"You really need to bully him, don't you?" Thirteen heard Lixue's voice in his head.
"I spent a lot of effort just to be accepted by you while he can just swagger in like that. You can at least let me vent." He replied nonchalantly.
"Lixue! Still not yet?!"
Bai Shui has been running for almost 20 minutes, waiting desperately for Lixue's signal. A spike flew towards him. He heard the sound of the light shield blocking it behind him, but the thumping of his heart sounded louder in his ears.
Lixue rolled his eyes before answering Bai Shui, "Turn left before the tree in front you."
Bai Shui sighed in relief before following Lixue's direction. Lixue continued giving direction until he could see Bai Shui's figure appearing in his path.
When Bai Shui ran past the tree where he was hiding in standby, Lixue leaped out and accurately stabbed the beast's eyes. The beast roared and aimed its tail forward to Lixue. He swiftly held down its tail before it could shoot its spike. Just as it shot out, he pulled back his face and the spike flew upwards just a breath away from him.
Thirteen jumped out from another shadow and held down the beast's front with his knee. He put all his weight on it as he pulled out the beast's spikes he collected and stabbed them down one by one to the beast. His arm muscles bulged and stretched taut, showing how much he exerted his strength. On the back of his hands, veins were visibly popping out with his every stab.
With the two restraining it, the beast couldn't budge out from them. His movement gradually weakened before it completely stopped.
Not only Bai Shui, all the audiences that stayed to see the result were also jaw-dropped by their performance.
[WTF?! Did they really just defeat that Armored Alligator??]
[You're not seeing things. They really did hold it down using their own strength and send him to his creator with raw power]
[Aaa!! Little Prince is too strong!]
[That little scholar is also unexpectedly gutsy…]
[How the f*ck did he stab an Armored Alligator, I repeat, an ARMORED Alligator, with his strength alone??? It's unscientific!]
[Now I'm looking forward to their bath time… (¯﹃¯*)]
Both of them stood up from the ground. Their breathing was still stable and there wasn't any trace of tiredness on their face. Thirteen swung his arm around to loosen it up while Lixue curiously picked up a spike on the ground that was shot towards him earlier.
"Do you know? The bullets we used are made from Armored Alligator spikes. The higher its level, the better the quality," Thirteen told Lixue, "Gun factories, or more specifically bullet factories, have an area for raising Armored Alligator. They will make them produce spikes regularly to make bullets."
Bai Shui who was walking towards them heard Thirteen's explanation, "Is that why Armored Alligator can only be attacked by ordinary guns?"
"No, it's not related at all. If your bullet is made out of level 1 Armored Alligator, you won't be able to hurt this one."
Then, Bai Shui remembered what he originally wanted to ask, "How on earth did you manage to penetrate its skin?? Its scales are harder than rocks!"
Thirteen pointed at the beast's body that was stabbed in numerous places, "Nothing fancy. I took the spikes it shot out to you and used that to stab it back. You see those scales with lighter color? Those parts are weaker than the deep-colored one. Their spikes are the hardest and sharpest part an Armored Alligator produces. You can guess the rest."
"But still…"
Half-believing Thirteen's words, Bai Shui picked up one of the spikes Thirteen dropped on the ground. He poked the dark scales before poking the lighter one. It's true that it doesn't feel as solid as the darker one and he could also feel the meat underneath. He also saw that each of Thirteen's spikes was stuck in the lighter shade of the beast's body.
[Okay, let's just say what Little Prince said is true. But I don't believe a normal human would be able to stab right through it even if it's softer than the dark ones]
[Oh, look. That guy wants to try stabbing it!]
Bai Shui held the spike with both of his hands and raised it up high before swinging it down as strong as he could. The result was he couldn't penetrate it at all and only pain penetrated his throbbing hands and wrists.
"I recommend you don't try it with your amount of muscles." Thirteen belatedly warned.
[LOLOLOL]
[I bet a hundred credits that this guy did that purposely LMAO]
Bai Shui has an inexplicable feeling Lin Shisan was targeting him intentionally, "If you can defeat it easily like this, why did you even tell me to bait it??"
"We need someone to catch its attention. If not, Lixue wouldn't be able to blind it. And if it wasn't blind, I won't be able to attack." Thirteen shrugged as if stating the obvious.
"And why did it take so long?" Bai Shui pushed.
"Because we needed to prepare our heart. If we weren't ready, we wouldn't be able to smoothly execute it, right?" Thirteen smiled at Lixue.
Lixue didn't spare him a glance. He focused on plucking out one of its teeth after pulling out the 2 knives dug into its eyes.
"Right! Huang Lixue can also run fast and more agile than me. Why was I the one who had to do it?"
That Queen right there wouldn't want to do such exhausting pointless thing, not to mention as a bait. But it wasn't like Thirteen could say that. After all, the whole point here was really only to bully this guy. If it was just the 2 of them, defeating that Armored Alligator would be even simpler.
"What are you talking about? Look at him. True, in terms of agility he is fast and nimble. But he doesn't have enough stamina to do it. His speed is better to be used for surprise attacks, like earlier with the Crystal Rabbit."
"What about you?"
"I'm strong but I also lack stamina. In short, you're the best role for it," Thirteen patted Bai Shui's shoulder, "Give it up."
Bai Shui couldn't think of anything else to say and could only reluctantly accept his fate. He prayed that they wouldn't need to use this strategy often.
In the ship, Long San was watching the whole feed in an exclusive control room prepared for the practical exam. With him were the personnels in charge to monitor the groups and alert him if any emergency happens.
Sitting next to him was Yi Xieyan in the middle. He was on his General's right and Xiao Huiqing on his left. In front of each of them was a monitor for them exclusively to watch any group they wanted personally. While in front of the whole crew was the biggest screen displaying every group from the deployed drones.
Long San's screen was displaying Lixue's team. Because of Thirteen's attitude before they board the ship, he successfully attracted Long San's attention. He has been following their team since arrival and he was honestly quite impressed by their performance.
"Not many people know about the material made the currently most common bullets. This candidate…Lin Shisan must've had quite a passion at least regarding guns or firearms." He commented.
"But is it really possible to stab right through a level 2 Armored Alligator like that? If using mecha it would be effortless to skewer them. But with raw human strength? Though it was using the beast's own spike, doesn't it require an immense amount of strength?" Xiao Huiqing felt disbelief.
"You have someone right next to you who can single-handedly fight level 5 Armored Alligator and stab level 4 of those things. It's not that strange to finally find one who can stab a level 2."
"But General Yi is an awakened human. It's not strange for them to have super strength. Does that mean this Lin Shisan is also an awakened?"
"…You have a point there," Long San turned towards Yi Xieyan, "General, what do you think?"
Throughout the exam, since they sat down in this room, Yi Xieyan hasn't uttered a single word. He was always on the quiet side so both Long San and Xiao Huiqing didn't pay too much attention.
But when Long San turned to ask, he saw their General was watching his monitor with single-minded devotion. He seemed as if he was both focusing on what was happening on the screen but also as if his mind wasn't there at the same time.
Yi Xieyan stared at the monitor in front of him. His fingers unconsciously rubbing his thumb in a rhythmic motion. He savored each movement that figure did in the past hours. That person's action, his reaction, his expression, without letting any second detail escape his eyes.