The fog in the northern ridge thickened.
The trees were muffled in mist as though they were silent observers and the sun above had lost its bite blunted by the clouds forming over the sky.
Nclai acted independent.
He trod around a shattered check point stone, with gliphics that glowed briefly with left over mana. The other teams had evidently gone on through, and no one stayed.
He was entering the outer zone.
Where beasts were less controlled,
Where student duels were discouraged,
Where accidents were common.
His shadow stretched beside him, elongated and steady. But he didn't walk in the light anymore.
Skill Active: Shadow Veil
His footfalls didn't echo. The leaves didn't crunch. The forest forgot he existed.
...
System Notification:
Group Point Tally:
Nclai Azrael (Solo) – 1540 points
Rank: Top 3
Warning: Target visibility increasing.
He closed the prompt.
Of course.
The more you win, the more they watch.
The more they send.
...
Suddenly, a movement.
He paused beside a large root-arch, glancing toward the direction of a shallow brook.
He could hear distant whispering.
There's two students.
They noticed him at the same time.
Their voices stopped. One flinched.
They fled.
Not because of fear of competition,
But because of what they'd heard.
Because of him.
Because of what he did to a noble heir with only a flick of his hand.
Nclai didn't chase.
He didn't care about rank.
Not anymore.
...
He stopped near the edge of a broken temple ruin, half-covered in vines and bone-white stone. The old Empire's mark carved into the granite.
This place hadn't been in the test boundaries before.
"They expanded the test zone this year," the instructor had said.
No one questioned why.
He stepped over a broken statue's arm. Blood pulsed faintly at his fingertip, tethering itself to the shadows.
Blood Sensitivity: Passive
Like a second heartbeat, the air around him sharpened.
He could feel pressure shifts, temperature drops, slight bloodlust trails, subtle tremors left by living things within range.
Then–
A disturbance at the outer edge. Too precise to be beast.
Too still to be student.
...
His voice was low, almost casual.
"You've been patient."
Silence.
Then... eight black figures shimmered into view around the ruin's inner courtyard.
Each one masked.
Each one cloaked.
Each one holding daggers laced with nightmetal.
One stepped forward.
"You shouldn't have survived the first ambush," the voice said flatly. "Your blood was to be offered."
Nclai tilted his head slightly.
"You talk too much."
Crimson Thread: Active
Shadow Veil: Still Cloaked
Blood Control Lv. 1: Active
...
No more running.
No more testing.
If they wanted a sacrifice...
They'd learn the price of drawing blood from a sovereign line.
...