Noah had seen the fight between the wolves and the bear in the wilderness very closely. He could understand their nature and tactics. Although the Darkwolves were much larger and fierce, their strategies should be similar. Distraction and diversion are their way of attacking a prey. They are the perfect hunters on land.

So Noah avoided their claws and bites as much as possible. His agility proved to be a real bonus here. He tried to swing his dagger at times but no significant damage was done.

“Handling both of them at once is a problem. I need to separate them..”

“Use their own tactics against them.”

Noah charged at the wolves growling at him. His target was the one on the left. Seeing the approaching Noah holding a sharp object, the beasts had leaped to the sides. Noah’s plan was working perfectly.

He stopped midway using swift foot movement and charged at the one on the right. Noticing this sudden change of movement from Noah, the one on the right would try to escape the blow, while the other one would come to aid it.

In poker, there is a term known as Double Bluff. That which is intended to appear as a bluff but is in fact genuine. This is exactly what Noah had executed.

Noah’s target was always the left one. He knew exactly what would happen if he targeted the right one midway and predicted this situation. The Darkwolf on the left leaped at him. Noah caught the wolf and rolled over the ground. He used his dagger to stab the eyes and slit the throat swiftly.

He immediately had to pull back as the other wolf would instantly attack him.

“Phew...that went well. Now only one left.”

The viewers outside were speechless at this display of tactics. Prof. Sawyer was spellbound at the achievement of this 16 year old kid with only an EQ15.

This time the last Darkwolf was quite wary of Noah. The beast measured its steps and fixed its eyes at Noah. It was like both were having a staring competition. While Noah was thinking of all the possibilities, a memory was reflected upon.

“Flying down below? Is that even a technique?” Noah furrowed his eyebrows.

“Haha..you will know in a real battle against any four-legged beast”, laughed Kane.

“They will leap when they attack an enemy to exert the maximum force on their claws and bite.”

So the best option to tackle is leaping down below them by rotating your body position and cutting its abdomen with the dagger. Slit it wide open. One-shot kill...” smirked Kane.

“But what’s the guarantee it will work?” Noah didn’t really understand the tactic then.

But now, at this moment of desperation, he thought of utilizing the tactic. It is permissible with his HP of 500. “Let’s give it a go.”

Noah used his dagger to cut his left palm secretly. With the bleeding left palm, he held his stomach hard. The blood from his hand started oozing and fell to the ground. Noah started to step back slowly.

Though being a virtual reality setting, the technology had advanced quite a bit in the year 2077. The beasts were given their natural traits and patterns. Even the players could use their EVO ability and freely utilize their attacking styles. So it was quite natural that cutting his palm would impose a bleed effect on Noah.

By 2077, reality has been revamped in the virtual world. It was hard to discern between the two using proper logic.

Everyone watching in the Arena was clueless. “Has he gone mad? Why did he cut himself? If he doesn’t want to continue, pull him out.” They could not reason with Noah cutting himself and hence losing HP. Noah had lost 100 HP following the cut and bleed effect.

But the strategy that Noah devised was to give a feel like he was falling back due to blood loss. The Darkwolf would not try to find the logic behind, it would only see that its prey was weakened somehow. The Darkwolf still measured carefully and upon confirmation, it launched the attack.

With a low growl, it charged at Noah. Noah had been waiting all along.

As soon as the Darkwolf had leaped towards him, he bent low and leaped towards the beast. While in midair, he changed his body position with his back towards the ground. As the beast was over him, he used his dagger to silt its gut wide open. This was the weakest part of their body and a heavy blow would instantly kill them. Kane was right.

But the beast had also left its imprint on Noah’s right leg with its claw. This resulted in bleeding and at the end of the 4th wave, his HP was only 340.

An air of silence had descended on the Arena.

The people who were questioning Noah’s actions were dumbstruck. “Brilliant!”, Prof. Sawyer had stood up in excitement. Noah’s fellow classmates were all looking pale. The weakest of them a few months back is now fighting the 5th wave. No one, not even Ton could achieve that.

“Way to go, dude!” a voice sounded and it was none other than Melv, taking care from a nurse.

As most of them were trying to hold onto their reality, Noah was waiting for the 5th wave to spawn. There is only one beast left. The beast spawned with two huge roars.

“Wait! Two roars simultaneously? There is supposed to be only one spawn left.” The students scratched their heads until they saw the beast on the screen. Not only two roars but a hiss sound as well.

The beast for the 5th wave was a Double-Headed Chimera. The head of a lion and a tiger, the tail being a snake. A highly evolved beast.

Chill broke down the spine of everyone.

“How could anyone beat that? Is that even possible?” Actually in reality the Examiners thought that no one in a Delta Class can ever reach this 5th wave. So whatever beasts were chosen didn’t matter. They used their utmost imagination in choosing the last beast. They even had a fun poll.

“Hmm. Interesting!” Principal Beck sipped back at his tea. An unknown fear reaction just triggered for the Examiners. Their faces turned pale as white, sweating heavily, they took a deep gulp looking at the private gallery of the Principal.

Whatever it was, Noah had to fight it. One single hit can decrease his HP by half. He was to avoid all blows. Noah gripped his dagger tightly. The beast roared for a while within themselves. The two heads were not in unison. Noah found this as the chance to attack. He rushed at the beast, but the Chimera would only stare back at him. It was enough to make him halt. He stepped back again.

“This one is very strong. I am not its match. But I have come this far. I won’t leave without trying.” Noah thought to himself.

This time the beast attacked Noah. It was observing him and for a moment he looked distracted. The beast was a prime hunter. It could read its prey very well. Noah leaped to his right to dodge.

A paw had grazed his ribs causing him to bleed. HP came down to 240.

“A small graze and so much loss of HP”, he thought.

The next time the beast attacked, Noah tried to implement the flying low tactic used last time. But the beast had already kept a defense ready. The tail was the head of a snake and it bit Noah. He was immediately poisoned. 2 HP loss every second.

Noah dashed to a corner for safety.

He calculated that he would last at most 2 minutes even if avoids all hits. He has to land a blow somehow. But the tail had to be dealt with first and fast as well.

Noah rushed at the beast with his dagger. This time he held it with a Forward Grip Edge Up. The blunt side was towards the beast. But the beast would not be able to notice that. As he approached the beast, it feigned to hit him with its left paw. But Noah did discern it was a feign.

This is what he banked upon. The real attack would come from his right side by the tail. As he predicted, the snake tried to take another bite. Noah quickly swung his hands from inward to outside like throwing a frisbee disc, the knife-edge being on the outward side, it slashed the snake and cut the tail into half.

In agony, the beast turned and swung its heavy right paw at Noah. This time he could not dodge anymore. He took the full flow on the beast and was hurled in the air like a piece of paper. His HP was down to 50. His vision was getting blurry as he lay on the ground near the cliff. But he was still holding on to the dagger firmly.

The beast roared in anger and rushed at the fallen Noah. As it was about to take a bite, Noah rolled towards the cliff and stuck his dagger at the neck of the tiger. The beast roared in agony once again.

Noah was trying to get up. The beast didn’t care about the cliff and lunged at him.

Within seconds, everything went blank. Noah slowly opened his eyes. The doctors were smiling at him. He stood up slowly and looked at the replay on the screen.

Both Noah and the beast fell off the cliff. But the beast had stuck its paw in his abdomen and his 50 HP was depleted in a millisecond. A few seconds more and he would have taken down the beast. But this was also a good result.

Everyone among the students stood up and clapped, giving him a standing ovation. His bravery was commendable. The fighting spirit he had shown, won many hearts.

At the same time in another capsule, someone just woke up after taking down 3 Warthogs and killing all time. It was Kaisha. She wondered why people were giving her a standing ovation. But anyways she loved it. Until someone whispered to her the actual reason and that she was behaving silly. Everyone had already forgotten that she was still in the Raid. She fumed with anger and cursed Noah to her limits as she left the arena.

“Congratulations all students. The Solo Raid Battle exam has ended. We will take a short break to evaluate and announce the results. After the result declaration, there will be a lunch break of an hour. Following the break the next exam will start...” concluded Prof. Sawyer.

In a certain private gallery, a whispering voice said, “The teaser was just great. The main show will be a Blockbuster.” Principal Beck smiled and took a sip at his lemongrass tea again.

…