Chapter 52: The Hunt (3)

The scar faced lecturer felt a terrible sense of foreboding. But he could not think of anything that the young man in front to him might do to turn the tables. But-

*Splat*

Blood splattered all over Adrian. The man looked down and found a gaping hole right at the centre of his own chest. It happened too fast- so fast that he did not even feel a bit of pain. He looked back at the beast before him.

The smile on Adrian’s face grew wider. Now, the blood besmirching his teeth not only was that of himself.

‘How?’ That was the last clear thought he ever had. His vision grew blurry.

“Why do you think I want to be a Demon Lo…” These words were the last he could clearly hear before slumping down to the ground.

His breathing stopped. His eyes were wide open- still not being able to wipe off the surprise. His heart? Only a quarter of it remained in his chest.

Adrian heaved a huge sigh of relief before dropping his own body to the ground.

‘Fuck! I was almost about to use my lifeforce.’ He thought as he closed his eyes and stabilised his breaths.

“Young master!” A familiar voice had him open his eyes again. He looked towards the source and a smile resurfaced on his face.

“I am fine. Relax.”

The running Isabella slouched on the ground and began to pant heavily. She had to run all the way from the centre of the terrain to it’s southernmost part with utmost speed without taking a moment of break.

An arrow was missing from her quiver.

After a few seconds of rest, she got up, took out some vials. Some of them had light blue liquid in it and some had green. She laid his head on her lap and began to feed him the potions.

His countenance got better after drinking all those high level potions. They were delivered by the Academy on orders of the High King- to only Adrian and Isabella of course.

She took out a towel and gentle wiped off all the blood, sweat and dirt from his face.

“Stay like this. I want to rest a bit.” He closed his eyes.

Isabella smiled in response. How could she not agree? She gently caressed his jet black hair.

Three hours passed; dawn turned into morning. Adrian slowly open his eyes- they immediately met hers. Her hand was still drowned in his messy hair.

“Good morning.” She smiled.

“Good morning.” He slowly got up and stretched.

Isabella supported him up before getting up on her own feet. She began to walk around awkwardly with shaky legs. Three hours of continuous sitting with his head on her lap took its toll on her poor legs.

“Lucky for us you teleported quite close to the Dragontail mountain. Else, I might’ve lost a few years of my life.” He said.

“Who knew you would meet the Institute Supervisor so early?”

“Anyways, good job. You completed your first mission- saving a few years of my life.”

She put a satisfied smile on her face. Her mission was to become an overwatch and immediately rush to his aid when he sent a distress signal. They had selected different types of distress signals depending on the territories. The signal for ‘Purplestar forest’?

Falling trees.

She had barely detected the fall of first tree which grabbed her attention. She brought out the monocular from her pouch and discovered the fall of a second tree. From the peak of the tall mountain, it was not that hard to detect them. But she did not make any moves. Moments later, two more fell at the same time. She was then sure- it was the distress signal.

“You can leave now. You know what to do, right?” He asked.

“Yes.” She nodded.

“Good. You did finish your first task perfectly. If nothing goes wrong with this task, I will give you a reward.”

‘Reward?!’ Her eyes sparkled. She started to imagine a plethora of scenarios- all of them lewd.

“Ouch.” Her horny train of thought crashed as he flicked her on the forehead.

“Don’t let your imagination run wild.” He pointed at his backpack far away on the ground. “Bring that here.”

She blushed before rushing to the bag and fetching it back. He took it and opened it. He brought out some green healing potions and light blue recovery potions before tossing them to her.

She accepted them and put them in her pouch. She knew that rejecting them would be just a waste of time.

“Oh yes.” He looked at the dead body of the imperial supervisor. “Bury him before you go. I don’t want its discovery to ruin the fun.”

Isabella nodded as Adrian left.

******

*Drip. Drip.*

A black eyed, elegant young man stepped out from the ocean. He had been swimming for half an hour since his arrival into the magical lands.

He stepped into the Sandy beach of the small island and shook his head. How unfortunate to teleport right on top of the sea. Fortunately, he knew how to swim and even more so- he was a water circler.

He looked around, but all he could see was sands and trees. Seeing no signs of danger, he decided to go into the small forest- under the cold shade of trees and shrubs. Thirty minutes of swimming tired his whole body.

Just before he could escape the Sandy beach and step into the cold forest-

“What do you desire?” A charming- no- a hypnotic and gentle feminine voice entered his ears.

“Who?!” He looked back in alarm, ready for battle. But he did not find anything or anyone. The beach was as serene as before.

“Don’t bother, little guy. You can never find me as long as I don’t want you to. As for who I am? Just know that I can fulfil all your wishes.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” He shrugged and turned away, going again on his own way.

“Wait. Wait. Wait!” The voice lost its previous grace.

“What?” He did not look back.

“I am saying the truth, I can really give you what you want.”

“Tsk. Since when did ghosts begin to scam people.”

“How did you-” The voice panicked. “Ahem. Fine, as long as you do something for me, I will fulfil one of your wishes. How about that?”

He did not pay any heed and went on his merry way.

“Wait! Help me out of here and I will guide you to the ultimate treasure of this place.”

He finally stopped. A smile formed on Sirius’s face.

******

*Whoosh*

“Aaaaah!” A fiery spell grazed Princess Cornelia’s shoulder. But she calmed herself and patted her burning uniform there, stopping the fire.

But that did not stop her from running at full speed on the marshy lands. Three Institute students were chasing her down. The fire spells belonged to the only caster and the only female of the trio.

Vines and roots came out from the the mud and the trees, slowing down the three.

The princess of the tier 1 kingdom was running southbound. A small green magic circle hovered.

“I will have her first, okay?” The shorter one of the males said as he licked his lips.

“Wrong. You are the only one who will be tasting a princess today.” The taller one sighed as he gave their female companion a glance.

“Oh.” The shorter one nodded in understanding. “I will return the favour one day.” He winked.

The fire caster remained nonchalant as usual.

Cornelia heard everything but her face did not betray any sign of disgust; the strong prey on the weak- that was the rule of the world. Besides, she had already planned to kill herself the moment she lost all her ways of escape.

But soon, she spotted a figure far away. She took a closer look; a smile of hope surfaced on her face. The figure was not clad in orange, but white… and red?

The Institute students also spotted the figure, and got warier. It was common sense that an average Academy student outshone an average Institute student; the selection process of the former was much more competitive after all.

So, a three against two matchup was not in their favour at all. But they had their pride; they were nobles of the Empire, students of the Institute. How could they just give up? They looked at each other and nodded. They will fight.

“Adrian!” Cornelia was surprised- pleasantly so. Others might underestimate him. But the strong recognised the strong. She knew ‘insider information’- which she got from her dear friend Isabella of course; of the five from her batch who decided to join the Hunt, he was the strongest- even more so than her level 3 friend.

Adrian glanced at his classmate before looking at the ones chasing.

A smile creeped out on his face. “Great! That battle destroyed my mood. Now, I am being gifted with some mood refreshers.”