Chapter 394: Leave


    ?


    Ss finally settled his breathing and calmly gathered all the corpses.


    The one thing that he hadn''t had a chance to go over were all the treasures on their bodies. He hadn''t even had the time to scan Sergan''s daggers, and he certainly wouldn''t have the time to go through all of this stuff.


    The shame of it was that he was certain that there might at least be some stuff that was useful to him here. But the time crunch was too great.


    Right now, he had secured the right to choose his opponent first during the next round. But if he was too slow, he wouldn''t have that right again.


    He had no idea where Vayu''s strength ranked amongst the other teams, but what he did know was that the first to make it through the spirit wolf trials when they all went all out wasn''t Vayu, but rather Aerwyna and her team.


    Without Rune Soul, the teams had to rely on their rawbat strength to make it through that first trial. So, if he extrapted that, Aerwyna Galesong''s team was likely his greatest danger.


    If he could avoid battling with her, that would be for the best. And in order to do that, he would need to capitalize on being first every step of the way. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have the right to continue choosing IV and skipping the team battle any longer.


    "Let''s go."


    Ss put everything away into his Madness Key and turned to leave. He didn''t have the time to care for Lleen''s emotions. Even if she was a close friend, he wouldn''t have the bandwidth to spare for her right now, let alone the fact she would certainly not be shedding these tears if he was the one to die.


    Lleen instinctively wanted to refuse, but who would have thought that Ss wouldn''t say this casually but rather directlymand her through the envement contract?


    The feeling of not being able to control her body like she wanted to make her want to keel over and vomit, but ultimately even that didn''t seem to be under her control.


    "Focus on healing yourself." Ssmanded again. Then, he stepped into the portal and appeared before a familiar set of four doors.


    Once again, he was alone. This was the only chance he had to extend the distance.


    After the stair challenge, he was forced to wait for all the groups to appear. But after the team battle, he could directly enter the next stair challenge. This was where he had to im his advantage in time.


    If he was fast enough, then maybe he would have time to look through his spoils of battle.


    ---


    The world swirled around Ss again and he found a tall set of stairs before him again. Thest stair challenge was rted to Will, so this one should bebat again.


    He already had his pauldrons summoned as he leapt up.


    Ssnded as Lleen was forced to follow after him.


    ''This will... be a bit troublesome.''


    A growl echoed in Ss'' ears. The first thing he saw was a pair of yellow eyes, then came the bristling white fur, then he saw the beast''s entire form.


    It was an ape with long arms and short legs. It had the bodyposition of an orangutan, but the usual face of a monkey. However, this wasn''t particrly the problem.


    Ss'' Rune Soul and Enchanted Schr were already activated, just in hopes of getting a chance to take advantage of the situation like he had before. Ironically, that was what allowed him to see it.


    It was hard to exin, but he felt like the creature was mimicking him. It had actually swapped out Frostbane for Ss current inferior Ice-Poison Rune, the 32 Foundation one he had gotten from the Arctic King Cobras.


    That much was fine considering it was weaker than what Ss was capable of. But then it sensed Lleen''s appearance and then a second ape appeared. This one began to emit fluctuations that were onlymon on her and that confirmed Ss'' spection.


    The question was... how far did this mimicking go? Did it copy Skills? If he used Rune Soul to summon his stronger Slow and Freeze Ice-Poison Runes, would they copy that as well?


    He had questioned Lleen about all of this much earlier, but the problem was that the finer details of the actual trials were mostly unknown. They had some experience to lean on from their predecessors, but there would always be small changes from year to year that couldn''t be perfectly relied upon.


    ''There has to be a mechanism through which they''re copying. So long as I find a way to counter that...''


    SHUU!


    The first ape suddenly shot forward and Ss'' pupils constricted.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Its Physical stats were way beyond what one would expect from a Sylph, even closing in on what Ss had seen from General Aleen, though not quite there. It seemed that they were matching their already oppressive Physical stats, with the overwhelming Mental capability of the Sylphs.


    Ss took a breath. This battle would be troublesome.


    ...


    There was an eerie sort of silence over the Sylph camp. The bonfire continued to rage on, and the elder Sylph stood in the very same ce, staring into the mes as though the smoke didn''t bother him in the slightest.


    The weight of solemnity was only increasing with every passing moment. A cool wind passed by, swishing through the trees. It only increased the feeling of sheer hollowness.


    At that moment, there was a sh and a figure appeared. At first, it was just one, but very quickly, there were three. They moved like blizzards, frosty air wrapping around them with the sharpness of des.


    "This isn''t a ce you can be." The elder Sylph said calmly. "Leave."


    The three figures didn''t reply. Instead, they suddenlyunched a fierce attack.


    The elder Sylph''s eyes sharpened and a blizzard-like aura erupted from him as well.


    The sound of battle echoed through the hollow forest.