Born in the continent Werewös, Jason hailed from a minor noble household of a small, politically irrelevant kingdom.
Being the third son of a baron, he always thought he would be cast aside, used as a pawn for political marriage.
But it looked like fate had other plans, as right after he awakened, a letter from the academy arrived, signalling his special admission.
Though Jason knew better. He knew better than to let it get to his head. He knew that gifts were unfair, and that while his was better than average, it could not compare to true monsters.
Yet Jason hoped to get into Elite Academy, and as luck would have it, his gift [Hunter] made his senses sharper and his instincts keener.
That is how he passed the first phase. His gift also made him a natural archer, so he chose a compound bow as his weapon.
But those were only passives. His gift also had an active effect; it was called Mark.
It granted him additional strength and made the marked target weaker.
But he was cautious, so when the second phase started, he chose to group up with like-minded students.
The group had started small, with only him and two more people he found.
But as the day progressed and they engaged with other people, more people also joined.
Some were intimidated by the group, others were cowards who sought protection.
Jason did not mind them. They were useful in their own way (meat shields) during battle.
So the group that had started with three expanded to twenty people in a day.
It was now night, the first day of the second phase of the examination.
Jason sat near the campfire.
The night was quiet, far quieter than one would expect from a forest full of students who were tasked to murder each other until only 2,000 of them remained.
There was no noise, no sound at all, except for the breeze that gently swayed the bushes and rustled the trees.
A far cry from the day, where one could hear echoes and distant sounds of battles happening all around the forest, along with the aftereffects of explosions from several directions.
Six people were responsible for the night watch, in pairs, specifically chosen by gifts which gave them some way to make navigating through the night easier.
Jason's own eyes could now see better than an average human's in the night, thanks to his gift.
His partner had already fallen asleep. He could have taken it easy too, as most people would not dare to attack a group as large as theirs solo.
As for the other groups, they would have been cautious as well. After all, the groups were formed not to hunt, but to survive those few who moved like incarnations of natural calamities.
But Jason was cautious, for a reason too.
He had noticed a bird tailing them. The bird had followed them for almost the whole day, and that in itself was suspicious. The forest had harmless wildlife, so when he brought it up to his group, they were quick to shoot him down, telling him he was being too paranoid.
But he had warned them nevertheless to stay cautious in case of an attack. Yet, by seeing the face of the girl who was supposed to keep watch with him, sound asleep, he doubted they had taken him seriously.
Jason remained vigilant, but as minutes passed by slowly, almost painfully, monotony got to him.
He got up and decided to take a short walk around their makeshift camp, surveying the perimeter of the small clearing.
In hindsight, the location of the camp was very poorly chosen—a hasty decision made due to the combined exhaustion of taking both the first phase and the second phase without any break.
There were trees and dense bushes all around the camp, which made the area prone to ambushes and surprise attacks.
And not a single direction provided any decent cover from potential assaults.
The group had considered if they should look for a cave or something like that, but the idea of having only one entrance did not sit well with most of them.
It was a weakness which could be exploited by other students, effectively trapping them in. After all, the locations of waystones were not released yet, and with the only exit being blocked, they would surely lose.
Or they could simply collapse the cave. After all, gifts were unpredictable.
Making a tree base was also an option, but not everyone was a climber or had the ability to climb, and abandoning people was not an option he was willing to choose.
Since it came with its own headaches and would make him look unreliable, and they wouldn't be able to make fire had they chosen tree camping.
And without fire, they couldn't cook food. They had hunted animals that were roaming in the forest for food.
Jason had also tried shooting that persistent bird, but the bird always managed to dodge his arrows, and he relented quickly because his arrows were limited.
After checking around every makeshift tent and the perimeter, Jason was about to head back when he heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes. It was far enough that the light of the campfire did not reach.
Jason kept his eyes fixated on the bushes.
There wasn't anything different about it, at least he could not notice it but his instincts, enhanced and altered by his gift, whispered to him that something was wrong, to be careful.
He slowly raised his bow to aim at the bush.
Nocked an arrow.
Swish~
There was no reaction as the arrow disappeared into the bushes, but Jason remained vigilant.
He contemplated for a second before shouting,
"AMBUSH!"
He had decided to trust his instincts. If it was simply a false alarm, he would apologise for waking the others later, but apologising was better than dying due to carelessness.
He shouted again,
"AMBUSH!!"
And just as he was about to shout the third time—
"AMB—"
A silhouette blurred past the bushes, running straight at him.