The large groups of different collaborating beasts turned their heads towards the puny hunters targeting their lives. Inaudible words and screams that seemed to have no meaning were taunted, and moments later, different water, metal, and earth spells were sent toward both trios on both sides of the cavern. Elijah was furious as the trio returned to behind the large rock formation while Trey was busy erecting different sized earth walls to give them more options for cover when dealing with these beasts. So far no one was hurt, which would be a problem since Elijah had no idea how to use healing water magic.
“NIKO YOU IDIOT!” Elijah yelled at the kid who was going to be the death of them all.
“We have to face these beasts head on, their shells are hard. That spikey crab uses metal magic, so be careful.” Elijah quickly gave Alexia and Trey a battle plan, and then quickly shot out to the right where the different beasts were walking slowly toward them. Speed seemed to be their weakness, so Elijah slightly used his flight ability to target outliers closer to the wall of the cavern. Small blades of water were sent through the soft skin of the humanoid turtles, and waves of water submerged and drowned the spikey crabs. Thanks to the ruckus on the left side of the cavern, the beast's attention was mainly focused on them, even when they caught sight of the weak looking trio.
After returning to the section of earth walls, Elijah erected a water barrier to give them time to observe their surroundings. Two large cave entrances on the far side of the cavern were seen, which is where these beasts migrated from. However, during this time, Elijah had an idea pop into his head. Both hands raised to his chest as he sent a wave of water into the large pool of water, which added to his spell and moved toward a group of ten beasts. With exceptional control, Elijah watched as the beasts struggled to remove themselves from a bubble of water that seemed to be slightly moving in a vortex motion.
Dead. All the beasts died, and all Elijah had to do was combine his own water magic with the mana filled water in the environment.
Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard that shortly illuminated the beasts with large shadows. Elijah ran around the left side of the cavern after signaling to his group. “We need to regroup with them!”
Both Alexia and Trey nodded and followed along while releasing small attacks that would slightly damage the beasts in between the rock formations and water pools. The sight that they saw was a large pool of blood with a familiar person laying on top of it.
Ben. A prism shaped piece of metal was pierced into the center of his abdomen. Death was a certainty.
Elijah’s knees buckled at the sight of the scene. However, after seeing Niko and Cora completely okay, he was angered. This probably wouldn’t have happened if…
Alexia started screaming. “WHERE IS THE EXAMINER! WHERE IS THE EXAMINER!” But was later startled by Elijah’s laughs.
“Hahahaha, THIS IS REAL LIFE!” The sight of blood and guts spilling out of a fellow human caused his world to flip upside down. The idea that this was something that was truly happening was having trouble hitting Elijah’s mind. In desperation, Elijah’s madness creeped out of his mouth resulting in the screams of both Cora, Niko, and Ben. Elijah had gone insane.
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“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM! HELP US KILL THESE BEASTS! ONE OF THEM HAS AN ORANGE CORE!”
The words of Niko resonated through the mind of everyone but Elijah, and they went to work at throwing different spells at the abnormally large spikey crab with a metal tail. However, every attack did absolutely no damage to this strong beast, but only angered it. Simple elements were not going to work. Only ice, and with Cora’s simplistic view of her element, death was inevitable.
Elijah stood up on his feet once he noticed a humanoid turtle walking towards him from behind. The rhythmic zombie-like footsteps woke him up, and with a wave of his hand, the turtle fell to the floor with the top half of its body hitting first. Elijah was in his feelings, and trying to understand why it was such a burden to feel and view the sights around him. It didn’t feel real. However, one fact was true. Elijah cared for Alexia, and also was his motivation to preserve the lives of everyone around him. The quick steps of Elijah astonished everyone fighting for their lives, and they quickly saw a distortion in the space in front of them. The tail of the metal cancrix had been cleanly chopped off, and what followed was its body being split in half directly after a metal spike tore through a crack in the fabric of space.
“What the he–?!” The remaining beasts and humans went silent at the sight of a strong figure being so easily defeated. And after regaining confidence, the group joined to finish the fight, but was left in despair as the aftermath of emotions coming from Trey echoed through the cavern.
Niko was the first to speak after incinerating the final kappa, the humanoid turtle. “Were you hiding your strength?! What kind of affinity is that?!”
Questions only made by everyone but Alexia were ignored by the seemingly unstable Elijah. “Don’t ask, don’t tell. Obviously, that seductress is no longer watching us, as she would have stopped or killed that beast. The lady told us we would only be fighting red core beasts, but that was obviously not a red core beast as it looks like an evolved version of the smaller metal crab. Let’s head back.”
Trey was angry and full of tears, and expressed his anger towards Elijah. “Y-you! You could have saved him! He was my friend!” A punch was thrown towards Elijah’s face, which he did not dodge.”
Bam!
The left cheek of Elijah’s face felt a slight impact that was weakened by the despair of the attacker. “Let’s leave, I assume it has not been even half an hour yet. There is no reason to continue.”
“NO! We have to pass this exam! With that power you have, we have to continue.” Niko wanted to pass this exam more than anything, after all, this was his second attempt according to something Trey said earlier when the group split up.
Elijah thought about the idea, and decided to continue. His reasons for returning were childish, as he could not erase the past, even when he believed it was not his fault. “Okay, I agree. But you must follow my lead. Ben would not have lost his life if we communicated with each other and organized an attack. Especially if you would have told us about these beasts, second-timer.”
“How do you know about that?” Niko asked with a red face.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s get this over with already. I won’t hide my power anymore, which is just a useless affinity that only works against metal. If you tell anyone about it, I won’t do anything, because like I said, my second affinity is worthless that I wouldn't even call it an affinity.”
Niko calmed his emotions and stood his head up. He was scared that someone his age was stronger than him. With his unique way of using fire to create explosions, he was definitely filled with confidence.