CHAPTER 61: CHAPTER 60: AN EXTREMELY BRUTAL TRAINING

Oliver was running as fast as he could, his breath broken and his chest rising and falling at a brutally rapid pace without stopping.

With every step, his feet sank deeper into the mud, and every branch that struck him doubled his sense of danger.

Right behind him, that massive creature was charging, its eyes glowing red.

It looked like a wild boar, but its size was far larger, its body covered with tangled rough hair, its tusks long, and its skin a pale grayish color.

The sound of its growl was getting closer and closer.

It almost reached Oliver, and when it thrust its head forward as if preparing to impale him with its tusks, a sharp gunshot thundered through the forest.

A crack split the silence of the night. The bullet pierced the creature’s forehead, and it collapsed to the ground, rolling a bit before stopping completely.

Oliver trembled as he stared at the corpse. He did not comprehend what had happened until he saw the masked man emerging from between the trees, wiping the barrel of his gun with his hand.

Oliver shouted the moment the man approached, his voice filled with both anger and panic.

"Are you trying to kill me?"

The masked man rotated the cylinder of his gun, then shrugged.

"You are the one who asked me to teach you how to use Mythical Creatures Hunter magic, aren’t you?"

Oliver, sitting on the ground from exhaustion, raised his head with difficulty.

"Yes, I asked you that. I didn’t ask you to kill me."

The masked man loosened his grip on the gun and slid it back into his belt.

"You should have been able to use the magic years ago. And since you failed, you have no choice but to be placed in real danger. That is the price."

Oliver lifted his hand in frustration as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Couldn’t you find a better way?"

"Do you want a safe way to be in danger?"

"Yes, if possible."

The masked man lowered his arm and brushed the dust off his hat.

"In that case, you should stop trying to learn Mythical Creatures Hunter magic immediately and live without any power. That is the safest option."

Oliver jumped to his feet instantly, trying to hide the exhaustion on his face.

"No, no, I didn’t mean that. Are we going to look for another creature now?"

The masked man adjusted his hat, then turned his back.

"Yes, that is exactly what we are going to do."

The two moved between the trees and gradually disappeared.

Behind them, behind a row of dense shrubs, the sage and Aria were watching.

The sage was trying to see through the branches and darkness. He kept raising his head then lowering it, changing the angle of his view in every direction.

"Did they leave?" he whispered.

Aria, who had been staring at Oliver and the masked man until they vanished beyond the horizon, answered without shifting her gaze.

"Yes, they are gone now."

They exchanged a brief look. Their delay in returning was unsettling for both of them.

The sage was worried about Oliver. Aria’s fear was completely different.

She feared that the masked man would kill Oliver, then appear afterward to kill her as well.

But what she had just witnessed eased a large part of her terror.

She had seen how the masked man intentionally pushed Oliver to the edge in order to awaken the Mythical Creatures Hunter magic inside him.

"Now I understand..." she whispered.

Inside her, as the picture became clearer, her belief grew far stronger than before.

She struck her hand against the tree.

"Yes, that is exactly what a father does when he pushes his son to unleash his true power."

The sage gave Aria a short look.

"What exactly are you talking about?"

Aria turned to him.

"We don’t have time to explain. We need to follow them."

She pulled the sage behind her as she sneaked after the masked man and Oliver.

...

The masked man was literally throwing Oliver toward the creatures each time, tossing him at them as if he were throwing a stone into a still pond just to watch how the water would move.

Oliver, who had no time to catch his breath, ran in every direction possible, barely dodging massive tusks lunging at him from within the darkness.

The creatures looked identical, huge masses of flesh with sharp tusks and glowing eyes, but their sizes differed, and so did their speed.

Some of them were slow, while others were extremely fast. And Oliver was running and slipping and jumping and falling then getting back up again to run.

From afar, the masked man watched him, leaning against the trunk of a tree, his left hand in his pocket.

He smiled faintly behind the cloth covering his face when he saw Oliver barely escape a sideways attack.

But that smile lived only for a moment.

The sight of Oliver running brought back old images to the masked man. Images he had tried to bury, and faces he no longer wanted to remember.

For his sake and for the sake of the one who was already gone.

He raised his gun and fired at the creature that was about to tear Oliver apart.

The creature fell instantly, and the masked man walked toward Oliver, stopping in front of him and looking down at him.

"Kid, what exactly is your problem?"

Oliver, lying on the ground and gasping violently, lifted his head in exhaustion and anger at the same time.

"What do you mean? I’m doing everything I can. You hear me? Everything."

"If that is everything you have, it is not enough."

Oliver threw his hands up in frustration.

"And what do you want me to do? Let the monsters kill me?"

"You know what? That might be an excellent idea."

"What?"

The masked man bent down, grabbed Oliver’s coat collar, and easily lifted him off the ground.

Oliver struggled, shouting, "You’re not actually thinking of letting these creatures kill me, right?"

The masked man did not answer. Oliver raised his voice in panic.

"Right?"

...

Oliver ended up thrown in front of another creature, the same type, but faster and far more savage.

The moment Oliver stood up, the creature charged at him from between the trees.

He had no chance to catch his breath. He ran again, panting and stumbling once more.

The creature was closer than ever. So close that Oliver felt the heat of its breath on his back.

He waited for the masked man’s gunshot.

But the masked man stood far away, half of his body hidden behind the shrubs, watching without raising his gun.

Without moving at all.

"Are you kidding me?" Oliver screamed as he threw himself sideways with all the strength he had left.

Luckily, he barely veered off the creature’s path in time.

The creature crashed into a massive tree, its horns buried deep in the trunk.

Oliver collapsed on the ground, exhaling a long breath.

But the creature did not stay stuck for long.

The tree soon cracked under the force of its horns, and the creature turned toward Oliver and charged again.

At that moment, Oliver realized one thing only. There would be no gunshot saving him this time.