CLANG CLANG CLANG

Thirteen minutes have passed since the battle had begun, and since then, so much had changed, and so much had remained unchanged.

The power of five weapons had not changed even a bit, but now I am trying my all to defend against them, using not only the five vines but also my greatsword, and I am having quite a difficulty holding them back. 

If the weapons continued with such attacks, it wouldn't be long before they breached through vines and attacked my body.

I should not be worried about seeing my defense, as the attacking power of weapons is not enough to breach my armor, but for some reason, I am feeling quite concerned about it; the challenge had a twist in everything, and I feared it would have dangerous.

It is not just my intuition; the notes of six challengers said that each challenge was dangerous, and they were barely able to return with that life. That made me think, what would have happened if I had chosen the leaf in an earlier challenge? I am sure there would have been something nasty hidden in it.

Forty more seconds passed when suddenly, the saber avoided my vines skillfully and came for my waist. I flapped my wings backward to dodge the attack, but my speed did not seem to be fast enough as the saber touched my armor, and to my horror, it began to cut through it.

Pich! 

CLANG!

It had cut one vine thread after another as it went for my waist before cutting my flesh by centimeter; it would be more. It would not have been just simple nick if I had not created distance and flicked the saber away with a greatsword.

Vine strings reattached themselves and became new as before, but the horror of what happened had remained in my heart.

That saber had directly gone through me; it cut through my armor like it is not the finest set armor within a level but a butter which would slice through with the slightest amount of the force; it is shocking and made me horrified, the more I think about it.

It just needs a well-placed aim at my fatal spots like heart or head, and I will be gone. I wanted to right away, but I controlled my emotions and focused on the weapons around me.

While it is extremely dangerous to continue, there are rewards. First and foremost, I have to wait, at least for a minute before fifteen minutes clocked in; that is the minimum requirement for me to pass, and this is a great learning opportunity.

I am fighting against an opponent who is using similar strength as me but beating the hell out of me; It had never happened; I had never lost against those with similar strength, while this time, the opponent is above my league and could kill me, I still want to continue, I felt like I am not at my limit yet.

CLANG CLANG CLANG

So, I continued with the change in my fighting style; I shifted in the total defense, created a wall that would make these weapons try harder than ever.

A minute passed by, and I held on against the weapons without problem; defense is my forte, and I am sure I will be able to hold against it for ten more minutes without any problem.

CLANG CLANG CLANG!

I was so wrong about my defensive capabilities; I could only hold on five minutes before two weapons breached inside. It was a good thing, I have made a backup for such a thing and defended, but still, I am quite sad to see how I had overestimated my abilities.

I now had ten vines around me, five original and five for the backups I had just used; now I am using all ten of them to fight and summoned, another five as a backup which I had needed earlier than I had expected.

By the time the twenty-fourth minute rolled on, I had begun to use the fifteen vines, twenty vines, and twenty-fifth minutes and now twenty-four vines at the twenty-sixth minute. I wanted to use my more vines, and I could summon more, but I did not as it would hinder coordination of fight, and it would cost me my life if I did that.

Fortunately, I had one more card which would help me for few minutes, and I used it without hesitation; I finally circulated my bloodline energy and not just in my vines but also in my body, and felt my strength rise to the level, I could fight against initial leader class without losing badly.

My bloodline had strengthened a lot with the chances I got, especially the one I had got in "Toeldo Hall,' it had cleaned my body and strengthened my bloodline enough that I now have the strength of weakest leader class Tyrant.

I had expected myself to reveal this strength to the leader class Tyrant and not against something with elite power but such as the circumstances.

CLANG CLANG CLANG!

The boost helped a lot; for the next four minutes, I barely felt any pressure at all; there is a huge difference between elite and leader class, and now that I have got the strength of a leader, I could fight for at least ten more minutes without any problem.

Pich Pich!

I was so naïve; after the thirtieth minute over, its learning speed accelerated, and within one minute, I felt pressure, and half a minute after that, lance and sword sneaked it and injured me. The sword had cut half of my arm bone, and the lance had directly pierced through my thigh.

"I give up!"

I said when I felt a moment from the lance moving up, wanting to tear my thigh apart. Even though I always liked to win and reached the end of every challenge, I knew when to give up, and it was time for me to accept defeat, and I did.