Nick soon left the swamp as his position at the murky pool was already near its edge. Moving forward while using Soul Vision gave Nick the upper hand in avoiding magic beasts because he was able to piece together a map of their positions from the information that he received as he was able to intuit the distance of his target from himself. Nick did not plan to battle any more magic beasts until encountering the carnivorous buffaloes.

Nick spent an hour getting to the cliff that Slade spoke of; the cliff overlooked a wide expanse of rocky terrain with little to no vegetation except some clumps of grass here and there. With no cover, it didn't take long before Nick noticed the several groups of students that were battling the magic beasts in the area. They were not only battling wary dogs but also battling the carnivorous buffaloes and other magic beasts. Nick used Soul Vision to thoroughly analyze the events going on below.

All sorts of magic beasts were running to the area where the battles were most concentrated, some dug their way out of the ground, some flew down from the skies and some even came out of naturally formed crevices and caves in the ground and rock walls. The students apparently belonged to different groups but were fighting with a tacit understanding that they needed to kill as much magic beasts as possible before things got out of hand but the number of magic beasts just kept on increasing.

"This place really is a land of death, the magic beasts here act so ferociously and they are gathered in great numbers and varieties. So many groups of students being here is like adding fuel to a fire."

Slade spoke:

[It looks like those children somehow caused a beast tide to form.]

Because of the abundance of magic beasts, Nick no longer wanted to speak out loud to avoid them placing their attention on his location.

(What is a beast tide?)

[Just like how it sounds, kid. A beast tide happens when a large number of magic beasts decide to wreak havoc in an area in unison but it is usually the case where that involves one species of magic beasts. So many species forming a beast tide means that someone used a special method to attract all of their fury. This place was already a killing field and now its going to become a bloody hell. Their are about 200 students down there; want to make a bet as to how long they are going to last, my magic sense tells me that more magic beasts are on the way, one of them even being a rank 4 magic beast?]

(Rank 4 magic beast? How did something like that get attracted to this battle, this is crazy? I guess I'll have to forget about retrieving the buffalo urine then.)

Nick tried to say that as regretfully as possible but he was actually relieved knowing that he would not have to drink the urine later.

(Since things are so crazy down there and there is only a few hours until the exam ends, I'm just going to stay up here and watch. I've already received plenty of benefits from this exam, I don't need to join the fighting and I don't want to do anymore needless exploring because I am starting to feel fatigued.)

Slade easily agreed with Nick's decision:

[I agree but keep a watchful eye on the sky, if any of those flying magic beasts come your way, be prepared to fight or flee.]

...............................

Marcus Delvey could not believe what was happening in these badlands. Several groups of students had decided to camp in this area yesterday because of the apparent high concentration of wary dogs and except the annoying attacks from other kinds of magical beasts, everything had been going well until the leaders of the groups had met up and a plan to get the most out of this area in a way that they would all supposedly benefit was proposed.

Marcus was there at the time of the meeting because he was close to the leader of his group, Jerry Taylor who had gotten rank 3 in the student rankings. when they had arrived at the meeting, the other leaders were, Don Bartholomew, Vance Allen, Joan Adams, Gregory Smith, Harry Bailes and Jeff Cadman. All of these group leaders were famous in their year and had outstanding magic powers.

Vance Allen convinced the other group leaders that he had a way of gathering many wary dogs but the probable number was not something that one group could manage so he proposed a temporary alliance that would involve all of the groups fighting together to kill the magic beasts that would appear.

Vance had a very good reputation among the students for being strong and reliable so the other group leaders agreed that as long as he informed them of his method they would participate in an all out battle, each group being able to keep the carcasses of the wary dogs that they killed as long as he informed them of the method.

Vance held out a small glass bottle of oil, saying that it was magic beast essence oil and once poured in the surroundings, it would make the magic beasts within an ten kilometer radius come towards them with battle lust, destroying their rationality which would make them easy to defeat. He further convinced them that with so many rank 2 Apprentice Magicians concentrated in one place, it was impossible that they would fail. The group leaders agreed wholeheartedly despite Vance not even telling them where he got the magic beast essence oil from.

That was probably because every one of the group leaders was focused on getting a good score for themselves rather than the safety of the other students and so now we have this situation where a seemingly endless wave of different kinds of magic beasts were coming at them. Marcus was feeling enraged at this moment.

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"That bastard was either ignorant of the effectiveness of that oil or he downplayed it when he was kissing the group leaders' ass."

Marcus opened his mouth and let of a deafening scream at four approaching wary dogs; the wary dogs bled from their ears and fell down dead the next moment.

"The magic beasts are only rank 2 and are mostly wary dogs but if they keep coming like this, we'll all be overwhelmed. Damn it, there's only a few hours left until the exam is over, why should I die in a place like this?"

Jerry Taylor, Marcus's group leader came to his side after killing a few carnivorous buffaloes and shadow vultures with blades of wind constantly flying around him, shooting out at the right time, decapitating any magic beast that came too close. He shouted to Marcus:

"Marcus, help me gather up our people, we are going to try to break out of this mess. All this trouble is clearly not worth the wary dog carcasses. Most of the other group leaders have the same idea so we won't be getting in each others' way."

Marcus was relieved that they weren't going to continue this futile battle but before he could help rally the students in his group, a large bat like magic beast flew down from the sky, pouncing on Vance Allen's group; It was huge with a wingspan of about twelve meters. Marcus and Jerry looked on in horror because the magic power coming from that magic beast suggested that it was definitely above rank 3.

Jerry spoke cautiously to Marcus:

"That's the area where Vance had spilled the magic beast essence oil, if it's not coincidence, that huge bat must be attracted to the oil. When it flew down, it actually killed dozens of the students that were fighting over there. We need to hurry and get the fuck out of here."

Marcus nodded and started rallying his group-mates.

............................

Nick looked on in trepidation.

"So that's a rank 4 magic beast. Without a rank 4 Apprentice Magician down there, most of those students are probably going to die, am I right?"

Slade replied:

[Not necessarily. Did you know that it is not typical for a lone rank 4 Apprentice Magician to be able to kill a rank 4 magic beast?]

(Huh? Why is that?)

[That's because at rank 4 magic beasts go through a qualitative change that includes their intellect and physique. They become as smart as a human adult and typically their skin and flesh becomes incredibly thick. Typically, a qualitative change does not occur for humans until they get to one of the Regular Magician ranks where their magic power becomes capable of slicing apart mountains and sinking entire countries. I was an exception though, back when I was a rank 4 Apprentice Magician due to my training methods, spells and my divergent mindscape, granted that I had trained for nearly 100 years before I reached that level.]

(Well then, those students are definitely screwed. By the way you said before that those rank 4 magic beasts weren't interested in killing anything below rank 3 so why is it here now?)

[It looks like whatever method that these people used to cause this beast tide has also aggravated the warp bat. Although it has the equivalent of a human intellect, a beast is still just a beast, there are certain methods that can be used to get it to act irrationally. Whichever one it is, it's currently causing the warp bat to act aggressively just like the other magic beasts. The warp bat has laws on its body related to space magic and anything it swallows has a chance of ending up in random locations, literally anywhere, so its fairly dangerous.]

(Alright, I've heard enough. It's time for me to leave this place before I get caught up in this. The exam will be over soon so all of this is of no concern to me.)

When Nick was about to leave, he noticed something horrifying. The warp bat was actually looking towards his direction as it stood on the corpses of some students and the carcasses of various magic beasts.

(Am I mistaken, it can't actually be looking at me right?)

[No, according to my magic sense, it is definitely looking at you. Something about you has attracted its attention.]

(What? I don't have anything that that bat beast would want.)

[Not exactly. You do have the ichor root within your space band and the warp bat is a magic beast that wields spacial magic so it might be able to sense the ichor root. It is a well sought after supplement, especially among magic beasts but they can't sense it until it has been removed from the ground. How unexpected, this warp bat might have powers that allow it to peer into spacial objects.]

(Oh fuck!)

Nick turned around in order to run away but by the time he had run two meters from the cliff's edge, the warp bat had already flown over the cliff, heading towards him. Seeing that he could not out run the flying magic beast, Nick took two throwing knives from his vest and prepared to fight, using his spell, Big, while pointing at the approaching wary bat. In a few seconds, Nick's magic energy reserves were bottomed out and the blades of his knives extended over fifteen meters and broadened vertically by one meter. As the knives were about to pierce the huge warp bat, as soon as they touched its skin, they actually broke apart like a glass ball that was thrown at a hard rock wall. The warp bat pounced on Nick and swallowed him.

Nick felt like he was going through a raging river, space warping violently around him as he went into the warp bat's throat.

"Am I going to die like this?"

Under the pressure of the warp bat's power, Nick could no longer move freely and slid down the warp bat's throat.