Teaching staff apart from the academy had appeared. They were dressed in dark purple clothing and had large hats on their heads that covered most of their hair and stood a couple of feet high.
For Raze, it was something that looked quite ridiculous, but at least it made them easy to spot around the place, and he knew who to hide from when doing certain things.
The staff members had pulled out two large crates that were filled with just stones. They were grey stones that were mostly round in shape, looking almost like pebbles. There seemed to be nothing special about them at all.
No power was emitting from these stones, nor did they have any magic coming off them at all. After bringing in the stones, the teachers also rushed with a large piece of chalk and started to run down the center making a line.
After running down the center of the courtyard, they continued down the side and eventually had built a giant rectangle shape split into two halves around the 900 students or so.
Afterwards, the crate of stones was placed in the center, with one of them on either side of the two halves.
In Pincer’s’ hand, he held one of the pebble stones and was constantly throwing it up and down as he went on to explain the details of the second assessment.
“The pebbles in the center are the only weapons you can use in this battle, and it will be against each other,” Pincer explained. “First, let me explain the ways of failing the assessment. First, anyone who steps outside of the white line on their half is eliminated. Second, if you decide to forfeit.
“And lastly, if you are no longer able to move.”
The details of what the students had to actually do yet were unclear, but they felt a strange ominous feeling at the last sentence. Gunther, who was silently watching everything, was shaking his head.
‘You cruel man, Pincer. Are you just trying to get rid of as many students as possible at this stage?’ Gunther thought.
“The pebbles are able to be thrown at your opponents on the other side. You are allowed to hit your fellow students and aim for anywhere you like apart from the head. A simple throw of the stone might not do much to hurt your opponents, but adding Qi into your throw.”
Pincer chucked the pebble down on the ground. A loud bang followed, and the stone had been completely destroyed, but left in its place was a deep hole in the ground. If someone was hit by something like that, they would be killed.
“If the time runs out you pass, and if you fail to hit one person you will also fail. You don’t have to eliminate them, but at least land a hit. Remember landing a hit is not eliminating them, only if they are no longer able to move or forfeit.”
The hands of several students were starting to shake, at least on one side of the courtyard. After hearing the rules, didn’t they favor one side more so than the others? Having put all the talented students and the strongest together, it wouldn’t be a fair match up, it would have been fairer to mix the students equally.
The students wanted to say something, but they knew that Pincer would perhaps just disqualify them for doing so.
“The assessment begins now!” Pincer shouted.
Those that were on Raze’s side, many of them hesitated. Going to rush for one of the stones meant you were closer to the others and your opponents, giving you more of a chance of getting hit.
However, on the other side, the students had rushed forward, and leading the charge was one of the disciples from the five top clans, Ricktor. He swooped down, picking up a pebble, and it left his hand flawlessly.
It cut through the wind, and the pebble had hit one of the students’ legs. Powered with Qi, it had immediately broken, causing the student to fall to the ground. Before they knew it, following Ricktor’s lead, several stones were flying all over the place, hitting the students in their arms, legs, and more.
Not every hit would break a bone in one’s body. Some would just leave large cuts or bruises on their body. In anger and desperation, they picked the fallen stones back up and started to throw them with all their strength back.
The stones were constantly raining back and forth across the field.
There were those that were carefully avoiding them all.
A stone had come hurtling toward Mada, and with his hand, he moved it in an S shape like flowing water and struck the stone to the side, causing him next to no harm.
‘Where are you, no name?’ Mada looked with his eyes. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been knocked out already.’
So far the three no names had yet to be hit. They were doing a good job avoiding the stones. They hardly strayed from their position, and whenever one would come towards them, they would all use the two-step shift method, to just move enough to avoid the stones.
‘Oh, they have been taught well,’ Gunther noticed. ‘The two-step shift isn’t the fanciest of moves, but in this situation one doesn’t need to be fancy. It also uses up a small amount of energy. Rather than giving in to the fear of their opponent and the task ahead of them, they have calmly analyzed the situation.’
The no names were doing better than many of those that had come from fighting clans. It was a shame but it was what the high-intensity assessment was meant to do.
“Hey, is it just me, or do I have a feeling that more rocks are being concentrated our way?” Simyon commented, as he continued to avoid all of the strikes.
It certainly did seem that way. It wasn’t like that at first, but students were getting eliminated rather quickly, and it was mostly due to the five clan members. When a student forfeited out of pain or due to them no longer being able to move, the teachers came into the area.
It was quite an amazing sight to see, as they were able to avoid all of the stones being chucked back and forth, carry the students, and pull them out of the area, all without being hit and had made it look so effortless as well.
As more were disappearing, though, the no names had become more of a target. They were wondering why hadn’t they been eliminated yet. Even the movements they used, they were so simple. Which was starting to cause more frustration, and more pebbles were targeted their way.
“It’s okay,” Raze said. “The hard part is over. As more people are eliminated there is more space to move about, and it’s easier to see the rocks coming. But because of all these stones, we’re finding it hard to find an opportunity to strike.”
If they knelt down to throw one of the stones they would be hit. Although a hit didn’t mean elimination, with everyone throwing a full force stone with Qi, it could do quite a bit of damage. 𝒩𝑂𝒱ℯ𝓛xt.𝑪𝑂𝑀
Raze just wanted to wait for the perfect time for when everyone would tire out, and then it was their chance.
What he didn’t expect, though, was from behind something was stirring as well. One of the students had picked up a stone.
‘Look at them, what the heck are they even doing here, and now they’re trying to show off with a basic two-step shift! None of them belong here, and are just getting in our way!
From behind, a student hurled one of the stones with as much strength as possible. The three were focusing so hard on avoiding the stones ahead they had failed to notice what was behind them.
As the stone landed right on one of them, a loud clank was heard for a moment, and the stone fell to the floor.
Looking behind him, Simyon looked at the stone. “Did someone on my own team just throw a stone at me?”
Simyon was in disbelief; he couldn’t believe his own teammate attacked him. Surely that had to be against the rules. The stone had landed on the back of his leg and fell to the floor, but Simyon hadn’t flinched, and the student was in as much disbelief as Simyon was.
Whereas for Raze, he had a smile on his face.
“The answer was with us this entire time. Come on, metal boy, it’s time for our attack!”