The Vengeful Extra's Ascension-Chapter 261: Moving Forward!

Albedo rose to his feet slowly, deliberately, giving his body time to settle into itself. The difference in his power compared to before was immediate and unmistakable.

Where his mana had once felt like a carefully regulated current, now it moved with the weight and pressure of something far denser.

It was simply... deeper. Every breath pulled mana more efficiently, every step carried strength without strain. The constant drain imposed by the space still existed, but it no longer felt like a blade at his throat.

Now it was an inconvenience.

He flexed his fingers once, feeling tendons respond with crisp precision, then rolled his shoulders. No ache and no residual instability. The Phoenix Potion had done its work thoroughly, perhaps too thoroughly.

His body felt better than every before, and even his thoughts were clearer than ever, but there was no time for him to really test all of the changes.

Behind him, the basin reacted very cautiously.

The shadows along the treeline crept inward by a few inches, testing. The shimmer at the far end pulsed once, a subtle tightening, as if the space itself had noticed a change in the equation and was quietly reassessing.

Albedo noticed that immediately.

"Everyone," he said, voice calm but carrying easily across the basin. "We move now."

The students straightened instantly, exhaustion momentarily forgotten. The Professors reacted just as fast, slipping into practiced formations without discussion. No one questioned the timing.

They could feel it too.

Halen stepped up beside Albedo. His gaze lingered on him for half a second longer than before, sharp and measuring.

"You broke through," he said quietly.

"Yes."

"And you didn’t destabilize the space."

"Not yet."

Halen snorted under his breath. "I don’t know whether that reassures me or worries me more."

Albedo allowed himself a faint smile. "Stay close. That’s about to matter."

They began moving as a single unit, angling toward the shimmer but not approaching it directly.

Albedo led from the front, not because he insisted on it, but because the space subtly yielded to him now, paths aligning just a fraction more cleanly, resistance thinning where he stepped.

The forest changed as they advanced.

The trees grew closer together, trunks thicker, roots rising like coiled serpents from the soil. Sound dulled, as though swallowed by layered pressure. The mana drain ticked upward in response to the increased density, probing for weakness.

Albedo adjusted without conscious effort. His internal circulation tightened, Perfect Adaptation synchronizing seamlessly with his new Amethyst core. Where before it had compensated, now it optimized.

"Contact up ahead, you’ll sense them soon," one of the Professors murmured, and sure enough, 2 seconds later, Albedo could sense them.

Shapes detached from the shadows ahead, leaner than the constructs from the basin, but faster. Quadrupedal frames with segmented limbs, their hides like overlapping plates of bark and bone. Pale fissures glowed faintly along their sides, pulsing in uneven rhythms.

Not guardians, but more like Hunters.

"They’re testing," Albedo said. "Not committing."

"Then we don’t either," Halen replied.

The first monster lunged.

Albedo didn’t cast a spell.

He stepped forward, caught a protruding root with his heel, and wrenched it free in one smooth motion. The wood tore loose with a sharp crack, splintering into a jagged spear in his hands.

He drove it forward.

The point punched cleanly through the creature’s chest, not by force alone, but by timing, hitting the exact moment its internal pressure peaked. The spatial lattice destabilized instantly, and the monster collapsed into gray ash before it even hit the ground.

Mana expenditure was now negligible. The others reacted instantly.

Two more rushed the left flank, leaping over uneven ground with terrifying speed. A Professor stepped forward, staff swinging, not releasing mana, but striking the ground at an angle that caused a slab of stone to shear upward.

The monsters crashed into it mid-air.

A second Professor followed up with a blade of compressed wind, not broad, not powerful, but thin and precise. It sliced through exposed joints, severing movement rather than destroying mass.

Albedo was already moving again.

Another hunter came in low, jaws unhinging. He pivoted, grabbed a fallen stone, and rolled it directly into the creature’s path. It tripped, momentum carrying it forward.

Albedo brought his heel down on its skull.

The spatial feedback cracked outward, and the monster disintegrated.

They didn’t stop.

The forest seemed to exhale, and then the attacks came in waves. Not all at once. That would have been inefficient.

Instead, the space deployed pressure steadily, forcing constant engagement. Small packs. Ambush angles. Creatures designed to harass rather than overwhelm.

Albedo adapted their formation on the fly.

"Students, center," he ordered. "Professors rotate outward. No wide spells. Use terrain. Break joints. Collapse structures."

They obeyed without hesitation.

Roots became weapons. Slopes became traps. Fallen trunks were rolled, leveraged, dropped. When mana was used, it was surgical, frost to lock limbs, wind to redirect momentum, earth to deny footing.

Albedo was everywhere at once, using his anticipation to be where he needed to be.

A larger creature emerged near a ravine, a hulking mass of layered stone and sinew, six limbs anchoring it into the ground. It roared, pressure surging outward.

Albedo didn’t respond with flame.

He sprinted forward, leapt onto its back, and drove his fingers into a fissure along its spine, right where the spatial lattice was weakest. He twisted, sharply.

The creature convulsed. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

A Professor slammed a reinforced spear into its anchored limb, pinning it. Another collapsed the ravine wall with a controlled earth pulse, burying the lower half of the monster beneath tons of stone.

It dissolved under its own instability.

The shimmer grew closer.

The air ahead felt thinner now, stretched to the point of translucence. The attacks intensified briefly, then faltered, as if the space were struggling to maintain pressure on multiple fronts.

Albedo raised a hand.

"We’re close," he said. "Stay disciplined. This is where it tries to break cohesion."

Right on cue, the ground shifted.

Paths twisted. Trees slid aside. For a moment, perspective warped hard enough that several students staggered.

Albedo slammed his foot down.

"Eyes on me," he snapped. "Don’t trust the terrain. Trust your own movement, things are constantly changing,"

They regrouped instantly, all the while more monsters came and fell before them.

By the time the final wave dissipated into ash, the group stood before a wide, fractured archway of distorted air. Not a shimmer this time, but a full spatial seam, vibrating with unstable pressure.

The exit.

Or the last test.

Albedo stepped forward, aura steady, controlled, unmistakably Amethyst.

"Everyone together," He said calmly, and they all walked through.