Alex did not know how long he had been asleep or had been unconscious. He remembered he had been released by the elf into the river and had fallen into the water, but the memories were still blurry, as if some fog was clouding his mind and keeping him from remembering everything.
"Argghhhhh!" Alex suddenly cried out in pain as he felt pain coursing through his body, his scream reverberating through the space and echoing back to him in waves.
Alex tried to open his eyes, but he was so weak that his eyelids kept dropping shut before he could pry them apart. With great effort, he finally managed to lift his eyelids, peering around to see where he was, and from the sensation beneath him, he knew he was lying on some kind of floor. He was at least sure that he was no longer in the water, but how he had gotten out of the water remained a mystery to him.
When Alex managed to open his eyes fully, he found himself lying on the hard ground just as he had suspected. Above him stretched a ceiling of solid rock and soil, and on all sides, walls of mud and earth rose up, studded with mana stones that shone with colorful twinkling lights. The glow from the stones filled the space, making the cave almost as bright as morning daylight.
After piecing things together, Alex realized he was in some kind of cave. With great effort and pain, he turned his head to the left and saw a small lake whose waters were not still but moving in gentle waves. Alex, who was close but not too close, saw the waves lap against his broken armor, which had been torn up on all sides.
"Aaaahhh!" Alex screamed out in pain again and crawled away from the lake, desperate to avoid the waves that threatened to touch his wounded body.
Desperately, with broken hands and legs, Alex rolled to his right side, struggling to maintain enough distance so that the lake's waves would not reach him.
Alex's body was covered with open wounds, and as he slowly regained consciousness and tried to examine himself, he was wracked with inexplicable pain. Water from the lake slipped through the gaps in his torn armor and touched his unhealed wounds, sending fresh agony coursing through him.
Alex bit his lower lip hard, trying not to dwell on just how broken his body truly was. Wounds were scattered everywhere, some still in the process of healing thanks to his dragon bloodline, but it was not enough, and his face was likely swollen beyond recognition. He could hardly move his hands and legs, and he had no idea what power he had called upon earlier just to put distance between himself and the lake, because now he found he could not even move his legs at all. His hands shook with the slightest effort, his fingers trembling and barely functioning, as if he had lost all sensation in them.
Alex was not someone to give up easily; he had to do his best. It was then, almost by chance, that he remembered the healing potion the Principal had given to every examinee.
Alex had stored the potion in his dimensional space. He knew he had to summon it, and even if he had to use his teeth, he would find a way to open the cork from the vial.
"Dimensional Space," Alex muttered in a barely audible voice, and a display of his dimensional space opened before him. With pain and anguish, Alex lifted his right hand, his trembling fingers barely cooperating as he tapped on the healing potion.
The healing potion immediately appeared in his left hand, his palm open wide to receive it. Just as he tried to grip the vial tightly, it slipped from his grasp and slid to the ground. Alex clenched his teeth and scrambled frantically with his left hand to search for the vial, and when his fingers finally closed around the glass bottle, he gripped it—not tightly, but enough that it would not escape his grasp again.
Just as Alex turned his head to the left to drink the potion, he saw the same one-eyed creature with bat-like wings hiding inconspicuously in the far top left corner of the cave. The creature floated in the air, its wings flapping almost silently, making only the faintest sound that Alex had completely missed until now.
Alex cursed himself for letting his guard down, but what could he have done even if he had known about the one-eyed creature before? He did not know what it was, having only seen it once before when he was carried by Lara Chronveil, and even then it had only caught his eye because he had happened to look up at the sky at that moment.
This time, too, the one-eyed creature did nothing but watch him with its huge, unblinking eye, as if it were there only to observe and not to interfere. Still, Alex froze, uncertain what to do, since he had no idea how powerful the creature might be, and in his current condition, he was in no shape to defend himself from any attack. Even a small blow could make him faint or, in the worst case, cause him to cough up blood.
***
Within the walls of Silverine Academy, in a large room where beds were lined up one after another, eliminated examinees lay sprawled out, each of them being examined for injuries that marked their bodies.
Nurses and healers rushed frantically through the room, tending to each examinee in turn, while beds that were vacated by those already cared for were immediately filled by a new rush of eliminated participants.
Amidst all this, at the center of the room stood a handsome man with long, flowing white hair and a pale, beautiful face reminiscent of a woman's. He had a lean, muscular build and looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. This was Toren Velkar, the principal of Silverine Academy.
In front of him, portals opened one after another, and from them came injured examinees—none unscathed, every one of them bearing wounds, whether small or grave. Each was lifted out of the ground and teleported to one of the empty beds by none other than Toren Velkar himself, whose face remained impassive and showed no emotion. Above the portal, a large holographic screen displayed all the battles taking place on the battlefield, and in one of the smaller side screens was Alex, gazing at the screen as if meeting Toren Velkar's eyes. It might have looked as though Alex was looking back at the principal, but Alex's expression was one of terror, as though he had been caught.
Suddenly, the door to the room swung open with force, and with hurried steps, the patriarch and matriarch of the Drakethorne grand ducal house entered, their faces etched with worry and tension.
"Where is Alex?" Shane shouted, his voice taut with stress. There was no trace of nobility in his stance or tone as he looked frantically over the beds, searching for Alex. He did not care about the looks that examinees or nurses gave him, and lines deepened on his forehead as he failed to find Alex even after scanning the room multiple times.
Before Shane could say anything, Sera asked, "Principal Toren, where is Alex? He is safe, right?" Her voice was filled with tension and worry, yet there was a note of respect for Toren Velkar. Toren himself had once taught Sera when she was a student at Silverine Academy.
Toren looked at the two with an amused expression. "You two are overly protective, aren't you?" he said, cupping his face in his right hand and tilting his head as he gazed at them with his white eyes. Seeing that Shane was not pleased with his remark, Toren decided not to make them worry further and, with a flick of his finger, caused the screen to appear before the pair.
Toren added, "Your son is still alive."
Shane and Sera both sighed, but there was no happiness in their faces as they seemed to realize the gravity of Alex's situation.
***
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