...…
The supposedly 'quick' race was taking longer than expected due to the final stages of the race. The clay golems and mechanical puppets were much harder to deal with than they originally had thought.
Yet Old Man Lin was expecting them to repeat the entire course at least four more times. If he was not a crazy old man, then he could only be a devil in disguise.
And right now, this devil training instructor was currently planning to get involved in the test and teach them personally a lesson.
He started giving out orders to the clay golems and mechanical puppets, forming a battle formation while taking care of every student in front of them.
The quick-witted students of the class instantly noticed the strange movements of the clay golems and mechanical puppets as they fought. They immediately reorganized their respective groups while the lone students started distancing themselves away from the rest while sweeping their gazes at the surroundings and observing everyone.
"Let me see how fast you guys are going to organize your forces. And whether are you going to continue being stubborn," muttered Old Man Lin while watching everyone from the distance.
"First, let's focus on forcing you to work together," he added before giving another series of orders. He paused for a moment to look at a certain part of the field before shaking his head. "Let's leave the little monster alone for now-… and wait until he finishes evolving."
After that, he let the clay golems and mechanical puppets organize themselves and left Shin and the evolution puppet unbothered.
The pace of the battle within the field started to change. The students that were too slow to react started to get eliminated one after another when the mechanical puppets ganged up on them. The groups that were working together since the start of the race were being besieged by the clay golems, forcing them to continuously retreat.
The students, who were busy fighting their classmates, were forced to stop their battles and temporarily worked together to survive.
"Tsk! That old man is such a bummer. When everything is starting to get interesting, he decided to get involved," complained Arthur as he warded off an attack by the clay golem that suddenly appeared beside him before moving away to create some distance.
Dylan was in a similar position and quickly retreated as he saw two mechanical puppets trying to flank him from opposite sides. He warded off their attacks skillfully before saying to Arthur without looking. "Hey! It looks like we have to postpone our battle once again. Let's team up and deal with these guys first."
There was an unwilling look on Arthur's face, but he could only agree with the suggestion of the latter to survive their current predicament. He could instantly tell that their devil instructor was the one behind the sudden change within the field, so if he wanted to survive, he had no choice but to work with Dylan.
"Don't drag me down," shouted Arthur as he suddenly charged toward the two mechanical puppets that were besieging Dylan from both sides.
"You steal the words that I am supposed to say," replied Dylan as he suddenly adjusted his footwork. His figure paused for a moment before suddenly turning into a blur as he charged forward all of a sudden.
He skillfully avoided the first mechanical puppet that was planning to obstruct his path before positioning himself on the side of the second puppet. He swung his swords a couple of times to defect the attacks of the puppets before throwing a powerful horizontal strike with both swords, sending the puppet flying.
The direction where the puppet was flying was where Arthur was coming from. The guy twirled his steel spear a couple of times before slamming it on the ground in front of him, launching himself in the air.
He somersaulted midair while holding the spear tightly and slamming it down toward the incoming mechanical puppet, flying in his direction.
Bang!
The mechanical puppet crossed its arms to block the incoming strike. But since it was currently in an awkward position in the air, it could not properly block the attack, leading it to be sent back to the ground and slamming on it.
Bang!
Dylan had already calculated where Arthur was planning to send the mechanical puppet, so he was already waiting for it to arrive. He leaped toward the direction where the mechanical puppet landed while swinging both of his swords down, creating a strong ripple in the air that headed toward his target.
Bang!
That air ripples spun around and turned into a strong vortex while traveling in the air. This attack might not be strong enough to shred the mechanical puppet, but it could still deal serious damage to it if landed.
Bang!
Unfortunately, the clay golem that Arthur had ditched earlier suddenly appeared in front of the lying mechanical puppet and blocked the air vortex sent by Dylan.
It also extended one of its arms forward, planning to slam it into Dylan, who was currently flying toward it.
Swoosh!
And at the very same moment, the other mechanical puppet suddenly caught up from behind, thrusting its arm forward, where a triangular blade appeared.
Boom!
Then Arthur suddenly landed on the back of the clay golem and slammed his spear at the back of its head, forcing it to kneel and making its arm deviate from its original course.
Dylan took advantage of that opportunity to twist his body in the air while holding his swords – one beside his waist while the other was over his shoulder. Then he re-twisted toward the opposite direction and spun in the air, creating a powerful gale that swept the incoming mechanical puppet and sent it to the unknown part of the field.
Ta-ta!
After that, he gently landed at the back of the clay golem, where Arthur was currently standing.
"You are already dragging me down," commented Arthur as he pulled out the steel spear from the back of the clay golem.
"That is what you call calculated risk. I let it happen so that you can land a critical strike," refuted Dylan before looking at the clay golem under their feet before commenting. "Tsk! But from the looks of it, you can't deal with this guy despite the opening that I've created."
Arthur almost exploded in anger but quickly disregarded the idea of having another round against Dylan as the clay golem already recovered.
…
Similar events were currently happening in different parts of the field. The previous opponents and competitors were now teaming up and working together to deal with the common enemy.
Some of the groups were also establishing a temporary alliance with the others just to stand their ground against the battle formation of the clay golems and mechanical puppets. They did not want to be the same as those stubborn ones, who chose to continue fighting alone and got eliminated by the combined forces of the opposing side in the end.
The backs of Cloe and Alice accidentally bumped into each other as they were trying to find their footing in the middle of this chaos. They instinctively jumped forward, spun around, and throw their fist at each other when it happened.
Fortunately, they managed to stop themselves from continuing when they realized what happened and recognized each other.
While they were reorganizing their thoughts, they saw a mechanical puppet creeping out behind each other, making them jump into action.
They simultaneously strode forward and brushed past each other while throwing a powerful strike at the mechanical puppets, pushing those clumps of metals away.
Then they quickly took a step back to relieve the force that they had gotten from the impact, making their backs touch each other once again. But this time, instead of moving away, they leaned back and supported each other.
Lorraine, who was currently standing on an elevated ground, saw everything unfold with a mischievous look on her face. She separated herself away from the others to look for a good sniping point where she could cover the others.
She did not expect to see such a rare sight from those two, which made her lips curve into a smile. As a spectator in their daily lives, she could see more things clearly than the people involved, so she was somewhat aware of the 'rivalry' that these two had even though they were not that conscious about it.
"Hey! What are you doing? Stop watching from the side and start providing support already," shouted Leonard from the base where Lorraine was standing while dealing with a mechanical puppet that was planning to attack her.
"Why do I have to stay behind and look after your back when the others are better suited for it? It is better if I am with those two in the middle of everything," he grumbled as he wanted to clash with the other top rankers where Shin and Arthur were located.
Lorraine's smile curved higher when she heard him, making herself unable to stop teasing him. "If you are not going to protect me, then who will? You are supposedly protecting your princess, you know?"
The corner of Leonard's mouth twitched when he heard her words. He wanted to deny her words but stop himself midway. He then continued to grumble. "If that is the case, then Arthur and Shin are supposedly protecting Jillian and Cloe Sis from this chaos."
Leonard did not refute anymore as he saw two more mechanical puppets heading their way. "I think we should change our location. We are already spotted here."
…
As everyone was starting to organize themselves and forming temporary alliances with the others, the clay golems and mechanical puppets were also gathering to solidify their battle formations.
They had already eliminated enough students, so they could not now gather up and strengthen their forces. And once they hand bonded together, the class would have a much harder time taking them down.
Some of the students immediately recognized this problem but could not do anything about it. But might have allied with the others but that did not mean that every group within the class had unified.
There were still a couple of groups who were quite stubborn as well as lone wolves scattered in different places.
If they did not bond together and combined their strengths, then the outcome of this battle had already been determined.
Their defeat would be inevitable.
...
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