CHAPTER 31
"Who would have thought that the child who avoided the other children was already a titled oddity that could use an Elemental Ability?!" Tedie shouted with a growl that shook the whole arena.
The dumbfounded audience was awakened by Tedie's enthusiastic growl. Seeing the glamorous Water Wall, they finally realized what was happening and immediately exclaimed in amazement. The displeased boos earlier turned into excited cheers, especially those who gave their votes to Hirayon, as the child was the first one out of all the children in the batch who could use an elemental ability. The other children only used basic, and even though that was already a big deal considering their young ages, Hirayon's show of his Elemental Ability drowned other children's potential. He now gave a long-lasting impression and rose as the most talented in the batch.
With loud cheers resounding in the whole arena, the excited audience's spirit reached the VIP room of the old man who chose Hirayon as his candidate.
Laughing out loud, his intense Aura Pressure dissipated, and his expression changed into an amused gleam.
"I knew he was the right choice," he stated with a pleased smirk while looking at the transparent wall Hirayon made.
"You were right to choose a chief's son, my lord," his secretary added, elating his mood. He could already foresee himself sitting at the top and governing Familia, with Hirayon as the leader of the group that would follow all of his whims.
"Give him the Pod. He will need it. Get him two hundred Water Aura Stones as well." He ordered as he decided that Hirayon was worth investing in, especially now that he was capable of using Water Abilities.
'That Water Wall looked outstanding as well,' he thought as he could almost hear the harsh swirl of currents inside the Water Wall. It looked like a masterpiece to him and also powerful, considering Hirayon's age.
Contrary to his thoughts, the wall was silent as Hirayon was enclosing it with calm waters. He then controlled the whole wall to move as he walked toward the flowers.
When he was nearing, five of the flowers used their abilities. Fire, lightning, ice, rocks, and various abilities attacked Hirayon, and it was all submerged within the wall, immediately dispersing within the wild currents.
The flowers attacked more, but nothing worked until Hirayon felt something touch his stomach. When he looked down, his eyes widened as there was a brown vine loosely coiled around his waist. Alarmed, Hirayon tried to remove it, but the moment he resisted, the Vine's grip tightened, and he lost his control of the Water Wall.
'Where did that come from? Brown vines, is that the ability of the nest-like flower? How come it didn't attack me earlier?' Hirayon thought as he struggled to release himself from the merciful Vine.
Although his wall was able to stop most of the attacks before it disappeared, a blast of sound waves reached him, and he heard a mind-numbing screech, making his ears ring and bleed.
Hirayon screamed in pain coming from his stomach and head. He didn't want to hold as he struggled to keep his body upright as his body was weakening with every second that passed.
"OWS59 was caught with a vine and now received a powerful attack from a flower that could use sound ability!" Tedie announced as they all watched Hirayon struggle with the pain while still trying to remove the vines.
To no avail, the hold of the Vine got tighter to the point that he could feel his bone and organs getting squished.
Hirayon screamed, and when he was too weakened to shout and resist, he ultimately stopped moving. A few seconds later, the Vine threw him in the air as if it thought Hirayon was already dead.
"And he's falling! What is he gonna do now? Is it the end for him?!" Tedie announced intensely as they all awaited what would happen to the outstanding child.
Hirayon was thrown from a giant tree, and it was certain death if he didn't do anything. With a grunt, Hirayon eyed the tree and saw a branch in his path. He then gathered all his remaining strength and grabbed onto a thick branch. Unfortunately, his grasp wasn't enough, and he continuedly fall and landed on the branch below, hitting his chest and face. Still, Hirayon grabbed on for his life with all the strength remaining in his scrawny body.
"Ugh."
Hirayon looked at where he was and noticed he was still relatively close to the tip as it was an extremely tall tree. He sat up, balancing on the slightly thick branch, and thought of his next plan while trying to take in the pain. His eyesight was blurry, he has bloodied wounds in the face, and he could feel his chest throbbing from the impact.
'How come that vine didn't appear earlier when I touched one of the flowers?' Hirayon wondered, and also immediately dropping the thought as he needed to focus on how to handle the situation.
'I need to use my other abilities,' he thought, even though he decided to only use the Water Wall.
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'But first, how am I going to move with this pain?' he expressed as he clutched his stomach. He then remembered one of the things they trained and decided to try it, as he didn't really have any choice.
'They told me not to do this as it could harm me, but I have no other options. I want to win and gain a lot of award points.'
Hirayon sat in a meditating position and closed his eyes. Focusing all his senses inside his body, he tried to control his blood and moved it fast inside, heating his body a little bit. When he felt everything was in his control, he tried to block the wounds in his ear, head, and stomach.
Although what he did was only considered first aid, it can give him more time. However, if he loses control even a little bit, he will feel a surge of pain, worse than he felt earlier.
'I can control it for about 7 minutes just about the end of the game,' he thought as he really have good control and stood up. He wasn't feeling the pain anymore, so he moved swiftly and climbed until he was on the branch he waited before.
This time, he approached slowly with a Water Orb in his hand. He used all of his senses, looking at possible places the Vine could appear. When he was ten steps away from the flowers, he finally saw something move while camouflaged in the branches. He would miss it if he didn't have enhanced eyesight as it looked almost invisible in plain eyes.
"What is he looking at?" Tedie asked as they watched Hirayon stand still in an attack position. Then he lunged toward the flowers, creating a Water Wall in front of him to deflect the element attacks. While doing so, he also threw Water Orbs toward the Vine, which was still camouflaged.
"Why is he throwing it into nothing?" An audience asked.
"Maybe he is seeing something we don't," his companion said, and as on cue, the attacked Vine revealed itself, returning to his darker color.
"It's a Vine! A Plant Elemental Ability! What is he going to do now?!" Tedie announced excitedly as the Water Wall was ineffective in front of a sturdy Vine.
When Hirayon reached the flowers, he enclosed them with Water Wall and touched them inside the wall. He continuously threw Water Orbs into the Vine while he touched every flower inside.
Even though his Water Orbs slowed down the Vine, it was still approaching him, and when it was about to reach him, he made another Water Wall above him. It bought him more time, allowing him to get every flower there was aside from the brown nest-like flowers where he was standing.
'There were three flowers but only one Vine. They must be connected with each other.' Hirayon thought as he evaded the Vine's attack. He went toward the trunk and jumped on another branch. The only thing he needs to do was to touch the massive flower for ten seconds and it will all be over.
At that moment, Hirayon heard the sound of flapping, and when he looked to his right, he saw the hawk with another flower in its beak.
It landed on the flower and looked for the pile of glowing flowers it had left behind. When they noticed that nothing was there, he looked toward Hirayon, making the child swallow hard.
'I can't deal with them at the same time,' he thought and jumped to another branch, escaping as fast as he could.
Unfortunately for him, the bird flew fast toward him and angrily attacked him with its claws. Hirayon decided to use his Water Wall, but then it immediately broke with the hawk's sharp claws.
It screamed toward the child, and Hirayon shuddered as he felt a little hopeless in his situation. But then his urge to win was stronger, so he resolved himself and ran again, making a lot of thinner Water Walls to slow down the hawk.
He ransacked his brain to think of a plan when he witnessed the moment the hawk ran into his Water Wall. It stopped momentarily to remove the water. That's when Hirayon had an idea.
He faced the hawk and made another Water Wall like he did before. But this time, he continued to pour in Aura, and when the hawk hit the wall, it didn't break and instead tried to swallow the hawk.
Hirayon's eyes widened, and his lips formed into a smirk. 'That's why it was unperfect. Walls or defensive abilities were not meant to break in one or two attacks. They're meant to stand still.'
Pleased with the realization, Hirayon continued to pour his Aura and ran towards the two remaining flowers that could use Vine. This time, he excitedly made a Water Wall and continued to pour his Aura into it, and in just a few seconds, the wall sucked in the Vine, restricting him from moving more.
He then quickly touched the flowers, and when he was done. He made sure to get the flower the hawk had just brought and jumped down to hide.
Breathing hard, Hirayon hid behind a bush and finally let go of all his control to the wall stopping the hawk and the Blood ability as well. Even though he was feeling extreme pain in his stomach and head once again, his mind is at ease as he managed to get more than twenty flowers thanks to the hawk.
'I just need to wait now.'
On the opposite side of the forest, Hirang was frowning as he remembered the list showing the children's number of acquired flowers.
'Why was he so low on the list? Did he quit? No, that's impossible. He's competitive. Was he injured, or is he in a fight?'
With a frown, he continued thinking of why Hirayon wasn't at the top of the ranks when he heard someone speak.
"Were you surprised to see that you're not ranked first?" A cute voice said, making Hirang look to his right.
"You are?" he asked the little girl, a little annoyed, making his dead eyes scarier.
Still, the child that has round, adorable eyes, a cute look, and bloody clothes cheekily smiled, ignoring Hirang's gaze.
"I am the first rank! OLN103!" The little girl proudly said and even posed cutely.
"Well, congrats to you," Hirang said with disinterest and was about to leave when the girl stopped him.
"Don't you want to be on the first rank? You can fight me if you want to," she suggested with a smirk that didn't fit her face.
Hirang glanced at her and continued to walk, "I want to be on the first rank, but you're not the one I want to fight."
The girl stopped smirking, her expression turning sour. "And who would that be?"
"OWS59."
"Who did you say again?" The little girl asked cluelessly, as she didn't really pay attention to other children's names.
"The child who ranked second on the tests," Hirang answered.
Thinking of who that child was, a memory appeared in her mind. "Why do you want to fight that coward?" She asked, annoyed with the memory of Hirayon bravely walking away from her.
"He's a coward?" Hirang asked with a frown. Although he had only met Hirayon once, he could see in the child's gaze that he wasn't one to run from challenges.
"I challenged him to fight earlier, but he declined and left," the little girl answered with a shrug.
"Was he injured?"
"No. He's just a coward."
Hirang stared at the little girl for a few seconds, thinking whether to believe her when he remembered Hirayon's disinterest toward other children. "I see."
"So let's fight!" the girl said excitedly, but then Hirang just walked away.
"You're not going away!" the little girl said, attacking Hirang with a rock, but the next second, her eyes turned back, and she dropped into the rocky soil.
R E H I L I Y A