Skyler's eyes dilated. What's the point of hiding behind trees?! A massive monster wave was coming from behind! If he didn't leave with them, he would die!!
He gazed at his sister. She could have come... she could have refused Elena. But she only murmured, 'Hide, please,' to him and stepped back further, tears in her eyes, to attack the boars and distract them.
Elena raised her rifle and, with two powerful shots, shattered two of the trees encircling the boars charging toward them.
"Max! Jenny! Attack and run!"
"Or we'll all die!"
Max unsheathed his sword and, with powerful arcs, launched multiple strikes at the charging boars. Earth walls rose in front of the monsters, but they shattered them all effortlessly with their horns.
Suddenly, a horde of 5-star fire and wind flying beetles surged out from behind the boars. Now, it was clear that if they stayed here any longer, they would all die.
"Sky..."
He called out, only to notice that the ash-brown-haired youth had rolled off to the left to hide in the gap between the tall trees Elena had mentioned earlier.
Elena turned around and grabbed Jenny's arm to run. But before they could take off, Jenny suddenly remembered something and pulled out a round elemental artifact she had acquired at the academy.
With trembling hands, she activated it with her wind element power and hurriedly threw it toward Skyler. Instantly, a wind barrier erected around his location.
With a curse, Elena dragged her away, and the two ran off in the opposite direction.
"Run!"
She shouted at Max, who pulled out a sound-making bead made of light element from his storage ring and swiftly tossed it in the opposite direction to distract the monster away from Skyler's location. With that, he clenched his jaw and cast one last glance at the spot where Skyler had vanished before sprinting off behind the girls.
After he left, the boars and countless beetles, although momentarily distracted by the strange sounds, continued to wreak havoc on everything in their path.
The wind barrier around Skyler's location cracked as multiple fire beetles slammed into it. He crawled away and paused behind one of the trees. His mind was a mess, but he pinched himself to snap out of it.
His eyes darted around. The sounds of countless beasts approaching his location were haunting, making him sweat.
"Am I going to die?"
He muttered, and his wildly beating heart sank at the mere thought. But he shook his head and quickly tore the fabric of one of his sleeves to cover his bleeding thigh.
"No! I refuse! I cannot die!"
With a deep breath, he stood up. The monsters were coming from behind, leaving him with only two options. First, he finds an opening and runs with all his strength, and second, he fights until the monster wave has passed through this area.
"The first option is out of the question. I can't run with an injury and with so many powerful beasts around me. So, that means the second option is the only one."
He clenched his fist and slammed it into the tree beside him when he remembered that he had lost the bow, the only weapon he had, when he was thrown away due to the impact of the boar's first attack.
"Those fuckers... at least leave me a weapon if you are abandoning me!"
Anger clouded his expression, but he suppressed it. No one noticed, not even he himself, but one of his crystal-like blue eyes shimmered darkly and the other white.
"They didn't have a choice. I would have done the same or maybe even worse..."
He whispered and felt a sudden urge to form his first elemental crystal.
Skyler knew the process was difficult the first time and required supervision from the elders, but he wanted to do it.
Anyway, in the end, the moment the wind barrier around him shattered, the monsters would attack, and he would either die or be left at death's door, even if he fought with everything he had. He was just a mortal with not even an ounce of power.
He didn't even sit down; he just closed his eyes. Immediately, he felt the tiny particles around him. Unlike the first time he tried, he could now sense many colors of Evol, but the most dominant was golden Evol—the color of the Light element—the only element he currently had affinity with.
"I can do it."
He muttered and willed the golden Evol around him to move and enter his body.
He failed the first time, but then suddenly the golden particles trembled. Everything around him faded into utter silence—the footsteps and roars of monsters.
His entire focus was on the tiny particles. With another attempt, some of them finally moved and entered his body. Now, he had to find a good pathway within his body for the golden particles to reach his heart.
But to his shock, his entire body became a channel for them, and the particles flowed effortlessly throughout his body, heading straight for his heart on their own.
Skyler finally understood what the system meant when it said that his body structure was unique compared to others.
He felt a surge of nervousness as it was finally time for him to form the crystal, the final step to becoming a 1-star Novice.
He concentrated and gathered the tiny golden particles into a single spot at the center of his heart after they had reached it. Then, he harnessed their power to create a thin layer of shield around them.
It cracked on the first try, and he felt an indescribable, agonizing pain in his heart. He screamed inwardly, his nails digging into the tree trunk beside him. And it took all his willpower to quickly manage the situation and gather the spilling particles.
This is why supervision was necessary when one was forming their first crystal.
Skyler pushed through and tried again to form the shield around the particles. It was very weak, so he added another layer, then another, and at last, a glowing, ant-sized crystal floated in the center of his heart.
"Haha! I did it! Now, I can use light elem—"
His joy was interrupted when the already cracked wind barrier around him shattered, and a massive spear made of darkness element blasted the tall tree beside him, sending his body flying from the force.