My spirit animal is a F–Rank gecko-Chapter 30: The first special bond exam (16)

(Coral POV)

Coral had received Jade’s message. She was now running as fast as possible towards the forest.

She had called the Starastan police; it was just a matter of time until they got here.

She saw the smoke had already engulfed half of the forest.

"Damn it! What kind of spirit animals do these people have?!"

She went inside the forest, willingly going into the fog.

Her surroundings were covered in gray smoke, but unlike Jade, Coral was able to breathe fine and freely.

"Jade sounds like she’s in danger! I’ll need to find her!"

Navigating through the empty, quiet forest, Coral accidentally stepped on something.

She tripped to the ground and fell onto some mud.

"Eugh..." Coral got up and wiped her uniform.

"What did I even step on—" Coral’s eyes shot up, seeing the thing she tripped on.

On the ground lay what looked like a human corpse. The corpse was dried out.

It looked like a female student. Her hair was gone, while her mouth was gaping wide, as if she was screaming.

"OMG!"

Coral covered her mouth; she felt like puking.

Just then, she heard a sound near her.

Coral immediately ran towards the source of the sound.

She peeked from behind the bushes. It was foggy, but she saw the teal-haired woman grabbing the lifeless Jade by her mouth.

The woman opened her mouth wide and was about to devour Jade whole.

"JADE!"

[ Skill activated ]

Abyss Bloom — Lv. 10

Her chest glowed red, and it spread through her arms and into her palms.

A concentrated blue-violet energy burst out of her palm. It speared through the fog and hit the woman hard.

It created a large bang.

"Now’s my time!"

Coral rushed forward into the fog, then she grabbed Jade and carried her out, while the woman was shocked by the sudden attack.

While running, trying to hold her balance—since Coral isn’t really powerful in terms of raw strength, carrying Jade was hard for her.

The woman saw Coral, and her hair shot through the fog and directly pierced Coral’s leg.

She grunted and fell to the ground, while Jade dropped and rolled on the floor.

"Ugh!"

She tried to pull the hair away, but the woman walked towards Coral.

Her gaze sharpened in front of her.

"Coral... I was quite surprised when someone all of a sudden attacked me in this thick fog. But seeing that it’s you, my surprise faded."

The woman looked down at the injured Coral.

"What.. What did you do to Jade, you monster?!"

The woman rubbed her chin, then let out a menacing laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHA~~~~"

While the crazy woman was laughing, Coral used this chance to strike at her.

She activated Abyss Bloom and aimed towards her.

The energy burst from her palm, but it missed the woman by inches and cut through a strand of her teal hair.

The woman stopped laughing and looked at Coral.

"Oh, Coral, Coral, Coral..... A Class B student. You were previously Class A, but Marcus’s class took you down, right?"

Coral’s eyes shot up.

"How do you know that?"

"Of course I know!" The woman coughed, and her eyes stared directly at Coral. She then spoke.

"I.... AM.... THE.... SPECTACULAR... TINA!!!"

Tina danced in a circle while Coral was confused.

"What?"

"You don’t know?"

Tina smiled at Coral.

"US..... Broker, will bring a new era to BOUNDARA!!!"

Broker?

Coral thought. She felt like she had heard about them before.

The Broker were infamous terrorists that had just been revealed to the public.

Coral once saw them on TV; apparently, they caused chaos all around Boundara, in every nation.

Coral, though, was more curious about the era Tina was talking about.

"When you say era... What do you mean by that?"

Tina side-eyed Coral; she rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. Don’t think I don’t know that you’re trying to get more information from me. Just so you know, you’re lucky that your passive skill saves you!"

Coral’s face went still. One of her passive skills allowed her to be immune to any type of poison.

In fact, that was the only reason Marcus recruited her.

Coral had one of the rarest abilities, with her being immune to something that could be a threat in the future.

Now, that threat had arrived at this very second.

Coral scanned Tina’s appearance.

Seeing how she attacked and reacted, she seemed to have a poison skillset, similar to hers. The only downside was if she was also immune to poison.

An idea came to Coral.

She smirked, looking at Tina.

"Say... What did you say your group’s name was again?"

Tina raised her eyebrows.

"It’s Broker. What? You have a short memory span or something?"

"Seeing as how you know my name, and I’m guessing you also know Jade, that means your group must’ve been waiting for the time to strike. And when there’s only three student council members, while the headmaster is gone at the moment, you must’ve taken that advantage too—"

Tina cut off Coral’s talking.

"Blah blah blah. Just stop your yapping. Anyways, I gotta get going. It was nice knowing you!"

One of Tina’s hairs stood up and went straight towards Coral’s face.

But this was what she was planning. Just as the hair was about to strike Coral, she grabbed it, the hair stopping inches away from her face.

She grabbed on tightly to the hair.

Tina was taken aback.

"What are you doing?!"

She tried to pull her hair away, but Coral kept grabbing on.

"Let’s see if you can handle MY poison!"

[ Skill activated ]

Venom Current — Lv. 17

Coral’s hands glowed again, and her palms excreted purple fluid that slowly seeped into Tina’s hair.

"GET OFF ME!"

Tina’s pupils contracted.

Another part of her hair rose up; it then revealed a red spike inside it.

[ Skill activated ]

Crimson Siphon — Lv. 20 (MAX)

The tendril of hair struck towards Coral. For most people, they would avoid it.

But for Coral, she let the spike penetrate her skin.

They were both now having a poison showdown.

Coral hissed, seeing the bloody spike go deeper and deeper into her arm.

But Coral did not stop; she kept on excreting the poison onto Tina’s hair.

"Hah!" Coral scoffed while smirking.

"Is this a fight over who can poison the other first?"

As Tina kept on excreting poison into Coral’s body, Coral too kept on doing the same thing,

until Tina’s eyes widened. She covered her mouth with her hands.

Then all of a sudden, a burst of blood came out of her mouth, her hands trying to hold all the spilling blood.

Coral watched as Tina slowly bent to her knees and her hair tendrils retreated from Coral’s arm.

She kept on throwing up blood everywhere.

Coral watched, and then she smiled.

She walked towards Tina and bent down to meet Tina’s face.

"Guess I won!" She said while smiling.

Tina’s eyes were watery, as she tried to say something, but blood kept on pouring out.

"What did you say?" Coral asked mockingly.

"I...." Tina tried to speak, but there was too much blood in her mouth.

"I...." Tina looked down at the ground.

Coral thought the fight was over, until she felt Tina’s body begin to shake a bit.

She then heard her laughing a bit.

"SIKE, BITCH!"

Tina got up and grabbed onto Coral’s shoulder.

Tina, with no hesitation, puked up all the blood from her mouth and onto Coral’s face.

"UGHHH, WHAT.... MY POISON SHOULD’VE KILLED YOU!"

She kept on pouring blood onto Coral until, after a while, she stopped.

She then let go of Coral, who plopped onto the ground, lifeless.

Tina wiped the blood off her lips and scoffed, seeing the fainted blue-haired girl.

"What a cocky bitch, thinking you’re the only one that’s immune to poison."

Coral sadly lost the fight against Tina.