Casmine Fedrek stood beside Noah nervously.
"H-hey, please treat me well" she greeted with a shaking voice.
Noah nodded.
Noah got into the same group with her and the other two hunters he did not know. There were a total ten teams and two teams will face each other for capture the flag game. Noah and Casmine were to face off against Blaze's team in the third game. Malik also got teamed up with other examinees.
"Heyy, let's win together"
He went to talk to his teamates. It seemed he had already befriended with them.
"Let's observe the first game carefully" he continued.
His turn was the second game.
Lucy was also with the examinees she was not acquainted with. But with her cheerful and enthusiastic personality, she took no time in making allies. Her game also the second one against Balor.
"I will break a bone or two of your body" she told Balor.
"Haha, try it if you can, the daughter of Yostar"
"I am Andrew, a fighter. We are in the same team. So let's try hard to pass the exam together"
A short hair swordman approched Noah and Casmine and greeted them with a smile. With worn out armor and long sword, his appearance was that of a typical average hunter.
"And this is Philis. He is a shooting type hunter. With you two, our team is complete"
Philis nodded in agreement. Philis was not wearing any heavy armor. Instead, he was wearing the clothes which make him easy to move. At the waist, there were numerous boomerangs about 5 inches were attached.
"I-I am Casmine Fedrek" Casmine also introduced herself and bowed her head a little nervously.
"P-please treat me well"
"Haha, let's pass together" Andrew said.
Then they all looked at Noah's face which was slightly covered with the scarf and the shadow from the hood.
"I am Noah. I am also a fighter"
Noah introduced shortly.
"You both are pretty strong huh?"
Andrew said with a fake impressed face.
"...."
"N-no, there are still a lot I am lacking" Casmine denied it desperately.
"Haha, don't be so modest. It is a good thing to have strong members in the team"
He already acts like the leader. Well, I don't mind it since he seems like he knows what he's doing.
"So, let's choose the leader for the team first" Andrew said.
"Well, I don't mind Mr.Andrew being the leader" Philis who had been quiet till now spoke up.
Casmine looked at Noah with a nervous expression.
"...."
Why are you looking at me?
"I agree"
Noah's reply surprised Casmine.
"T-then, I also agree too"
"I totally thought that person is the type who would never work for anyone. But to think, he chose someone to be a leader instead of leading the team himself"
Casmine thught as she gave her vote to Andrew.
"Haha, It makes me happy to recieve the agreements from all the memebers of the team. I will try my best to lead this team to pass the hunter exam"
Andrew lowered his head to show his gratitude.
"Okay we will start the phase 3 of the hunter exam"
Balor announced.
The location of the exam was in the small forest outside of Brklin. Between Brklin and Mountain of Calamity which lies at the north east of Brklin, there is a distance which takes 13 days on foot. The desert is so wide that there are still area covered with sand near Brklin city. So, outside of Brklin, there are forest, desert and rivers around the city.
Apparently the forest that the exam was taking place belongs to the ministry of hunting for exam and training purposes.
"There will be one flag for each side. You will have to defend your flag while trying to capture the enemies' flag at the same time"
The forest which would later become the battlefield of the examinees was about 8000 meter square area and it mainly includes three parts: the right part which has a shallow stream flowing, the middle part which is mainly made of green forest and the left part which is the dry and sandy field. The left part which is the plain land is part of the wide Infernal desert so there was a white line drawing on the field to mark the end of the territory of the exam area. Just outside the line, there was a tall wooden tower where all the actions happening in the territory could be seen clearly from above.
"Wow, it is so high"
Lucy said excitedly.
"We can see everything from here"
"The air feels fresh here" Malik said.
"What is that? You care more about the air's taste rather than the breathtaking scenery?" Lucy said mockingly.
Why aren't you guys with your team?
At the two ends of the forest lied the red and blue flags about a meter standing on a rock.
"Let's begin the exam. The first two team take your positions"
The first two teams went down the tower and took their positions on each side.
Blue team consisted of a fighter, a supporter, a ranger and a caster and red team's members are an assassin, a caster and two tanks respectively.
What kind of formations are that?
"Fufu, I bet you guys are wondering why the formations of each teams are not the same. To be a hunter, choosing the right party and combat formations are as important as the strength a hunter possess. So, by doing this, you have to think of the different strategies suitable for your party type."
Balor thought with a grin while looking at the battlefield.
"Both teams be ready for the first match of the exam hunter phase 3"
Balor shouted with a loud voice which could be heard from anyone in the battlefield.
"Begin!!"
The moment he announced that from the top of the tower.
Both of the teams began to start their movements.
For blue team, the fighter and the supporter were on the vanguard and moved toward the red team's flag to attack. The ranger was hiding in a place where their flag could be seen while the caster was standing in front of the flag guarding it. Their plan was to make the caster casts the spells which immobilize or slow the enemies and the ranger was to attack those enemies from the hiding place.
The red team's plan was simple. Because they had two tankers. Their strength to face the enemies head-on was very immense. Their strategy was to take a risk and only focus on attacking with all their power without defending. Two tanks on the vanguard followed by the caster. The assassin was to not show the appearance until it is needed.
The fighter and supporter of the blue team chose the middle road which was mainly the forest. Because there are only two of them, they chose the part where they could run away and hide in the forest. The red team was charging from the sandy plain.
Are they going to miss? If they miss each other, the red team is screwed because the attackers of the blue team can easily take the flag while the defenders buy time enough for it. But it depends on how well the caster and the ranger can defend the immense strength of the red team.
"Isn't making the caster defend kinda risky?"
Lucy said.
"Yes, caster are not durable like a tanker and they depend on the soul energy too much. If he is out of soul energy, they are done for"
Malik answered while wearing a thinking hard expression.
Boom.
With the small sound of explosion, it became dusty near the red team and a hole was dug from the inside of the ground to the surface. A hand came out of the hole and was making the hole wider. The whole red team was looking at that in awe.
After the whole became large enough for a person to go through, a man wearing a black cloth like a ninja and a black mask covering the mouth came out.
"Zayne, what happened?"
"They are in the forest charging toward our flag" The masked guy said.
"Really?"
"Yes, I can sense them with the sensory magic using earth element"
"We need to hurry then" the caster said in a hurried tone.
"Yes, you guys go on and attack. I will chase the ones who are going to our flag and stop them"
"Will you be okay alone?"
"Yes, they are a fighter and a supporter. I will ambush and take down the supporter first before they even notice. And buy some time against the fighter until you guys win"
"Then, their defenders are only a caster and a ranger. That would be easy"
They all nodded in agreement.
"Isn't this going too smoothly?" the supporter of the blue team said while walking behind the fighter in the forest.
"Yeah, but don't let your guard down"
"Ack!!!!!!!"
"What happened!?"
The moment he heard the piercing scream of the supporter, the fighter turned around and took the battle stance with the sword in the hand immediately.
There he saw the supporter struggling with something on his face. That was a spider.
"What are you doing?"
"Ahhh. Help me take this off"
The supporter swang the hands to take the spider off the face but it kept coming back and stuck.
"..."
"Help me. What are you doing?"
"Okay okay"
The fighter took the spider off with the hand and threw it away.
"Don't scream like that. What would we do if the enemies heard that?"
"S-sorry"
"Let's continue"
"Yes"
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