Survival out of spite

Well technically it wasn't that he missed my throat it's very much punctured, but the thing Louai forgot to account for id information. I mean I don't research everyone in the rankings but come on I'm the one at the top you won't even research my strengths and weaknesses?

To be quite frank it's not his fault, it's the fault of this damn mountain's teachings.

From the moment we begin our mental training at the age of three or four depending on your innate talent or early signs of development we are instilled with two ideologies: quick, and loud. Out of the seven mountains in Odrein the country that holds all the mountains, villages, minor towns, and obviously the kingdom of Bisbone the heart of all of Odrein, only two mountains aim to replicate nature, us the Thunder Mountain replicating thunder and lightning, and the Mountain of the ancient waves who replicate the natural force of water.

Since we try and copy lightning and we are taught to do everything quick and loud, spying on others or sitting down collecting information secretly isn't exactly loud and can be sometimes slow.

So all the moves we use, no matter the weapon, fighting style, inherent abilities, or even your ancestral heirloom are deemed useless unless you can make every attack look and sound like a storm.

Now back to me on the floor wheezing and bleeding out with a puncture in my neck, I prepared for everyone in the top 10 standings, and Louai because although he barely makes it anywhere at all he is still from one of the prestigious families in the tribe, so I always have to prepare for a secret technique or something, so after killing the bear that was unleashed I injected myself with a healing serum designed to heal any fatal wounds, it's a low-grade serum so I thought it would've ran out but I guess Ahi spent a little more on me than I thought.

"The test this year is so unbelievably hard, since when do you release a king level bear in a test? I thought only 5 stars and below for us?", oh yeah forgot to mention remember those gold mines and stuff I was crying about earlier? Those are something you gain along with becoming an official member amongst the hunters of Thunder Mountain which you can gain by completing this test, so it's a huge opportunity that no aspiring hunter can miss, the catch though is that as you might've guessed killing is allowed, so if you have enemies in the tribe both the elder hunters who organize the events and control the beasts in the hunt trial, and the students can have the opportunity to hunt you down.

The bear that I killed was a king bear which means it was at the very least a 6 starred beast, both beasts and humans usually in most cases cap out at 10 stars . Just for reference a 5 star beast usually requires multiple hunters to take down but the moment it becomes a king they usually become capable of wiping a town out on it's own, if there was no hunters or people trained with extra gifts in the town of course, but nonetheless a great threat, for an elder to use that he must hate me very much.

I will get into why I am hated later but for now I just need to get out of the gate since the requirement for the test was only to kill one or more beasts that are equal to whatever your personal star rank, since I'm at star rank 5 recently turned star rank 6 after killing the king bear I really need to head back, I may be healing up but anyone can take me out at any moment.

"Why couldn't I have been born in Cornucopia Mountain? I heard all they do is party and drink. We can't even drink!" I mumbled to myself as I crawled down from the hut that was at the top of the test area towards the gate, suddenly I found someone running towards me at the side of my eyes.

"HEY, ASIM YOU'RE STILL ALIVE? OMG ME TOO!!! GIVE ME A HUG!"

the person yelling at me right now is Dom he's the person the elders like the most, a strong hunter, faster than almost anyone, and above all loud without any fear,

"Shhhhh, you. F**k off I fought a bear with no weapons, and got pricked by Louai, I honestly was well on my way out"

"Louai is still alive?! Damn. Well I'm glad you're alright you should really loosen up though, you'll get creases on your face and look even more ug—"

Doom was quickly cut off mid sentence as someone launched a spear towards his head and he quickly evaded it leaving it hurling towards me, but luckily it's not my first time having a spear thrown at me so I side stepped it and caught it. I took a quick glance at the spear checking out the design, I realized who it is.

"Dom careful that's Fiona I suggest just lettin—", but it was too late Dom being the proud Thunder Mountain hunter that he is acted quickly, by the time I looked at where Dom was he already swung his long-sword at Fiona's throat

"Hey number three"

Fiona pulled her primary spear out to block.

"Hey dipsh*t 2.0"

"That's harsh Fiona, I can't be second to him in everything"

"You're right Dom you are the number 1 dipsh*t, forgive me for thinking you were smarter than anything"

Dom pulled back to switch to a high guard stance.

"I think you meant anyone"

Dom closed the distance while simultaneously swinging in a forceful downward motion, reminding me of the amount of boulders he's crushed using that move in training.

Fiona then used the spears length to drag the sword away from her downwards.

"Nope I had it right the first time, where did Asim go?"

"What do you mean he's right behind me?" Dom took a look back.

Fiona took the opportunity to slash down but Dom without even sparring a glance swiped her spear without even trying.

"No seriously where did he go? Oh that horrible man" Dom looked in the direction of the gate with a betrayed look, as he could see Asim running towards it without even looking back.