Chapter 81: Three Intruders
The boy’s plan was simple, since Conan was dumb enough to spare him, he would play along for now.
The moment Conan let down his guard, he would attack, take his token and get him out of this test.
And with the amount of beasts the idiot had taken down so far, his token was bound to let anyone immediately make it into the academy.
’What an idiot.’
Or at least that’s what the boy thought, until now.
"Why the hell am I doing this?" He screamed as he dodged to the side to narrowly avoid an attack,
BOOM!
Behind him, what looked like a massive serpent with what seemed to be horns sticking out the side of its head.
It was enormous, at least ten meters.
It also had scales that were made of hardened rocks, and between each crack, lava was flowing.
The boy had tried facing it with his golem earlier but the serpent had easily dealt with it, and that’s when he realized that the thing was of a higher rank than him.
To be more specific, it was a C-rank.
"Damn it all," the boy muttered as he jumped out the way of the serpent’s attack again, "I didn’t plan for all this."
For one contracted to an earth Spirit, he was quite agile, so much so that one might think he was contracted to a wind spirit instead.
But all that was thanks to his sheer determination not to get eliminated and lose his chance to enter the academy.
If he did, he’d be considered a failure by his family, after all, they saw this as a chance for them to increase their noble rankings.
If he could make it into the academy and become a great spirit mage, then his family’s status could be increased.
So no matter what, he couldn’t fail here.
A distance away, Conan sat in a tree, observing the boy expertly avoiding the Serpent’s attacks.
He could interfer and take down the beast, but he chose not to, for two reasons, one, it was punishment for trying to steal a token.
And two,
Conan turned to another side of the forest where his current golden eyes had picked up multiple mana signatures.
"It seems he’s not the only one after tokens," he said as he turned back to the boy.
From what he could read, there were three other candidates laying in waiting, hoping that the boy either defeated the Serpent, become exhausted and they’ll easily take his token.
Or the serpent would waste time on the boy, defeat him, and they would take that brief opening while it was distracted to strike, finishing it off.
It truly wasn’t a bad strategy....if a variable that they weren’t aware of, didn’t exist.
Conan.
"Let’s deal with them first," he muttered as he turned back to the running boy, "I’m sure he’ll be able to hold out until then."
***
Two boys and a girl crouched behind a tree, looking at their target running away from the serpent.
"Does the idiot have no intention of fighting it?" The girl muttered.
"Or is he just running for his life?" one of the boys added under his breath, eyes narrowed as he tracked the frantic movements of the target.
"Doesn’t matter," the second boy replied calmly, his hand resting lightly against the ground, "as long as he doesn’t gets eleminated too quickly."
With that, they went silent, as they continued looking forward, unaware of a fourth presence behind them.
That is, until the person spoke up.
"Should we attack now?" The voice asked, sounding close enough to them.
"Are you an idiot, I just sai—" the boy with his hand on the ground suddenly realized that something was wrong and immediately turned around.
So did the other two.
Standing behind them was Conan who had one hand in his pocket and a smile on his face as he looked at them.
"Who the hell are you?" They asked as they spotted him.
"A candidate?" Conan answered with a shrug causing them to frown.
"I advise you leave," the girl spoke up, "if you don’t want to lose your token."
"Hmm," Conan placed a hand on his chin as if seriously considering it, "I would, but you see... you were planning to jump someone I’m currently using."
"Using?" She asked, a bit confused.
"Yeah," he nodded in affirmation, "the one you’re currently trying to ambush is currently working as my bait, so I’d appreciate if you searched for another."
The three exchanged glances before the first boy scoffed and said, "he’s lying, he just wants to steal the points himself."
With his words, the other two stood up and fully faced Conan, each immediately activating activating their elements.
The two boys controlled water and earth, whilst the girl controlled plants, something that Conan had realized from the moment he scanned them.
He was only this calm because he knew they were not much of a threat to him, else, he’d have just ambushed them.
"Sigh," Conan let out in disappointment, "I was really hoping you’d believe me and go away."
He then looked up the sky where he felt a gaze from again and smiled, "but since it has come to this, I’ll just have to use you three to impress my benefactor."
Without warning, the ground beneath him split open as large thorny vines exited, aiming to wrap around his feet.
But just before it could reach him, he disappeared, causing their eyes to widen.
"Come on," Conan said, "at least pretend you expected me to move away from such an obvious attack."
BOOM!
"You talk too much," the boy that was contracted to an earth Spirit said as a hand made completely of rocks slammed into the place where Conan previously stood.
"Yeah, I get that a lot," Conan answered from a completely different direction of the attack, "but I must say, your attacks are really easy to predict."
The earth user clicked his tongue, his irritation was obvious in his expression.
"Then stop dodging and stand still."
"Tempting," Conan replied with a chuckle, hands still in his pockets, "but I’m not that generous."
"Enough," the water user said with a frown, "let’s just overwhelm the idiot."
With that, perfectly coordinated attacks of three elements was launched at him. At his sides, earth walls rose from the ground, quickly closing in on him.
Above him, a large pool of water was about to rain down on him and below his feet, throny vines started growing.
"That’s more like it," Conan said with a smile, and the next second,
BOOM!