"Hey," Arthur shook Amelia's hand with a blank expression. "You can't live without enemies, no matter what it is that you do." He said with amusement. The last time that he has seen Amelia, she was asleep after crying over his death.
Of course, he attributed her tears over the loss of her strengthening. Yet, he didn't hate her for thinking about her future. They had a deal, not a one-sided charity.
"We need to go," Alice said to the others. "The monsters are getting closer to the walls. The teams are leaving already."
The three of them nodded and followed after her. As they went through the gates of the forest, they saw the mayhem that was taking place outside.
Monsters attacked in waves as the students fought against them. Magic and abilities flew everywhere as the earth was turned upside down due to the strength of these superhumans.
"Let's be quick!" Alice shouted out. "Start hunting the weaker ones and scan their cores!"
"We don't have time to scan every core we kill." Amelia
"Then let only one person do it!" Sebastien suggested while glancing at Arthur. Alice and Amelia hesitated and followed after him to look at Arthur.
"That's fine by me." Arthur shrugged. "I just need to find Jonah quick, can I?"
"To do what, ask him to protect you?" Sebastian sneered.
"Make it quick, we'll be waiting for you," Alice said and left with the other two. Arthur sighed and called Jonah.
"Hey Jonah, are you busy?"
"I'm still making plans with my team. I'm in a spot since I'm the leader. What's up, Alexie?"
"Meet me a distance away from the gate, I'll need your ability," Arthur said before he hung up.
Ten minutes later, he was standing atop a tree, using his detection ability. If his team wanted him to be a porter for them, then they can have his copy do the job.
As for him, he'll be investigating the reason behind this. He had seen Jaran use some kind of symbols to initiate this reaction. The question was why and how.
He went back toward the place where he saw Jaran, standing on top of the tree. Unluckily to him, a team was down there hunting at the moment.
Unluckier to him, the team was led by Arlo. Another member of that team was the person he was talking to earlier, Ellen. The fact that these two were together made Arthur feel ominous dread.
As he had feared, Arlo was being harsh toward Ellen. He pushed her to fight against monsters she couldn't handle and only saved her when things looked bad.
"How did you get accepted into Jerano if you can't handle this?" One of the teammates, which Arthur has seen in Arlo's gang, berated Ellen.
Ellen seemed to be exhausted but didn't reply at his remark. Arthur knew why Arlo had her team up with him, it was because he had seen her talk to Arthur earlier.
It was a low move to go after his friends, but Arthur couldn't help her now. She'd have to get through this on her own. However, it shouldn't last for long.
'Ruki,' He called out.
'Yes, my lord.'
'Do you need anything, master?' Lilo answered too. Arthur sighed inwardly, recognizing the jealousy in Lilo's voice.
'Lilo, you know I can't reveal you.'
'Hehe, Master is ignorant. Elusive Dragons are called Elusive for a reason. We have numerous abilities that keep us away from being seen. Let me prove it.'
'Fine, Ruki, stay still. Lilo, go out there and send some monster this way. I want them out of here.'
'Aye, Master!' With a cheerful reply, Lilo disappeared from his sea of consciousness. Even though he couldn't see him, Arthur could feel it traveling away without being seen.
'Same as your mother, Lilo. You're good at hiding.' Arthur had a thick smile on his face for reasons he couldn't explain. The Dragon Mark was the only explanation he had right now for these feelings, making him consider Lilo the same as kin.
A few minutes later, Lilo proved he didn't go out to disappoint. The monster came running from the area he headed to, straight to Arlo's team.
"It's a monsters' wave!" Arlo laughed. "It's our lucky day!"
'Or not,' Arthur spread his detection rune from above the tree. 'Oh, Lilo, what have you done?'
Three giant monsters came with the wave, frantic and crazed. They were all at the peak-high-tier. Once Arlo saw this, his face paled. The only people who can challenge a peak-high-tier monster are those that are the peak of the rei-rank.
A Winged Tiger, A Twin-Tailed Crocodile, and a giant Tree Monster were all running away from Lilo. The variety of these three made Arthur realize that whatever caused the wave of monsters was something that everything in this forest feared.
"Retreat!" Arlo screamed on top of his lungs as he began running away madly, not caring for his team. He left his friends and Ellen behind and used his ability to push himself forward.
Arthur wasn't worried about Ellen, since he knew what sort of ability she had. Bright light covered her body as a set of wings appeared on her back. She crouched and the wings flapped, leaving only an afterimage of Ellen.
She was a speed-manifester, a manifestation ability that enhanced her speed greatly. Sadly, her talent for mana was very lacking, making it impossible to use her ability to its full potential.
As the team ran away, Arthur welcomed the monsters with a grin. His dagger appeared in his hand as the monster closed in on his location. He had delayed his leveling up long enough.
'Lilo, can you sense if we are being watched?'
'Master is helpless without Lilo, hehe.' Lilo replied with smugness. Arthur had no idea from where he got this personality trait, but he just let it go since he had hidden Lilo for a long time. 'Someone is overlooking this area.'
It was as Arthur expected since it was illogical that they would be left without being guarded. He sighed and was about to return his dagger to the subspace before Lilo's words made him pause.
'I can elude them with my ability, hehe.'
'What do you mean, Lilo?'
'Maybe that servant of yours can answer that~' Lilo's voice was playful. Arthur felt a headache, remembering Lilo was still a child.
'Come on, Lilo. You know you're my favorite.'
'Hehe, I can create an illusion to cover this area. They'll think that nothing is wrong.'
Hearing him, Arthur's grin returned. Lilo's mana covered the surroundings as a dome appeared around them and the monsters. With this, Arthur can hunt as much as he liked.
"As a reward, you can fight with me today!" Arthur jumped in the air and Lilo appeared underneath him. Lilo flapped his wings with joy as he carried Arthur and dived downward. "It's time to go all out!"
His dagger exploded with fire as his body was covered with golden light. Power rushed through his veins as he broke through his limits.
When they were close to the monsters, Arthur jumped from Lilo's back and each of them took a monster. Arthur landed on top of the crocodile and stabbed with his burning dagger.
His dagger collided with the monster's scales, causing flames to fly everywhere. The crocodile roared in agony and its tails whipped in Arthur's direction.
Arthur didn't shy away and let go of the dagger that kept digging into the monster's flesh. With both of his hands and his release runes, he struck both tails at the same time.
The flesh on his arms split as blood trickled down. This was a monster as strong as the Great Ancient Knight, and Arthur was fighting it on his own.
He heard Lilo's roar, but he knew the dragon was having the time of its life fighting against the winged tiger. This left the tree monster free to attack Arthur, and it did.
"Ruki!" The shadows came out of the ground like tentacles as they began to restrain the branches trying to attack Arthur. At that time, the crocodile gave an angry roar as it began to thrash about madly.
Arthur felt something under his feet move and saw the scales rise underneath him. They turned upward, pointing at Arthur, as steam came out of them.
With another roar, the scales were shot out from the monster's body like projectiles. They were close to ripping Arthur apart but he teleported to stand in front of the crocodile. The flames danced in his right hand as his other hand grabbed the crocodile's giant mouth.
"I hope you have a strong stomach, otherwise this will hurt." Arthur pushed the crocodile's jaw downward as he pushed his flaming hand into its throat. "Explode!" The flames left his hand like a pillar, raging through the monster's body.
The smell of roasted meat spread in the air as the monster was cooked from the inside. In a final struggle, it bit at Arthur's arm with its giant jaws.