The march has started, it's not the first time I've been part of a large group but this is the first time I've been leading a group that is marching towards a storm and at the end of it a cliff awaits. But what neither of us knows and if jumping off that cliff we're going to survive or we're going to be torn apart, it's very unlikely that we'll light up as we don't even have a method to fly, but I'm still hoping that in the end the principal will rescue us and stop our fall.
This is the best way to express what I'm feeling when I walk to the huge portal that is opening in front of me, our group is formed not only by my team and the teams of Ingredi, Vonin and Sindri that already makes us have a large size, but with the addition of the students without a team, we come to fifty-seven people. It is this number that caused the matrix portal to increase in size the way I expected, it became a sign that can be seen from the entire rune matrix.
The portal has expanded to almost eight meters in diameter, the colored light that distorts around the portal if it extends for more than ten meters from the center of the portal, it's a really big beacon that will announce our every move.
Passing through the scandalous portal that must have been designed exactly for this to happen, we were greeted by another field with few trees, the passage itself was easy and quiet, but what worried me and what will happen when the portal closes and at this exact moment moment the last students are leaving the portal and the clear sky has just literally darkened.
When a storm formed a black origami and a green one came towards me. This is unheard of, but as far as I can tell the green must be a message from the examiners and the black a direct message from the principal who is coming to rescue us or she may simply want to cause more chaos. In the end I have no idea what she's going to do.
The first one to unfold was the green one and picking up the paper to read, I was squeezed between my teammates, Sindri and Vonin beside me and Ingredi and Hilda next to my shoulder. This is uncomfortable and unexpected.
'Congratulations on leading fifty-eight students to the blacklist of this test, breaking the rules will always have consequences and they've already started. The sky isn't just a reflection of our mood, it's actually a very special golem that you have to defeat to get out of this rune matrix."
'This is only your first punishment, you will have to face and suffer while you are together in this large group, all the other students who are obeying the test rules are getting a warning that your group has been blacklisted and its location and how many students are in the group and that role will be updated several times during the test and you won't know when it happened, so good luck trying to hide.'
The green paper caught fire and its ashes fell to the ground and everyone glued to me was annoyed with the examiners, if they could reach the examiners a pitched battle would have started, but this is something that should be left for later, now is the time to read the letter from the principal.
'You and a really fun young man I already expected a group like yours to show up, but I didn't expect that four of the ten leaders would lead would blacklist leading this group. Me giving you the color black turned out to be a funny coincidence, when you unite the other three leaders under a black flag."
'But now to the serious business, the examiners were irritated by the speech of the dwarf who has more beard than he should for his age. Remember that examiners in general are green and orange core mages, talking shit to that kind of person is complicated, academic mages are very sensitive to words that come out of a warrior's mouth and even if that warrior is a small child, they will still be annoyed, that's not a joke about dwarfs.'
'Their dam's power will be up to test standards, but since I knew the test would be resolved by large-group brawls, the power of their future obstacles won't be something a few dozen warriors can defeat. You have depended on your leadership skills and strategy to make your group fight efficiently, if you fail at this, I will not blame the students' deaths, but try not to make me waste too much of my time with endless paperwork.'
'It's before I forget and I have to remind you of one thing, don't kill other students and win these fucking kids war. I'll send you a warning message twice, there won't be a third help, so destroy the elves and win the test when their advantage isn't too great."
It's like this one more paper catches fire in my hand. The director really likes more level games, from her tone I can speculate that she wants a great show to finish this test and I hope to be the final winner of this bout.
I look up at the clouds as my teammates are debating the information from the principal's letter. It appears that the golem is from the lightning and wind element, a large amount of these two elements is being concentrated and joined by a large amount of mana.
The shape of this golem is not humanoid, its body is very wide and its head is not human-shaped. The golem is forming as a lightning storm and wind solidifies to form its body, it seems that this is the golem manipulator mage's revenge.
A golem in the shape of a bull appeared a little over a mile away from us, and he was already ready to make his way towards us, but I doubt he'll come calmly. He's summoning a layer of lightning and wind and has started running towards us.
I turn to my companions who are admiring the husky and golden bull.
"Who will block the bull?
"We don't have a shield warrior capable of blocking this thing, Ulric."
They calm her in front of the wave of lightning that wants to screw us, and a unique phenomenon.
"Then let's dodge, I'll be bait, the fighters of the wind element or those who are quick take the mages and the rest should be able to pull their own weight out of the bull's way. Earth element mages must make barriers or screw the ground in front of us, the wind and shadow element mages must tie the bull."
"The rest of the mages bombarded him with offensive magic, not even a warrior should approach him. I'm going to need a help from the wind mages, which one of you know a support spell use in mins to increase my speed and I'm going to need a tough fucking shield, who's going lend me one?!"
Even before I know it, I have three shields on my body, it's lucky for me one of them and an elemental wind shield. I don't think any of the warriors who own these shields want to go near this bull, but this elemental shield will help me a lot as I'm now being targeted by three wind element strengthening spells, surrounding my body with a huge amount of wind element.
I feel extremely light to the point of looking weird. The purple golden bull comes straight towards me, he completely ignored the other students walking away from his path. Now that I'm sure he's controlled by the same person who controlled the elemental golems my group encountered before, he must have been very angry when I destroyed theirs even before they managed to form his body, I think I hurt his pride.
I started running backwards to increase the distance between the two of us, but my speed is not much faster than the bulls, after all he has a body formed by the element wind and lightning, neither one of those elements and famous for being slow.
The earth mages unleashed their magic to destroy the terrain I was on, it turned into a swamp that was bombarded by lightning as the bull approached. I can't say I didn't expect the bull to act in a smart way, but he's really not kidding he burned the newly formed swamp to the point where it solidified again.
Now the bull came towards me I started to dodge at an angle and the bull continued to follow me as he was attacked by various spells, some aura blades and the elemental attacks of the warriors. The energy surrounding the bull slows it down a little, but this did not happen simply because of the attacks that hit it, the bull released a purple beam of lightning towards me and I create a crater near me, if I had deviated from my previous trajectory, I would have been hit by that attack that produced it a damn crater.
The principal didn't say that the enemies' power level wouldn't be much higher than ours, that shot was capable of charring most of the students. Even a damned shield warrior would have been seriously wounded blocking this blow, I'll turn to toast if hit directly by one of those attacks.
The mage who is controlling the golem continues his plan to chase me as it is an effective plan, the other students can't get too close to the bull because it's dangerous and this limits the damage the golem is taking from mages and warriors, it's like my stamina isn't much lower than an elemental golem I'm bound to get caught if I hadn't zigzagged across the field preventing the golem from gaining speed.
The golem's body sways from side to side following me and the mage who controlled it got even angrier, the golem started firing more energy attacks even stronger in my direction. He doesn't care about the waste of energy the mage looks like he just wants to see me get fried, and his aim is improving one of the shields I've been using to protect me from the elemental energy that's dispersed by the new type of lightning bolt, the metal and wood shield is already peeling its lightning-burned upper shell.
Impasse was broken when I ran towards the golem and dodged it with a blast of wind, but I still had my arm and body lightly burned by the lightning and the first shield had to be dropped, I made this risky move to change my direction and power. go towards my companions who were motioning for me to go towards them.
I hope they came up with a plan, behind me a huge thin wall of earth formed. That wall obviously wouldn't be able to block the bull, it's just there as a curtain so the bull can't see our group.
The sounds of the golem's lightning grow louder reflecting the fury of the mage who controls it, but he didn't lunge against the wall. He stood several feet away from her.
If it were a normal golem he would have charged against the wall, but a mage is controlling him now, even though he is very angry and his senses are limited to the golem's he still won't be an idiot to blindly attack a trap as blatantly simple as that wall.
This will give time for the plan my companions have formed, but I doubt the mage will be standing still for long, he will soon decide which option is the least risky for him, blow the wall or go around it.
Both options can lead you to fall into a trap, for beings the size of this golem bull the lack of mobility and ability to deal with complex traps and its greatest weakness. Being big is the biggest weakness of the bull golem and not his strength, if he had a more concentrated body he wouldn't have fallen into this kind of impasse.