A Bug In Fate

"Good luck."

Ravenna said before calmly stepping to the side.

The next moment, she pulled a chair out of nowhere, placed it on the ground, and casually sat down as if she were about to enjoy a show.

Meanwhile, Alden took a deep breath before slowly exhaling.

A long battle awaited him.

He could already tell this wasn’t going to be easy.

Even though the monsters couldn’t cast spells or use mana with the same efficiency as cultivators, that didn’t make them simple opponents. Their superior strength and speed alone made them dangerous.

More importantly...

They possessed the innate abilities granted to them by nature.

Looking at the soon-to-be battlefield, Alden recognized quite a few of the monsters and remembered the abilities they possessed.

Looks like going to the library was worth it.

Alden thought before glancing at Ravenna.

"I’m ready."

He raised his sword and coated its blade with a thin yet dense layer of mana.

With his Mana Sense already activated, he quietly waited for the monsters. Charging at them first wouldn’t change anything.

"Alright."

"Try your best."

Ravenna said before snapping her fingers, her gaze calmly fixed on her first student.

The next moment, deafening roars echoed across the open field as the monsters surged forward at full speed.

There was no coordination between them, nor was there any need for it.

To them, Alden was nothing more than prey.

With savage ferocity radiating from their bodies, they charged toward him without hesitation.

In the blink of an eye, the battlefield erupted into chaos as all kinds of attacks descended upon him, each monster displaying the innate abilities gifted to its species.

Alden charged toward the first monster that reached him.

It was one known for its impressive speed, which was exactly why it had arrived ahead of the others.

His sword slashed forward.

At the same time, the monster swung its arm, gathering a huge amount of mana around it as it tried to crush Alden in a single blow.

But the blade cut through the mana with ease.

Slash.

The monster’s arm was severed from its body.

Alden didn’t waste a single moment.

Using the momentum from his swing, he leaped into the air and landed on the monster’s shoulders before driving his sword straight through its neck.

Before he could pull the blade back out, his Mana Sense picked up four more presences closing in on him.

Without hesitation, he activated Flash Step.

His figure disappeared from its place and reappeared before another monster.

But...

It wasn’t alone anymore.

By the time he arrived, five more monsters had already surrounded the area.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Alden cursed inwardly.

He quickly abandoned the idea of carefully picking them off one by one.

The monsters kept pouring toward him, leaving him with only one option—

Kill whatever stood in front of him.

Being alone was both his greatest advantage and his greatest disadvantage.

Because he was the only target, every monster’s attention was fixed solely on him.

They constantly got in each other’s way as they rushed forward.

Even though there were sixty —

No...

Fifty-nine monsters left.

Only seven to ten of them could actually attack him at the same time.

The rest could do nothing except roar in frustration and wait for their chance.

As for the disadvantage...

It was obvious to everyone on the battlefield.

He was alone.

Alden had just kicked away a monster charging at him with the Dark Element when his eyes were suddenly drawn toward the sky.

His breath hitched for a moment.

Several blue-colored bird monsters had gathered together, and above them a massive sphere of water was rapidly taking shape.

Oh... they’re Sweepleaners.

Alden immediately recognized the monsters.

Without slowing down, he swung his sword in a clean arc, beheading a wolf-like monster covered in three thorny spikes.

The next instant, he activated Flash Step and changed his position.

Almost as soon as he disappeared, a raging flood swept across the battlefield.

The monsters that had been surrounding him were swallowed by the torrent. Some managed to survive, while others died almost instantly because of the Sweepleaners’ innate ability.

It was an ability that allowed them to gather water using their mana and infuse it with a deadly poison. Anyone who consumed the poisoned water had a high chance of dying in less than a minute.

The Sweepleaners had unleashed their synchronized attack.

"At least they did some of my work."

Alden muttered while already clashing with the three monsters waiting at his new location.

They had been waiting for their turn..

Instead, their target had come to them on his own.

He weaved between the monsters with a focused expression.

With the help of his Mana Sense, he could accurately sense where each attack was coming from.

His Basic Swordsmanship, already on the verge of breaking through to the Advanced Realm, shone brightly on the battlefield

.

Alden deflected one attack before cleaving a deep wound across a monster’s abdomen.

He sidestepped as three fireballs shot toward him from another direction.

Unlike his fight against Mina, he didn’t bother cutting them apart.

Instead, he simply changed his position, causing the fireballs to crash into the monsters chasing him.

Friendly fire.

Chaos seemed to follow him wherever he went, and the same scene repeated itself across different parts of the battlefield time and time again.

*Maybe I should just jump into the lake...*

Alden thought for a brief moment before shaking his head.

His goal here wasn’t merely to survive.

It was to show Ravenna what he was capable of.

If he jumped into the water, some of the monsters would simply follow him in their blind rage and drown but that wasn’t his priority at this moment.

There were roughly thirty monsters left on the battlefield now.

Alden continued fighting with everything he had.

Slash...

Cut...

Stab...

A vertical slash...

A feint...

Followed by another strike.

His hands moved with calm yet unwavering precision, each movement flowing naturally into the next as everything standing in his path was either cut down or forced to retreat.

Alden charged toward four monsters that were fuming with rage after getting caught in the area of effect of their allies’ earlier attack.

It was rather ironic.

They were blaming him for the burn marks covering their bodies when the ones responsible were only a few steps away.

Alden closed the distance in an instant.

His sword flashed, cleanly cutting down a Dark Boar before he jumped into the air and landed on its back.

Gathering mana beneath his feet, he activated Flash Step the moment he pushed off.

His figure vanished.

The next instant, he appeared among the group of Sweepleaners that were preparing another synchronized attack.

A horizontal slash swept through the air.

One Sweepleaner was cleanly cut into two, its body falling lifelessly toward the ground.

The remaining Sweepleaners were caught off guard.

Their synchronized attack was abruptly interrupted, and the mana linking them together collapsed under the backlash.

The enormous sphere of water they had been gathering immediately became unstable before crashing harmlessly onto the battlefield with nothing but its own weight behind it.

Alden himself was still falling from the sky.

Midair, he gathered mana beneath his feet once again and activated Flash Step.

He reappeared directly above a giant elk.

The monster’s antlers suddenly glowed, and a concentrated beam shot toward him.

Alden twisted his body in midair with surprising flexibility, narrowly avoiding the attack.

Before the elk could fire a second beam, his sword descended.

Its antlers were severed.

A heartbeat later—

Its neck followed.

*************

He had been fighting continuously for nearly twenty minutes.

Even though the time seemed insignificant, that wasn’t the case.

For those twenty minutes, his mind had been constantly analyzing the battlefield, while his feet hadn’t stopped moving for even a second.

He had continuously used mana to coat his sword and activate his movement technique, Flash Step.

Now, nearly half of his mana reserves had been depleted.

Fortunately, it was enough.

Only a few monsters remained.

His sword itself didn’t consume much mana, as his control over it was precise and he never wasted it unnecessarily.

Flash Step, however, was a different story.

Boosting his speed required a considerable amount of mana.

The farther he wanted to travel in a single step, the more mana he had to consume.

A perfect example was unfolding right now.

From time to time, Alden would launch himself high into the air using Flash Step to eliminate the aerial monsters.

Otherwise, they would continue bombarding him with attacks while he was occupied fighting the monsters on the ground.

The same scene repeated itself several more times until Alden finally cut down the last monster with a clean vertical slash.

Silence fell over the battlefield.

To be honest, he was more mentally exhausted than physically.

It had been his first battle with so many variables.

Every movement, every attack, and every monster had forced him to think several steps ahead as he constantly adjusted his next move.

Standing alone in the middle of the now silent battlefield, he turned toward the direction where a woman was still sitting comfortably on her chair.

Lowering his sword, Alden began walking toward her with slow steps.

Before leaving the battlefield behind, he couldn’t help but take one last glance at the massacre that had unfolded there.

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