Everyone agreed the fourth battle was the longest and most grueling battle they have ever had. Although their attempt resulted in another failure, Magus Xion and Silica were satisfied with the result of their training. The Earth acolytes all started to get used to each other's skills, and their teamwork improved significantly.
Time kept on ticking, today would be the last day they could train before the games start. Hence, Emery chose not to take a break after the battle. He grabbed his weapon and returned to the combat puppets.
He checked one of the control panels, activated it.
[Combat puppet level 9]
The others looked at how enthusiastic Emery was, and decided to pick up their own weapons and face the combat puppets once more as well. The sight of the young acolytes trying their best once more brought a satisfied smile to the two magus.
For the whole duration of the three hour break, Emery used his time to fight the level 9 combat puppet over and over again, only to lose a dozen times. He was unable to even come close to defeating the level 9 puppets, despite how much he tried, but that did not dampen his spirit, so he decided to continue training afterwards.
Before they realized it, break time was over. It was time for their fifth battle. Just like before, they gave everything they had and struggled fiercely, but in the end, once again they had to taste the bitter defeat.
In between each battle attempt, Emery always returned to the combat puppet to train his skills. Finally, on their sixth battle, Emery and his friends managed to snatch a hard-earned victory.
Just like before, Emery, as the mid fighter, played a major part in their victory. His versatile ability, combined with the two battle arts [Weeping Phantom] and [Chain Strike] was able to cover most if not all the sudden situations in battle. In addition, repeated use allowed Emery to find the rhythm between the two techniques. Now none of the knights ever managed to go past him.
Thanks to that, Chumo and Klea didn't have to defend themselves and they could freely use their powerful ranged attacks. Chumo, the Asian prince, was able to concentrate in controlling the maximum amount of shadows he could and produce a rain of arrows. All followed by the fierce blue rain of lightning that crashed throughout the arena and decimated the Terra knights.
The group successfully managed to keep hold of the flag until the last few Terra knights were defeated. They had to face multiple waves and defeat a total of 150 opponents and in the end, they succeeded.
"We did it!!" Shouted the gladiator champion, excited that their efforts finally paid off.
All five shouted and cheered in unison, both for their victory and their teamwork. With this, they were much more confident of their success in the Magus Games.
With their cheerful victory, the adrenaline left their body almost at the same time. Emery and his friends all dropped lying down on the arena, exhausted. The two magus approached them and gave them some last minute advice, before letting them have a good rest.
It was already late in the day, but Emery decided to return to the combat puppets with his weapon in tow. Unlike before, his friends were all unable to follow.
In order to win, they forced all their physical and mental strength to the limit. Now, all of them were completely drained of energy.
Emery, however, was different from them. He possessed a fey bloodline and had the [Nature Grasp] skill. The two allowed him to recuperate his health and spirit energy much faster than his friends.
As he had recovered most of his energy, he grabbed his weapon and resumed training. He decided to keep the lessons he learned in today's battle experience and integrate all of it into his swordplay.
Thrax, with the help of his [9 Sun Divine Technique] was the second fastest to heal aside from Emery. He opened his eyes only to see Emery was absorbed in his swordplay and training. With a gaze full of interest, Thrax took his weapon, the champion once again wished to challenge him.
Before he could call out to Emery, however, Magus Xion stopped him.
"Let him be."
Magus Xion stared at Emery with a proud smile on his face. It appeared his decision to help Emery, despite risking himself by disobeying his own master, was not in vain. From here, he could see that Emery had already made his A-rank skill into something else entirely.
Not long afterwards, Klea stood up and approached, watching Emery's practice with a stare full of concentration. Beneath the notice of everyone else, she let out a deep, tired sigh. The boy that had always been in her heart was slowly growing into a different person. Now, he was a man with purpose.
Only nine months had passed, yet Emery became so much more powerful that she couldn't help but feel worried. She felt that if she lost sight of him for just a mere moment, he would leave her behind.
"Privileged class... No, don't you dare! I am supposed to be the genius of the group!" said Klea screaming the words into her thought
For all the Earth acolytes, this night felt much longer and colder.
Chumo did not sleep either, he used the last hours to push his body to the limit in hopes that he would reach the 9th rank, but that never seemed to come. He had struggled with it in his whole time on Earth and here, but breaking through rank 9 was not an easy task.
As for Julian, he couldn't help but think he was at the bottom among the five in terms of strength.
He was not as fortunate as Emery, as talented as Klea, as strong as Thrax, or even come close to Chumo in terms of spirit force and strength.
The Roman commander promised himself he would not let himself be the dead weight of the team and will show his worth tomorrow.
Everyone spent the last few hours remembering their own purpose and holding their own resolve.
When the morning came everyone was fully equipped and ready for the games.
All five wearing the black combat suits heading toward the assembly for the biggest event of the academy
[One hour until the start of the Magus Games, all participants are invited to gather in the great assembly]
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,