Chapter 273 - [Bonus] Truens Final Test (1/2)
Merlin was waiting. Right now, whoever manages to slip behind the other party's defences will have the advantage. There was only one more point left before the test concluded. So far, Truen had scored fifteen out of sixteen while Merlin only scored twelve.
The final test was simple. In order for Merlin and Freya to give Truen the green light to travel Earth and make the necessary preparations, both Gods needed to know if the wood elf would be able to handle any situation that came his way.
Truen was an archer with magic to aid him. Due to the lack of time to train in those skills of an archer, Freya's bow Sureshot was heavily relied on. Truen focussed most of his energy training his body to cope. Elves had good agility and fast reflex but after the training, Truen's reflexes were only a fraction slower than Freya's. Coupled with magic sensing, the archer had virtual eyes all over the place. It was very difficult to sneak past Truen and launch a sneak attack.
Merlin smiled. Although his grimoire was more powerful, Truen sure knew how to pick his spells for Sureshot. Although the wood elf still had four more empty slots, the eight spells that Truen chose worked very well in a combination. Merlin's grimoire paled in comparison when it came to effectiveness.
The test arena was in the dream dimension. The invigilator was Freya who was in charge of controlling the space restriction and illusions. The targets were often moving around in disguises such as monsters, beasts or stationary boards. Both Merlin and Truen had to seek them out after discerning them from illusions and destroy them. If any of them fell for illusions, a point will be deducted. For every successful destruction of a target, a point will be added. The first to get sixteen points will be the victor and for Truen to pass this test, he had to reach sixteen before Merlin.
The wizard found out how inconvenient some of his more powerful spells were in the test. The massive scale destruction spell he used at the beginning made him go into negative hundred. He might have destroyed all the existing targets but he also wiped out ten times more illusions that Freya prepared. Merlin called out foul but Freya wouldn't hear it.
”It's fair. I explained the rules and you should have understood.”
After that, Merlin could bite his hat in frustration and slowly work his way up to sixteen from a negative two hundred and six points. Thankfully, the Wizard God was a lot faster at discerning illusions and shot down targets without difficulty. Truen decided that staying close to Merlin wasn't going to do him any good and for the first hour, the wood elf hunted miserably at the other side of the forest arena.
Merlin quickly recovered his points after sniping every single one of Truen's target and the wood elf got pissed. Changing his tactic, Truen locked-on a target on Merlin's back instead. He sent his indestructible elemental golems to hinder Merlin's hunting. Once Merlin spotted a target and fired a spell, Truen's golems would stand in the way and block the spell while the wood elf took a snipe at the target.
Merlin got angry and called out foul play again but Freya told the enraged wizard that there were no rules against tactics like that. Ever since then, Merlin tried everything at his disposal to get rid of Truen. He only needed a few more points to win but Truen kept stealing them from under his nose. Hence, the petty wizard could only resort to hiding from the wood elf's sharp eyes and hunt silently.
Merlin wasn't doing so well because while he lay low, Truen was already moving independently. the scores increased steadily and Merlin figured out that he couldn't simply focus on himself. He had to stop his student somehow!
It was exactly that conclusion that arrived at the current stalemate for both parties. Merlin had set traps all over the arena and Truen had to be careful of them or he would spend too much time trying to get out of it while Merlin bagged the win. two of Truen's golems had fallen into those traps and the wood elf tried to free them to no avail. Traps of this complexity had to be carefully disarmed with a lot of patience that the archer didn't currently have.
The last target stared at the hunters and galloped away. Freya was enjoying the spectacle way too much. Seeing Merlin's usually prim and proper appearance looking so dishevelled brought joy to her sadistic heart. Truen was turning out to become the best investment she ever made.
The gazelle was a quick animal and Truen didn't want to spend time trying to look for it again so he moved. Likewise, Merlin didn't want Truen to have that last point and activated the trap ahead. The target fell right into Merlin's trap and gave out a pitiful whine before disintegrating.
Having been lured into giving away his initial position, Truen quickly made his escape before Merlin could place one of those pesky tracking spells on him. All he needed to graduate from this hellish training was just one more point. Merlin's persistence was starting to get on Truen's nerves and he briefly considered using Soul Count on Merlin. Imagine the surprise the Great God and King Yama will have after realising that the person they were after turned out to be Merlin. Still, he ruled that option out. Soul Mark was for enemies, not for annoying wizards. He will win this as fairly as he could.
Splitting his parallel mind, Truen created another golem to act as a decoy with his form. The golem ran in the opposite direction and fired an area detection spell so that Truen could identify the new target. Once the clone was returned to him, Truen turned to the right sharply. One more target and Freya actually made it easy this time.
Truen fired a time distortion spell and cast a strong illusion barrier while hiding the Pagoda Prison trap beneath so that Merlin will step into it if the sneaky wizard decides to interfere again. At the same time, Truen made several clones and had them act as lookouts while one tested the ground for traps.
True to his suspicion, the clone he sent ahead avoided a trap that Merlin placed earlier. The activation of the trap must have alerted Merlin about his whereabouts so Truen had to act quickly. The target was hidden well but once Truen was settled in an angle, he fired six shots in rapid succession, all imbued with different elemental magic.
A twang from the bow alerted Truen of Merlin's arrival. Two of his clones were taken out in a flash and the remaining two battled with the wizard God, leading him into their trap. Merlin wasn't easily fooled. He dismissed the illusion and avoided the Pagoda Prison. However, that smirk fell when Freya announced that the match was over.
Truen heaved a sigh of relief. He bought enough time for the last arrow to reach the stationary target and gained that last point he needed to win. That hard-earned point used up all the tricks Truen had and the wood elf didn't want to go through such a test ever again.
Freya returned the dreamscape to its original setting and smiled like a proud mother. She studied Truen carefully with a rare tender look in her eyes. Truen felt oddly nervous and clutched Sureshot tightly. Merlin grumbled at a corner but there were no hard feelings. Although the wood elf was still far from being powerful, his opponent was Sage God. Merlin gave Truen some leeway and still felt a strange sense of satisfaction watching Truen panting hard, covered in sweat from the exertion. the brat really gave it his all and that resolve was enough for Merlin.
”I think it's time I gave you this,” Freya said and surprised Truen with a gift.