章節 15: Secrets
Although I came out on top in the short term, I knew it was only a matter of time until the trainees would have a chance to turn it around. Each one of them actually used mana to strengthen their muscles so they were almost assuredly faster than me. I had to think quickly before they managed to catch up to me with the boar in tow.
I kept running until I found a tree that was fairly close to the path we were supposed to be taking. I wasn't sure how strictly they enforced the rules to stay on the path the whole way, so I only looked for a tree that I could climb without leaving it. It was very awkward to climb the tree while also holding a polearm, but I still succeeded.
Soon a group of trainees appeared a bit behind me on the path with the boar following closely behind. They weren't able to straight outrun the boar, so they kept on trying to bait it into running into trees and other objects before they would all run off to gain distance. I smiled knowing my plan to avoid them entirely was bound to succeed until I heard movement on the tree. I looked over and my heart dropped.
Standing there was something like an eagle except it had a sharp row of teeth on its beak and it was staring directly at me. My heart pounded as our staring match continued, until I noticed some movement from the bird's muscles.
Not taking any chances with the bird, I jumped off the branch to the ground below. Moments after my fall began the bird rushed past me at unbelievable speeds. Accompanying the bird's attack was a strong burst of wind, but I didn't have time to think about that as I could feel a burning sensation in my arm as I fell.
I landed on the ground and happened to be right in front of one of the trainees while the others were trying to bait the boar into charging behind him. The man's eyes lit up upon seeing me and then soon turned to confusion as he directed his gaze towards my arm. I looked down myself and was amazed at how quickly my wound was healing.
I could see the muscles reattaching themselves in slow motion followed by the skin reclosing. But above all, the blood itself seemed to have a magical property to it, as if it could actually control anything around it. This made perfect sense to me, but I looked back at the trainee once more. His confusion quickly turned into seriousness as he started to say.
"You didn't train your…"
I couldn't give him any more time. I was already exposed enough as it is. If I let him continue his sentence, then everybody in this area would know about me. And in the worst-case scenario, the knight that was assigned to me might know about it too quickly for me to react. Instead, I thrusted my halberd towards the trainee to shut him up.
It seemed to do the trick as he took up his sword to block mine and then jumped back to create some space. There was a newfound fury in the trainee's eyes as he took up a stance to fight me in earnest.
However, he would never get the chance. I happened to be positioned perfectly beforehand so by jumping back from me, he went straight into the charging boar's path. Before he knew what had happened, the boar hit him directly and his body broke apart into a gory mess. He would take my secret with him to his grave.
"Jim!"
Many other trainees yelled out after seeing their companion brutally killed by the charging boar. Although there wasn't much time for talking in the current battlefield. I was on high alert knowing that the bird could attack again at any moment, but it seems the bird was much smarter than I gave it credit for.
Instead of attacking its initial target again even though it knew that it injured me, it took advantage of the trainees' surprise. Soon the bird swooped down at a target directly in front of it and latched onto the neck of one of the trainees. He had little time to react before a large chunk of flesh was separated from his body. He would undoubtedly bleed out shortly.
Then before anybody could help the newly injured trainee, the bird summoned an unnatural wind around its prey and they both flew off into the distance. It seems like even monsters could learn magic.
Now our group was down to four trainees, an angry boar, and me. I also knew there would be a knight out there somewhere, but I wasn't sure if or when he would get involved.
"You bastard! You are the reason that Jim and Leo died."
"Sorry, but it's usually kill or be killed out here in the wild. Didn't you guys just try and pawn off an angry boar on me? What is that if not attempted murder on a poor old man?"
All the trainees were flushed with anger. It seems like they were actually good friends with the newly deceased. However, our conversation was cut short as the boar charged once again. This time, the trainees were prepared. Seems like they learned something from their dead friends at least.
Nobody wanted to resort to petty tricks anymore as blood was now shed and at least all of the trainees there wanted to repay it. As the boar charged one of the trainees got a good angle on it and slammed his sword into the boar's leg. Although he had a decent idea, he didn't have the strength to pull it off. His sword got lodged and then quickly yanked out of his hand as the boar continued on while squealing in pain. Now there was one less threat as the three other trainees made their way towards me.
My heart was starting to pump wildly as adrenaline entered my system. My blood also responded to my heightened state and burned vigorously through my veins. It almost felt the same as when I had that strange breakthrough in training. Rivers of fire spread throughout my body, but this time brought with it strength instead of pain. I even got the feeling that I could use the stored mana in my body to further improve this state simply because of how similar it was to my mana training.
I decided to use up all of my mana as this would be the most difficult situation I had encountered in this world and I could only hope to survive it.
Soon the first trainee was upon me. They didn't really take advantage of their numbers as the current man attacking was also the only person in range to attack. This was my chance. I quickly thrusted my halberd towards the man and he responded by parrying it to the side. He then tried to take the opening and run towards me, but I brought the axe part of the halberd back towards him. He was much too far initially, so my attack reached first.
The axe of my halberd dug into his sword arm, but it didn't do any more damage than that. Taking what I could get, I quickly pulled it back and then tried to make distance between me and the others.
Soon all of the trainees formed a semi-circle around me in an attempt to cut off my retreat, but that was when the boar made it back once again. With a sword lodged in one of its legs, it couldn't really do a full charge, but it still had a lot of weight and muscle to throw around. Added on to the fact that it was completely lost in its rage and willing to die in order to kill everyone here, it was quite the threat.
Its path through our group separated the unarmed man and one other trainee from the rest. That left me one injured man and another fully capable one. My heart continued to pound as I thought of what to do. I tried to take advantage of my range and kept on thrusting my halberd at them, but sooner or later we would have to exchange blows.
I heard some more pained squealing at the side, but my focus was completely on the current situation as both my opponents rushed me at the same time. I prioritized attacking and defending against the healthy enemy, but there was only so much that I could do.
I managed to force the healthy opponent back momentarily and then got enough time to actually trade blows with the injured one. His sword cut through my side and I managed to hit him over the head with the butt end of my halberd. My blood started leaking out of my heavily injured side, albeit much slower than a normal person. I could also feel the rivers of fire in my body intensify. I'm not sure if I didn't fully accept the situation before, but now both my mind and body knew that this moment would be either do or die.
The man I hit over the head was slow to recover, so my attention was now completely on the healthy enemy, but I soon noticed the look of shock on his face.
"You didn't use mana to train your muscles. That's why you killed Jim."
Shit. Now that the words were said, surely everybody in the area would know. And sure, enough shortly after, I saw a blur of motion and heard the whistling of wind as the knight that was assigned to me appeared next to the boar. It was hard to comprehend the situation until the boar's head fell to the ground. The knight then looked over at me and spoke.
"I thought something was weird with this whole thing. Although its allowed, typically trainees don't start life and death fights. Especially for the first couple of practical trainings. Who would have known that one of the heroes would actually follow a heretic path and that he even kept it hidden for this long?"
With that he pointed his sword at me and I knew that death was almost certain.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票