《Art of Mortality》Chapter 23: Fighter
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It was long past midnight. Everyone that entered the forest was half-asleep. They were resting but they could not fall into a deep sleep because that would be letting their guards down. In a forest like that, letting your guard down meant death without even knowing how you died. So, no one dared to completely fall asleep, they just stayed in a half-asleep state while meditating. It was not a problem for cultivators. Among cultivators, even the weakest ones could spend a few days without sleep. Only meditating while half-asleep was enough to provide them the required amount of rest. A lot of participants died in these three days they were in the forest. Those that were left were the best of the best.
Suddenly, all the participants scattered around the forest woke up from their meditation. They all stood up and became totally alert. A powerful roar filled the entire forest. Everyone in the forest was shaken to the core. The power behind the roar shocked them.
"What is going on? What kind of beast is it?", one participant thought.
"This is most likely one of the two Grade Two beast within the forest. Who was so daring to provoke it?", another participant wondered.
"From the sound of clashes, it seems someone is fighting it head-on. Who among the participants could be so strong?", the participant nearest to the source of the sound realized this and was shocked.
The howling became louder snd louder. All the participants started to gather at a certain location in the forest. They looked at one another's face and realized that none of them dared to go forward and check out. They could only stay together and prepare to run if the beast came after them. Although all the participants remaining at that point were strong, it wasn't enough to face a Grade Two beast.
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At the scene of the battle, everything was shaking. Trees were being uprooted, the ground was cracking in, and craters appeared here and there. It was a fierce battle.
The wolf-like beast had already transformed into a werewolf-like humanoid beast. It could stand on its two feet and fight like a human, and yet it retained all its beastly traits and strength.
Among grade two beasts and higher, there were a few that had a trace of special bloodlines. This bloodline came from higher orders of beasts. It seemed this wolf-like beast carried such a bloodline. According to its transformed appearance, it had the bloodline of a Werewolf Devil Beast, a mythical beast with unbelievable power. Its transformation using the power of bloodline gave it tremendous power. After it transformed, it evolved into a level three Grade Two beast. It seemed Edward had no chance.
But still, Edward was clashing head-on with the beast. With each clash, Edward was getting more and more wounds on his body. His whole body was bleeding like a fountain, but that didn't seem to stop him.
"HAAAAAA!!! hyAAAAAA!!!!!", he kept attacking, again and again. The beast was angry. No matter how many times it kept beating Edward, he just didn't seem to go down. With every clash, the beast was also taking a considerable amount of damage. And with each attack, Edward was seemingly getting stronger.
The beast was very pissed right now. Why won't this puny human go down? It kept rampaging on Edward like crazy.
" BOOM! BOOM! BANG!!!!DROOOMMM!!", they clashed again and again. The battle was like a natural disaster destroying everything on its path.
Soon, after a loud boom, everything went quite. there was no howling, no shouts, no sound of battle. Only silence, there was only silence.
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The first sunlight of the day was touching upon the forest, and from the forest entrance point, participants kept coming out one after another. Soon, all the surviving participants came out of the forest.
Elder Norman was standing there with a few of the instructors from the academy. This time, there were also some senior students from the academy there to watch the results.
"So, it seems that only 15 people survived the test among the 28 participants that entered. The number is not bad. And I guess for those among the top 5 of the previous round, this test was quite easy. Hmm?? Where is the 4th ranked participant, mm....what was his name?"
"Elder, his name is Edward Alexander.", said one of the instructors after checking the ranking list of the previous round.
"Ah. Edward Alexander. What happened to him?", asked the Elder.
The participants looked at each other. None of them knew anything. They did not know what to say."
At this moment, one of the participants said, "He couldn't have died just like that. Unless...."
"Unless what? What happened?", asked the Elder.
"Elder, someone was fighting one of the two Grade two Beasts in the forest last night. If it was Edward then it is likely that he is dead.", said that participant.
"Fighting a Grade two beast. Is he mad? One of the two Grade Two beasts in the forest, the 'Dark Devil Wolf', has a special bloodline. Even I, a senior student,won't be able to take it down. If he faced that beast, he would be instantly dead. Even if he ended up facing the other Grade Two beast, he should have run away. Although it was not as strong as the Dark Devil Wolf, he still is no match for it. He should've just run out of the forest."
This time, it was one of the senior students talking.
"Oh no! The roar we heard! It sounded like a wolf. Then it really was that Dark Devil Wolf!", said one of the students.
"Huh.", Elder Norman sighed. "It seems the academy has lost a potential good student this time.", he lamented.
"But elder, we heard sounds of fighting. And it went on for a long time too. There were powerful sword slashes and shouting and howling. It went on for more than an hour."
"What did you say? Does that mean the boy fought the Dark Devil Wolf for more than an hour?How?", the elder was shocked.
" No, this is not possible! There must be some other explanation.", said the senior student who talked earlier.
Dab...Dab...Dab..Dab...Dab...
At this moment, they heard someone walking out of the forest with heavy footsteps.
They all looked in that direction at the same time. It was a young boy. His whole body was bathed in blood. It was like someone walked out after bathing in a pool of blood. At his back, the boy was carrying a body, a dead body. It was the corpse of a huge wolf-like beast. While walking, the boy looked like a true fighter, a fighter who has learned the true meaning of battle.
Dab...Dab...Dab...Dab...
Right now, except the sound of his heavy footsteps, there was only silence, dead silence.
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