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“Yes, but I’m still not fully recovered. The ascension helps but I only tried it because I felt so close after fighting both the panther and the pack leader, and that elixir almost triggered the ascension on its own,” Oli clarified. “The real test will be reaching peak-elder before the finals start… If I can’t pull it off before then, I have a feeling I’ll be in trouble… Yeter, would Netra have struggled with that panther?”

“Nope!” Yeter boldly replied with a toothy grin.

Sighing, Oli nodded, “That’s what I was expecting.”

“And neither would Vant or Tilgron.”

Hearing Yeter tack on those additional names, Oli felt even more apprehensive about his current strength. “I see… so I’ve go quite a ways to go.”

“But do you think you’ll struggle during this qualifier?” asked Freele.

Oli shrugged. “I don’t know. It won’t be as difficult as the later stages, but I’m also weaker than I should be. And the odds are in favor of each region’s strongest candidate having at least a defensive soul art. So we’ll find out how I pull it off when the time comes.”

“You’ll be fine.” Fulkar reasoned, “If you can fight a pseudo-perennial to a near draw, I think you’ve got a great chance to go all the way at this stage. Besides, you’ve just got to claim one of the top three spots. You don’t need to be the absolute strongest.”

.....

Nodding slowly, Oli felt slightly better thinking of things that way. “Still. It’s better to aim for first and fall lower on the podium than to aim for third and miss entirely.”

After roasting some wolf meat wrapped in herbs, the team winded down again. Oli stayed up until daybreak but went back to sleep while the others were awake and alert. Even though they were likely a day’s journey from the beacon, the team acknowledged that this was the most dangerous stretch yet. They had encountered stronger and larger groups of beasts, barely missed encountering an enemy team by a fox den, and had another team dump a half-perennial panther on their campsite, all in the span of the last twenty-four hours.

Luckily, Oli and the team weren’t disturbed during their short amount of rest. Oli slept for only three hours but that was enough to at least shake off his fatigue.

The party moved out while it was still morning and moved with more haste than ever. Now, the goal was within reach and they wanted to reach the beacon that day. Camping again would risk not entering the second round and would leave them in the dark in what was most likely the most dangerous area of the first round.

Oli was by far the most exhausted of the team, but he was doing pretty well so he had no reason to complain. He was just glad he took the gamble fighting the pseudo-perennial alone. There was no telling whether someone else would’ve needed to flee via the teleporting orbs, and it also left the team feeling energetic for the most part.

However, there was still one major drawback to that panther incident. The entire team had taken an essence elixir. That meant taking another one for the remainder of the first round would only be half as effective while also causing them bodily harm. Considering they were likely going to run into another team soon, Oli wasn’t happy with that unavoidable condition. But they could only work around it.

The beacon was only a few days away from becoming completely purple and was starting to get brighter as well. Seeing it helped Oli and the team focus on what was in front of them instead of lingering on past events. So they kept their heads up and trudged through the stormy surroundings as fast as they could.

“... Oli, I think I sense someone up ahead.”

‘Stop,’ Oli gave his order telepathically. He casually turned to face his teammates as if taking a break. ‘Can you sense how many there are?’

Fulkar nodded. He promptly lifted his hand and held up five fingers.

‘Great… So it’s a team. And it’s not the team from last night either,’ Oli easily deduced. ‘They must have a sensory expert that thrives in snowy environments. We can only see ten krin ahead of us now and are lucky Fulkar picked them up.’

“Should we turn around–”

‘No,’ Oli kept speaking telepathically and held a finger to his mouth to keep the rest of the team quiet. ‘If we move away, they’ll think we picked them up and will attack. What if we tried to counter their ambush? Fulkar, using your head and hands, nod in their direction and show us roughly how far they are.’

Fulkar silently leaned his head in two directions. Had the team kept going in a straight line toward the beacon, they would’ve been attacked from both sides.

‘So their sensory expert saw us coming from way back… How many on each side?’ Oli asked.

Fulkar pointed out three to the left and two to the right.

Squinting Oli tried his best to think the situation over. ‘... Can you sense which one is the team leader?’

But Fulkar shook his head as Oli expected.

‘Figures… If we can’t tell which is the leader and they’ve already gotten too close for us to easily run away… Maybe it’s best to provoke them now,’ said Oli. ‘Everyone, be ready. I’m going to trigger their ambush alone. If we’re lucky, I can take one down right away and even the odds. Then I’ll push back to regroup with you. Got it?’

Everyone nodded, both a little anxious and a little relieved for Oli to suggest such a plan.

“Hey, I’ll go look for firewood!” Oli suddenly shouted. He turned his back to the team and began walking toward the ambush. “Use what we have left to start the fire. I’ll be back soon!”

“Sure thing!” Yeter shouted back, following Oli’s lead in not revealing any names or status.

Oli “ignorantly” picked up the pace and started jogging into the ambush. Sadly, thanks to the storm and all the snow on the ground, Oli couldn’t rely on his own senses to locate the hidden attackers. He was forced to rely on Fulkar’s assessment. But that was enough for Oli. All Oli needed was to know where the attacks would be coming from. Since he knew they were waiting for him, his lack of surprise and fast reflexes should be enough to at least counterattack and keep him safe.

Just as Oli was about to exit the party’s range of sight, Oli stopped in his tracks and turned back to the party. “Oh yeah, should we set up a tent?!”

With their prey so close and turned around, the ambushers couldn’t ask for a better scenario. It felt like fate was giving them yet another easy victory. So the signal was cast and the attackers hurried to make their moves while mostly out of sight from the enemy party, freely able to ambush the lone cultivator.

Crrrsh, crrrsh. CRACK!

Just as four ambushers popped out of the snow to assault Oli from behind, a mace was suddenly hurled, crashing into the slowest of the four attackers the moment their head popped out.

All the ambushers were baffled as their prey had suddenly turned around to look them square in the eyes before they could even attack.

“We’re found out!” a voice shouted but not from among the four ambushers. A fifth figure popped out a few krins further away. Their expression and tone were filled with surprise and a tinge of regret.

“AAAaaaahhhh!” the injured ambusher fell back into the snow, gripping his broken shoulder joint in agony.

“DIE!” the remaining three attackers shouted at the same time, launching their barrage of attacks.

But shadowy tentacles suddenly popped out of the snow. They latched onto the attacker’s limbs and stopped their charge just barely out of reach of their target. Oli also took a few steps back the moment he had thrown his old mace, preparing to create some distance should he need it.

“Surrender and back off!” Oli roared, leering at the fifth enemy still a few krin back.

With the ambush flipped on its head, Oli focused his battle art on a single person and leaped forward with his dual essence mace in hand. That made it easier for the startled attackers to break free, but it allowed Oli to also take a hostage, holding his mace covered in dark-death essence to the side of his captive’s jaw while removing the captive’s void ring with his other hand.

The rest of Oli’s team quickly darted forward and stood by their team leader, somewhat in awe at what Oli had pulled off.

The enemy team kept quiet, apart from the groaning man with a shattered shoulder joint.

“Don’t worry about me!” the newly captured woman shouted to her teammates.

“One more word and I break your jaw in four places,” warned Oli, barely loud enough for everyone to hear him.