CHAPTER 36: THE UPS AND DOWNS STRATEGY

On a more serious note, surviving here was all that mattered.

Fighting an elemental beast and strategising on how to gather these treasures was gonna be a tough task that wasn’t even worth it.

Imagine a beastless student walking out of the dungeon with treasures that could only be found in a level 2 dungeon!

Jayden couldn’t risk attracting suspicious attention, especially from Mr Tony.

Well that was if he was good enough to survive this beast

First, the dense mana in the air made sensing other mana spikes almost impossible, which would make dogging the traps difficult while trying to close on the beast.

On the contrary, his rank wasn’t high enough for a range fight.

"Argh!" Jayden grinned, he had only the narrow path on both sides to run until he eventually got smashed.

And the beast was placed right in the centre of the traps, and it seemed to be aware.

The beast stamped a foot to the ground and two pillars of earth jutted up.

It spun around with its claws outstretched, slicing both pillars into countless plate-sized earth.

Jayden tensed, his grip tightening on the dagger.

Diced earth began shooting at him. He bent low, running to the side while striking the plait-shaped earth that came right for him.

But his speed wasn’t gonna hold up for too long.

He ran up the wall at the end of the chamber and blasted himself backwards, into the air with wind, concentrated around his feet, but the earth kept following him, some smashing straight into the wall and others barely deflected by Jayden.

Jayden landed on the ground, deflecting more earth before he began running again, and the beast was doing well at keeping his shots incoming.

’If this continues, Jayden!" Draco rasped in Jayden’s mind.

"Yeah, I know," Jayden barely dodged one of the earth that gazed his face, "we’re gonna be dead weight, but I promise I’ll figure out something before my stamina runs out."

Jayden gathered force and wind in his foot and jumped into a back flip, dodging all the earth bullets.

But before the Jurraic Mole could adjust its target, Jayden stepped on a trap trigger block with horizontal markings.

He barely felt the mana spikes from the walls to his right where countless blades shot out of the wall.

They were fast and packed with enough power to shatter each earth shot at Jayden.

The blades defended Jayden while allowing him to catch his breath and calculate.

Just like the traps in the level one dungeon, the blades stopped shooting after five seconds and Jayden picked up his dodging pace again.

But this time, he didn’t sign up for being chased to and fro; he charged right at the Mole, only stepping on trap triggers with vertical markings, the type that almost smashed him to the dungeon’s roof minutes ago.

Jayden jumped off the rising pillars of earth to another trap trigger with vertical markings.

With his continuous ups and downs, the Mole Earth bullets were left behind, either shattering the rising pillars, or blowing past his head.

Little by little he was approaching the Mole, but this time, he did jump off the pillar.

His legs trembled at the insane height, and the pillar threatened to fall under countless shots from the Mole.

Moles usually have long hair covering their eyes, so they depend more on vibration than on sight to note their environment.

Not to mention, the limit to which it could tilt its gaze was usually about thirty-five to forty degrees.

But let’s hope mana evolution had not increased that because Jayden had gambled his life on that, coming right for the Mole at ninety degrees skywards.

He jumped off just before the pillar slammed into the roof, diving at the speed of gravity with a firm grip on the dagger

The beast turned skywards; it felt completely lost as to where Jayden was, since there were no vibrations in the earth, and those short-sighted eyes it had to now rely on were covered by its own hair.

Jayden clenched his teeth as the beast kept on revealing its terrifying face, pushing its head higher and higher until the hair fell out of its eyes.

"What? It can look ninety degrees upwards?" Jayden panicked mid-air while the beast shot more earth bullets at Jayden.

Checkmate.

Jayden’s eyes shut tight, at least all he could so now was welcome the pain.

BOOM.

’What just happened?’ He reluctantly opened one eye.

And miraculously, the mole was lying flat to the ground, unprotected.

It happened to be that with its robust nature, it couldn’t keep its gaze fixed to the sky and, at the same time, maintain its balance.

Jayden let out that kinda relieved sound you make when entering a warm bathtub.

Having found his resolve, he gripped the dagger and aimed right for the Mole’s head.

"Alright, Alright. That’s enough!" The last voice Jayden wanted to hear at this moment rang out.

His heart skipped, and he immediately twisted mid-air to turn to the voice source while leaving the Mole lying flat behind him.

"Were you planning on killing that Mole? It cost the school a lot, you know!"

Jayden clenched his teeth, ’Mr. Tony’, both he and Draco rasped in thoughts.’

The professor began applauding him slowly.

"For a beastless boy, I’m impressed" the professor smiled.

Jayden swallowed hard, ’When the fuck did he get here? Did he see me use the elements?’

"Your footwork easily matches that of year three students, and that’s a great physique you’ve got there, judging from those jumps. And are you on drugs? Because that courage was something else, didn’t you for one second think what would happen if you slipped off those pillars?"

Jayden stood straight with a nervous smile while stretching his neck.

Even if the professor was watching from the start, he might not have been able to see Jayden use his wind elements, because wind is invisible.

But his physical agility was no play. No ordinary human would land properly after jumping almost six floors without breaking some bones or even moulting their skin, and that had surely planted suspicion in the professor who wouldn’t fail to notice.

From now onwards, he would probably be watched closely.

"You might wanna get away from that beast. Practicals are over." The professor warned.

"Em... Sir, mind if I pick up some things before we leave?"

The professor looked at Jayden for a moment before smiling, "Sure, I’ll cover you."