239 Where are we?

The sound of the footsteps could be heard loud and clear. Leo was even able to see the energy as each foot was placed on the ground. He activated his ability a little more and now his vision was even wider than most people could see with their own two eyes.

It didn't matter how many trees or obstacles were blocking his path. Whatever was heading towards him he would be able to see it clearly. A large flame of red energy seemed to be spiralling in his direction.

The energy of the beast seemed to be getting wilder on the outside, but when looking closer towards the core of the beast's crystal, Leo could see the energy was actually being more condensed. The flames of aura were entering the crystal while the leftovers were sparkling on the outside.

This was what happened when a beast was just about to go into berserker mode. Soon the Condensed energy would explode, and the power of the beast would temporarily increase.

"If it gets to that point it might be a little bit inconvenient," he moaned as he drew out his trusty sword. There was no need for Leo to move from the spot he was in, the beast was already coming towards him so he stood there and waited.

Finally, the beast had arrived barging itself through and knocking the trees down in its path. Unfortunately, Leo wasn't able to see that the beast was already injured from the battle with the students.

His ability allowed him to see the outline of the beast and the things around him but he wasn't able to see the finer details. If the beast was nearly dead he could tell from their aura but this one still had plenty of life.

Immediately six, lines of red energy came whipping out at Leo. Focusing his mind, he waited until all paths of the red energy crossed each other, at that moment he took a single swing of his blade. The six vines that had come at him had all been sliced off.

Leo could see that the energy was still flowing through the vines as they started to regrow, but what he was more concerned about was the energy building up in the beast's body.

Ignoring the vines and looking at the head of the beast, it was quite large and a distance away. "Well, I don't want to go all the way up there," Leo said.

He placed his sword in his sheath and prepared himself. When he was sure where his target was going to be, with a single movement he drew all of his energy out and pulled the blade out of its sheath as fast as he could. A line of energy had left the sword right as it was taken out of its sheath.

The line of energy was thin and white in colour, but the beast had no time to react and it had completely passed through its neck. A few moments later and the beast's head was starting to slide from its neck and fell to the ground, shortly after the body collapse on the floor as well.

"I guess you can't regenerate your head," Leo said.

After defeating the beast he didn't stop for a moment, not even to extract the crystal core from its body. He didn't have much time to investigate the area before, and the beast had suddenly come out and attacked him.

But during the fight, he had spotted something when looking at the beasts aura from his position, in the distance were the dead bodies of the students. They no longer produced a flame of aura, but a little leftover essence was always showing on their bodies for a few hours after death.

Right now, the students were a priority and if they had run into similar beasts to the one he had just faced. He feared the worst for the students.

****

Back where the others were, just by the mountainside wall. Their teacher Del and a few of the other students were deciding what to do. Del had called over the main helpers, and the highest rank students for their advice.

In Del's class, there weren't many strong students. There were a couple of level 6 students and a few level 5 but that was it for the class. Vorden was considered one of the strongest students despite his level, but he had not been invited to the group meeting that Del was hosting.

This was because Del still bore a grudge against Vorden, and after what Quinn had said, he now hated their whole group.

"Maybe we should head back where the beast came out from?" A student suggested. "If we follow the trail of broken down trees then maybe we can find our way back."

"That won't work," Del replied. "The jungle is large and if that beast lives here then there are likely to be many trees and paths that have been created by the beasts and those similar to it. If we follow one of those paths we might even be walking ourselves to be dinner for another beast."

"Well, you suggest something." Another student said, their tone sharp, rather annoyed at the situation. Even they felt like so far Del had been useless at everything. Still, Del was a higher rank than them, not just as a teacher but in the military as well, and they needed to show him some respect.

He could also be the deciding factor in their grades. So the students bit down their tongues and moved on. But that didn't change the fact of how useless he had been.

"I think we should go up one of the side paths of the mountain," Del suggested. "If we go up high then we can see the jungle from above. We should be able to see where the area we started from was, and if we can't see that, we will definitely be able to spot the shelter."

It wasn't a bad idea the others thought, but after encountering such a dangerous beast. The idea of going further into the unknown was frightening them.

Still, with the only other idea already shot down by the teacher what choice did they have? The students were told to inform the others of the plan, as each group made sure they had their supplies and started to head out.

"This is so stupid!" Cia complained. "We should at least stay here for a while and wait. Maybe another group or the sergeants will come and find us. If you're lost you're meant to stay put."

"Well, I think we're just climbing the mountain to see where we are, then will probably head back down," Layla explained.

"I still think we should wait a little bit before doing anything," Cia replied.

"Although I don't like Del." Vorden said, "Maybe for these guys staying in one place isn't a good idea. Look at their faces. Now they are moving, and it is making them forget about what happened. They might think if they stay there, other beasts will come and attack them, maybe even the same one. But as we move at least we are working towards our goal."

"Okay, okay pretty boy you convinced me," Cia replied. "Let's go."

****

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