Chapter 154: Shadow Bears
"The only tier three wizard in the village is Noah…" Aur mused curiously. He had a hunch that this had something to do with William, but he couldn\'t care less about it.
Aur had already considered William as bait, someone he could manipulate to his desire.
"I should start hunting again."
Aur\'s crimson eyes glinted as he travelled around the area, looking for his new prey.
Soon, he could see a faint shadow of two huge figures in the distance, but Aur simply avoided them and went another way.
If one looked closely at the figures, they would see distinctive giant bears with a cross marking between their brows. Their brown pupils shimmered with an intelligent glint.
While Aur observed them, the two black bears also glanced back at him with a ferocious expression.
However, upon seeing Aur withdraw his gaze, they, too, turned away and continued on their way without looking back.
"That human is quite strong," the leading black bear opened its mouth and spoke in another language, its eyes drawn to the other bear. The second bear\'s mouth scrunched in amusement.
"Yes, but the three auras behind him were even stronger; they would have been able to erase you in an instant."
Hearing this, its face scrunched as if it had struck a chord in its heart, but it remained silent throughout their journey.
Seeing this, the bear behind it snickered with a smirk on its face.
"Shadow bears, huh," Aur mused to himself.
These animals had their own packs living in the wilderness. Although they weren\'t as strong as the village around here, they were very troublesome to deal with.
Even a baby shadow bear\'s sheer strength was equivalent to a wizard apprentice from birth, and their strength increased almost naturally.
An adult shadow bear could even be as strong as a tier two wizard. However, the two bears Aur encountered were relatively young, around the strength of early tier one wizards.
However, nature is impartial; although these shadow bears were powerful from birth, they rarely reproduced, causing their population to be extremely thin.
"The village would have wiped them out soon, but once they attacked, the forces would decrease, and the others would capitalise. That\'s why they are still alive till now," Aur had a thoughtful glint in his eyes.
The wilderness was always a mysterious place, just like those landlords who also had residence in the wilderness instead of inside the village.
It was still a mystery to him why they were in the wilderness. Instead of staying in the wilderness, they always acted mysteriously, and there weren\'t even records of how many landlords were there in total.
"William is also from the Steele family, one of the landlords." Aur\'s eyes narrowed as he casually punched a boar that was charging towards him.
His white hair fluttering by the cold wind, Aur\'s piercing crimson eyes seemed to contain the entire hell within.
Instantly, the boar was slammed into the ground with a thud meeting the snowy ground, its giant body trembling before it closed its rage-filled eyes wether it was dead or not.
"That should make it twenty," Aur thought as he swiftly dissected the boar and took the valuable organs from it.
However, suddenly he looked in a certain direction with a frown on his face. There lay a quiet, small building in the middle of the forest, in a dome structure with no door in sight.
"Isn\'t that the direction Noah and the other elders went?" Aur thought in contemplation; however, he eventually shook his head. "I don\'t care." He swiftly departed from the forest.
It had already been six hours since the competition started, and it was reaching its mark since there was no news of the competition being stopped.
While he was swiftly returning back from the wilderness, suddenly his eyes narrowed with his nose twitching.
"Stench of blood." Aur could make out some movement from a presence in front of him.
The dried leaves rustled as the sound of heavy breathing came closer and closer to him.
Suddenly, a man who was trembling with blood all over his body appeared. His eyes were widened with terror as he looked behind him, completely ignoring Aur as he walked past.
"Oh?" Aur looked at the man with a curious gaze.
The man paused upon hearing the voice of Aur, as if he was noticing him. He was wearing the badge of the academy, which showed "1-B."
"Wait, what are you doing here alone? Where is your group…?" the man muttered, his eyes still widened with terror, looking at the white-haired youth in front of him.
Aur just remained silent, patiently waiting for the man to get a hold of himself.
Finally, after a short time, the man calmed himself down with deep breaths. The blood on his body wasn\'t actually his.
"Wait, I think I have seen you before," the man said.
Aur just remained cold and completely unresponsive.
"White hair with black robes and huge, you must be Aur!" the man said with excitement.
Aur silently nodded, making the man\'s eyes twinkle.
"Come help us, we… we…," the man tried to speak, his voice hoarse with deep fear evident.
"We need your help, just come with me, please," he loudly spoke.
Aur just remained silent before he eventually turned around, leaving silently.
"Wait, where are you going? I said to help us," the man\'s expression twisted as he followed after him.
However, as he closed in on Aur, he could never reach him.
Aur soon left his vision, and almost like he was in another dimension, no matter how hard the man ran, Aur\'s fleeting back was all he could see, filled with helplessness.
"Wait… wait…" the man cried out, gathering all his strength, but as he was distracted, he stumbled upon a tree root, causing him to faceplant into the ground, adding despair to his predicament.