Now that the powerscaling test had reached the one-hour mark, I knew what would happen.
This is when the students would start to fight eachother for the sake of their pride and status, the one who would come out victorious would obviously be the protagonist, as the author had written, it's not possible to go against destiny.
"Destiny huh..."
Well, it doesn't matter, all I need to do is to survive and not meet anybody, I only had 10 points but still... and also I had the feeling I was getting close to that place.
After this, I got yet again lost in the forest and had to fight my way through some monsters, goblins were surprinsigly easy to beat now that I had this new skill though.
But I still couldn't truly battle agaisn't tree demons so I opted with running away if it was possible.
On the other hand I also had to fight magic wolves and they were a little harder to deal with, they were faster than goblins and they would use their magic to create a barrier around their bodies, but luckily my strength was a lot higher than what I would of had originally, so I managed to punch them and kill them after a few hits.
"Hah... Hah... How long has it been...?" I asked subconsciously after killing another magic wolf.
I then looked at the holographic timer above me, and the remaining time was 1:14:43.
"I still have time, the main character only reaches the place 30 minutes before the end."
But still...
"I need to hurry" I started running.
Time was ticking and the longer it took me to reach the place, the greater the chances would become of someone meeting me and stealing my points.
I can't take the risk, the best thing to do would be to find the goblin's base and then wait for the protagonist to arrive, and then just stay put and hope nothing would happen as he took care of it.
So the following ten minutes, I did not stop.
I had already wasted more then 100 minutes and was afraid of being late, so the best option was to run at full speed.
But of course, I wasn't that lucky.
Because as soon as I took an additional step, a firey slash came from above the trees and almost hit me, if I hadn't stepped back at the last moment my legs would of probably been cut off...
"Thank god I got that new skill..."
And at the place where I previously was, a man dropped from above and landed on his two feet while staring at me; he had red hair, horns, which meant he was from the demon race, and two daggers, one for each hand.
He looked like an assassin, which kinda reminded me of one of the characters in the novel: Kyle, a supporting character yet an extremely strong one.
Basically someone I didn't want to fight.
[Anger meter 89/100]
"W-wait, I don't have any poin-"
I couldn't finish talking that the man was already infront of me, he had used a movement technique and the blade was now going directly towards my heart.
I could hear the sound of the wind splitting and feel the heat of the flames close to my skin, but I could not dodge.
I couldn't dodge, but it doesn't mean it's over.
So with my sole motivation at work, I put my hand infront of the dagger as it was about to hit me and and caught the blade, a lot of blood was coming out and the pain was unbearable, but I didn't let go.
I looked at Kyle dead in the eyes afterward as his faced started displaying a confused expression, but I didn't let him react.
I focused some of my aura in my legs and kicked him in the stomach, thus increasing the distance between us as he was sent flying.
But as he was still in the air from attack, I started running in the opposite direction at full speed.
"Where are you going? Are you stupid?" Kyle laughed and then disappeared, reappearing right behind me, "did you forget, idiot, you can't run away from an assassin, I am an expert at this!"
"Shut up, asshole"
I was mad.
Not because he attacked me, or because I couldn't do anything to defend myself, no.
It was because I knew I had no chance to survive and could feel the end of the tunnel.
I didn't know how many seconds or even minutes had passed, the only thing that mattered was running and dodging his attacks.
"Are you sure you can dodge forever? It's been 5 minutes, you should have ran out of energy by now, yet you are still moving."
He was right.
My legs were burning and the constant movement was taking a toll on my lungs.
But I wasn't going to give up, no.
I have to get away.
I have to get away!
"I HAVE TO GET AWAY FROM HERE!"
[Anger meter: 93/100]
I knew he was playing with me, after all he could of just used his strongest attack and knocked me out instantly, yet it almost felt like he enjoyed playing this game of cat and mouse.
"That's enough, die"
He suddenly increased the speed of his attacks, and the flame of his blades was growing bigger and hotter everytime it was slashed towards me, I couldn't do anything to counter him and was just hoping the stamina I had left would be enough for the chase.
But that's when I noticed something strange.
Something that could lead me to victory: a tree was twitching a bit and it's leaves were not moving normally.
What makes tree demons so deadly was also their abilities to camouflage in the environment as a real one, I could definitely take advantage of that.
After avoiding another slash, I turned towards Kyle and spoke.
"You're never catching me you bitch" then I pulled out my tongue as to show I was mocking him.
Kyle was the type of character to get angry easely and never back down from any type of threat, which means...
"LET'S SEE YOU SURVIVE THIS THEN!" he yelled as I saw him charge his power for a final attack.
"Took the bait" I whispered and got ready to use every single ounce of strenght I had left to dodge him, it was do or die now.
"WRAHHHH!" Kyle dashed into my direction in a straight line.
If the attack hit me, I would die, but...
I still need to keep going.
And so when Kyle was at a fair distance from me, I used the "Trial and Error" at it's current max and dodged his attack by a few millimeters.
This would normally mean nothing as Kyle could just attack again, but what he didn't realize was that...
He was heading straight towards a tree demon's mouth.
And before he even understood what was happening, the assassin hit his head agaisn't the monster, thus stunning him and making him drop his weapons, then the tree demon grabbed his body with it's moving branches and put it in it's mouth, essentially killing him and making me victorious.
[Elimination, +20 points]
I'm quite lucky that this is the beggining of the novel as the characters later on become so strong it's impossible to even hit them.
Oh well, doesn't matter.
How much time do I have left now?
[Time remaining: 50:00]
[Time remaining: 49:59]
Oh shit.