(Arin's POV)
The Forest of Death was never truly silent. The place seemed to breathe, creak, and growl softly from behind the dense darkness of the trees. The wind blowing through the old branches sounded like whispered warnings, while the scent of wet earth mixed with the faint smell of rusted metal created an atmosphere that pressed heavily on the chest.
We moved along the edge of the forest zone, stepping carefully between giant roots that protruded like the skeletal remains of the earth. This was a tactical decision we made with careful calculation to avoid the "hot zone" in the center of the map, where elite students from noble dormitories slaughtered each other for bonus points and prestige.
Our strategy was simple yet crucial: survive on the outskirts, collect the minimum points to pass, and go home with our lives intact without becoming victims of someone else's ambition.
"Visibility fifty meters," whispered Erika behind me. Her voice sounded flat and devoid of intonation, a side effect of the mental stimulant beginning to work to suppress her emotions. The drug numbed fear so she could process magic circuits with cold calculation, faster than an ordinary mage.
"Mana disturbance at two o'clock. The pattern is irregular."
I nodded while lowering my posture, using waist-high bushes as natural cover. I let the Longsword in my hand hang low, almost touching the ground, so its weight would not burden my shoulders prematurely.
"Target?" I asked briefly.
Erika narrowed her eyes, scanning the darkness ahead through her magic lenses. "Ten Wood Golems. Their formation is spread out within a ten-meter radius. The threat level is quite low, but their numbers could be troublesome if we get surrounded."
I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with maximum oxygen. Not ordinary breathing, but the Junior Aura technique.
My heart responded instantly, pumping blood a little harder, sending danger signals throughout my nervous system, and warming up leg muscles that were now ready to explode at any moment.
"Start!"
The fight against the Wood Golems was not a duel of honor, but a one-sided cleanup execution.
Erika did not chant spells with the elegant movements typical of nobles who often wasted time on style. She raised her oak staff with military efficiency. The tip of the staff glowed blue, gathering mana particles from the surrounding air.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
Five Mana Bullets launched in rapid succession within a single second, leaving trails of blue light in the humid forest air. They were not large fireballs that were mana-inefficient and flashy; they were marble-sized blue energy bullets that had been compressed to a high density.
The two frontmost golems jerked back violently as if hit by invisible hammers. Their heads exploded instantly, sending wood splinters and moss scattering into the air. Erika did not aim for their thick and hard chests, but for the thin and vulnerable neck joints.
The remaining eight golems charged forward, their wooden joints creaking loudly as they accelerated.
I did not wait for them to get close. My feet kicked the ground, launching me forward to close the distance before they could form an attack formation. In the golems' eyes, I was just a small human with a large, heavy, and slow sword.
Basic laws of physics said I needed at least two seconds to lift a sword that heavy to attack.
However... They were gravely mistaken. They did not account for the technology variable.
My hand, wrapped in the Feather-Touch Glove in passive mode, gripped the sword hilt tightly. I manipulated my body weight distribution, rotating my waist as a pivot point, and sent a horizontal slash utilizing the running momentum.
CRACK!
The sword blade struck three golems at once in a single wide swing. Instead of being stopped by the hardness of their torsos, the sword cut through their wood fibers as easily as cutting dry twigs.
My sword's inertia was too great for their body structures to withstand, yet my speed at that moment was equal to an agile Rapier user. Their upper bodies slid off and fell, while their legs managed to take one more step before collapsing.
"Left, Arin! Nine o'clock!" shouted Erika in warning.
A golem jumped from my blind side, its sharp twig claws aiming for my neck. Without turning my head, I dropped my body to the ground in a sudden drop squat movement, letting its wooden claws slash through the empty air where my head had been a split second ago.
From the squatting position, I spun the sword upward in a deadly vertical motion, utilizing the thrust from my thigh muscles. The blade split the golem from the groin, piercing through the chest, and exiting at the chin.
In ten seconds, ten piles of firewood were scattered on the forest floor. I flicked the sticky green sap from my sword while my breathing remained regular; even sweat had not yet had a chance to drip.
"Ten points," mumbled Erika while adjusting her glasses which were slightly askew. The tip of her staff smoked thinly, spreading the sharp smell of ozone. "Mana reserves ninety-two percent. Efficiency still within safe limits. Continue."
The challenge increased significantly fifteen minutes later.
We arrived at a rocky path near a dry riverbed. There, four Stone Golems stood blocking the way like ancient guardian statues. They were drastically different from the wooden type. Their bodies were made of solid river rocks, heavy and slow, but a single blow from their stone fists could crush my ribs into powder without mercy.
"Hard skin," I hissed softly, analyzing the enemy's surface texture. My sword would blunt if I slashed carelessly. "Erika, I need destructive power to open their defenses."
"Understood. Stack mode."
Erika closed her eyes for a moment, gathering full concentration. Fine veins on her temples pulsed visibly beneath her pale skin. She stacked three Mana Bullet circuits into a single complex spell structure within her mind.
When her eyes opened, her irises shone pale blue, a sign that the circuit was ready to fire.
BOOM!
The shot this time sounded thunderous like a hand cannon, startling birds in the distance into flight. The wildly spinning mana projectile struck the shoulder of the lead Stone Golem, exploding its granite layer until it cracked severely. The golem staggered back, its balance totally ruined by the massive kinetic impact.
I activated Piston Heart Second Gear.
THUMP-THUMP.
The world slowed in my eyes. Hot steam began to hiss from the gaps in my armor as my body temperature spiked. I ran, not toward the cracked golem, but toward the cliff wall beside it. I stepped on the vertical wall two times to gain height, then jumped toward the golem from the blind spot above it.
My sword was raised high above my head. Gravity pulled me down quickly. I did not fight gravity; I embraced it, making it an ally. Combined with the torque of my body rotation in the air, I slammed the pommel of my sword right into the crack Erika had made.
CRASH!
The sound of shattering stone echoed in the dry river valley. The golem's head shattered into pieces like ceramics dropped from the tenth floor.
The other three reacted slowly but surely. A stone fist flew toward me with a rumbling sound.
Too close to dodge completely. I rotated the sword, placing the wide blade in front of my body as an emergency shield, then tilted it forty-five degrees to deflect the impact force.
The stone fist struck the flat side of the sword, sliding to the side, leaving the golem wide open due to the momentum of its own failed attack.
"Die," I whispered coldly.
I slashed the dagger from my waist into the gap of its knee joint, severing the magic tendon that powered the stone creature's mobility. As it fell to its knees, I decapitated it with a precise one-handed Longsword swing.
The remaining two fell at the hands of Erika's magic, who was now using a mini version of Mana Cannon to blast their legs from a distance, crippling them before I moved in for the finishing attack without significant risk.
Four piles of stone were now lifeless rubble. Another twenty points. We had secured a total of thirty points.
"Your heart rate is up twenty per minute," commented Erika while wiping a little blood from her nose with the back of her hand. It was a side effect of the stacking technique which overburdened the brain. Her face grew paler, but her eyes remained sharp.
"Just a warm-up," I replied, though my shoulder muscles began to feel hot from withstanding the impact earlier. "We need twenty more points to ensure passing."
We moved again, going deeper into the heart of the forest. Sunlight found it increasingly difficult to penetrate the leaf canopy, making the forest darker with each step we took.
Suddenly, my instincts screamed. Not a sound I heard, but a strange vibration traveling through the soles of my shoes.
"Get down!"
I pulled Erika's robe collar reflexively and slammed us both behind a large protruding tree root.
CLANG!
A giant metal fist struck the spot where we stood a split second ago. The ground there exploded into a small crater, sending earth and stones flying in all directions.
There, standing three meters tall, gleaming cold and intimidating under a shaft of sunlight piercing through the leaves. Iron Golem. Tier Two. Its body was a combination of thick steel plates with large spikes on its shoulders.
"Damn it," I cursed, feeling cold sweat trickle down my back. "This is equivalent to an Alpha Wolf. Its skin won't be penetrated by ordinary magic."
The golem rotated its upper body with a painful mechanical whirring sound, like a giant rusted hinge forced to move, and stared at us with glowing red eyes that blinked statically.
"Erika, Flash! Blind it!"
Erika did not ask or hesitate. She raised her staff high. The tip of the staff shone blindingly, gathering all the remaining mana around her. White light exploded violently, blinding the golem's visual sensors for a moment and creating long shadows among the trees.
I did not waste a single second. I dashed forward through the residual light. But I knew, my sword, even one made of Mithril, would blunt or break if I forced a direct slash on that thick iron plate.
I had to use that thing. My final trump card.
I touched the hidden button on my glove. The active feature of the Feather-Touch Glove lit up with a soft hum. The sensation of the sword's weight in my hand vanished instantly. The one-and-a-half-kilogram Longsword now felt as light as a chicken feather in my grip.
I ran in a zig-zag toward its legs. The golem stomped its feet blindly, trying to step on anything nearby.
I slid between its two legs which were sturdy like bridge pillars, and when I was right under its crotch, I deactivated the glove and activated a full Aura slot in my leg muscles.
Inertia Violation: Uppercut.
I swung the sword from below upwards, aiming for the gap in the golem's crotch where the iron plate was thinnest for the sake of leg hinge movement. In the middle of the swing, the light sword suddenly returned to its original weight abruptly, added with the thrust of explosive Aura power from my legs.
Momentum that should have been physically impossible. Feather-swing speed with the destructive power of a freight truck impact.
SCREECH-CRACK!
Metal screamed shrilly as it was torn forcibly. My sword pierced the bottom plate, ripping through the protective layer and entering deep into its internal system. Hot black oil and high-pressure steam sprayed out, soaking my face and leather armor.
The golem convulsed violently, its hydraulic system failing totally in an instant. It collapsed forward like a crumbling iron tower, causing a loud crash.
I rolled away in panic before its multi-ton iron body crushed me.
Silence.
There was only the sound of my heavy, panting breath, and the hiss of steam escaping from the machine carcass. The smell of burning oil filled the air.
"Twenty points..." said Erika, her voice trembling and weak. She slumped to sit on the ground, holding her head which was in excruciating pain due to the use of high-intensity light magic. "Total fifty points. Arin... we pass. We really pass."
I turned off the Piston Heart slowly to avoid shock. Pain immediately rushed through my entire body like a flash flood. My muscles screamed for rest, and my joints ached. But a thin smile was carved on my lips. We succeeded. We defeated that iron monster without serious injury.
"Good job, Erika. Let's find a hiding place, wait for time to run ou..."
My words stopped in my throat.
The ground shook.
Not the vibration of a single golem's step. This was a rhythmic and massive vibration that made pebbles on the ground jump around as if dancing. Water in small puddles rippled violently. Birds flew from distant trees in panic, creating a black cloud in the sky.
"Earthquake?" asked Erika anxiously, her eyes wide searching for an answer in my face.
"No... this is something else."
From inside the forest, the sound of human screams could be heard. Initially faint, but increasingly clear and horrifying. It was not a battle cry; it was the sound of pure fear, screams of despair.
The bushes in front of us were parted roughly, broken by panicked bodies crashing through. Dozens of Class B students appeared, running for their lives. Their faces were pale as corpses, and their proud robes were tattered.
They ran past us without caring, their eyes staring blankly ahead as if we were invisible ghosts. I saw their badges blinking Red while Erika's and mine blinked Purple.
"RUN! DON'T BLOCK THE WAY!" shouted one of them while shoving Erika's shoulder until she almost toppled over.
"What is actually happening..."
That was when I saw it. A sight that made my blood freeze.
Behind those students, dust rose high covering the sun, turning day into gray twilight. And within that rolling dust, dozens of pairs of glowing red eyes blinked like stars of death.
It was a tidal wave. Wood Golems, Stone, Iron, they were mixed together into a terrifying mass. They ran wildly, crashing into trees until they fell, trampling bushes flat to the ground.
They were like starving wild beasts, or more accurately, like a flash flood made of metal and stone. The sound of their footsteps merged into a ceaseless thunder rumble, deafening the ears.
"Impossible..." Erika took a step back, her face losing all its color. Her legs trembled so violently she had to lean on her staff. "The Instructor said Golems do not move in large herds... This violates exam protocol!"
I stared at the approaching horror with desperate eyes. My brain tried to find a solution, but the result was zero. No guerrilla strategy, no breathing technique, no physics manipulation could stop this metal tsunami.
The fifty points we had painstakingly collected meant nothing now. Exam scores, prestige, graduation, everything became trash in the face of death that came roaring.
I grabbed Erika's arm, pulling her up roughly because her legs had gone limp with fear.
"Forget the exam," I shouted, my voice nearly drowned out by the roar of giant footsteps. I stared into her eyes sharply, forcing her to focus. "RUN, ERIKA! NOW!"