With more people on the team, the group became more and more cohesive under Satoshi's leadership. It didn't take long before they have sustainable camping grounds which were defended solely by Satoshi.
Satoshi talked about it with his new group, and they were in agreement that he'd be defending everything for the first day, and then they just had to adjust on the second and third days. As much as possible, Satoshi wanted them to rest so they'd be at their optimal fighting capabilities the next day.
"What was that?" One of the Disciples asked, pointing at the sky where the countdown was continuously shown.
Another screen was shown in the sky. This time, it had an orange background and yellow edges. A number was shown on the screen and it went down by three. Before anyone could say anything, the number went down once again. From 54 to 51.
"It's the number of Disciples left. There's only 51 of us left." Another Disciple voiced out.
The number continued going down until there were only 42 people left. And the last time Satoshi checked, there were exactly 42 people in this group.
In other words, this group was the only one left.
Realizing that this was the final defense force against the entities, everyone seemed to panic a little as they approached Satoshi. They wanted to help out with the defense since it was clear that the other entities would come for them.
However, Satoshi was still firm in rejecting their request. They needed them for the second and third days. If they were going to survive this test all the way, then they need to save up their energy as much as they could.
There were only 42 Disciples left, and now that they were gathered in one spot in the forest, the entities only needed to target one spot. This made it easier for Magnus since he didn't need to focus on multiple spots at once.
The number of entities that attacked their camp doubled in number, giving Satoshi an even harder time defending everyone. Then again, technically he wasn't in defense, it was his familiars who were defending them for everyone.
Satoshi's main job was just monitoring the situation so he'd be able to adjust. If his familiars were having a hard time, he'd summon more and command them simultaneously. Right now, Satoshi held off on summoning Ghast and Sera since they were his top familiars who could easily defend against waves upon waves of entities.
He also held off on using any of his Representatives since they could very well be the key to surviving the entire three days.
"Ice Empress, are you free right now?" Satoshi asked, causing everyone to look at him since he was speaking in empty air.
To his relief, the Ice Empress was more than willing to get summoned so he didn't hesitate to call her. She was going to be the third familiar who would defend the camp.
To be fair, Gabriel and Ryu Ryoko weren't having a hard time defending the entire camp. Gabriel alone could take care of the entities single-handedly with the amount of summons he has in his possession.
However, Satoshi also didn't want to tire them out since he might need all of them on the second and third days.
...
Meanwhile, in the gathering of Managers,
Since Bucky Barnes was feeling a bit generous today, he decided to get some drinks for everyone just like what he said before he exited the room.
He had no idea how many drinks he needed to get since there were a lot of Managers present so he just grabbed twenty drinks and was done with it. If they needed more, he could always teleport to get more drinks.
As he reentered the room, he was in high spirits. However, as soon as he stepped foot inside, he noticed a drastic change in the atmosphere. A moment ago, they too were in high spirits but when he came back for their drinks, everyone was so tense that Bucky Barnes felt like choking.
"What are you doing? Did someone die or something?" Bucky Barnes casually said as he gave everyone their drinks. He had no idea which drinks they liked so he just left all the drinks on the table so everyone could get what they want. This also solved his problem of not getting the number of drinks right.
With everyone wearing a sullen expression on their face, Bucky Barnes examined their faces one by one. That's when he realized that Magnus was the only one who had a satisfied expression on his face.
"So? What happened?" Bucky Barnes asked, seating himself beside Magnus who seemed to be pleased with the gloomy mood that encompassed the entire room.
His gaze then landed on the live stream in front of them and that's when he noticed the headcount of all the Disciples who hasn't failed yet. Honestly, he was surprised that more than half of the Disciples already dropped out of the test...
"Wait... more than half of the Disciples... so that means..." Bucky Barnes trailed off. He finally understood what everyone's problem was.
Magnus's survival test was too hard and a lot of Disciples failed the test. It wasn't because they were weak, but because the difficulty level of the survival test went beyond their capabilities.
"Bucky Barnes, I'm sure you'll understand. This test is to gauge their limits so a lot would drop out from the first round. You might not believe me but all of my Disciples managed to survive the first day. The second and third days were different topics altogether though." He explained, trying to gain everyone's trust once again.
"But I also have to tell you that... only a handful of my Disciples lasted until the third day. And by the end of it, none of my Disciples made it through the end of the third day." Magnus continued. "This test is an indication of how strong your Disciples are. If they could last the first day, then the second day, then consider yourselves blessed."
Quite frankly, Magnus actually didn't care whether the Disciples formed an alliance or not because, at the end of the day, they'd be so overwhelmed that they won't be able to work cohesively together. Even if they tried to, it would end up as every man for himself. That's how difficult this survival test was.
Somehow, Magnus managed to explain to everyone what the essence of the survival test truly was. To his relief, most of them accepted it, but they weren't pleased with the way he set up the test. It's as if he was setting all of them up for failure since it was an almost impossible test to complete.
Then again, this would give them a rough estimate of how powerful each of their Disciples was. Magnus helped all of them out in the long run since he showed them the real potential of every Disciple by forcing them to their limits.
"I mean, next time you should just say that. You come here on the day of your test and don't explain everything. And then you expect us to know everything?" Bucky Barnes began, patting Magnus on the shoulder in a condescending manner. "Despite your busy schedule, you should've done your due diligence to make this event as smooth as possible, and that includes giving us proper prior heads up of what you're about to do."
"Also, you just teleported all of our Disciples— by force— to another planet. That alone is crossing the line." Bucky Barnes continued, adding tinder to the fire.
Heaving a sigh, Magnus hung his head while everyone nodded their heads along. He may be the strongest Manager but even in the face of the others, he still couldn't hold a candle to them as a group.
"All right. I'll be more careful next time." Magnus finally said, to which everyone responded by nodding their heads once again.
...
While all of that was happening amongst the Managers, the group which Satoshi formed was beginning to get worried. Satoshi just summoned another familiar and this portrayed that he was having a hard time or something along those lines.
A cold chilly wind blew at the camp while a towering lady was summoned. On both her sides were two massive polar bears that walked as if to guard her. Respectively, they were Alez and Pelez, and the lady was none other than the Ice Empress.
The Ice Empress looked at Satoshi, glad that she was once again summoned to help him. She shortly greeted Gabriel and Ryu Ryoko before assuming her position a distance away from them.
Before anyone could say anything, the froze the surrounding area and unleashed a chilling blizzard that surrounded the entire camp. The camp in and of itself wasn't hit by the blizzard, but around it was a different topic.
"Now we're talking." Satoshi said as the horde of entities was dealt with despite their spiking numbers.
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