The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 253: BEAST & BLADE
Chapter 248: Beast & Blade
The transition from the Ruins to the Jungle was not gentle. It was like stepping out of a tomb and into a stomach.
The cool, dusty air of the forgotten city vanished, replaced instantly by a wall of humidity so thick it felt like breathing soup. The scent of ozone and gunpowder was scrubbed away, overtaken by the cloying smell of rotting vegetation, wet mulch, and blooming flowers that smelled suspiciously like raw meat.
[Biome Shift Complete: The Verdant Labyrinth]
[Environmental Effect: Dense Canopy]
[Warning: Visibility reduced by 60%. Audio cues dampened by organic interference.]
"I hate this," Varkas grumbled, his heavy boots squelching into mud that was ankle-deep. "Give me stone. Give me sand. But this... this soup? It’s unnatural."
He wasn’t wrong. The trees here weren’t normal oaks or pines. They were twisting, spiraling columns of wood that shot up three hundred feet, their leaves interlocking to block out the artificial sun. The light that filtered down was a sickly, bioluminescent green.
"Keep the formation tight," Arthur ordered, slicing a hanging vine with Excalibur. The blade hummed, searing the plant matter instantly. "The Verdant Beastbound Academy is here. This is their home turf."
I adjusted my glasses, wiping the condensation off the lenses.
[Map Analysis: Sector 3]
[Terrain: High Density Flora]
[Threat Assessment: Ambush Likely]
"Seraphina, eyes up," Leon called out, though he kept his voice low.
"I can’t see anything," our ranger replied from the branch above us. Her voice crackled with static over the comms. " The canopy is too thick. I’m effectively blind past twenty meters."
"Stay close then," Arthur said. "Wilson, any readings?"
I scanned the surroundings. My [Quantum Analysis] was struggling. The mana density here was chaotic, pulsing with life energy that masked individual signatures. It was like trying to find a specific drop of water in a rainstorm.
However, math doesn’t lie.
I looked at the ferns to our left. They were swaying. Not from wind—there was no wind down here—but against the natural grain of the plant stalks.
"Movement," I whispered. "Nine o’clock. Low to the ground."
"I don’t see anything," Varkas said, raising his massive tower shield.
"Because they’re camouflaged," I hissed. "Multiple contacts. Fast."
Before Arthur could give an order, the jungle screamed.
It wasn’t a roar. It was a high-pitched, chittering screech that vibrated in our teeth.
"Ambush!" Leon shouted, his white flames igniting to push back the shadows.
From the dense foliage, shadows detached themselves. They were blurs of green and brown scales, moving with a fluidity that defied physics.
[Entity Detected: Verdant Stalker (Modified Raptor)]
[Rank: C+ (Pack Bonus Active)]
There were six of them. They were the size of motorcycles, bipeds with sickle-shaped claws on their feet and jaws lined with serrated fangs. But these weren’t just animals. Glowing runes were etched into their scales, pulsing with acceleration magic.
"Hold the line!" Arthur commanded.
He stepped forward, swinging his sword in a horizontal arc. A wave of golden energy slashed out, cutting down three trees instantly.
But the raptors didn’t engage him. They were smart. They knew who the apex predator was, and they avoided him.
Instead, they flanked.
"Varkas, left!" I yelled.
Varkas turned, slamming his shield down. [Earth Spikes] erupted from the mud, creating a jagged barrier of stone.
It was a good reaction. Against a human opponent, it would have been perfect.
But the Verdant Stalkers didn’t stop. They didn’t even slow down. They ran up the vertical trunks of the trees, defying gravity with mana-enhanced claws, and vaulted over Varkas’s wall.
"What—" Varkas gasped.
Three of the beasts landed inside his guard.
"Get off!" Varkas roared. His armor was heavy, plate mail designed to stop siege weapons. But these beasts were fast. They swarmed him like piranhas. One bit into his pauldron, metal screeching. Another slashed at his knee joint, the only weak point in his stance.
The force of the impact knocked the large man onto his back in the mud.
"Varkas!" Leon shouted.
"Stay back!" a voice echoed from the trees. It was melodic, arrogant, and undeniably Elven.
Rylas Faewind. The Captain of the Beastbound Academy.
I looked up to see him perched on a branch, a longbow in hand, his face painted with green markings. He wasn’t firing arrows; he was conducting the pack with hand signals.
"Your tank is too slow," Rylas taunted. "Finish him."
The raptors on top of Varkas raised their claws. They were going for the gaps in his helmet. Varkas was flailing, his heavy shield useless while pinned under six hundred pounds of magically enhanced muscle.
Arthur spun around, his eyes cold. He raised his sword, the golden light intensifying. He was going to use [Severing Light]. It would kill the beasts instantly.
But it would also slice through Varkas’s armor if his aim was off by even an inch. And Arthur, in his drive for perfection, didn’t hesitate. He was willing to take that risk to eliminate the threat.
"Don’t!" I shouted, though I knew Arthur wouldn’t listen.
But someone else did.
A flash of white crossed my vision.
Leon didn’t run. He exploded forward. He didn’t draw his sword. He didn’t cast a projectile. He simply threw himself between Arthur’s line of fire and Varkas’s prone form.
Leon slammed his hands together.
[Skill: Lion’s Heart - Aura of the King]
WHOOSH.
It wasn’t a fire that burned skin. It was a fire that burned the soul.
A shockwave of pure, blinding white flame erupted from Leon. It didn’t singe the leaves. It didn’t scorch Varkas. But the psychic pressure was immense. It was the primal fear of a prey animal facing a predator that was orders of magnitude higher on the food chain.
The raptors froze.
Their pupils dilated. The magical runes on their scales flickered and died. The instinct to kill was instantly overridden by the biological imperative to survive.
SCREEE!
The beasts shrieked in terror. They scrambled off Varkas, slipping in the mud in their desperation to get away from the source of that white light. They didn’t listen to Rylas’s commands. They broke formation and fled into the underbrush, tails tucked between their legs.
Rylas Faewind’s smug expression vanished. He looked at Leon, his eyes wide.
"You... you broke the bond?" Rylas whispered, horrified. "That’s impossible. They are blood-bound!"
Leon stood over Varkas, his body wreathed in the gentle white flames. He offered a hand to the fallen tank.
"Get up, big guy," Leon said, his voice straining slightly from the exertion. "We’ve got work to do."
Varkas took the hand, his gauntlet trembling. He was covered in mud, his armor scratched, his pride in tatters. He looked at Leon—the "Extra" who had just saved him—and then at Arthur, who had been ready to risk killing him to win the fight.
Arthur lowered his sword. He looked at the fleeing raptors, then up at Rylas Faewind, who was already retreating, realizing his primary weapon was neutralized.
"They’re running," Arthur said, his voice flat. "We should chase."
"No," Leon said, the flames dying down. "We regroup. Varkas needs a second."
Arthur sheathed his blade with a sharp click. He walked past Varkas without making eye contact.
"He needs to be faster," Arthur said coldly. "Next time, Leon might not be there. And I won’t hesitate."
The words hung in the humid air, heavier than the moisture.
Varkas didn’t say anything. He just gripped his axe handle so hard I thought the wood might splinter. He wiped the mud from his visor, his face hidden, but the slump in his shoulders spoke volumes.
I watched the dynamic shift.
Arthur was the General. He saw pieces on a board. If a pawn is slow, you sacrifice it or move around it.
Leon was the Guardian. He saw people.
And Varkas? Varkas was realizing that in this arena of gods and monsters, being "strong" wasn’t enough.
"Wilson," Arthur called out, already ten paces ahead. "Route?"
I looked at Varkas, giving him a small nod, before turning to follow our leader.
"Straight ahead, Captain," I said. "The path is clear. Leon scared off everything within a mile radius."
As we marched deeper into the jungle, the silence was deafening. The team had won the skirmish, but the cracks in the foundation were beginning to show.
And we hadn’t even reached the Labyrinth yet.
[Verdant Beastbound Academy – Safe Zone]
Rylas Faewind leaned against a tree, breathing hard. His hands were shaking.
He tried to summon his raptors again, but the connection was fuzzy. It was filled with static—fear. They refused to materialize from his storage cards.
"What was that?" his Vice-Captain, a druid named Elara, asked. "Why did they break?"
"It wasn’t magic," Rylas muttered, staring at his trembling hands. "It was... dominance. Pure, unadulterated dominance."
He looked back toward the direction Arcadia had gone.
"Everyone talks about Arthur Pendragon," Rylas said quietly. "They say he’s the monster to beat."
He shook his head.
"But that redhead... the one with the white fire? He didn’t just beat the beasts. He made them submit."
Rylas shivered.
"Arcadia isn’t a team of heroes," he whispered. "It’s a den of monsters."
[Arcadia Team Status]
We moved for another hour in silence. The jungle finally began to thin out, the trees becoming sparse as the ground turned from mud to stone pavement.
We were approaching the center. The Labyrinth.
Varkas was lagging behind. Every time a branch snapped, he flinched. The ambush had rattled him more than he let on. He was the tank. He was supposed to be the immovable object. Instead, he had been tipped over like a cow in a pasture.
Leon dropped back to walk beside him.
"Don’t sweat it, Varkas," Leon said cheerfully, patting the giant on the back. "Those things were fast. Slippery little devils."
"I should have held," Varkas muttered, his voice hollow inside his helmet. "My reaction time was 0.4 seconds too slow. I tracked the movement, but the mud..."
"It happens," Leon shrugged. "That’s why it’s a team, right? You take the hits, I scare the pets, Arthur cuts the heads off. Circle of life."
Varkas looked at Leon. "Arthur was going to shoot through me."
Leon paused. The smile didn’t leave his face, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
"Arthur focuses on the win, Varkas. He trusts your armor."
"He trusts that I’m expendable," Varkas corrected.
Leon stopped walking. He grabbed Varkas’s pauldron and forced the bigger student to look at him.
"You are not expendable," Leon said, his voice dropping an octave. The playful tone was gone. This was the voice of the Lion. "Not while I’m here. You hear me?"
Varkas stared at him for a long moment, then slowly nodded.
"Good," Leon beamed, slapping him on the back again hard enough to clang. "Now let’s go. I think I see the walls of the maze up ahead. And knowing the game makers, it’s probably full of traps that Arthur will try to face-tank."
I watched them from a few paces back.
Leon was the glue. Without him, Arthur’s ambition would tear this team apart before we even reached the finals.
But glue can only hold so much pressure before it snaps.
I checked the time.
[Time Remaining in Stage 1: 02:15:00]
[Approaching Sector: The Elemental Labyrinth]
We were entering the final stretch. And according to the plot, this was where the real hunt began. The other academies would stop fighting each other and turn their eyes toward the Golden King.
I tapped my fingers against my thigh.
Solaris Blade. Frostpeak Aegis.
Fire and Ice.
They were waiting for us.
"Captain," I called out to Arthur. "We’re approaching the kill zone."
Arthur stopped at the edge of the jungle. Before us lay a massive, sprawling maze of high stone walls, shifting and grinding like living things. Above the entrance, a digital counter ticked down the number of remaining teams.
"Good," Arthur said, gripping Excalibur. "I’m tired of running. Let them come."
He stepped into the light.
(To be continued)
