The group, consisting of Samuele, Eliana and Federico, reached the flag and stopped, just as the masked man said.
Samuele observed the flag. The staff on which it fluttered had a magic sphere on the tip that illuminated the surroundings, also making the flag and the walls in front of them clearly visible. The former was the Italian tricolor with the coat of arms of the Guild of Lupi di Castiglione in the center on a white background. The walls, on the other hand, seemed to extend as far as the view allowed despite the darkness of the night.
"What do you think will be the next challenge?" Federico asked, crossing his arms. Samuele shrugged with a thoughtful expression.
"After what we faced, I expect anything." He said.
"Indeed..." Eliana began in an uncertain tone. "Nine of us entered the portal and all of us suddenly found ourselves divided. We fought a monster that definitely did not seem to belong to the Guild. How did they do this?"
Samuele began to reflect on this. As Eliana said, they had managed to bring in a ferocious beast, for them, of a high level. How did they do it? Did they simply capture him and bring him "on a leash" to that place? And it wasn't just that. Why not consider the root of the problem? The portal. They used another world to support the examination. What about the quest? Samuele opened his eyes wide at the realization. The usual notice from the System that there is a quest as soon as they enter the portal this time had not appeared. Did it mean that the quest had already been completed? If so, then why hadn't it closed yet?There were too many questions going on as he thought about this crazy exam.
"The only thing normal about the challenge seemed to me to be the masked guy. I assume he's a Guild member." Federico added.
"That's the only certainty we have." Eliana joked, giving a shy smile.
A noise interrupted their conversation. They turned toward it and saw a door forming out of nowhere.
The three boys looked at each other uncertainly.
"Is this the next challenge?" Federico asked no one, since he knew the others did not have an answer either. They walked over and observed it. Samuele found himself standing in the center of the group, and both Eliana and Federico looked at him expectantly.
Samuele, who noticed them, sighed slightly and moved his hand toward the doorknob. He was not, however, in time to grasp it that the door opened by itself. The three snapped into a defensive position, waiting for who or what was hiding on the other side to show itself in front of them.
Samuele's body relaxed when he saw that it was Manuele who opened the door.
"It's you..." Samuele said with a sigh.
"You too with that tone?" Manuele asked annoyed at the way he had practically greeted him. It was the second time that day that he had heard someone refer to him in that almost disappointed tone. He walked through the door and allowed the others to pass as well. After him, a stout man about six feet tall passed by. This one looked at them with disinterest. After that, another boy with a clearly visible birthmark on his neck passed by. This one showed them a smile and introduced himself.
"You are the others in our group, right? My name is Diego, nice to meet you." He introduced himself, extending his hand toward Samuele, who shook it, then moved it toward Eliana, who reciprocated with slight shyness, and Federico, who showed a confident smile.
"My name is Federico. This is Eliana and he is Samuele." Federico said, making introductions for the whole group. Eliana nodded respectfully toward the other group, while Samuele waved.
"The big guy with the pout you see behind me is named Tommaso. Don't worry, he may look aggressive, but he's actually shy." Said Diego with a playful smile, receiving a low growl from Tommaso.
"My name is Manuele. Nice to meet you." He introduced himself last, the first to walk through the door.
Another noise caught their attention. Samuele's group, this time, turned toward it without raising their arms, but only with curiosity. The other three present, however, turned much more surprised than they were.
Through the gap passed two girls Samuele knew and a boy with a ukulele on his back.
"And here is the remaining group." The boy with the birthmark on his neck, Diego, said, scrutinizing all three with a smile.
"And here I thought we would be the first ones to pass the test." Said the boy with the ukulele, almost disappointed. Then he smiled and introduced himself. "Hello, everyone. My name is Paolo. The young ladies behind me are Lucia, and Sofia."
Sofia looked at the Adventurers and stopped at Samuele, giving him an enthusiastic smile and heading toward him.
Samuele gave her a simple nod of greeting and returned the smile. "How did it go?"
"Well, all things considered. I thought the test would be more difficult." She answered him.
"It was only the first one. We still have to go through the other challenges..." Samuele thought aloud.
"I hope the next one will be the last. The anxiety is eating me up inside."
Samuele softened his gaze. He understood her. Sofia had spent who knows how much time dreaming about the day she would enter this Guild. The girl did not even want to imagine what she would do if they rejected her.
"I see that all of you have made it this far." A loud male voice was heard by everyone. Everyone turned toward it and saw a familiar figure.
From the top of the walls, Alberto Ricci stood observing each of the Adventurers with a haughty look. "I don't know whether to consider it skill, or just plain and blatant bad luck." He said in a mocking tone. "Either way, it doesn't matter, because, at best, only a few will make it through the next challenge."
Everyone, those who hid it better and those who did not, looked nervously at the Guild leader's right arm. Sofia, unconsciously, moved closer to Samuele. Her gaze showed more than anyone else the absolute nervousness that the words spoken by Alberto Ricci had generated in her.
"Oh, yeah?" Said Tommaso in a cheeky tone. "And what would be the next challenge?"
Alberto looked at him for a few seconds, as if to assess him. "The better question is WHO." He said, drawing puzzled looks from all of them. Some, they began to understand what he meant by those words and paled, including Samuele and Lucia, with the latter taking a step back. Alberto Ricci's gaze grew hard. "I am your next challenge." He jumped off the wall and landed in front of them all with a loud thud.
This time everyone stepped back.
"Impossible!" Manuele exclaimed, his face completely pale and drenched in sweat. "How could we possibly beat a level 80! None of us could ever pass this test!" His angry expression changed completely to one of utter terror as the eyes of the man in front of them focused on him.
"Beat me? You have misunderstood." Said Alberto Ricci. His eyes gave off an aura of coldness that chilled the spines of everyone present. "You just have to manage to survive. Go ahead and start running, little sheep."
Instinctively, some of them ran like hell from the area, aiming to get as far away as possible from the Level 80 Adventurer. The others followed suit shortly thereafter.
"The wolf will catch you anyway." He said with an impassive look. His eyes focused on the one Adventurer who did not flee from him. As he might have expected, it was the same one who had brazenly answered him earlier. The way he was looking at him and how he was trying not to tremble, closing his hands into fists, let him know that he was nervous. Nevertheless, he still did not run away. Alberto did not let curiosity about what he was going to do show in his expression and remained unflappable.
After a few seconds, Tommaso gave a fierce smile and darted toward his opponent to strike him with his two swords. Alberto immediately lost his curiosity and in the blink of an eye slammed the Warrior's face against the ground, causing cracks.
"Fool..." He said in a low voice, watching him struggle under his arm without being able to free himself. He grabbed him by his brown hair and threw him against the walls, breaching and sending him to the other side.
From further away, Samuele saw the scene and mentally cursed. He kept running, aware, as were all the others, that against him they had no hope. In that challenge, there was only to run and hope that the opponent would focus on another unfortunate.
Everyone understood this. Only the luckiest would be saved.
And it seemed that luck had deserted another one of them. Sofia dared to look behind her and a feeling of fear ran through her entire spine. Alberto Ricci was looking at her. The girl immediately turned her gaze back and ran even faster. Sweat ran down her face. Her breathing became faster, more intense. She knew it would be a terrible mistake, but she did it anyway. She turned her head in his direction again and, for an instant, her heart stopped beating. It was no longer there. She looked in other directions, but could not find him. Her mind full of anxiety mixed with nervousness made her stumble and she fell face first to the ground.
It took her a few seconds to lift herself slightly.
"Sofia!!!" She heard her name called. Her mind at that moment could not recognize that voice. But she sensed concern. She looked back for the third time and, this time, she saw him. Right in front of her, a few meters away, stood Alberto Ricci with his hand raised and closed, ready to hurl it at her. She could not stop her eyes from filling with tears. Her dream stopped here. He closed his eyes, waiting for the blow that would destroy all his hopes.
A blow, however, that never came.
Alberto Ricci was interrupted by an air slash that was hurled at him. Of course, he managed to dodge it without any difficulty, but it distracted him from his previous prey. He squinted his eyes toward the person who threw the slash at him.
Lucia ran in Sofia's direction and positioned herself in front of her, putting herself as an obstacle for Alberto Ricci.
"There is a very thin line between bravery and stupidity, and you have crossed it completely." Said the man coldly, insulting her between the lines.
Lucia brought her sword forward. "Is leaving comrades behind stupid in your opinion?" She asked firmly, looking at him across the line of the blade.
Alberto tilted his head, appraising his opponent. "Who knows." He replied with veiled amusement. A wooden stick appeared in his hand. "Show me what you are through facts." He exclaimed, before launching himself at her.
Lucia sharpened her eyes and parried with her sword the blow of the stick aimed at her head. Her arms trembled at her opponent's obvious display of physical strength.
'This is a level 80..." She thought, also sure that he wasn't even giving 100 percent.
The physical confrontation continued for several seconds. Lucia's arms were about to give up. She gritted her teeth and kept pushing. A scream of frustration escaped her mouth, and suddenly she felt invigorated, stronger than ever. Alberto's eyes widened slightly at the sight of her lightly pushing back against him.
Seeing that it was not worth pressing further, he decided to voluntarily lose the physical battle and backed away a few steps, allowing Lucia to catch her breath. The latter looked back and saw Sofia smiling gratefully at her. She smiled back and understood what had happened. The Healer had used her magic, "spiritual reinforcement," on the raven-haired girl.
Sofia approached her, took her hand and spoke. "If you fight, I will give you support." Lucia looked at her for a moment. This time, the girl was not afraid of the man in front of them. Her eyes were full of determination. "Running away makes no sense." She continued. Lucia agreed with her. She was clearly faster than they were. Running away and turning his back on them would have meant serving up their defeat on a silver platter.
Alberto Ricci was about to hurl himself at them, but had to stop himself from doing so when he saw a boy sprint toward him at high speed and try to strike him with his sword. Without any problem, he parried the blow with his wooden staff and squinted his eyes toward the reckless Adventurer.
"Samuele Rua." He recognized him. "And what category do you think you belong in, the stupid or the brave?"
Samuele did not answer him. He was surprised that that wooden stick had not yet broken in two with his blow. He had used "Timely Blessing" to approach him and "Ethereal Blade" to strike him with fifty percent more power. Yet despite this, that staff resisted effortlessly. It did not even seem to bend slightly.
"Samuele, what are you doing!" Shouted Sofia in amazement.
"I'm sorry. I left you behind." He told her, continuing to look at his opponent.
Alberto forcefully pushed the staff forward, sending Samuele backward and unbalancing him slightly. The level 80 Adventurer took the opportunity to hit him, but was again, for the third time, interrupted.
He was hit with a kick to the chest, forcing him back a few steps.
"I will not allow one of my comrades to be defeated." Federico said, striking a fighting pose.
"Thank you for the rescue."
"Don't mention it. We overcame a challenge as teammates. That matters a lot to me."
"All right, I'm getting tired." Affirmed Alberto with disdain. "Anyone else want to join?" He shouted, making his voice reach all the others who were still running away as well.
All of them stopped and watched as that group turned against their opponent. Some trembled, others looked on in amazement.
"If there are any other vacancies, I would love to join the party." Said Diego with slight amusement in his voice, approaching the group.
"I-I'll join too!" Manuele exclaimed, trying to gather his courage, although his nervousness could be seen. Then he saw Alberto Ricci's cold eyes turned toward him and tensed, smiling shakily. "I-if it's not too much trouble..."
"I join in as a knight for the two young ladies." Paolo said, stepping between the two girls and placing himself in front of them. Sofia and Lucia looked at him with a mixture of surprise and slight annoyance at his words.
"You are deluded. If before you had a slim chance of surviving this challenge, now you don't even have one. You have screwed yourselves with your own hands, and for what? For mere and useless altruism?"
"The opposite." Samuele spoke, then answering her question. "We have a better chance if we all unite to confront you instead of running away like frightened sheep."
"The situation doesn't seem to have changed much. Now you're just a flock of crazed sheep."
"And what can a wolf only do against a flock of crazed sheep?" Samuele countered.
"Uhhh! Let him cook, guys!" Diego exclaimed, laughing.
Alberto Ricci brought one leg back, twirled the stick in his hand and leaned his back slightly forward, putting them all on the defensive. "Why don't we find out?" The Level 80 Adventurer asked coolly, hurling himself at them immediately afterward. The target he aimed at was Samuele, having him right in front of him.
Samuele sharpened his eyes with extreme concentration and tried to anticipate his movements, which fortunately for him were slow enough to be observed. Ricci twirled his stick and aimed at his head with a side attack, but Samuele blocked it with effort.
Immediately afterward, however, a straight kick to Ricci's chest caused him to back away a few steps. It was Federico, who launched himself at him with a flurry of punches and kicks, which Samuele thought came from some martial art, but which were promptly parried and dodged by their opponent.
Alberto didn't have time to focus on him alone, for fairly quickly the attacks of all the others culminated on him.
Lucia, with her recently found dagger, tried to strike him from behind, but an elbow on his jaw threw her off balance.
From above, Diego sought an opening and hurled his fireball at him. The other Adventurers, seeing him, retreated a few steps, but Alberto swung his staff above his head at such speed that the fire did not reach him.
Manuele immediately took advantage of the moment and used his "Parkour" skill to increase his agility by fifty percent and attacked him with a slash straight at his stomach, but a kick to the stomach stopped him there and made him kneel on the ground in pain. The fireball meanwhile went out and Ricci returned to observe them all.
"You tried, it must be admitted. It wasn't enough, though. You had no strategy. You went against me hoping for a miracle that promptly did not come. Perhaps with this defeat you realized that four level 20 Adventurers are not enough to beat a level 80 Adventurer." He said, reviewing each of them.
Lucia got up from the ground helped by Sofia. "Are you all right?" She whispered to her worriedly.
"Just slightly dizzy, but I feel better now." She reassured her, still clinging to his shoulder.
"Less than two minutes to go. Let's end it here." Alberto Ricci communicated, making them all stand up straight. "You have failed."
It was a bombshell that made their hearts heavy as boulders.
"What?" Sofia asked in a low voice.
"Just like I said. You have failed. This happens if you fight against those who are much stronger than you. You tried to fight me to save each other's hide. Moretti's intervention first, then Rua and all the others. You thought that by doing so you would have a chance to win. You thought wrong. It does not matter how many of you there are if you have an opponent in front of you who is leagues above you. Quantity does not always beat quality."
"What should we have done, then?" Lucia angrily asked. "You put before us only two choices: run away or fight! Run away and you'll lose after a few minutes, fight and you'll still lose. What was the point of that?! This wasn't a test, this was just a way for you to make fun of us!"
"Do you think the portals you will enter will be fair? Fair? What would you do if a monster much more powerful than you came along? Would you fight or run? In either case, your chances of survival would be slim, but if you ran you would have a few more chances."
"Should we rely on luck, then? Let others die and hope that their next target is not me?
"Do you think that's wrong?"
Lucia opened her mouth, but did not respond. She incredulously shook her head. "What a senseless test... This is why only one Adventurer at most is admitted to each test? Because he has luck?"
Alberto Ricci remained silent, watching her with an impassive gaze. The others remained silent as well. They still could not digest the fact that they had failed. As Lucia said, it all made no sense.
"Say aloud 'I surrender' and you will be taken out of here." Said Alberto Ricci.
Samuele sighed and looked at Sofia, who kept her head down. He could not help but feel sorry for her. Not being able to get into the Guild was not a problem for him, unlike what everyone else there felt. What destroyed him inside was not being able to help Sofia realize her dream. He had promised her, yet he had failed. And now he felt bad for her.
He was about to say aloud 'I surrender,' but was surprised when he saw someone with two swords hurling himself at Alberto Ricci behind him. The latter did not expect a sudden attack, but he nevertheless parried the two swords directed at his head with his staff.
"Surrender? No shit!" Ardently exclaimed Tommaso Bellucci, the man Samuele recognized had always thrown himself at him even at the beginning of the exam. "I won't give up until it's over, and even then I'll keep fighting!" He said, continuing to throw slashes in the direction of his opponent.
Samuele's eyes went wide at his exclamation, and a thought crossed his mind. 'If we have all lost, why should we say aloud to surrender?' The answer was clear to him. They had not lost yet. It was just a test within a test. The whole speech he gave them afterwards only served to weaken them mentally and make them all give up. If they announced that they were giving up, only then would they lose the test. They were all still in the race, no one excluded.
"Let's all attack together! We can still win!" Samuele exclaimed and launched himself at Alberto Ricci using both 'Timely Blessing' and 'Ethereal Blade.' His solo attacks did not do much good, but his earlier exclamation, one by one, convinced all the others to keep fighting.
Alberto Ricci found himself inundated by all their attacks. They were few in number, but did not cause him any major damage.
Samuele silently complained. It was becoming irritating, as well as exhausting, to keep attacking him without any real strategy, but stopping was not an option. This was the only chance they all had to get to the end of the trial. Stopping would have meant giving them even more chances to take them down. He thought again, that wasn't an option.
All the while, Eliana remained on the sidelines. She was the only one who did not really do anything for the duration of this challenge. But she was only a healer; that was her excuse. Even so, though, what contribution was she making to her team? In the first challenge, she had managed to help Samuele and Federico against that monster by finding its weak point with the 'Analytical Vision' skill, but now...
She decided to give it a try. She had to at least give it a try. She activated her skill and looked for a weakness in Alberto Ricci. Nothing... But Eliana knew. Her skill worked as long as the opponent was not a level too far above her. And the man was. She clenched her fists, disappointed in herself for not being able to help.
She watched the fight unfold and saw in all of them the will to continue, not to give up despite the fact that the challenge was virtually impossible to win. All of them were struggling to make it through. She, on the other hand, had given up even before trying.
Suddenly, something jumped out at her eyes. Or rather, to the eyes of her skill, since he had left her still active. It seemed to her that it caught a glimpse of something, but in the midst of that pile she did not understand what it was. She quickly approached them and finally saw it clearly.
"The calf!" Eliana exclaimed. "Aim for the calf!" Her skill pointed to that area as her weak point. Since it was an opponent of a much higher level than her, her skill pinpointed it with difficulty.
From the angle at which Samuele stood, he was able to see her. About twenty meters away he looked at all of them with shining eyes. "Aim for the calf!" She repeated.
Almost no one understood why she made that statement, except Samuele and Federico, who immediately did as they were told. Obviously, however, her statement was also heard by Alberto, who clucked his tongue and paid more attention to the attacks directed at his calf.
Sofia used her 'Spiritual Reinforcement' skill to give a power boost to Samuele, who silently thanked her and circled around their opponent to cut his calf. Ricci noticed what she was about to do and concentrated her strength on him, but this allowed the others to attack him freely. Samuele came dangerously close to his calf and the man's eyes went wide. The Light Mage was not in time to hit him, however, that he and all the other companions flew and landed on the ground on their backs pushed by a shockwave that came out of nowhere.
As everyone stood up, a bell rang. It was very similar to that of the System, but this time it was not in their heads.
"Time's up." Alberto Ricci announced in an impassive voice, scrutinizing them one by one. "'Let's go back to the Guild.'" He then continued, turning to the other side and giving everyone their backs.
"Did we pass?" Paolo asked with a small light of hope in his eyes.
"You'll find out in a while." That was all he said, and the Portal to return appeared before them. One by one, all of them were relieved to finally get out of that place.
END OF CHAPTER.
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If Chapter 27 was the shortest chapter in this novel, this is the longest chapter so far. 4255 words without this note. Honestly, managing ten characters together was not easy at all. It could have been done better, but this was the best I could do.
If you enjoyed it, comment, review and leave a power stone.
See you tomorrow, same time, for the last chapter before the official hiatus of this novel. Bye (and happy Halloween to you all)!