𝓞𝗏𝗅xt.𝒸𝗈𝕞
When Instructor Mandu entered the cloud-covered region, he dashed forth to the exit silently. Following that, he waited to see how many would emerge out of the clouds, ‘Resha has shown the most potential among the Death Row students. He should be able to walk out unscathed.’
His senses picked up a Prana signature close by, surprised at the time taken, ‘One of them is already here? How’s he so fast for a student?’
“I’m alive!” Grehha shouted as he left the cloud-covered region. He had a pair of roller skates, allowing him to skate the way forward. Moreover, the wheels of his trolley were his Spirit Weapons. He caused them to rotate, allowing the trolley to move forward like a vehicle.
And by grabbing onto the trolley, he skated forward without any trouble. ‘Thankfully, I sprinted at my fastest speed the moment we entered the clouds.’
Grehha wasn’t afraid of a fight, but he was afraid his preparations would be destroyed. In a hurry, he checked the contents of his trolly, sighing in relief after a few seconds, “Thankfully, they are safe.”
“I never thought you would walk out first.” Instructor Mandu commented upon seeing Grehha’s roller skates, “That’s pretty impressive.”
“It must have been hard to move on them through the intense winds.” He continued before noticing the Prana condensed in the trolley wheels, muttering in understanding, “I see, you used your trolley’s weight to your advantage.”
Since the trolley was heavy, it was less affected by the wind. Moreover, the weight increased friction between the wheels and the ground, raising traction. The spinning wheels caused it to move forward and drag Grehha. That was how he survived the winds and exited it so quickly.
“I have been thinking of ways to mitigate my weakness, instructor.” Grehha laughed sheepishly at the praise.
“Good, keeping on improving like that. Your time is running short, so you need to put in more effort, alright?” Instructor Mandu said and then pointed towards the end of the trunk, “Why don’t you go ahead and set up your stall? It’s just a straight path downward. There’s another instructor there to show you the way.”
“I’m grateful for your guidance.” Saying so, Grehha made his way down the trunk with a thought occupying most of his headspace, ‘How many will survive?’
“Shit!” Yennda coughed out blood as he exited the clouds, but not downward the trunk but at the starting position. He had run back as soon as Resha began his hunt.
He had entered it alongside Grehha and originally planned to sabotage the latter’s exhibit, especially since it seemed fragile. But before he could launch an attack, Grehha had vanished from sight.
Feeling the presence of death, he leaped back with all his might, barely evading the death blow from Resha’s bone sphere. Only the bone in his left hand shattered from the attack.
Yennda crawled back further up, almost reaching the gates, stopping only when he was aware that Resha wouldn’t target him in public.
Within the clouds, Resha and Virala exchanged multiple attacks, prepared for each other.
Held in Virala’s hand was a crossbow, with the arrows being made of bone. He shot the arrows and fin-tuned their path using his Prana, causing them to accurately hit the bone spheres Resha hurled at him.
One of the arrows hit dead centre on a bone sphere, lodging halfway before both fell to the ground. Resha grabbed it and felt the arrow, ‘It’s a Spirit Weapon refined using a Mud Viper’s arm bone.’
The arrow only had a length of 15 centimetres. It was to conserve the resources required to produce it. Even with Granny Oyo’s assistance, he couldn’t burn through money. That would get him blacklisted by her.
The moment the arrows missed their target, they flew back to Virala who loaded them on the crossbow once again. It was a repeating crossbow, made to hold ten arrows at a time. After swallowing a mouthful of Mud Viper Tonic, he could exert enough physical strength to load up the crossbow.
In terms of power, it was lacking and wasn’t a weapon any cultivator would use. Not only did it expend resources, but the generated power wasn’t anything worth writing home about. Even a bone sphere was better as a weapon, not to mention the specialised Spirit Weapons each cultivator took time to refine.
Virala’s only goal was to wound Resha and waste his large Prana reserve, ‘He has reached 100 Prana already. As long as I give him a strong enough mental shock, all his accumulated Prana would collapse.’
Virala was biding his time while slowly making his way toward the exit. Currently, his path was the most stable and his accumulations were the most solid. As long as he gets rid of the regressor here, the cure would be his.
‘But, if only that was easy.’ Virala sighed, concluding after predicting based on the routes taken by the reincarnates. ‘Yennda retreated while Grehha was the first to escape. Inala is still on the floor. Since he hasn’t moved until now, he’s probably dead. Good riddance.’
The previous night, Virala visited the rooms of all the reincarnates. There, while unnoticed, he slipped a tiny bone fragment into the pocket of each. This bone fragment had been refined using a bunch of medicinal ingredients, personally created by Granny Oyo at his request.
The result was a bone fragment that could only be detected by him. Virala had slipped one in everyone, including the regressor. Thereby, he was able to sense their position.
That was how he could plan and succeed in sneak attacking Resha. While fighting Resha, Virala’s attention was suddenly diverted to another location, causing him to mutter, “Impossible.”
“That madman! Really? He’s doing that? Holy fuck!” Even he didn’t have the balls to do that. A few seconds later, a large grin appeared on his face as he infused Prana into his voice and shouted, “Resha, did you know?”
Beyond the clouds, Instructor Mandu observed patiently, holding back his chuckle when he watched Yennda crawl forth like a worm from the edge of the trunk. Rather, he had taken a risk to traverse from its curved ends. A misstep and he would have died.
That was how he avoided the battle. Barely surviving through it, Yennda collapsed in fear once he crossed the clouds, “I…I don’t want to go through it again.”
Soon, upon seeing two more figures exit the cloud, Instructor Mandu sighed as he commented, “It seems one didn’t make it.”
“That’s a pity.”