42. A Blaze Horn Elk

By the time Sir Ivan called the students to attention, Zions group had already finished making their plans and looked towards Ivan.

"Alright, everyone should have gathered their groups now, so it's time to head in. Each group will receive a spacial storage bag which you are to use to place your kills." He passed one bag to every group, Sarah taking hold of their own.

"You will spend 8 hours in the forest. When the time is up, I'll activate a mass teleportation token that will teleport everyone who hasn't used their tokens back out. Now, off you all go."

He didn't spend much time talking and let the kids head off into the forest, some rushing ahead with excitement, some hesitating and moving slowly with fear.

Zions group didn't move quickly but also didn't go slowly. They moved at an average speed to head into the forest.

Hollow Forest was dark and kind of spooky. The trees were the height of 7 story buildings, towering over these children as they moved through the forest. There was a mix of ashy white and light grey trees with dark green, almost black, leaves around them.

Zion kept his ears perked and swivelling as he listened around them while he stood at the left side. Ithil stood in the centre while Aala covered the back and Sarah had the right.

After walking only 5 minutes Zion immediately growled, causing everyone to stop moving. Although Jacob did stumble a few steps forward before quickly moving back into position.

Zion glanced around before facing the front, '"Jacob, something fast approaching deom the front. Block it."'

Jacob was only slightly startled by Zion speaking into his head as he had been warned about that before, and so was able to quickly block towards whatever was approaching.

They managed to spot a glow of red before a figure suddenly slammed into Jacobs shield causing him to grunt a little from the impact.

Sarah stepped forward and swung her sword at what had attacked, which let out a loud cry of pain when she managed to hit it.

It jumped back and they all finally saw it fully. It was an elk like creature with large glowing red horns, it's fur was a deep red colour and it's eyes were black as it pawed at the ground with its black hooves.

[[Species: Blaze Horn Elk.

Rank: D

Magic Affinity: Fire

HP: 320/340

STR: 36

AGI: 30

DEF: 20

Weakness: It's body becomes weak and soft when wet.]]

'Our first battle in the Hollow Forest is immediately a magic beast? Cool.' Zion thought as he looked at the beasts stats.

'"Ithil, you know a single water spell right?"'

"Yes, it's a basic water spell, Water Ball." Ithil held his hand out in front of him, already figuring out what Zion wanted so he quickly formed, and threw a water ball the size of a football at the elk.

It cried out and quickly leapt to the left side of the attack, it's horns glowed bright red as it lowered them before charging towards Zion.

Zion rushed at the elk before quickly jumping to the right to avoid the horns while he clawed at the side of its neck. The elk cried out in pain as it raised its head but then an arrow dug into its right flank, causing it to again cry in pain.

While it was momentarily stopped from the pain, Ithil shot off another water ball at it, this time hitting it in the rib area.

The elk turned around, planning on fleeing when Jacob suddenly appeared and bashed its damp side with his shield, knocking the elk to the ground.

Sarah immediately moved up and slashed her sword down on the neck of the deer. There was a schlick sound followed with a slight thump as its head was cut off, causing its body to slump to the ground.

[[Blaze Horn Elk (D) Killed, 38 EXP gained.]]

Zion smiled to himself as he glanced at the others.

Jacob wiped the sweat off his forehead with a relieved sigh.

Aala and Ithil nodded faintly at each other while Sarah immediately turned to Zion, "Anything else coming at us?" She asked.

Zion focused his attention around them, before shaking his head, '"We are clear."'

Sarah nodded and placed her sword away before storing the beasts body in the spacial storage bag.

"We need to move. The smell of blood will soon draw in others." Sarah moved back into formation with Jacob and Zion before they continued to walk through the forest.

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Outside of the forest, back at the Academy, all the teachers sat in a large meeting room where multiple images of each of the student groups were being projected by magic crystals.

The teachers were all talking about the groups as they travelled.

"That group with Krakow and Calie are doing very well. They've already defeated a couple D ranked Spiral Bats."

"While that's true, they are in too much of a hurry and are extending too much energy on each fight. They have to rest for 10 minutes between each fight."

"I noticed there have already been at least 3 students teleported out."

"They rushed in too quickly, underestimating the beasts of the forest." A teacher sighed.

"That group with the white fox is doing very well. They've fought a Blaze Horn Elk and a pair of Sand Trappers."

"The elk is speed based and is hard to block since its horns heat up so much that it can burn through metal pretty quickly. And they killed it before it even managed to use fire skills."

"Plus the Sand Trappers are ambush creatures. They are hard to notice, yet the swordswoman actually noticed the abnormality even before the fox did."

"Seems like there's a few good seedlings in this batch of level 6 students." The headmaster smiled to himself as he listened to the teachers talking.