Trials(Part 3)

The other students from the military academy were also surprised upon discovering that they had all been teleported to different areas on the planet. Many were shocked and scared, wondering why the academy had decided to separate them all, and also why there weren't any instructors around.

"Hey, guys, where are the others. Why are we out here alone?" A student asked. She was a gurl with ling purple hair and matching purple eyes. "I don't like this at all," the other students arpund her agreed as well.

"What kinda prank is the academy trying to pull? Where is everyone?" Another student asked.

"Can you two shut up for a second?!" A third student shouted out. "Look! Can't you see those snakes approaching us?!" She said, pointing at the snakes slithering on the ground.

"Everyone, get ready!" She ordered, already activating her ability, her ice powers, and blue mist could be seen escaping her hands and eyes. The others quickly did as told, knowing that she was the strongest in their group.

Everyone all across the planet were now in the beginning stages of the expedition course, fighting to keep themselves alive and to obtain mana cores. They were all doing what they could to keep themselves going. All across the planet, various abilities could be seen going off, clashing against the natural inhabitants of the planet.

A particular group of students was having a much harder time dealing with the beasts than thr others. One of the beasts jumped at one of the students, its body resembling a frog, only that it was about as large as an adult human, having razor sharp teeth and produced a deafening noise with its mouth that could impair anyone of them of they weren't careful enough and got hit by it directly.

Amongst the students, one of them, a boy with scruffy blonde hair and green eyes. His facial features were quite average, filled with tension as his body trembled. While the others were fighting with everything they could, he couldn't even bring himself to activate his ability. He was far too scared to even do anything.

"Tom! Get behind me!" One of the students yelled, pushing him behind herself. "I'll protect you!" Upon hearing this, the others couldn't help but think that what she was doing was over the top. To them, they believed that it would be a waste of energy for them to protect someone who would just be a liability to them, and because of this, no one else had offered to protect Tom.

The female student began to channel her ability, her fists engulfed by flames. She threw her arms forward, flames blazing forward and hitting the large frog in front of her. The attack had hit, burning abd killing the beast. However, there wad another riggt behind it, and as soon as the first one was killed, it opened its mouth wide and shot out its long tongue.

The tongue had stuck onto her arm, abd before she could even burn it off, the frog dragged her entire body with its tongue,vpulling her right into its mouth. Her body managed to fit, and with a single gulp, swallowed whole.

The other students didn't even bat an eye to this as they continued attacking the beasts comibg at them with their abilities. Even Tom, who was being protected by her, didn't even bother about her death as he quickly rushed behind one of the other students. Upon noticing the boy rushibg behind him, the nearest student swung out his fist, punching Tom to the ground.

He was quick enough to dodge the tongue as well, sending another slash at the beast.

"Weak shit like you shouldn't be protected! You'll just end up dragging down the strong!" He then delivered two slashes with each of his hand. One of them connected woth the frogs coming his way, slashing them up, while the other...

"Now the three of us can really fight!" The student yelled, releasing more slashes.

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Kayden had gone rogue once again, attacking all the humanoid beasts he laid his hands on.

"Everything about him. His strength. His speed. Was he always this powerful, or is it something else?" Paul asked, observing the werewolf from the corner of his eye. "He seems like he can go at it for hours."

Not too long after, all the beasts had been killed. The others were ready to start absorbing the mana cores, however, they could see that Kayden was still not himself.

"Maybe it's best we put this mutt down!" Kumon declared, charging a fist pulsating with lightning. He blitzed through, covering the distance between himself abd Kayden, and as he flexed his muscles, his fist connected with the snout, the force of the blow pushing Kayden back as his body crashed through the forest canopy, destroying multiple trees in the process. "This time, I'm not gonna hold back."

Kayden's body crashed through numerous trees in the forest, eventually coming to a stop as his body fell to the ground. Numerous bones had been destroyed from that single blow, but they quickly healed thanks to his mana pool, bringing him back up to top condition. However, that wasn't all.

"What... happened?" He asked. Now right in front of him, Kumon deluvered another blow to Kayden, knocking him further through the forest.

The others, although they wished to follow them, couldn't help the fact that they would have to leave al these mana cores behind in the process. The three of them look at each other, sharing a knowing glance. They begab to pick up mana cores, extracting the energy from them.

'If I'm gonna go through this expedition with that monster, then at least let me know I will be able to hold my own against him if it ever comes to that,' Paul thought. Shawn was also having the same thing in mind. From the things that had taken place so far, the both of them knew that both Zain abd Kumon were stronger than them.

"I always knew that ranking system was garbage," Paul said, looking straight at Zain. "Just take a look at yourself for example. My rank is clearly hugger than yours, yet, you're stronger than me. Obviously, i know it's because you haven't challenged me yet for my rank. But still, it seems like so many if you are suddenly surpassing us five. I can't help but be curious about why that is."

Paul wanted to know, because if it was simole training, then he too should have gotten more stronger from it.

'Or did it have something to do with latent potential? Did he tap something during that time he spent at the academy? Whatever the case may be, I don't think his power is ordinary,' he thought to himself. 'Moreover, during our sparring yesterday, Kayden mentioned something else. Zain, you haven't even been taking any of these fights seriously.'

"And why would ypu like to know?" Zain replied. "Do you want to become ad powerful as me? Or are you just afraid that if you don't, then one day, i'll challenge you for your spot and take your rank? If that's the case, then i assure you that you have nothing to worry about."

"Oh? And why is that?" Paul asked, taking a fighting stance. He was already anticiparong something might happen, thinking that his words might have provoked Zain. "Come on, don't keep me in suspense now. Tell me."

Zain raised one hand up, swinging it downward, sending a vlaw slash thrpugh the aur that travelled rapidly. Paul managed to swiftly dodge the attack. However, right as he dodged the first one, Zain was already right behind him. He placed his habd on Paul's abdomen, and the next moment, blood gushed out of his mouth. His eyes were wide open from agony. Bloodshot red. His back arched forward. He struggled to maintain conciousness as his body was being ravaged from the inside.

"The reason is because you aren't even my target," he replied, letting go, allowing Paul's body to collapse on tbe ground. "My target, is that bitch who thought she could do whatever she wanted just because she was the strongest."

Shawn's body was trembling. His face was sweaty as his heart began to beat rapidly. Witnessing what just happened, he was beginning to considee resorting to other options, that is, if the situation called for it. He was already reaching into his pocket, grabbing hold of a small, cylindrical object.

"How about you? Would you like to ask any questions?" Zain asked, turning his head to face Shawn. It was then that something had landed between the both of them, causing dust to quickly cover and impede their vision. Before Zain could do anything, he felt a strong force whack hin across tge fact, sending his flying out of the smoke and crashing to the ground a couple meters away.

"You will all pay for what you did!" A man yelled. Once the dust had settled, all of them could now see clearly what had suddenly landed in the area.

"Is that...? Oh... Oh my God! I think I'm gonna puke!" Paul exclaimed, his hand over his mouth as he fought the urge to vomit.

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Thank you all for reading. See you in the next chapter.