A sense of relief washed over my body as we walked down the ship’s plank and into a small uninhabited harbor.

Though I hadn’t done much on the ship, it was constant wariness against Paris and all the other people.

Had she figured out what I was up to? I didn’t know, and the uncertainty was annoying.

I shook such thoughts as we walked down the harbor.

The island was full of lush green trees taller than a ten-story apartment, and their trunks were thicker than a McDonald's building. Everything was as if this was the habitat of giants.

There were a couple of big green mountains in the distance. But the tips of those mountains were covered in white snow.

“Okay, okay, gather round,” a man with a Tarzan-like figure called on us. He was tall, built like a gorilla, and wore only a loincloth.

He was probably strong. Every weird-looking exorcist I ever encountered was strong. Maybe acting weirder and living to their true selves helped them with their Ord? After all, Ord was a magical energy that reacted to passion and emotion.

The loincloth exorcist flexed his chest muscles. “I look good, right? There’s no shame if you wanna give 'em a touch.”

Then he seemed to come to his senses and coughed in his hand. “Anyways, this part of the exam will be held within the island's perimeters. There are some demons and strong beasts in there, so be careful. Around the island are spread three kinds of ribbons: blue, red, and green. You must gather all three differently colored ribbons to pass the exam..."

He explained some more technical rules, but it was essentially free for all: finding, stealing, killing, everything was allowed. No doubt it would be another blood bath.

"The ship will come back in a week, and the first team to set off for the search will be the ones who reached the boat first in the previous part of the exam," the loinclothed exorcist explained. "A week from now, the ship will return. Those with three ribbons will be qualified for the next part of the exam."

"Go!" Yelled out the loincloth exorcist.

My team and I shot off into the forest at our top speed.

We weren't taking anything for granted and kept going deeper into the maze of trees. "Remember, we go deep into the island and search. If we can't find anything, we will steal."

I knew the secret rules of this part of the exam, which gave me about a day or two advantage over others. By then, most teams would figure it out too.

The three colored ribbons represented where they were hidden.

Green - was hidden somewhere in the forest.

Blue - was hidden on the shore or the rivers on the island.

Red - it was held by some kind of demon. One had to fight to get one of these.

How many ribbons were there? I didn't know. But the participants numbered about sixty people, give or take a dozen.

The clean air of the forest filled my lungs, and I tried to look for any bright colors.

But it was to no avail; the island was too big.

Amongst all the exam stages, this was the one I was least confident in passing. A degree of luck was involved, and I had zero confidence in my fortune.

I didn't have bad luck per se, but I didn't have good luck either. My only hope was that Bets and Gem had some lucky halo around their heads.

"Carpy, try and find any ribbon when we approach the rivers," I guided him.

Since we were well-rested and fresh out of the boat, we will first aim for the red ribbon. Demons in this exam wouldn't bother hiding, so they were the easiest to find. If a team got a red ribbon, they would likely hide, and humans were harder to fight than demons.

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Also, I needed humans alive.

Suddenly, as we were running, I changed my sight with Carpy. Which was his signal to say that he had found something.

I stopped running and jumped to a tree branch with a better view. Jumping so high with the help of Ord was always refreshing. It made me feel like a ninja superman.

Carpy manipulated a tendril of water and formed it into an arrow.

I followed the arrow, jumping from branch to branch. The arrow was like a compass and changed direction as I got closer.

Bets and Gem followed me as we finally found a river as wide as a highway.

A blob of water rose from the river, and inside it was a blue ribbon. The water ball floated to my hand and dispelled as soon as I grabbed the ribbon.

Wasn't this too easy?

I stared at Carpy.

This little guy was quite amazing. He had good senses; it was either a talent he was born with, or somehow my Ord mutated it. This ability will grow stronger with him.

Cling!... A coin flipped next to my face.

Whatever thoughts were occupying my mind vanished in an instant. Every sense in my body, every single cell, it was as if my whole being was yelling at me: Survive!

I jumped back, but the coin turned into a scythe faster than I could blink or get away. With its form changing so much, and while I was still mid-air, I had no chance of dodging!

The rotation of the coin still translated into the scythe, and it was spinning toward my shoulder.

Best case scenario, I would lose my left arm. Worst case scenario, if I couldn't hold my body mid-air in time, it would cut from my shoulder blade right through to my lower ribs.

I had already started moving out of the way, but despite the danger, only one thought rang through my head.

I didn't want to lose my damn arm!

But there was no other choice. A water sphere formed around me as the scythe was about to cut my limb.

It was connected to the water from the river. The scythe cut into the water but stepped about a foot from my shoulder.

I glanced at Carpy from the corner of my eye.

I love you! Carpy! You're the best!

But now wasn't the time to declare how much I appreciated Carpy. As another coin was coming toward me. No, not just one, but over a dozen coins.

I let my body fall, dodging the coins that turned into scythes. All the blades of those scythes dug into trees.

It was a special ability that could turn coins into scythes. Could the user do so on command? Or was there some kind of timer before the coins turned into scythes?

That I didn't know. But from what I had seen, it was probably some kind of timer.

A dozen more coins flew toward me as soon as my feet touched the ground. But before they could do any damage, the shadow under my feet bubbled up, and a giant shadow wolf's head came out of it, biting into the scythes and destroying them.

"Took you guys long enough," I said.

Gem and Bets stood next to me. The former snorted. "You were the one who decided to stay up on a tree. Let's all admit when we make shitty decisions."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I waved away his words. If it made the situation funnier, I would have admitted my mistakes. But right now wasn't the best time for jokes. "Anyways, the enemy sneak attacked us, so they have an advantage. We need to get closer to water."

This should be loud enough for the enemies to hear. While talking to my teammates, I had Carpy go toward the river. I couldn’t even see the river once I was on the ground. So we had to get closer.

We took a step back. My heart almost jumped out of my chest as one of the nearby trees morphed into a demon.

The demon had an elongated face, a big nose, and a stubby humanoid shape. It was the size of a van, quite big, and probably had the power to match the size. But what stood out the most about the demon was the stupid smile on its face with drool dripping down its chin.

"Your demon might be cool, but mine is cooler," a voice came from behind one of the trees, and a team of three revealed themselves.

One was a girl wearing only a bikini and bandages as high socks. The other two were just as strange. One was a guy that looked like one of those Japanese delinquents from a manga, he had that cannon-like hair style. The last guy had golden teeth and a wide smile that reflected the sun more than Bets’ bald head.

They looked weird as hell!

The golden-toothed guy smiled widely and grabbed a handful of coins from his pockets. "Get ready to get shredded."

"{Golden Ripper}"

He threw dozens of coins and then hundreds at us. They turned into sharp scythes, but we jumped back, and the shadow wolf shredded any attack that got close to us.

Fwish!...Suddenly the Japanese delinquent guy disappeared and appeared next to me. He had a coin in hand.

"Three, two, one!" he muttered, and the coin in his hand turned into a scythe.

Fwish!... He sliced me from neck to hip.

Hot red blood burst out of me like a water spill.

F -Fuck!