The Lycan Prince’s Wolfless Slave (Academy Romance) novel Chapter 265

The four of us stand over the river bank with bated breath as we all stare at the river. The fourth girl in our

team, Sansa, went into the deep water minutes ago to find the fourth artifact. Every single second she stays

submerged makes the knot of anxiety in my stomach tighten.

I reach down and touch my waist, where the third artifact is safely tucked away. I found it just a few minutes ago, hidden deep inside the bush of thorns. It is a locket that looks like a glowing gemstone. Finding it wasn’t the hard part, but my arms and hands are completely covered in stinging bruises because of the sharp thorns. The cold air bites at the open scratches, but I force myself to ignore the pain.

Clara paces back and forth along the edge of the water, stamping her boots into the mud. She checks her watch for the tenth time, her face twisted in a bitter scowl.

“What the hell is she still doing in there? Time is fucking going!” Clara complains loudly, waving her arms in the air. “We are wasting precious minutes standing here doing absolutely nothing. The clock is ticking down, and we’re going to end up in the bottom twenty because of this!”

I turn to glare at her fiercely. “If you’re so worried about the time, Clara, then you should enter the water and help her look,” I snap loudly. “Otherwise, shut up.”

Clara scoffs and crosses her arms tightly over her chest. She takes a step back from the water’s edge, looking insulted. “I am not getting my hair or my outfit wet in that disgusting river. Aloe should enter instead. She’s the one who wants to be in the top twenty so badly.”

Aloe rolls her eyes, popping her bubblegum with a loud snap. “Don’t bring me into your whining, Clara. I already did my part in the quicksand.”

“Then the dumb, shy kid should enter!” Clara points a finger at the thin boy standing at the back of our group. He flinches, wrapping his arms around himself and looking down at the mud, trying to shrink away from her sharp voice. “He hasn’t done a single useful thing since we got into this simulation. Make him go

into the water.”

I shift my weight, balancing carefully on my good leg while my wrapped shin throbs in protest. I’m about to answer Clara and put her in her place again when the water suddenly erupts.

Sansa breaks through the surface of the water, gasping loudly for air.

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15:38 Fri, Aug 7

Chapter 265

“Thank the Goddess!” Aloe cries out, letting out a sigh of relief.

We all rush toward forward as Sansa swims quickly out of the strong current. She drags herself onto the

muddy shore, coughing up a bit of water but smiling triumphantly. In her right hand, she holds the fourth

artifact. It is a thick, tightly rolled scroll that looks completely blank on the outside.

“I got it,” Sansa pants, pushing her wet hair out of her face as she hands the scroll to Aloe. “It was wedged

tight between two heavy rocks at the very bottom.”

Before any of us can congratulate her, a loud buzzer sounds directly from our digital watches. The screens flash a bright, warning red, and an automated voice echoes in our ears:

You have ten minutes more. Complete the objective or face immediate failure.

“Ten minutes?” Sansa gasps, rising quickly to her feet despite her dripping wet clothes. “We have to move!”

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“Run!” Aloe yells.

Everyone starts to run forward down the winding forest path. I push through the agonizing pain shooting up my right leg, forcing myself to sprint along with them. We run wildly through the bushes, our boots kicking up dirt and leaves. We jump over fallen tree branches and scramble over rocks, breaths coming out in short, desperate gasps. The branches scratch at our faces and skin, but nobody slows down. We are running for our lives, driven by the absolute terror of failing the assessment test.

After a few minutes of a brutal, exhausting run, everyone comes to a stop. We arrive at the final destination

marked on our digital maps.

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