Chapter 38: Forest Of Battle Machines

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Forest Of Battle Machines

Shaking the glowing dust from the tip of his blade, Aegon did not stay in the spot for long.

With 41 points of Speed, each step he took propelled him dozens of feet across the twisted tree roots, turning his small figure into a silent blur beneath the gloomy canopy.

?Over the next 20 minutes, Aegon moved methodically toward the deeper recesses of the Ironwood Expanse.

?Whenever a squad of Seventh-Generation Combat Puppets dropped from the branches or jumped from the bushes to ambush him, they did not even last three breaths.

Using [ Ring of the Focused Mind ] and his creator’s knowledge of Grandmaster Gorden’s blueprints, Aegon never wasted a single swing.

Every strike of the Flame Sword slid cleanly through the unarmored mana conduits beneath their left shoulders or pierced straight into the three-inch gap below their sternums.

?Ding!

?[ Ordinary Combat Puppet Destroyed. +10 Points Acquired. ]

[ Current Score: 90 Points. ]

?"Ninety points already," Aegon murmured, sheathing his warm blade as the ninth automaton crumbled into charred silver wood at his feet.

"The outer ring is running thin. The Giant Puppets should be patrolling the sunken gorge just ahead."

?As Aegon leaped effortlessly onto a high, moss-covered tree overlooking a narrow ravine, the violent sound of rending metal and splintering bone suddenly echoed from the valley floor below.

?CRACK! BOOM!

?Pausing behind the thick trunk of an ironwood tree, Aegon looked down through the gaps in the leaves.

?Down in the muddy ravine, five ordinary combat puppets had surrounded a single examinee in a tight five-point execution formation.

For any normal noble heir, being caught in a five-way pincer under the seventy-percent suppression field meant certain injury or death.

?Yet the boy in the center of the encirclement was not retreating. In fact, he was laughing.

?It was Veera.

?He had completely discarded the standard iron broadsword provided at the entrance racks. Instead, wisps of eerie, pitch-black miasma leaked from the veins on his forearms, wrapping around his bare hands like claws of solidified shadow. Even under the forest’s heavy dampening array, his forbidden Grimoire was forcibly devouring the mana in the soil to fuel his body.

?With bloodshot eyes and a feral grin, Veera looked less like a ten-year-old boy and more like a starved beast let out of its cage.

?ROAR!

?When two puppets thrust their halberds toward his chest, Veera did not even bother to dodge completely. He tilted his torso just enough for the iron blades to graze his ribs, ignoring the shallow cuts tearing through his shirt, and lunged straight into their chests.

?SCREECH—SNAP!

?He grabbed the first puppet by its wooden face mask and its iron shoulder, then tore the automaton’s head clean off its neck with his bare hands, showering the mud in sparks and snapped monster tendons.

The remaining four moved immediately.

But before that, he spun around like a whirlwind of black claws, savagely smashing his fist straight through the sternum armor of a second doll and ripping its glowing crimson core out of its chest.

?Crush!

?He shattered the core in his palm as the dark aura steamed off his skin.

Within less than ten seconds, all five puppets lay torn limb from limb across the ravine floor, looking as though they had been mauled by a pack of rabid direwolves.

?Up on the tree, Aegon watched the gruesome display with detached eyes.

?So the spirit inside his forbidden Grimoire already taught him the Abyssal Blood-Devouring Art. No wonder he was so confident back in the auditorium. That technique bypasses external mana suppression by burning the user’s own vitality and ferocity.

?Right now, with the Flame Sword and his overwhelming physical stats, Aegon was confident he could suppress Veera if he went all out.

However, doing so under the watchful lenses of hundreds of Scrying Beetles would force him to expose physical speed and strength that no ten-year-old should possess, not to mention the unknown trump cards hiding inside Veera’s ancient Grimoire.

?There was no benefit in fighting a cornered mad dog when there were no rewards on the line.

?So before Veera could snap his head up toward the tree, Aegon stepped back silently into the shadows, masking his presence completely as he turned toward the eastern path leading into the inner zone.

?Ten minutes later, he was far from the site.

?But suddenly as he was walking leisurely, silver mist began to roll across the damp ground, weaving between the massive roots of ancient ironwood trees.

Here, the trees grew further apart, creating wide cathedral-like clearings where the afternoon sunlight filtered through the mist in pale beams.

?Suddenly, Aegon slowed his pace, his hand resting lightly on the hilt of the Flame Sword at his waist.

?Ahead of him, the ground trembled with a heavy thudding, followed by a brief melodic chime that sounded like crystal bells ringing in the wind.

?Ding-ling...

?Aegon stepped quietly around a wall of towering ferns and looked into the center of the mist-shrouded glade.

?He noticed across the clearing lay a colossal, five-meter-tall frame of a Giant Puppet.

It was forged from dark meteoric iron and thick black-oak timber, looking like a juggernaut with a warhammer in the size of a carriage wheel.

It was a terrifying battle machine.

Yet right now, the terrifying machine was frozen on one knee.

?He focused more, and saw a single, hair-thin line of silver starlight ran vertically from the crown of its horned helmet all the way down to its groin.

?Clink.

?A second later, the 5-meter giant slid neatly into two symmetrical halves, crashing onto the moss as its 60 points core shattered into a shower of golden sparks.

?Standing twenty paces in front of the fallen colossus was a young girl in a spotless white silk dress.

?Not a single drop of mud stained the hem of her skirt, and not a single strand of her long silver-blonde hair was out of place. She did not even carry an iron weapon from the entrance racks. Instead, her slender fingers held a delicate silver conduct-wand no longer than a quill, while the constellation-engraved pages of her Grimoire fluttered gently beside her shoulder.

?It was Aria Everlight.

?Aegon paused at the edge of the trees, intending to slip past the glade without disturbing her. Dealing with an Oracle who could read fragments of fate was even more troublesome than dealing with a feral protagonist like Veera.

?However, before Aegon could take a single step backward, Aria’s soft and melodic voice drifted clearly across the misty clearing.

?"Since you have already walked all the way here, Aegon Noiré, wouldn’t it be impolite to leave without saying hello?"

?Slowly, the silver-blonde girl turned around, her crystal-blue eyes looking straight through the veil of mist and locking directly onto the shadowed tree trunk where Aegon stood hidden.

He was caught.