"Let's start the third round, shall we?" Kai looked at the big centipede in front of him.

"Scree!"

The centipede immediately charged at him. Kai took a deep breath as he saw the incoming centipede.

Since there were no obstacles, Kai avoided the centipede charge by dodging to the side. The centipede was going back into the ground again. But he wasn't in the same situation as before, as he needed to save Ayaka.

Kai could hear where the centipede would appear again.

Before the centipede came out of the ground, Kai turned around. He used the hole to track the centipede. Although Kai said it was hard to pinpoint the creature inside the ground, he could track them using the hole that led to the surface.

He could vaguely sense its position with his ears. It was hard to sense, especially in a difficult battle like before. But this time, he wasn't pressured by the situation.

The instant he turned his body around, the centipede also crawled out of the ground. The centipede immediately charged at him again, but Kai avoided it.

It was pretty easy when he had gotten used to it.

The centipede was using the same technique over and over again, and Kai avoided its charge every single time.

"Scree!" The centipede was infuriated by his action.

This time, the centipede didn't try to pummel him with its head. Instead, the centipede was trying to use its giant mouth to bite him.

Kai had been waiting for this.

The moment he saw the centipede charge toward him with its mouth open, he immediately made a magic circle.

"Oscillation Shield!"

The centipede bit his Oscillation Shield again. It couldn't destroy Kai's shield that easily, so the centipede changed its strategy.

The centipede then pushed him back with its large body. Even though it couldn't destroy Kai's shield, it could push him back to the big tree behind him.

"Kh!" Kai was trying to fight back. Unfortunately, his power was nowhere enough to push the centipede away. With its giant body, it generated even more power than the ape back then.

"Boom!"

"Ack!" Kai was pinned down to the tree. He started sweating as blood came out of his mouth. There was even a little crack on his shield.

His shield couldn't stand the powerful bite of the centipede for more than a few seconds. But it was enough for him as his objective had been achieved.

"Ayaka!" He shouted.

Ayaka, who was flying in the air, immediately dove down with her Fire Wings. But that wasn't all. There was a magic circle behind her spear.

It suddenly exploded, raising her speed even further. With that kind of speed, even her piercing power also increased.

"Boost!"

Ayaka aimed at the centipede's head. "Die!"

"Boom!"

With that high speed, the sound of her crashing on the centipede echoed throughout the forest.

"Scree!"

With her ambush, she managed to pierce the centipede's head completely.

The centipede tried to struggle with its last breath. Unfortunately, it still failed to break Kai's shield.

They finally killed the centipede. However, after killing that centipede, they didn't let their guard down. Especially Ayaka, as she didn't want to repeat her mistake over and over again.

She knew that with such a loud sound, the magical beasts nearby would hear it.

"Roar! Roar! Roar!" And just right after, the roars from countless magical beasts nearby filled the forest.

Ayaka immediately pulled out her spear and looked at Kai.

Kai nodded. "Follow me. We'll start clearing them one by one. There's no need to fly."

Because the majority of magical beasts gathered at the place where Ayaka used her explosion to locate the centipede, the magical beasts around this place didn't amount to too much. Kai wanted to take advantage of that and started killing the magical beasts to rack up some points.

Ayaka nodded her head.

"We'll engage them in close combat, but make sure you can use your magic at any moment," Kai said.

"Understood."

They started moving around and killed the magical beasts one by one. With both of their strength, not one magical beast could stand in their way, especially not with their power as F to D-rank magical beasts.

They racked up a lot of points from them before moving toward the place where the magical beasts gathered.

Kai could hear quite a large number of magical beasts near the hole they created to make the explosion, so he decided to go around and kill as many as possible to lessen their number.

Ayaka would be the main attacker, and Kai would use his Sound Insulation Room to make it more complete. After another two hours, they managed to kill another hundred magical beasts.

Kai was leading her around to kill as many magical beasts as possible, but as expected, their current score didn't come anywhere close to their previous one.

Kai and Ayaka were puzzled, trying to come up with a plan to get some more points. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to come up with a way to get more points other than trying hard.

Because they didn't experience the 'survival' time after six hours inside the simulation world, they didn't know that that was how other people were able to get so many points.

Kai and Ayaka kept trying until, at one point, they reached the time limit. They thought that they were going to be sent back after this survival hour ended.

"Haiz, we only got barely five hundred points. It's a shame that we can't even come close to our previous score even though we stayed in this place for six hours. Anyway, we've tried our best, so whatever the result may be, we can only accept it," Ayaka finally relented.

Kai nodded at her as he leaned on a tree. They were chatting while waiting for the time to end in a plain.

But when they thought the time had ended, Kai suddenly said in a surprised look, "What the heck is going on…"

"Kai?"

Kai suddenly picked up so many sounds at once. He could sense that all of them were magical beasts.

They suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and when he calculated their number, he just couldn't believe it.

There were around two hundred magical beasts suddenly appearing around them. And he didn't know why, but the magical beasts were charging toward their position.

"We have an emergency. We need to fly, now!" Kai shouted.

"Roar! Roar!"

"Aoo—!"

Finally, numerous roars and howls immediately filled the entire forest. Even Ayaka could hear the roars and howls coming from nearby. The beasts were moving toward their position.

"Fire Wings!" Ayaka immediately used her skill.

"Roar!" The first monster that arrived was a huge boar. It was a two-meter tall boar.

Kai immediately grabbed Ayaka's hand as she immediately activated her Fire Wings and flew to the sky.

They could see a tremendous number of magical beasts moving toward their position. And after they flew to the sky, the magical beasts looked at them.

Ayaka tried to flee a little bit, but the magical beasts turned back and chased them.

"Use your 'Boost' to go to that small hill. Although the hill isn't that tall and steep, we can take advantage of it to kill these magical beasts by using the height advantage," Kai pointed to a nearby hill.

Just as he said, the hill's height was only around fifty meters, and it was not that steep to restrict the magical beasts' movement. But at the very least, they would gain a slight advantage in fighting the magical beasts.

Kai made this decision after he confirmed that the magical beasts were somehow able to know where they were and would continue to chase them. Because of that, he decided to confront the magical beasts.

"It's killing time. We'll be able to get quite some points from this. Drop me at the bottom of the hill and cover me from the top with your skill," Kai instructed.

"But you'll be swarmed by the magical beasts."

"I'll keep retreating as I kill the magical beasts, and by using the terrain advantage, they won't be able to swarm me that easily. Your Scarlet Explosion will be our main firepower here.

"Although we can just keep flying around while killing these magical beasts, I doubt your magic power will be able to hold on. After all, we've been flying for quite a while."

"I can kill all of them from the sky…" Ayaka paused a little, "Probably."

She had used around half of her magic power, and Kai should also be in a similar state. If she kept flying like this while bombarding them with her magic, she would be exhausted before she knew it.

Ayaka knew about that, so she didn't have any reason to reject Kai's suggestion.

"All right, but… are you sure you can hold them off—" Before she could finish her words, she suddenly felt something dark from Kai. She thought, 'That… is that killing intent?'

She was worried about him. She remembered the last time they got swarmed like this. Kai was forced to use that double-edged skill. She didn't want him to use that again. Although he had promised her not to use that skill, in this situation, she couldn't help but picture it happening.

Kai was still focused on the magical beasts, but he knew from the change of her heartbeat that she was worried about him, and the reason for her worries was obvious.

"Don't worry. I promised you, and I'm not someone who will break my promise that easily. But since we're fighting so many magical beasts, it seems that I'll need to get serious a little bit," Kai said as he let out a new kind of fierceness.

Ayaka was startled when she saw this. She felt like she was looking at a ferocious beast instead of Kai.

She ultimately agreed to let Kai fight alone. She would support him as much as she could.

She dropped Kai on the bottom of the hill and immediately flew to the top. Because she used her 'Boost' for them to escape, there was still a bit of distance from the magical beasts.

Kai clenched his swords tightly as his eyes became sharp.