(Arin's POV)
It felt as though thousands of jagged glass shards filled my lungs with every breath I took. The oxygen tasted hot, scorching my throat down to my chest, leaving a stinging pain that tortured me with every step. Yet, the primal instinct in my head kept screaming one absolute command: stopping meant death.
"Keep running! Do not look back even once!" I shouted between ragged breaths. My voice was nearly swallowed by the roar of the forest, but my hand gripped Erika's wrist tightly as she began to lag behind. Her fingers felt cold and slick with sweat, a stark contrast to the heating air.
"My legs... Arin, my legs feel like they are going to snap! I cannot feel them anymore!" Erika moaned with a hoarse voice that was on the verge of breaking. Her face, usually pristine, was now streaked with grime, wet with a mixture of sweat, dust, and dried tears. Her magic glasses were cracked on one side, making her look even more fragile.
"Snapping is better than being stomped into pulp! Come on, just a little more! Use your staff as a crutch!"
Around us, chaos spread like a plague. Dozens of Class B students ran helter-skelter with faces pale as death, having lost all their noble elegance. Their condition was pathetic; armor dented, silk robes torn by snagging branches, and some had even lost their protective helmets and weapons. Tears and snot mixed with dust on their faces, creating masks of genuine and sickening fear.
"Move! Do not block my way!" a stout student shoved his own friend until he sprawled into the bushes.
"Help me! My ankle is sprained!" screamed another, yet not a single person stopped to help him.
My anger peaked seeing this pathetic sight. Their stupidity was not only endangering themselves but also dragging us into a grave. I grabbed the collar of one of the Class B students running right beside me, yanking him roughly with my remaining strength so he would look me in the eye.
"Why are you running in this direction, you fools?!" I barked loudly, overpowering the rumbling sound of monster footsteps in the distance which was approaching like a tidal wave. "You are bringing the entire forest toward us, damn it! Do you want us all to die together in this tight corner?!"
The student, a brown-haired young man with eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, stared at me with a blank gaze full of terror. His lips trembled violently, unable to form coherent words.
"Answer me!" I shook him again.
"We... we were set up! By the Gods, we were set up!" the student raved hysterically, saliva dripping from the corner of his pale lips. "Someone... someone said there was a location with wounded Golems in Sector Seven! Easy bonus points, they said! We went there... but what we found was their nest! A breeding ground!"
"Who told you?!" I pressed while shaking his shoulders even harder, trying to snap him out of his hysteria. "Who is the bastard that spread that garbage info?!"
"Our classmate! He said the info was valid directly from the exam proctor! He showed his digital map!"
"What is his name?!"
"I do not know! Do not ask me! He is already DEAD!" The student's eyes suddenly bulged wildly; a horrific memory returned to haunt him, making him struggle in my grip. "TOMMY IS DEAD! HE DIED RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES!"
My breath hitched, my heart seemingly stopped beating for a moment. "What do you mean dead?! Isn't there emergency safety magic in the badges?! Won't the Harpies come to the rescue?!"
"The safety system is inactive, damn it!" the student screamed, tears spurting out mixed with dust. His face was a mask of pure despair. "The golems stomped him until he was crushed! There was no teleportation light! No savior Harpy descending from the sky! Tommy... he just became a lump of minced meat on the ground! I saw his helmet flattened!"
Cold dread crept up my spine, freezing the dripping sweat. The academy's safety system, which was said to be absolute and perfect, had failed? No, this was not a system failure. This was sabotage. This was no longer just a difficult exam or a competition between students; this was premeditated murder disguised as an exam accident.
"Then call the Proctors! Use the manual emergency signal!" I shouted, offering a desperate solution, though my heart knew it was useless.
"The Proctors are not answering! We have screamed at the badges until our vocal cords snapped! The frequency is dead!" The student fumbled for his badge in panic, showing it to me with trembling hands. The crystal screen of the badge blinked red. "But look! This badge is showing a 'Safe Evacuation Route' navigation arrow pointing to the edge of the forest! This way! We are just following the instructions!"
I released my grip, letting the student return to running to save a life that might not last much longer.
Damn! Damn! Damn!
My brain spun fast, assembling the pieces of this rotten puzzle amidst our run. That navigation had to be fake. Karl, Elian, or whichever bastard was behind this crazy plan must have hacked these foolish students' badge systems. He created a fake algorithm to herd these panicked sheep to bring hundreds of Golems directly to my position. They were using Class B students as live bait to kill me.
"They want me to die trampled along with this trash," I growled softly, my jaw hardening until it hurt. "They want to erase the evidence with a mass slaughter."
"ARIN! AHEAD! LOOK!" Erika's shrill scream snapped me out of my paranoid analysis.
The path ahead of us narrowed drastically. The dense and lush forest vegetation ended suddenly, as if cut by a giant knife, replaced by a formation of sharp, steep, and arid karst rocks. Limestone walls towered high on the left and right like giant teeth ready to chew us up.
The rumbling sound behind us grew closer and more real, the vibrations traveling through the ground to my shinbones. Trees toppled with ear-splitting cracks as the Golem bodies crashed into them. Brown dust rose high covering the sky, turning day into gray twilight. Their distance was less than five hundred meters.
If we kept running on open ground like this, we would be surrounded from all directions and torn apart by that tidal wave of Golems in a matter of minutes. There was no place to hide, no place to climb.
My eyes swept the rock cliff ahead wildly, scanning every crack and shadow. I looked for a gap, looked for even the smallest hope. My gaze locked onto a narrow fissure between two towering granite cliffs. The width was very narrow, a natural crevice formed from thousands of years of erosion, only wide enough for three people standing shoulder to shoulder.
This terrain was dangerous, a death trap if it was a dead end, but perfect for a Bottleneck strategy. It was the only gamble we had.
"Everyone! Listen to me!" I ordered, my voice booming using a diaphragm breathing technique to overcome the mass panic. "Get into that cliff crevice! Large-bodied Golems won't be able to enter all at once! We narrow their movement space!"
Some students hesitated, their steps halting at the mouth of the dark fissure. Their instincts refused to enter a tight space.
"But that looks like a dead end! What if there is no way out?!" screamed a blonde female student while crying hysterically. "We will be cornered!"
"Better to take the risk of a dead end than be definitely trampled here! Get in quickly or I will throw you at the Golems as bait!" I threatened with a murderous glare.
My threat managed to penetrate their fog of panic. I pushed Erika's back into the crevice. The Class B students, who had lost their minds and needed a leader figure, finally obeyed. They scrambled into the natural stone corridor, crowding like sewer rats chased by a hungry cat.
We ran along the damp and dark cliff corridor. Stone walls on our left and right towered dozens of meters, blocking out sunlight, creating a gloomy and cold corridor of death. The smell of wet moss and bat guano stung the nose.
The rumbling sound behind changed into a terrifying crashing noise and the scraping of metal on stone as the hard bodies of the Golems began forcing their way into the narrow gap behind us.
"Keep running! Do not stop! Find high ground!" I shouted from the very back, ensuring no one was left behind to be trampled.
We ran for about two hundred meters, my lungs feeling like they were about to explode, hoping this crevice opened to the other side of the hill or at least provided a safe hiding place.
However, that hope was shattered into pieces in the blink of an eye.
The footsteps of the leading students stopped abruptly, causing a pile-up behind them. Screams of despair were heard bouncing off the cliff walls.
"NO! IMPOSSIBLE!"
In front of us, the air vibrated subtly. A transparent wall of energy towering up to the sky blocked the way out. Its surface rippled gently, radiating a rainbow-colored aura every time it was touched by the wind; beautiful yet deadly.
This had to be the Academy's Magical Barrier. The final boundary of the exam area that could not be crossed. An ancient magic wall protecting the school from outside monsters, as well as a fence preventing exam monsters from getting out.
This wall could not be penetrated, could not be climbed, and could not be destroyed by low-level students. Even Erika's Mana Cannon would only tickle it.
Damn it! We were truly trapped. Rats entering a trap perfectly.
"Dead end..." Erika fell to her knees, her breath spent, her legs giving up. She stared at the magic wall with a blank gaze, as if her soul had just been ripped out. "We are finished, Arin. There is no way out. We are going to die here."
The Class B students began to get hysterical. Their mental state collapsed completely, becoming trembling lumps of flesh in fear.
"Open up! Open this damn wall!" screamed a student while pounding the energy wall with bare hands until his skin blistered and scraped. "Help! Anyone out there! Proctors! Headmaster! We are going to die!"
"Mom... I want to go home... I do not want to be a mage anymore..." sobbed another, curling up in the corner of the cliff while hugging his knees tightly.
"This is your fault!" a student pointed at me with a trembling finger. "You told us to come in here! You killed us!"
I ignored their accusations and crying. I turned slowly, facing the direction of the cliff corridor where we came from. The only way in, and the only way out.
A pair of glowing red eyes appeared from within the darkness of the passage, floating like a ghost. Then another pair. And again, until the darkness was filled with bloodthirsty red dots.
One by one, massive shadows emerged from the darkness.
A large and gallant Golem led at the front, its body filling the width of the passage until its shoulders ground against the stone walls, creating sparks. Its aura was incredibly intimidating, far different from ordinary Golems. Its skin surface was not wood or rough stone, but bright, shiny, and slick metal.
I swallowed my saliva deeply; it tasted bitter. My eyes could not stop blinking as I stared at the monster. The Golem in front of me was not an ordinary Iron Golem. It was a tier-three monster, a Silver Golem.
Behind it, Iron Golems, Stone Golems, and Wood Golems crowded, pushing each other, creating a dense and impenetrable wall of monsters. Hundreds of tons of death weight ready to crush us.
They did not spread out looking for another way because of their low intelligence. They forced themselves into this narrow passage to chase prey, creating a queue of death.
I smiled grimly. A sense of despair began to creep into my heart, trying to paralyze my legs so I would give up and kneel waiting for death.
"Unknowingly, we were herded into this dead end like cattle entering a slaughterhouse," I muttered, realizing how neat this murder plan was. "Brilliant strategy, Karl. You even calculated the forest topography."
I turned to Erika who was still kneeling, staring at her intently. "Move aside, Erika. Retreat behind that rock."
Erika looked up, her eyes wet and red. "What? Where are you going? Do not tell me you want to..."
I did not answer her question. I stepped forward steadily, passing the Class B students who were cowering in fear hugging their knees, stepping over trembling legs. My footsteps echoed in the stone corridor, tap, tap, tap, the only calm rhythmic sound amidst the hysterical sobbing.
I stood at the very front line, alone, facing directly against the Silver Golem which was only twenty meters away.
"You cannot run anymore," I said loudly to the crowd of cowards behind me, my voice calm yet sharp. I raised my right hand, activating the gift from Duke Rhyms.
Vwoom.
The Golden Glove hummed low. Its purple crystal shone brightly in the darkness of the cliff corridor, providing a strange little light of hope, contrasting with the monsters' red eyes.
"Arin! Are you crazy?!" shouted one of the Class B students, his face as pale as paper. "That is a tier-three monster! Its skin is as hard as diamond! Do you want to commit suicide?! We should climb or-"
"Precisely because of that!" I cut in sharply without turning my head, my voice killing his argument. "This passage is narrow. They can only attack one by one or at most two at a time. That Silver Golem's body is huge; it will plug the path for its friends behind like a bottle stopper."
I clenched my fist, feeling magical power flowing in the glove's circuits, spreading to the muscles of my arm. I set the mode to Maximum Weight. I needed every ounce of destructive power, every joule of kinetic energy to penetrate that silver armor.
"Erika!" I called out loudly, shattering her daze. "Wipe your tears! Prepare protective magic behind me right now! Protect these crybaby students from falling rocks!"
Erika jolted, then hurriedly stood up, slapped her own cheeks twice, and wiped her face roughly. "R-Right! I understand!"
"And the rest of you..." I glanced back over my shoulder, staring at the group of helpless young nobles. "If you want to live and go home to see your mothers, stop crying! Pick up a rock, cast magic, throw your shoes, do anything to support me! Do not be a burden that can only wait to die!"
My words slapped their pride. Some students began to rise with trembling legs, picking up fist-sized rocks or preparing their cracked magic wands with shaking hands.
The Silver Golem roared, a mechanical sound mixed with magic that echoed deafeningly in the narrow passage, shaking dust and pebbles from the cliff walls. It began to run, a five-ton locomotive of death ready to ram anything into pulp.
I did not retreat. More accurately, I could not retreat. Behind me was the abyss of despair, in front of me was a wall of death.
I assumed a stance, lowering my body's center of gravity, taking a deep breath. No more escape tricks. No more cunning strategies.
Just me, this dead end, and a hundred monsters that wanted my head.
"Come on, Scrap Metal," I growled, grinning wildly challenging death, feeling adrenaline flooding my brain. "Let us see which is harder, your iron or my will."
And I charged forward.