Chapter 364: Almost

Under the darkness, with the dotted lights from the countless stars, Ned had to rely on his senses to traverse the darkness surrounding the forest.

He was a day away from the center, and if he could keep up with the pace, blue uniform hunters might be able to subdue the Grade C abnormally evolved hole worm boring and rampaging behind him.

After he killed the Tailor's puppet, the fine bluish thread of Mana slowly vanished. Ned had to leave the field before the Tailor finds out that one of his puppets was already—well—dead.

After he killed the puppet, Ned pulled something off of its chest. It was a circular object, soft, but wrapped in a soft metal to which Ned assumed that it was a Core of a different kind. Ned then unwrapped the hood the puppets were wearing and curious as to what they look like. Nothing. The puppet's face has nothing but a blank face of smooth and glossy ceramics.

Ned covered back the face of the puppet and examined the Core that was still connected to the fine thread Mana. Ned was then able to track if where was the thread was being controlled. Surprisingly, the fine thread was also going to the center. With this idea, Ned assumed that the Tailor might have to do something on the second phase of the exam.

Ned got 950 points, 50 more he would be eligible to pass the first phase of the exam. For Ned, and anyone who was teleported in the southwest part of the Wrath Island, their Theatre of War was Tiathe the wood elf slave.

Now that he got the space to move, the beast was actually slow as it was before inside the barrier. Ned could freely jump from the closest tree to tree, and the Zephyr chains were used to latch if the gap was wide enough for Ned.

With his mana slowly depleting, Ned had to manage it carefully.

As if faith was true to itself, Ned arrived in a place where no trees, and high objects he could latch onto.

Ned scowled seeing a horizon of plains and grasses as far as the eye could stretch. And far in the horizon, Ned was able to observe the cap of a mountain where he assumed to be the center of the island.

A roar of the beast made the smaller, and weaker, beasts moved out of their way. Trees snapping as the beast made its way to Ned relentlessly.

It has been hours but Ned wasn't able to escape the beast's presence.

"The blood," Ned muttered under his heavy breath. He has been running for hours, and what his body needed now was another rest. But perhaps in another time.

Ned checked the blood the heads of the male warrior and mage's spilled over him. But there was no trace at all with the Silk Road continuously keeping Ned's cloth and body clean.

Remembering how the candidates died in the hands of the Tailor, Ned could do nothing but to narrow his eyes to look like daggers.

"Soon," he whispered to himself. Voice was hinted of revenge.

[Ned.]

[You need to leave now.]

ICE's voice woke up Ned. The trees under him snapped, uprooted from the ground that violates the course of nature. As it jerked left to right was also its growl. Its eyes, eight dots above its head like a glaze of a cake were now burning like charcoals. Locking at its target, it coiled like a spring then threw itself to Ned, who, by now, has finished conjuring Flame's Worth: a tier 3 ancient magic of fire element was covering half of his body. With precise control, the flame was barely touching his body. Ned tsked from the form he was in: due to the lack of Mana, he only covered half of his body. But it was more than enough to at least, defend himself from the beast.

The head of the beast twisted, under it was the lump of meat beating as its Core, it then rams itself to Ned with the razor teeth pointed forward.

Ned gritted his teeth, a brute beast of Grade D was already too much for him. But with Grade C, he knew he needed all of the strength he could muster.

In a collision of head against a sword, Ned was pushed back a good meters away, but he grinned and thanked blacksmith Barbo for giving him a worthy sword.

Yet a blade wasn't enough to defeat the beast. Ned already knew that the beast's weaknesses were the gaps between its shells or the lump of meat beating under his head. But the problem was, he doesn't have a ranged weapon that could use to shoot at either of both. If Ned was left with no other choice, then, he might as well fight the beast head-on. He could try to escape and hide, but it seemed that the beast has its own way to track Ned.

Ned flipped and landed after the head-on collision. He then conjures Flame's Breath and an orb of fire swirled before him. With a thought, he threw the orb to the beast.

Before the orb reached the beast, it cracked and turned to dust, forming a wide arc of fire as though it was a breath of a dragon.

The whole worm lost control of its vision as the spell breathes before him.

"This is it!" Ned cued himself. With mana of less than 500, he knew he needed to make it worth it. He conjured Zephyr's spell, latched it to the shells under his head, and pulled himself toward the beast.

Ned then stuck himself to the convulsing head of the beast, readied the Krisalix then hurriedly stabbed the gaps—

His hand wouldn't move. No matter how he exerts his strength to stab the beast, his hands wouldn't move an inch.

Ned was then pulled by an unknown force by the same hand he attempted to stab the beast, by his shoulders, and his legs.

The Krisalix fell off his hand with him losing control. Ned was thrown back to the ground after a failed attempt to hurt the beast. He rolled along with pebbles of stones, splintered woods, and grasses sticking to the gaps of his clothes. The vine Tiathe conjured to tie Ned's hair fell off, letting his silver hair swung freely and be smudged of dirt and mud on the ground. The horizon around him was wide and far.

Ned was barely able to perceive the beast laying waste at the edge of the forest. Without his focus, he wouldn't be able to evade the beast's attacks. But he frowned so much he was confused.

Ned raised a hand to observe his fingers, tapped his shoulders, and checked his legs.

"That force a while ago... " Ned muttered, then heard the beast roared far from his side.

With its vision free from smoke and fumes, its eyes were now burning red as it glare at Ned.

[Focus Ned.]

[I am sensing a minuscule amount of impure Mana hooked somewhere in your body.]

Ned focused but wasn't enough for him to sense the Mana that pulled him off the beast.

He then rolled. No time.

Ned was lacking time after he noticed that the beast was now rampaging toward him.

Ned hissed and scrambled with his feet to reach for the Krisalix that was thrown not far from him and came alight over the flat ground.

Before Ned was able to reach the sword, he was once again pulled by the force that was hooking his shoulders, hands, and legs. The force was somewhere at the edge of the forest, hiding.

Ned was like a puppet being controlled after he was laid to the ground, unable to move, both arms and legs stretched, only waiting for the beast to devour him.

"Shit." Ned looked the beast through its eyes. If it was his last day to live, he wanted to thoroughly look at the beast. Making sure that whoever kills him, was worthy enough.

A worm? Ned thought. Well, I'll consider it—

An arrow was then struck at the gaps between the beast's shells. It shrieked in pain as the green blood flowed off the gaps of its shells.

The magical beast missed Ned by a meter as it started to roll madly beside him.

Ned looked over to his right, to where the arrow came from. It was a candidate, wearing fitted leather clothing and hair so long Ned thought he was some sort of a princess locked above a tower.

"Claurette?" Ned muttered and showed the male archer a smile.