Chapter 351: Hunter Exam: Theatre of War, VII

Ned chose the 700 points.

Blood painted the ground, the firepit crackles of fire as Minron stood next to it, overlooking the female mage where her leg was cut to half. But she was alive. And Tiathe kept her promise. But Ned wondered for how long.

Ned stepped inside the arena. Arena made of wet ground, some rocks, twigs, and sticks, surrounded by the cheers from the Kruka-toas.

Ned raised his sword hand and pointed at the female mage on the ground.

Tiathe gestured for the beasts to clear the field with the female image and cleared they did as they pulled the female mage under her arm and tossed her back in the middle cage.

The candidates in the cages were still in a daze as they look at Ned on the other side of the field. The pair of candidates in the first cage was barely moving, on the third where the pair, now with the female mage added, while the newly caught candidates were arguing with each other on the third cage. Their male-female captive sat on the corner.

Ned swung his sword that made a sharp swoosh as it cut the air before him. Ned looked up, trying to gauge the minotaur before him.

"An adult one. Long and twisted horn, glaring eyes, brown and greyish fur, this is going to be tough," Ned said while scrutinizing the beast.

"Another human?"

Now, this is interesting, Ned thought. Reflection of light from the torches put brightness in his eyes. He smirked.

"And another beast," Ned said eventually.

The minotaur's eyes widened in surprise hearing Ned. The earrings clipped on the upper part of his ears jiggles as he shook his head in disbelief. "Y-you?" The beast took a step backward, lift the double-edged ax with a hand, and swung it to Ned without a bit of a delay.

Ned gritted his teeth before the ax touches the surface of the Krisalix, Ned could feel vibration running from the sword to his hand. To compensate for the lack of strength, Ned supported the sword with his left hand pushing against the hilt.

Too much strength led Ned to be thrown and rolled away, only stopped right underneath a Kruka-toa's foot. Ned's right arm was robbed of strength as it fell without energy and hanging. He could feel a piercing sensation on his hand.

It took seconds before Ned could feel his right arm. Before he could make a stance, Minron was already on his way to Ned with the ax trailing behind him.

"How can you understand me, human?"

Ned didn't bother to answer as he flipped backward and pulled one of the Kruka-toa and jammed him between them both, gaining a split second to dash back at the wide clearance.

Minron simply tossed the beast to the side, but his strength was too much for the beast to bear, he simply flipped over and stopped unconsciously.

Minron then bent to dash while aiming his twisted horns at Ned.

Ned flicked his wrist, throwing Fireballs.

Fireballs went to clutter between his horns, but did nothing but burnt a thread of his fur.

"Kid!" The Were guy bellowed inside the cage. Holding the iron bars with his hands expanding, greyish fur growing. But the bars couldn't be bothered as it was not bending even for an inch. "Help us! And we'll help you with the beast!"

Surely you could, Ned thought and lunged to his right to avoid the beast and twisted his foot along with his body while the tip of the Krisalix cutting the skin of the beast.

Minron hissed, steam leaving the holes of his nose. Like all magical beast, when enraged gives them immense strength or boost their magic, and some, usually the Evolved ones, changes their overall look.

Minron's horns grew longer, eyes now blazing red, and the leather covering his groin could barely hold it together. His body was expanding.

Ned couldn't wait for him to finish enraging he boosted himself and appeared behind the knees of Minron and relentlessly cut them. Blood showered and Minron fell on one knee.

Tiathe smirked seeing how Ned could fare against her own slave. A slave, owning a slave, how ironic, Ned thought after he landed a good meters away from the beast, trying to leave the range of his attacks.

Ned's movement with Overclock boosting it gained a silence from the crowd of beasts. Even the candidates went silent with their mouths hanging.

The shock of the crowd gave Ned seconds the threw a glance at the first cage. Between the gaps of the Kruka-toas were the candidates inside the cage, barely moving. The first cage Ned assumed that they were also the first one to be held captive. And seeing their blooded body, their torn skins, and the circles under their eyes, Ned frowned thinking how stupid he was.

"Shit!" Ned screamed at the top of his lungs and activated Overclock without delay. Ned's afterimage was hacked by a giant ax. The beasts almost cheered thinking that Minron has hit Ned and will soon be put to death.

Tiathe stood in surprise after he saw the image of Ned evaporated from the hack of the ax.

"Find him!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

Before the Kruka-toas and Minron could make a move, five Fireballs came pouring above the encampment. The explosion threw the beasts and Minron nearly bent after three of the Fireball hit him.

But the attack didn't end there, a massive orb of fire came howling behind the trails of smokes and dust.

Tiathe gritted her teeth and conjured a massive trunk of an old tree after she stomped her foot. The trunk grew bigger every second that passed. After a couple of seconds, the massive orb of fire soon hit the trunk (now almost 20 feet taller) she conjured.

The connection of the two spells made a massive roar that went thousands of meters away. For a moment the darkness was gone and switched to bright orange and red light that was also visible to anyone that could see it at a greater distance.

Right after Ned conjured the first five Fireball he followed it up with the biggest and strongest Egneous he could conjure. Proudness filled his face after he conjured the strongest Egneous. But he knew satisfaction was soon to end as he started to open the cages one bye. Ned already knew that the cages were Array protected after seeing the Were could barely put a dent on the bars. Ned also knew that he's got seconds to find the weakest spot of the Array. And Predictive Combat Emulator came in handy finding them, along with his senses, finding and destroying them, the opening of the cages only took him a mere five seconds. All thanks to Overclock.

After all this, Ned stood in front of the cages, waiting for the Egneous to hit and make a massive impact. After the explosion of his, Egneous was Tiathe and the rest of her gang standing unscathed.

For some reason, Ned already knew this, he also knew that he wasn't capable to battle an elf—and she was a Wood elf. Ned grinned, facing her was his weakness, since the spell he can conjure was fire and wind element, against nature they might stand. But against an elf, if she was strong enough, she could simply conjure spells that would make his fire spells useless, water for example. When one knew how to conjure nature spells, like Terra magic and nature element, they must also know how to conjure water spells.

And so she did.

After the Egneous hit the massive trunk she conjured, she then followed it with an orb made of water spell. In quick movements of her hands, the orb swallowed the Egneous. The explosion before was simply the force of the Egneous even before it could entirely explode.

Now, Ned was furious about him being arrogant and stupid in the first instances of meeting her. She was a slave; she was an elf. Being both took away the reason to trust humans at all.

But there's something more and it wasn't just her. As a slave, even if she was an elf, even if hatred towards humans filled her heart. All she needed was a command. One simple word to obey humans. All she needed was a command to never hate humans. But no, what Ned was furious about was whoever ordered her, was worse than her, worse than any human Ned had met. It was her Master.

Tiathe was bound to a slave-master relationship. Whatever her master says, she would follow. No matter what were those.

Ned was so stupid enough to trust her that she would not kill the humans. But Ned was wrong in the end. The candidates in the first cage were already dead. They were already dying even before Ned arrived. And Ned was too late to see it. Too late to see because of him believing her. She never meant to give Ned the orbs in the first place, it was all a joke. A joke only Tiathe was following. It was a joke made up by her Master. And her Master was from the Hunter Association.

Now, he must pay for what he has done.

"This exam was never meant to be easy," Ned muttered. "This exam was meant to separate the real hunters from the others. If that's what you want, so be it." Ned brandished his sword, boosted himself with Overclock with his eyes raging anger.