Chapter 75: Strongest Beast in the Forest.
The moment all the teams left the stadium, many screens suddenly appeared in the air. They floated high above the crowd like giant shining mirrors, showing everything inside the forest.
Each screen was tracking and recording the movements of every team and their members. People in the audience leaned forward, excited, nervous, and shocked, all waiting to see how the students would fight the monsters inside the Forest of Trials.
On the first screen, Olivia and her team had just entered the forest. The air around them was thick and damp, and the trees stood tall like giant towers blocking out most of the sunlight.
They were moving carefully, but after only a few steps, they suddenly encountered a huge minotaur. It stepped out from behind a fallen tree, its red eyes glowing, its bull-like face twisted with anger.
The monster let out a deep roar that shook the leaves, and its heavy steps made the ground tremble.
They instantly confronted it. Fireballs were suddenly conjured inside Olivia's hands. The flames flickered and crackled, lighting up her face. Without wasting a second, she hurled the burning fireball straight toward the minotaur.
The monster tried to dodge, but the fire still burned part of its arm, making it scream in rage.
Nathan suddenly rushed toward the minotaur. His feet slammed against the forest floor as a Meta Axe was conjured in his hand. The axe glowed with a faint blue light, making it look sharp enough to cut through steel.
Meanwhile, Maria suddenly arrived behind the minotaur. Her movement was like a shadow—silent and fast. She placed her hand on the minotaur's back, and the next second she vanished. She had injected a mana parasite inside the minotaur's body.
The moment the minotaur was about to attack, its body suddenly froze. Its thoughts were disrupted by the parasite. Its eyes became blurry, its mouth hung open, and its muscles stopped responding.
Nathan took advantage of this. He swung his axe directly at the minotaur's neck. The minotaur didn't resist because its thought process was disrupted.
The attack landed perfectly, cutting its neck clean in one strike. Its head rolled onto the ground as Nathan began to cut its ears, placing them in a small bag tied around his waist.
On another screen, Aaron and his team were fighting a young imugi. The imugi's long, snake-like body moved across the forest with incredible speed.
It twisted and turned, dodging every attack they threw at it. Its scales shone in the sunlight, making it harder to see its movements clearly.
At this moment, Noah raised his hand. A windstorm was suddenly conjured around the imugi. The spinning wind made a loud whooshing sound, and dirt and leaves flew everywhere. The imugi stopped in its tracks, trapped inside the swirling storm.
Then, puppeteer strings emerged from Janice's hands. The thin glowing strings attached themselves to the branches of nearby trees.
Suddenly, those branches moved on their own, twisting and bending unnaturally. They coiled around the imugi's body tightly, stopping it from moving.
At this moment, Aaron raised his palm and pointed it toward the imugi. Suddenly, a condensed beam of light shot out from his palm.
In a mere second, the bright beam pierced through the imugi's head, killing it instantly. The body dropped to the ground, shaking the nearby leaves.
The three collected their ears and then began moving forward again to hunt more monsters and earn more points.
At this moment, Victoria and her team were also fighting. They were fighting a lion covered in fire instead of fur. Flames danced across its body, and heat waves spread in all directions.
This lion had naturally absorbed mana from the surroundings and created a mana heart inside its chest. It had become a mana beast.
The lion raced across the forest at high speed. Even though it did not use any spells, its body was amplified by mana. Its speed was comparable to a Stage 1 Fire Mana Cultivator's Burst spell.
Victoria suddenly conjured many wind cutters in her arms. The thin blades of wind were sharp and fast.
She launched them one after another toward the beast. Each wind cutter sliced through the air, making sharp sounds. But the beast moved even faster, dodging every attack.
What the beast didn't know was that it was being lured into a trap.
Suddenly, when it reached the side, spikes rose from the ground and formed a cage around the beast. The sharp stone spikes glowed with mana as they locked the lion inside. It was done by Keith, Victoria's teammate.
Then, suddenly, from the ground, a large figure appeared inside the cage. It was Henry. His body was as massive as before, strong like a walking mountain.
Suddenly, earth armour formed all around his body, and a metal gauntlet formed on his hands, giving him the appearance of a giant warrior.
Henry charged forward at high speed, which seemed impossible for someone his size. The lion also charged at him, roaring. The moment they got close, Henry pulled his fist backwards and then launched it straight at the lion's head.
The attack landed with a loud cracking sound. The lion's skull broke instantly, and the beast fell to the ground completely dead.
Although it was a mana beast, it didn't have any intelligence, so it was far weaker than a Stage 1 Mana Cultivator.
On another screen, Joshua and his team were fighting a mana orc. They had surrounded the creature, attacking it from all sides. Joshua launched lightning strikes. The bright bolts hit the orc again and again, making it scream loudly.
His cousin Christian used different puppets, each one attacking the orc and damaging it severely. Liam also launched multiple lightning bolts toward the orc. They were torturing it while having fun.
But Christian didn't look like he was having fun. There was sympathy in his eyes as he watched the monster scream.
On another screen, Angela and her team were fighting a group of werewolves. The wolves attacked them from all sides with ferocious speed. Suddenly, all three of them began to float into the air, dodging the wolves' attacks easily.
Then, many highly condensed water streams appeared in the air. The streams shot down like arrows and landed on the werewolves. Many wolves died instantly, while the remaining ones were badly injured.
They had been lifted by Peter, Angela's personal guard. And the water streams were conjured by Hannah.
Suddenly, the injured wolves began attacking each other. They ripped and bit one another, killing their own group. An illusion had been cast on them by Angela.
After a few moments, only a few wolves remained alive. But suddenly, their heads fell to the ground. Many wind cutters hit the ground right after. It was Peter who had done this.
They collected the wolf ears and moved on.
On another screen, Jack was fighting a ghoul. The ghoul was one of the monsters corrupted by unknown energy. Its eyes were lifeless, and its skin was pale and cracked. It didn't feel any pain, and the only way to kill it was to behead it.
Jack had a sword in his hand, and wind mana covered the blade, rotating at a fast speed and making it extremely dangerous.
Jack fought it head-on. Each of his attacks cut into the ghoul's body, but he was also careful not to get hit. Getting injured by a ghoul was dangerous—only a Light Mana Cultivator could heal such wounds.
Suddenly, a boy arrived behind the ghoul with a fire blade in his hand. It was Eric. He swung his blade downward and chopped off the ghoul's hand. Then water formed around the ghoul's feet. The water mixed with the dirt, creating a sticky mud pool.
The ghoul's legs got stuck in the mud. At this moment, Jack swung his sword, and the ghoul was beheaded. They collected its ear.
On another screen, Logan was fighting a group of goblins and a goblin king who was a little smaller than an orc.
Logan was fighting the goblin king alone while his teammates, Paul and Brian, fought the smaller goblins. They swung fire swords around, killing one goblin after another.
Meanwhile, Logan suddenly conjured a large fireball and launched it straight toward the goblin king at point-blank range.
The attack landed perfectly. The goblin king was sent flying backwards. Logan appeared behind it and swung his sword, beheading it instantly.
Paul and Brian also finished all the other goblins, and they moved forward.
On another screen, Kyle Hawthorne was seen with his team. They were surrounded by hundreds of puppets as they moved forward. The puppets attacked a mana gorilla from all sides.
The gorilla roared furiously and destroyed many puppets, but there were still too many. After a few moments, the gorilla fell to the ground, dead.
Meanwhile, Jeremy and his team moved forward as a flock of blood-sucking bats flew toward them. But before the bats could attack, they suddenly began fighting each other instead. They were trapped in an illusion where they killed each other without mercy.
On the last screen, Aiden, Ashley, and Bryan arrived in front of a dark cave. Aiden stood in front. He had detected the highest mana density coming from here, so he knew the strongest monster was inside.
A moment later, inside the cave, two blood-red eyes appeared in the darkness. Suddenly, a large blast of fire shot out of the cave toward Aiden and his teammates.
At the last moment, many water walls were conjured, one after another, in front of Aiden and his team. It was Aiden's doing.
His teammates were shocked—not only by the attack but also by the fact that Aiden had found the strongest beast in the forest so easily and had walked straight toward it without a plan.
They wanted to fight weak monsters to get easy points. But now they were facing a monster that could kill them instantly.
They had not expected the monster's attack to be this fast. But when the water walls formed, they snapped out of their shock and also began conjuring water walls one after another.
After a few moments, the fire attack stopped. Steam rose in the air, covering everything like fog. Slowly, the steam vanished.
Suddenly, a massive head came out of the cave.
It was a wyvern.
It had red, hard skin, and its wings were wide and strong. The creature came out of the cave and began floating in the air. Suddenly, it gave a deafening roar. Everyone in the forest—humans and beasts—heard it.
The crowd watching the screens was stunned. No one expected any student to confront a wyvern.
Even the people from the noble families were stunned by Aiden's bravery.
But William only sighed.
He already knew Aiden would risk his life and fight the strongest beast in the forest.
Author's Note: This chapter marks the beginning of a life-and-death battle between Aiden and The Wyvern. Who will survive? Stay tuned for more.