The Unrecorded Extra



Leo's team was running as fast as they could after Benjamin told him a fight was currently happening ahead, hundred meters from them.

But, because of the Smokefruit, Benjamin's reckoning skill was disrupted. Telling Leo about the circumstance, they increased their pace.

After a minute, they finally arrived in the central forest.

Ahead of them, black smoke billowed, engulfing the tall trees. Fortunately, it seemed the smoke was about to subside soon.

"That's the Smokefruit's smoke," said Benjamin.

Hearing that, Leo clicked his tongue in annoyance. Just as always, he hated it when someone say obvious things in front of him.

At least, Benjamin knew his place. He immediately apologized to Leo, unlike a certain someone. That was why Leo always kept him by his side, as his loyal sidekick.

Benjamin was obedient, and Leo didn't exactly know why he was like that.

At first, he thought that it was because Benjamin wanted to leech on him. But, as time passed by, he turned to become an obedient follower of him. Benjamin told Leo that it was just because he admired him.

Although Leo was arrogant and impatient, he was also a very careful person because he was the heir of his family, and many people and relatives wanted to take his title as heir.

His family circumstance was like those of the medieval kingdom, where relatives fought each other to claim control over the family and its business.

But in the end, he won the war against his relatives and established his position in the family hierarchy with domination.

"Ptuu–!" Leo spitted on the ground. "Let's go, I'm curious about what happened in there."

They approached the billowing black smoke.

As they got closer, Leo heard a familiar voice followed by a coughing sound.

"That Rat *cough* will he ever stop *cough* *cough* using a cheap trick like this?!"

The smoke gradually dissipated, uncovering Seo Yeong-Ha kneeling on the ground. Her chestnut hair was in disarray.

She continued to cough as Lux approached her from behind, gently patting her back. 

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine…"

Straightening his posture, Lux stepped forward and spoke, "Very well. Then, I'll go catch them."

Seo Yeong-Ha arched a brow, feeling like asking a question but suppressing it.

"Good. You are finally motivated to fight your so-called 'friend'."

"Actually, it's because they stole our flag… haha…" 

Lux scratched his cheek nervously. 

"I promise I'll catch them. See you!"

Then ran as fast as he could before Seo Yeong-Ha realized what his word meant. 

Realizing what Lux said, Seo Yeong-Ha's jaw dropped, her face a mix of confusion and anger.

"YOU WHAT?!" She yelled loudly.

Sadly, Lux was already disappeared from her sight. She could only shake her head and take a deep breath, relaxing her body now that the adrenaline was dropping.

As she looked at the sky, sound of the footsteps was approaching her. In her vision, the face of a handsome blonde student popped from the edge of her eyes.

"Heh," Leo smirked.

"Tch! Can you move away?!"

Instead of complying with her request, Leo added, "Do you need help catching the rat?"

***

We were on the run after stealing Lux team's flag. We just ran straight aimlessly, hoping to lose track.

But, after finding that Lux was after us, I split the team into two.

The trio was heading south. Meanwhile, Enzo and I continued to run straight to the east.

I trusted the flag with the trio because they had Ember, the strongest of our team. Though she was strong, I couldn't help but be a bit skeptical. 

So I ordered them to just run as far as they could until Lux's flag made a *click* sound, indicating that they were eliminated from the game.

Feeling like we had lost Lux following us, we stopped for a moment to get a rest.

"Fuu… How much time has passed since we took the flag?" I asked Enzo as I tried to lean on the tree.

"It's only been three minutes."

Nodding at his words, my body immediately sank into the embrace of the sudden fresh air. It was the effect of the adrenaline dropping, which was good.

Anyway, it had been three minutes since we took the flag away. It meant Lux only had two minutes left to take his flag from Ember's hand.

The question is, can he do it?

Well, I doubted that. It was the end for our protagonist.

This was an act of altering the storyline. He was supposed to win this game and got a very high evaluation from the supervisors. But, who cares? 

I couldn't just let him win just because he was supposed to, or because he was some sort of character who appeared in a prophecy. Fvck prophecies. Fvck my novel.

I wanted to be a main character…

Not just an extra.

"Fuu…"

Taking a deep breath, I shook away the thought out of my mind. It was a rather selfish wish, but who wouldn't want to be a main character?

Lux was already got himself full of cheats and overpowered sets. Especially when he got the Odyssey system, he could just do the task the system gave him and get a reward.

So, robbing his achievement in this exam wouldn't affect him that much.

Stretching my legs, I gestured for Enzo to change our destination. We wouldn't go east but instead go south, reuniting with the trio.

"Let's go."

But, as we were about to run, we suddenly tensed up, feeling the burst of energy emitting in the air.

"An ambush!" I shouted.

Burst—!

Aura waves were coming and raining us down, each of them had a small intensity of aura. Even though it was small, touching it would result in light injury such as bleeding.

The aura waves crashed against our bodies, causing minor cuts as we tried to evade them.

"Get cover!" I shouted to Enzo, my voice barely audible over the chaotic energy in the air.

We sprinted through the barrage of aura waves, weaving and dodging with every ounce of speed we possessed.

While I was dodging, I thought about the potential suspect capable of doing this kind of attack.

Leonardo Miguel.

He was always a person fully capable of harnessing and cultivating his weapon aura. It functioned like mana, but the only difference was that aura was an energy that you draw from your surrounding and applied to yourself or your weapon.

Absorb and use, that was an aura.

Absorb and store and then use, that was mana.

To harness aura, you didn't need to have something like a mana core. Just make sure you had your body otherwise it wouldn't work because you couldn't live without a body.

As we dodged them, we managed to reach a nearby cluster of large boulders in the middle of the forest, providing some temporary respite from the assault.

Enzo and I caught our breath, taking a moment to assess our situation.

After some while, the attack stopped and a voice amplified with mana echoed in the air.

"Oy, rat! Get out, let's fight!" said the voice.

It was Leonardo, just as I expected.

But, my question was how did he know our specific location?

Looking at where the aura waves came from earlier, I was sure it was launched at a distance of around a hundred meters. But, he was able to cast and lock us precisely, there might have been someone who helped him.

I responded to him with my own amplified voice with mana, "Fight? Is this gonna be a fair fight or one that is full of tricks?"

Leonardo's style was just like mine. Though his raw power was strong, he still used deception and tricks to fight. But of course that was only applied when he fought a strong opponent.

With how arrogant he was, I doubted he would going to use tricks to fight me. Which I found good for me.

"Heh! Trick? I don't need a trick to fight a weak-ass like you. Come on, get out. Or I will destroy that little boulder of yours and torture you."

Grunting, I gestured for Enzo to walk out from our hiding carefully. As we got outside the cover of the boulder, I saw Leo standing with full confidence painted on his face.

I noticed someone standing behind him. A dark-skinned guy with cropped hair. His demeanor was like a loyal servant who followed his master everywhere.

As he saw me, he walked toward me arrogantly. And Enzo and I walked forward too, facing him.

We stood a few paces away from each other.

The tension was high which made me want to claw my skin roughly.

Breaking the tension, I finally said, "So. A team fights? Or One on one?"

The grin on Leo's face widened as he scoffed and instead of giving me an answer, what he gave me was a full swing of his scythe.

I dodged it rather easily, and so did Enzo.

"Two vs one. You two, come at me," he said, taunting us with a gesture of his hand.