18 Chapter 18: Survival Challenge (1/2)

Nadran wasted no time and immediately attacked one of the shadows, dispersing it before the others could close in.Sweat was beginning to form on his brow, and while he was very physically fit due to climbing mountains to make a living, he could still feel the first onsets of fatigue.He rarely needed to undergo exercise this strenuous for extended periods.He was pushing himself to his limits of speed and strength, and this would obviously affect his stamina consumption.

Nadran wasn't worried about this, though – at least not yet.He knew that he could maintain this pace for at least another 10 or 15 minutes before collapsing.This hinged on his stamina expenditure not increasing over time, however, and it likely would increase with the growing number of enemies.

Nadran stayed calm and analyzed the situation, figuring out what he could do to optimize his killing speed.Otherwise, he would be quickly overwhelmed by the growing number of enemies, and could end up facing upwards of 20 enemies by round 10 if things went badly.[Let's see, the reason my killing speed is slowing down is mostly because… I have less opportunities to attack, since I need to spend so much time dodging.Thinking about it, it's actually pretty impressive that I haven't gotten hit yet with so many attacks coming toward me.Hm… wait! What if I try to incorporate my attacks into the same movements as my dodges?That way I can dodge and attack at the same time.If I manage to succeed, I can avoid being forced to be on the defensive, and have opportunities to attack even while surrounded.]

With this thought, Nadran avoided an attack by jumping toward an enemy, but the movement was somewhat rushed, and he only managed to lightly injure his opponent without landing a decisive blow.Nadran frowned and leaped backward, avoiding four separate attacks that would have pierced him through had he stayed in place.[It looks like this will take some time to perfect,] Nadran thought as he tracked the locations of the shadows, taking a deep breath.[At least I have plenty of targets to practice on,] he grinned and leaped back into the fray.

Meanwhile, the man who had taken Lilia's bet was looking rather uncomfortable.His record for this particular room was 6 minutes and 7 seconds, but this low-slate cultivator had already been fighting for 7 minutes and 20 seconds, beating his record by a full minute – and he was still going strong.It must be stated that every additional minute was a substantial increase in difficulty.He could easily fight 10 weak enemies one at a time, but fighting those 10 enemies at the same time was impossible for him.Every additional enemy essentially multiplied the difficulty, and all it would take was a single injury for the difficulty to skyrocket.While the individual enemies were not that strong, this was not an easy challenge by any means, and most people couldn't even last as long as Nadran had up to this point.

”How is he still fighting?” the man asked in shock.”He's just some low-slate cultivator who still hasn't reached mid-slate after being alive for more than 20 years.”

Lilia smirked and replied, ”What does his sigil realm have to do with it?The room always matches the strength of the enemies to your own sigil realm, so he's not inherently at a disadvantage here.”

The man grimaced and tried to stay calm.There was still plenty of time until the ten-minute mark, he hadn't lost yet.But he could not suppress the sinking feeling in his stomach as he started to subconsciously wonder if he was going to lose this bet.

At the same time, Nadran was dodging around, gradually improving his abilities.[If I use the momentum from my dodge in order to increase the strength of my blow, I can get a lot more power.When I'm in the middle of dodging, I don't have the ability to wind up for an attack, since I don't have a solid stance.Using momentum can compensate for this, however.]

Nadran weaved through the shadows, destroying them one by one.This challenge tested not only his dodging and counterattacking abilities, but also his peripheral awareness.He needed to constantly be aware of attacks coming from behind, and while he tried to keep them all in front of him as much as possible, this was easier said than done.

Despite this, Nadran found that he was enjoying himself as he jumped around constantly in an evasive dance.His feet moved him nimbly back and forth, avoiding every attack that came toward him.To someone who had spent nearly half of his waking life climbing cliffs, moving on flat ground was a breeze by comparison, even the more complex footwork required for these unusual dodges.He was very physically fit, and with the aid of his internal energy, he felt that his body could execute any action he asked of it.

Nadran found himself getting immersed in the rhythm, barely even noticing when another 9 shadows appeared.In this odd state, he felt his movements getting more and more quick and solid, allowing his exerted strength to increase.He only stopped when he suddenly noticed that there were no more shadows to destroy.He looked at the timer to see that 8 minutes and 53 seconds had passed.He still had seven seconds until the tenth wave began.

Nadran took a deep breath before resuming his combat stance.[I've already used over half of my internal energy maintaining the wyvern claws technique.It seems this will end fairly soon, one way or another.]

Right as the clock hit nine minutes, ten shadows formed, lunging toward him.Nadran smiled, running forward to meet them.He slashed with his ghostly claws, jumping about.While the wyvern claws technique had impressive offensive power, it did not provide much in the realm of defense other than protecting his hands.While he could block the shadows' attacks with his claws, he felt that doing so would delay him, allowing the shadows to all hit him at once.Nadran did not want to clash in terms of strength with so many enemies, and he had not learned any defensive sigils other than that basic barrier he had used while fighting Kalio.If he could avoid the attacks altogether, that seemed to be the best way to survive while conserving his energy.

As he fought, Nadran noticed that one of the shadows was standing back, tracing a sigil.It soon finished, and a blade of wind came hurtling toward him at high speeds.Nadran was in the middle of avoiding seven other simultaneous attacks, and thus was unable to react in time.The blade sliced across his left arm, causing him to gasp and grit his teeth in pain.

These shadows could cause no true harm to the challengers, but that did not extend to preventing pain.The injury hurt just as much as if it were real, making it almost impossible to move the injured arm.Since his body thought that it was injured, it reacted as though it really was, restricting Nadran's movements.

[I guess this room also tests your pain tolerance,] Nadran thought, smiling grimly.[Well, I guess this is an important quality.After all, if you stop fighting due to a superficial injury, that could mean your death.]

This pain did not pose a major threat to Nadran, however, since he had been beaten up many a time by bullies while manning the shop.He was unsure whether he should feel lucky or unlucky for this inadvertent training, but it was helping him persevere now.