Gains

"Loras, Now!" Krios shouted and Loras went to action.

Using his fastest movement speed, he shot towards the direction of the fruits. The Infernal tiger noticed him and changed trajectory.

"Not so fast kitty." Krios muttered and he blasted off towards the Infernal Tiger.

Before the beast can reach Loras, Krios arrived in front of it and used the shaft of his spear to stop the tiger. Infusing mana into his arms, he mightily pushed back the beast and it was sent back a couple of meters away.

Krios used his blazing steps yet again and he reached the tiger before it had the chance to correct its bearings.

While Krios was busy with the tiger, Loras was able to pick six golden mana fruits in total. Then he sprinted back to where he came from and concealed his mana.

The Tiger roared as it tried to fend off Krios and flames blasted off its mouth sending Krios flying back due to the force of the fire breath.

It followed the flying body of Krios and its paws struck Krios squarely on the chest causing him to cough up blood.

Thanks his affinity to fire, Krios barely felt the heat of the flaming attack minimizing the damage he sustained. Both Krios and The tiger noticed the missing fruits, and the tiger roared in rage.

"Krios Let's go!" Loras screamed from somwhere but Krios knew that running away was never an option. The tiger would follow them regardless.

"It's time to end this." Krios muttered wiping the blood off the side of his lips.

Krios and the tiger moved at the same time and they were all of a sudden within two meters off each other. Krios parried the tiger's pounce with his spear but the tiger's overwhelming strength sent him flying back once more.

He hit multiple trees in the process causing him to cough up blood even more. A broken tree branch also gave him a nasty cut on his arm.

The tiger sped towards him once more, but Krios had a card up his sleeve.

When the Tiger was within five meter,

"Pyro Sphere!" Krios activated his other newly acquired battle art.

Both him and the tiger were locked inside a dome of fire about twenty meters in diameter and five meters tall.

The tiger stopped in confusion, not able to comprehend the change in environment.

'This cover should do it.' Krios did not want Loras or anyone to see him use chaos magic yet so he utilized the dome of fire to cover his final attack.

A blue fure pheoenix appeared floating on top of his hand. It was now twice the size of his palms. But he did not stop there. He infused the fire phoenix with his chaos energy and its wings started to have streaks of purple on it.

"Chaos Phoenix." Called out and the phoenix screeched loudly before flying towards the direction of the disoriented beast.

The following explosion rocked the earth and the surrounding area. But most of the impact was held inside the dome of fire.

"What the hell was that?" Loras asked himself. He knew Krios unleashed something powerful inside his dome of fire but he could not see nor hear what was happening inside.

"And his sphere has grown so much since the first time I saw it. It's unbelievable!"

When the dust settled. Krios saw the Infernal Tiger laying in the middle of the creater caused by the explosion. It was still alive, but severely injurde with blood running from multiple wounds.

Krios new he had to end its misery so he flashed forward using his blazing steps and pierced his spear into the Tiger's neck finally ending its life.

"It's done." He said as he say down beside the Tiger corpse.

The pyro sphere got undone and Loras was able to see what exactly happened inside the flaming cage.

"Holy shit, he actually killed the Infernal Tiger!" Loras exclaimed as he sped toward's Krios' way.

"You are fucking nuts!" Loras said as he arrived and sat beside Krios.

"I'm too tired disagree with you." Krios said with a smile.

"Holy cow, that thing was way above us in cultivation but you actually slew it!"

"By the way, take this." Loras gave him a medicinal pill and he took it. Immediately, his wounds started to slowly heal. With the cut on his arm visibly closing at a slow rate.

"Thanks for that." He thanked Loras.

"I have six fruits here. When you killed the tiger, the Tree quicly died as well so I was unable to get any more." Loras gave all six to Krios but he inly took three and put it inside his storage ring.

"You take the other half. You helped get it so you deserve it." Krios said. Loras hesitantly took it and placed it inside his own storage ring. But he believed that Krios did all the hardwork, thus he deserved all of it.

"What are you going to do with the tiger corpse?" Loras asked.

"I don't know yet, but I'll be taking it with me. I'll think about what I'd do with it once we're out of here."

"Okay. Let's have you rest for a while then we'll continue on our way."

"No, I'm fine now. We lost precious time dealing with the tiger. Let's go." Krios stood up and waved his hand. The Tiger corpse vanished and was placed inside his storage ring occupying eigjty percent of the space within.

"Are you sure? You're still bleeding slightly."

"I'm fine thanks to you. By the way, let's not tell anyone about our gains for now. We don't want any unnecessary attention on us."

"Yeah okay. I understand." Loras knew that it would be harder to explain how two mid Mana Compression realm mages managed to not just injure, but kill a Mid Reconvergence realm mana beast. So it's better they stay silent about it.

Both of them continued their pace towards the direction of the academy. They did not feel any pressure at all since the gains they have obtained with their time fighting with the Infernal Tiger was worth more than the time they have spent.

On the other parts of the forest, battleas were raging on with students going against students, while other were fighting against mana beasts. Some of them have even been rescued having been injured severely by powerul beasts.

Krios and Loras shot forward unimpeded. They realized that the surrounding are was the territory of the infernal tiger, which might explain why there was no other mana beasts in the vicinity.

After about an hour of their unobstructed pace, they started ti hear the sounds of battle. Most of the student pairs have now converge into an area roughly half a kilometer wide at the center of the forest.

Battle arts exploded here and there, and they can hear mana beasts roaring loudly all around them. It was a chaotic scene but Krios and Loras pushed through not minding the activity happening all around.

On the same are as Krios, one pair of students were also running for it.

"I can feel most of them to the right of us. Let's move slightly to the left to evade them." The boy suggested.

"Right. Let's avoid confrontations. Let them busy themselves with each other and waste their time with useless fighting." His pair, another boy answered.

Unfortunately for them, Krios had the same idea so he and Loras also veered left.

The two boys spotted Krios and his partner and one of them immediately shot a bolt of lightning towards Krios and Loras.

They were quick to notice the attack and was able to evade it. But Krios did not let it slide and threw a fireball back.

The two pairs exchanged attacks while simultaneously running towards the end of the forest. Both of them were relentless in their pursuit of slowing each other down.

"These pesky brats!" The other boy shouted as he released a strong bolt of lightning aimed at Krios.

It almost hit Krios but he was able to dodge it the ast minute moving towards the back of a tree for protection.

"That almost got me."

"You okay?" Loras asked.

"Yeah, don't stop, we're almost there!" Krios shouted back.

The race was neck and neck and there was about a hundred meters left till the academy for the two pairs.

Right before the thirty meter mark, Loras discreetly moved closer to the two boys on their side. The two boys coninued running, unaware of his presence.

And just when, they were about to enter the clearing right before the end of the forest, Loras landed a decisive attack that sent them both flying back a couple meters.

"Damn you!" One of the boys shouted

"I will not forgive you for this you brat!" The other added.

This gave Krios and Loras the lead and they reached the academy as first place.

"That was a nice attack Loras!" Krios patted his friend on the back."

"T-thanks." Loras answered as he was gasping for air.

"No! Thank you! We wouldn't have come first if you didn't do what you did!"

Loras only smiled, happy that he was able to do something for Krios in return.

"Congratulations on winning first place." The professor said as he walked towards them.

"You may now go back to your dorm and wait for further announcements regarding your prize." He added.

"Understood professor!"