From the shadows, five figures erged into a small, dimly lit room. Their faces were almost impossible to recognize, concealed by the darkness surrounding them. The only light source was a small bluish candle, flickering weakly as if it were about to go out.
"Did you manage to collect the crystals?" Cain, the leader of the shadows, asked in an authoritative tone.
"Yes," another of his subordinates imdiately responded, bowing respectfully. "Here they are." Then, he tossed the bag containing all the crystals to his master.
"Tsk! I’m sure these are the crystals of the weakest students," a third shadow joined the conversation. "This won’t be enough to weaken them. We should have taken advantage of catching them by surprise and attacked once and for all."
"No, not until our lady returns," Cain replied sharply. "We can’t act recklessly and risk failing the mission."
The figure walked forward and placed all the crystals in a circle. Then, using his powers, he sent them as deep into the dungeon as possible.
"Besides, this will shake their internal trust. After being betrayed by their teacher, I’m certain they’ll start fearing that one of the students might be next," he continued, his voice visibly strained from excessive mana use.
"Divide and conquer, isn’t that right?" A female voice joined the small discussion.
"Yes," the leader sighed. "Now go and observe how the main group will react," he said, looking at two of the shadows.
"And what about the students we teleported?" The female asked.
"It’s impossible for them to survive, so there’s no need to waste energy worrying about them. But, just to be sure, you can send one of your pets." The woman nodded accepting the order. Then Cain looked to his left, "Now, more importantly, you two must continue searching for the Sacred Ark."
"Understood, sir."
With the orders given, all the shadows in that place vanished into the darkness. Quickly, they split up, each heading off to fulfill their own mission.
𓊖𓊖𓊖
After seeing a flash of light that had beco all too familiar, Davi found himself in a completely new place. And approaching his throat were the fangs of a monster that resembled a small tiger, but the creature had two horns growing where its eyes should have been.
What’s happening?
Davi didn’t have ti to think. Instinctively, his body reacted, dodging the beast’s attack. Then, he quickly used a to kill the creature.
His eyes scanned the surroundings. There were more of those beasts, as well as a large number of students who seed terrified.
But he noticed sothing even more dangerous than the beasts: a bluish flower with a faint neon glow, growing on the walls of the narrow cave. That was a killer flower.
"Don’t touch the walls!" he shouted, hoping to save everyone.
He then tried to activate once more, but felt his body tremble. He was almost at his ti limit.
Damn it, of all tis!
In this situation, he needed to act quickly. To prevent this from turning into a massacre, he had to start by getting rid of those small monsters.
If he rembered correctly, killer flowers only grew in places with almost no light. That’s why they glowed faintly, as a way to attract prey.
But the most important thing was that in an environnt like this, predators usually hunted based on sound or sll.
So he took a risky move and bit his own hand, letting his blood spill onto the ground. Then Davi shouted, trying to attract the attention of those beasts.
To his luck, or misfortune, his plan worked. Soon, the small beasts were running toward him, apparently drawn by the sll of blood.
He forced his body to roll to the right, dodging the first beast’s attack. Then, gritting his teeth, he forced himself to activate . But that would probably last very little, so he had to act fast.
Before the enemy could advance on him, Davi lunged forward. At the sa ti, two monsters tried to attack him, while three others surrounded him from the sides, using a typical hunting tactic of social predators.
With no ti to act carefully, Davi accelerated his advance. He managed to grab one of the beasts in mid-air, sinking his claws into its neck.
He dodged the second enemy at the last second, allowing it to sink its horn into his shoulder.
A sharp pain spread through the boy’s body, but he didn’t let it slow him down. He drew a dagger he carried with him and plunged it into the enemy’s head, which couldn’t escape because its horn was stuck in Davi’s body.
Next, Davi broke the creature’s horn, freeing himself from its body but leaving the horn stuck in his shoulder, which helped stop the bleeding.
Of course, the other beasts didn’t wait for him. Before he could react, one of them had bitten the back of his leg. Another tried to leap at his neck, but the boy was able to react quickly.
He spun in the air, kicking the monster that was biting his leg toward the cave wall, while slicing the other beast in half with a .
The beast hit by the slashing attack was cut in half, completely unable to react. The monster that was thrown against the wall cried out in despair as a bluish glow enveloped it.
Two other small tigers approached their companion, who was begging for help, but that was a big mistake.
The seemingly harmless vines that stretched across the wall quickly extended like tentacles. They wrapped around the creatures in a deadly embrace.
No matter how much they struggled, none of those monsters would be able to escape. They would remain there for days, having their energy drained.
But Davi didn’t have ti to worry about that, so his gaze turned to the last two enemies he could see.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" He breathed heavily, blood dripping from his arm. Then he felt the power fading from his body.
At that mont, another beast ca from behind, trying to catch him off guard. Davi rolled to the side at the last second but felt a sharp pain in his leg as the creature’s claws grazed his skin.
He grunted, pushing the pain to the back of his mind, and landed a punch on the side of the beast’s face, throwing it backward.
He tried to stay steady, but his strength was fading. With both legs injured, he could barely stand.
The transformation wore off, and he finally fell to his knees, feeling the weight of all the injuries he had accumulated in that short battle.
Still, as one of the beasts leaped toward him, he gritted his teeth and, with a roar, counterattacked, striking the monster with all his might. The creature fell to the ground but quickly got back up.
Davi knew he had no energy left to continue. For a mont, he reached for the pendant Sophia had given him. He didn’t want to use it so soon, but...
Before Davi could make his decision, he felt the ground shake violently. Then, a large stone golem erged from the earth, positioning itself between him and his enemies.
The creature was slow but managed to land a powerful punch on one of the beasts, which was caught off guard and couldn’t react.
The ground shook again, and a large amount of dust was kicked up by the excessive force of the blow. But without a doubt, that monster had been killed.
Finally, the golem quickly moved, embracing Davi and acting as a shield to protect him.
"Everyone, just fire mana rays! My golem can handle it. If we all attack, we can defeat them!" Marc shouted after ensuring Davi was protected.
Most of the students were still confused, but the ti Davi had bought by fighting the beasts alone was enough for them to reorganize, at least a little.
Blue rays of mana crossed the dimly lit cave as several students coordinated their attacks. And as inefficient as it was to use mana directly in that way, with several combined attacks, the last enemies were finally defeated.
Then, Marc dismissed his golem, looking exhausted just from that. After all, he had used his most powerful ability.
"Can anyone use healing skills?" Quickly, that question echoed as the students saw the deplorable state Davi was in after the fight.
"I can!" Luckily, a boy quickly stepped forward, and Davi was enveloped in a faint yellow light.
"I can too," another girl stepped forward, pouring so holy water over the boy’s wounds.
Marc watched all of this with great apprehension, which was quite ironic.
Before all of this happened, Marc had held a strong resentnt toward Davi, driven mainly by envy. As a Rank C student, he found it absurd that a re Rank F was getting so much attention.
Now, just a short ti later, he was begging for them to save him. After what he had seen, Marc was certain that, regardless of the situation they were in, the only way they would survive was with that man’s help.
And, of course, he wasn’t the only one who thought that. Everyone had seen how Davi was the one who saved them at that mont.
That’s why a collective relief was visible in everyone’s eyes when Davi finally opened his eyes again.
"How are you feeling?" The boy who was healing him quickly asked.
"I’ve had better days, I won’t deny that," Davi smiled ironically. Then he struggled to his feet. "But I’ve also had much worse days." He tried to lighten the mood with a joke, then looked around, confirming that everyone was alive.
"Now..."
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