CHAPTER 29 - Getting into Trouble

As he looked around to make sure of his surrounding, he hurried to the three-pronged tree that was mentioned in the parchment.

The clue stated, 'West of the three-pronged tree, 200 strides away, buried under a unique flower.'

He had noticed the tree earlier when he climbed up to search his area. Its appearance was unique to go unnoticed and was only a minute away. As he stood below it, he turned towards its west and then quickly strode forward. Counting in his mind, when he felt he was the correct distance away he started searching. But there was no need to, as he immediately spotted what he could only describe as a unique flower. It was purple and shaped like a butterfly. Simple and yet unique. He bent down and dug around and soon grabbed a piece of metal that very much looked like the tablet mentioned.

A great sense of relief washed over him. He had got one finally. Counting the time that had passed, he still had around six minuted to return. As he was aware of his position, he did not need to climb up again to find his way back. Without wasting another moment, he decided to return and complete the task. Right now, he needed to be wary of other students who might not have gotten a tablet or who might wait to ambush others to gain more.

As he got up, suddenly he felt a strange itch under his armpit. Frowning, he turned to have a look when paused in fright. Some kind of bug was latched onto the underside of his arm. And a strange blue color was slowly spreading from the place it clung to. Frightened at the sight, he panicked and wanted to scream. But instinctively, he snapped at himself to calm down. Only this time, it was less effective.

He was being poisoned by some bug he did not know of. Of course, that would scare the crap out of him. There was no way to keep calm at this moment. Trying to remain rational only made him panic even more and started running in a random direction. A small part of him tried to argue that the poison should not be life threatening as they removed all threats from this region in advance. But the terrified side of his brain said that he could not be sure that there was no mistake on the academies side to clear this region. And the blue pattern that was spreading where the insect had stung him made his imagination worse.

He needed to find a solution to his predicament.

But what could he probably do??

Right then, he remembered that there was a lake situated a little away from his location. It was in the direction away from where the exit was located. He had already set his mind to reach that lake as soon as the thought occurred to him. He did not want to remove the insect with his own hands. What if it was poisonous to touch? What if it bit him on his hand as well? It might bore into his brain if he removed it without caution. He felt insects hated water and the lake could probably save him. Which was not a wise decision.

One bad idea led to another and without even thinking whether his thoughts made sense, he rushed to his feet, changing direction without even needing to look and check his surroundings.

He did not realize at that moment that his mind had gone into an overdrive mode. His sense were extremely heightened and his body filled with energy. He was sweating bbuckets,but his speed only increased.

And because of that he missed on simple fact like, not all insects avoided water, in fact there were many types that lived in it. Also, lakes in the forest could probably prove to be more dangerous than insects. In fact, the Lake was also situated outside the region they were allowed to search in. Another grave error he made. But Azyl was not in a calm state anymore, so this decision was definitely a rash one.

By now, he would have felt tired after running around so much. The soreness from before also seemed to be still present in him. But the poison seemed to be working and pumping him with some crazy energy. As he had not removed the insect on his own, the poison kept increasing in him.

As soon as he could see the lake, he took a quick glance around him to search for any other danger, and then jumped into the lake. As the cold water hit him, he felt the low temperature make his mind clear up a bit. With a jerk, he checked his arm and noticed no strange bug clinging to it. Feeling lucky, he then wade back to the shore. He then calculated the time spent and realised he still had three minutes to make it back. He had been super fast at arriving here and if he continued at the same pace, he could make it back. Someone would administer proper medical help once he was back.

Choosing his direction, he then started running with all his remaining energy. As he ran, he felt strange in his head and his vision started getting blurry. But he was sure that his direction was correct, so as long as he did not bump into a tree, he should reach the path that led out of the forest and make his way back. So, making sure that he did not mis-step, he continued to rush forward.

His mind was clearly messed up at that moment as he failed to realize the state of his body. He had been exerting so much, yet his stamina seemed to have no end. He was running forward more quickly than he would ever have. And this was definitely not the correct direction that he should run in.

Just as it would come to be, he tripped on a vine that he did not notice, rolling forward with force and knocking into a tree. The shock seemed to clear his mind a little and when he viewed his surrounding; he knew something was not right. But soon his vision again started to get blurry.

***GRRRRRAWWWW***

A loud roar jolted his awareness, but even then he was losing consciousness fast. He seemed to realize at last at that moment that maybe this resulted from that poison. But it seemed to be too late. He glanced around him and spotted a three meter huge wolf staring at him. It was still far away from him, but he could clearly make out its appearance from his position. Even the fuzziness he was experiencing subsided for a moment. Enough for him to register the monstrosity infront of him. It had a scary presence that frightened him to his core. Wasn't there supposed to be no beasts present here? Or was he already out of bounds?

Slowly losing his consciousness, the last thing he heard before hitting the ground was a voice. The voice seemed to be annoyed, slightly angry. Was it angry at him? But he wouldn't find out until he woke up again, as his head hit the ground and his eyes closed.

.......

When Azyl passed out, approx thirty meters away a shadow of a wolf like beast appeared. The wolf had a blue coat, and ridges that looked like icicles grew from its spines. This was definitely an elemental beast. Something that would be found in the deeper regions of the forest. Azyl had only realised just before he fell unconscious that the poison had strangely stimulated and disoriented him. He had rushed at a great speed towards the deeper regions and ended up here. The surrounding temperature had already dropped. But as his luck would seem, he was going to survive this danger. Even as he run in the wrong direction, his body had still instinctively approached human presence. Was this some sort of latent talent?

Another shadow soon appeared near him and stood before him. The person looked at Azyl, who was knocked out and grunted in annoyance. But then they faced the beast with a rod in their hand and decided to take out its anger on this beast that had tried to escape repeatedly from them.