Chapter 44 Tall Forest: Field Test (3)

Lee Seng spent ten minutes traversing the forest. Everything seemed to blend in together so well that he almost thought he was going in circles. The forest floor stayed pretty bare with the exception of a few bushes here and there. He checked the time with his watch. It was counting down how much time he had left.

2 HOURS, 38 MINUTES, 56 SECONDS

Lee Seng groaned. He didn't think the test would literally throw him into a fight and then have him wander around for awhile. Despite his lack of patience, he was glad he had time to reset his negative. He flexed his fingers around as his tail swayed side to side. Lee Seng hummed while he thought about the white wisp aura.

'How do I activate it? It started to activate during the fight with the goblins. I just became a bit more serious in the fight. It's a life or death thing... No, it couldn't be THAT simple... could it?'

A howl in the distance snapped Lee Seng out of his thoughts. He glanced around, his ears moving to discern where the howl was coming from.

"It's further away. Is it coming this way...?" Lee Seng muttered. He focused in on the sound and could hear growling. The creature seemed to be fighting something or someone. He could, slightly, hear the sound of somebody grunting. "Hmmm... Should I?" He turned and made his way towards the left where he heard the sound.

He could hear the growling and roaring was closer now. He peeked and noticed a girl was bleeding. She held her arm and watched the direwolf.

[DIREWOLF -- D-RANK -- PHYSICAL/SPEED]

The watch was correct about the direwolf. It seemed similar to the ones Lee Seng saw during the horde invasion. The direwolf seemed bloody and bruised. It was on its last legs.

"Other than that, you can do whatever you want to." Elizabeth's voice echoed. The direwolf leapt forward, slashing down at the girl. She grunted and blasted herself backwards. Twigs and dead leaves seemed to blow away from her. She floated into the sky and landed on her feet. Her breaths were heavy and she seemed like one more strike would send her back.

"Dammit, why did I have to find a direwolf? That loud noise earlier must've sent it this way!" She complained.

'Oh, so it's my fault?' Lee Seng thought. He shrugged and watched. From what Lee Seng could gather, she had wind as her power. The wind around her whipped and danced. It quickly extended and shot at the direwolf, landing shortly before the direwolf. She began to send forth wind strikes and the direwolf jumped away. 'She's panicking.'

The girl grunted and floated upwards. The direwolf watched her and began to pace. It was getting ready to strike. The girl shot out three more wind blades and made a hit with one. The direwolf howled in pain and quickly leapt up into the sky. Lee Seng watched as it quickly reached her height. She began to panic.

"NOOO!" She screamed. Lee Seng came out behind his covering and raised his hand at the direwolf. His arm shot backwards and the gravity wave shot straight at the direwolf. The direwolf noticed, trying to dodge but was met with a hole through its body. Blood shot out from behind and the direwolf's eyes became still. The girl covered herself, eyes closed. She hovered in the air as the direwolf's body thumped onto the ground. She peeked and noticed she was still in the forest and looked at the direwolf.

She covered her mouth and floated downwards. Blood split quickly as she reached the forest floor. The direwolf was dead and she seemed perplexed by the huge hole.

"Who did this?" She turned behind to look as Lee Seng dipped back behind the tree, quickly tucking his tail to not give himself away. "I... I didn't do this, right?" She glanced at her watch and then looked around.

[4-POINTS ADDED]

[TOTAL POINTS: 18]

The girl groaned and fell onto the ground. She stared at the direwolf. Lee Seng's ears twitched and he heard somebody running towards the opening. A man appeared and looked at the direwolf and then at the girl.

"Hey, are you okay?" The man asked. The girl looked up and nodded.

"Yusuke, I didn't do that." She answered. Yusuke moved forward and glanced at her injuries.

"Is this from the direwolf?"

"No," she shook her head. "I found some giant rats. They scratched me up but the direwolf managed to get some hits in." She winced in pain, clutching her arm.

"Giant rats got you? Did they bite you?" Yusuke asked. He began to check on the girl, pulling her hand away. The wound was oozing blood but the damage around it seemed to turn purple-green. "Oh, no. Tell me they weren't infected beforehand, Jane."

Jane didn't say anything. Lee Seng's ears twitched and he jumped out of his hiding spot as an arrow landed where his head was. Jane and Yusuke looked up. Yusuke grabbed his blade and watched Lee Seng.

"Who the hell are you?" Yusuke asked. Another arrow flew out of the dark forest and he quickly swatted at it, grabbing it and breaking the arrow in half. Yusuke lifted the blade. The sword started to multiply and float around him and Jane. "Answer!"

"Shut up!" Lee Seng shouted. He whipped his head around and slowly backed up towards Yusuke and Jane. An arrow shot out and multiplied in front of Lee Seng's eyes. He raised his hands and the arrows froze in place. He grunted and threw his hand forward and the arrows turned and shot back into the forest.

"What's going on?" Jane asked.

"This is bad." Lee Seng said. "Who are you? Friend or foe?"

The shadows seemed to grow bigger and something higher up began to dart from tree branch to tree branch. Lee Seng's ears twitched as he followed the movement. He couldn't get a glimpse of what it was. An arrow shot out of the darkness and flew straight for Jane and Yusuke. Jane whipped the air around her and Yusuke, blocking the arrows. The floating swords sliced at the arrows and a single arrow fell through their defenses and landed on Jane.

Jane's eyes widened and her watch began to beep loudly.

"Jane!" Yusuke shouted. He grabbed her and Jane coughed.

"I guess... I'm going first." She muttered. She turned into a bright light and dissolved into nothing. Yusuke's heavy breaths grew loud and Lee Seng backed up.

"What the hell was that?" Yusuke shouted. The swords began to point at Lee Seng and Lee Seng couldn't keep his focus.

"It knows duplication?" Lee Seng said. "If something knows a power like that then it's--" Arrows began to fly at Yusuke and Lee Seng. Lee Seng raised his hands as a large white bubble shot out from his tail. The arrows began to freeze in the space and Lee Seng grunted in pain. His arms felt heavy.

The shadow began to dart from tree branch to tree branch. Lee Seng slowly followed it with his eyes, trying to ignore the pain in his arms. He heard the thing drop to the floor and he turned behind him. A humanoid shape in a cloak with a bow stood a fifteen feet away from Yusuke. Lee Seng glanced past Yusuke with fear painted on his face. Yusuke turned around and saw the humanoid materialize an arrow and notched it onto the bow string.

[NOTICE: UNKNOWN B RANK MONSTER HAS APPEARED!]

[SURPRISE!]

Lee Seng shook his head as his watch flashed the message.

"You gotta be kidding me! That's one of the surprises?" Lee Seng shouted.

"S-surprise? I thought the-they were go-good." Yusuke stuttered.

"It's a B rank. Can you run?" Lee Seng asked. Yusuke froze. He couldn't move. The swords were still pointing at Lee Seng. His hand shook with his blade and the cloaked humanoid monster sharp teeth of a smile showed and it fired the shot. The arrow flew straight at Yusuke and multiplied. It pierced his body and arms and Yusuke began to glow just like Jane had. He dissolved into nothing.

Lee Seng let out heavy breaths and shook his head.

"This can't be happening." He said. He took a step back. His arms wouldn't be able to handle anymore stress. They felt heavy and were only being held up by the gravity field he pushed out. He moved backwards quickly and stepped out of the bubble. The bubble popped and arrows rained onto the ground.

The humanoid archer grinned. It pulled another magical arrow out of existence and notched the arrow. It began to grind its teeth and Lee Seng winced. His ears lowering and his tail swaying quickly from side to side. His arms fell to his side as his eyes started to close. The humanoid archer readied and pointed at Lee Seng.

'I'm next.' Lee Seng thought. He turned and started to run. 'Run faster!' He darted back into the shade of tree as the archer fired the shot. The arrows started to multiply and fly straight for Lee Seng.