178 I Couldn't Care Less

"In case you have not noticed, for all intents and purposes, I am blind! So I don't know where it is, obviously! The Kiryn is not making any noise either which is one of its specialties. Is it still moving towards us?"

"Why in the world are you still blindfolded?! Take the d*mn thing off already and help me defeat this thing!"

"Is it moving towards us? Please answer the question!"

"No! It's just watching us from atop the trees. But it looks like it could pounce any time now. So take off the f*cking blindfold and fight!" Far past holding to her etiquette training, Cherell could not prevent the curses from running out of her mouth.

"I refuse to fail because you are stupid and ignorant! We just need to work together, okay?" Greyson's angered reached a peak as he snapped at her before calming down. He still needed her help, so he could only ignore her mistakes and focus on what could be done in the present. He could easily solve the situation without the blindfold, but he really felt that failing the test this way was so dissatisfying. Why did the Duke have to pair him with this awful woman? From what he has heard, Cherell was one of the oldest of the representatives and was already in her late-30s. She had lived more than double the time he had, but she could only act like someone half his age. Did she not live her life in vain?! He could only wonder how in the world she managed to live this long and reach her level. 

"You!..." Cherell strongly wished to refute him, but she couldn't help but hold her tongue. She truly was the cause of the situations, so what more could she possibly say?

"Now, listen to me. Do you have some sort of scented perfume on you? Or just anything that would release a strong smell?" Greyson just had to hope that she had a space magic tool. She obviously was not carrying anything with her.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Yes or no?" 

"Yes!"

"Give it to me!" He quickly commanded.

"But... this was a limited..."

"Are you really quibbling at this point?!" Greyson growled.

Unwilling, Cherell pouted and brought out a vial of perfume. She walked over and placed it into Greyson's hand. 

"Alright, now go far away and hide somewhere. I can't pay attention to protecting you, so protect yourself."

"What are you going to do?" Cherell couldn't help but ask.

"Something really dumb and risky. It would be right up your alley." He laughed dryly in response. 

Cherell response was slightly delayed before she stomped her feet and quickly ran. Who was she kidding? She was not going to even stay around to watch. This was her chance to escape. She did not actually care what would happen to Greyson. Although she was not fast, she still managed to get further and further away. 

Greyson had summoned that same arrow from before that still smelled of the blood of the young Kiryn. He knew that this would definitely anger the adult one around him somewhere. He needed it to confront him head-on. Kiryns were generally cautious beasts and did not attack with full force. They instead stayed hidden and tried to end the fight with one hard hit. Partly, because they liked to play with their prey, and partly because their forte was stealth. He could not continue to fight blind if he continued to be unable to smell or hear the Kiryn as it moved. 

He could feel the silence around him that caused goosebumps from tension arise on his skin. Readying himself, he activated his dragon bloodline. The pure white scales appeared throughout his skin across his whole body. His body was taut at the ready to react. Just when he felt impatient, he felt a cold breath near his back. Before he could even shiver, he twisted his body and threw the perfume in his hand. At the same time, he felt a sharp claw rake against his left arm and torso. The scales cracked under the pressure and his body shot sideways into the trees. Trunk snapping under his weight, Greyson spit out a little blood as he felt an injury to his ribs. Although the scales broke most of the impact, it was inevitable that taking a direct hit would still cause damage. However, instead of frowning, Greyson laughed in relief.

Plan success!

Now, he could sniff out the pungent smell of perfume. While he could not identify exactly what smell it came from, it was sweet and fruity and stood out immensely in this forest. It seemed like such a small vial, yet it carried such a strong fragrance. He thought his plan would only result in a faint smell that could stand as a marker, but it was better than he imagined.

While he was celebrating, he could hear a low growl and roar. Even more than him, the Kiryn was probably extremely bothered by the new smell on its body. Magic beasts in general usually had strong senses of smell, but the Kiryns were stealthy hunters. They were especially sensitive to their own scent and the scent of prey.

Not wanting to give the Kiryn a chance to recover from its surprise, Greyson quickly gather lightning and fire mana in his palm and shot out an attack in the direction he could smell. Their was an explosion and a pained yelp. He did not let up and continue to attack with all that he could pull together quickly. Too large of an attack would take too much time to gather mana for and allow the Kiryn to escape. Plus, the more it moved around, the more the scent would spread to its surroundings. Then, Greyson would get confused by the overwhelming smell from all sides.

When he finally did not hear any more noise, Greyson finally stopped his rain of attacks. He gasped for breath as he had exerted himself to cast that many spells in rapid sequence. 

"Cherell! Cherell, where are you? Did I defeat it? Can you see?" Shouting out loudly, Greyson tried to get her to approach once again. She had hid, but she should still be close enough to hear him, right? However, to his surprise, silence was his only answer. Furrowing his brows, he tried to shout to her again, but once again received no response.

"Did she actually f*cking run away?!" Although his opinion of Cherell was already low, she truly managed to make him reevaluate her. Was he not fighting the Kiryn so that they could both pass? He did not even ask her to help him, yet she actually dared to run away to leave him alone! 

*ROAR!*

In the midst of his distraction, he could barely react in time. Follow a final roar, the Kiryn charged with a fierce ice claw spell. Greyson managed to get a weak wood shield up using the trees around him. However, it only took off some of the edge. He put up both his arms in front of his chest to block, so they took the brunt of the attack. He felt the scales split and crack and the sharp claws ripped through his arms and cut into his lower abdomen. Puking up a mouthful of blood, Greyson grit his teeth and grunted in pain. It seemed the Kiryn had been fatally injured, though, and fell on top of Greyson without moving. Sensing that the Kiryn on top of him was not breathing, Greyson sighed in relief. 

The weight on top of him was truly unbearable. Inhaling short breaths, he could not get his chest to rise to far underneath the Kiryn. He did not have any strength in his arms at this point, so he could not push it off of him. Trying to calm himself down, Greyson decided he did not have any other choice but to recover in this position. Closing his eyes, he started bring in light element spirits around into his body turning into a stream of mana. His cuts and broken bones healed slowly. As the day started to darken, he was still stuck in the same position waiting for his wounds to recuperate. Another day had been wasted and he had yet to reach their goal. At this point, Greyson had resigned himself to the fact that he would probably end up failing. He swore that the next time he saw Cherell he would beat her into the ground, girl or not. He was barely keeping his thoughts from planning to kill her.

Shivering and teeth chattering from the snow melting and seeping into his clothes, Greyson could feel his exhaustion. Under normal circumstances, the cold would have no effect on him, but he was so hurt now that his mana and dragon bloodline could not protect him. Both were working in tandem to fix his injuries.

After a couple more hours, Greyson could feel the strength return to his arms. Pushing with both his arms and legs, he huffed with effort as the Kiryn slowly lifted off of him. With one final effort, the beast's body fell to the side at long last. Immediate relief filled his body as he inhaled deeply filling his lungs. He kept lying there exhausted. All his mana had gone to healing his arms, that he did not have any left in store. Even the meditation did not help him restore mana but instead went straight to healing as well. Shivering, he brought his aching body into a sitting position and began to meditate once again. 

The minute the mana began to flow through his veins, his body began to heat up once again. A sigh of comfort escaped his mouth. In the midst of his recovery, he finally heard the snow crunching near him as someone walked closer. 

"You're alive? You managed to defeat it? Ugh... why do you smell as if you dumped my perfume on you?" When he heard that familiar voice, Greyson could not help but grind his teeth in anger. However, he was still weak, so he focused on recovering. He did not even deign to answer her at this point. 

"Hello? Are you alive? I know you are because I can feel the mana gathering." Cherell continued to both him.

"I have to wonder if I'm truly the blindfolded one. Clearly, I'm injured. So just shut up and wait for me." Greyson had no patience or politeness left in him. 

His words seemed to work for once, as he no longer heard her annoying voice buzzing around his ears. 

Their silence continued until the sun began to set and the sky grew dark. Both of them were silent as they both knew that they only had one morning left to try to pass the test.

"Are we going to try to hunt in the morning?" Cherell finally broke the silence.

"Yes, we are getting up at the break of dawn and working until the very last moment. You better work hard if you don't want to be punished by the Duke."

...

And they did just that. However, it was to no avail. They only managed to kill and catch six at the end. Greyson's face did not change expression the entire time. Cherell could not tell if he was angry or not, but she still felt afraid of his brooding.

The two finally made it back to the edge of the forest where the rest of the representatives were waiting. 

"Greyson, you look terrible, just what happened?" Aphina spoke out in shock. 

Truly, Greyson changed his clothes, but not all the bruises had healed yet. He did not want to waste his mana on healing flesh wounds. He just needed to be able to hunt.

"A lot." He just sighed.

"Well, you all can take off the blindfolds now." The Duke announced.

As if finally freed, the four of them ripped off the blindfolds. The first thing Greyson did was glare dagger at Cherell. 

"I already know the results, but I shall announce them here. All groups have passed except from the Greyson-Cherell pair!"

The seven other pairs of eyes all turned to look at Greyson and Cherell. Aphina and Braiden held a special amount of pity in their eyes.

"I accept whatever penalty. You can even add on an additional punishment." Greyson cooly responded.

"Additional punishment for what?" Aphina interrupted in confusion. 

However, Greyson did not answer her. Instead, he turned towards Cherell and immediately acted. Before Cherell could respond, he sent her flying with a flaming kick to the torso. She screeched in pain and spit up blood.

"What... are you doing?!" She managed to squeeze out amidst the pain.

"What I have been dying to do since the beginning!" He sneered before sending another fireball at her. He limited himself to the fire element because he didn't want to kill her. Only the fire element would do less damage even if he hit her directly.

"You only know how to bully women, you brute!"

"Please, then I could say that you only know how to rely on children, you imbecile. A blind one at that. Plus, if you are really going to join us in the competition, you need to know how to fight and not just hide behind the stronger ones. Who knows if the enemies will care if you're a woman or not? I know I sure don't care. Usually, they only go easy on the pretty ones, so you are pretty much doomed anyway." As if he was finally exhaling the fire he was holding inside, Greyson could feel the anger dissipate. He beat her down into the ground again with one last fireball before stopping. He turned to the Duke, instead.

"Instructor, if you wish to punish me for attacking a teammate, I will accept it." He could not care less about punishment or penalties. He was just happy to finally teach her a lesson. 

The Duke looked at him for a moment with his brow raised with a hint of smile visible.

"Well then I will now announce your punishments: 

Cherell, you will go to the criminal fighting arena. You must fight 5 death row criminals of the same level as you.

Greyson, you will have extra training with me every day at the crack of dawn."

The moment he finished, everyone grew silent. The other representatives couldn't help but wonder: what exactly had Cherell done to piss off the Instructor so badly?