The Practical Exam (2)

Iusus' POV:

Creek...

The branch underneath me made an odd sound from the sudden addition of weight, causing the sloth below me to look up. Luckily I was able to hide myself from its view, and once it lost interest, I took a breath of relief. I wasn't used to running around in these types of trees, so I was still figuring out how to correctly walk on them. That was why my prey wasn't Stone Class, but just a Dirt Class Jungle Sloth, one of the most common types of monsters you could find. I would much rather risk being exposed by a sloth than a more life-threatening Wild Beast.

But now that I made noise, the sloth felt a shade of danger and kept its guard up. I wouldn't be able to attack for a while like this. My style of battle was one quick, killer attack, and even though I could kill it in a direct confrontation, it was better to practice. I continued to follow the sloth as it moved around, jumping from tree to tree, until suddenly:

Crack!

The branch I just stepped on broke off, falling to the ground at a quick speed. The branch hit the ground and created a loud impact, startling the sloth. It looked up from where the branch fell and carefully examined the area. It looked for a good minute before not finding anything and losing interest.

I breathed narrow breaths as I stood as tall as a pencil behind the trunk of a tree. That was too close, and shouldn't have happened in the first place. I was new to this area, so a tiny mistake was normal, but something that easy to avoid... it wasn't something I could just shrug off. There had to be something else affecting me, taking up space in my mind that should be used to concentrate, and I already had a good idea of what that could be.

It had to be Quis.

It was such a complex situation in my mind, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I hated Quis, that's a definite. But I also know that I liked Igmor. He was an unforgiving teacher who was so strict I couldn't help but crack a couple of times. And that thing he came up with, homework he called it, that was so sinful that I mistook him for Hades himself a couple of times...

Yet he was a great teacher and an amazing person. He pushed us to our mental limits and then pushed us even more after that, but at the same time, he always made sure he went a healthy amount. He took account of every student's situation so that each one of us got the most out of his lessons. He even personalized the homework he gave out. I learned more from him than I did any other teacher this school year, and he was only here for half the time. There was no doubt that he was a fantastic teacher, both with the material he taught, and the personal connections he made.

But then Quis exposed himself as being Igmor the entire time. My mind was thrown for a loop. I had gotten so used to the idea of Quis being gone for good that, at first, it seemed like a dream. But he was real, and he really was Igmor. This gave me many questions: Why was he disguising himself as a teacher? What was he after? Was the friendship we made real? Does this mean I actually like Quis? I had so many questions, but Quis could only answer a few.

So here I stood with my mind focused on something I had no control over. How stupid was that?

I hit my head a couple of times, trying to get myself to think straight, 'Come on! I know that I hate Quis, clean and cut. I have no idea why he was faking kindness, but it doesn't matter now. All I need to know is that he was lying, like always. But then what about the response he gave me earlier? Shouldn't I keep an open mind while he tries to prove himself? He was very sincere when he said that to me earlier... does he actually still think of me as a friend? I may be unreasonable sometimes, but being rude to someone who was kind to me didn't sit well. Maybe I should try to reconsider? But then what about Pulchra?! I know that sly man had to be involved with her death! But what if he was actually just a victim, same as me? And then there was the fact that he also saved the sect from another disaster caused by a Wild Beast attack...'

I could feel my head begin to sting with the intensity of my thoughts, and my blood began to boil. I ended up hitting the trunk of the tree I was standing on with my full force causing the bark to fly off and my flesh to bleed, "You know what?! Fuck it all!"

I jumped down from the tree and landed right next to the sloth, causing it to turn and look at me in shock. Sloths weren't known all too much for their speed, so even though they tried to run away, I didn't let it. I gripped it by the neck and squeezed as flames exited from my hand, imprinting themselves on the thing's neck. I put every drop of anger I had into my grip, and even after it stopped struggling, I didn't let go.

Eventually, my hand went through its neck causing its body to fall from its head. There was no blood though, only a small strand of crispy flesh poked out from the break point. I had burnt its neck so much that it turned fragile and broke apart with a mere squeeze.

With that, I was able to relieve myself of all the stress I had been building up. A deep sigh of satisfaction left my lungs and I cleared my mind of all the garbage that was inhabiting it before.

'Screw this, I'm done thinking for now. It only throws me off of my game, so why would I do it? Instead, I'll focus on hunting these Wild Beasts. I'll get second place, rub it in the face of Spiravit, and claim my spot as an inner disciple of the sect.'

With my goal narrowed down, I was ready to face my next opponent, correctly this time. But as soon as I took a step forward, I heard a rustling of leaves behind me. It couldn't be wind because the only thing to shake was this bush, and it was also covered by the leaves of a taller tree. So it was either a Wild Beast or another student. I activated my Genesis Sight to identify it, and once I did, my eyebrows scowled. It was a human.

How should I handle this? Well, I'm stronger than everyone here except for Quis and maybe Spiravit. It can't be Quis as he was so much stronger than me that he wouldn't try something as unnecessary as an ambush. It could be Spiravit... but he wouldn't strike yet. He would think something like, "I'd better wait so that when I defeat her I get a bucketload of points as well," and move on. So it had to be someone weaker than me. In that case, I won't attack immediately, just in case there's more to this than someone trying to take out competition.

Without turning around I raised my voice and said, "Whoever is there, you should come out before I come to you."

...

I waited a good thirty seconds, yet nothing. I sighed, whoever this was had no idea what was coming to them. I turned around and slowly walked toward the bush. If it were a Wild Beast, I would just use my Fireball Fruit to burn the bush and the Wild Beast all at once, but because it was another human, I had to make this into a melee fight.

After a few seconds, right as I was in front of the bush, I sidestepped and leaped behind it, probably taking whoever was inside off guard. Once I was behind the bush, I kicked the bush with a Genesis Liquid-loaded leg. The resulting impact caused a hole to be made in the bush, but that was all. There was no collision of flesh. My mind awoke with alarms blaring danger as I jumped up to the tree above me. Just as I was midair though, a branch was thrown at me causing my trajectory to make a major change. I was flung behind me and hit a thick tree with incredible force.

Air was forced out of my lungs as I slid off of the tree onto the ground. Before I hit the ground though, I found the strength to kick myself off of it onto a higher branch. It was on that branch that I caught my breath while looking to find who had done that earlier. But still, nothing. Suddenly, as I was examining where the branch would have had to come from, I felt the presence of death. I quickly moved my head to the right, and an object flew right passed it, hitting the tree behind me. I looked at the tree and saw a small hole going about halfway into the thing. At the end of the hole was what looked to be a small rock. With that, the seriousness of this situation took a new height.

If I didn't dodge that, I would be dead right now.

The thought of my head being that tree trunk, a rock being at the center of my brain as I fell off from the tree and slowly bled to death... A shiver went through my body along with a clear heartbeat. It was a feeling I hadn't felt for a long time: fear.

But, instead of letting fear take me over, I grabbed my wits by the ear and moved it into a better grip. With that, I found myself able to move and think again. Whoever was doing this had to be an archer of some kind, which was strange because I couldn't remember anyone in our class who had such skills, but a clever wolf hides its fangs, so I accepted this reality quite quickly. An archer was only as good as their shooting spot, so I just had to find where they were, and then the danger would leave as quickly as it came.

A good archer spot was one that was hidden from sight but also could see everything, so a high spot was optimal. However, after recalling where the last two objects came from, that thought was eliminated. Each object was a straight shot from the exact same level as me, so they couldn't be above the canopy... But wait. The branch hit me in my back, which was now my left, but the rock came from straight in front of me. That was strange. Could whoever was doing this be moving positions?

That was a risky strategy, but if they were able to do it well then it would make my life that much more difficult. And how did they get the branch and rock to go so fast? If it were just the branch then I could assume it was a good Genesis Liquid-infused throw, but this rock was much too deadly for it to only be the result of Genesis Liquid... Could it be... that they were using Fruits? No, that couldn't be it. Convir made it clear that the usage of Fruits against other students was forbidden, so what was happening? And how did they disappear from inside of the bush beforehand?

This situation was filled to the brim with inconsistencies, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to figure it out before I was attacked again. So instead of practically giving up, I began to jump around from tree to tree, to the ground, into a bush, out of a bush, into the trees again, and back to the ground again, over and over while dodging the multitude of projectiles hunting me until I efficiently hid from whoever was targeting me. I had to come up with a solution to this problem, or I would lose my head.

Just as I was in the middle of trying to come up with an idea though, I suddenly felt a glaring pain in my head. I put my hand up to it and, when I brought it down, blood followed.

"Oh... so I guess I'm dead now."

With those as my last words, I slumped over, unconscious.