Chapter 199: Race against Tide (1)
Chapter 197
It felt like the Aspirants had been fighting for hours when in reality, barely forty-five minutes had passed; still, they didn’t seem to be getting anywhere reasonable.
The beasts were still numerous—about forty something now—and the Aspirants were all growing weary as they were being battered left and right.
The bulky instructor was helping anywhere he could with his tower shield, but even he had his own limit.
A massive knuckle crashed down onto his raised protection, sending his body flying into a small mound of stone.
Blood spritzed from his mouth.
He wasn’t completely out of the fight yet as he rose up, albeit with a painful grimace etched onto his features.
Before the golem could reach him, earth spikes shot out from the ground, smashing into its eye and turning the beast into a pile of rocks.
’Damn it! Damn it all! There’s no end to this. Though they are of the Advanced rank, it doesn’t mean I will underestimate them at all.
Even an Advanced ranked beast can be the death of someone.
We have lost ten Aspirants so far and more than half of those alive are injured—so am I. This is really crazy as I’m getting tired too. What to do now?’
The instructor mused inwardly with a conflicted look on his face as he scanned the battlefield that was now turning against the Aspirants.
Only the stronger teens; Berg, Kai, Trisha, Caster, Felix, and some others were actually taking down the beasts without any form of teamwork.
The weaker Aspirants were all working together, and even then, it wasn’t easy as they weren’t blitzing through the monsters as effortlessly as the stronger students.
Even with numbers on their side, it still wasn’t doing anything to improve their situation.
’Reminds me of the war with Aberrants. No matter our numbers, we were unable to do anything to even the one-spined Aberrants. This proves; in a high-level fight, numbers don’t matter. Only prowess does.’
Squeezing his hands, the man’s eyes darted to one person’s back with a scowl on his face.
’Why did I even listen to Berg when he suggested an orange zone and even pointed to a general area for our expedition? I thought he was being sensible. Tsk! I have to call this shit off now!’
***
Weave.
Fwiiiish—!
A tunnel of flames raged forth, bashing into the guard of a beast and sending it sliding backward for a moment with a now blackened limb.
Landing on the ground, Berg turned his head slightly to stare at the instructor’s distraught expression.
’Come on now, almost there. Call it off already,’ he smirked inwardly as the sound of heavy footsteps was heard approaching him.
This snapped him back to his own struggle and without wasting a second, he sent a fireball flying toward the beast which detonated against its face, flinging its head backward.
His chance!
Pointing his palms downward, flames erupted from them, boosting him forward like a rocket of some sorts.
Reaching the golem quicker than it had anticipated, a flaming punch from the boy smashed into its eye, causing it to crumple to the ground like the others.
***
Looking back up, the instructor opened his mouth to say something when he froze.
An Aspirant just had his head punched by a beast and, in the process, was smashed into the ground with his life force flooding out along with a pool of blood.
Clenching his jaws, the man screamed:
"That does it! EVERYBODY! RETREAT! Let’s leave now!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.
***
"That does it! EVERYBODY! RETREAT! Let’s leave now!"
Ray froze mid-punch, which cost him massively as a strike from the beast landed squarely on his face, flinging his body away with blood trailing after him.
[-10 HP]
Stabbing his gauntlets into the ground, he managed to stop himself from flying too far away.
Now, the beast set its eyes on Van, forcing the boy to quickly send claw strikes flying toward the creature, restricting its movements enough for his friend to deal a beam to the beast’s eyes.
With that beam, Van was now completely out of breath.
He was sweating profusely.
His MF was running out with a crazy speed.
"What? Retreat? I’m having fun he—" He trailed off, seeing how his friend was becoming weak.
Van’s legs were trembling as if he were about to collapse at any moment.
’On second thought, retreating sounds nice.’
***
The order carried out across the battlefield, causing the Aspirants to look between the instructor and the beasts glaring daggers at them.
They had no right to question the instructor and were about to carry his order out, but would the beasts let them leave that easily?
They were about to find out regardless.
"Those that are injured and weak, come with me now! I know a shortcut out of this place. Let the stronger ones hold down the rear for us!" Berg screamed.
Without waiting for anybody, he turned away and began sprinting out of the area.
Nobody was about to argue with the legacy as they all darted after him.
Those who were bleeding and injured sprinted after him with the support of their squads or friends.
They rushed away.
Seeing their prey dashing away, the beasts weren’t about to let this happen; they stirred, ready to stop the escape.
Ice spikes burst forth, smashing into their stony feet.
Crystal daggers were shot out, catching some off guard and burying themselves into the golems’ eyes.
Arrows after arrows were flying through the air faster than they should have.
Caster didn’t even wait.
He blurred forward with his swords in hand as he clashed with the beasts, hoping for the others to make it out in time.
He was now a flurry of movement, his blades arcing through the atmosphere with increasing speed as he leapt from one beast to the other, puncturing their eyes with his steel.
The goal was not to defeat the beasts entirely, but to keep them away from the retreating Aspirants.
Which was why Trish, Kai, Chloe, and a few other stronger Aspirants weren’t pressing forward.
They settled for occasional projectile attacks here and there while they jogged backward.
Only a few braver teens like Caster, Felix, Ray, and some others took the fight more personally.
Now it was a race against the tide.
Would they manage to hold out long enough, or would they all perish trying? No one knew... yet.