The boy-man slowly inched away from Zarek.
There were two types of people who could join the Hero Trials. The first were those who had gotten here by merit, and the second were those who had gotten here by luck.
Zarek's questions from earlier made it almost certain that he was of the latter, and from this conversation? It was almost certainly so.
This wasn't the sort of person he wanted to team up with at all. He would already be on the fence even if Zarek was meant to be here. But now? He wanted nothing to do with him.
The mortality rate of the Hero Trials was already worse than 80%.
But if one divided those who came here by merit and those who came here by luck? The chasm was enormous.
The mortality rate of the former was only around 30–40%.
As for the latter?
Over 95%.
Zarek was destined to die, and he didn't need that sort of dead weight following after him.
As for Zarek's perspective… he seemed to have his own thoughts on the matter.
—
[Hero Trials Beginning…]
[Initiating Transfer…]
[3… 2… 1…]
—
The world warped and Zarek felt something grab onto him. Just as it seemed he would allow himself to slip through, his hand touched the hourglass in his pocket and then flashed over the boy-man's side.
"Hey—!"
Zarek grabbed him at the perfect time.
Everyone vanished at the same time.
…
Zarek stumbled onto a mound of grass, his body tumbling forward. Luckily, he had a convenient body cushion to use to dull his fall a bit.
BANG!
Zarek was sent flying, a small but strong palm landing on his chest. But he had already activated the small parrying shield that protected his heart, seemingly already expecting this.
However, the strength of the hand still made his eyes narrow.
That power wasn't a joke at all. It was elite even amongst the C-Class, and considering the boy-man didn't give off the vibes of someone who was a Strength Type, the odds that he would have some B-Class stats weren't zero.
Was it a risk hugging onto this sort of wasps' nest? Of course.
Could it get him killed? Almost certainly.
But he was Zarek Ashborn. He lived to take risks, and the information this boy-man had was almost certainly more than he had let on.
Zarek had acted the way he had for a reason. Everyone had probably been quite interested in taking his head until he revealed himself to be someone they likely shouldn't care all that much for.
Now, he was probably someone most wouldn't take a second glance at unless they had a particularly vindictive streak to them.
"You bastard!" the boy-man leapt up, beginning to hover in the air as he held out his small hands.
Swirling energies formed and pooled into the shape of warped spears of wind.
They stood in the middle of a meadow of tall grass, filled with already swaying forceful winds. But now, that seemed to have been kicked up several notches.
Zarek sighed, pulling out his katana.
"You know, this is entirely unnecessary. I just want to talk."
"Bullshit! You're a schemer! There's no one who got here by luck who can force coupled teleportation like this! Who are you really?! What do you want with me?! My Imperial Wind Lineage isn't so easy to bully!"
Zarek raised an eyebrow. What a grandiose name.
Chi. Chi. Chi.
The spears whipped through the air, and Zarek's expression became serious.
Fast. Truly fast.
So fast that he had no easy way to react, and even less of an easy path toward countering. That was made of a Wind Godsfall Intent. If he didn't destroy it cleanly, he would end up in a cyclone of vicious, cutting winds that would leave more than just a mark.
It didn't seem like a normal Godsfall Intent either. It was at least the pinnacle of C-Class, if not B.
The environment was too plain and left almost nothing for him to take advantage of, and even less to hide behind.
And worst yet, this boy-man had a flying ability that would make him even more of a nightmare to take down.
The feeling of the hourglass in his pocket made Zarek's thoughts shift, but he dismissed it. To bring the Godsfall Tear to him, he had already used up half of the grains. To force the boy-man to teleport with him, he had used up easily half of what remained from that.
The latter was a far easier task than the former. For it to still use up so much of the hourglass' strength was a product of the fact he was straying too far from Time Godsfall Intent.
Space Godsfall Intent and Time were very intertwined, both influencing dimensional space. As such, manipulating one could influence the other. It was something Zarek had done many times in the past.
But Wind Godsfall Intent was hardly connected at all. He would have to use the energy that remained in the hourglass in a much less elegant, and much more brute-force sort of way, and that would use up all he had left on a task that was even easier than the first two by a substantial margin.
It just wasn't worth it.
But he also didn't have any easy method of countering.
If only he had known that the Godsfall Tear was a teleportation portal instead of a true Godsfall Tear, he would still have the Time Fractal on his person and have a few methods of dealing with this.
But as things stood right now? It felt like there was only one path available to him.
'Fuck me. That big head of yours better be worth it.'
Despite his thoughts, Zarek's eyes were deathly focused.
His Godsfall circulated and the crossbow-shield flared open on his wrist. At the same time, he dropped his katana and another strand of Godsfall Intent circulated to his palms, unsheathing the mink's claws in the form of sabers extending from his knuckles.
He took a step forward and swiped.