Three days later in the Bramble Forest.

In a booming sound, a ball of fire with extreme heat dashed ahead and broke a green, corrosive beam of energy. After the beam had been scattered, a roaring scream followed. Afterwards, there appeared a crystal wire which disappeared in a flash on the spot and then reappeared tens of meters away. It then scampered off.

"It's useless. You're never gonna run out of my control!" Glenn shouted to his enemy after the fire blasted. "You have a unique smell. It's a torch in the dark, thus you'd have no chance in sneaking attacks! I'll chase you till you're a dead man!"

Rancor seethed in Glenn's mind.

At the same time, Glenn picked up a part of a finger on the ground. Losing it did not put him ill-at-ease. He put the finger on his wound in the palm. Soon, the palm where his finger had been lost sprouted an army of thin, short tendrils, which then reconnected the finger to his palm. A few seconds later, Glenn flexed that finger of his as he sneered, and his hand became intact again!

After Glenn's hand had recovered, he proceeded with his chase with the End Sound Bone [1] dagger in his hand.

Over the past three days, Glenn and Harry had been engaged in fights for several dozens of times, and with no exceptions, Harry had been losing out to Glenn on every occasion. When Harry was about to lose, he would apply a mysterious wind element sorcery and magically succeeded in fleeing. So Glenn had failed to cause his complete death.

Harry's escape sorcery would not represent the only nagging problem for Glenn. His three heads and the sorceries each of them owned were causing Glenn real trouble--the triple heads were able to attack with corrosion, flame and strong poison respectively. These sorceries could also be handled by Glenn, who was now basically immune to fire and poisoning, and his mask would not be eroded easily. However, Harry had very sharp nails on his fingers, which he obtained when cultivating Hematology Sorcery. They could pierce through Glenn's shield and hurt him.

Of course, Harry had incurred injuries from Glenn's armor made of the Extinguishable Flame! And using the Glenn Dissimilation Sorcery, Glenn's wounds would be healed readily.

Glenn hummed a tune coldly. Then, using his enhanced sense of smell, he sniffed around, trying to find out the whereabouts of Harry.

Glenn had made his decision. He would track down this detestable student even if he couldn't accomplish his bigger mission here. For him, this trip was meant for some exercise and thus elevating his stamina, strength and vitality to a level matching his 36 points of constitution! Either way, he would get exercised! Actually, these three properties had been leveled up a little bit due to his constant battles in the past three days, and consequently, the potential of his constitution had been explored partially.

Several hourglasses had slid away.

Glenn had found Harry, who was dealing with his wounds. Glenn yelled in a deafening voice and came to him with vigorous strides. At the same time, he had pulled off his Bat sorcery to get his enemy, after which an explosion and a flame followed. Harry activated his corrosion, flame and poison energy in no time to fight off and meanwhile ran hastily out of the reach of Glenn's flame attack.

After Harry's previous contacts with the flame, he had grown conscious of its terrifying power. He simply couldn't get into contact with it! For one thing, the flame had a high degree of power. Besides, once caught by it, it wouldn't be quenched. It was a hopeless situation!

"Glenn, you're overdoing it," Harry said angrily, with his leftmost head panting for air. Meanwhile, the right head, whose eyes were bloodshot, implored: "Glenn, we were wrong about you before. We shouldn't have..."

"Shut up, you coward! I'm not allowing you to say something like this!" the left head cut in and reproached.

"Who gives you the right to stop me from talking? It was you who were being greedy and insisted on..." the right head roared, showing no signs of giving in.

The two heads kept on brawling, and the head between them glared at Glenn in an indignant yet frightened manner. Its face was blanched, because this head had had excessive loss of blood when it cut its right arm which had caught on Glenn's flame.

Glenn watched the three heads as they quarreled. As it was circulated, Hematology sorcery cultivation resulted in huge increase in power. However, the newly required capabilities came with flaws! Imagine if Glenn had three heads, he definitely couldn't do any research now.

"What do you want?" asked the middle head of Harry.

"What do I want? Hum..." Still with his mask on, Glenn seemed that he wasn't going to give them a chance for negotiation. He seemed to have made up his mind to destroy them!

Glenn made another maneuver and charged towards the breathless Harry. In Glenn's hand was his weapon of the Inextinguishable Flame.

A moment later, Harry once again turned into a crystal wire and shot himself to dozens of meters away, and then he shouted back towards Glenn, "Glenn, I'm not gonna be killed by you so easily!"

"Then I'll keep doing the good work until that moment come!"

Glenn stopped and screamed back. The next second, he accelerated and ran after Harry.

Another day went by.

Glenn had been led by Harry to a stretch of field blossoming with purple flowers.

Glenn scorned: "Trying to rub out the strength of my hunting nose by using pollen's pungent smell? How naive are you!"

Harry didn't have the slightest idea that Glenn had used his mask's ultrasonic-positioning feature, and had located him, who was like a stray dog licking his wound miserably.

In a gully where weeds had run rampant appeared that same, cold, sneering face. Harry couldn't help but panic with despair, exclaiming: "That's not possible. You're just a new guy! You're not one of these three well-known students! How come you have such a strong power? It's so impossible! Even if you're one of them, you shouldn't be this strong!"

Glenn had no intention of making small talk. He 'welcomed' Harry with the same move--the Fire Bat sorcery!

A big fire formed after an explosive noise. Immediately, energies of these same three properties burst out, and afterwards, Harry tried to use that mysterious wind element sorcery to escape again! However, this time, his face darkened. His feet had been tied up by a damn vine!

Harry just took a moment to break free of the vine. But what followed the vine attack was a strange tendril penetrating the fire to reach him, and it was holding a dagger.

In a whoosh sound, Harry's right head came off clean.

The fallen head kept shouting "no" because it had caught on fire. The screaming stopped suddenly and as its owner Harry again transformed into a crystal wire and fled away in a flash.

Glenn emerged slowly from behind the fire and took a glance at the head on the ground, which was still burning wildly.

"Having lost a head, let's see how you're gonna escape now!"

This being said, Glenn kicked that head of Harry's to the side and then he sniffed around for the traces left by Harry and went on his hunting .

Glenn had chased him for two consecutive days The expansive Bramble Forest presented many barriers for the hunting. But Glenn could see that this was the final-ditch struggle made by Harry, who did not have many resources left at his disposal after having lost a head and an arm. Therefore, Glenn didn't hasten any longer. He was just letting Harry run in his desperation while at the same time taking some exercises himself.

Out of the blue, two persons got in the way.

Glenn pulled up, looking at them. One was Harry. One of his remaining head had recoiled into his cloak, and the other was almost in a mental collapse. Its eye sockets were even more dented, and his pale skin reeked of a decayed odor.

The one with Harry was a female student. Glenn hadn't seen her before, though he had a feeling that this student was stronger than Harry.

The female looked just the same as normal humans. So she seemed to have not cultivated Hematology sorcery.

"Glenn, I'm Lumen. You may don't know me, but I guess you might have heard of my partner. His name is Gade."

The female was skinny. She had a fair skin, short green hair and a pair of black-framed glasses. When she smiled, her squinted eyes were like a crescent moon. She seemed very nice.

"Thunder Axe Gade, Captain of the Ivory Hunting Team. Yeah, I know him!" There was a minor change in Glenn's facial expressions yet his voice was calm. It still carried no feelings.

The female student was pleased at Glenn's response.

"To tell you the truth, Harry is a member of our team--the Ivory Hunting Team. I'd like to speak for the captain himself and reimburse you to your satisfaction for what Harry has done."

Lumen seemed confident, smiling like a spring flower in its blossom. She then said softly, "Respectable Glenn, would you like to make an accommodation and consider it as a favor to our team?"

The plea was a relief to Harry, who then displayed a terrified look after he looked up and met Glenn's eyes.

'He's a monster!' Harry thought.

Glenn didn't reply to Lumen's question. Instead, he observed her silently. Seeming a little bit tired, Glenn was still thinking.

Lumen's face beamed. She was ensured that Glenn had yielded to her requirement on facing her stick and carrot. She did some more thinking, and then she fished and pulled out a high-grade magical stone worth 100,000 regular magical stones.

"If you let Harry go for our team and for Gade himself, this senior magical stone will be your compensation. What do you say?"

Lumen's voice was tender. It was as pleasant as the gentle breeze of spring brushing past, melting the heart of the one who experienced it. Her eyes were somewhat imploring, arousing Glenn's sympathetic emotions.

All of a sudden, Glenn's body trembled slightly at Lumen's remarks. At a point, he thought he was feeling for Lumen and came to terms with Harry. That girl had influenced Glenn's mind. Glenn was both in shock and in admiration of her because of this.

However, in the next second, Glenn's face fell again, although the other two in front of him couldn't see the change.

"Sorry." A dry voice flew from that mask.

Lumen's face changed on hearing this reply, but she returned in the same gentle manner. "Glenn, what did you say?"

She seemed rather pathetic, as if another word from Glenn, if it was not said in her favor, would break her heart.

"Hum," Glenn snorted coldly, "I said 'sorry'."

That said, Glenn shifted his gaze to Lumen and threatened emotionlessly, "If you kept getting in my way, you will be my enemy, too!"

A fire ball formed on Glenn's hand in a crackling sound.

The fireball caught Harry with a start, whose face then darkened. Almost instantly, he pulled off that escape sorcery reflexively and became a crystal wire, which jumped dozens of meters away. He then scuttled off like a desperate prey.

Glenn ran past Lumen, who had been riveted to the spot, and continued with his chase, without paying attention to her.

The muscles on Lumen's face tightened as she watched the two merging into the thickness of the Bramble forest. After a struggle, she gnashed her teeth and headed for the Black Isotta.

_________________________________________

FOOTNOTES:

The End Sound Bone dagger was a gift from Varro, who also studied under Glenn's mentor Norris.