Chapter 262 Herds and illusions  

Some time ago, Rebecca along with Amaya and Edward was fighting with Elroy and his team in a swamp area.

It was a 3 vs 5 fight. Unfair to them from the very beginning as everyone's mana was sealed at the same level. In the beginning they were evenly matched and Rebecca even managed to get the upper hand in that fight eliminating two students of class A-5 despite the disadvantage in numbers.

But then when she felt her mana drained and tired after fighting for so long, something unexpected happened.

Backup arrived.

Not for her, but for the opposing team.

Qingyue Grayborn, the daughter of the Duke of Thidrol city. She was ranked 5th in entrance exams with an awakener rank of D-.

The fight which Rebecca thought she could solve with some effort became difficult instantly with her joining the tide. And this situation further worsened when Amaya who was in the middle of her spell got interrupted and suffered a backlash by the arrival of Qingyue.

"There's no point in continuing to fight. We'll only end up getting eliminated. Let's leave first and find others." Amaya suggested from the side, after seeing their current situation.

Seeing no choice to win this fight, Rebecca also nodded her head and decided to run away from it and find her own teammates for support first.

-Floor of Frost

-Mist of Misfortune

With an AOE spell that used basically all the remaining mana she had, Rebecca froze the entire ground around her enemies, freezing them for some time. magic

Edward also used one of his skills called Mist of Misfortune, which created white mist in the surrounding area. Affecting everyone who is trapped within to fall into a period of bad luck. <It was a skill taught to the followers of goddess Jyeshtha, also referred as Alakshmi. She's the goddess of adversity and misfortune in hindu myths.>

Making use of this period, Rebecca, Amaya and Edward left that area.

But since it's the fight of 2 heroines how could it end so easily and without any accident.

So by some 'fate' while all three of them were on their way to run, Edward who was at the front, responsible for clearing the path, killed a small beast who was in their way. Resulting in a mass outrage of the entire nest of monsters who suddenly appeared all around them and started attacking them.

Rebecca had no idea how she could be so unlucky today. First she got dumped into a swallowing swamp. Then lost a fight against her opponents and now ended up angering a whole horde of beasts.

Yet Edward, who was running fastest now had a grim look on his face and his fists were clenched tightly.

'Damn these side effects' he cursed in his heart while glancing constantly at the time to see when he'd have his luck back and not suffer any accident in between.

Misfortune, Luck, Karma - these things are too complicated to be touched by mortals relying just on gods or their given skills without proper strength or understanding.

That's why they always contain some kind of backlash on the user too.

Rio's skill given by Shani also had a painful backlash of severe mental strain. And Edward, too, had a backlash of receiving bad luck in return for half the time his enemies had.

It's like hurting 1000 points to the enemy and getting 500 damage to yourself.

Acceptable and tolerable but not nice.

"Let's hope our token bearer isn't trapped or surrounded by other teams." Edward muttered as he slashed the necks of a few beasts who were jumping in front of him.

Rebecca glanced behind her where a group of Roozarks followed them closely.

Roozarks resemble large, aggressive kangaroos 🦘 but have a more menacing appearance. They stand tall at around 6-7 feet, with muscular bodies covered in thick, coarse fur. Their fur patterns vary from mottled grays and browns to earthy tones, providing excellent camouflage. Roozarks possess powerful hind legs ending in razor-sharp, clawed feet, enabling them to leap great distances and deliver devastating kicks in combat. Their forelimbs also have sharp claws used for tearing through prey or enemies. Their mouths harbor rows of sharp teeth suited for tearing flesh, making them formidable predators. Roozarks also sport a long, serrated, and scaled tail, which they wield with dexterity, often used for balance while hopping or as a weapon in combat.

Their race is peaceful by nature, and they like to live in groups or herds, but once provoked or challenged they'll have a fierce reaction to it.

Seeing these animals constantly jumping here and there, front and side Rebecca couldn't help but curse in her heart.

'Where's that dump pair of brother and sister? Did they encounter something like this too?' Rebecca couldn't help but shout and then be worried in her heart.

"Be careful, those pests from back then are coming behind you too." Edward said, as he sensed the traps he laid while running getting triggered.

Amaya looked over her shoulders and saw Qingyue and Elroy who were almost catching up with them.

-Twin Mirage

Elroy, seeing the animals jumping all around his opponents and them dodging their attacks directly, used his illusion skill called Twin Mirage.

Instantly the number of Roozarks around Rebecca and others doubled and it became hard to determine which one was real and which one was just an illusion. This made dodging the attacks of these jumping clowns much harder and Edward who was still suffering from low luck backlash, got hit a few times and rolled on the ground. Triggering his own traps and getting blasted into the sky.

"Fuuck" Edward cursed when he felt the stinging pain all over his body. But he stood up again and started fighting with the Roozarks who surrounded him from all sides.

'Is it over this time?' Rebecca thought as she looked at the purple haired Qingyue girl who was getting closer and closer to them.

-caw caw-

Just when she was thinking if this test was too hard to win easily, she heard something and looked up where a black crow was hovering in circles.

A smile came to her face as shouted "Keep running, we're almost there." Rebecca said, as she started using her aura reserves to help Edward and move forwards where an idiot was watching the drama from.

Amaya too sensed something and stopped acting 'fragile' and got serious for the first time.

'No point in getting eliminated, let's watch some fights first.' She thought and activated her spell.

-Silence

A spell which covered an area of 20 meters all around Amaya, silencing everything.