Rex's yell made Ren immediately go on guard. He heard rustling coming from the bush next to him, and something popped out. Ren's eyes widened because a tiger was lunging towards him. He immediately put his hand forward and covered it with the Shadow Skeleton, and he grabbed the paw of the tiger and immediately threw the tiger to the side.
The tiger rolled for a second, but it caught its footing and immediately prepared to attack the both of them again, but it didn't launch immediately. But Ren didn't give it the opportunity. Immediately, two shades came from behind and attacked the tiger, restraining him, and the restraint got tightened around the neck until the tiger stopped moving. He didn't kill it, but it got knocked out.
Okay, now that shou— Ren stayed quiet once he saw Rex's expression.
Shit, this isn't over, Ren thought to himself.
He looked around from the side that the tiger came from. A bunch of tigers slowly appeared. Ren grew nervous. This is a problem.
But then he noticed Rex was looking at the other side. He nervously looked behind him and saw wolves slowly coming from the other side.
Holy shit… a tiger and a wolf pack are fighting here. Wait, do tigers even come in a pack?
Ren shook away the thought before he could indulge in it. This is a bad situation. He has to take care of this now.
Rex, Ren said, making Rex look at him. Crouch down and be on guard. I will try to take care of this, okay?
Rex quietly did what he was told, and Ren got ready for the fight.
The tiger and wolf packs charged into each other. Some of them tried to fight each other, but some of them ignored the others and tried attacking him and Rex. But Ren immediately moved in a circular motion and released two shades to attack. The sweep attack put down a couple of wolves and tigers.
Ren continued spinning and making wide attacks with his shades as whips, from his arms or from the ground, to create distance between them and Rex. Shades flew right and left and swept the air, creating a safety zone for Rex, who couldn't fight.
Ren honestly didn't know how good of a fighter Rex was, considering that their fight earlier was long-range, and that suggested that he was a long-range fighter, but he didn't have any weapons on him.
That's because the test doesn't offer any weapons, so either the test doesn't allow weapons in general, or Rex doesn't have a personal weapon to use. Ren thought the latter is the case, since powers that provide people with weapons are around, so—
Ren shook his head. Dammit, this isn't the time.
Ren continued the fight, but he was having a hard time. He wouldn't have had a problem normally, but the amount of both wolves and tigers was kind of a lot, to the point that he was struggling to keep up with the positions of the wolves and tigers.
To the point that one of them passed.
A wolf dodged a shade and immediately launched towards Rex. Ren noticed it, but he couldn't do something about it immediately. He thought if he stopped his momentum with his attacks, all the rest of the tigers and wolves would attack, and the rest of the shades that he deployed from other shadows were busy, so Rex was on his own.
But Ren relaxed soon because Rex managed to take care of himself.
When the wolf launched, it had its claws and mouth wide open to tear him apart, but Rex somehow noticed. So Rex grabbed The rock next to him and threw it.
The rock landed hard inside the wolf's mouth, and the rock itself was heavy and large. It broke the wolf's teeth and neck, killing it immediately.
Don't worry about me. Continue to defend us, Rex said and continued to crouch while holding another rock.
Ren sighed in relief and continued the fighting, but after a while Ren grew anxious because the fighting between the wolves and the tigers wasn't stopping. In fact, it didn't look like it would stop soon.
Even though there weren't a lot of wolves or tigers, for some reason they kept fighting. They either dodged or tanked Ren's attacks. They seemed to be normal tigers and wolves, and he was hitting them pretty hard, but even through the pain and broken limbs, they still wanted to fight.
These animals are normal animals, but they seem to be unusually aggressive. Isn't this whole area breaking animal laws or something, Ren thought.
But then he decided it's time to leave this place.
He continued fighting for a few seconds until the tigers and wolves were at enough distance for Ren to dissolve all the shades and create one to wrap around Rex, and used two shades to lift them both up into the trees.
Ren and Rex moved through the trees, the shades acting like legs as they moved away. Some tigers and wolves tried to follow them, but Ren created a couple of shades to either hit them or restrain them. So after creating some distance, Ren determined that they got far enough and got down to the ground again and caught his breath.
So this is the danger of this area? Wild animals running around. Isn't this illegal? we even killed some Ren said.
No, not really, Rex replied from the side. The wolf that I killed dissolved into sand. The animals in this area aren't real.
Ren nodded. That makes more sense, but let's focus on the problem here. I'm pretty sure tigers don't go in a pack, but we saw it, so that means the other wild animals that we are gonna face here are gonna be in a pack as well. I don't think I could fight off waves of them and still make it out of this area, Ren said.
Wait, what about what you did earlier? Why can't we move through the air? Rex asked.
Well, while we were moving, I saw a couple of things flying far away. That means there are hawks or some other animals that would target us in the air, which is probably gonna be worse than fighting on the ground since I don't know how good I am at fighting in the air since I never did it before, so that isn't an option, Ren said.
Rex state silent for a second thinking Okay, follow me and stay quiet, Rex said and started moving while crouching.
Ren raised an eyebrow, but he followed along.
Ren and Rex moved through the trees slowly but surely. Rex made some turns that didn't make any sense, and sometimes he paused to peer into the distance. It was pretty clear to Ren that Rex was planning on moving through the area through scouting.
You're surprisingly good at this, Ren said.
Oh yeah, I used to go hunting with my dad, so I'm pretty good at scouting, Rex said.
Really?
No, obviously not. I'm good at scouting because I practiced it since my eyesight and hearing are so good, Rex sarcastically replied.
Ren was so annoyed but ignored it. He focused on another thing — the fact that this method of travelling is safe and it seems to be working, but it's slow. After all, they are on a timer. Maybe they should hurry so—
Something clicked in his mind.
Oh, that's what's going on.
The timer is blank on purpose to mess with the students' minds, making them reckless out of fear of running out of time.
So once he realized that he decided to calmly take the slow option, and eventually, after a long time, they left the woods area.