Entrance exams: Dark turn

"You know, they say this forest is the place of no return... at least for the students who aren't upperclassmen." After hearing Aron tell him this, Koku gave it some thought and pieced 1 and 1 together.

"Aron, tell me more about this forest," Koku wanted to know more, so he asked. Aron grinned and leaned in, placing one condition. "Go on a date with my sister when we get out of here and become 16, deal?" Aron was clearly kidding, and Koku failed to realize that due to the absence of his emotions. "Deal, now tell me," Koku didn't hesitate to take his offer, and Aron wasn't expecting that. "WHAT? WAIT, WAIT I- never mind. So I'll tell you what I know." Aron began explaining the stuff he knew about the forest, and after hearing everything, 2 hours had passed.

Koku pondered as Aron said his goodbyes as it was his turn to sleep. "Hmm, so this forest, which is located in an unknown place in the world. That's what they say, but far from the truth, I'd say. Apart from that, seeing as we were brutally attacked, what Aron said about this being a survival test that regularly takes hundreds of student lives must be true." Koku thought some more and came up with something.

"This isn't just a survival test... this lures the ones with potential away from the ones who don't... meaning these monsters must either not be from this area and brought here or the monsters are from here but aren't regulated as much... meaning things could change, for example, monsters adapt and evolve very quickly, especially as of 6 years ago when every monster seemed to get stronger overnight... anyways, I'll have to think of something; the thing from the guide is definitely here and most clearly not weak if mentioned in a hidden message." By the time Koku was done thinking about the subject, daylight had fallen upon him and the rest of the Lodus group.

Koku looked up at the trees which somewhat provided them with shade, and staring at the light going through the branches and leaves, Koku woke the rest of the group. "Hmm, how could I use a bunch of kids, not that I'm not a child myself, but if I want to survive, I'll have to eventually sway away from the group... if anyone survives and sees me leaving, I could either play the victim or the loner... for now, I'll just..." The group got ready after Koku was done planning, and they were on the move again.

Everyone was able to get a good look at the dead Night Owls which lay motionless and decaying. "So they decay faster than normal animals and humans," learning this, Koku pulled his mini notebook out and wrote it down. Reaching the end of the group's line, Koku began to walk alongside them again. A few hours passed, and this is when everyone stopped at a waterfall to drink water, bathe, and play in the water; Koku didn't participate in any of that other than drinking water.

"Wasting energy by playing isn't smart nor good for the situation we're in..." Once everyone had finished what they were doing, they once again were on the move. Traveling through the thick forest, the deeper they went, the more the trees covered the sky and light.

And once night struck them, it was darker than it was the night before when they were attacked by the owls; darker to everyone apart from Koku. He was able to see clear as day, and with his 360 vision, Koku wasn't just going to be surprised by any normal monster.

The thing is that later that night, about 4 hours after setting camp, he heard something in the trees, and from the trees, a massive snake dropped; after that, another fell, and another, and another... soon after, about 12 massive snakes had them surrounded.

There wasn't anything special about these monster snakes apart from the defensive properties of their scales; combined with their size, these fellas are pretty bad to face if alone. April, the girl he had met the other day, did her thing and illuminated the forest with her magic. This allowed everyone else the gift of sight in this dark place.

But by the time they had been able to see, Koku was long into the offensive. Koku was wary and acting with caution. He hacked at the massive snakes' scales and was able to cut through, not very far in, but just enough to see a little blood.

Seeing everyone else get ready for their attack, Koku jumped back a little, and then a magic strike from Aron hit the snake. Its head slammed the floor, and the snake was about to get up, but Koku had jumped onto its head and stabbed it in the head. He killed it with the strike and felt his body change once more.

After a few minutes of this fight going on, a few more snakes arrived, and this caused the students to start fearing. Their magic users were running out of magic, and a few students had been gravely wounded, meant as limbs were torn off.

Seeing this bloodshed, Koku pondered if he should leave now or stay, and as he thought about this, something unexpected was heard. "What's that?" Koku asked himself as he heard a loud yet somewhat distant animal's cries; upon hearing this noise, everyone stopped fighting, including the massive snakes.

But to everyone's horror, the snakes began fleeing. This, however, was not expected; the snakes which were fleeing stopped moving to everyone's eyes, but upon closer inspection, there were 8 unknown monsters which looked feral, saliva running down its terrifying mouth, those eyes which screamed danger, stared not at the snakes but into the eyes of the students.

After a few seconds of no movement, one of these monsters easily snapped the neck of the massive snake; soon after, the rest followed. Koku, seeing this, was surprised. "I couldn't see them run into my plane of sight..." Knowing how dangerous the situation was, Koku coated his body with as much aura as he could pour out.

Every one of the students lost it and started screaming in fear; they scattered, and part of that was due to the aura Koku summoned, but the main cause was the monsters' reaction. As a student tried to run, his head came flying off; no one had seen it, but he was shot by this scaly quill. Seeing this attack happen, Koku was reminded of one thing in the whole guide. "The Cratrus," the monsters let out terrifying roars that were full of bloodlust, and the massacre began; students were being mowed down faster than they could take two steps... all of this, and Koku found himself on the run as well.

"I might be able to escape in this confusion," he thought but was quickly shown otherwise. Three flying quills came his way and nearly took his head off as well. He dodged the three quills and found cover behind a tree. He kept running, making sure the tree was cover for at least a second; this bought him enough time to get behind another tree and then behind another. The Cratrus, which was in pursuit, gave up with long range and focused on chasing him.

Within 15 seconds, the Cratrus skillfully navigated around the trees and quickly caught up to Koku. Seeing it catch up to him, Koku swerved off to the left; he just narrowly dodged the charge, but the moment it passed Koku, it changed directions mid-side jump. "It's too fast and agile," Koku's heart, for the first time in a while, started racing.

It wasn't fear, but like a response, his heart accelerated, giving him a temporary boost in abilities. The Cratrus's tail positioned itself for another long-range attack, but this time up close; and with that speed of the shots, Koku wouldn't be able to dodge them, so he tried to minimize the damage done by shifting his body over.

Thus when the Cratrus finally shot the quills, each of the three quills dug into Koku's right leg. Seeing the Cratrus on the charge with its jaws open, Koku landed and swerved off to the side of its charge, and just as its body passed by, it swung its tail and hit Koku.

Koku was sent flying to a tree, and upon hitting it, the tree was nearly split in half with the impact. After Koku's body hit the ground, he stood up and tried to dodge the next tail hit, but he coughed blood and lots of it when he tried to move. "My ribs-" he was hit again. This time he was hit diagonally and landed on the branches of a tree after breaking through many branches on his way.

"I ca-nt brea-th," Koku then again began coughing blood. "I'm not ready for this monster yet," he said in his head as everything slowed down from his side. His senses seemed to be hyper, he could hear and see in slow motion for the moment; because of this, he could hear other footsteps headed to his direction.

Koku was going to die, and that much was clear to everyone watching in Paladiona. "What the hell-" many of the people said, "this isn't a test- this is a bloody massacre... there wasn't any way to live through these things," others said, even some holy knights who had been watching were confused. "Since when did Cratrus's become so strong..." one holy knight asked another, "No idea... that thing- those things are clearly at royal guard level," the other holy knight responded.

Seeing their power, the proctors opted to go in but were stopped. "The rules state we cannot interfere with this," a frail old man said as he stepped in front of the instructors. This was the vice principal, and it became apparent he was enjoying the show...

(Back to Koku), Koku was currently dying, and everything was slowing down in his perspective. Slowing down even more and more, eventually, everything stopped moving. Koku was confused, and his vision went black.

Appearing in the space he's been in before, something rushed into him. "Huh?" he was confused since everything was going on so fast. Koku didn't realize it, but he had just gotten his emotions back from this. Something was wrong, however; why would he be in here if it was for nothing? He wondered for a minute, and the dark space formed 3 options. They seemed like options to him, and they read as follows.

Rage mode.

Summon an ancient void creature (may turn against you).

Instantly destroy everything within a 10-mile radius.

"I assume whatever I choose here ends up happening, if I choose 2, I might die, and if I choose 3 the threat would get solved but I might kill students and wouldn't be able to explain why I killed any students and how it happened, so I'll go with..." The moment Koku chose, something happened outside of the dark space.

Koku, who was about to be killed by the Cratrus and its incoming companions, suddenly stood up as if his wounds were nothing. For some reason, the Cratrus stopped dead in its tracks as Koku's body laid motionless for a moment. The next moment, the next second, a loud explosion erupted, followed instantly by a purple aura so thick it covered the area in this so dense aura one could not see anything.

Due to the sudden change, the magic flow creating those magic screens for others to see stopped entirely. Everyone was left confused, and as fast as the screens went down. That horrendous aura and feeling once again emerged. Once again, the world for a moment felt a presence like no other. Every leader of all kinds felt this and stopped what they were doing to pay attention to the feeling and its source location.

"North!" "South," "East!" West," "In the lower world," "The surface?" Each leader of the factions and countries was about to head out to its direction but stopped as the presence left.

(Back in the exams forest), Absorbing the dark purple aura into himself, Koku's body once again looked taller, bigger, and didn't even resemble human. It was like that day in the house of Koku's birth; like back then, there was an enemy, and the Cratrus standing before him was shaking.

It whimpered like a dog in pain. It tried running off, and after 10 seconds passed since its fleeing attempt; its head was sliced... actually, its head was sliced before it whimpered. It simply took a few seconds for the attack to show.

Feeling the terrifying aura, the rest of the Cratrus began fleeing. That's when Koku looked at them and let out a monstrous blood-lusted cry out; and then...