Chapter 120 - wilderness survival 3
The Orc Lord raised its massive axe and glared at us.
Until now, it had deliberately stayed out of the fight.
It had wanted to toy with us.
But now...
Its army was gone.
A furious roar escaped its throat.
"GRAAAAAAH!"
The Orc Lord suddenly charged toward me, since I was the closest target.
I immediately activated Void Step and disappeared from its path.
The Orc Lord slammed its axe into the ground where I had been standing only a moment ago.
It quickly changed direction.
This time, it charged toward Luna.
Luna tightened her grip around her sword and prepared herself.
She immediately tried to retreat using her Light-based movement art.
But the Orc Lord seemed to anticipate her movement.
It swung its massive axe toward the direction she was moving, hoping to catch her off guard.
Luna’s eyes widened.
She immediately stopped.
The axe passed dangerously close to her.
I appeared behind the Orc Lord.
"Not happening."
I swung Eclipse.
Space Mana surged through the blade.
"Space Slash."
The attack consumed a considerable amount of mana, but I didn’t hesitate.
The curved blade of spatial energy tore through the air and struck the Orc Lord’s arm.
Slash!
Its hand was cleanly severed.
The Orc Lord let out another furious roar.
Normally, a cry like that would have summoned the remaining orcs to its aid.
But there were none left.
Elara immediately saw the opening.
She spread Water Magic across the ground beneath the Orc Lord.
Then—
Crack!
Lightning surged through the water.
The Orc Lord’s body convulsed as electricity coursed through it.
It froze for a brief moment.
That was all the opening I needed.
Luna rushed forward.
She coated her sword in Light Mana and struck toward one of the Orc Lord’s legs.
The blade cut into it.
The Orc Lord ignored the pain and swung its axe toward Luna.
She immediately raised her sword and blocked the attack.
The impact pushed her backward, but she quickly recovered.
I saw another opening.
I rushed forward.
Eclipse pierced directly through the Orc Lord’s chest.
The blade entered its heart.
However, the initial force wasn’t enough.
I immediately reinforced my body with Mana and Gravity.
Then I pushed forward with everything I had.
The blade pierced deeper.
The Orc Lord’s enormous body suddenly went still.
Its eyes lost their light.
It collapsed.
I slowly pulled Eclipse from its chest.
The blade was completely clean.
As always, the sword had absorbed the blood.
I looked toward Elara.
She had used a huge portion of her mana to electrocute the Orc Lord.
That brief moment she created had been invaluable.
Without it...
I might have missed my opportunity.
Luna walked toward me.
"How about we take a break?"
"We should recover our mana before continuing."
I nodded.
"Yeah."
"We’ve used quite a lot."
After collecting the mana cores from the monsters, we moved farther away and found a suitable place to rest.
We sat together and discussed the battle.
We complimented one another on our coordination and talked about the moments when each of us had supported the others.
It was surprisingly smooth.
We had only fought together for a short time, yet our teamwork was already improving.
"We should keep fighting like this," Luna said.
I nodded.
"Agreed."
Afterward, we started eating.
Even though we were in the middle of wilderness training, food was the last thing we had to worry about.
I reached into my Space Storage and pulled out several hotdogs.
An evil grin appeared on my face.
I originally planned to use one of them to prank Amy later.
But then my gaze shifted toward Luna.
She was sitting beside Elara, happily talking and laughing.
Her expression was completely relaxed.
I stared at her for a moment.
Then I quietly put the hotdog away.
’...What am I doing?’
For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to prank her.
Instead, I took out several sauces and let Luna and Elara choose what they wanted.
Soon, we were eating hotdogs together.
Since I had stored them inside my Space Storage immediately after they had been prepared, they were still warm.
We laughed and joked around while eating.
For a moment...
It didn’t feel like wilderness training at all.
Then my Perception suddenly detected something approaching.
I immediately put down my food.
Luna and Elara noticed my change in expression.
"What is it?" Luna asked.
I grabbed Eclipse.
"Something’s coming."
We all stood up and drew our weapons.
A moment later, something emerged from between the trees.
My expression changed.
"What the hell is that?"
It looked like a massive dog.
But it was nothing like an ordinary beast.
Parts of its body were rotten.
Some areas of its flesh had already fallen away, revealing the grotesque structure beneath.
Its eyes were filled with nothing but madness.
The creature suddenly charged.
Its speed was incredible.
But my Perception tracked every movement.
I immediately dropped all pretenses.
This time...
I was taking it seriously.
Darkness spread across the ground.
"Dark Bind."
Dark vines erupted from the earth and wrapped tightly around the creature’s body.
The beast struggled violently.
Elara immediately acted.
She summoned Lightning Magic and sent a powerful current through the restrained creature.
Its body convulsed.
Luna moved next.
She coated her sword with Ice Mana and swung.
Slash!
One of the creature’s arms was severed.
The moment it fell to the ground, the wound began freezing over.
Luna stared at the creature seriously.
"This is an Alien Beast."
I looked at her.
"Alien Beast?"
She nodded.
"They’re corrupted beasts."
"They’re one of the greatest threats facing the world."
"Even my mother is still fighting against them."
"No one knows exactly where they came from..."
"Or why they appeared."
My expression became serious.
The moment she said that name...
Fragments of memory surfaced in my mind.
I had heard about them from Mom before.
Alien Beasts.
Creatures that seemed to exist for nothing except destruction.
They possessed no reason.
No morality.
No hesitation.
They simply killed.
The thought immediately disappeared.
I returned my attention to the creature in front of me.
The beast was still struggling against my Darkness.
It didn’t care that its body was falling apart.
It only wanted to reach us.
I didn’t hesitate.
I reinforced Eclipse with Gravity.
Then I swung.
Slash!
The blade severed the creature’s head.
Its massive body collapsed.
But even after losing its head...
Its body continued twitching.
I narrowed my eyes.
"..."
I raised my hand.
"Ice Bullet."
Whoosh!
The projectile pierced through the creature’s remaining body.
Only then did it finally stop moving.
We stared at the corpse from a distance.
It was simply too disgusting to stand near for long.
"How did an Alien Beast get here?" I asked.
Luna shook her head.
"I don’t know."
"It must have somehow slipped through the border."
I frowned.
That was troubling.
Even if the creature had somehow crossed the border...
Why had it appeared here?
Far away, our instructor watched the entire battle.
His eyes narrowed when the Alien Beast appeared.
He had been prepared to intervene immediately.
But after seeing us deal with it ourselves, his expression relaxed slightly.
Still...
His attention remained fixed on the corpse.
’How did an Alien Beast get this far inside?’
He increased his Perception and continued observing us carefully.
He couldn’t afford to let anything happen to the participants under his supervision.
Especially not us.
Meanwhile, we continued walking through the forest.
Eventually, we discovered a river.
The sound of flowing water reached our ears.
We approached it and looked around.
The scenery was beautiful.
The river reflected the sunlight, while a gentle breeze moved through the surrounding trees.
Not far away, several deer had come to drink from the water.
For a while, we simply watched them.
Eventually, we found a large stone beside the river.
We sat down and made ourselves comfortable.
The breeze gently brushed against us.
Luna’s long, pure-white hair flowed with the wind.
I stared at her for a moment.
I couldn’t help but become mesmerized.
Then I immediately realized what I was doing and looked away.
Unfortunately...
Luna noticed.
A small grin appeared on her face.
She moved closer to me.
"What are you looking at?"
I immediately became flustered.
"I..."
"I was..."
My words became completely scrambled.
Luna covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.
I took a breath and forced myself to speak normally.
"I was looking at the scenery."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"The scenery."
I nodded seriously.
Luna finally burst into laughter.
She covered her mouth as she tried to contain herself.
I looked at her in annoyance.
"Hey!"
"Why are you laughing at me?"
I puffed out my cheeks.
That only made her laugh harder.
After that, we continued talking about the Alien Beast.
Luna and I shared what we knew about them, comparing the information we had learned from our families and our own experiences.
Neither of us knew much about where they truly came from.
But one thing was certain.
They were dangerous.
And the fact that one had somehow managed to enter this forest was concerning.
After resting long enough to recover our strength and mana, we finally stood up.
"We should keep moving," I said.
Luna nodded.
"Yeah."
Elara also stood up and adjusted her equipment.
We continued deeper into the forest.
This time, however, I kept my Perception spread around us.
I carefully monitored everything within my range.
The movement of the trees.
The sounds of animals.
The presence of monsters.
Even the slightest disturbance in the surrounding space.
After encountering that Alien Beast, I wasn’t going to lower my guard.
Who knew?
Another one might suddenly appear.
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This is for today other 2 is tomorrow 🫡