Holy Institution Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Junior exam (4)

The silver-green eyes flickered, and its features gradually revealed itself from the underbrush. If not for its overtly dazzling silver armor, they would definitely have taken it for a wild boar.

Rui Meng took a deep breath and said, "I'm sure it isn't in the booklet the tutors distributed to us."

Kevin said in a low voice, "It looks a little like the Silver-Armored Beast."

Di Lin glanced at him. "The name is quite appropriate."

Kevin replied, "No, I meant that I've seen this type of magic beast in a book. If I didn't recall wrongly…"

Di Lin perceived the slight tremble in his voice. His heart sunk. "What?"

"It's a rank five magic beast."

Rank five?!

For easy differentiation of magic beasts, Magic Beast Tamers specially categorized the various magic beasts into ten ranks, in accordance with the ranking for mages. The higher the rank, the tougher it was to deal with the beast.

Macreis had mentioned before the junior exam that the magic beasts they would meet were all rank one. Even the number of rank two beasts were exceedingly few. How could a rank five magic beast rush out all of a sudden?

Di Lin and the rest locked eyes, each seeing the ugly expressions on one another's faces.

The silver-armored beast walked to a spot about five to six meters away from them and suddenly halted, a ray of bloodthirstiness flashing across its silver-green eyes.

Di Lin yelled, "Break the crystal ball!"

Before the exam, each of them had received a crystal ball. If they ran into danger or wanted to give up during the course of the exam, then all they had to do was break that ball. However, this also meant that they would fail the exam.

Thus, though Kevin and the rest had the crystal ball in their hands the moment Di Lin shouted, neither of them shattered it instantly.

The moment they broke it, the exam would end.

They looked at one another, seemingly waiting for one another to take action.

Di Lin's thoughts weren't as complex as theirs. His gaze stayed glued to the silver-armored beast, while his hand slowly took out a sword from his space bag.

Although he had already decided to become a mage very early on,it was necessary for him as the only son of the Basco dukedom to learn the ways of the sword. Under this sort of situation, he would be better off using the sword for safety's sake than relying on his half-baked magic.

The silver-armored beast seemed to have been provoked after seeing his sword. Its pair of verdant eyes locked onto his figure unblinkingly, as if it was looking at prey.

Sweat gradually appeared on the palm Di Lin gripped the sword with. He inwardly calculated the length of time the tutors would require to rush over while silently gauging how long he would be able to stall the beast.

The other three people glanced at the still undamaged crystal balls in each other's hands, the awkwardness in their hearts increasing bit by bit.

"I might have saw wrongly," Kevin mumbled.

"What?" Di Lin was startled.

At this moment, the silver-armored beast had already morphed into a silver wind as it raced towards him.

A ball of water the size of a rubber ball quickly sprung towards it from Kevin's hands.

Rui Meng and Aridi also immediately started using magic. However, at this time, their little bit of magic evidently couldn't help much.

All they saw was the silver-armored beast shrugging off the water ball, allowing it to land behind it, before continuing to dash towards Di Lin.

Di Lin leapt back nimbly. He raised the sword in his hands and forcefully smashed it onto the head of the silver-armored beast.

With a 'ding', the sword landed sturdily on the head of the silver-armored beast.

Di Lin's hands turned numb and he nearly let go of the hilt of the sword. In contrast, the silver-armored beast didn't seem to have suffered any injury!

The silver-armored beast spurted out a breath of hot air, its silver-green eyes glaring ruthlessly at Di Lin's chest as it suddenly pounced over.

The violent force that rammed against Di Lin's chest knocked him three to four meters away.

Only then did Kevin and the rest stare in stupefaction. They broke the crystal balls nearly simultaneously.

The silver-armored beast did not stop. Instead, it took two steps ahead, raised both legs, and stomped down on Di Lin's chest.

"Careful!" Rui Meng and Kevin could care less about using magic at this point and both used their bodies to bang against it.

The silver-armored beast had no concern for the danger behind it. At this moment, its eyes only saw Di Lin's figure.

Having been thrown into disorientation by the previous bump, Di Lin rolled to the side without even thinking upon seeing the beast raise its legs. The immense pain in his chest inevitably turned his movements sluggish; his arm just barely scraped past its front hoof.

Rui Meng and Kevin threw themselves towards the silver-armored beast and were thrown back without having done much.

The silver-armored beast shook its tail and turned to watch them.

This time, nobody dared to suspect that it wasn't a rank five magic beast. Its thick-skinned physique wasn't something that rank one or two magic beasts ought to have.

But this realization had clearly arrived a bit too late.

Three of the four of them were already lying on the ground and though the remaining one of them, Aridi, hadn't lain down, he wasn't very far from it; his two legs trembled incessantly.

Di Lin inhaled deeply. His hand grabbed at a tree branch as he slowly stood up, the pain from his chest nearly turning his vision black and his legs soft.

Sensing his movement, the silver-armored beast turned and targeted him once more.

"Damn it," Di Lin lifted a hand and wiped the corner of his mouth. He had bitten his lip when he was rammed into just now.

Kevin and Rui Meng looked at each other in dismay, unaware of what Di Lin was intending to do. Thinking that their selfishness just now had caused everyone to fall into such danger, their faces revealed some embarrassment.

"I'll keep running towards the east to draw it away," Di Lin uttered these words extremely quickly. He gritted his teeth and turned, running in the direction behind them.

The silver-armored beast let out a low roar and followed after him.

Kevin and Rui Meng wanted to stand up at the same time but very quickly fell back down.

They were truly much weaker than Di Lin when it came to the quality of their physiques.

Only at this time did Aridi walk up stealthily and say, "Isn't the direction he ran in the north?"

Rui Meng, Kevin, "…"

The intense running caused Di Lin's vision to go black. He didn't know how long he could keep up this running. In truth, after witnessing the speed of the silver-armored beast, wanting to draw the silver-clawed beast away was in itself a naïve idea. But under those circumstances, he had no other choice.

Who knew if the silver-armored beast was carnivorous?

Since the silver-armored beast evidently had more interest in him, sacrificing himself to protect the other few was the best method. At least, he could leave behind a chance to survive.

Just as he felt his physical power reaching its limit and wanted to give up, the clarity of the shiny silver water elements in his mind increased in an unprecedented manner The instinctual desire to run even faster seemed to have spurred the water elements into motion, enabling them to swiftly gather around his body and…

Letting him fly?

He opened his eyes and confirmed that he was indeed flying.

No, it was more accurate to say that he was racing forward in a flying posture.

The darkness in his vision gradually dissipated. The trees on both sides flew past at lightning speed and his ears filled with the sound of the wind.

After some time, a feeling of nausea welled up from his chest, giving him the urge to vomit. He hastily thought of stopping and sure enough, the water elements retreated bit by bit. His feet landed back on the ground.

After his feet was firmly planted on the ground, the first thing Di Lin did was to turn his head back and look at the road.

Only after confirming that the silver-armored beast that had popped out from who-knows-where had been lost at some unknown area did he slowly let out his breath. He sat down and leaned against a tall, large tree at the side before undoing the buttons at his chest.

The big patch of red would very quickly turn into a bruise, but the thing he was most concerned about was still internal injuries. He didn't know if the bump just now had injured his bones. He stroked the spot and confirmed that there were no fractures before taking out a crystal ball from his space bag.

Although he had already told Rui Meng and the rest the direction he was moving in before drawing away the silver-armored beast, it was still better to break the crystal ball for insurance. This way, his location could be easily found.

But in the instant his fingers were going to exert strength, he stopped.

No matter how he looked at it, the current junior exam had already broken away from the original program, so shattering the crystal ball was the best choice. Di Lin's brows furrowed. But, he had a tutor who didn't abide by reason. Could this be another hurdle that Hydin had set up? Since he could propose an irrational condition like finding an elemental spirit to graduate, finding a rank five magic beast didn't seem that impossible.

Perhaps he was now waiting at a certain location waiting for him to admit defeat and cry for help?

Di Lin lowered his head and gazed at the crystal ball in his heads, reason and emotion waging a silent war.

The war lasted for a long time. Eventually, he kept the ball and took out some dried meat to nibble on.

Anyway, he had already thrown the silver-armored beast off. What he needed to do now was to finish the remaining task. As long as he thought of Hydin's stupefied expression, his blood would boil and the pain in his chest didn't seem as hard to bear.

He finished the dried meat and stood up smugly. Then… he stared, dumbfounded.

This was bad.

Which direction did he come from?

Getting lost in the forest was similar to getting lost in the desert. Both were extremely scary things. Because no matter how one walked, they would realize that their surrounding environment didn't change much. If he had to speak of the benefits, then it was that the weather in the forest wasn't bad. Before sunset, there was sufficient light. If it was the disadvantages, then it was the fact that he had no idea when a high-ranking magic beast could pop out.

However, sometimes man could not be too blindly optimistic.

Several hours later, Di Lin realized that the sun was setting. The surrounding forest became increasingly dark, while a pair of eyes appeared in front of him.

A pair of eyes as scarlet as blood.

Chapter end