Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 48—Reckoning.

Behind Cole was the second-year student; he seemed to have been attracted by the sound of the explosion.

"No no, not now, not in a situation like this," Cole thought.

He looked down at his mangled arm that had turned slightly purple and then behind him.

Behind him, the second-year student stood just like Cain did. Trying to exude an aura of superiority.

"You caused me to lose my chance to redeem myself, leaving me just at the edge of failing out."

"Do you know what is at stake? Do you know what would happen if I left this academy?" The student rambled.

"The Elder’s presence has always been on you throughout your activities, keeping me at bay."

"But right now it is just you and me." The student said with a deranged expression.

Cole at his full power wouldn’t be too worried by his opponent as long as he hadn’t reached the Awakened Level.

But the current him was in no condition to fight in any way.

He decided to do the only logical thing at that point.

Run.

He didn’t wait. He didn’t reply. He didn’t even get distracted. He just turned around and ran.

He ran as fast he could with his injured body, which wasn’t very fast.

The Second-year student was really shocked by the turn of events. He couldn’t just make out what was going on.

He didn’t want to wait till he understood, instead chasing after Cole with everything he had.

He needed as many Academic Points as he could get on this test, so he had grown slightly ferocious.

Making sure no student left their encounter with him unscathed.

"You are next," While still sprinting.

Cole tried using the terrain to his advantage, turning in awkward directions and also weaving around obstacles. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The student behind him wasn’t like Cole at all; he bulldozed through everything, producing a clear path.

What the student didn’t notice was that Cole was moving weirdly.

Instead of running in a straight line as fast as he could, he was making short, almost imperceptible turns.

The chase seemed like it would be extending for a while as none of them appeared to be ready to slow down or stop.

The second-year student knew better than to be blindly chasing, though.

He began using his abilities and creating earth pillars directly under Cole just so he could disrupt his rhythm or even completely stop him.

With the two of them moving at that speed, it was very difficult for any of the attacks to actually work, but he kept on trying just in case.

He deeply regretted not having an ability better suited for a situation like this, but he could only accept.

After a while, Cole began feeling a kind of peace of mind. The series of trees flashing by them becomes more and more familiar.

"We are close," Cole thought.

He is currently back in the area where he has fought the Life beast.

Cole knew he couldn’t outrun his enemy for long, so he did the last thing he could think of.

He decided to use one of his enemies to take out one. As time passed, they inched closer to the exact battlefield, and Cole began preparing the last part of his plan.

He activated flaming fist again and started destroying trees in his path extra loudly.

Each of you attacks, resulting in a Bang sound resonating everywhere.

Roooarr!

They suddenly heard from somewhere, somewhere close to their current location.

Cole, who was already prepared for that moment, immediately activated the ability.

After the loading time was completed, Cole blitzed across the forest for a short while before slowing.

He did it once more, further widening the gap.

At that moment, the beast had already arrived. It saw Cole again, but he was already quite far away, but he noticed the second-year student very close.

That immediately resulted in some confrontation, and in no time a battle erupted.

It results, only to be confirmed in the future.

Cole left all of those behind and decided to lay low for a while. He had been in multiple battles and a chase in the span of a day, which made things very weird.

After moving a safe distance away from anywhere near the Life beast. Cole decided to stay and rest somewhere.

While he leaned to rest, he was thinking back to the events of the battle.

"Another method of utilizing the Kinetic Acceleration had arisen swiftly from that battle," Cole said.

"Can the same actually happen with the Flaming Fist?" he questioned.

He himself finally came to a conclusion. It was probably not possible due to the core behind Flaming fist.

Being a 1-star ability, it didn’t really have any complex mechanism; that’s why it was so easy for Cole to understand and record it.

He also thought back to what he experienced when he utilized the Eyes of Scrutiny.

But this time, he couldn’t come to a conclusion. No answer he could think of could satisfy the conditions he observed.

"I need to keep heading to the library, but firstly I need to find a way to heal this injury as soon as possible."

Having no medicine that could treat his injury. Cole could only resort to the only way he knew to heal, and that was cultivation.

He switched to cultivation and began absorbing Life energy. It only seemed to alleviate the pain in his hand but not actually heal it.

Still trying to hold on to hope, Cole continued to absorb Life energy expecting some heavenly blessing.

The sun moved lower and lower towards the horizon, but Cole’s hand didn’t heal at all.

"This isn’t working; the arm is too damaged, and passive healing alone won’t be enough."

"But how do I take care of this then?"

Boom!

The air suddenly rushed outward, the tall trees leaning away in unnatural ways.

Cole hurried to his feet while staring straight at the direction of the explosion.

"What again? Can’t I just have some peace?"