The leader, upon seeing its enemy having advanced, increased its own speed. As the distance between them decreased, Tus started swinging the feather to gain more insight into its attack. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep the feather past this trials’ duration, but he still followed Gargoyle’s idea that this trial was a means to increase his proficiency in using weapons. Whatever he could learn would help him in the future.

The wind blades penetrated the creatures’ internal energy more brutally as the scratches gradually morphed into deeper cuts with every swing. It felt the pain and staggered, but the damage was minimal. The leader roared to reassert itself before it sped once more.

Tus’s accuracy and use of the feathered weapon grew more with each swing. After killing a good number of these creatures, his attacks neared ever more closely to his desired attacking areas of the target, the legs and the head. The legs were a target, because if the enemy cannot walk and can only crawl, then the threat would drastically diminish, at least in theory. As for the head on some creatures such as these, it was a critical weakness. It was outside the protective flesh of the torso and stuck out like a lone hair. If it was struck, then the creature could die very easily.

The creature lunged with raising wrath as it pointed all four daggers at Tus. Its four legs showed their usefulness as its jumping power allowed it to cross the rest of the distance in an observed instant.

Although not prepared for it, Tus’s body instinctively jerked to dodge the attack but as he was in mid-swing with his own attack, part of his chest was cut. Blood flowed out and he grimaced from the pain, but he counterattacked with the same instinct. His leg flew up and the sole of his foot hit one of the airborne leaders’ legs.

The impact caused it to spin in mid-air and collide with a tree. It then fell to the ground giving off muffled groans as it tried to stand up again.

Tus didn’t allow that to happen as he rushed over and mercilessly raised his foot. He slammed it down onto the creatures’ back, causing it to fall back to the ground and before it could do anything, Tus waved his feather twice at the back of its neck. The head rolled away while purple blood with golden specks was pouring out.

The danger had been temporarily taken care of, so Tus limped a couple of feet, and sat down. He checked his chest, but the bleeding already stopped and a scab was beginning to form.

Tus thought to himself, ‘At least I have this healing ability from being a transcendent, hehe. Ouch.’ He laughed a bit, but the resulting pain shocked him back to reality. ‘Those things aren’t hard to deal with, but that jumping power really surprised me there. Though, I should have been expecting it. As more of them will start appearing, the danger will also increase. I also can’t discount that even stronger creatures will appear before the night is over. What can I do?’

It wasn’t long before the next few waves came and went with another regular added to the formation. They used the same tactic as before by spreading out in order to attack from all directions. Tus dealt with it the same way by moving with the furthest one and striking at a distance at the closest in order to avoid being surrounded and having them group together.

As the numbers of the creatures grew larger, the interval between waves also increased. This allowed Tus to rest and recover his injuries a little bit. By the time the tenth wave appeared, he had a few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious.

This time, two creatures appeared at once. One was a leader and the other Tus decided to call a captain. It had the same purple band going around its bald head, but finger sized designs of curved hooks extended from it. Its eyes weren’t completely red as a golden circle was where a pupil could be imagined.

The captain was about the size of an average human and in its four arms weren’t daggers but two short-swords and two shields that could cover a quarter of its body each. The swords were skillfully held in its two right hands with the shields held close to its body.

Its muffled voice deeply bellowed at its companions. Each of the two leaders directed two subordinates, leaving four for the captain. The total force was one captain, two leaders, and eight regulars. They separated and ran to their positions, entrapping Tus in a triangular formation.

Gargoyles voice echoed from the tent that was some distance away. “Do you want some help?”

‘Aren’t you supposed to be a bodyguard or at least help during this trial? You practically didn’t provide any help against that Lyzland fellow besides pushing me and now you are just casually sitting in the tent. Before you also said that you can only help once.’ Tus’s anger was pricked, “I don’t need any help from you stone face!”

“Okay then. You still have another four hours.”

‘Four hours? Ugh.’

Tus stood up as different colored lights glittered in the forest from the internal energy of the enemies. The captain had three different colored energies on its body. The gold, spreading from its eyes, sunk closest to the skin, followed by purple, and then red.

‘Just great. Just great. A quadrupled layered defense… Just great…’ Tus became dispirited when he saw this. He would have to break through the shields and then the veils of internal energy before any injury could be inflicted. ‘Well here I go.’