My spirit animal is a F–Rank gecko-Chapter 26: The first special bond exam (12)

(Red Team POV)

Reza took a peek outside the cave and saw that someone was moving really fast inside the forest, making the canopy of leaves shake violently.

"Karina, come look at this." Reza waved at her.

She slowly went behind Reza and took a peek. She noticed that whoever was moving really fast was going in a circle.

"Who do you think is doing this? And how are they able to go that fast?"

Karina whispered to Reza.

"I don’t know, but I don’t have a good feeling about this."

Just when Reza was about to go outside the cave to investigate more,

he suddenly noticed a hand pop out from under the mountain, trying to climb up to the cave.

Reza screamed.

"KARINA! WE HAVE OUR FIRST INTRUDER!"

Reza quickly stomped on the person’s hands, but the hands wouldn’t let go.

Just then, he heard a familiar grunt of a guy’s voice.

After a couple times stomping on his hands, the man finally spoke.

"Chill, chill, dude! It’s just me, Jay!"

Reza’s eyes widened.

"JAY! Wait, let me help you up."

Before Reza could do anything, Karina ran towards them with a rock and smashed Jay’s hands with it.

"KARINA, STOP!"

Jay’s hands let go of the rock ledge, and he fell off the mountain. His scream echoed throughout the forest.

"OMG, WE GOT HIM!"

Karina celebrated, while Reza’s soul had been taken away from him.

"Did... We just kill Jay...."

Karina raised her eyebrows.

"What do you mean, Jay?"

Just then, they heard Jaster’s voice from below.

They both looked down and saw him climbing the mountain with Ivy on his back,

while Ivy used her skills to pull Jay up with a vine.

"We could use a little help here!"

"JASTER!" They both said in unison.

Karina and Reza quickly extended their hands, helping Jaster reach the cave, while Ivy slowly pulled Jay up.

After the Red Team had reunited with one another, the five of them rested in the cave while each of them told the others what they had missed.

"No way! You two are besties now?!"

Ivy gasped; she looked at Karina, who was beside her, tending to her wounds.

"Haha, yeah! Turns out we have a lot in common!" Karina laughed.

Jay was beside them also; his hands were badly injured, and he had visible scars all over his face.

"Yeah, you both share the same stupidity." Jay scoffed, mocking Karina and Reza.

"The fuck do you mean by that?"

Reza got up from the ground and walked towards Jay.

Jay had an annoyed expression on his face. He showed his arm to Reza.

"See what your ’bestie’ did? My hand got physically ruined because of her. Not to mention..."

Jay rubbed his face.

"My beautiful face now has a scar! You better take responsibility, ’cause I doubt Karina’s E-grade healing skills are even useful for this kind of damage."

Reza looked visibly pissed; he was about to throw a punch

when Karina screamed at both of them to stop.

"Stop it, both of you! And Reza, he’s not worth our time. Don’t waste your energy on someone like him."

Reza was about to say something, but Karina interrupted him again.

"Fine!" He let out a "Tsk" while sitting back in his previous spot.

Jaster watched his team fighting again. He thought he only had to worry about Karina and Reza’s beef with each other.

But turns out, while he was gone, things had taken a drastic change. Ivy, the girl who he thought was very useless in the beginning, turned out to be his savior.

Karina and Reza, who he thought would be a problem for their team in the future since they seemed like they hated each other’s souls,

had made amends with each other to the point that they became best friends.

Now the only thing Jaster needed to worry about was the person who wanted to make an alliance inside a team.

He looked at Jay. He very well knew people who acted like Jay. And for Adam, he’d always hated people like Jay.

I’m keeping my eyes on you, theater kid.

Karina got up after attending to Ivy’s wounds. She then proceeded to ignore Jay and immediately went to Jaster.

"HEY!" Jay protested.

"What seems to be your injuries, Jaster?"

Jaster pointed at his bruised thigh.

Karina bent down, and her chest glowed blue. Then she put her hands on the spot where it was visibly purple.

The blue essence in her chest traveled along her arms and into the palms of her hands.

Jaster, who felt the stinging pain of the bruise, suddenly felt relaxed and calmed after Karina put her hands on his thigh.

He stared at Karina, moving her hands all around the purple area on his thigh.

Tide affinity....

Spirit animals that have a tide affinity are usually more exposed to healing abilities.

Most people underestimated spirit animals that have a tide affinity, both in game and outside the game.

It’s because, for them, all they can do is heal. They couldn’t fight; they couldn’t defend; they’re not stealthy unlike shade spirits.

But for Adam, he quickly used the affinity to its maximum potential. He purposely made a spirit animal that was more prone to destruction have a tide affinity.

Because of this new strategy, more people started using Adam’s techniques, and it quickly became very known in the Soulbound community.

Imagine: a devastating hydra whose active skills are all attack-based, while its passive allows it to heal.

So if it’s injured, the hydra’s tide affinity will immediately heal it up and allow the spirit animal to fight without any rest.

This was a part of Jaster’s plan, before he had Purple.

But now that he has Purple, he doesn’t need any big, complicated spirit animal.

Jaster looked at Purple, who was inside his pocket.

"I only need you...." He smiled at the gecko, and the gecko smiled back.

"Done!"

Karina got up and wiped the sweat off her face.

Jaster’s eyes widened; he didn’t realize it would be this fast. All this time, he was so relaxed and felt at peace; he didn’t feel Karina tending to his wound.

Jaster looked at his thigh and was flabbergasted, seeing the purple spot was all gone, and the stinging pain too.

"Wow, Karina, you’re amazing. What skill is that?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Jaster asked with sparks in his eyes.

Karina was stunned but laughed it off.

"Haha, thanks, man. It’s my spirit animal’s active skill, called ’Azure Restoration.’"

"What was your spirit animal again?"

Karina smiled. She extended her hands, and the glowing blue essence inside her chest began to come out and formed a butterfly-shaped spirit animal.

When all the essence was formed, it revealed a beautiful glowing blue butterfly that fluttered in front of Jaster.

"Woah, is this a Spring Azure butterfly? You know this is uncommon rarity, right?"

Karina was taken aback that Jaster knew her spirit animal’s name and rarity.

"Oh, didn’t know you were a butterfly fan!" She said teasingly.

Adam almost exposed himself. He quickly shook his head and rubbed the back of his head while smiling.

"Yeah, sure.... That’s definitely it..."

"Hello??"

Jay teasingly clapped his hands to get Karina’s attention.

Karina, holding her anger, bit her lip. She turned around to face him.

"What.."

"Are you done with your show and tell? Unlike somebody, I actually did SOMETHING. Unlike a certain someone..."

Jay side-eyed Reza.

"Oh, that’s it." Reza got up, but Karina immediately stopped him before he could do anything.

"Oh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that you needed my E-grade healing skills." Karina said mockingly.

Jay was pissed off by that remark, so he got up and stormed out of the cave, leaving his teammates.

Karina rolled her eyes.

"Finally, that bitch is gone. I’ve always hated how he liked seeing me and Reza fighting."

Karina sat beside Ivy.

Ivy looked down. She felt bad that no one in this team cared enough to chase after him.

Karina and Reza were talking casually while Jaster was playing with Purpleberry. No one really thought about chasing after Jay.

So Ivy chose to get up and go out of the cave to find Jay.

Because, after all, in Ivy’s POV, Jay believed in her and was the one that encouraged her to use her skill in a way she hadn’t thought about.