The monkeys were swarming toward Lith while squeaking and jumping. He didn’t wait for them to close in on him and charged toward them instead.
Lith had learned about this particular species of monkey. They were territorial, a little too much; they wouldn’t stop until the creature that intruded their lands died or escaped out of their sight and they were also way smarter than beasts of the same rank and prowess. Trying to run from them was as stupid as they would keep chasing, and having them lose one’s trail was an exhausting and difficult job.
Lith, therefore, didn’t run away as he knew it was a pointless thing to do. He decided to fight them head-on because that was much easier. The monkeys in front were low rank, and his prowess of a Rank 6 made him too overpowered against this weak bunch.
The two parties closed in on each other and just as a monkey at the frontline was about to slash his sharp claws onto Lith’s face, Lith willed the wind elements and rose above in the air, dumbfounding the monkeys. He gazed at them from above with an indifferent expression and snapped his fingers, instantly causing the ground below the monkeys to tremor and a crack to form. Many monkeys fell into the crack and those that didn’t panicked and ran away from the site.
Looking at the monkeys running away, Lith cast Earth Wall, a Rank 2 Earth spell that raised the ground up to 5 meters in the air and formed a st.u.r.dy wall. The st.u.r.diness, as well as the height, was dependent on the rank of the spell; the higher the rank, the more the height and st.u.r.diness of the Earth Wall.
The monkeys were not even a meter in height and had a difficult time crossing the Earth wall that surrounded them. They quickly stopped their futile efforts and formed a pyramid by climbing on top of each other—showing their high intelligence. Climbing on top of each other, the monkeys started to escape.
But would Lith let them do so? The answer was no. He cast a Rank 2 Fire spell—Fire Wall, and had it surround the Earth wall.
The monkeys fell into the fiery flames as they jumped over the st.u.r.dy wall and squeaked in pain. Their pained cries resounded up to a few kilometers in radius.
Since this was the monkey territory, there naturally were a lot of monkeys here and hearing the cries of their brethren, monkeys from far away came running to their rescue.
From high above in the air, Lith saw a lot of monkeys from all four directions rushing towards the spot he was at. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. Losing the trail of so many monkeys was difficult and would also have a lot of his spiritual power drained. It wasn’t the best choice to make and the only thing he could do was exterminate these monkeys.
“If you so very much wanna die, then be my guest.” Lith said indifferently as hundreds of monkeys came rushing to rescue the trapped monkeys.
…
Main Building, Abalax World Academy.
“Hi everyone~, are you all doing good?” A pet.i.te girl wearing colorful clothes said on a live stream which was being displayed on a big screen present at the central plaza of the main building.
The Survival Tournament was streaming live and was available for everyone on the Sky Island to see. The academy couldn’t just show the students partic.i.p.ating in the tournament as that would be boring to watch. Thus they chose to add hosts which were two fourth-year students. One boy and one girl.
Currently, the girl was the one hosting and on the screen and everyone was watching her happily.
“Wooohooo! It’s Vanir-senpai again this year! Let’s gooooo!” A student in the crowd shouted as he saw the stream.
“Vanir-senpai I am doing great!” Another student shouted from the crowd.
“Idiot she can’t listen to your responses.” The student beside the one who shouted previously said.
“Shut up man.” Another student beside said hearing this.
“I am Vanir, a fourth-year, and joining me is Kleo, my cla.s.smate. We both will be your hosts for today and without further ado, let us all look at the Survival Tournament.” The pet.i.te girl, Vanir, said cheerfully.
The screen changed and on the display were thousands of small screens, looking at which, everyone felt lost and confused. They had no idea where to look but in the next instant, all the small screens vanished on the big display was Lith who was visible. He was standing high above the ground and was looking down at the monkeys crying in pain.
“Oh my, oh my, look what do we have here! Our first conflict of the day in the tournament is happening with none other than the number 1 first-year, the Vampire Prince, Lith Evure! Let us replay and see how things escalated so much!” Vanir said cheerfully from the studio.
The students and staff alike were surprised looking at such a scene and were curious to know how it happened. Vanir said things as if she could read their minds and they were happy about it.
The clip was replayed and Lith was seen trapping the monkeys and having them suffer.
“SO COOOL! HOT d.a.m.n!” A student watching the stream in central plaza yelled.
“HOLY s.h.i.t THAT’S INDEED VERY COOL!” Another student said from the crowd.
A student looking at these two people cheer so enthusiastically, nudged his elbow to his friend on the side and asked, “are these two gay or something? When Vanir-senpai was on screen, they didn’t cheer so enthusiastically. What’s with the sudden change?”
The friend who was bothered looked at him and said, “shush! Stop talking and don’t disturb me. I am in the midst of learning a few things.” He turned his gaze back to watching Lith on the screen, completely ignoring his friend.
“What the f.u.c.k?” The student cursed as he saw his own friend act like the ones cheering so enthusiastically. Just what is making them so interested?
The student, not understanding the hype, looked back at the screen and as he did so, he was dumbfounded looking at what Lith was doing.
…
Blue Haze World.
“UWAN-AH-HAH-AH!” Monkeys yelled in rage as they charged towards Lith.
He was in mid-air and they couldn’t attack him, so they racked their brains and picked up rocks from the ground and started throwing them at him.
The monkeys had the strength of a Rank 2 and if hit by the rock thrown by them, any other Rank 2 had a high chance of getting mildly injured.
Lith extended his wings out and dodged all the rocks thrown at him. The speed and strength at which the rocks were thrown at him was nothing. He flew over the heads of the monkeys and had the monkeys run around in circles to chase him.
Within a few minutes, the monkeys were all collectively gathered just a few meters away from the trapped monkeys, and noticing this, Lith smiled and said, “no matter how rational, monkeys still will be monkeys.”
He cast a Time Slow spell on the monkeys within that area and their movements slowed down a lot. He then took out his bow from his ring and started shooting arrows equipped with fire spells.
Lith had not revealed to anyone that he had an all-elemental affinity. In the entrance exam, he had only shown six affinities which were: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, s.p.a.ce, and Time.
Throughout the various tests and a.s.signments that he got in the academy, he never once used any other element. This was done to keep his trump cards hidden and he could get any job done with just these six anyway. There really was no need for him to reveal everything.
Within a matter of a minute, Lith had killed around two hundred monkeys with the average speed of killing three per second. His one arrow was enough to tear through the skull of three monkeys, coupled with the fire spells, it was insta-kill to whoever the arrow hit.
The cries of the dying monkeys once again resonated and many more swarmed in. All the monkeys had left what they were doing and ran towards where Lith was at after hearing the cry for help from their brethren.
It didn’t take long for all the monkeys from this small territory to leave what they were doing and come rescue their brethren. Within a matter of minutes, thousands of monkeys rushed towards the river bank.
Lith didn’t let the monkeys near him. As soon as they crossed the jungle and neared the river bank, he shot his arrow at them and killed them. He changed directions mid-air with the help of his wings and killed the influx of monkeys coming at him from all directions one by one.
Ten minutes pa.s.sed.
Lith was now sitting atop a mountain pile of monkey corpses. He was trying to stabilize his breathing as he sat there and was staring at the s.p.a.ce in front of him.
‘I thought I was going to get a handicap or something from the academy but here it looks like the academy is bent on providing me the hardest obstacles to have my scores match up with the rest. Heh… do you think this much is enough to stop me?’ Lith rested his chin on his hand and smiled.
…
Auditorium, Main Building.
Emilia frowned as she looked at the thing that situation Lith was in. This wasn’t supposed to happen. There was only supposed to be a small group of monkeys at the start and things weren’t bound to escalate to this degree.
After the small group of monkeys were killed, the first obstacle would be cleared. The entire monkey territory wasn’t supposed to attack Lith like that. It definitely felt rigged to Emilia and she got up from her seat and walked to the center of the stage.
She looked at the staff sitting in random seats and then gazed at Eric. “Whoever has rigged the tournament, better come out clean right now. I’ll forgive you for it and things won’t escalate. However, if you don’t, the punishment would be severe if found out later.”
Everyone present in the auditorium panicked hearing such a thing from Emilia. They had no idea that someone had rigged the tournament. Though they all knew that they were innocent, they still felt fear because it was a big issue and the blame could come on them if they weren’t careful enough.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Do you think that I did it?” Eric shouted from his seat.
“Did I say you did that?” Emilia retorted.
Though she had only spent a week with them, it didn’t change the fact that they were her students now. So it was only natural that she wouldn’t let any harm befall them.
“Then why are you looking at me like that?” Eric said frowning.
“Eric, shut up.” Emilia said calmly.
Everyone got surprised hearing such a rude remark from Emilia who never once said anything even mildly rude. They wondered what caused her to be so angry.
Eric on the other hand was about to lash out at her for talking so rudely to him in front of everyone present but realized that he was lower in position than her and provoking Emilia would only result in him being thrown out of the academy. The CNC was against him and was watching every move of his, if he did anything wrong now, they sure were to kick him out. Thus, he kept his mouth shut and didn’t argue back.
Emilia noticed a change from Eric but chose to ignore it. There were more important matters at hand. “I’ll give you ten seconds, whoever has rigged the tournament, come out.” Emilia called out once again
Everyone looked at each other and tried to find out whether anyone near them was showing any suspicious signs. If they did, they decided to inform Emilia about it.
Ten seconds pa.s.sed.
n.o.body was able to find anyone suspicious and they gave up their search after the time was over and looked at Emilia.
“Alright then, don’t blame me for what happens later.” Emilia said a simple line and got back to her seat.
…
Dark Mist Mountain Range, Blue Haze World.
On top of a hill, s.p.a.ce fluctuated and Lucas teleported out. He looked around himself and found that he was surrounded by a mist which made it difficult for him to see things clearly.
‘So Dark Mist Mountain again. Good.’ Lucas thought to himself.
He started walking around randomly at first and pretended as if he was lost. He b.u.mped into trees, stumbled due to hitting rocks on the ground, grunted in pain, and continued his way down to the base of the hill.
Though it seemed as if he was giving out a normal reaction to what one would have when faced with their vision blocked; if one looked closely at Lucas, one would notice that he was moving on a fixed path despite his clumsy movement.
Lucas had a destination in mind and had to quickly move there. There wasn’t time to waste but he also couldn’t stand out and thus had to behave like that.
A few minutes pa.s.sed.
Lucas arrived at a spot that had no mist in its surrounding. He was still in the Dark Mist Mountain Range. The area had few such no mist spots and this was one of them.
Lucas looked around and saw a tree with black leaves, standing out among the other trees that had grey leaves. He walked closer to the tree and reaching it, he simply sat down, taking support of it.
“Phew. Finally, I can see a little. I should rest a bit.”
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