Chapter 46: A Premonition of Disaster

When there were only 4 days left in the exam Feng Biao was awoken by rabid screaming and bodies slamming into walls.

"More?"

He had only gotten 2 hours of sleep before another wave of Blue Oni had assaulted the makeshift fort that had been created at the top of the mountain.

Getting out of his tent Feng Biao saw a Marked lit by the large number of torches that lined everywhere within sight. His name was Xie Dongsheng and he had arrived on the mountain top shortly before the first wave.

As a Partial Marked his A Grade Divine Ability was to create trees. It was a useful ability for the current circumstances and it could be used offensively if grotesquely.

First Dongsheng created seeds with Divinity in his hand, and then he would infuse them with more Divinity. And upon hitting the soil they would quickly sprout up.

There was a simple way for him to remove the cost of infusion. By making sure the seeds were planted in something with Divinity inside it he could have them act as the seedbed.

In this case, the Blue Oni functioned as the seedbed. Every time the seeds landed on them they began to burrow into their bodies and transform them into miniature trees.

Typically the Blue Oni managed to rip off the parts of their body infested, but if it landed on their head they had no choice but to accept their fate. The most gruesome end in Feng Biao's opinion was when the seed landed in their mouths.

'Oh great, it happened to another one.'

When this happened the seed would travel down their gullet into their stomach, attaching itself to the lining of their stomachs.

From there the tree would not erupt out of their mouths. It would instead begin transforming their bodies from the inside out into a tree.

Watching the Blue Oni clutch its stomach and roll in pain Feng Biao couldn't help but feel bad.

'Nothing deserves that...'

As the days had rolled by Feng Biao and Chen Lan had managed to convince the Marked who had reached the summit to join them.

From their interactions, those who recognized Chen Lan seemed to take great value in her words. Whereas when Feng Biao explained the situation he never really felt the person truly believed him.

With time Chen Lan had become the clear de-facto leader of the group. Feng Biao's words still held weight, but only because Chen Lan listened.

It wasn't like she had instituted any crazy rules. Simple things like "we need a rotating patrol" and "we need an alarm system to warn of danger", etc.

Technically Feng Biao could have stayed asleep. Without the log drum being struck he wasn't required to wake up, those on guard duty could handle the defense.

"Hey you should be asleep, shouldn't you?" Chen Lan asked.

Feng Biao shrugged his shoulders as a response.

The atmosphere between them had become awkward since the boy had been killed. Feng Biao did not feel this was strange though. It wasn't like they had known each other for very long before meeting.

What had been an initially warm meeting had turned chilly, things like that happened.

'But without a doubt it's me.'

Yes, Chen Lan consistently approached Feng Biao eager to strike up a conversation. It was simply him who was not reciprocating her friendliness.

"There are too few of us," Chen Lan remarked.

"Hmm?"

"There are only 10 Marked here and the exam is going to end soon."

Feng Biao didn't respond but Chen Lan continued.

"There should be twice as many of us. I'm guessing that Black Oni is the main culprit."

Feng Biao nodded his head and walked back to his tent, climbing up the ladder mindlessly.

Chen Lan watched him and sighed.

As he slept Feng Biao dreamt of an empty bottomless pit. It wasn't very scary, because in his dream he was watching himself fall into the pit on a tv screen. It was a movie, he could turn it off and nothing would affect the real him.

That was why he was content watching himself fall. The him that was falling was content as well. Because he knew the real him was watching him fall. He wasn't real so there was nothing for him to fear.

Even as the red eyes opened up at the bottom of the pit and sharp rows of fangs lunged at him he wasn't scared. Before the fangs sank into his body the real him woke up.

The sound of the drums woke Feng Biao up.

"GREEN ONI" was the shout that jolted him into action.

Immediately running out of his tent he looked down at the wall and saw multiple Red and Blue Oni, but what really caught his eye were the 5 Green Oni lumbering in the distance.

1 Green Oni was a problem, but 10 Marked could deal with it with little trouble. 5 on the other hand represented a serious threat. Coupled with the large amount of Red and Blue Oni Feng Biao knew he had to put in as much effort as possible.

All the other Marked shared his thoughts and began throwing out their Divine Abilities left and right.

Feng Biao heard Prayer after Prayer signaling Divine Abilities above C Grade were being used.

Feng Biao however chose not to use the Vajra. As he had used it in the past days he found it was a huge drain on Divinity for little return.

In the current scenario, it was basically a one-time use. He could throw it at the Oni and since it was too far to retrieve it would explode.

He found it was more cost-effective to simply chuck rocks at the Blue and Red Oni. That too killed them without wasting nearly as much Divinity.

Infusing his arm with Divinity he tossed rocks at the Oni. His shotgun-like spread easily tearing into the malleable flesh of the Oni.

Still, it wasn't perfect.

A Red Oni used its bone club and as if it was a baseball bat returned multiple rocks back to their sender.

Feng Baio was somewhat unsurprised to see them blocked by a thin sheet of ice.