The Golden Throne

The students rested at night in the open. They did not put up the tents because it was going to be a more temporary setup. In fact, they weren't even supposed to be this far in, this early into the trip. But, because the monkeys had attacked the camp in the first day itself, they had to start moving immediately, so the schedule was moved up. As most of the students were starving, they did not even have the energy to argue about the tents. They knew that the teachers would not listen to them at all. Most of them started regretting coming at all.

"When I return, I will tell my father all about this. The school will get it this time. I don't understand why our seniors had not complained about this. This is an outrage.", one particularly angry student said weakly. Obviously, he was purposely starved for the day, and he was feeling it in the stomach, which had been growling for the last thirty minutes. Clearly, this was the first time in his whole life that he was starving, and had been forced to miss a meal. 

Soon after, all of the students started falling onto the ground like a house of cards, and seeing this, Cordelia signaled the teachers to stop canvassing, and to wait at this position for a while.

"Okay then. All of you can sleep for a few hours, maybe. After that, we have to get moving. We can never be too careful, and sleeping in the open is never a good choice.", Marcus cautioned all of the students, but they did not even listen to any of his words. Most of the students were far too exhausted to even care about what was happening.

After six hours,

Dawn broke. At first light, Cordelia and the other teachers started waking all the students up. Sensing no monsters nearby, even Liu Feng had slept, with Amelia close by him. He needed a good night's rest, because he was quite skeptical of their trajectory the next day. He was sure that a mishap would occur, because the way that they were going had multiple tracks on them. But, he didn't caution anyone, because he knew that the teachers had noticed. 

They continued moving, and then came across a wide gap. It was a huge gathering, and Liu Feng wondered why they would even come to this place at all. There were multiple other paths that could avoid this gathering, which basically looked like a procession for monsters. Some students  started foolishly crossing it when the teachers shouted, "Stop you idiots. This is a gathering spot for monster hordes. You are inviting death by crossing the plains here recklessly. Come back."

Now Liu Feng was truly confused. "If it is a gathering spot, then why did you even bring us to such a dangerous place? There are many more safe places that we can be at.", he wondered.

The students obliged, and came back. But, it seemed that the teacher was right. The students could hear a loud voice from the edge. The sound was growing larger by the minute, and a huge dust cloud could be seen at the edge of the horizon. Liu Feng's face changed and he looked around. He finally spotted Amelia and rushed towards her. He looked at her and said,  "We have to go. No time to explain." He held Amelia's hand and started running away.

"Why are you leaving the group? It's going to be dangerous without the teachers.", one of the students saw him running and asked him.

"Dude, if you run like this with the princess of Elvan in your hands, then you are going to have it from the teachers."

"They will all die if they don't start running now. In that monster horde, I saw a few tigers. That means that there are at least fourth and maybe even fifth order beasts there. Maybe I can survive, no I don't even have that confidence. We have to run, and if we are near the students, we will be seen as targets. Splitting up is a better choice.", Liu Feng warned the students, who were a little too oblivious to the truths.

The monsters could be visible, and the students were screaming. It was now that they saw the huge magnitude of the horde. There were so many types of monsters, and clearly a capable leader among them. The teachers looked at the horde with ashen faces. Clearly, they had not expected a horde this big to arrive at this instant. The students, meanwhile were simply breeding nests for chaos. They started running around in no particular direction, as if they were like chickens waiting to be slaughtered. Finally, seeing a teacher take the initiative to lead them, they followed, Marcus, who showed them the right direction to run. They were all trying to run away, but they could not outrun a monster horde though. Not after they had delayed it by so long, running in basic circles.

"Spread out you idiots!", all of the students could hear Cordelia screaming as she fended off a few monsters that had come her way, but she was clearly struggling.

Slowly, even the rudimentary group that was following Marcus started breaking down. Not everyone had the stamina to run for their lives for so long. As mages, they never actually trained to run away. They never placed the self defense classes in any importance. And now, they were about to face the problem with that.

Liu Feng and Amelia now realized a horrible mistake that they had made. They had wasted far too much time looking at the students and their plights that they hadn't run far away enough. They ran deeper into the forest rather than going outside, the way that they came from. They were essentially going the opposite way that the other students had gone, and most of the monsters went that way any how, because there were more students there. Although the students were told to spread out, who actually did? Liu Feng sat down dazed and then said, "You have your luggage right? You had a spatial stone from the beginning, did you stock up for the trip? Do you have any weapons?". Liu Feng was serious right now, and his face looked terrifying, as if he was ready to kill someone. Of course he was. He was ready to kill. That was what he had come to the magical forest for anyway. But having Amelia by his side was the unexpected part.

"I have one of each type. I don't skimp on armory.", Amelia replied.

"Good, I'm impressed. Thank god at least one person took this seriously. Give me a great sword, a spear, and a normal standard sword. You can use whatever you want. I think you are an archery type of person? Get your arrows ready, and start saving up your mana, you will need it. Don't worry, it is my responsibility, so I will take you back to the academy."

"Hmph! I don't NEED your to take me back to the academy. I can do it myself.", Amelia said with a proud look on her face.

"Amelia, now is not the time to have any differences at all. I am not saying this as a man, but as the more powerful of us two. As I am the one with more capability, I am the one who will take you back to the academy. So, don't try to respond to that, and just listen to whatever I say.", Liu Feng said in a stern voice. Amelia wanted to retort to that, but she didn't, hearing Liu Feng's last words.

Liu Feng and Amelia ran back the same way that they came, but Liu Feng suddenly held Amelia by her waist and jumped up to a tree branch. Expecting Amelia to retort, he covered her mouth with his hand. Then, Amelia stopped resisting when she saw a black panther moving on the ground, smelling their foot prints. It stopped exactly below where Liu Feng and Amelia were hiding. It looked confused. It looked around, but could see nothing. Now, Liu Feng took out his gun and aimed it at the panther. He shot it, and the mana shot blasted towards the panther. The panther sensed it, but it jumped too late. It's fore leg was obliterated. Liu Feng took out the core in his gun and replaced it.

"Wow, this gun is devouring mana for each shot. I should use them sparingly, and as a last resort.", Liu Feng understood as he was rummaging through his last remaining cores. He did not have many to being with.

Amelia, meanwhile, was terrified when she saw what Liu Feng did. "How did you do that? Does this mean that Aegon is now the most powerful kingdom?"

Liu Feng knocked on her head, "Silly, why do you have to worry about that? Elvan and Aegon are allies, soon to be partners by marriage. You have to calm down." 

He jumped down on the panther, sword in hand and cut it in one clean strike. He took out his pocket knife and harvested the core. The core was purple in color and it had a lot more energy than those monkeys.

"With cores like these, I will be able to shoot ten times with a gun, maybe more. Looks like I should add an option to increase the mana burst per shot, so that I will be able to kill stronger beasts.", he thought to himself.