Leaning against the tree, with a headless many-gazes hyena corpse at my feet, I looked at the pack of hyenas slowly circling me while my ultimate undying physique patched my body and regrew my lost limb in under a couple of seconds, even before the soldiers monitoring the formation array could decide to recall me out of it.
It was thanks to the true force shielding me from the explosion that I ended up with severe burns and not with half of my body blown to pieces and falling unconscious. Then, I would have been recalled out of the exam with two points in my name, i.e., I would have flunked the exam.
The Hyenas growled looking at me, slowly nearing me, I knew that any sudden moment and they would give death by thousand bites. Still, I tried to get back on my feet and immediately the remaining seven hyena pounced on me, biting seven various vital points of my body, throat, face, genitals, thighs etc.
Working through the pain, I focused my true force to protect my gioncore before I detonated the parts of my body that were bitten and killed seven awakened grimmons with a single move. Soon, my ultimate undying body patched itself, and I sat up, naked, surrounded by chunks of hyena flesh, bones, and blood.
I had just blown most of my body off and was now back in one piece. Basically I died and came back to life. This whole ordeal was too overwhelming for me to even think of or put in words. I just sat there amidst the charred flesh, leaning against the burnt stump of the tree that had fallen due to the explosion; it was massive. It had to be, as I blew up most of my body.
I sat there, going against everything I had learned in survival and combat training. Now that I know as long as I could bear the pain, there wasn't a grimmon in this formation array that could kill me regardless of their numbers. I was no longer as afraid. This realization was freeing. Suddenly, I no longer saw myself as prey, and not quite as a predator, but more like poisonous berries and thorns—a fighter.
I chose to blow my body instead of the hyenas' because it was easier. Also, using explosive recovery on seven different targets simultaneously wouldn't be just as effective. I could try to focus on one hyena, but the chance of one or two members of its pack surviving with major but not life-threatening injuries was a serious possibility.
So, I would only make the difficult choice. Also, I wanted the tremendous pain I was feeling from their bite to go away as quickly as possible. In a way, the pain made up for the courage I lacked to go through with this bold plan.
Now, I have ten points in my name. I had already passed the exam. Now, what was left was gathering more points and capturing the flag to get better ranks. Snapping out of the daze, I got back on my feet as I noticed a group of bone-seeking rats around; some bold ones had already walked into the pile of flesh, bones, and blood, ignoring me, and began to dine. These little guys were rat-type latent grimmons that snacked on buried bones and were a menace for graveyards. Meaning, they weren't worth half a point. Since they avoided the living, I didn't see a reason to waste time killing them.
Got to say, the creators of this formation array did a good job with the details; it was as if I were actually in a rainforest. Its eco-system was everything I had read about in the survival books and watched in the videos.
I planned to head to the center, but thanks to the hyena pack, I now had no idea where I was. Navigation was a big part of both the basic and advanced survival training. There were many ways to determine direction taught in the training. I had it all memorized. One of them was finding the southern flame flower. It was like a closed rose. Its flowers appeared like flames and always bent, pointing toward the south.
I thought of this one in particular as I spotted it in my vicinity. At the start of the examination, I had determined that the center was toward the east.Now that I had determined the directions, I applied them with a few tedious calculations and continued toward the north determining that was where the center of the formation array was.
Soon, I ran into a couple of examinees who were fighting each other. It was a boy and a girl about Crayon's age. They were actually young and not just appearing young. The boy appeared to be defending his injured friend from the girl, who clearly held the advantage and appeared to be toying with him.
The said friend was barely conscious and lying in a pool of his blood. From the looks of the empty potion bottles scattered by his side, it seemed he had used all three of his health potions to heal himself, yet for some reason he was still bleeding. His face had turned pale; at any moment now, the soldiers would recall him.
Seeing this, I found myself stuck in a dilemma. Should I help or harvest the points? I didn't even know who these people were. Harvesting the points seemed like the best option here.
But I wanted to help the boys out of compassion. I believed there was no need for infighting. If need be, we all could come together to help one another secure points and all get higher ranks in the garrison reserves, but the world didn't function that way. In order to impress any prospective future employer, Grimlocks like the girl showed off their ability by defeating other examinees. For her future, she was willing to disregard others' futures.
Honestly, I felt angry at her. What gives her the right to build her future over their future? But then a voice within me asked me the same question: what gives you the right to judge her?
This wasn't the only instance I had asked myself this question. Since I came to this world, I have asked myself this question several times. And every damn time, a primal voice in me would give me the same answer: Because I am stronger.
I scared myself not because I realized I was no different from that girl, but because I was still seeing this new Earth with my old Earth glasses. If I didn't rectify this, even my ultimate undying body can't keep me alive long.