"Come!"
"Roar!"
Red furs were covering its body, but there was a black spot on it. That spot was the place where Alex's Fire Arrows exploded. Because of Alex's tyrannical flame, even normal Fire Arrows became more powerful. The roaring ape started to move, approaching Alex.
Alex already took out his sword, as he wanted to test the power of Sanguin Sword Art Sixth Slash. He was shocked, the ape was already in front of him with its huge body and swung his big hand at him.
"Not good!" Alex immediately ducked in.
'Boom! Crash!'
With one simple swing of its hand, a few trees fell.
"This ape does not only have power with its huge size, but it certainly has the speed as well!"
"Flash Step!"
Alex used Flash Step to disappear from the ape's vision while using its big hand as a cover. When he appeared next, he was already behind the huge monster. Alex smirked. He clenched his sword and aimed at the ape's neck, he tried to finish this one off in one single blow. "Sanguin Sword Art, Sixth Slash!"
The instant Alex disappeared, the ape's instinct sensed something about to happen. It swung its other arm toward its back as its body twisted strangely to the left.
Alex's strike collided with the ape's arm, giving it a big cut wound on its left arm. The red-colored blood started gushing out from the wound.
"Roar!"
Although his first attack failed, there was no change to Alex's expression. He sent another Sword Wave flying to the ape's neck. But sadly, the ape's eyes were already locked onto him, so that monster twisted its body into a weird form again to dodge Alex's Sword Wave.
However, Alex finally had the opportunity to deliver the fatal blow to the ape. When he was just about to send another Sword Strike, the ape swung his right hand to him at a very fast speed. Alex who saw this hand's movement was shocked. With the ape's current weird position, he predicted that there would be no incoming fast attack from the monster.
"Not good!"
Because he planned to throw a Sword Strike, he was in no position to handle the incoming attack.
"Flame Armor!"
A translucent crystal red-colored flame appeared on his arm. The flame appeared in the form of a shield connected to Alex's arm. The power contained in the flame could make anyone shiver. But to this insane ape who was already reduced to such a state, there would be nothing that scared the ape. The ape pounded the flame-made shield without considering the consequences.
Because of this attack, Alex was blown away. With his current position, Alex crashed into the wall just beside the cave's entrance.
"Cough!"
Bright red blood flew from his mouth. The blow just now got him a minor internal injury. He wiped the blood on his mouth and looked at the ape. The ape did not look any better, the surface of the fist that pounded Alex away was burned because of his flame which left a big pitch-black burn wound in the shape of a shield on the skin.
Alex refrained from using his fire in this forest because of the dense trees that grew in the forest. If one of the trees caught his fire, soon enough it would burn the whole forest and this was the consequence that Alex certainly didn't want to happen. His fire was too tyrannical. He could use the fire arrows since he was aiming at the cave. But in this open field surrounded by trees, using his fire would cause more harm than good. He could only fight with the Sanguin Sword Art since he used a sword. He also could take out his spear but he left it as his trump card.
The ape stabilized its form and went approaching Alex madly. Because of the wounds from Alex's attack, the ape went berserk. It threw punches after punches at Alex. Although Alex could dodge all this punch, he just couldn't find the opportunity to attack the ape. After the ape went berserk, its power and speed were doubled from before. The speed was similar to the rank 7 centipede that Alex had fought back then.
'As expected of the Forest King. Its power and speed are top-notch. This speed alone is very similar to the centipede back then. Even though this ape is very fast, it is as if the ape is converting its power to speed and converting its speed to power. And the problem is he doesn't convert them separately but simultaneously, fusing those two powers and producing a stronger force within each atta...'
Alex's eyes brightened, he muttered. "Converting power to speed, converting speed to power. These two are the first two principles of the Sanguin Sword Art. When I use the strike up to the Third Slash, it uses the former. When I use the Fourth to Sixth Slash, don't tell me... the Sanguin Sword Art divides each three slash with a different principle? And the Seventh Slash uses the other principle? That means I was wrong all this time. If it is this way, then..."
He looked at the ape who still threw punches at him. He observed each strike that the ape threw. This strike might be the one he needed to successfully use the Seventh Slash. Alex used his 'Flash Step' to the limit, so he could have more time to observe the ape's strike. Even though the time difference was very small, for him, it was enough.
Strike after strike, Alex kept observing. After a few minutes, suddenly the ape stopped.
"ROAR!"
It was enraged. The reason might be because all of its strikes were missed or there might be other reasons. But because of this reaction, Alex saw a big chance.
"Flash Step!"
With a 'Flash Step', he distanced himself from the ape. He took a long breath as he looked at the enraged ape. "It's worth trying."
"Fuu..."
Converting the power on the hand for the sword's speed. Simultaneously, converting the hand's speed to give the sword power. Similar but not the same, by fusing the two principles, producing a new kind of prowess. The tip of the sword started to glow, The blue-colored light started to cover the sword's blade from its tip. Alex raised his sword and swung it down.
"Sanguin Sword Art, Seventh Slash!"
The blue-colored glow on the sword transformed into a beautiful but tyrannical blue-colored Sword Wave. This crescent Sword Wave might make other creatures shiver with dread but to the enraged a rank 6 ape. The beautiful Sword Wave flew to the ape. It cut all obstacles on its way. The enraged ape tried to block this Sword Wave by crossing its two arms in front of its chest.
Alex who released this Sword Wave was both stunned and astonished. He was shocked by the power contained in the Sword Wave. With his eyes widened, a wild smirk appeared on his face. He was excited about the Sword Wave's power. It was very different from that of the 'Sixth Slash'. He looked at the ape that crossed its arms to block his strike. He shook his head, "The current rank you have wouldn't be able to block this Sword Wave."
When the Sword Wave clashed with the ape's arms, it continued to fly through the ape and cut that monster into two. The Sword Wave sliced through the ape as if it was cutting a pudding. The Sword Wave continued flying to the cave wall.
'Boom!'
The collision of the Sword Wave with the cave wall resulted in a big explosion. Both students and teachers were alarmed by this explosive sound, but because all of them were not present at the source of the explosion, they could only imagine what kind of scene that happened.
Most of the students were scared, while the teachers were alarmed. All rank 7 or above teachers immediately flew to the scene. When they saw a big cut on the wall, they were stunned and astonished.
After all, there were no monsters that could use a sword in this forest. That meant it was made by a human. But they never saw any cuts like this in the previous year's event. When they shifted their view at the ground, they saw a big ape that was sliced into two on the ground. They were too shocked at the scene before them, after all, they knew what kind of monster this ape was. The ape was the king of this forest, the rank 6 Ape.
On the other side, they spotted a student, with a sword in his hand as he sheathed the sword back. He looked at the ape without saying anything. With the current situation, that meant this student had killed a rank 6 monster.
This was unprecedented in the academy's history. There might be some genius that managed to reach rank 5 before graduation, or there might be an unparalleled genius that even managed to reach rank 6. But all of them could reach that level just before graduation or at least in the third year. They knew the student who was now on the ground. He was Alexander, the dean's student, a second-year student.
The dean slowly walked to the crowd of teachers. Some of the teachers noticed the dean who was coming, so they looked at him. Some of the teachers didn't notice the dean coming because of the shocking scene, so when they saw their colleagues turn their heads to look in another direction, they followed their gaze and saw the dean walk up. The atmosphere became tense, after all, the scene that just happened was too great. The dean fell silent for a while, then he sighed.
"Sigh... if he practiced that technique in my courtyard, the courtyard wall would be completely destroyed."
"..." Every one of them was speechless with what they heard.
'That's your only concern?' They cursed in their minds.
"Dean Marco, you get an unparalleled genius as your student. Congratulations!" Suddenly one of them started to congratulate him.
"Yes, the Hero was just trash compared to him. Congratulations!" One by one started to follow the lead and congratulate the dean.
"Dean Marco, since your wall might be destroyed, then he can practice in my courtyard. It's fine even if he destroys my walls," one of the teachers said.
"What? Don't ever think to snatch him from me, you will never succeed," the dean snorted.
"If that's the case, he can practice in the student field. That way, he can also teach other students."
"If we do that, most of the students will have their heart pummeled by him. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. If my students do that, their hearts will unconsciously think of him as the limit. They will think that there is no use to train since they will never be the best as long as they are in the same generation with him or similar destructive thoughts like that. Are you planning to destroy the students' future?"
"..."
"Let nature take its course. All right, dispersed. There will be a problem if all of you hang around here for a long time. The students might be in danger while you are here."
"Yes." All of them then flew toward their previous spot, albeit reluctantly.