Chapter 74 74. ENCOUNTER

Removing his staff from the head of a ape, a deep frown showed on Noah's face. After the fight with the apes though they were only 17 in number, Noah had come to a conclusion, there was something wrong with the magical beasts, or rather they seemed to have been experimented on.

Even the others had come to similar conclusions. "What should we do?. If all the beasts are abnormally fast, that would mean we don't want to get surrounded by stronger ones," Kayla said while the others nodded.

"It seems the elder had Intentionally left out that detail on purpose, that means it's not safe to assume that all the beasts have this same features," Steve said, while the others went into thought.

"It's both a good things and a bad thing. I guess their either trying to get us to adapt to our environment, or plainly want us dead, but that would mean we should expect a lot of beasts, or even a potential treasure somewhere," James said,

"Na...I don't think so, he would have mentioned it, if it were true, after all we can't find something we aren't looking for, in a place we don't really know about. A hint would have been enough, and I doubt they are generous enough to leave something valuable," Noah explained with a shrug.

"Honestly all we can do is try not to die. No amount of thinking can really reveal anything to us, as long as we manage to enter the top 100 without dying, the forest can throw anything at us," Noah announced, while the four nodded in unison.

They continued their journey, with Noah consistently checking the leader board, he found that the other teams had slowed down in gaining points, which made Noah's team maintain 54th position.

The group met a few middle and lower stage apes on the way, but eventually it got boring. Noah was almost certain that the main objective was to bore the groups out, at least those that ended up in the outer part of the forest.

Though at some point that boring scene changed, when they got to a burnt area in the forest, at that time it was already sunset, but they hadn't seen any fire during their run.

Noah advised them to be cautious after that scene. Something kept bugging him that there was danger lurking around them, but he couldn't find anything.

That changed when space seemed to bend, the path before them stretched until it resembled a tunnel, then their figures vanished from their previous position.

Taking a step forward, Noah glanced behind him, his instincts raging at him, as he brought his staff up, In front of him.

BOOOOOM!.

A massive force landed on his figure, as Noah was sent flying with his teammates behind him.

Slight sparks immediately began to flicker around his body, while his environment slowed down incredibly.

Placing his feet on the ground, Noah managed to stop his motion. Glancing at the thing that hit him, Noah saw a massive bird like creature, with metallic feathers, and a orange shining beak, it resembled an eagle.

The bird was the size of a minivan, and was in the peak of tier 2. Noah didn't understand what was going on, but he didn't hesitate to act, glancing at his staff, Noah decided to store it.

Electrical energy crackled on his fingers as Noah got to watch in slow motion how his energy blades formed.

The electrical energy, orange in colour, crawled up his hands, until they were like multiple snake's on his fingers and arms.

Then those snake like tendrils, spread out, connecting to each other, then two edges turned incredibly thin but very solid.

Taking a step forward, Noah didn't mind that his environment was moving super slow. Arriving in front of the bird, Noah was surprised to see that it seemed able to follow his movements, but he removed that idea when he saw the bird looking at another direction, different from his position.

Rasing both hands up, Noah brought the energy blades down. They went through the birds body like butter, totally undisturbed.

Noah stopped running at that point, and everything went back to normal. The bird was sent flying, as Noah dispersed the energy blades.

Glancing backwards, he saw that all four of his teammates had their eyes wide open, Noah had basically teleported in their eyes.

Walking toward the unmoving body of the bird, Noah inspected it.

[Evolved black Eagle]

"Huh.....," Noah muttered. For some reason the system didn't show it's remaining stats, "Maybe because it's dead...," Noah concluded.

""How did you do that?,"" The voices of Kayla, Mark, and Steve, sounded in unison. Noah simply shrugging, "Did you guys see anything when it attacked me," Noah's voice rang out

"No I didn't. It was moving too fast. How did you even manage to kill it aren't you a middle stage like us," Mark remarked.

Ignoring the last part of his words, Noah stored the falcons body. Immediately he did that, multiple aura's but this time not as wild as a magical beast spread out.

'Humans!,' Noah thought, the rest of the team also sensed those aura's. Everyone went on guard, as the figures of five humans exited the forest depths.

A wave of surprise filled Noah's mind when he recognized two figures from the five.

The face of the man that tried to kill him on his first ten minutes on Creagar, and the lady he was with that day.

[Matthias]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 34]

[Chances of death: 20%]

[Lilia]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 38]

[Chances of death: 29%]

Noah couldn't help but take a step back, not from fear, but from how awkward the whole situation was about to turn out.

"You!....," The voice of Matthias rang out after a second of inspecting Noah's group, while he pointed his finger at Noah, who tried to hide his face.

"How are you still alive?...You vanished that day," Matthias continued, everyone present switching glances between Noah and the exquisitely armoured man.

Matthias looked to be the leader of the group, since not only was no one talking, but his armour outshined the others followed by Lilia, who only kept quiet.

"Is he a problem?," one of the two men in his team said.

"Yes he is...A very big one," Matthias replied, thus time pointing his sword at Noah.

"Look...Let's forget about that day, and move on.....We don't have to fight," Noah eventually said.

"Uh....Do you really think I'll let you go after what you saw, low life's like you don't deserve to witness events like that," Matthias said.

"Or are you scared....If you kneel and beg I'll let your whole team go," Matthias mocked.

"Noah do you know him?," James voice sounded. "What should we do?," he added.

Noah simply sighed, and raised his hand. "I'll handle this,"

"Let me rephrase that. If you drop your sword I'll let your team go," Noah said scratching his head.

Matthias's face twisted in confusion and anger, "Trash like you--"

His words hung in his mouth, as Noah's aura burst out coldly,

"I'm actually tired of being called a trash by another trash. You know what, I'll just gain all your points," Noah's voice rang out, sending chills down every ones spine.