Although the three teams are taking different routes, the obstacles set are the same for all of them. Of course, they could detour from the main path and try to use a different route, but there’s no telling what obstacles they might face.
After facing the Voracious Bloomwoods, Klaus and his team encountered some minor obstacles that were easily handled. However, the other teams, perhaps due to their larger numbers, sustained some casualties.
After traversing the dense, eerie forest for a while, they stopped in front of a cave. As soon as they arrived, a voice that sounded like Cephas spoke:
“Welcome to the hunting cave. Each of you will have to enter, but once you do, you’ll be transported to different locations where you’ll face a test. If you pass, you’ll be transported outside the Willow Forest, bringing you one step closer to the Sage Eye.
“And yes, you’ll all be transported to the same place after passing the test, so hurry up. You have just 60 minutes to complete the test, so speed will be a factor as well. Good luck.”
As soon as the voice ended, Klaus turned to his team. “I’m not sure this is going to be an easy test, so you’d all better prepare.”
With that, he gestured for them to enter. Lily went in first, followed by her brother Kilian, then Anna, Miguel, Danny, Scarlet, Ruby, Omari, Kay, Daniel, Lin, Zing, Mark, Hanna, and finally Klaus himself.
As soon as Klaus entered the cave, he found himself in a gloomy, dark forest. The place looked eerily similar to the Tormented World at nightfall. Klaus quickly attempted to use his senses to scan the area but felt nothing.
At that moment, Cephas’s voice spoke again:
“Welcome to the Hunting Forest. Your task is to kill the Night Hunters and their leader before time runs out. Oh, your senses have been cut off here, so rely on your instincts as a guide. Good luck.”
“Well, that was unexpected,” Klaus muttered, realizing this test was designed to thin their numbers. Fighting without senses—that was just too cruel. Every warrior depends on their senses to detect and predict their opponent’s attacks.
Without one’s senses, it’s like being a piece of wood crossing a dangerous battlefield. Right now, all 149 warriors inside the Oracle felt like those pieces of wood—well, some, but not all of them.
Klaus quickly activated the Lotus Flower, and a mist began spreading everywhere. As soon as the mist appeared, his senses were restored and expanded along with the mist.
Suddenly, four 24-inch Void Piercing Needles appeared, hovering in front of him. A small smirk appeared on his lips. With his hands behind his back, the four needles moved in four different directions.
Soon, the monsters began to fall. They were spider-like creatures that only emerged at night to hunt. They had a nasty habit of wrapping their targets in silky webs before killing them.
However, with Klaus’s senses expanding by the second, he was able to detect them long before they detected him.
***
“Well, that was unexpected. Looks like some of them still know how to handle the spiders,” Instructor Simon remarked, watching the screens that displayed the various battles.
Some warriors had begun to wash out due to their senses being cut off, but not all of them were helpless. Klaus was a prime example; he was managing the situation quite well, shocking everyone.
“That kid is one terrifying Spirit Master. At such a level, he can control weapons this effectively,” Cephas said, observing Klaus as he walked around with his hands behind him, skillfully maneuvering the needles.
“It looks like the academy will get lively soon. I wonder what else he is hiding from us,” another instructor commented.
They were all astonished by how Klaus was handling what they deemed their first hardest obstacle. If only they knew he could have done even better if he chose to unleash the Dragon.
Meanwhile, others weren’t faring as well. In one part of the Hunting Forest, Lily had the air around her swirling within a 30-meter radius. That was her sensing zone.
Although small, her reaction speed was much faster. Despite how close the monsters were getting to her, she always managed to react quickly.
Just like Anna, Lily also hadn’t awakened her wind element yet, but her control over it was much better. This allowed her to manipulate the wind more effectively.
However, it was draining her energy faster than usual. Still, with how quickly she was dispatching the monsters if she could hold on a little longer, she might just pass the test.
Hanna, on the other hand, looked rather majestic on the battlefield. Her body was bathed in lightning, making her incredibly responsive to anything that came within a 40-meter radius.
Miriam had given her two skills: one for forming lightning arrows and the other for wide-area attacks.
The skill was called Lightning Land. Essentially, she would spread the lightning around an area, and the moment a target entered it, they would be electrocuted, either killing them or immobilizing them.
However, since the spiders were on the trees and hanging from their webs, the lightning on the ground was utterly useless. But Hanna adapted; instead of coating the ground, she coated her body with lightning.
Now, when a spider came within her range, the lightning acted like a beacon, summoning them. This allowed her to quickly release deadly shots, though it wasn’t as fast as how Lily was killing her targets.
But she was also holding on, and she might just get through the test if she didn’t make any mistakes. After all, Tier 5 spiders were weak, but Tier 6 ones were on their way, and they would also have to kill their leader, which, no matter how they wanted to think about it, would be a Tier 7 monster spider.
Anna, on the other hand, was doing something similar to Lily. She also had ice particles swirling around her. However, instead of swinging anything, ice shards were attacking the monsters that came within her range.
Her speed in killing was much faster than Lily’s and Hanna’s. Klaus’s male friends, with the exception of Danny and Daniel, were quick on their feet, as Kilian used swords and Mark used spears.
Kay, the bowman, was having a hard time. His flame arrows were lethal, but he didn’t have the same sensing ability as the others, so he was struggling. Daniel and Danny were in the same boat; they were having a tough time as well. Discover exclusive content at empire
Miguel was also facing difficulties. The spiders were not the kind that could be easily smashed with brute force; they were much more nimble.
Scarlet and Ruby also looked like they might not make it. They might be geniuses, but the test was a rather challenging one, so despite their prowess, they were just struggling.
However, those struggling the most were the Zhou twins. As defense-type warriors, fighting such annoying and clingy monsters was outside their area of expertise.
They had good defensive prowess, but they lacked offensive capabilities. So, despite doing everything they could to hold on, the attacks from the spiders were just too much, especially with Tier 6 spiders coming in.
Thirty minutes later, the number dropped from 149 to 40. Klaus’s team lost the Zhou twins, Danny, Daniel, Scarlet, and Kay. Strangely, Ruby was holding on, albeit barely. The same went for Miguel, who just didn’t want to give in.
Forty-five minutes later, Miguel and Ruby also joined them.
Then came the leader of the spiders—a rather large, 16-legged spider with hide so thick that Klaus’s Void Piercing Needle bounced off when it struck.
It was a rather unusual and amusing thing, but in the end, Klaus merged the four needles into one, forming a 64-inch thick needle that sent shivers down the spines of anyone who witnessed what Klaus did to the Tier 7 Devil Spider.