Ashten's body thinned considerably as all his energy was converted into aura by his Tier 2 Skill. He then condensed it into his palm and shot it forth. Unlike Jyorta's aura beam, Ashten's was slightly different.
His aura beam had a central cylindrical beam of aura and another beam of aura that spiralled across it. So, it was two beams in one attack. It was a situation brought about by the activation of his Tier 2 Skill. After all, his Tier 2 Skill worked on his aura. It was the reason why Jyorta had taught him that.
Ashten's aura beam made a beeline towards the green circle, hitting all the Frenzy Beasts along the path. Even though its strength was tremendous, it had to pass through a lot of Frenzy Beasts. After all, the distance was almost 80 metres. And, it was full of Frenzy Beasts, both Tier 1 and Tier 2.
So, his aura beam killed those in the first 20 metres, severely wounded the ones in the next 20 metres, only stunned the ones in the remainder of the length.
"Hold tight," Ashten muttered weekly as he shot a glance at Dalna Doppler, seeing her nod in return. The next moment, his body thinned further as Ashten shot forth. But this time, he wasn't running, but flying.
Unranked Skill—Flight!
Previously during the chaos when the Frenzy Beasts had escaped from the Labyrinth of Frenzy, Ashten realised his prime weakness. He was unable to fly and thereby wasn't able to save people on time. As a result, a lot of children had died. He had moped about it a lot and in the end, decided to obtain the Unranked Skill, Flight.
He hadn't taken flight before because there were too many Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees in the air. Flying consumed energy, and as he didn't have the energy to sustain himself, it was better to remain on land and move his body. He had only activated it for short movements while he made abrupt turns in the air to evade the attacks.
Ashten shot forth, zooming past the distance as he wished to reach the destination before the Frenzy Beasts along the path recovered enough to attack him. Dalna Doppler unleashed all her aura, intending to paralyse the Frenzy Beasts as she shouted, "Everyone! Unleash your aura!"
All the students unleashed whatever aura they had, trying to keep the Frenzy Beasts paralysed for as much duration as they could. Only now did Dalna Doppler notice the students following her were just a portion of their Batch.
Many large groups like theirs were headed in different directions. With a single glance, she noticed they had split into 7-8 groups. As everyone was facing different directions when they entered the Graduation ceremony Battlefield, they noticed different green circles.
Jyorta's side only managed to see one. With a sweep, Dalna Doppler saw there were only about 70 students in their group. Thankfully, there were three teams lead by top rankers on her side. The moment Ashten carried Jyorta and flew towards the green circle, she relayed the command to the rest with her shout as she sprinted.
Tier 1 Skill—Dynamic Acuity!
Tier 2 Skill—Leap Burst!
Her body thinned upon every step but she flashed past with tremendous speed. Each of her steps caused her to cover four metres, making her flash through the gaps between the Frenzy Beasts. Whenever she came across large Frenzy Beasts like the Rigordile, One-Horned Rhino, and the Crust-Mantle, she stepped on their backs to travel farther.
This way, she kept pace with Ashten, grabbing hold of a couple of Floating Spiders that were in her way as she threw them towards the Spindle Bees that had aimed at Ashten from afar. Her Tier 1 Skill allowed her to process information faster and notice every frenzy Beast that was flashing past her—with startling clarity.
Blood leaked out of Ashten's orifices as he was burning through his flesh at an alarming rate. Normally, the energy in their Heart Crystal was a condensed essence. So, the amount stored in it was multiple times greater than what their bodies possessed. The fat stored in their bodies was just a last resort, something extra once the energy in their Heart Crystals was expended.
So, it couldn't last long. Ashten had already consumed all the excess energy in his body, now combusting his muscles. If he kept up with this pace, he would end up as a pile of bones.
Ashten looked forward, noticing the Frenzy Beasts in the final stretch—40 metres—had already begun to recover. They stared at him, gearing up to attack him. At his current reserves, he didn't have enough to reach the destination while avoiding and enduring their attacks. Chances were, he would lose balance the moment he was attacked a couple of times.
The moment he fell, all their efforts would be wasted. After a moment of thought, Ashten gazed below, noticing the massive back of a Tier 2 Crust-Mantle positioned 10 metres away.
He cranked his speed up, even more, burning through his muscles at a faster rate as he spun thrice in the air, using the circular force to rapidly increase the momentum at which he could throw the body of Jyorta.
"Dalna, I'll leave the rest to you!" Ashten shouted as he threw the figure of Jyorta with all his might as an Amplifier. The moment he threw Jyorta, his body lost balance, lacking the energy to maintain flight anymore.
Ashten fell towards the ground, activating his flight for a moment as he negated his falling momentum just before he crashed into the back of the Tier 2 Crust-Mantle. He then gazed at the figures of three Spiked-Lizards jump at him from the side, closing his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for the attack.
Though, just before they reached him, the Spiked-Lizards paused, acting confused. It was thanks to Jyorta.
The moment he was thrown by Ashen, Jyorta knew Ashten was spent and wouldn't be able to last long enough until he recovered and rescued him. He didn't wish to see his friend fail at the start. So Jyorta immediately burned some of his flesh and activated his attack around Ashten, planning to buy some valuable time using this.
Aura Personification—Betrayal!
It was why the Spiked-Lizards had stopped. They instantly entered a defensive stance, the same for the other Frenzy Beasts near them. They looked at each other with wariness. This was the sole advantage with the aura personification of betrayal.
Betrayal only needed the thought to function. The moment the thought of betrayal emerged in the mind of someone, even after the effect of the aura personification vanished, they would remain vigilant against others. The possibility of them being betrayed would still be in their minds. It would take valuable time before they would logically eradicate that thought.
In such a situation, it would at least buy them 5-10 seconds. That was why Jyorta had used the aura personification of betrayal.
His figure flew through the air as he crouched, defending his body using his limbs. Two spindles pierced through his legs, causing him to grunt in pain. One of them hit his bone, causing it to crack. The pain was akin to his leg getting electrocuted.
Jyorta felt difficulty in resisting the pain. But, thanks to him living through numerous scenarios hundreds of times, he was still lucid of what he had to do and achieve. Jyorta gazed at the green circle that was now closer than before.
From this distance, he noticed the colour of the air in its place was also a mild tinge of green. He hadn't noticed it from afar before. 'So, there is a chance I would be healed even before I land on the green circle, as long as I enter the column of air above it.'
His body began to arc downwards as the momentum behind his throw was waning. He still had twenty metres to traverse, and there were many Spindle Bees along his path. They instantly aimed his way, intending to riddle him with their spindles when he slammed his aura personification of betrayal upon them.
Instantly, the Spindle Bees changed their direction, pointing at the Floating Spiders as they expressed their wariness. Upon seeing the Spindle Bees point their way, the Floating Spiders that were about to shred Jyorta turned around, having a standoff against their foes.
The Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees always fought against each other because of their similar preying habits. Both were experts in the air and often competed for spoils of war. So, they had a lot of enmity between them.
The cooperation between their races was only among the elites, at Tier 4 and above. And that was because of their common enemy, the humans.
Dalna Doppler arrived at the scene, leaping as she caught him. She then burned all her reserves, making another leap as she transferred all her strength into Jyorta, "Go!"
'Thank you.' Jyorta flew towards the column of green before him, defending himself against the numerous spindles that pierced through his limbs, cracking the bones. The moment they noticed his figure flying close, the Spindle Bees retaliated immediately.
Jyorta no longer was able to even use his aura personification of betrayal. His previous actions had severely injured him. He was currently enduring a splitting headache that forced him to lose consciousness every second. Jyorta was desperately gritting through it thanks to his mental training.
There were more than 20 spindles piercing his limbs as Jyorta barely entered the column of green. Immediately, a vast surge of psychic energy gushed into his body, healing him as he crashed into the ground, causing crunching sounds to resound as the bones in his limbs shattered into numerous pieces.
Jyorta didn't have enough mental faculty to prepare a hallucination. Thankfully, he had prepared enough tattoos accordingly. Jyorta blindly poured all his aura into a tattoo, activating it.