldn't they cast a precautionary spell to teleport us out of the place when we were in danger? These kids all died needlessly, for a mere training camp. It just wasn't worth it.

And this was just the first day. I shuddered to imagine what the attrition rate would be like by the end of the Spiritual Road training camp. In any event, it was best not to think about it and focus on surviving the present.

"Let's go, guys."

I dismissed Black Tortoise and Aquila, but kept Canis Major to follow me in case of any emergency. I didn't want to receive any nasty surprises, not when I was still vulnerable and extremely exhausted. Canis Major followed me loyally, sniffing the air for any sign of peculiarities or enemies. From our linked spiritual connection, I could tell that he found none so far.

Good.

Hastening my pace, I set off to find my friends.

*

"We should be safe here."

Harrison panted as he caught up with the rest. Theodore and Lily had found a cave where they and the students they had just rescued could seek shelter in and rest to recover from their wounds. The guy who got swatted and the girl who got burned were currently having their injuries treated by their comrades, who were wrapping bandages around the affected parts.

"Too bad we don't have Pearl with us," Harrison grumbled in frustration as he gently set Craig down against the cave wall. Craig muttered something, but he seemed to be delirious from semi-consciousness. The attack from the Inferno Kong had taken a lot out of him.

"Where's Richard?" Lily asked when she noticed my absence. Harrison grimaced visibly and lowered his head.

"Rearguard action. He volunteered to stay behind to delay the Inferno Kong long enough for the rest of us to escape." He grinned. "Even boasted that he would kill the Inferno Kong, though I told him not to force himself and withdraw as soon as possible if he could."

"That sounds like Richard, all right," Theodore agreed with a smile. "If there's anyone who can defeat a rank B monster by himself, it would be him."

"He did destroy three rank B monsters by himself before," Lily added. She frowned. "But you don't think he's going to nuke the forest, is he?"

"I don't know." Harrison scratched his head and turned back toward the entrance of the cave. "But he should be catching up really soon. I believe in him."

An hour passed and there was no sign of me. My friends began to get worried. Trading glances, they ventured out of the cave.

"You don't think Richard has…?"

"No way," Harrison cut Lily off before she could voice out her fears. "He won't die that easily."

"Then where is he?"

"We might want to backtrack and check out his condition. Knowing him, he might still be fighting the Inferno Kong."

Theodore's suggestion had merit, so they left Craig with their new allies and hurried toward the clearing where they last saw me. Upon reaching there, they found the smoking puddle that was the Inferno Kong and a devastated clearing, but no sign of me anywhere.

"He evidently survived. No signs of any other battles after that. Where did he go?"

"That way, apparently, but his tracks kind of vanished into the forest. Wait…" Harrison knelt down and studied the grass. "Why did he take a turn this way?"

"…oh."

"What is it?" Harrison turned to look at Theodore, who had an unpleasant expression.

"I just remembered that Richard has a terrible sense of direction and gets lost easily even with a map. He can't read maps. Well, I mean, once he has been to a place before, his fairly good memory allows him to navigate through familiar routes without any problems, but in a completely new place where he has never been before…he has no sense of direction."

"He got lost?!" Lily exclaimed, her hands flying to her mouth. "Harrison, you didn't leave any signs for him to follow?"

"Well, I was busily carrying Craig, and I assumed that Richard could follow my tracks…"

"That's the thing. Richard doesn't know how to read tracks. He sucks at pathfinding." Theodore probably didn't recall the time when I relied on Troy to track down the enemy, but it was something similar to that. He probably learned of that when I trained with him back in the camp under Instructor Feng Hai and the military.

"Damn it!" Harrison clutched at his head. "I didn't know that! I shouldn't have left him behind then!"

"What do we do now!?" Lily moaned.

"I wouldn't worry," Theodore told the both of them. "It's Richard we're talking about here. If there's anyone who can survive the Spiritual Road on his own, it will be him."

"Yeah." Harrison calmed down and straightened himself. "All we can do now is survive on our own, and I'm sure we'll meet Richard again. Definitely."