* * *
“You run as fast as you can and get out of here. Tell the professor what’s happening.”
“What are you talking about?! Then what about… what about you?”
Rona shrieked, causing Ruite to slightly cover his ears.
“I’ll try to buy enough time for you to put some distance between us. You’re a terrible runner anyway.”
Ignoring Rona’s pleas about how that didn’t matter and that they should escape together, Ruite pushed her back.
Right now, two roles were necessary: one person to report this critical crisis since the crystal magic tools weren’t functioning, and one person to hold the monster’s feet for even a moment.
It didn’t take much thought to realize who was suited for which role.
Rona was slow, so it would take time for her to deliver the message, but it was certainly better than her facing this evolved monster.
Therefore, he had to be the one to stall it, even if only for a short while.
“Once I feel like you’ve reached a safe distance, I’ll start running too.”
He wasn’t crazy enough to try and subjugate a monster that looked to be at least Grade 2 all by himself.
Since he was confident in his running, his plan was to bolt as soon as a safe gap opened up between Rona and himself.
“……Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I want to live just as much as you do. So go, hurry.”
After a moment of hesitation, Rona grabbed Ruite’s hand, telling him he must follow her.
Then, clenching her teeth, she began to run like mad.
The evolved monster seemed to flinch and watch Rona for a second, but its gaze soon shifted back to Ruite in front of it.
It seemed the creature instinctively recognized the person harboring stronger mana within their body.
The moment Ruite took a deep breath and drew his sword, a massive shadow fell over him.
The monster raised its giant forepaw high into the air.
Then, with terrifying speed, it slammed it down toward the ground where Ruite stood.
Boom—!
A massive rupture sounded as a cloud of dust rose.
Having jumped back just in time to avoid the attack, Ruite clutched his chest, heart racing.
“I’m going to die of a heart attack before I even get hit by an attack.”
With the sound of swirling stone debris, the monster lifted its foot again.
The ground where the attack had swept through was gouged out in the shape of the creature’s footprint.
Ruite sharpened his senses.
Rona hadn’t made it very far yet.
It would be dangerous if he didn’t deal with this thing a little longer.
As he readjusted his grip on his sword, the monster attacked relentlessly, as if refusing to give him even a moment’s breath.
It swung its forepaw wide, sending a sharp blade of wind toward Ruite.
Ruite was busy just trying to parry the attacks with his sword to change their trajectory.
‘Good grief. I was working so hard to avoid being killed by Chester in the future, but who would have thought my life would be threatened by this monster right now?’
“Huff…… haa……”
Ruite glanced down at his sword.
The blade was badly damaged from blocking those sharp wind strikes just now.
That much damage from simple attacks?
On the other hand, the monster looked as fresh as if it hadn’t even started fighting.
No, was it just his imagination, or did it look even more energetic than before?
Regardless, simply defending wasn’t going to be enough to stall for time.
He figured inflicting even a tiny bit of damage would be advantageous for buying time to escape later.
Ruite kept his distance from the monster, dodging the fierce attacks flying his way.
He broke into a cold sweat; there were more than a few moments where his life felt truly on the line.
The monster currently looked like a bipedal wolf with two new legs sprouting from its back.
In terms of appearance, it was similar to a Centaur from mythology.
If that was the case, there was only one blind spot in its vision: the hind legs.
As its body grew larger, it gained advantages, but clear gaps were created as well.
Ruite gradually narrowed the distance toward the monster’s hind legs, then plunged his sword into its thigh and injected his mana.
Red flames flared up around the sword and quickly spread, large enough to envelop the monster’s entire body.
As the monster thrashed and let out a painful cry, Ruite collapsed onto the ground.
‘It would have been nice if it burned up easily like other Grade 4 or 5 monsters with this much firepower.’
“……”
As the creature began to struggle violently, the fire Ruite had set was sucked into the monster’s body and vanished.
For someone who had poured in mana with serious intent, the only damage he had managed was a sword mark on the thigh and a charred mane.
“Well, as expected.”
Ruite stood up, briskly brushing the dirt off his palms.
He stood face-to-face with the monster, which was now furious from the previous attack.
“Do you know what the final resort is for winning a battle?”
The monster’s eyes rolled back wildly, as if it actually understood human speech.
“It’s running away.”
Ruite quickly turned and kicked off the ground, starting to sprint. Rona’s presence felt quite far away now.
He had succeeded in creating a decent gap.
In truth, even if he hadn’t, it was becoming impossible to face that monstrously strong thing alone anymore.
If his attack’s firepower had been just a little stronger, he might have been able to handle it further, but producing any more output was currently impossible for him.
‘If only I had something that could act as a catalyst……’
But thinking about it was useless.
Even though he had been possessed into a fantasy novel, he didn’t have any dreams of becoming a great hero.
After all, the character he possessed was destined to become a villain and be killed by the protagonist he loved.
As long as he could avoid that miserable ending—whether he became an extra or a mob character after that—he would be satisfied as long as he could live comfortably.
“Ah, you’re damn fast!”
Ruite shouted as he looked back at the pursuing monster.
He didn’t want to have his life unfairly threatened by that thing here.
He was determined to survive somehow, get his engagement broken by Chester, twist the death ending, and live a simple life.
Though he was running with all his might with that resolve, the speed of the creature, now unshackled from its limits, was incredible.
Furthermore, Ruite had already used up a lot of stamina in the previous fight.
Encountering the professor Rona went to get would be the best-case scenario.
The gap between the monster and Ruite repeated a cycle of dangerously closing and widening.
Ruite bit his lip hard and racked his brain.
In the inner area of the vast mountain, Chester lightly flicked the sword he was holding.
Green fluid from the monster’s corpse splattered onto the dirt floor.
Chester massaged his stiff shoulders after injecting a small amount of mana into the corpse of the third Grade 3 monster he had just killed.
This many points was fairly satisfying.
He had been worried because he’d heard rumors that the exam difficulty spiked in the third year, but it was better than expected.
Above all, the battle with the monsters felt like it had relieved some of his built-up stress.
Since the 30 minutes were almost up, he figured it was time to head toward the mountain entrance.
There would be a penalty if he didn’t keep to the time.
Chester sheathed his sword and began to walk slowly.
There was a fork in the road leading to the inner mountain area.
Chester, who had initially taken the left path, was heading back the way he came when a chilling sensation suddenly washed over him.
While he instinctively froze, someone suddenly burst out from the path on the right.
“Huff……!”
The other person seemed startled to see Chester as well, clutching their heart and gasping for breath.
He thought it was an unexpected person.
If one focused even slightly on their sensing abilities, they could easily tell that Grade 3 monsters were gathered in the inner area; yet, it was the somewhat eccentric Rona who had emerged from there.
“Chester!”
However, her condition looked unusual.
Her face was pale with terror as if she had seen a ghost, and she was dripping with sweat.
Her neatly tied pigtails were now a disheveled mess.
“You…… is something wrong?”
“Something terrible happened! No, wait! This isn’t the time to be hanging onto you……”
Seeing a panicked Rona tearing at her hair, it was clear this was no ordinary matter.
And at that moment, Chester felt the powerful mana of a monster coming from the path to the right.
“What’s going on?”
“A monster…… it evolved.”
“What?”
At the unrealistic news, Chester’s voice rose slightly.
“I-I don’t know how it happened either. The magic tools that restrict a monster’s speed aren’t working, and I can’t see the crystal tools nearby. So I have to go tell the professors right now.”
Whitmore tended to train students in a Spartan fashion to cultivate great talent. Even so, a monster evolution?
There was no way the professors had set the test parameters with that in mind.
Besides, if a Grade 3 evolved, it would be Grade 2 at least.
How were mere students, who hadn’t even taken their mana-user exams yet, supposed to face that?
In short, there was only one answer: this was an unforeseen accident.
“Then did you just run away from that monster?”
“That’s right. Thanks to Lu—Ruite buying time……”
“……Why is his name coming up there?”
* * *
