My spirit animal is a F–Rank gecko-Chapter 37: The first special bond exam (23)

Jaster was sweating and huffing out of breath on the ground.

He had lost too much blood due to the branch that pierced through his skin.

At this point, the ground had been painted red by his blood.

Just then, Jaster smelled a corpse-like scent.

He looked behind him and saw the fog coming closer to him.

"Ah shit!"

Jaster knew he couldn’t do anything. He pulled Marcus closer to him and covered his nose.

"Don’t.... Die... Marcus..." His voice shaking, he buried his face into Marcus’s blazer, and soon enough the fog engulfed him whole.

Meanwhile, one of the student council members, Thomas, looked at the forest that was already covered by the mysterious fog.

Massive albatross wings rested behind him, their white feathers folding lazily against his blue cat sleepwear. He yawned, eyes half-lidded.

Thomas yawned, looking at the forest with his sleepy eyes.

"I guess... I was too late.. Jade’s hummingbird kept poking its beak at my window." His black hair swayed with the wind as he focused his eyes.

A soft cyan glow ignited within his chest.

His wings unfurled.

Feathers spread outward in a vast arc, growing and stretching until their shadow swallowed the treeline itself.

The air grew heavy. Leaves trembled. The ground quivered beneath the sheer scale of them.

"The police won’t reach the forest with all this smoke..." he muttered drowsily.

"I’ll clear the way."

Thomas moved his wings.

The world roared.

A hurricane-force gust exploded outward,

tearing through the forest with overwhelming force.

The fog shattered instantly, ripped apart by the violent wind.

Trees bent violently, branches snapping as the blast carved through the smoke like an invisible blade.

The thick haze scattered across the sky, shredded into nothing within seconds.

When the wind finally settled, the forest stood exposed, completely stripped of the poisonous mist.

Thomas folded his wings again, as if nothing had happened.

"Problem solved." He took out a walkie-talkie and turned it on.

"I cleared the way for you guys. Now go search for all the first years...."

The chief police officer on the other side nodded at Thomas’s voice.

"Copy that!"

She turned off the walkie-talkie and shouted at the police, paramedics, and firefighters to go inside the forest.

All of them entered the brutal Silver Forest that once was the first years’ special bond exam.

But now, it was a slaughterhouse for all the first years.

The police saw the gruesome bodies lying on the ground.

A girl had her mouth wide open, while all her blood was sucked out of her.

There were countless headless bodies everywhere on the forest ground.

One of the paramedics saw a girl with all of her hair pulled out and her mouth wide open—a perfect place for bugs to nurture their young.

He immediately vomited at the disgusting scene.

"Are you okay?" One of the police officers helped the paramedic get up.

He wiped his mouth. "Yeah.... It’s just everything is so gruesome... Who could have done all this to kids?"

He also wiped the tears from his eyes.

Just then, he spotted someone lying on the ground.

He went towards it and found Jaster, who was still covering Marcus’s nose with his hands,

with his head resting on Marcus’s chest.

The paramedic noticed the huge branch that had penetrated through Jaster’s thigh.

"EVERYONE, THERE’S AN INJURED CIVILIAN!"

Everyone rushed in to save Jaster and Marcus.

Jaster didn’t know this, but he had successfully survived the Silver Forest Massacre,

also saving a life with him. Because if it weren’t for Jaster, Marcus would have already been dead meat from the start.

And that concluded Jaster’s first special bond exam. It was definitely not how he expected his first exam would go,

but it definitely created a strong bond he’d made along the way.....

---

beep...

beep...

beep...

Jaster wiggled in his sleep. A steady beep echoed in his ears, pulling him back from the darkness.

His vision was still blurry, but the first thing Jaster saw was a clean white ceiling.

He kept blinking, trying to adjust to the lights.

He felt his hands itch and rubbed them, but noticed something came off from his hands.

He turned around, and medical equipment quickly met his eyes.

The heart monitor beeped constantly, and the saline needle that went into his hand had fallen off.

"Uhh.... Am I in a hospital?"

Jaster could barely speak before he coughed violently.

He tried to get up but noticed one of his legs felt numb.

Looking at his leg, he saw the one that was pierced by the branch had been heavily stitched up and bandaged, so much that he couldn’t even move it.

He tried to move his body so he could get up and rest on the headboard. He noticed he was now in a hospital gown.

Jaster scanned the room he was in.

It was a big hospital room, with a hologram TV on the wall and a wide window letting in all the sunlight.

There were also many chairs and a table by the TV. It felt more like a hotel than a hospital.

"The heck?" He noticed the call button on his side and pushed it.

Not even ten seconds went by before a nurse came into his room and went towards Jaster.

"Is there any problem, sir?" The nurse asked.

"Not really... But how long have I been out? And what happened?" He rubbed his head, trying to remember all the events that happened.

"Well...." The nurse pulled out her tablet.

"Let me quickly search your name first. What is your full name?"

"Adam—" Jaster immediately closed his mouth, and the nurse raised her eyebrows.

"I mean.... Jaster Barret..." The nurse nodded and told him to wait a few minutes.

Jaster couldn’t fully remember what happened that night.

He did remember that they were being attacked by the Broker, and he teamed up with Marcus to defeat Alex.

But after Marcus got knocked unconscious and Jaster was unable to move, he didn’t really remember anything after that.

"Ah ha! There it is." The woman looked at her tablet for a few more seconds and looked at Jaster.

"So... How long have I been sleeping?"

Jaster asked.

"One month!"