Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

I erected a wall of ice which successfully stopped the horned monster on its tracks. At the side, Senior Trent dashed forward with his halberd and struck the monster, successfully killing it. I picked up the red tag tied to its ear.

“That’s the third red tag we got, which makes it our fifteenth tag. Let’s continue at this pace and I’m pretty sure we’ll rake up some points.” Senior Trent said and stuffed the tag to the special bag the committee provided. “We already got two black tags. Let’s try to find a gold one and hope nobody had taken the two of them.”

““Yes senior!””

It had been about an hour and a half since the Hunting Event started. As per our plan, we split up into two groups; me, Seniors Trent and George on one team, and Seniors Daniel and Anastasia on the other. The last two being in-charge of gathering the jade slips.

The monsters we’ve faced so far were all Class C and above, and I couldn’t believe how strong those monsters were as we fought them.

-And here I thought dealing with monsters is already no problem for me.

Aunt Zaira actually did a good job as the head committee for the Hunting Event. Too good in my opinion.

She chose strong monsters for the event. The lowest class we dealt with so far was a Class D. Not just that, she said the tags were given to monsters depending on their levels, but it was so not true!

The last monster we dealt with a black tag was a Class D monster, while we faced a Class B monster with a white tag.

-Seriously that adoptive aunt of mine. She’s a handful.

“Hey, do you think our jade gathering team is doing well?” asked Senior George as he joined us from his previous spot; up a tree.

“We’ll ask them later.” Senior Trent answered and patted Senior George’s shoulder. “They’ll be fine senior. Senior Anastasia is on that team. And besides, Daniel has the Divine Sense. If he thinks something is wrong, he’ll probably keep the two of them safe.”

Speaking of…

“Senior Trent, I could sense three jade slips in the area.” I said to the two seniors who only looked at me in surprise. “Should we collect it?”

“Of course we should! Luna, go get them!”

I nodded my head and headed to where I sensed the jade slips. I found white jade slip hidden at the center of a bush, a green jade slip on a bird’s nest and a red jade slip buried underground. I presented them to Senior Trent who only smiled.

We continued looking for monsters to gather the tags.

Forty minutes passed and we already gathered about five hundred twenty-five points from the tags and a hundred points from the jade slips. We dealt with monsters that could fly, ones that could move underground and even those that live underwater.

-How did Aunt Zaira even put a tag on underwater monsters?

The ones underwater were the hardest to deal with since none of us could breathe underwater. Senior Trent couldn’t use his lightning magic unless he wants to electrocute me and Senior George as well, and well, Senior George’s arrows don’t really work underwater.

But we managed to pull through.

We trudged the ground as we searched for the last monster we would be hunting before the Hunting Event was over.

So far, we’ve collected all colors of the tags, apart from gold. And the strongest monster we’ve dealt with was a Class A with a black tag.

I sensed a monster a few feet ahead of us but I noticed that something was wrong with it. It was a strong one, probably a Class S, but I noticed that there were two other groups of people near us. The nearest was where the monster is located while the other group was still a little far but they would probably be reaching the monster in ten minutes.

I relayed this information to Senior Trent immediately.

“Do you think that group is dealing with that monster? I was hoping it’s one with a gold tag, but if a group is already preying on it then we should let them be.”

“But there’s something strange about it.” I insisted. “The nearest group is not moving.”

“What?”

“I’ll go take a look.” Senior George said and immediately hopped on a tree to get a better view.

I was already dreading what Senior George would find, after all the feeling I got from the monster was quite familiar. But I didn’t want to jump to conclusions so I kept my mouth shut about it.

“This is bad.” Senior George said urgently as he returned to where we were gathered. “The group Luna sensed? Most of them are dead.”

“”WHAT?!””

“From their uniforms, they should be the Cedi Royal Academy team. The monster just did them in.”

“You said ‘most’, then there’s a survivor?” Senior Trent asked.

“There are two survivors. One is bleeding heavily while the other is trying to fight against the monster. I also confirmed its tag; gold.”

“What should we do senior?” I asked.

Senior George and I looked at Senior Trent. He was our leader, so he was the one who’s supposed to give us orders.

-I hope the committee already knows about this.

At that moment, I was actually contemplating something. This is was a competition and from what I learned, death tolls are normal during the Grand Academy Games, so all we could do was to not end up dying. But I also wanted to save those students and to not run away from a monster.

While Senior Trent was thinking of what to do next, I already decided to at least rescue the surviving ones.

In both my lives, I was taught to destroy my enemies but in return, I must protect my people and help those in need. I wouldn’t be a good warrior if I don’t have that mindset.

But then again, I also desired revenge on those who hurt me and killed my family, so I guess I’m the type to contradict one’s self. Probably.

“Isn’t it obvious? We’ll help the remaining Cedi participants and get that gold tag ourselves.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I suppose we were thinking of the same thing.

“And I suppose Luna doesn’t have objections?” I just nodded my head. “Senior George?”

“I can finally face a Class S monster. I’m not going to lose such an opportunity.”

“Great! Let’s see what monster we’re up to then?”

We sneakily headed to the direction of the monster and hid just outside its detection area. Once I laid my eyes on the monster, I couldn’t help but gasp.

“What’s wrong Luna?” Senior Trent asked upon noticing my expression.

“This is bad seniors. That monster is bad news.”

“What do you mean?” this time, it was Senior George that asked.

“On the monster’s forehead is a black crystal. That can only mean two things; it’s being controlled by a demon or it’s on the process of becoming one.”

“What?!” whisper-yelled the two.

I couldn’t believe it then. The monsters I fought during the dungeon break last summer had the same black crystals and I found out they were being controlled by a demon. The situation in front of me was definitely out of the norm.

-How the hell did one even show up here?