Souta was standing in the middle of the campsite of the Mage Class 1-E while holding their red flag.
He looked in the sky and wondered how the other classes were doing. He already collected four red flags in total. He doesn't need to worry about his class red flag. As long as he kept gathering red flags at this pace his class will score the highest in this special test.
Turning his head, he saw Lynn was holding the four red flags in her hands.
Lynn approached him and said, "This is our fifth red flag."
"Yeah, let's increase our pace in gathering the red flag of the other classes." Souta nodded and said. He stretched out his hand towards her.
Lynn grabbed the red flag that he was holding. She took it from him as Souta gave her the task to hold the red flags that they collected while he was fighting.
"You're incredible, Souta!" Lynn said while looking at all the red flags in her hands.
"Hmm...?" Souta turned his head and looked at her with a questioning gaze.
"I couldn't do this alone. You're strong and powerful. You can do a lot of things that I couldn't do." Lynn said as she lowered her head.
"Hmm... There's a lot of things that I couldn't do. If I could do anything then I wouldn't bother myself to enroll in this institute." Souta paused for a moment. Then, he added, "Also, you're helping me hold that flags. I couldn't fight them if I have to hold that flags."
"Really?" Lynn looked at him with bright eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, so don't think about anything else," Souta said.
"Okay, I will follow you." Lynn nodded at him.
"Let's go now," Souta said as he looked in the sky.
"Okay," Lynn said as she stood beside him.
Souta wrapped his right arm around her waist before he jumped in the air and used [Air Walk].
'This will be great if he's carrying me in a princess carry.' Lynn thought as she lifted up her head and looked at Souta's face.
Souta looked at her as he felt her gaze on him. He opened his mouth and asked, "What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing," Lynn said as she shook her head. She then smiled happily and thought that this was not bad at all.
...
Bryan, George, Joshua, and Clyde were together in one group. Clyde was the one who's commanding the group even though Bryan was stronger than him.
Everyone knew what's Bryan's personality. He was reckless and always got in trouble. He's not suited to command a team with his personality.
Bryan also knew that he wasn't suited to become a leader. He also found it boring to command other people. That's why Clyde took charge of the group. He was stronger than George and Joshua. Also, he wasn't a reckless person like Bryan. So he's quite suitable for it.
Currently, they already have two flags of the Lance Class 1-E and Healer Class 1-D. Bryan was strong among the first year as he was the top 12 ranker. He could handle a group of people who ranked below 100.
"We've already got two flags," George said with a smile. He was a man with white hair and rabbit ears. He's one of the beast folk. He was an expert in using earth magic and crowd control spell.
"Yeah." Joshua nodded at him. He was a man with dark skin tone and long pointed ears. He was a wood elf that lives in the northern part of the continent. He's an expert in using wind magic and buff spell.
He was holding the two red flags that they collected.
"It all thanks to Bryan." Clyde gave the credits to Bryan. He's a human just like Bryan. He's an expert in using dark magic just like Souta.
"Hehehe, don't worry about it." Bryan laughed awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.
"You are really the top 12 ranker of the first year," Clyde said.
"That's nothing compared to Souta. I'm sure that Souta already gathered a lot of red flags." Bryan replied with a serious expression.
George and Joshua looked at each other when they heard him mentioned Souta. They smiled wryly and sighed.
They knew that Bryan wanted to defeat Souta out of all people. He admired Souta's strength the most. In the ranking battles, he fought Souta a lot of times but he never experienced a single win. He was always training to surpassed Souta but Souta was getting stronger and stronger.
"Yeah, Souta's power is entirely on a different scale than us." Clyde could only agree at his words.
Souta was their classmate, so they have a vague idea of how strong Souta is. But that's only vague. They don't know how powerful he is currently as Souta didn't even use his full strength when he was fighting in the ranking battle. And he still managed to reach the top 20.
"Maybe, he could fight the top 1 ranker," Joshua said.
George and Clyde looked at Joshua when they heard his words. They could imagine what was going to happen if Souta fought the top 1 ranker.
"No, your underestimating Souta. I think Souta is stronger than the top 1." Bryan said as he placed his finger on his chin. He recalled what happened back then in the Desolate Woods. He smiled and clenched his fist. "But... I'm going to train harder and defeat him! That's my goal now! I want to fight and defeat Souta!"
"That's Bryan for you," Joshua said with a smile.
"Hahaha, as expected of our rank 12." Clyde nodded.
George suddenly grabbed Clyde's wrist and said, "Wait!" His rabbit ears were twitching as he heard several footsteps coming towards their direction.
Clyde looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"
"They're coming." George looked up and said with a serious expression.
"They...?" Joshua said.
"I don't know but I know that it's a group of four people like us," George said as he shook his head.
"Then, it's a battle," Bryan said with a smile on his face.
"Of course, we couldn't avoid that." Joshua nodded at his words.
"Every class is our opponents in this special test so it's unavoidable," Clyde said.
They prepared themselves for the upcoming battle. After a few moments, four people appeared in front of them. It seemed that this group already detected them before, so it's not going to work if they turned around.
But one person in the group surprised them.
A man with a small build and short brown hair. He had brown eyes matching his hair color and bear ears. He was Johnson McGill of the Brawler Class 1-B. The top 10 ranker of the first year.
Johnson smiled when he saw Bryan. He opened his mouth and said, "It seems that we met again, Bryan."
"Yeah, I'm quite lucky that you're the one who's going to fight me," Bryan said with a wide grin on his face. He clenched his fist tightly as he couldn't wait to fight the man in front of him.
Clyde looked at Bryan and asked, "Are you sure you can handle him, Bryan?"
"Yeah, I can," Bryan said as the determination to win ignited in his eyes. He will do everything he could to defeat the top 10 ranker.
Clyde knew that Bryan got defeated the last time he fought Johnson. There's a reason why Bryan, who like to fight strong people, stayed in top 12 ranker. It was because he got defeated by those twelve people in a one on one battle.
"Okay, I'll leave him to you, Bryan." Clyde nodded and said before he faced Johnson's comrades. He, Joshua, and George were going to fight Johnson's comrades.
"Give me those red flags first." Johnson smiled and dashed towards Joshua who was holding the two red flags.
"No! I won't!" Bryan quickly moved his body in front of Joshua. He pulled back his fist and threw it towards Johnson.
Johnson also threw a powerful punch towards Bryan.
Boom!!
Both of their punch collided. It caused a strong gust of wind to be swept out in the area around them.
...
Back in the Mage Class 1-B campsite.
Lumilia, Yujin, and Yuriko heard someone said, "It seems that our class is in trouble. Do you want me to help you Yujin? But... If you only use that then you would be able to fight longer and defeat her. You're just like me hiding his strength when it's unnecessary."
They turned their head and saw a man with shoulder-length dark purple hair that was styled on either side. He has sharp dark purple eyes that strike fear to anyone and he has slim and muscular body.
He was Randolf Fein, a student of Mage Class 1-B.
Randolf opened his palm and said, "Do you want me to help you, Yujin? If you want then let me see it."
"What are you saying, Randolf? We're in the same class, so it's natural that you help us." Lumilia said.
Randolf turned his eyes to Lumilia. After a few moments, he took back his eyes and looked at Yujin once again.
Yujin kept his mouth shut. He didn't have a plan to answer Randolf.
"Hais... At least I know that you have that power in you." Randolf sighed and said. He then stood up and patted his clothes. "Well, let me handle this one. Top 3 ranker, right? Then, show me how powerful a top fighter of this institute."