Ralph dashed through the wasteland. The arid soil was smushed under his feet as he placed step after step, sprinting away from the monsters he had just provoked.

{Host!?! What about that experience of yours goddamn?}

“Shush it!“ Ralph snapped, still running. His eyes darted from left to right when the system noticed the oddity in his path. Instead of running away, Ralph was circling the battlefield. It was a useless realization, though, since the damned vulture was still tearing its lungs out right above their heads. It screamed and flapped its wings. The storm of feathers was swapped out as dozens of them stuck together and formed a lance. Easier to dodge.

Ralph jumped to his side, landed on his hands, and pushed himself into a forward roll. His back his the sandy soil below as his feet slammed against the ground and he stood upright. Before he could even stand properly, another lance of feathers made its way toward him. Ralph broke into a sprint, his narrowed eyes moving over the field. The rhino was recovering too, and the worm seemed greatly pissed.

“The damn bird needs to go down.“

{Well, DUH! What a fucking genius!}

“Disloyal bastard, quieten down.“ Ralph slowed down and inspected the terrain again, scanning every single contour in his path. “We'll shoot it down.“

{How? You don't have jack!}

The boy's golden eyes moved through the wastelands and settled on the sandy abomination slithering low against the ground. The snake, truly sly and cunning, waited for the others to fall before it pounced on them. “There's still someone who has a lot of energy, you know?“

{What—}

The system's world blurred as Ralph ran toward the snake. He kicked up exactly enough dust to let the blinded-from-one-eye vulture know of his position as he sped through the wastelands. Unsuspecting, the snake remained low, its gaze focused on the rabid rhino and the waning worm.

“KRAAA!“

A loud screech rapidly approaching took away the snake's attention like a freight truck would take a deer's. The sandsnake turned to see the vulture flying overhead with black blood dripping down its eye and to the ground. Right below the vulture, the human boy that had created this entire mess was running toward it.

Sand streamed down the snake's body as it raised its head. The snake wasted no time in confusion or threat, it knew the one it had to target. A slithering sound emerged from its tongue as the snake's mana spread into the ground.

A rumble spread through the earth.

And spikes of sharpened sand emerged from the ground along with drops of scarlet blood.

***

“Oh?“ one operator said, alerting all the teachers and the other operators in the camp. “Um, one kid is all out of mana…”

“What?! That is bad!“ Professor Keneally exclaimed. “Who is it? We have to take the drones to him?“

“The drones are too far away, there is no resonance… The name's… Ralph.“

“Ralph? Don't worry then.“ Claudio raised one eyebrow before shrugging the matter away and turning back to the screens. Don Brocious and Artie seemed to be of the same opinion as they ignored the operator. “That kid can run,” he said.

“Y-yes, the mana is rapidly filling up as well…” the operator said, shocked at the pace the blue bar on his screen filled up.

Professor Keneally and the other new additions were puzzled by their colleagues' cryptic behavior. Unable to hold in their curiosity about the trust the professors seemed to display, she brought up a question. “Who is this Ralph kid? What rank is he?“

“F-Ranked.“

***

The sandsnake's jaw dropped next to the ground. Ralph, completely unharmed, stood atop the tip of the sand spike with only one foot. The bottom of his boots was pierced by the sand, but it couldn't harm his skin that was covered with his mana.

“You bastard, can't you see the fucking vulture behind?“ Ralph said, clicking his tongue. Before the snake or the vulture could react, he leaped into the air and landed on the next spike, using the line of spikes as a path, he rushed toward the sandsnake as fast as he could.

The sandsnake could only watch as the boy approached right in front of it. He jumped off the last sand spike and appeared right in front of its eyes. It thought he would attack, but the boy came closer and closer with the vulture following right behind.

And then, he disappeared.

A strange sensation tickled the sandsnake's nose, then between its eyes, and then the top of its head. Something was running on its head. The sandsnake could see the vulture stopping halfway in its charge and gathering its half-gone feathers. It waited for the human on its head to slow down, near the eyes, then the nose, finally, the human tired and slowed down right above the snake's mouth. It could feel the human's entire body clinging to its face, his legs hitting against the snake's mouth as they dangled down.

“HISS!“

The snake's core thumped against its sand as the waves of magical energy coalesced at its forehead, right where the human hung. A ripple spread through its head.

At the same time, the angered vulture launched another lance made of feathers right at the snake's head. It was the vulture's chance to get the pesky bug-like human down, it did not care about the snake its rage, just like the snake did not notice the vulture's attack in its focus.

The lance closed in on the snake.

A small spike of sand formed below the human.

There was no stopping it now. A wave of magical energy burst in the air as the forces of two monsters emerged. A beam of sand spread out from the head of the snake. It coursed through the air, tearing the wind apart, going in the direction of the vulture.

Below the beam of sand, a sharp lance made of the vulture's weaponized feathers approached the snake at breakneck speed. Neither of them could react as their attacks collided with each other.

Standing on the back of the snake, Ralph eyed the two attacks as they passed by each other. The beam of sand was just nigh of the vulture's neck and the lance of feathers was about to clash into the snake's neck.

{Now!}

“[Wind Magic: Gale (E-)]”

A small breeze washed away from Ralph's hand and to the back of the snake. The breeze touched the sand of the monster.

And a storm appeared.

Ralph's hair blew wildly in the air as the gale he had produced turned into a stormy torrent of wind. The wind clashed against the back of the snake before the lance of feathers could even touch it, and like a storm, the wind blew away the mass of sand that made the snake's body. It shook and trembled as the cover of its self was removed and the magic core at its center was revealed to the world.

It was too late.

Two crashing sounds spread through the air, causing even the rhino and the worm to stop in their tracks.

The lance tore through the snake's magic core.

The vulture was knocked back and smashed to the ground by the beam of sand.

A cloud of dust rose in the air as two of the four monsters fell limp to the ground.

Ralph's feet tumbled with the sandy being below him disintegrating. He wobbled and jumped off the sand, falling to the ground with nimble feet.

“That's one down of four,” he said, ignoring the broken core of the snake.

{What happened to Dark being the worst awakening, host?}

Ralph casually walked past the dunes of sand and toward the fallen vulture. “It is the worst, just not in my hands.“

The system checked back on the skill Ralph had used.

{[Dark Disguise (E)] - Change the way people perceive you (+1 Stat for Dark Awakening)}

This simple skill that most people try to use to peek at someone's chest without them noticing when coupled with Ralph's S-Ranked Expertise and the +1 stat from Dark Awakening became something that could completely trick someone's senses and make them perceive things where they did not exist.

{And that dumb snake even used so much mana with you on its back… finding its core was a cinch.}

“Not everyone can do it. It takes knowledge.“

{Well, at least we aren't in trouble anymore, right? You have mana to take down the other two since you used magic, right?!}

“I used all my recovered mana again with that Gale,” Ralph said, he had finally approached the vulture and was inspecting its sand-laden body. “But that still wasn't as strong as Isabella's huh? Just how high is that bitch's expertise?“

Ralph walked up to the head of the monster and raised his foot above its beak. He nonchalantly turned his gaze around the terrain again as he brought his foot down.

“And that's two of four—”

Ralph's feet stopped just a hair away from the vulture.

Light blue hair cut short to reach the shoulder's fluttered in Ralph's gaze. The girl with eyes the same color as her hair had them open wide, but not as wide as her jaw that seemed as if it would pass through the ground and emerge on the other side of the world.

A chill ran down Ralph's back as he realized what had just happened. His jaw slid down as sweat dropped from his head like an open tap.

He was caught.

He was seen.

In front of him was Seraphina Exise's right hand and the one who was openly hostile to Kristina. Blaine Sothsfield had seen the F-Ranked knocking the shit out of 4 D-Ranked Monsters. Live.