🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 32
Adrian narrowed his brows slightly as he observed the unfolding situation.
The magic sphere, unable to withstand the clash of opposing elements, exploded. Water and fire collided, releasing massive clouds of steam that gushed out like a waterfall.
The steam instantly engulfed the barren wasteland that had no cover, then spread all the way to the aspen forest where Jaelyn’s team was stationed.
The vapor rising from the ground thickened, swallowing Jaelyn’s body and everything around her.
Her vision turned hazy, making it hard to distinguish her surroundings. Even the Kelastine habitat on the Black Peak cliffs disappeared, hidden behind the thick, white fog.
Kelastines were monsters with excellent eyesight that relied solely on their vision to detect prey. As long as their sight was blocked, one could pass beneath the cliffs without being attacked.
“Up to this point, things went smoothly. Jaelyn?”
At Adrian’s call, Jaelyn fumbled through the mist, handing him the blueprint she had prepared.
“Here, h-here.”
Taking the design, Adrian activated the formation Jaelyn had crafted—a sigil made specifically to conceal presence for this test.
The sigil greedily devoured Adrian’s mana and expanded its range. It instantly swallowed Adrian, Jaelyn, and Nathan, and then even covered two soldiers, continuing to grow.
“Isn’t this big enough already?” Nathan asked, puzzled as Adrian kept feeding it more mana.
“There might be Kerakum scouts around. They’re sensitive to sound—just a whisper of wind can make them come rushing. Better safe than sorry.”
Nathan nodded at Adrian’s reply.
Now, their group had to pass by the Kerakum colony.
Kerakums didn’t possess particularly strong attack power; they could be dispatched easily.
But academy students avoided fighting them for one reason: their overwhelming numbers.
If even a single Kerakum detected them, it was as good as being discovered by the hundreds of thousands within the colony.
Fortunately, while their hearing was sharp, their eyesight was poor. As long as their presence was concealed, they could pass unnoticed.
Once the sigil grew to a satisfactory size, Adrian cut off the mana.
“Is it working properly?”
Jaelyn crouched to check the glowing formation etched into the ground.
“Y-yeah. Looks like it’s working fine.”
“Then let’s move. Stay as close together as possible. If we stray too far, the sigil could scatter.”
He conjured a few small flames to light their way and supported the soldier with the injured leg, leading the group. The soldier with the injured arm followed, while Jaelyn and Nathan took the rear.
“Ugh, so damp. My clothes are soaked through,” Nathan complained after a short while, wiping the moisture from his chin.
Jaelyn was no different.
“M-me too.”
“It’s uncomfortable, but hey, at least thanks to this steam we don’t have to fight monsters. Could be worse.”
“Y-yeah, true.”
Jaelyn nodded, agreeing with him.
They walked on. The desolate desert stretched endlessly, monotonous and tiring. The flat land offered little resistance, but the sand clung stubbornly to their feet.
At first Nathan chatted idly, but as the journey dragged on, he grew increasingly silent.
Still, all seemed to be going well—they thought they might even finish the test without incident.
That illusion shattered when the soldier with the injured arm began trembling like a leaf in terror.
“I-I’m s-scared!”
From the front, Adrian replied firmly, “No. There’s nothing to be scared of.”
But despite Adrian’s encouragement, the soldier froze. His eyes darted upward toward the fog-filled sky, and he stumbled back, shouting:
“M-monsters! There are monsters…!”
“Bullshit. You can’t even see a damn thing in this fog. Quit spouting nonsense and keep walking,” Adrian snapped, furrowing one brow and continuing forward.
Then it happened.
“M-monsters! Monsters! Aaaaahhh!”
The soldier, who had insisted unseen monsters were nearby, suddenly screamed and bolted away from the group, disappearing into the mist.
“That lunatic! Stop right there!” Adrian roared, but the man was already gone.
“Damn this crappy hologram system,” Nathan muttered bitterly, breaking character for the first time.
Adrian hastily dropped the injured soldier he had been supporting and sprinted after the runaway.
“Jaelyn! Don’t move from that spot. Nathan, expand the sigil now! I’ll bring that idiot back!”
“Hey! It’d be better if I—” Nathan protested, but Adrian had already vanished into the fog.
“Shit.”
Dropping to one knee, Nathan pressed his palm to the glowing sigil and poured mana into it.
Blue mana burst forth, pushing Adrian’s crimson mana outward along the formation’s edges. The outer lines were hard to see through the mist, but it was clear the sigil was expanding.
But Nathan himself wasn’t doing well. Feeding two conflicting mana types into a single sigil was extremely dangerous. Without delicate control, the formation could collapse—or worse, explode.
And Nathan’s mana was the exact opposite of Adrian’s. Their forces naturally repelled each other. If things went wrong, the sigil wouldn’t just break—it could detonate violently.
Grinding his teeth, Nathan thought, This is insane. If the mana inside the sigil backflows…
The thought alone made his face pale.
His concentration faltered. His mana wavered violently. The sigil trembled, unstable. The erratic vibrations reverberated straight back into his body.
Nathan shut his eyes, trying to focus, but the harder he tried to control it, the more it slipped away. Sweat drenched his forehead. He was at his limit.
Meanwhile, the runaway soldier screamed hysterically as he ran—straight toward the Kerakum colony.
“Ahhh! Save me! I hate monsters!”
“Idiot! If you hate them, stop running! Stop, damn it!” Adrian yelled, chasing close behind.
But the man didn’t listen—he just ran.
Adrian closed in, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground beneath the soldier’s feet. Jaelyn’s sigil, charged with Adrian’s crimson mana, raced just barely ahead of him.
“Damn it! Why’s a hologram running so fast?!” Adrian cursed, pushing harder.
Finally, he lunged and grabbed the soldier by the scruff of his neck, yanking him back and tackling him to the ground.
At that exact moment, the expanding sigil shuddered violently and stopped. Nathan’s unstable mana flow had halted its growth. Adrian, too busy restraining the soldier, didn’t notice.
Momentum carried both Adrian and the soldier past the boundary, tumbling outside the protective sigil.
“You idiot, you’d be dead if it weren’t for me,” Adrian snapped, pinning the soldier to the ground.
But then—
“Kieeeeeeek!”
A bloodcurdling screech split the air nearby. Adrian looked up. It was the signal cry of a Kerakum, summoning its swarm.
One patrolling Kerakum had heard their presence and alerted the others.
The ground burst upward as a Kerakum erupted from below. Its shadow loomed over Adrian, dozens of legs writhing along its belly.
Adrian rolled off the soldier, drew his sword in one smooth motion, and thrust upward from the ground, stabbing through the Kerakum’s jaw.
The blade pierced its head clean through. The monster dropped dead instantly, without even a scream.
Rolling again, Adrian rose to his feet, pressing his boot to the creature’s skull as he yanked his blade free, shaking the blood from it.
The monster’s blood shimmered rainbow before vanishing midair. Its body dissolved the same way, leaving no trace.
“Get up.”
Sheathing his sword, Adrian hauled the stiffened soldier to his feet with a rough grip. They had to regroup with Jaelyn and Nathan before the swarm arrived.
But it was already too late. Through the mist, more and more Kerakum revealed themselves, drawn by their comrade’s cry.
“Damn it.”
The soldier beside him panicked and fled again into the fog.
And at the same time, the Kerakum closed in, surrounding Adrian from all sides.
The curtain rose on an endless battle.
