"DONG! DONG! DONG!"
The sound of a bell reverberated throughout the Sect. This was the alarm bell which indicated that an emergency situation had occurred, and naturally only 1 thought was on everyone's minds at the moment. 'Its begun.'
Immediately each and every Skyward Sword Sect disciples emerged from their huts, and pavilions and rushed towards the Clear Sky Plaza. This was where the disciples were told to congregate in case of an emergency situation.
Wang Tian, had also heard the alarm bell and rushed towards the plaza. After all while he was somewhat arrogant, he also knew when it was appropriate to do as told. Arriving at the Clear Sky Plaza Wang Tian's eyes immediately darted around before landing on a flag with the number "3" on it.
He then walked towards the flag falling into the line that had already been formed in front of it. As soon as he lined up, he could hear signs of relief from the disciples in front of him. It seemed they were happy to have someone strong like Wang Tian with them for what was to come.
Time quickly flew by, and five minutes later the 4 Elders and Su Jian appeared in front of the disciples. Immediately all attention was on them, the disciples looked towards them with some hope in their eyes, after all these 5 were the cornerstone of the Sect.
"Ahem! The Mountain Shaking Sect and Falling Rain Sect have begun their attack on us. Right now they are about an hour away from Skyward City. I won't lie to you, they have come full force with 1600 disciples combined and 9 Essence Condensing Realm experts." Su Jian announced, as immediately the disciples grew nervous.
"They are determined to wipe us out today, but do you want to die? If not then fight! They won't let any of us off so all we can do is fight until our last breath, every enemy you kill is one less comrade dead. You have all been divided into 10 Squads each headed by a Core Disciple you are to follow their commands and retreat into the Hissing Forest until further notice."
Hearing this the disciples, although still somewhat scared, had a determination to fight. None of them wanted to die after all, so they'd fight if that's what it took. Those who had ventured to the Hidden Space were very sure of this as well, after all they had interacted with the other 2 Sects in the competition and they were less than friendly to say the least.
After saying this Su Jian and the 4 Elders began approaching each Squad one by one. While they were called squads, they were quite large consisting of about 100 disciples each, naturally it would be quite hard to control and keep cohesion but it was the best they could do on such short notice.
A few minutes later the Elders and Su Jian approached Squad 3. "Listen up, this is Fang Boqin a Core Disciple at the 9th Layer of Qi Refinement, he will be your Leader for the upcoming battles. You are to obey his commands to the best of your abilities. He will also protect you all as best as he can." One of the Elders explained before pausing.
"Also, your Vice-Leader is Wang Tian, a newly promoted Inner Disciple. While he is only in the 6th Stage of Qi Refinement I am sure most of you have seen his prowess during the Ranking Battle. His exploits within the Hidden Space have also been tremendous and because of this we have decided to make him the Vice-Leader of Squad 3." The Elder continued locking eyes with Wang Tian.
Immediately he felt some pressure, he hadn't been informed that he was going to be a Vice-Leader but he decided to simply accept it. 'Naturally being outstanding comes with its rewards and responsibilities.' Wang Tian rationalised before stepping forward.
Fang Boqin was already at the front of the line, so he thought it to be appropriate to be further ahead, at least to introduce himself. "Hello everyone, I am Wang Tian your Vice-Leader I hope we can all make it through this in one piece." Wang Tian introduced himself taking a slight bow.
"I am Fang Boqin your Leader, just as our Vice-Leader has said I hope we call make it through this together." Introducing himself Fang Boqin likewise bowed. While the Core Disciples had a certain level of prestige, not everyone knew their faces since they were in retreat most of the time.
Seeing that the two had everything handled the Elders and Su Jian moved on to the next Squad, leaving the 100 disciples to their own devices. "Ahem Senior I've never been in such a situation before so I'll be needing your help." Wang Tian whispered in a voice only Fang Boqin could hear.
"Don't worry about it, according to our strategy, we'll just need to hide in the Hissing Forest and if we do encounter any enemies then we must dispatch them as quickly as possible. So just fight." Fang Boqin replied.
While the man looked calm on the surface, it was clear to Wang Tian that he too was somewhat nervous. 'Well he's not that much older than me, and I doubt he's ever been in such a situation before.' Pondering the situation Wang Tian then begun to discuss strategy with Feng Boqin.
The two then asked each of the squad members what their cultivation base was before dividing them into 10 columns and rows with the weaker disciples in the center and the stronger ones on the outer edges. It was decided that Feng Boqin would stay at the forefront of the formation with Wang Tian at the rear. To the East and West of the formation was 1 8th Layer Qi Refinement disciple on either side.
With that Squad 3 was formed properly just in time for them to depart, as a few seconds later the signal to retreat into the Hissing Forest was given.