Race

"These guys didn't do so bad! We're definitely far up the top of the leaderboard now." Elias realised, noticing how many points Botan was able to give him.

Aria tried to return to facing Elias, with a broken ribcage. Her will to fight was undying but the pain in her side was tough to bear. Her breathing was restricted as every time she inhaled, this pain intensified.

Before she could even try to make her way back to Elias, Clark came swooping in with his flight. He drove his knee right into the back of her head and launched her unconscious body toward Botan's.

*thump*

The two fighters simply turned their attention to the other prey that could still be lurking in the quiet forest.

*FWOOM*

Clark made his exit swiftly and Elias was able to catch up to him with his exceptional running speed.

As Brandyn got up, he noticed his watch started making this odd beeping noise. This was to signal to other fighters that he was eliminated but he figured that out quite quickly. Also, his final coin total was displayed in the corner of the watch screen, at 36.

Primarily, though, there was a white arrow across a blue background. It pointed to the aircraft and also stated that it was 5.2 kilometres away. Suddenly, though, a notification panel had appeared.

[Quest Complete!]

[+150XP]

[+1 Stat Point]

Seeing this Stat point, Brandyn decided to just take a brief look at his stats.

[User: Brandyn Santiago]

[Level: 3]

[Strength: 6]

[Speed: 5]

[Stamina: 7]

[Durability: 7]

[HP: 30/30]

[XP: 205/300] (UPDATED)

[Species: Archdemon]

"Those rewards were pretty good. No skill though. Hmm. My speed seems to be lacking a little bit here. Let's go for speed for now." Brandyn decided, as he jogged through the forest to make it back to the aircraft.

It took a few minutes and as he was making his swift jog, he saw several medical personnel in the sky with their dark suits, heading towards the aircraft with him.

As he arrived, there were more than 100 students in the entrance room and he wondered what that was about. However, he quickly realised that there was a leaderboard plastered in this room and the contestants were concerned about if they actually did well in the exam. As Brandyn found his own name, it slowly started to drop places as the points of Elias and other contestants rose. The number of players still active fell to 31 out of 134, and the total soon started dropping from that.

"Elias is so good! He has more than 180 points now!"

"Clark too! That ability really is one-in-a-million."

Several praising remarks came from these underclassmen as they almost kissed the feet of their higher-ups. What was surprising was that these students even acted this way when they weren't in the presence of these powerful people. This attitude puzzled Brandyn and slightly irritated as this toxic pyramid was the cause for all of his torment months prior.

Minutes passed and Brandyn decided to head to the kitchen. He was gradually becoming more and more irritated by the mindless people praising Elias and Clark as they dominated the top of the leaderboard. Their points had raised above 200 points and right now, he simply desired peace and quiet from those buffoons.

Brandyn, as he entered the large cafeteria, smelled the savoury and sweet aromas flowing and intertwining. The oily scent from the beef and bolognese was more than enticing and the warm desert's sweet vapours made them incredibly tough to resist. Brandyn was tired of waiting and decided to get his meal. He got a plate of pasta, bolognese, mixed with even more minced meat. Beside him, for desert, he treated himself to a small plate of red velvet cake, with a syrupy interior.

In Helios, this desert was called Gold Velvet Cake, for giving the red, bread-like mixture a more golden, glossy texture than before.

There were empty rows of seats inside the cafeteria since the students decided to instead eat in the common and dormitory rooms. However, since the room was devoid of any students, the archdemon felt that this was the best place for him to eat his scrumptious meal. Brandyn was eating his meal of spaghetti and, while having tomato sauce covering the sides of his mouth, he saw that the game had ended. On his watch, he had a reminder of the number of players still active and it had fallen to one team. As this occurred, there was a nice effect of sprinkles and confetti in celebration of these 2 warriors.

"It's done. They'll probably do some announcement now. I should probably finish up quickly." Brandyn thought, hastily getting to devouring his glossy gold velvet cake.

Clark and Elias stood ahead of 4 unconscious bodies, that were then taken and healed by the school's medical team.

"Good job on winning boys." One of these medical warriors said with their hands right above a student's chest.

That same lime-like energy emitted from their palms and the wounds that this student had accumulated seemed to vanish by the second. The two arrogant students didn't even reply to these comments, as if these comments were out of necessity and not kindness.

Walking out of the large group of trees and into the grasslands adjacent to it, the duo saw the ship in the distance.

"You wanna race?" Clark asked, with his eyes blazing a bright red.

Elias grew even more scales down his hands and forearms, with his cheeks also getting fortified in these scales. His demeanour had changed into something more reptilian, more predatory. His eyes had attained this devilish fire in them.

He didn't even need to reply and once Clark lifted off his feet, he began his strides.

*FWOOSH*

Clark held both arms out for a better sense of direction, letting him fly in a straight direction. His speed continued to increase but so did Elias' speed. His strides grew in size and frequency, making him explosively cross this large distance.

Elias soon started to overtake Clark and the distance began to grow. His running speed seemed to be too much to handle and the arrogant warrior let out a smile as he looked back at his opponent. Clark didn't seem too bothered though, pulling back one arm to fly with a single arm. His speed amplified greatly as he flew, allowing him to easily overtake Elias again. This time, his even his feet were in a further direction than Elias and the gap was settled.

In less than 100m from reaching the aircraft, Clark chuckled as he knew he had won the race, before lifting into the sky to slow his flight. Elias simply slid across the dry ground beneath him, ripping out the patches of dry and dead grass ahead of him.

"Damn it!" Elias thought to himself in irritation, removing the shifting on his body to return to his human form.