It was not planned from the start that he would make the beast kill Malik and the others.
But it does come to his mind briefly.
Given the environmental suit's sensor system could quickly discern any aggression among the aspirants, taking it upon himself to eliminate Malik and his cohorts would be a very unwise move for him to make.
A moment is all it takes for the inspectors to come down to disqualify and restrain him.
Knowing his situation, he couldn't afford that.
Xander's mother and sister who are now his family were relying heavily on him to keep their heads above water, he couldn't afford to be disqualified from entering the Mech-Soldier academy and passing out on the allowance.
But that didn't stop him from attempting to eliminate the others.
'I wanted to save this for a bit later, however, the Type-2 Beast is hard to pass up'
Alex harbored no remorse for those who treated others' lives, his second chance as a joke.
Maybe Xander would put up with them fearing that he would be unable to pass the trial, but Alex is a completely different person that doesn't hesitate in repaying others what they sowed to him.
"Haa... Haah!!"
Upon seeing the furious beast towering over him, a sense of panic struck Malik.
In addition, he could also feel his senses screaming at him, saying that the beast towering before him was even stronger than before. Malik doesn't know how is this possible, Type-2 Beasts shouldn't have unique innate abilities.
However, the white-sizzling energy surely showed otherwise.
Alex could only laugh inwardly as that was the Aura spell that he cast on the beast.
Crash!
Moving with even greater speed than before, the beast seized hold of Malik's body with its massive hand, clenching him tightly before throwing his body to the side. Like a bullet, he crashed violently into the hill formations, creating a web-like crack.
It was so painful that a mouthful of blood forces out from his lips.
Watching Malik be obliterated by the beast was immensely fun, but Alex couldn't stay idle.
Clearly, the beast would turn to him when it was finished with Malik.
Due to that, he needs to make sure that he is ready to take it down before Malik no longer serves as a distraction. He decided to head towards Casper, who remained frozen in shock as he watched the unfolding scene.
"I'm going to need your help to finish the beast off"
"Eh...? How? It's a Type-2 Beast! Without the proper gears, finishing it will be hard"
"When I signaled, go for its groin. Aim for its family jewels"
Alex ignores Casper's remarks and gives him a command, easy enough to understand.
No matter the beast and planet it came from, the groin remained a universal weak point. A mammal such as this beast would not withstand a targeted strike to its groin, leaving the rest of the encounter a matter of time and patience.
Just like when he approached earlier, he went away without saying anything.
Crash!
"Raargghh!" Malik screamed in pain, finding that his entire skeletons were in shambles.
Even his right arm was already torn off with a powerful bite from the beast, damaging his major arteries and causing immense bleeding, and the interface of the helmet popped crucial state prompts, filling his entire vision with them.
But it was when he found his vision blurry, a figure appeared behind the beast.
Deciding that this was the best time to intervene, Alex leaped and reached right beside the beast's left ear with his hand ready to clap. 'I have only one chance at this, my mana is only good for one more wind element infusion. Let's make it count!"
Clap!
Swoosh!
Harnessing the power of the Nexus Mark, Alex enhanced the Soundwave Gloves output.
It created a thunderous ringing sound and exploded a soundwave to the surroundings, hitting the fan-shaped area in front of him. Compared to earlier, this is even stronger as the soundwave created a big crack in the hill formations.
Additionally, the beast was extremely affected by this as both of its eardrums exploded.
Roar!!
Unleashing a painful roar when the soundwave destroyed its hearing senses, the beast went berserk, stumbling left and right, crashing against the hill formations and even swinging its massive arms randomly.
'Just as expected, its ears are crucial' Alex pondered and nodded his head.
The Type-2 Beast doesn't have eyes and relies mostly on its hearing and smell to navigate and attack. Having one sense missing usually results in the other senses being stronger, and that is precisely why Alex's attack is effective.
Keeping a safe distance to avoid its rampage, he retracted the Aura spell from the beast.
In return, he used the Aura spell to himself and advanced.
Shifting his eyes to Casper, he gave Casper a signaling nod before he sprinted toward the wailing beast. Managing to dodge its rampaging attacks, he then hits the beast on its stomach with enough force to make it bend forward.
Following that, he used his remaining mana to use the Soundwave Gloves one last time.
But it was not enhanced with his wind element.
Although the power output was immensely different than before, thanks to the damage the first one caused, this one managed to stun the beast in place momentarily for Casper to slide in with a knife in hand.
Despite feeling fearful, he decided to do exactly as he was told.
Casper rolled forward and thrust the knife right into the beast's groin, all the way to the hilt.
Roar!!
The beast was writhed in excruciating pain, enduring a level of suffering it had never known before. Meanwhile, Casper, leaped back to create some distance. But his eyes widened in terror as he witnessed its hand hurtling toward him.
Just before he got hit, Alex came out of nowhere and stood in its way.
Crash!
Bam!
"Grgghk!" He lets out a grunt and suffers the hit like a man.
Alex used his energy shield but got shattered instantly, he was forced to use his entire body to block that attack and got sent ten meters back with Casper still behind him. His feet that were planted on the ground created two fine lines on the snow.
But in that process, Casper was baffled. He was certain that Alex was not the same person.
'His scheming trait might be triggered because he was angry at the others, but the fact that he could take a hit from the beast? He hasn't gotten any initial modification serum, it should've been impossible!'
Casper exclaimed inside his head. This should not be possible.
Reaching the end of the pushing momentum, Alex gazes to his front and finds that the beast is still on a rampage. But with the damage dealt by Casper, they need not do anything but wait until it is exhausted.
Looking over his shoulder, he found that Casper was viewing him weirdly.
'The attack hurt me badly, I could still stand, but I don't think that would be a good idea'
Deciding that Casper would be too suspicious of him if he showed more resilience than he was supposed to for someone who hadn't gotten any initial modification serum, Alex fell to one knee and cradled his stomach.
A fine drizzle of blood trickled down the side of his mouth, vouching for his act.
Casper quickly approached and supported him, seeing that he was hurting from the hit.
"Are you okay?! I knew it! You shouldn't have pushed yourself too much, I could've taken that hit instead of you. If you die there, then what you were doing to the others would be a waste of effort"
"Spare me the nag, will you? Just say thanks and move on" Alex replied, smiling wryly.
Casper could only shake his head in response.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, the beast finally collapsed onto the snowy ground, its strength waning from the significant loss of blood. Evident signs of its rampage littered the area, with shattered trees and scars etched into the snowy landscape.
"Incredible, that beast sure has an immense life force to stay standing for fifteen minutes"
Looking around the snowy ground that was tainted with crimson color, Casper shook his head in disbelief as the amount of blood it bled was disturbing. Staying alive should be hard enough yet it was able to ransack the entire place for fifteen minutes before collapsing.
Nodding from the side, Alex also agreed with his remark.
It seems the Type-2 Beast is also the top dog of the entire forest, on top of the food chain.
Judging from the fact that throughout the battle, there were no beasts attracted to the commotion they created, it seems this beast is the strongest. Thus, it was quite obvious that the echoing roars from the beast scared the other beasts away.
Instead of taking care of the beast, Casper's eyes landed on Malik.
Malik was on the brink of death already, yet he had no courage to come close to him.
'Knowing how strict and relentless the Hyperion Empire's forces operate, I never expected an aspiring Mech-Soldier would be this innocent. Well, he is still a greenhorn, it's understandable. I should finish this up and recuperate' Alex stole a glance at Capser before casting his gaze away.
Striding over towards Malik, hunching slightly, Alex then stopped to stand beside him.
At that moment, both of their gazes met briefly.
Realizing that he was going to die through the flicker behind Alex's eyes that contained no sign of saving him, a couple of tears drizzled down Malik's face. "Don't be like that, it was you who started it. A piece of advice for your next life," Pausing for a second, his grin turns into a darkened look. "If you're not ready to be killed, then don't play with others' lives..."
Having experienced the real world, Alex has learned this lesson from when he was little.
It was also the reason why he has always been respectful to others.
Balancing precariously on the thread of life and death, all in pursuit of strength, and yearning for the acceptance of his family, his own father again, he had been subjected to all kinds of life's relentless brutalities.
One wrong step, and he might end like Malik. But he survived.
"Remember that when you reincarnated or whatever, it's quite a useful tip" Alex added.
Standing up to leave Malik to his death, he heads over to the beast but stops when a warning prompt appears inside the interface of his helmet. It seems this is a general prompt, seeing that Casper also got one.
Following that was the voice of a woman, one of the instructors, Ms. Joselyn.
[Be advised, all aspirants are expected to meet at the pick-up point!]
[A beast horde is detected that would interfere with the Trial. It's advised to all of you to come quickly in under half an hour. There will be four carriage pods waiting for all of you at the pick-up point, and will instantly depart when the timer ends]
[Please rush back, it's a matter of your safety]
[30:00]
[29:58]
Upon seeing a timer prompt, Alex and Casper look at each other for a brief moment.
In a union, both of them looked at their navigation device and found that the pick-up point was far away from them. Reaching there in under 30 minutes would be a difficult task, almost impossible.
"This is going to be a problem..."