A week passed.
With the resources he received, Lian's advancement accelerated considerably. He had more than enough ether crystals, herbs, and other materials to keep up his cultivation, with plenty left over.
After a week of nonstop refinement, he was already halfway to the peak stage.
Lian was sitting in class as usual when the teacher announced the practical exams.
This time, it would be a four-versus-four battle where each team had to defend a large crystal. The opposing team would try to break their crystal, while they had to do the same to theirs. The first team to destroy the other side's crystal would win.
Team formation would play an important role. Both offense and defense mattered, and the students would need to build their teams around abilities that complemented each other. A good strategy mattered more than raw strength in this battle.
During the break, the students were busy forming teams and discussing who they wanted to partner with. The two guys who usually sat next to Lian eventually walked over and asked Lian to join their team.
"We still had one spot left."
Lian turned them down. "I already joined a team."
The three of them looked disappointed and sighed. Bella then asked, "Who did you form a team with?"
"Kair," Lian casually replied.
The three exchanged a strange look. One of the guys spoke up. "You're new to Class D, so you probably don't know everything about him. Kair has a pretty bad reputation for bullying and getting into fights. The people he hangs around with aren't exactly good either."
"How did you two even know each other?" Bella asked.
"It just kinda happened. I guess I get along with people pretty well," Lian replied. "He's been pretty normal so far, at least from what I've seen."
The three warned Lian to be careful around Kair.
Later, Lian stood in the training ground with Kair, the fat guy, and the big-nose guy.
(Author's note: I'm not giving names to these side characters who appear once and never get mentioned again. I'm too lazy for that shit.)
Lian introduced himself and briefly explained his abilities before turning to the big-nose guy. "What about you?"
"I'm really good at archery. My arrows are fast, and once they hit something, they explode." He grinned. "Pretty cool, right?"
Lian nodded before looking at the fat guy.
The fat guy shrugged. "I'm good at pretty much everything."
"You'll have to elaborate on that," Lian said. "You're making it harder for me to come up with a plan and lead the team."
"Who says you're leading the team?" the fat guy shot back. "You're only Sequence 1."
"Well, yeah. Then come up with a better plan to win. I'm listening."
The big-nose guy immediately spoke up. "No, you should listen to Lian. During the last exam, he came up with an extraordinary plan. Both our teams ended up getting a flag because of it."
The fat guy cut in. "I'm pretty sure we can beat most people without his help. If either Kair or I leads the squad, that makes more sense since we're both Sequence 2."
Kair nodded. "I agree with him on this one. I want to try leading the team myself. If we end up on the losing side with no way out and you have a plan that can turn things around, then I'll let Lian take over."
"Yeah. Just sit back in the defense position and watch while we wipe out the other teams." the fat guy added.
And, for the first few rounds, that was exactly what happened.
Most of their early opponents were from Class D, so Kair and the fat guy had little trouble overwhelming them with brute force. Lian and the big-nose guy barely had to do anything. They simply stood in front of their crystal and watched the fights unfold.
This continued for a few more matches until they were finally matched against a team from Class B.
Unlike the previous teams, they had a strategy that could bypass the brute-force approach Kair and the fat guy had relied on until now.
Kair and the fat guy were getting pressured in the center of the arena. Their lack of coordination was becoming obvious as the enemy team rotated between them, attacking from different angles and constantly forcing one of them to defend while the other was pressured from the side.
Whenever Kair tried to focus on one opponent, another immediately moved in to cover them. The fat guy had already been close to getting knocked down twice, and another clean hit would likely put him out of the fight for good.
Just when things couldn't get any worse, one guy from the enemy team had already breached their defense and reached the crystal. He raised his hand and began firing ice projectiles at it.
The big-nose guy quickly fired several arrows at him, but the student was too agile, dodging every shot while continuing his assault.
Lian watched the situation for a moment before making his decision.
"Abandon the defense. We're going all out on offense."
The big-nose guy looked at him in surprise.
Lian continued, "If the fat guy gets knocked out, we'll be outnumbered. It'll be game over. We need to attack while we still have the chance."
Lian immediately took off toward the enemy's defense line with the big-nose guy following close behind.
The student watched as Lian and his teammate completely abandoned their defense line and rushed toward the enemy crystal. He glanced at the now-unprotected crystal and hesitated for a moment.
Should I attack it now? It's completely open.
The student stared at them, completely confused.
What the hell did these guys just do? Is this some kind of genius-level gamble, or are they just complete idiots?
Even the spectators were just as confused. A few started murmuring among themselves, while even the referee looked at Lian and his teammate like they had both lost their minds.
His eyes shifted toward Lian's team's crystal, now completely unguarded, before moving back to his teammate, who was facing Lian and the big-nose guy alone.
Should I go for their crystal, or help her before they overwhelm her?
He quickly made his decision.
Even if they outnumber her, it'll still take time to destroy the crystal. It takes around twenty hits from a Sequence 2 rune to shatter it completely. In the end, it all comes down to who can destroy the enemy's crystal first.
I believe she can hold them off, or at least buy me enough time to destroy their crystal before they destroy ours.
He turned toward the crystal and began firing ice spears. Small cracks immediately began spreading across its surface.
Meanwhile, Lian and the big-nose guy had already reached the enemy's defense line. The big-nose guy fired an arrow at the crystal, but before it could hit, a wall of water suddenly rose in front of it. The arrow struck the barrier and exploded harmlessly against it.
Lian raised his hand toward her. Around ten metallic hands formed in the air and shot toward her at high speed, each one trying to punch her. She dodged a few, but several still managed to hit her.
Meanwhile, the big-nose guy kept firing arrows at the crystal without stopping. She was forced to defend herself from Lian's attacks while maintaining the water wall around the crystal, making it harder for her to keep up with both at once.
Lian freely controlled the metallic hands, changing their movements whenever he wanted and attacking at irregular intervals. Every time she thought she had figured out their pattern, another hand came from a different angle, forcing her to keep her attention on dodging.
Another metallic hand suddenly shot toward her.
She rolled forward, narrowly avoiding it.
By the time she looked up, Lian was already standing in front of her.
The first thing she noticed was the blue glowing circle on his wrist.
Then, boom.
Lian activated the Interference Rune, disrupting her Ether flow and causing her to lose control of her rune for a few seconds. The water wall rippled and began to lose its shape before stabilizing again.
In those few seconds, several arrows slipped through and exploded near the crystal, but they barely damaged it. One of Lian's metallic hands also slipped through the water wall.
She looked at Lian and laughed.
"You shouldn't have abandoned your defense line to go all-in on offense. Look how little damage you've done while my teammate is already close to shattering your crystal. Give up, you have cha..."
A massive explosion suddenly erupted inside the water wall.
The barrier, which had formed a dome around the crystal, shattered instantly. When the water cleared, the crystal had been completely blown apart, reduced to countless fragments.
The destruction of the water wall rune caused a heavy backlash. Several of its components had overloaded from the explosion, and the some of the impact was reflected back onto her.
She collapsed from the blast and the backlash coursing through her body.
Her teammate, who was already close to shattering Lian's crystal, suddenly stopped and looked toward the explosion. Before he could even process what had happened, he heard the referee announce,
"Victory goes to Lian's team!"
The other students fighting in the center stopped as well. They turned toward Lian and the big-nose guy in shock, while the girl remained collapsed on the ground beside the shattered crystal.
The girl slowly got back on her feet, still looking at the shattered crystal in disbelief.
"Wait, how did you even do that? Your arrows shouldn't have that much explosive power."
"It wasn't me," the big-nose guy replied.
Lian cut in. "Remember that metallic hand that went through your water wall? I can freely control those hands just like my real hands. I simply planted an explosive at the bottom of the crystal, right where it was most vulnerable."
She immediately looked toward the referee. "Using explosives? This has to be cheating. There's no way this is allowed, right?"
The referee simply replied. "Unfortunately, it is. I mean why do you think I gave him the victory in the first place?"
Lian looked at her and said, "Too bad. You were this close to winning."
Then he turned and walked away.
Somehow, they had managed to pull off the win. But from here on out, every team they are about to face is only going to get harder.