Chapter 307: Attempts

Chapter 307: Attempts

“It looks like everyone came to the same conclusion,” Moxie said. She and Noah stood at the top of a tall plateau, overlooking the students below them. A dozen Fluffants laid dead on the ground behind them, having made the poor decision of attacking after noticing the energy coming from Noah’s sword as they’d landed. Several more hours had passed since the exam had started, and it was now well into the night.

“It was kind of a freebie,” Noah said. “There’s no other way to get Lee to stick around for any period of time. Hunting a bunch of Fluffants and piling them up to force Lee to stand still for just a few seconds is the best shot they’re going to get.”

And that was exactly what both groups were doing. They’d set out on a hunt that probably would have broken at least a few laws on depopulation on Earth, taking out every Fluffant they could and dragging the bodies into piles in an attempt to create what was functionally an offering.

“I feel a bit bad for the Fluffants,” Moxie said, looking up at the sky. The sun had started to make its trek beneath the clouds and evening was approaching at a steady pace. It wouldn’t be long before the darkness was properly upon them. “And we might see some other monsters coming out soon. I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen more since there isn’t a Great Mosnter in the Windscorned Plateau.”

“I think I noticed a few bird monsters, but nothing in particular,” Noah said. “Anything we should be concerned about?”L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

“Those are Skycutters. They’re fast and large, but they aren’t particularly dangerous. They eat the flowers, just like the Fluffants. I suppose they could be a bit problematic if there were enough of them, but nothing that couldn’t be handled.”

Noah nodded absently. Lee had managed to keep everyone in the same general area, so their vantage point let them see both groups. Todd’s team had gathered quite a few more corpses than Isabel’s had due to Alexandra’s help.

The Rank 3 was, for lack of a better word, a menace. The Fluffants had absolutely no chance against her, and she didn’t seem to expend much energy fighting them. She carved straight through their ranks, only needing a single blow to take out a monster.

It wasn’t like the other students weren’t effective in their work. Alexandra was just far better.

“I guess that’s what happens when you get trained to be an assassin and are good enough to keep Gentil’s attention,” Noah mused as he watched Alexandra finish off the last few Fluffants in the herd.

“She’s strong, but there isn’t much variation in her fighting style,” Moxie said. “And she’s not comfortable around others. Only time will tell how much damage working for Gentil actually did to her.”

“Can you try to get a better understanding of what we can help her with while I’m fixing the other students’ Runes later today?” Noah asked. “At some point, if she sticks with us and proves to be trustworthy, I’ll fix hers as well. Today is too early, though.”

“Yeah, I think that’s a secret you should be keeping very close to chest,” Moxie said, her voice deadly serious. “Possibly more than your inability to die. If word of that comes out, the entire world is going to come down on us and there won’t be anything we can do.”

Despite Moxie’s harrowing warning, Noah’s chest warmed. There hadn’t been any hesitation at all when she’d said we. Even though he was pretty sure the right move in the worst case scenario would be for him to make it clear that he was on his own, Moxie’s unspoken promise that they were in it together was comforting.

A small trail of smoke caught Noah’s eye. He looked over to Todd’s group as they set their pile of Fluffants on fire.

“They’re cooking them. That’s one way to get Lee’s attention – not that she isn’t already watching,” Noah said. “She’s probably bored out of her mind by now.”

“I’d imagine so,” Moxie agreed. “She’s probably going to take the bait if only to have fun. The real question is which team she’ll go with first. I don’t think she particularly cares about if her food is cooked or not.”

As it turned out, they didn’t have to wait long for the answer. Even though Todd’s team had the larger pile, Noah caught sight of Lee – or rather, he caught sight of the herd of Fluffants that she mowed through.

“Over there,” Noah said, barely able to keep up with Lee as she blurred across the plateaus in the direction of Isabel and James. “I think she’s intentionally letting herself be seen. She’s really into this, huh?”

“We should do it more often,” Moxie muttered. “Let’s get a better view so we can hear what’s happening.”

They both stepped onto Noah’s flying sword and zipped off toward the trap and the rapidly approaching would-be-trapee.

***

“I hear her coming.” James turned toward the edge of the plateau. Get ready. I’ll remain hidden until the right moment if we’re going to have any chance of catching her.”

Isabel gave James a sharp nod, and the boy’s body rippled as he bent the moonlight around himself and disappeared from sight. She walked toward the direction of the growing rumbling, standing between it and the pile of food.

Stone ripped away from the ground, slamming into place all over her body to form jagged armor. She left both of her hands open, keeping her knees bent in preparation to lunge at the first sign of motion.

Giddy laughter echoed across the empty plateau. An instant later, Lee practically flew down from the edge of a cliff face above them, slamming to the ground. Her eyes went right past Isabel and locked onto the pile of bodies behind her.

“You got me snacks!” Lee exclaimed. “How kind!”

That’s right. All for you. All you have to do is let me tag you.

“I’m not sure. It sounds like... crunching?” Alexandra’s brow furrowed. She turned toward the pile and nodded at it. “From somewhere over there.”

Todd studied the pile. His Imbued eyes were muddled by the heat coming from the monsters, but he didn’t see anything odd about it. And, as hard as he tried, he couldn’t hear anything.

“No,” Todd said. “Nothing. Are you sure you hear something?”

“Yeah.” Alexandra walked over to the pile, drawing her sword and poking at one of the corpses with it. Todd walked up with her, though his attention was split three ways already. One part of him was watching for Lee, the other was paying attention to the pile, and the third was on the stone beneath the ground.

The pile shifted. Todd flinched, taking a step back.

“Okay. I saw that.”

Alexandra drove her sword into a Fluffant and heaved it to the side. In an impressive feat of strength, she dragged the monster out of the way – to reveal a very hollow interior to their pile.

Lee sat in the center of the offering, chewing on one of the Fluffant’s legs. She’d already eaten almost everything inside, leaving only what was necessary to maintain structural integrity. Beside her was a hole.

“You tunneled in?” Todd asked, a mixture of awe and disbelief in his voice.

“Don’t just stand there. Go!” Alexandra snapped, darting for Lee.

She was fast, but Lee was faster. Before Alexandra had even taken two steps, Lee disappeared. Todd felt a rush of wind at his back and he spun to see Lee prancing past him, grabbing a Fluffant’s leg and ripping it off to take with her with one smooth motion.

“Missed me!” Lee called.

“Now!” Todd yelled, releasing the power he’d been holding. The stone erupted, launching Emily into the air. She held her bow, an arrow already knocked and fully charged. She’d been holding it for the better part of ten minutes, which was no easy feat.

Even less easy was spotting Lee in a split instant while she was getting launched into the air – but Emily managed it. Twisting her body, she took aim and fired. The arrow streaked toward Lee and Todd lunged, setting off a pressure explosion within the armor at his feet.

Wind howled past him as he extended his hands, striving to brush even a single finger across Lee.

He wasn’t fast enough. Lee vaulted backward, landing on her hands and avoiding his grasp. Emily’s arrow slammed into the ground with a crack and ice raced out across the dirt, but even that couldn’t reach Lee as she pushed herself off her hands and landed on her feet.

“That was close,” Lee said, skidding a foot back. Emily landed back on the ground with a grunt, already starting to knock an arrow. Lee gave them a wave. “Thanks for the food!”

Alexandra sprinted, her body blurring as she threw herself forward. Emily released the arrow – but Lee was gone. The arrow whistled harmlessly through the air and Alexandra’s hands caught nothing.

“Damn it.” Todd let his hands drop.

“What was that?” Alexandra demanded. “How can she move like that?”

Emily’s ice bow vanished and she let out a sigh. “I don’t know, but I suspect if you ask, the answer is going to be stretching. I wonder if Isabel or James did any better than we did.”

“Judging by the explosions we heard earlier? Probably not,” Todd grumbled, crossing his arms. “This game was rigged against us from the start.”

“We might have been able to do something if it was all five of us working together,” Emily said. “But that would kind have defeated the whole point of the exercise.”

“Is this how all your classes are?” Alexandra asked, looking back at the pile of corpses.

“Considering we didn’t even come close to death this time, nah. I’d say this one was tame,” Todd said. His stomach rumbled. Both Emily and Alexandra stared at him.

“Are you seriously hungry right now?” Emily asked.

“How’s it my fault? We kept talking about food,” Todd said defensively. “Anyone would get hungry.”

Hidden in the shadows at the far edge of the plateau, positioned on the other side of the pile of hot bodies so Todd’s heat vision couldn’t make her out, Lee nodded in agreement.