It was the dead of night in Myriad Bay Field. Most hunters had retreated to the Stronghold, ready to cash in on their day’s hunting, as the night was simply too disadvantageous of an environnt for them to work efficiently.
The area outside the field was almost pitch black, and one couldn’t see more than five feet in front of them without straining their eyes. The dangerous predators had also beco more active, dashing about the field in search of prey.
The hunters returned to the Stronghold with the intention to rest up and head out again once the first rays of sunlight returned to the field, ready to repeat the daily cycle of hunt, sleep, and repeat.
However, this night was going to be quite different from the usual, as a strange group of students had been forced to adventure out into the darkness illuminated by only the faintest moonlight.
These students had experienced what they could only describe as hell under the strict training regin of the academy they attended and the demon-like classmate and special training instructor, Lake.
Their bodies would be forced to the brink of collapse under the academy’s hellish training, while their minds would experience tornt like no other under Lake’s ’revival training’ that would constantly break their bodies, before healing it back instantly, only to have the cycle repeat endlessly until he deed it fit to stop.
It wasn’t like the group of students didn’t gain anything from this torturous experience; aside from the ntal trauma, their bodies had grown rapidly, and their resistances to factors such as pain and fear had increased greatly, allowing them to think and react calmly, even in the face of an enemy many tis stronger than them.
****
Roar!
"Hu! Hu! Hu!"
Conner inhaled and exhaled in a rhythmic pattern, paced with his steps and movents.
Taking a glance behind him, his eyes spotted the tiger-like creature that had already decided what its al for tonight was going to be: him.
Conner wasn’t the best at running, and the unfamiliar terrain did nothing to help him; instead, it seed to assist the tiger demon in closing the gap between them.
At this point, he could almost feel the hot breath of the tiger demon blowing on his behind, sending chills crawling up his spine.
The only thing he could be grateful for right now was that he didn’t have a problem seeing in the darkness of the night.
Lake had conducted the training for him and the other students after the sun had set back in the academy, and the environnt wasn’t too different from here either, which allowed him to just barely navigate his precarious surroundings.
Chomp!
"Hiek!"
Conner shrieked as the tiger demon tried to take a bite out of his behind.
Knowing that the tiger would eventually reach him if he only continued to run, Conner swallowed his saliva before gripping his spear tightly.
Swoosh!
Twisting his hips, he spun around on his heel, swinging his spear in a half moon behind him, forcing the tiger demon to take a step back with a roar.
The tiger demon’s face contorted and deford as the pattern on its fur created a terrifying visage.
Honestly, Conner was scared out of his mind looking at the creature, but he kept the grip on his spear firm.
’This is nothing like the entrance exam!’
Conner complained inwardly. During the entrance exam for the Academy, every student was thrown into an artificially created field and forced to hunt down so monsters to pass.
Over eight hundred students took the exam, yet only around a hundred or so passed, and Conner had placed among the top ten even within those odds!
He didn’t find the monsters during the entrance exam to be strong and even considered them to be quite weak. That was why when he originally learned the contents of the exam this ti around, he was actually bubbling with excitent, wanting to aim for an even higher score this ti since the contents were fairly similar.
However, things didn’t go as he had originally planned. The monsters in the fields were far more vicious and hundreds of tis deadlier than the ones in the entrance exam.
Not only were they physically stronger, they were also many tis smarter, making Conner and the other students doubt their own abilities many tis over.
They had employed a variety of common tactics such as surrounding, ambushing, and even setting up traps, but none of them had very much success and often ended up backfiring in their face.
Looking at the tiger demon, Conner could tell at a glance that it was stronger than him. He estimated the creature to have the physical strength of a Mid-Rank Martial Apprentice, possibly even High-Rank, while he himself was only at the peak of Low-Rank.
’Think, Conner, think! How the hell am I going to get out of this situation?!’
Conner’s eyes were rapidly scanning his surroundings, looking for anything that he could use to escape this situation, a skill he had picked up after going through Lake’s nightmarish training ga.
"Stop thinking about escaping."
Suddenly, a voice sounded out, startling both Conner and the tiger demon.
Conner noticed that the tiger demon had beco distracted by the voice and was prepared to escape when the voice uttered sothing that caused him to freeze in his tracks.
"If you dare to run away, we’ll see who’s faster, the tiger, or ."
Hearing the threatening words, Conner nervously pulled back his feet that had already left the ground.
He didn’t have to look at the source of the voice behind him to know who was speaking to him, as that exceedingly cold voice had long engraved itself in his mind.
The monster among humans, the demon without humanity, and his very own classmate and the person he both respected and feared, Lake Egoven.
Knowing that a fate far worse than dying to the tiger awaited him if he chose to run, Conner chose to firmly stand his ground.
"Good. It seems that you haven’t completely lost your senses."
"I’ll guide you through the process, so hurry up and defeat the kitten in front of you."
Conner felt his head go numb hearing Lake describe the terrifying tiger demon in front of him as nothing more than a ’kitten’.
"You’ve already been running for a few minutes and must’ve gotten used to the tiger’s attacks at this point. Instead of thinking of how to run, take your ti and observe its attacks, and look for an opportunity to strike."
Conner wanted to scream as if it was that easy when he heard Lake’s simple instructions, but for so reason, he could feel a strange sense of conviction welling up inside him. It was as if Lake’s orders had beco the law and he was going to fulfill it dutifully.
Gritting his teeth, he fiercely looked at the tiger demon in front of him who had also turned to look at him.
’Fuck it! The worst that could happen is that I fail the exam anyway!’
"Co on, you overgrown pussycat, let’s see who’s going to die tonight!" With these words, Conner abandoned all thoughts, almost completely clearing his mind of everything.
The only thing that remained in his head was the clear intent to defeat the foe before him.
Roar!
The tiger demon roared as if it were accepting Conner’s challenge before dashing forward. It moved in a straight line and looked like it was going for a head-on collision with Conner, but at the last second, it jumped to the side before swiping its massive front paw at Conner’s stomach.
Conner had been patiently awaiting the creature’s attack.
When it had dashed out, it was actually trying to bait Conner into using his spear before switching its attack to catch him off guard.
However, Conner had seen many tricks like this while desperately running about the field, trying to survive the brutal onslaught of monsters that wanted to devour him; and that’s why he knew better than to believe a single move from the big cat in front of him.
Ding!
Conner felt his spear vibrating constantly as he barely blocked the tiger demon’s sharp claws from digging into his flesh.
His body actually slid back a few steps, his feet leaving behind a long trail in the ground.
As Conner struggled to endure the pain in his arms, the tiger demon had already arrived in front of him, lunging at him with its sharp fangs gleaming coldly in the moonlight.
Whoosh!
Conner forced his body to roll out of the way as he felt a searing pain in his left shoulder.
When he had flipped over on the other side, he saw a bloody claw mark on his shoulder as the tiger demon opposite him turned to look at him with bloodthirsty eyes.
’Damn it!’
Conner cursed at the pain but hurriedly stood back up and held up his spear with one hand.
If it was anybody else, they would have given up at this point and chosen to retreat or even give up, but Conner wasn’t just anybody.
No, he was one of the students that had gone through Lake’s three-night nightmare and experienced the feeling of having all his bones broken, his skin torn apart, and his limbs crushed only to have to wait five minutes for it to heal and the process repeated again.
Honestly, Conner himself didn’t know how he survived those three nights nor why he forced himself to attend, as everything had already beco a vague blur in his mind. The only thing he rembered was the vivid pain that haunted his subconscious mind like a ntal demon.
Compared to that, the scratch on his arm was nothing.
It was then that the tiger rushed straight at him again, and this ti, Conner could sohow tell that it wasn’t a feint.
It probably considered him an injured prey that could no longer put up a struggle, so it wanted to finish this in one blow.
Conner’s eyes hurriedly scurried about, trying to find sothing he could use to possibly turn the situation around, and that was when his eyes spotted a pile of big rocks on the ground.
In an instant, his mind returned to a small miniga that had beco popular among his classmates recently, Magic Pong.
It was a ga designed by the demon himself, Lake Egoven, with the intention of training everyone’s mana control.
The basic principle was to hit a ball with a mana-enhanced attack without breaking it or dropping it.
Seeing that the tiger demon was closing in on him quickly, Conner no longer hesitated as he swung his spear with one arm, mana infused into the tip as it hit one of the rocks toward the tiger demon.
BANG!
An almost explosive-like sound rang out as the large rock slamd right into the tiger’s wide-open mouth, causing it to flinch as it fell back.
When Conner saw this, his eyes shined brightly as he kicked up a few more rocks before shooting them straight at the tiger’s head.
BANG!
A rock landed directly on the tiger demon’s head, exploding into dust and debris that got in the tiger demon’s eye.
Roar!
As the creature roared out, it turned its head angrily toward its prey, its now red eyes glaring daggers at the human.
However, when the tiger demon’s eyes looked over in the direction of the human, what it saw was not the sight of its prey trembling in fear as it put up its last bit of resistance, but the sharp, silvery moonlight gleaming off the tip of a spear.
Whoosh!
Splurt!
Roar!
"Urgh!"
Conner groaned as he was flung away by the tiger demon. He watched as it scread in pain, the long shaft of his spear sticking out of its eye hole.
With a loud thud, the tiger demon collapsed to the ground, a pool of blood leaking out of its pierced eye.
"Hah... Hah..."
Conner breathed heavily as he rolled over on his back. His entire body was burning up with a searing pain, but even then, he could feel a deep sense of satisfaction rising up from deep within.
"Hahaha! I fucking did it!"
He laughed crazily, the adrenaline from his battle still rushing through his head as a feeling of ecstasy spread throughout his body.
"Hmm, you did good, Conner." Lake’s voice sounded out, snapping Conner out of his excitent.
"Since you’re still full of energy, why don’t you put what you just learned into practice?" As Lake spoke, Conner could feel his body rapidly recovering as the claw wound on his shoulder started to seal up and form a scarab.
Conner didn’t know when, but Lake’s figure had already appeared next to the corpse of the tiger demon. His arm montarily stretched out as if he was grabbing at sothing before returning to his side.
As Conner got up from the ground, Lake spoke again, "I still have to go guide the others, so I expect you to be fine from here on out. Try to et up with so others and work together from here on out and do try your best not to get eliminated."
Hearing Lake speak with that calm tone and signature cold smile, Conner didn’t even get a chance to reply or say anything before Lake quickly disappeared into the night, his presence and all traces of him vanishing like a ghost.
"Tsk."
Conner clicked his tongue as he got up from the ground, dusting off the dirt from his shirt and pants before grabbing the spear still sticking out of the tiger demon’s skull.
With a strong yank, the spearhead was pulled out from its head as blood and brain matter splattered everywhere.
Conner couldn’t comprehend Lake’s actions or words no matter how hard he thought about it, so he decided to just focus on what felt right.
The thrill of the last battle was still wiggling inside him like a worm as his body was starting to burn up.
Eventually, Conner couldn’t restrain himself further as a wry grin appeared on his face. He had gotten a taste of the thrill of the hunt, and now he wanted more.
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