"3, 2, 1 - Go" as soon as the declaration was given by the referee, our team's Elen lunged forward while Bedwyr and I were preparing our spells.
As I concentrated my mind, and felt the elemental world, a ball of fire was slowly condensing in front of it. It spew out fire and was growing bigger as time passed. In the end, it had become the size of a head.
This was the boost I got. A large boost in quantity instead of quality.
Besides me, Bedwyr was also gathering the elementals to make a row of vines emerge midair. They had a lush green color, with even some tiny red thorns on itself. It obviously wasn't to be used for attack.
Instead, they were there to make their attaching to others easier. Right after emerging, they stayed there and waited for Elen to make a move so that they could get close to their opponents.
Currently, both of the platforms have begun their match as the declaration to start had been given.
For their team, Kirt and Bedwyr had already prepared their attacks, now only waiting for Elen to set them forward and make use of them.
As for the entire platform, strangely, the other teams were looking cautiously at them while slowly approaching them; there was no one who approached them in an abrupt and sudden manner as all of them was afraid of the sudden attacks of this team.
After all, even though the team seemed to be the weakest with their dendro member, they didn't know about the other two. Especially with the sword the geo girl was holding, they were more and more cautious in their movements.
"1, 2, 3" unconsciously, Kirt started counting the time inside his head.
This was his habit to gauge certain things and see if there were anything abnormal.
"5, 6.." as soon as he had counted to 6, Kirt suddenly felt an explosive force erupting behind his back.
A quick change in expression occurred to Kirt as now, his expression had turned awful and his body was currently facing his backside - the other platform.
Not only Kirt, everyone on the platform looked towards the source of the explosive power with varying expressions. It was as if they had suddenly been thrown into a tub of cold water; the sensation of that power was extremely obvious and distinct to their senses.
The approaching teams stopped in their steps as they all looked towards their front.
Their faces stayed the same as it was but in a few seconds, after they saw the scene of the other platform, it slowly turned out to change in a drastic manner.
From Kirt's eyes, he could see three, four, six black tendrils, like the tentacles of an octopus reaching out into the platform. Their outer surface was smooth and was filled with the dense smell of the elements, indicating they were the production of elements.
They didn't look disgusting at all to Kirt, but seeing them obviously gave rise to the thought of some stuff better left unexplained...
Each of them held a person and their hostages didn't seem to be enjoying it at all. They screamed in terror and had very awful expressions as their bodies were flung around the air casually.
Intense stomachache came to them, as their mind was overcome with chaotic thoughts and blankness. It was obvious they didn't like roller coasters much; well, anyone who liked to ride roller coasters maybe wouldn't like this experience either as...
"PUT ME DOWNWE" their bodies weren't just flung around the air casually; instead, the tentacles that were holding them even began to sweep around the platform, pushing and hitting people who were currently in chaos within the platform.
Their bodies were injured and there was even the possibility of serious brain damage although it wouldn't really be much likely due to the fact that the tentacles weren't very fast and strong.
It was made of elements after all, and with its caster's insufficient power, the only serious damage they could deal was throwing crashing its hostage into another thing or just releasing them from a high height.
For the situation within this platform, the first thought they had was to escape the platform; but even when they had left the platform, automatically losing the round due to the rules, the tentacles pursued them actively.
Just as one of the tentacles had directly thrown the one it was carrying and was about to grab one of the escapees, the referee came in front of it.
He wore a black robe with the symbol of the nation and had a white and red band worn on his left arm, indicating his status as a referee.
Even though the situation was sudden, the referee had time to react and reacting now was a very realistic situation.
The person had already lost but when another participant who hadn't lost yet was still pursuing him, this obviously was a break of rules. As the referee, he was obligated to act right upon any breaking of the rules.
So, he extended his hand and then immediately held the rogue tentacle. Once taken hold of, the tentacle instantly seemed to disintegrate before it was soon seen outside the hand's grasp.
This was a very flexible way of controlling the elements and to do this, one would have to have incredible control over the corresponding element, and the talent to execute it.
It had a life like squiggling movement as it instantly tried to take revenge and lunged directly at the referee. Its root started thick but it gradually turned thinner and at its end, it was thin and looked sharp.
At the moment, its end seemed to have become even sharper. It looked like it could totally pierce into the fleshy meat of humans. However, the referee who saw it was instantly able to escape, he had no damage dealt to him. Still, he held a shocked face before it quickly turned serious.
So, he concentrated his mind and his fist could be seen being coated with elements, now shining in a light blue color.
After one second, the referee extended his hand and along with it came a huge force that made the tentacle in front of him explode into bits and pieces. With its slowly vanishing figure, the referee seemed to hesitate a bit before getting something from his pocket and then clicking a button on it.
After that, he immediately went on top of the platform.
What happened next was obvious, the tentacles and the referee engaged into a battle but even as time passed, the referee was gaining little advantage over Oliver, the boy who was the person behind this chaos.
In this scenario, the best move would be to get rid of the host who is controlling the annoying tentacles. But, no matter how much the referee did try to do that, the boy would get away or the tentacles will block his path.
By the time he destroyed the tentacles, the boy would've gotten away and another tentacle would've emerged right around himself. It was just as if the tentacles were able to be unlimitedly made by him.
This was impossible but with the current outlook on the situation, the referee would likely lose his stamina before the creation of these tentacles stopped if he were to engage in a stamina battle.
The only weakness of the boy was that the number of tentacles that had been capped at 6. No matter how much the tentacles came out of thin air, their total number never exceeded 6.
It was a scene that made the students feel surprised and scared. The referee should be several times more powerful than them, but somehow, he was still unable to take advantage over the boy.
If so, how were they to fight them?
Perhaps, it would be the more wise decision to surrender as soon as they met him.
This also applied to those that had the power level of 4, 5, and perhaps, even 6.
"Pa!" at last, just as the referee destroyed yet another tentacle of the boy, two men with gray robes suddenly came onto the platform. The robes had a faint Nation of Phoenix symbol drawn onto it, but weren't much eyecatching.
The two were very quick and made barely any sound, making almost no one notice them; but the movements they made later instantly attracted all of the people's attention.
One of them instantly went up to the side of the boy and then drew out a sword from his waist. The sword was very exquisite and as soon as it was drawn, it fiercely cut down on the tentacle. As for the other, he stood away from the battle before he put his hand onto the air.
With all his focus concentrated on it, a faint line began to materialize in front of his hand.
"A formation!" as soon as Kirt saw what the person did and the line slowly condensing and leaving a trail to form a pattern, he knew what it was.
Since he knew what it was, he started to pay more attention on the formation than the battle that was ongoing. At first, it was only a dot but the dot started to draw itself, it was moving on its own and as it did, its traces became the new lines for the formation.
It was a four-circle formation that gathered the pyro element and then turned them into a few projectiles that will head towards the target. It had the outer appearance of four circles in the shape of a crystal, with connecting lines between each other and the symbol of Pyro right at the center of it - a rising flame with three dots at both sides and beneath it.
Four circles and within it were another two circles, that respectively had the symbols of an arrow and gushing wind. The wind symbol was actually pointing directly at the tentacles, standing out from the flat surface of the formation.
In fact, the formation even looked a bit 3D, not just flat overall but with actual symbols and objects that had depth. Also, the wind symbol wasn't the symbol of the anemo element.
Considering it was only cast in a few seconds, this ability was indeed worth looking out for although it may not be much dangerous when the attacks were coming in small numbers one after another.
After the formation was fully done, indeed as Kirt recognized, the formation glowed in a bright color just a split second before three projectiles condensed directly within the air. They had a bright red color and was spewing out fire from their body itself while having the shape of arrows.
All of them pointed at the direction of the tentacles, just as it was described in the lesser circle of the formation with the arrow in it.
*Whoosh*
The arrows traveled at a fast speed before piercing through the tentacles completely. The tentacle didn't dissipate but its movements still had been halted for a bit. As for the arrows, they didn't managed to pierce through the second one and dissipated into air.
It wasn't anything to be regretful about; as, soon, another 3 arrows came flying. After that there were 3 more and after that, another 3. After reaching the total number of 9, they stopped coming out.
It wasn't that the person was tired nor was it because it couldn't be cast anymore. Instead, it was that their targets had already vanished. Their master, or their controller, Oliver the boy, faced his own problem. Well, it wasn't exactly a problem.
The referee was now currently in front of Oliver and as he had nowhere to go, Oliver himself chose to surrender and raised his hands. With this surrender, the tentacles stopped coming out and those that held people within them immediately released them from air, not caring whether they would take injury from the fall.