Alastor dodged a swipe from a spiked tail, before balancing on the top half of his spear to dodge the gout of flame that followed.
His opponent was a big lizard, which seemed to be trying to cosplay (was that the word?) as a Dragon.
He grabbed the spear just below the blade spun like a wheel, gathering power and bringing the staff part of the spear down on the lizard's head.
The angry squeal that followed signified the damage the lizard had taken.
Alastor quickly re-adjusted his grip on the spear.
The staff part, thankfully, did not get too hot to hold from the flame breath.
He dodged an angry claw swipe by a millimetre, and jabbed the blade end of his spear into the lizard's eye.
The lizard swung it's head in agony and writhed, flinging Alastor up in the air.
Alastor let go of the spear for a moment and landed on the lizard's head, before grabbing it again and using it wrench the lizard around.
The tail snapped up and wrapped around Alastor's waist from behind, before throwing him off.
He landed feet first against a tree, and used it as a springboard to dodge the mad charge that ensued.
'The spear is still stuck in it's eye. It doesn't seem to care though. Has it gone berserk?'
The lizard stood on it's haunches, before setting fire to everything around it in a 20 metre radius.
Standing 21 metres away on a tree branch, was Alastor, as he contemplated on how to end this creature.
'Hmmmmmm, yes that could work.'
Alastor let the lizard see him as he jumped off the tree, careful to stay away from the flames.
The lizard rushed at him, mouth open and flame breath ready.
Alastor dodged to his right, and the lizard's head followed.
The difference was, there was no tree in his way.
The lizard slammed the butt of the spear into a tree as it turned, burying the spear deeper into it's skull, nearly piercing the brain.
It's agonizing screeches were cut off as Alastor jump kicked the spear fully into it's brain.
It shuddered for a few seconds, still tottering about drunkenly, before collapsing.
'Dinner is served.'
.........................................
Illia woke up in time to see Alastor finishing off the Forest Lord.
'Nice.'
Her subordinates kept chattering about ecosystem shifts, beasts going berserk, chaos in the forest, many useless things.
"We should evacuate the students!"
That made Illia frown.
"Why?"
The girl who had said this shrunk under Illia's sudden gaze.
"Uh, B-Because the students lives are in danger, even more than usual!"
Illia scoffed at the child's reasoning.
"Will we control every situation they ever face?"
"If they can't even overcome this small of a challenge, how will they ever progress in the future?"
A human did not particularly care about the number of ants that die.
"I do not particularly care about the number of students that die."
"The test will continue."
.........................................
After one more week of relaxation, Alastor was disappointed to learn his time was up.
A glowing golden arrow appeared in front of him, seeming to urge him to go where it pointed.
After following it, he stumbled upon a large clearing, where many students had already assembled.
'Why are they so haggard? Have they never been in a forest before?'
A professor from the school waved his hand and the golden arrows dissolved into nothingness.
The professor, evidently the proctor of the next part of the test, seemed to giggle to himself every other second.
"Well hello there, Kehehehe- students~"
"Kahaha- You can call me, Keheee- Professor Aspen, Keha!"
"Follow me for your next, Kekekeke- test~"
After leading us in circles for half an hour, he suddenly stopped and asked, "Now, what did you guys, KAHAHAHA!- find weird while walking?"
Most students were confused.
They were more relieved due to the current test having ended, and did not pay much attention to their surroundings, trusting in the Professor.
Alastor had seen some things change, but had not considered them important enough to warrant action.
One guy raised his hand to answer, the bow on his back revealing him to be an archer.
"The colour of the flowers changed from pink to blue when we circled around the meadow."
"The tree branches changed positions."
"The hill in the distance changed from black soil to brown."
Alastor had noticed most of the changes, but did not even know if there was a hill in the distance in the first place.
'There wasn't.....At least, not in my range of vision.'
Professor Aspen clapped his hands, "KEhah! Wonderful! You'll be a great, Kuhuhu- Archer!"
The eccentric professor slapped his palms together, and the environment around them shattered like glass, revealing their true forms and yet, there was no hill in sight.
As they continued walking, after thirty more minutes, Alastor could finally see a small black hill in the distance.
'He saw this from all the way over there?'
"Interesting."
He murmured under his breath.
"What is?" An intruding voice was heard, as Axel, the person Alastor had scolded for being weak willed, appeared out of thin air.
Alastor smoothly ignored the man-child as he continued walking.
Axel kept trying to make conversation, but was shut down on every opportunity.
'I see! He must be telling me to be quiet because it's something to do with the test!'
Axel shut his mouth and observed his surroundings carefully.
It was because of this sudden vigilance, that he dodged a sharp tongue headed for his face.
Alastor reacted on instinct, coating his hand in mana instead of demonic essence, and grabbing the tongue.
With a mighty pull, he brought out a large, fat frog which was leaking a purple liquid all over it's body.
He let it writhe on the floor as he stabbed it with Anhur's Spear.
Professor Aspen began his creepy laughter again, "Did I not tell you? Kahaha~ You have to survive this walk to the test area as well! Kekeke~"
Axel looked at Alastor with pure hero worship in his eyes.
To him, Alastor had long since figured out the true intentions of the Professor, found the frog in advance, and even warned him so he wouldn't be hurt.
'He's so cool!'
Meanwhile, Alastor was struggling to remove the frog's sticky innards from his spear.
He noticed another thing.
The archer that had seen through the illusion, had walked away from the side where the frog had attacked from, in advance.
'He saw it, even in the darkness of the forest.'
His Greed began acting up again.
'I want this one.'
As they walked, Alastor matched his pace with the archer's.
Whenever the archer moved, Alastor (and by extension, Axel) moved along with him.
The archer looked at Alastor who was walking alongside him.
"I see you've figured it out as well."
"You have good eyes."
To be praised for eyesight by someone who could accurately see the changes on a small hill kilometres away, made Alastor feel surprisingly agitated.
"So do you."
Alastor praised.
"You can see the frogs hidden in the shade of the forest, can't you?"
The archer nodded slightly.
Axel was happy to just be near the two.
The archer introduce himself first.
"Karna. That's the name my father gave me."
Alastor smiled, as he acquired a 'friend'.
"Alastor Stele. Self named."
"And I'm Axel E. Rator!"
Axel added enthusiastically.
"We're gonna have so much fun together!"