7 A Venomous Snake

Gris' persuasive words effortlessly swayed the haughty Alaric. Upon discovering the elves' whereabouts, a sinister determination gripped Alaric. He would take their ears as a collection and show them off to others.

The elves, on average, reach maturity after fifty years of their lives if they live in a suitable environment (enchanted forest).

Blayz 'rescued' the four elves as babies from the villains' attack. Manipulatively, he persuaded them not to seek the enchanted forest because it was dangerous.

He would have been very upset if he had discovered that the elves had died at the hands of Alaric. But he could calm down quickly and researched how the environment affected the elves' strength.

"If only a pressure bandage would materialize out of thin air," Gris muttered, his gaze fixated on the crimson tide infiltrating his once pristine shirt.

He turned briefly to Alaric, who was chasing his last prey. He had no idea how his perception could precisely pinpoint the precise location of the elves.

Their movements resonated with crystal clarity in his ears, a sensation far beyond the ordinary, untouched by mere experiences like sneaking into a graveyard.

The author explained that Griswalden got his perception thanks to his grim hobby. But that did not make sense after the transmigrator experienced it himself. He would investigate that later.

The agonized screams of Alaric's victims acted as a haunting call, inviting other children. Gris halted his attempts to staunch the bleeding, hastily knotting the shirt around his palm. 

Whether he welcomed it or not, he braced himself to enter the fight, grappling with the dizziness brought on by the persistent loss of blood.

'Two, four, seven... I'm screwed.'

Gasping for breath, Gris winced as the pain from the wound throbbed through his body. With a low crouch, he sought a momentary relief, easing the tension in his weary legs. His left hand tightly clutched the dagger.

Luckily, he possessed the rare gift of ambidexterity, skillfully employing both hands equally. In his daily existence, his right hand usually silenced targets by smothering their mouths, while the left hand remained poised, ready to execute with the lethal precision of a weapon's grasp.

"Who is this boy?" A towering figure scowled at the unexpected appearance of Gris, struggling to place the unfamiliar face before him.

The tall girl beside him replied, "He is the boy who lives in the pavilion that emits the stench of corpses."

"The one who likes to collect those corpses, huh? Amazingly, he survived until now."

"He was the last prey of that crazy werewolf, kekekek."

Gris ignored the other people's views on him. After all, what they said was true, so there was no need to take offense.

When the other five children lunged at Alaric simultaneously, the big boy and the tall girl remained in their positions.

"It must be painful to die at Alaric's hands," the tall girl put the spearhead to Gris's neck. "I'll be generous enough to end your life."

The boy spoke up. "The sooner the better. You can have a quick reunion with your mother in hell."

Silently, Gris seized a nearby stone while the laughter of the two children echoed around him. He threw it directly toward the unsuspecting girl, striking her squarely in the eyes with a resounding thud.

Surprised, the girl screamed and momentarily lost her balance. Gris used this moment to escape the threat of the girl's spear. He directly stood up and aimed her stomach to be stabbed.

However, the big boy moved quickly, using his shield to deflect Gris's advances. "Damn it. How dare you refuse our kindness!"

Gris crumpled to the ground, the impact jolting through his body as he scrambled to rise. Before he could fully regain his footing, a vice-like grip closed around his neck from behind. 

"You," a menacing voice whispered in his ear, "will have the honor of being the first victim of my blade."

It was a new person. From his voice, Gris knew it was a boy with a reasonably strong body judging from the grip. He recalled that the 'participants' of this Death Forest Test were divided into two sessions.

Blayz could not use teleportation magic because the empire could detect it. To avoid attention, the other thirty children would follow to the forest half an hour later using a horse-drawn carriage that was said to carry necessary herbal ingredients. 

They were not given drugs as their chances of getting a ticket out were lower. The children in the first session agreed to be given sleeping pills as they wanted to make the most of their time. 

Gris deduced that the newcomers at his location belonged to the second session. He strained against the boy's unyielding chokehold, but every escape attempt met with failure.

"Look at this, your hand is hurt," the boy pressed the wound on Gris' right hand instead of grabbing the dagger.

As the pain surged beyond endurance, Gris gritted his teeth, the anguish forcing him to release a pained cry. The agony coursing through his right hand was so excruciating that it sapped the strength from his left.

Before a worse scenario happened, he gathered the strength in his leg to stomp the boy's foot with all his might.

"You bastard!" the boy reflexively released his choke. With lightning speed, he took out his sword from its sheath and slashed mercilessly at Gris' front body.

Gris found himself helpless against the swift onslaught of the boy, evidently proficient with a sword. The flurry of strikes was relentless, and Gris lost count of the cries of pain escaping his lips.

There was no shame to this; the bloodcurdling screams of the other children being mercilessly slaughtered by Alaric echoed even more hauntingly than his.

As he retreated backward, he looked over to find the tall girl already ready with her spear.

His attempt to duck came too late, the spear finding its mark and leaving a jagged wound on his back. Though not as grievous as the slash from the boy's sword, the injury still seared with a sharp, persistent ache.

The other boy, with a large body, did not want to lose the opportunity to torment Gris. He smashed his shield right into Gris' head, causing him to fall to the ground.

The trees surrounding Gris appeared to meld into a swirling blur, spinning at a disorienting pace as if the forest itself conspired against him. The laughter of the three children became muffled, drowned out by the persistent ringing in his ears.

'I can't die here...'

As the world gradually ceased its dizzying dance, Gris's vision steadied, only to reveal the menacing silhouette of the sword-wielding boy poised to strike. 

If he was destined to die right now, he did not want to die without a fight. He bet on his left hand, which responded to his brain's command to throw the dagger at his opponent's thigh.

With an accurate prediction of time, speed, and distance, the dagger struck exactly where Gris wanted it to. But even though the target was down, the big boy and the tall girl still existed.

His still-dizzy head turned back, and a wince crept across his face as he observed his two remaining opponents holding back from launching an immediate assault.

"I-It's a venomous snake!" 

The girl exclaimed with a pale face. Tremors rippled through her hands as she desperately attempted to dislodge the venomous serpent, its emerald scales and reddish-brown tail coiled around her leg, sinking its fangs deeper.

The boy hit the snake with his shield. "You fool! Kill it with your spear!"

Panicked, the girl seemed unable to think clearly. It took the intervention of the boy to snap her back to reality that she could use her spear to kill the snake.

But strangely, the snake returned to life after being crushed by the spearhead. And this time, it targeted the boy.

Gris gulped as the girl's leg slowly swelled and turned black. It was clear that the green snake was indeed venomous.

"I have to go."

Utilizing his remaining strength, Gris attempted to stand up and distance himself from the snake. But the snake turned to him after injecting the boy with its venom.

He automatically kept quiet so the snake would not become more aggressive and attack him. Unexpectedly, the snake slithered away after staring at him for about a minute.

"What was that?"

Gris was puzzled by the snake's behavior. Rather than thinking about that, he had more time to snatch anything that might be valuable among the dead children.