Alex zoomed past the tall and dense vegetation as soon as he blinded his competitors. He didn't have time to eliminate any of them as he was hard-pressed to escape the encirclement. Even as he ran, he heard multiple explosions happening in different areas of the continent. He didn't know how big the continent was, but with their numbers, it was bound to be massive.
'The battle just began and suddenly we're in a war zone.' Alex thought as he looked around to ensure no one was around him. He wasn't moving too fast or too slow either. He plans to eliminate anyone he finds in his path in the swiftest way possible: with speed.
He then glanced at the timer on his wrist and noticed just a few seconds had passed since the countdown. After gaining a significant distance from his crowd, he came to a halt.
He carefully looked around to find a place to settle and strategize. All around him were huge trees with canopies that allowed a minimal amount of sunlight through. The trees had a minimal height of around 80 metres. The dense canopy provided shade and a degree of darkness.
Alex spotted a branch hidden within a thick veil of leaves. 'That will do.' He made his choice and quickly climbed up by leaping from one tree to another until he reached the height of the selected branch. He could have made that leap in one go, but he considered the dent that would be created by the force of his jump.
Once settled, he took a breather to gather his thoughts. Even now, the explosions continued in the distance. He ignored all this for the time being and focused on himself. Only a minute had elapsed.
'Now then…' He began, '… picking off students one by one is doable if I move fast, but that will consume too much of my stamina. I have twelve hours to eliminate as many as I can and still have a certain number of kills under my belt to avoid early elimination.'
His thoughts spun quickly as he considered the best action to take. 'I can also find groups and take them all out at once. With my staff and power, I can generate enough force to wipe out a group in one go. However, doing that would also create a disturbance that could alert others nearby.'
With the power of a Class F hunter being able to generate a force that could shatter a small mountain, a spear thrown with such a force could create an explosive force that would wipe out anything in its vicinity. Now, with Alex's power already in the low tiers of Class E, that force could be more than twice as powerful.
The only issue was if there were others around and they were drawn by the sound of the explosion, they could surround him if he wasn't careful. This gave him two choices: either go fast, furious and explosive or fast, quiet and slow-paced.
As the various plans and others came into mind, he noticed a disturbance a few tens of metres away from him. He focused on that area to observe what was going on. With his powerful sight as a hunter, seeing clearly from a few tens of metres was no problem.
'First prey in sight.' He thought with a small grin.
...….
A group of twelve students were rushing through the dense forest of trees, trying to outrun a particular student who chased after them with a savage grin on his face. His badge already had the number six displayed on it, showcasing how many students he had already eliminated.
From the looks on the students who were being chased; it was clear that they fear their pursuer. He was notoriously known for being a brute. Even though they were all at the low-tier end of Class F in terms of mana levels, he was physically stronger and faster than most of his peers, but not enough to make it to a higher class.
"You can't outrun me, you know?! With your numbers, you could team up and fight me! Come on!" The pursuer taunted the running students but to no avail. Maybe it was because of his savage nature or maybe the energy he gave off while hunting them, but none of them wanted to stay behind and face him.
They also had the option of splitting up, but they knew their strength was not enough to survive alone and decided to band together, creating a situation where one person was after a group of twelve.
"He's right, you know? Sooner or later, he would catch up to us. And we must also consider running into other students. So far, we've been lucky. But a forest like this is bound to have a few students in hiding waiting for an opportunity to strike." One of the running students explained as he looked around the dense forest, noting how there were multiple points one could successfully hide and strike.
"Yeah, we can't run forever, and we also need our own kills, or this would all be for nothing." Another, a female this time, agreed to the words of her companion.
The others nodded in agreement and decided to come to a halt, spreading out in a semi-circular formation, readying their abilities.
Seeing the students stop running and take a fighting stance, the boy, known as Victor Hanns, a one-horned, stopped a few tens of metres from the group.
He grinned widely and said, "Now, we're talking. Don't disappoint me." His gaze lingered on the expression of the group of twelve and enjoyed the scared expressions on their faces.
'Hehehe… This is going to be fun.' He couldn't help but think to himself. His ability gave him an advantage whenever he was in a group fight like this.
The group of twelve took out their weapons; five carried broad swords, two carried a bow and a quiver of arrows, one carried dual daggers, and the rest carried staffs of various kinds. None of them was activating their abilities quite yet as they needed to conserve as much as possible to last the whole 12 hours.
Victor wore gauntlets and took a martial arts stance, ready to take them all on.
"Here I come!" He exclaimed and dashed forward.