The Greatest Sinner

Evan and Gerda watched as one of the five Ogres chopped a thick root. Its axe was very large and its blows strong enough that after a few blows the root slowly fell to the ground.

The waves dispersed away from the felled root and the Ogres moved on. They weren't chopping that root for nothing, they had a target - the lad, who was there. This time they failed to get there in time. Seeing what the Ogres were doing, the young man quickly jumped to another root next to it.

Looking at the slow moving monsters Evan thought to himself, <Hmmm, I am very far away from them. It won't be long before they get to me, but in the meantime, I need to restore my mana reserves.>

Evan looked at Gerda and calmly said: "I think our cooperation is over."

"What?" The girl said in surprise and immediately got ready to fight. If Evan wanted to, he would overpower her.

"You have thirty seconds to get out of here to the another root, time's up." Evan's voice was quiet, but very harsh.

Without thinking long Gerda dashed away. She wasn't about to test Evan's patience. She quickly jumped over to another root and with a forceful kick she broke off a part of it, cutting off the way for Evan.

It might seem that Evan, with good intentions, had given Gerda time to escape, rather than attacking her immediately. If he had, he would have one less enemy to deal with. But, Evan didn't want to waste precious time and energy on taking Gerda down.

Sooner or later the Ogres would get him, so he decided to get rid of the girl the quickest way possible. What's more, he could deal with Gerda at any moment, at this point he had to accumulate as much mana as possible.

Evan looked around, sat down on a root, and began to "Create". There was no one nearby, only in the distance he could see the other participants.

<I hope I can accumulate enough mana before these monsters get to me.>

While Evan was "Creating", the teachers were discussing the students' actions. They were curious as to how each of the students would act under the new changes.

...

"Some members are now uniting, and some are on the contrary breaking alliances." The girl in the silver mantle calmly concluded.

She was surprised that Evan had broken the alliance with Gerda so harshly.

"Alliances are important, but if I were them, I'd "Create" like that guy. The Ogres are very strong, but they are slow, it's not worth wasting precious time making alliances." The man in the platinum mantle said calmly.

"You think so? Isn't this the best time to build teams? You can move around the roots and negotiate. The singles just won't survive, if there are at least three teams." The girl disagreed with the man.

Draven turned to Arabella, "What do you think the winner will ask for you?"

The girl yawned and slowly replied, "I don't know, probably something usual, "Moon Coins", an artifact, or a powerful "Catalyst". There's really not a lot of options here."

A special test for "Inner students" was held every year. Each time the winner could ask the head of the Academy for anything. Of course, Arabella might not fulfill the winner's wish, but usually the wish was simple: an Artifact or "Catalyst", it was very easy for Arabella to give something like that.

Very rare there were the occasions when the winner asked for something intangible She had already heard every possible request in so many years, so she didn't care anymore. She just waited until this ordeal was over. Some of the students were not bad, but she hadn't found anybody interesting for herself among them.

Draven nodded and said: "By the way, do you think they will even pass this test? I think even these Ogres will give them a lot of trouble, let alone the final monster."

"Of course, there are at least three disciples who can kill this monster, but I don't think there will be a final battle between the participants after that. Everything will be decided during the fight." Arabella said slowly.

Draven didn't say anything back, he watched each student intently, pausing occasionally to look at Evan. The young man was "Creating", it was risky because the other students could attack him, but besides him, there was another person who had started "Creating". Oddly enough, it was Gerda.

She wasn't stupid and quickly figured out what the point of Evan's actions was. Without wasting a second she also began to accumulate mana. She had spent a lot more of it than Evan. Without mana, she would definitely have no chance of winning.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Every minute a new root fell into the water, and the participants had to get closer and closer to each other. Many of them did not think about one very important problem - soon the Ogres would destroy all the roots, and fighting against them in the water would be suicidal.

But, going down to the monsters was also not an option. Some students understood this and tried to kill the monsters from a distance, casting various spells.

Fireballs, water spears, sand arrows, and even huge boulders fell on their heads. None of this had any effect, not even a few lightning bolts did much damage to the Ogres. Their defense against the elements was very high, as well as against the physical elements.

Bam.

The Ogres had destroyed another root, and at that moment Evan opened his eyes. He was surprised that the monsters had advanced so far in such a short amount of time.

<Hmm, I`ve managed to replenish very little mana, but they'll only get to me in a few minutes.>

Evan wondered whether or not he should continue "Creating". After looking around and realizing there was no one around, Evan decided to close his eyes and concentrate on his mana.

Whoosh.

However, that was a mistake. In less than a minute Evan closed his eyes and a flaming arrow flew in his direction. Evan felt the threat coming and reflexively dodged the attack, but his arm was hurt anyway.

"Damn!" Evan said angrily and quickly jumped onto a nearby root.

He wanted to run as far away as he could, and even though he was attacked, Evan wasn't going to retaliate in the same way. His wound was not deep at all, all he had to do was stop the bleeding and there would be nothing to worry about.

On one hand, Evan's actions might seem very cowardly, but he hadn't even seen his attacker. If he tried to get back at him, he would only doom himself to greater danger. He would have time to deal with his attacker yet, there was no reason to hurry.

Moreover, he retreated for another very important reason. Seconds before he was attacked, he had seen one of the two chains around his "Warp" begin to tremble.

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