Chaos Cycle: The Eye of Genesis

Shin swung his sword and killed his first target, slicing its head up. He was only able to succeed so easily because the one that came first jumped at him, and he was ready for it. With a grin on his lips, he waited for the next target to arrive.

He killed another one easily too and could not get why Elior said dealing with them would be so difficult. If they just jump at him heedlessly, then it would be as easy as eating a pie.

Lara was closer to Ileana, making sure she was alright, so he went towards Peter, who was not having any fun with the monster. Abruptly, a couple of moles appeared in front of the nerd. Without thinking, the boy stepped back and was about to leave the formation.

Shin stepped before him and was about to confront the two moles when a strong gust of wind hit his back. It appeared Peter was not as weak as he had thought. Shin yelped and flew off a few metres away with the moles. Before he could even drop on the ground, the two moles attacked him with their head and bare claws.

The thick leather armour saved him from any terrible injuries, but he could not help but curse in pain. He tried to roll on the ground and stood up and in that time, the two moles had disappeared from his sight.

"Shin," Elior yelled.

"Sorry," Peter yelled, sweat dripping from his forehead to cheeks.

A new one appeared from behind him and tried to chew away his leg. Shin was too oblivious to notice and by the time he noticed it, his right leg was already bare. It had dismantled his fine boot from below in only a moment. He ran his leg in a violent kick, but it only hit the ground. It escaped again.

On the other side, another one jumped at him again. No more than one, at least three, came into his vision. An arrow flew and killed one of it while Shin blocked another one, and the last one escaped easily.

"These things are annoying," he said and swung his sword, but his target had already escaped with swift speed.

"Can we deal with them like this?" Ileana said with worry. "If more of them came, this situation might get harder to deal with."

Her worry was not unfounded. Elior and Leroy might be fine with their capability and Hasan had an advantage over the moles as well with his listening, but for the rest of them, it would turn out to be a more difficult hassle than they ever imagined. Peter already messed up his attack and hit Shin. If the number of moles rose, the disorder would only rise.

"We can escape from them by going to rockier areas where they won't be as capable of fast drilling," Elior said. "But you all should remember the goal of this drill. You are all here to reach the first order. The faster one of you reaches the first order, the easier this test turns out to be."

Ileana pondered for a second. "Let's go to higher ground for now," she said. "We need to make a plan and get used to battling together, then we should try again."

Nobody said a word. They were busy dealing with the moles and we're not sure about her proposal.

"I see no problem in it," Leroy said. Not even a drop of sweat in his body.

"I would like to leave as well," Peter said. Beside him was Lara. After Shin flew off, she came to his rescue after finding Ileana was good on her own.

"Fine," Elior said nonchalantly. "Stay in the group and watch where you attack," he continued, giving a look to Peter. "Follow me."

Elior rushed out the moment he finished his phrase, picking up the spear. His speed was not the fastest, the same as when he ran in the morning, enabling the heavy training suit. On another note, he was wearing the suit even now, though it was not enabled. The load on his body now was about 40kg, though it was quite restrictive, he did not have any problem yet.

As they ran, the moles did not stop coming at them. He was at the forefront and behind him were Hasan and Shin. Leroy, being considerate to the others, stayed in the back and in the middle were the other three.

After gaining momentum over the moles, they rushed at top speed towards the rockier hills. Across the narrow river.

Aanya appeared out of nowhere in the middle they had camped before and looked at the seven of them rush out. She tilted her head and pondered. The little conflict went as she had expected though, there were a couple of anomalies in it. Leroy and Elior. Both did not show their true capability here. Were they saving up their strength for something unexpected? Perhaps, but she was not sure.

She held out the crystal communication device out again and called the other upperclassmen. "After they reach a safer ground, give them an hour or two to catch their breaths."

"Aye." The voice returned from the communicator device, and Aanya left toward the hills as well.

"Are you sure none are coming our way?" Ileana asked Hasan for the second time.

The gale wind shifted in the dungeon and the sound of surging water came into their ears, though they were too busy catching their breath. They had reached the rocky ground a couple of minutes ago and the attacks or the moles stopped, but they were not sure if they would not come again.

"I'm not sure, but I cannot hear them," Hasan said, keeping his ears to the ground.

"We are safe for a while," Elior added.

"I suppose," Ileana said and finally had the time to breathe properly. "We should prepare some counter-attack against them. Does anyone have any plans?"

She looked at Elior first to provide the plan.

"Why are you looking at me?" Elior said and sat beside Shin. "I'm hungry, Shin. You brought the meal with you, right?"

"We were assaulted a moment ago and all you care about is stuffing your stomach?" Ileana shouted, glaring at him.

"What can I do? The stomach of a teenage boy is quite rebellious," he said.

Shin chuckled and brought out the carrier. He gave water and a purifying sanitiser first and when Elior finished cleaning his hands; he gave a big chunk of meat to Elior while waiting if anyone else needed it now.

"And here I thought, you have matured," just as Ileana finished her phrase, her stomach growled, watering everything she said just now.

Shin's laughter rose and Elior joined. Even her friend Lara smiled at her.

"Sit down and fill your stomach first," Elior said. "How can you think with an empty stomach?"

"I think with my brain, not stomach," she said, but saw Hasan and Peter joining the two.

"Don't need to be shy, Ileana," Elior said again. "Come and take a breather first. I saw you are quite tense today."

In the end, she joined them and sat on a rock the others were ready to join except for Leroy.

"Even though it's good to eat together," Elior continued, biting the chunk of meat. "Someone must take note of the surrounding, considering we were attacked not long ago."

"I'm on it," Leroy said and left as if he could not wait to leave the group.

"Such a gentleman, you are," Elior snorted and continued to stuff his stomach.