Touch of Chaos

Jonas quickly came to his senses. Being another world or not, he didn't want to die here, and although it wasn't what he was predicting, this was the chance he was hoping for. So, he turned toward the pale blue light and let go of the tree, but instead of landing on another branch he decided to descend to the ground.

After getting a perfect landing, he ran with everything he had. Seconds after that, the two creatures struck each other, and the shock wave reversed across the place knocking down some trees. Jonas was thrown a few feet ahead.

'Damn monsters, I'm practically an ant here.'

He got up and kept running before another shock wave hit him. Now his concern was no longer with the tiger, after all, the beast had no chance of winning even being in eight. The problem now was how long he had until the other monster came after him.

'That camp is my only hope, I will cling to it to the end.'

* * *

The five members of the group rested and laughed in a relaxed manner by a fireplace. They have had many difficulties in the past, but in recent weeks they have been maintaining an easy life in the Dread Forest.

"Brother Vitor, I think we can be in the top ten if we continue at this rate", said the girl by the name of Margarida. She was so happy that she didn't contain her smile.

"That's right!" agreed another excited boy.

"I can only imagine the prizes we will win."

"Don't be so confident, the hardest part starts now. The concentration of creatures in the Dread forest increases exponentially as it deepens into it. If we're unlucky, we might even come across a rank two beast ", Vitor made a point of making it clear about the difficulties they would face.

They all gulped.

"That's would really be a great misfortune," one boy in the group agreed.

"I don't think it would be a big problem. We have the great sister Eliza with us" Daisy found, cheerful.

Eliza was a girl with black hair and green eyes, she was silent all the time, little said throughout the trip, seemed immersed in her thoughts. She was largely responsible for the safe journey here, no rank one creature was a match for her, even those who were in advanced stage of rank one could not resist more than five of her blows.

The other members of the group have so far served only as support, taking care of the weaker creatures, and weakening the strongest. They were lucky to come across Eliza at the start of the test and convince her to join the team.

"From now on our paths will separate. I'll follow the test myself."

Eliza made this one statement and rose to continue her journey. The other members were taken by surprise.

"Wait, wait, wait, don't go, if we work together, we can arrive in less time," Vitor exclaimed desperately.

"I don't think so. I've made my decision, I'm leaving, goodbye."

"Wait!" Vitor was in an internal fight, he knew this would happen at some point. A large group is useful at first because groups of creatures are small and weak, as they approach the center of the forest, the beasts begin to be drawn to groups of people while tending to ignore the loners. However, only those with great talent have the conviction that they can stay alive without the help of others.

"What's up?"

Vitor knew she wouldn't go back; he knew why Eliza wanted so desperately to come first.

"Take this map, it was made by my family for decades. It may not be so accurate, but it will save you time and guarantee you the possibility to avoid the rank two beasts."

She takes the map, give a quick look, and kept, "Thank you."

The group watched the whole scene shocked.

When Eliza was a long distance away, Margaret exclaimed, "Brother Vitor! Why did you give her our map? It was our greatest hope of getting to the Academy safely."

"That's right, Brother Vitor, I can't understand, what are we going to do now?"

"Shut up!"

Vitor couldn't stand that rigmarole anymore.

"Do you have any idea who that girl was? "

"She must be from some important noble family. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so powerful, I think it must have already come to the realm of blood purification."

"You are not far from the truth. In fact, she's from an important noble family, but not just any. She is Elizabeth Dahl.

"Ah! "

"Wow"

"Dahl?"

Everyone in the group felt their bodies falter. The Dahls were one of the four great families that once reined on the continent. Upon seeing a member of one of the great families, small nobles like them could only kneel in reverence.

"I am admiring that you have survived so far with such ignorance."

"But brother, all members of the four big families are automatically passed the Harmony-sky academy test, no need to take the test. Why is she here?"

"As I said, you are very ignorant. Elizabeth Dahl is the daughter of Hugo Dahl, an important elder of the family Dahl. She has a younger sister, Angela."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I heard about her, " said Margaret, glad to finally hear of something. "She was affected by the Touch of Chaos a year ago."

"Exactly, and as you all know there are not many who can treat this disease. When the energy of chaos inadvertently enters a person's body, that person will go through great pain and become a bloodthirsty monster like any other beast."

"Poor little girl"

"Normally, the treatment for this disease is sacrifice the patient. However, Eliza is irreducible about this, she will use all means to save her sister. There is only one doctor who has successfully treated the Touch of Chaos and he is one of the teachers of the Harmony-Sky Academy. The problem is that he refused to do the treatment, even though the Dahl family offered him great fortune."

"He's actually very brave to refuse a request from the Dahl family."

"What a heartless"

"You underestimate the importance of the Harmony-Sky academy. Even the patriarch of the Dahl family must show respect in front of a master academy teacher. So, Eliza resorted to the only mean she could think of, if she came first besides the Harmony Crystals, pills, and equipment she would earn. She will earn a voucher that will guarantee a request to a master teacher. Usually, this request is an orientation, but I'm sure she'll use it to ensure the sister's treatment.

"Now it all makes sense," Daisy said and others agreed.

"I gave Eliza the map that will ensure she arrives even earlier to her goal. Even if there is no other person who can compete with her, she will still remember my help", Vitor had an expression that said, 'behold my wisdom mere mortals!'"

"Brother Vitor is so wise!"

"Yes, no one can compare!"

"Having the favor of a member of the Dahl family is no little thing, especially being the daughter of an elder."

"All right, that's enough, let's continue our journey. Even if we lost our helper, we could still make it to the top 100. And don't worry so much about the map, I've memorized it a long time ago."

"Yes, Brother Vitor, we will do everything you say!"