23

Boom! 

Ruo Chen successfully killed another animal and he quickly dodged the blood that flew around as he did not want to dirty his shirt. The remaining eight realized that they were not his match and they faltered in their steps as they nervously looked at each other, hoping that one would attack first.

This created suspense and gave Ruo Chen a chance to catch one of the prey off guard and soon another explosion occurred. This time it was a white bird that got killed.

Ruo Chen did not feel happy about this as each kill would create a loud sound which could attract some participants who were looking to steal kills.

"Xiao Pang, survey the surroundings." Ruo Chen requested as he sent out another rope to bind itself around a snake.

He targeted the ones where it would be hard to defeat without ropes as he was only able to summon 6 ropes. 

After a few minutes of dodging around, the other three animals were taken care off and Ruo Chen felt his energy supplies were greatly depleted. Thankfully, he still had the keychain from instructor Yan Sheng that would allow his to extract some energy from it.

Ruo Chen quickly absorbed the energy and took out his bow from his space pouch before grabbing an arrow from the quiver on his back. These arrows were special and were explosive arrows. He had predicted that he would lack energy and thus requested them from his parents in case of scenarios like this.

He took aim at the elephant after jumping into the dense leaves of the trees and fired in rapid succession. Although the black elephant had high defence, it was no match against multiple high quality explosives coming at its face.

"Xiao Pang, anyone near?" Ruo Chen asked while he eyes his next target which was a golden antler deer.

"I see one roughly 2km away." Xiao Pang answered as it flapped its wings to get the higher ground.

Ruo Chen let out a scoff at this. In this huge forest, everyone should be quite far off from each other so being close was a sign of aggressiveness. 

The deer was agile and was able to dodge some arrows but Ruo Chen adapted to its movements in a few arrows and it soon fell to its demise. All that was left were 3 midnight wolves.

They were wolves that worked well in groups but their individual strength was lacking. They had pure black fur with golden eyes and sharp claws. They were only slightly bigger than an average German Shepard as this species prioritised speed over strength.

Ruo Chen had only one arrow left and he unfortunately missed it so he was forced to engage in a 1v3. The most simple strategy was to single them out before killing them one by one so they could not use their advantage of their flawless teamwork but this was only easy when said.

These wolves were smart and since they lived near the school, they must have faced up against this strategy many times and have seen tonnes of tricks. But was there a need for strategy when you can just overwhelm them with brute force?

With the knowledge of almost all the skills in this world, Ruo Chen felt that coming up with a strategy here would just be the harder way out and since this was just some low level midnight wolves that barely reached adulthood, he decided to end it with an overpowered skill.

He absorbed energy from a space pouch and conjured a ball of light in his palms. However, this was not just an ordinary ball.

Ruo Chen threw it from the tree he was from and it landed in front of the three wolves that were currently under his tree. They were immediately blinded by the light energy as they weak to it with how they were dark type animals.

"Expand." Ruo Chen said menacingly as he watched on his an expectant look.

The ball of light expanded and enveloped the three wolves inside, the wolves panicked and scratched the walls to no avail. They could try all they want but light energy countered them the hardest and they were reduced to little pups scratching a wooden door.

Ruo Chen had to prepare himself for the next move as it required his utmost attention.

"Crush!" He gritted out as he fought the mental battle against the wolves. The ball of light could crush the enemies within if the user won the mind battle against the prey inside. 

It was basically the battle of wills as one fought with the will to destroy and the other fought with the will to escape. Ruo Chen used this move because he had absolute confidence in himself, he was stubborn and strong willed, and he would stop at no ends when it comes to something he really wanted.

And what he really wanted was to rise up in the rankings.

He let out a guttural shout as he fought against 3 wills at once, this should be a losing battle for him but when Ruo Chen thought of all the sufferings that Ye Ran had been through, he found himself pathetic that he was struggle to fight against three measly wills.

Ye Ran was still able to push on in life even after being humiliated and tortured everywhere he went so how could he himself give up on something as simple as this?

With one final push, Ruo Chen crushed the 3 wills of the wolves and the so did the bodies get crush under the contraction of the ball. The good thing about this move was that it left no mess behind but it also caused the user immense mental fatigue.

The white ball floated back to Ruo Chen as he wordlessly absorbed the remnant energy. He instantly felt refreshed as he had absorbed the energy from the wolves. This absolute best thing of this move was the ability to let the user absorb the energy of the prey.

Ruo Chen had no time to celebrate as he was only up 100 points and he would need a lot more to reach the 350th place. Xiao Pang landed on Ruo Chen's face and soon after, he heard footsteps approaching.

"Damn it, I was too late." A dark hooded figure cursed as he saw the bloodied battle ground with not a single live animal. They kicked the ground before turned to leave.

Ruo Chen stared at this figure and let out a sigh of relief, had he been any slower in killing, he might have gotten some of his points stolen. Stealing kills were not forbidden in this hunt but fighting other participants was so the figure left as quickly as they came when they realized that they too late.

He scrolled through the ranking to and saw that he was placed 1405th. Ruo Chen shook his head at this, man kids these days are monsters.

Now that his energy was replenished from the orb, he had to begin looking for prey now as the opportunity from the blue screen did not appear again. Ruo Chen had finished the battle in about 20 minutes and felt that there must be another more efficient way of getting points since the people placed above 50 all had more than a thousand points.

Ruo Chen knew that Ye Ran's strategy was to send a shockwave to the ground so all the animals that lived underground would appear to check out what was wrong. But that costed too much energy and way too much noise, much more than the explosions. Plus, if all the animals were to appear, Ruo Chen was not sure if he could take them on all at once.

This might also end up benefiting others near him as they can take advantage of his work. 

Ruo Chen sighed as this method only worked for Ye Ran. That guy was able to kill them all swiftly before anyone could come and steal, and this was his strategy for the school of flames trial. Most schools used this type of trial as it was the best way to test the kid's practical skills.

If only I had an ounce of the protagonists blessing! Ruo Chen grieved in his mind but he soon brightened up as he remembered he had Xiao Pang.

He stared at the butterfly on his nose with a mischievous smile.

"Xiao Pang, mind locating the prey for me?" Ruo Chen 'asked' in that fake sweet tone. 

Ever since Ruo Chen realized just how much of a cheat code Xiao Pang was, he had been abusing this power like how a little kid would abuse their admin in a certain game.

He had wanted to play it fair by trying to think of the strategies that was used by the other top rankers but they also probably used the same strategy like Ye Ran.

"Please I'm too tired mentally." Ruo Chen pleaded with a bit more sincerity this time and he clasped his hands together. This was not a lie as the energy from the ball only replenished one's energy reserves and not the mind, the refresh Ruo Chen felt earlier was only a physical effect.

Xiao Pang already knew he did not have a choice, Ruo Chen needed to get into this school to better his chances of completing the mission as he would know who to pair Ye Ran up with and he got to work without a word.