Despite the numbers advantage of their opponents, Rex and Cassandra were able to work together, stand their ground, and hold them back.
Paired with the fact that Rhode Foster was one of the favorites to win the graduation tournament, this was an astonishing feat.
Rex and Cassandra showed impeccable teamwork in this battle, and this was exactly what the academy sought by organizing the graduation tournament. This performance alone was enough to secure their future jobs if they were lucky.
As more time passed, the more natural Rex and Cassandra felt fighting alongside each other as they started retaliating against their opponents.
In no time, the stalemate started turning aggressive again as Rex and Cassandra fought to achieve the significant feat of eliminating one of their opponents when faced with a 4 vs 2 scenario.
Rhode Foster was astonished by the strength displayed by her opponents. Not eliminating the both of them immediately was already humiliating enough, the both of them retaliating even was the epitome of shame to her.
"Ahhh!"
"Die!!!"
Rhode Foster finally lost it, not able to hold it back any longer, she finally decided to reveal one of the trump cards that she originally reserved for later on in the tournament where the stakes would be higher.
"Advanced Light Skill: Speed of Light- 1st Move!"
Once Foster activated an advanced light skill, the tides turned instantly.
Every advanced skill was a big deal for mystic warriors of the basic rank, once Foster activated it, her already astonishing speed increased exponentially as she seemed to turn into a spear-wielding speed demon.
"Die!!!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
She only needed 3 super-fast spear stabs to dismantle Cassandra's defense. Another swift slash followed as she cut a deep wound through Cassandra's left cheek, before she could finish the job though, Rex intervened.
Against the best student of the sword department of the academy, Foster's astonishing speed proved superior to mastery of a battle domain.
She was so fast that Rex could hardly keep up with his basic swordsmanship not to talk of channeling his mystic energy. He was suppressed from start to end, and he finally suffered an injury once she infused mystic energy in her attack.
Whoosh!
Rex gasped in pain as the light energy attack radiating from Foster's spear cut a long wound across his abdomen, he rolled backward in pain, barely dodging the follow-up attacks of his remaining 3 opponents.
While Rex was already worried about how to continue dodging, he heard Cassandra's voice which at this moment was like an oasis in a dry desert.
"Move 2 inches to the left, and stomp down hard with your right foot!"
Rex obeyed her unconditionally. Mid-rolling, he stopped and moved 2 inches before stomping hard on the vine-filled forest floor with his right foot as a hole appeared which sucked him in the next moment.
Before Foster could follow, the hole closed up.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
A furious Foster attacked the vine till she tore it open. To her frustration though, the hole was a dead end, her opponents already escaped.
This was Cassandra's backup plan in her territory to escape. A clever Rabbit never had one hole, and Cassandra was a super clever one.
Foster released a mystic energy-empowered spear attack at the nearest tree to vent her anger as she just lost the opportunity to get juicy points.
While she gained nothing, both Rex and Cassandra gained 10 points each for surviving an encounter against more than 2 opposing students.
They lost the battle, but they got the points and won the war.
…
Ben Carter was having a pretty good tournament run so far, having managed to amass 30 points all from eliminating students who went up against him.
Unlike Rex's tournament strategy which fixated on meeting up with his friends and empowering themselves to qualify, Ben's strategy for the rampage phase was more similar to Cassandra's but also had a lot of differences.
Ben dubbed his tournament strategy the Click-bait Smut strategy!
After the setting for the rampage phase of the tournament became known, Ben immediately started thinking outside the box for more ways to qualify.
Like every other student, he also wanted to perform like a pro in this tournament, attract a lot of attention and get the best possible job that would set him for life where he could get all the girls that he wanted.
The strategy that he came up with was as carefree as his personality.
From Ben's experience with the male gender, one thing that he was sure of was that no matter how hard they tried to hide it, every boy had lewd thoughts and this was the reason why he decided to take advantage of it.
Before they were ferried to the Hillbilly Forest, he rushed to the nearby mystic shop where he got a mystic toy called the Photo-crop.
This toy had mystic energy infused inside it, and its only function was to project high-quality pictures into the air.
After buying the Photo-crop, Ben filled it with pictures for his Click-bait Smut strategy. Trust him, all the pictures were of beautiful half-naked girls in steamy poses, this was his killer strategy.
Once Ben was teleported inside the Hillbilly Forest, unlike his 2 friends, he didn't have to think too much since he already had a sound plan in mind.
The first thing that he did was understand his surroundings to mark it as his territory in the same way that Cassandra did. After this, he finally put his Photo-crop to work, projecting his steamy pictures at different parts of his territory.
Just 5 minutes in, his first prey was attracted.
The student knew that it was probably a trap, but the sight was too mesmerizing to pass despite the importance of the graduation tournament.
He wanted to satisfy his curiosity, and this brought his end.
For the first 20 minutes after he projected the pictures, Ben succeeded in attracting 3 consecutive students and eliminating them with immaculate moves. He was lucky not to meet any of the tournament favorites.
His 4th and 5th prey took far longer time to take the bait, but once they took it, though it took more effort, Ben still discarded them.
Now, Ben felt like a king as he vibed to a popular hip-hop song.
From his 4th prey, he started encountering the same problems that Cassandra suffered as the Hillbilly Forest was too big for the students to meet each other so often. Despite this, he was patient, he waited.
For his 6th prey, Ben had to wait 3 full hours before he appeared. As expected, his 6th prey was a boy again, the unexpected fact was that this boy was a student who Ben was familiar with.
"Duncan?"
Duncan, the blonde-haired youth chuckled ominously. "I knew it was you all along, Horny bastard!"
Ben blew his cover due to a moment of losing self-control, this was because he didn't just know Duncan, but because they were close buddies before.
Apart from Rex and Cassandra, Duncan was one of the few true friends that Ben had. The similarity that attracted the both of them to become friends about a year ago was the simple fact that they were both lovers of girls.
Ben loved girls, and Duncan loved them more, so they naturally flowed together.
This continued until Duncan got a real girlfriend, and he became blinded by love. Ben advised him against it but Duncan refused, his close friend, his buddy was gone.
Duncan was so consumed by love that he proposed to his girlfriend, but unfortunately, on the day of the purposed proposal, he caught her cheating.
Feeling hurt, lost, and torn apart, Duncan's love died but he didn't go back to loving all girls. Love left him, even the casual love for girls died entirely for Duncan.
Duncan became an anti-horny propagandist.
Duncan's obsession with this new goal became so strong that it became his way of life, it became his way of the mystic warrior specialism.
His battle style became adapted to fit anti-horny propaganda. He was a wind mystic ability user, but he switched from the metal rod battle domain to the not popular bonking rod battle domain.
Duncan was a master of the bonking rod battle domain.
Now, he stood before his friend with his bonking rod in hand, about to purge the evil spirit of horny that was residing inside Ben.
Duncan took no time to enter his battle stance.
"Duncan Sage Art: True Several Thousand Bonk!"
Mystic energy ready to purge horniness oozed out of Duncan's body.
"I am ready!"