I crouched under a fallen beam, skidded across moss-slick stones, and slid down the slope of a half-collapsed wall — all without losing momentum.
I felt the electric touch of Essence in my limbs, enhancing my physical prowess and filling me with an addictive rush of overwhelming power.
Behind me, distant shouts echoed through the ruins.
Somewhere in the dark, Reiner was probably frothing at the mouth. Liora would be organizing a mutiny. Erwin would be polishing his rifle even faster. And Veyna—
Well. Veyna was probably already drafting my obituary.
The thing is, their plan was good. I agree.
But I had a better plan.
Instead of hiding and avoiding the fights, I was going to speedrun this test and demolish anyone who’d dare to stop me — Spirit Beast or fellow Cadet, it didn’t matter.
I vaulted over a rusted gate, dropped low behind a withered column, and pressed my back to the stone.
A soft growl rumbled just ahead.
I peeked. It was still dark, and visibility was almost nonexistent, but I could still vaguely make out things within five meters of me.
A nightmarish monster slithered out of the shadows.
It looked like a python someone had cursed. Twelve feet long. Scales like cracked glass. A pulsing white eye in its chest — and no mouth.
Which was funny, because I could hear it breathing.
It sounded heavy, wet, and angry.
I didn’t move. I didn’t even blink.
It slithered past. Close enough that I could smell the rot dripping from its scales.
And then… it was gone.
I waited a second.
Then grinned and stood up. “So easy.”
Immediately, three sets of glowing red eyes flickered to life in the shadows ahead.
“Oh,” I said, a little less cocky now. “Shouldn’t have jinxed it.”
A beat later, the beasts pounced.
They crawled like spiders, but their limbs were too long — long enough to scrape against the stone with a hideous chitter.
Each of their bodies was vaguely humanoid and nine feet tall, as if someone had stitched together a corpse and a giant insect and then left it to rot.
Their skin — or what was left of it — was parchment-thin and stretched tight over jutting bone.
Vertebrae poked out along their backs like jagged spikes, and their lower jaw had been torn off entirely. In its place was a dangling mess of tendons that twitched as it moved.
Their fingers were wrong. Each ended in curved claws — like surgical blades.
None of them made any sound while moving.
I moved by twisting sideways, narrowly dodging the first monster’s claw. Cracks split the stone where I’d been a moment ago.
The second beast surged toward me.
It was too fast.
I ducked low, one palm scraping the mossy floor — and slipped my other hand inside my cloak, reaching into its dimensional storage pocket.
By then, the third beast had reached me.
But before its claws could get anywhere near my face, a horizontal bolt of blinding golden light flashed.
When the light dimmed, the beast was split in two from the middle, its grotesque body collapsing into twitching halves that steamed on the mossy stone.
And raised overhead in my hands was the glowing blade of my Divine Sword, Aurieth.
The remaining two beasts turned their gazes toward me, then toward my sword.
Their red eyes narrowed.
Which, given they didn’t technically have eyelids, was deeply concerning.
“Oh, you both are smart,” I smirked.
But not smart enough. Because in the next moment, they ran. Toward me.
They should’ve done the opposite.
I sighed and also moved forward.
Essence flooded through me like a tidal wave.
I stepped once — and vanished.
When I reappeared behind the next beast, it was already too late. With a single slash, I sliced through its neck with surgical precision.
The beast’s decapitated body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, its wounds scorched and sealed by the immolating golden light before it could even bleed a drop of blood.
I spun on my heel, already mid-swing.
The last one charged with its claw outstretched.
But I had already brought Aurieth down in a vicious vertical cleave.
The moment the blade connected with the monster, a radiant shockwave exploded outward — flattening the nearby stonework and launching the beast backward like a broken ragdoll.
It hit a crumbling column. The column hit the ground.
The beast didn’t get back up.
I exhaled slowly as Aurieth’s light faded slightly, settling into a dim gold shimmer along the runes etched into its blade.
Then, far off in the distance…
I heard a low rumble. Like thunder trying to crawl.
Then the ground trembled.
The mossy floor quivered beneath my boots as something massive stirred somewhere far away. Several somethings. Dozens. Hundreds.
I stifled a nervous laugh and turned my head just in time to see a distant wall of stone collapse under sheer weight. Screeches echoed. Columns cracked and toppled.
You see, these ruins were dark and silent. So the flashes of light and clashing noise from my fight earlier might as well have been a dinner bell.
A dinner bell that every single Spirit Beast within miles had heard.
And now, every single one of those mindless monsters was running straight in my direction.
The first to come at me was that cursed python from before.
It slithered out of the shadows, its massive body raised high, that pulsing eye in its chest locked right onto me.
Only this time, it wasn’t alone.
Behind it, the dark peeled back like wet paper — and out came dozens more.
All kinds of nightmarish beasts. Misshapen, stitched-together horrors. Crawling. Clawing. Sprinting. Flocking.
Straight toward me.
And what did I do?
I grinned.
Because this was my plan.
•••
Let’s pause here to unpack my brilliant strategy.
Everyone else was busy being cautious.
They were playing it safe. Hiding. Hunting in teams. Preserving stamina.
They thought the goal was to survive and capture the flag. So they aimed to finish the test with the least risk possible.
But not me.
I thought — why bother fighting other Cadets and Spirit Beasts, when I could just pit them against each other?
All teams were headed toward the center of the ruins. That’s where the flag was.
So I decided to bring a hungry horde of monsters there with me.
I decided to let the beasts do the dirty work. Let them clash with the other Squads. Thin out the competition.
I decided to draw every single monster out of the dark and lead them to the center like some unhinged Pied Piper.
Every Cadet too slow to run was going to get trampled.
Every Squad too cocky to move was going to be torn apart.
So what if I was moving alone? I didn’t need to fight everyone to win. I just needed to be faster than them. Survive longer than them.
This was my plan.
I was going to create so much chaos that it would render every other Squad’s strategy completely useless.
It was ruthless. It was efficient. It was poetic.
And most importantly, it was entertaining.
I dodged a lunge from the titanic one-eyed snake and wove past two other monsters flanking it.
The beasts screamed and gave chase.
I willed Essence into my legs and ran even faster — leaping over crumbling rooftops, ducking under attacks, never slowing down.
From time to time, I flashed bright golden arcs from Aurieth’s blade to keep their attention on me.
In a place as black as pitch, I was the only light source for miles.
Like a beacon.
Or, well… more like a target.
I heard the chaos erupt behind me.
Stone shattered. Structures crumbled. Some Cadets screamed. Beasts roared. The entire ruin shuddered with the sheer magnitude of the stampede.
And I just kept running toward the center.
Smiling like an adrenaline junkie.
