Before Damon activated his shadow cloak artifact, Luciano made sure to turn off his, because no one would want a situation where everybody was set on fire.
Right from when his team had made their way into the territory of the ant colony, Luciano had been wary of Blake's team sneaking up on them. Especially, when the best 'assassin', Blake, and the stealthiest student, Damon were part of the same team.
"Here we go." Damon clenched his hand on the shadow cloak artifact and poured mana into it.
With a low hum, the artifact produced a dark glow that spread into a large dome that covered every student with some extra room to walk freely.
Once everyone was in the area of the dome, the color of the environment had a dark dimmed to it, but it wasn't that bad.
For Damon and Castiel who were in the darkness pathway, the passive skill of darkbringer gave them automatic night vision and the environment was as bright as usual.
"Always make sure you are within the dome's range at all times and cast spells only when necessary." Damon explained to the team.
Because of the number of students, Damon had to increase the artifact's range of effect, but doing so required more mana to keep it active.
Also, because the range of shadow cloak was increased there was a chance that its effectiveness would reduce. That was why he decided they stay on the safe side and minimized the number of spell cast.
With everything explained, the group of 28 students began moving away from the mana pillar towards the 1st hive.
From what the other teams had said the entire area around the mana pillar was surrounded by a horde of ants. So no matter the direction they went, it was still the same thing.
The group kept advancing slowly until they got close to the 1st barrier made up of thousands of ants.
Every inch of the ground was occupied by ants and hundreds of ants could be seen littered on the trees to make sure they couldn't escape from the treetops.
Amid the sea of ants, the group could see 2 ant generals. Their antennae were high up, scanning for the slightest hint of intruders.
The sight alone was scary, but the thought of ants of such size swarming over one's body and tearing it to pieces sent shivers down their spine.
"Stay together and kill quickly kill any ant that makes it into the dome. Remember to use as few spells as possible." Damon gave another reminder.
The shadow cloak concealed everything including sound, but once anything made its way into its range, they would be concealed and see everything within.
That was why whenever Damon was using it, He always made sure that the range was as thin as a halo on his body.
They began moving from branch to branch stealthily killing all ants around them.
Due to the outrageous number of ants that could be found on just a branch, the team was moving at a very slow pace.
'Even in my next, I will still hate insects.' Blake cursed as he continually used a single swipe to kill an ant.
Due to the fear of death, almost everyone had forgotten that the test wasn't yet over and that as they killed the ants their points were still rising.
The system had reminded and apart from staying amid many people that could ambush him, that was the main reason he was at the front.
For most of the students in the other team, it felt like forever as their hearts were racing as they were inching their way out of the ant barricades.
After more than 20 minutes they were finally out of the 1st ant barrier and were now quite some distance away from the hive. They were currently at the free zone at the center of both ant barricades.
Their journey so far wasn't that long, but it was quite stressful mostly because of the fear. So, the group had decided to rest for a few minutes before continuing.
"You know, we would have avoided this situation if we were eliminated before this." Layla said in a lazy tone.
(AN: Who can relate to Layla being one of those students that are lazy or claim to be, but end up doing well anyways. :)
'It is life and death situations like this that make us stronger than those who are always in the classroom.' Blake thought, but a part of him couldn't help but agree with her.
Although times like this made him stronger, he wondered why in significant events like this something would always go wrong.
(AN: You are the MC, what else do you expect? Lol)
"We don't have much time, we need to keep moving. Luciano said in an impatient tone as he stood up.
"I agree with him." Blake said.
The mana pillar was their hourglass, but the difference was that they had no way of telling when it would be over.
Knowing they had no say in when they wanted to continue the journey, the other teams hurriedly got up and were ready to leave, but that was when something unexpected happened.
The pieces of jewelry worn by most of the nobles let out a dimmed glow, and instantly it went straight to their pupils.
"Watch out!" Blake shouted when the system alerted him about the nobles charging up spells.
At that moment, different spells were fired at those who weren't wearing similar pieces of jewelry.
Luckily many had their guards up and were able to protect themselves thanks to Blake's warning, but the few unlucky ones who were hit were fatally injured.
The nobles wearing the pieces of jewelry numbered 16, while the normal ones were now 9 due to 3 being fatally injured.
'What the fuck is going on here?!' Blake had a confused expression as he conjured a mana barrier blocking the spells that were aimed at him.
He had expected and prepared for the other teams trying something funny, but he was shocked when he saw even teammates attacking each other.
'They are all nobles, but are they trying to kill the commoners?' Blake decided to take cover and understand what was going on before acting.
[I doubt because they are also attacking Luciano.] The system observed.
'That's true… wow!' Blake looked over at Luciano and immediately went behind cover, dodging a wind blade.
[There are 2 options. Either they are tired of living to try to kill the emperor's son in front of the entire school or they are being mind-controlled.] The system said.
'I don't have much time. Tell me which one it is.' Blake said as he blocked lightning from Camilla with a mana barrier and moved to another cover.
If it was the first, Blake wouldn't think twice to take out his swords and slaughter everybody attacking them.
As for the second possibility, Blake would try his best not to kill them since they had no clue of what they were doing. But he wasn't an idiot to prioritize their lives over his and his friends.
Once he was sure he couldn't them, he still wouldn't hesitate to kill them. Besides, it could be categorized as self-defense.
[It's most likely mind control because they are emitting a faint energy similar to that of Ansgar when he killed the Knight-rank ant.] The system stated.
'That explains a lot.' At that time Blake thought that Ansgar was the most stupid person he had seen in both worlds.
'But, for mind control to work there has to be something transmitting the signal from the controller to the brain?' Blake asked.
The system was silent for some time as it began revisiting Blake's memories of all the nobles attacking them.
[I found it, their jewelries. If you can take it off then it should stop the mind control.] The system reported.
"…" At this point, Blake was considering if he should just go ahead and kill them because how the fuck was he meant to move around the battlefield removing rings, necklaces, nose rings, and earrings?!
There was the option of cutting off their fingers, ears, and pulling out nose rings, but it was too messy and he was seriously considering if he should just kill them.
[Oh fuck! Ants from both sides are coming this way!] The system reported the bad news.
'Are you kidding me?! Just when we are trying to solve a problem another pops up!' At this point, Blake knew he had to make a decision quickly.