Behind Nova stood two other young people participating in the examination. One was a blond young man holding a spear, with a claw wound deep enough to expose bone across his shoulder. The other was a young woman with short green hair who continuously cast healing magic in an attempt to stop the wound from bleeding.
[E Rank Magical Beast: Blackfang Demon Wolf.]
[Quantity: Six.]
[Target Nova’s Current Life Status: Safe.]
[Target is under the influence of the Sacred Aphrodisiac Body.]
[Current Influence Level: 1%.]
Nova clearly did not need Asher to rescue her.
Although she was only D rank, the talent she had awakened was the A rank talent, Heart of Thunder. Whether in terms of magical power or offensive strength, she far surpassed ordinary D rank Hunters.
She raised her right hand.
Dozens of streams of purple lightning gathered violently between her palms.
"Lightning Lock."
Crackle!
The dense lightning instantly transformed into a giant net, enveloping the three Blackfang Demon Wolves charging at the front. It then forced its way through their skin and into their bodies, burning their flesh and internal organs into charcoal.
The remaining three wolves lunged from different directions.
Lightning flashed beneath Nova’s feet, and her figure instantly disappeared.
When she reappeared, she was already above one of the wolves.
A spear formed entirely from lightning descended from her hand, directly piercing the wolf’s skull and pinning it firmly to the ground.
The remaining two wolves attempted to flee.
Asher had already appeared behind them.
Life Burst concentrated in his legs.
His speed temporarily rose to D rank, giving the two wolves almost no chance to turn around before his hands had already grabbed the backs of their necks.
The next moment, the muscles in Asher’s arms tightened.
The two Blackfang Demon Wolves, each weighing several hundred kilograms, were forcibly lifted into the air before being smashed violently into each other.
Bang!
Their skulls shattered. Blood and brain matter flowed through their fur.
Neither wolf even had the chance to scream before its body completely lost all strength.
Nova landed on the ground. She first glanced at the two wolves whose skulls Asher had smashed together with his bare hands before finally looking at his face.
"How did you find this place?"
"Luck," Asher answered casually.
"I don’t believe in luck."
"Then consider it one of my special abilities."
Nova frowned slightly. She was about to continue questioning him when an extremely unusual aura entered her senses as Asher approached.
The aura was clearly unfamiliar, yet the thunder magic inside her body, which had become somewhat restless after repeatedly using skills, rapidly calmed down. Even some of her exhausted physical strength recovered slightly.
Nova subconsciously gave Asher another look.
A system notification immediately appeared.
[Target Nova’s Influence Level has increased to 2%.]
[Target Favorability increased.]
[Current Favorability: 14.]
[Target’s Current Emotions: Curiosity, Vigilance.]
Asher did not approach any further.
He once again suppressed part of the Sacred Aphrodisiac Body’s aura, reducing its effective range until it was only sufficient to maintain Life Resonance.
"The Spatial Gate entrance has closed," Nova said. "And our examination badges can’t establish contact with the outside."
She raised her left hand. The communication device on her wrist was continuously flashing red.
[Communication interrupted.]
[Unable to connect to Academy Examination System.]
[Attempting to relocate...]
[Location failed.]
"This isn’t an ordinary Spatial Gate anomaly."
With the help of healing magic, the injured blond young man barely managed to stand.
"My name is Ryan Howard, D rank Enhancement type Hunter."
He glanced at the wolf corpses on the ground.
"If we want to leave this place alive, we need to find the other examinees as quickly as possible and rebuild a complete team."
"Claire, E rank Healer," the green haired woman also spoke. "There should have been ten people who entered the Spatial Gate. Besides the four of us, another six were teleported elsewhere."
Asher raised his head and looked deeper into the forest.
Through Life Resonance, he could sense two other adult women moving toward this location. The third life signal, however, had remained stationary the entire time and was gradually weakening.
Someone was injured.
"About three hundred meters north. An examinee’s life aura is weakening," Asher said.
Ryan frowned, shocked. "You can sense other people?"
"Only some of them."
"Why only some?"
"My ability has limitations." Asher did not explain further. The others wisely understood as well.
Nova glanced at him. "Save them first."
No one wasted any more time. Claire supported Ryan while Asher and Nova guarded the front and rear respectively as the group rapidly moved north.
In less than two minutes, they found the examinee whose life aura was weakening behind a fallen giant tree.
It was a young woman wearing white light armor.
Her abdomen had been completely pierced by some kind of sharp object, and blood had already soaked a large portion of her clothing. Beside her lay a male examinee whose chest had caved inward. He had clearly already lost his life.
Claire immediately knelt beside the woman.
"She’s still alive!"
Green healing light surged from her hands.
However, the moment the light touched the wound, a surge of black magical power suddenly erupted from inside the woman’s body and corroded all the healing energy.
Claire’s face paled. "There’s a curse inside the wound. It was left by at least a C rank magical beast."
Ryan tightened his grip on his spear.
"C rank? This is supposed to be an E rank Spatial Gate used for a freshman examination!"
"From the moment we entered, it stopped being E rank," Asher said as he walked over to the dead male examinee.
The man’s chest had almost completely collapsed. There was only a single fatal wound, proving that the magical beast that attacked them possessed strength far beyond E rank. Its attack speed had also been so fast that they had not even had time to mount an effective resistance.
More strangely, there was a trail of enormous footprints beside the corpse.