The atmosphere within the defensive encirclement was once again stretched to the point of snapping. Witnessing this endless verbal battle resume, a flash of irritation darted through the depths of Jeremy’s eyes.
He originally had no free time to meddle in the personal frictions of others, but the problem was that these two freaks were arguing so passionately that they started deliberately neglecting their own defensive positions.
A fatal gap appeared right on the right flank of the formation.
Swish!
The sharp sound of wind-tearing rang out. Jeremy’s expression changed slightly; he hurriedly spun around and swung his blade to parry, but under the colossal gravitational pressure, his speed was still one beat too slow. A pitch-black feather as sharp as a razor plunged into the back of his shoulder.
Fresh blood immediately seeped out, dyeing a patch of his cloak dark. A burning pain akin to acid corrosion, mingled with a freezing numb sensation, instantly traveled along his nervous system, spreading straight to his brain.
Jeremy’s face turned pitch black. He had tolerated these arrogant young masters time and time again, but a person’s endurance always had a limit. And that limit had just officially ruptured.
Jeremy’s face, which always maintained a cold appearance, hardened. He abruptly plunged his two short blades into the sand, the two metal blades scraping against each other to create an ear-piercing screech that tore at the eardrums, overpowering even the roaring of the magic bird in the sky.
"All of you, shut your mouths!" The deep, cold voice, carrying an oppressive fury, exploded in the center of the defensive circle.
"!?"
Phoenix and Evelyn were brought to a halt by this sudden, murderously intent shout. The two simultaneously turned their heads. As their gazes swept over Jeremy’s continuously bleeding shoulder, they both immediately understood the problem.
Evelyn withdrew her longbow, coldly casting a glance at Lucius and Leon, her voice flat yet stabbing straight to the point: "If you two plan to argue until we all get turned into dead porcupines here, what the hell is the point of dividing our defense?"
Hearing that emotionless yet highly reasonable sentence, Jeremy felt that in this life-and-death moment, that stoic-faced girl was truly the most perfect angel for cleaning up a mess. He swung his arm to smash a fireball that had just shot towards him, not forgetting to throw Evelyn a glance of sincere admiration typical of those sharing the same trench.
His masculine gaze, bearing direct sharpness, was overwhelmingly radiant. Evelyn paused slightly for half a beat, her long eyelashes fluttering, as she quietly shifted her gaze elsewhere, as if unaccustomed to this kind of straightforward communication.
Seeing that his roar had successfully suppressed the chaos, Jeremy pulled his blades up, his breath carrying an icy chill. Like a master of expression control, the very next second, his masculine face had reverted to its deadly coldness.
"Since you have handed me the title of captain, then I will establish a single rule. Surely no one objects?"
Jeremy did not leave anyone the opportunity to open their mouth, directly throwing out his demand with a tone that brokered no negotiation:
"From now on, this team has only one principle: If you want to slaughter, brawl, or hurl insults at each other, please get the hell out of my sight. A peace-loving person like myself has no hobby of watching a monkey circus, so I hope everyone knows how to cooperate. As for if you truly cannot control your instinct to cause trouble..."
Jeremy smirked, the corner of his lips drawing a ruthless curve, as he swung his blade up, pointing it straight at the space between Lucius and Leon:
"...Then it is best to just finish yourselves off to keep things tidy. Let me announce this while I am at it: in other aspects, I might temporarily not be on par with you, but when it comes to poison-making techniques, I am confident I have enough capability to make you two wish you were dead."
His gaze swept over the two verbal gods of war, his attitude so coldly indifferent that the radiating murderous intent actually crushed the surrounding gravitational pressure.
Lucius and Leon indeed fell into silence.
It wasn’t exactly that they were frightened, but deep in their hearts, a stark realization suddenly surged up: This seemingly weak captain who was always labeled as trash... inside, he was ultimately probably just as much of a lunatic as they were.
A few seconds later, Lucius was the first to speak. He bowed slightly, clasping his hands together to form an absolutely flawless apologetic posture, the red tint at the corners of his eyes curving up slightly: "Don’t be angry, Captain, we were just bonding a little. From now on, I guarantee ’I’ will absolutely follow the rules."
He deliberately emphasized the word ’I’, implicitly hinting that he was not the one who instigated the trouble, which everyone understood upon hearing.
Leon let out a cold, low snort in his throat, lazily withdrawing his gaze, neither bothering to expose him nor caring to retort further.
Everything was finally forced back into a state of order. The flesh on his shoulder was still burning from the toxin. Jeremy, his face unchanging, downed a healing potion straight into his mouth, silently calculating a plan for retaliation in his head. He intended to find an opportunity to slack off on defense just a bit, letting those two guys taste what it felt like to have feathers jabbed into their bodies.
Jeremy was inherently not a magnanimous person. Repaying kindness with kindness, and grudges with grudges, there were never any exceptions.
However, without even needing to wait for him to act personally, those two ended up trapping themselves.
Two muffled groans of suppressed pain rang out simultaneously from Lucius and Leon’s positions. Jeremy turned his body slightly, the corner of his lips curling into a bland smile: "I told you not to drop your guard~"
The fingertips gripping Lucius’s Soul Devourer chain tightened so hard his knuckles turned white. His complexion grew cold for a fleeting moment, but the instant Jeremy’s gaze swept over, that face immediately switched to an expression of extreme grievance: "Captain, that guy Leon deliberately retracted his blade half a beat too slow just now so the feather would hit me!"
Leon stood with his back straight, his complexion as cold as frost, calmly replying: "My physical exertion was too great, I just slipped and miscalculated the trajectory, sorry." He slightly raised his eyelids, a gaze as sharp as a knife sweeping over Lucius: "Of course, if you feel uncomfortable, then drag yourself up here to defend, and in exchange, let me go to the center to rest."
"..."
The corner of Lucius’s mouth twitched. The person who had just been acting out a dying gasp about to faint, now had a perfectly straight back, his attitude changing in a flash: "Alright, then switch me up to block the field. (^-^)."
Jeremy gently stroked the hilt of his blade; in his brain, he could already sketch out the details of the tragedy that would unfold in the next few minutes.
Half a minute later.
Groans deliberately suppressed between gritted teeth rang out incessantly from the left and right flanks of the formation.
Jeremy, his face unchanging, continued to maintain his breathing rhythm, swinging his blade to smash the incoming metallic feather blades. He realized he had overestimated the restraint of these two guys. It didn’t take a few minutes at all.
From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the two figures gritting their teeth to endure the burning pain from the toxin, and a sense of speechless amusement suddenly welled up in his heart.
Barely more than a minute of rotation had passed, yet countless more tattered holes had appeared on Leon and Lucius’s black cloaks due to being pierced by the magic bird’s feathers. One deliberately loosened his defense at narrow angles, while the other intentionally created obstacles to obstruct the line of sight.
Were they ultimately facing an enemy, or mutually murdering their own teammates?
Jeremy clicked his tongue, leaning heavily toward the latter. At least in the near future, this formation full of delinquents would have no definition of team spirit.
Two hours passed since they set foot on this wild island.
Right at the moment when the physical limits of all five people were stretched to the point of snapping, the colossal gravitational pressure suddenly vanished. The Black Nether magic turtle retracted its limbs, slowly retreating deep into the darkness. In the sky, the magic bird also decisively flapped its wings, soaring into the grayish-black clouds as if it had just received an absolute summon order.
Confirming the threat had completely retreated, Jeremy dropped one knee onto the sand, losing his strength and slumping down on the spot. His chest he heave violently, greedily sucking in the scarce free oxygen.
Did they clear the stage?
Jeremy no longer maintained the naive thought that this was a normal practical lesson. How was this garbage any different from a survival game betting with one’s life?
Ah no, there was one fatal difference: In a game, characters who died could still resurrect at a save point. As for them, these flesh-and-blood students, once they fell, they could only become fertilizer for the forest trees.
"I’m so exhausted..." Lucius’s condition had finally completely withered. He collapsed flat onto the carpet, the red streaks at the corners of his eyes making his draining exhaustion even more apparent; he no longer had enough strength to put on an act.
"The second lesson has only just ended, don’t forget there are still four more on that insane schedule." Jeremy bent one knee, half-closing his eyes and resting his chin on his forearm to regulate his heart rate: "The third lesson is the challenge of breaking the limits of spiritual power. Take advantage of this free time and quickly treat the wounds on your bodies."
Their magic power was shackled, and their physical stamina was drained. Currently, even if just a level-one magic beast appeared, for their battered team to join forces to defeat it would be an arduous struggle.
Lucius buried his head in his knees, his voice so sluggish it seemed about to melt away: "I know~"
The whole group decided to make camp right on the beach, not daring to haphazardly enter the forest of unknown circumstances.
However, minute by minute ticked by, and even until the sky was dyed pitch black by the night, absolutely no developments occurred. A stillness blanketed the space, so quiet that it made one’s scalp tingle numbly.
The gloomy night blended with the howling wind whistling through every rocky crevice. The pungent smell of blood drifting from the sea lingered in the air, unable to dissipate. The bizarre, rustling friction sounds transmitting from deep within the primeval forest now became incredibly ear-piercing, threatening to collapse the nerves of the faint-hearted.
The time displayed on the magic ID card: 10:00 PM.
Jeremy strode to the edge of the forest, picked up and gathered some dry branches, and used the most primitive friction sparks to kindle a fire. The dark and freezing beach finally gained a flickering, warm ray of light.
Seeing this, Evelyn did not say a word, proactively standing up to go collect more driftwood along the shore to maintain the fire. Phoenix, the guy who had always hidden in the dark corners, quietly approached the water’s edge, using threads of darkness to haul up a few small sharks and mutated crustaceans. Meanwhile, Leon and Lucius, witnessing those three coordinating smoothly, also very consciously utilized their residual physical strength, leaping up the towering palm trees to pick coconuts and some wild fruits.
The fire gradually flared up, dispelling the chill of the night sea. The dry wood racks for roasting food had also been fully set up by Jeremy.
The five youths sat in a circle, tacitly maintaining silence. They quietly tore off chunks of grilled fish meat, savoring this meager meal that served as breakfast, lunch, and dinner all rolled into one. That’s right, having been tossed around since early morning, it was only at this very moment that they got to stuff their first bite of food into their stomachs.
Throughout the entire prior combat process, their nerves were always stretched to the absolute limit. Absolutely no one expected that after such a brutal afternoon, the evening would pass in such a peaceful and mundane manner.
Time sluggishly slid by for another hour and a half.
11:30 PM.
If calculated precisely based on the hellish schedule Griffin sent this morning, then half an hour ago, today’s entire training itinerary should have ended. They ought to have been dismissed from class, returning to their dormitory rooms to soak in a hot tub.
However, even up to this very second, their guiding instructor Griffin remained entirely out of touch, not sending so much as half a character of notification.
Lucius rested his chin on his knees, his phoenix eyes reflecting the blazing red fire swaying in the wind, slowly uttering: "It seems that rotten jellyfish-head is really planning to leave us to fend for ourselves on this middle-of-nowhere island."
Evelyn lowered her eyelashes, her tone as calm as an autumn lake: "Absolute silence in the dark, completely severing all reinforcements... Could this be the method he uses to conduct the test of raising the spiritual power threshold?"
Leon reached up to rub the space between his eyebrows hard, waving off the creeping drowsiness, his voice mixed with speechlessness: "Who knows what the hell is contained inside that lunatic’s brain. Does this academy actually have a single normal person left?"
Phoenix was still curled up in his black cloak, huddling in the corner most hidden from the light, firmly maintaining his absolute stealthy existence.
Amidst his teammates’ complaints, Captain Jeremy just leisurely flipped the grilled fish skewer in his hand back and forth, listening nonchalantly.
The psychological pressure from invisible waiting, the feeling of abandonment, the emotional collapse from being locked in a dark space, or the extreme panic when facing unknown sounds...
Considered from a certain perspective, these factors indeed had a very high probability of becoming catalysts that snap the boundaries of endurance, thereby forcing human spiritual power to evolve in order to adapt.
The instructor Griffin must have calculated using this method of trapping them in a high-pressure environment to temper their willpower. But unfortunately, he had misjudged his targets. Attempting to make the five people sitting here fall into a state of panicked collapse with just this trivial level of psychological warfare would truly be a bizarre occurrence.
As for Jeremy, he was all too familiar with these strings of days spent wilderness camping and enduring harsh survival adventures. In his previous life, in the desolate borderlands of Earth, where deformed species known as mutated monsters lurked, he had experienced countless sleepless nights.
Before the age of thirteen, Jeremy was frequently dragged by his eccentric old master to exterminate strange beasts. Sleeping rough, resting his head on a monster’s corpse in the middle of the night, was as mundane as eating a daily meal. To the extent that the current situation of being isolated on a deserted island was truly no different to him than a change-of-pace picnic.
He cast a glance around the four teammates sitting around the fire.
Their faces clearly only displayed resentment, irritation, and speechlessness toward their instructor’s bizarre training methods; there was absolutely not even a fraction of fear or flinching to be found.