"How much longer do we have to do?" a voice resounded, it sounded desolate and lifeless.
"I don't know, until he's satisfied," another voice replied.
"Hey! Don't speak too loudly or he might wake up", another voice hurriedly entered the conversation.
"Is there no way we can escape?" the first voice asked.
"No",
"No",
The two voices together responded without a hint of hesitation, almost as if it was a universal fact. At that moment, Kayden came out of his meditation and saw Carlos, Maria and Astolfo talking hidden in a corner of the bubble.
"Have you finished your training yet?" Kayden's words sent a shiver down the three's spines.
"We were just resting", the phrase was said together.
"I understand", a simple word seemed to hide a tone of threat. "Gather here, let's discuss our next fight." It had been 1 week since Astolfo joined the team.
At that time, Kayden preferred to introduce him to the team rather than fight other opponents. To do this, he made the members get to know each other and achieve a certain synergy between them.
"We will have to win at least 7 fights in 3 weeks. Our opponents will now all be at rank 6. We will no longer be able to use guerrilla strategies, now it will be a head-on battle."
This was Kayden's biggest fear before, but now with Astolfo on the team, he believed it wouldn't be too difficult to reach the top positions in the standings.
"Astolfo and Carlos will be the front line after Maria's barrage of spells, I will be the universal support and Jean will be the standard support." With his sentence, everyone agreed, each one was where they would do their role in the best way.
Kayden actually wasn't some kind of support, he would just go wherever he thought best suited to help. He was the only one who could play this role, as Carlos had no experience and Astolfo had to play the front line because of his technique.
A few minutes later, Kayden's team was in the arena facing one of the most unbalanced teams they had ever seen. The team at rank 12 had 5 attack mages in its composition.
They were all wearing black and red hooded clothes, it was practically impossible to discern any characteristics of them, not even their gender.
"Start", the voice of Lord Lucas was heard in the arena, starting the confrontation.
Simultaneously, the 5 mages launched spells of different elements against Kayden's team, from fireballs to icicles. It was simply a very large flood.
"Jean!" Kayden didn't even need to say anything else before a bubble engulfed the team, but it wasn't enough. Small parts were showing cracks, similar to broken glass.
"30 seconds, Kayden", the boy seemed to be trying hard to maintain the bubble, his teeth were clenched.
"As soon as it falls, I will use a Flash Bang , Maria, start your spells at full strength. We must take advantage of this time to get closer to them. Jean, finish 15 seconds early and use speed spells as support."
Quickly, Kayden took control of the situation and instructed his team on a simple and practical plan. He really wasn't the best strategist, his plans were limited to simple things, but well done .
"10 seconds," Jean warned.
Kayden's team began preparing. Nervousness was visible in some of them, but Kayden and Astolfo were relatively calm.
"5 seconds", the bubble had a large number of cracked pieces, it really couldn't last much longer.
"Get ready," Maria was already gathering a large amount of mana around her since the start of the match.
"3, 2, down," Jean's voice started Kayden's team's attack. The swordsman released a Flash Bang above his head, momentarily blinding the opposing mages. Because of the distance, it wouldn't last long.
"Transcendence," Kayden muttered to himself. And simultaneously, Maria started to cast her offensive spells.
As soon as they found themselves in this situation, a bubble similar to Jean's, but with characteristics of the water element, was erected on the other team. Maria's offensive spells arrived at the barrier.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to cause much damage, but that wasn't the intention. It looked like a flurry of pebbles hitting a lake, dozens colliding with the barrier causing the sound of torrential rain.
"Just let them spend mana," the opposing team leader ordered calmly. A few seconds later, the attack finally ended.
CRACK!!
When the rain stopped, a spear passed through the barrier as if it were made of jelly, the introduction of the blade causing a scream from one of the mages. The spear came down, tearing the bubble and revealing Astolfo with a macabre smile.
"Hello, little friends", his tone and expression made it clear that the boy had some serious personality problem.
Unlike Astolfo, his opponents didn't bother to chat and started throwing spells of different elements at the boy. What they didn't expect was for the spearman to simply retreat.
CRACK!
On the opposite side of Astolfo, a katana pierced the barrier and slid down, opening a tear the size of an adult.
CRACK!
In another position, a fist surrounded by rocks assaulted the barrier. This time, the number of holes was large enough for the spell to completely destabilize and disappear.
As agreed, Carlos headed towards the only wizard who wasn't casting spells, as he was probably the one maintaining the bubble and should be the most tired.
He was the largest figure among them, at the tip. As soon as he saw the bald man running towards him, he began to chant a water spell. Within milliseconds, a wall of water began to rise.
"Ah!!", a groan of pain escaped the magician's lips as a shock ran through his entire body, taking away his concentration.
POW!
The sound of a jaw being forcibly dislocated was heard in the arena. The wizard simply collapsed to the ground after Carlos' punch. Kayden cracked a smile, his lightning doing more than enough.
Within seconds, the opposing team's morale fell to its lowest point. Seeing his teammate leave caused a wave of fury among the four of them. All of his spells were aimed at Carlos.
Simultaneously, a circling line of fire began to rotate at high speed around the four, preventing melee combatants from getting closer without leaving with deep burns.
Their synchronization was at a completely absurd level for Kayden's team at that moment. Before everyone could even react, Carlos' body went flying due to the amount of spells.
His body was bleeding, with his limbs twisted in positions that were not at all normal. Fortunately, Lord Lucas removed him from the arena and began to heal his wounds.
"Eyes!" Kayden shouted to his team and drew his opponents' attention to him. This was a pre -arranged tactic between them and, again, the boy performed a Flash Bang , blinding his opponents.
It really was something irritating, and since they hadn't fought it before, it was difficult to predict. This time, they didn't have the bubble to protect them and, in panic, they began to move away.
The circle of fire was broken before it caused any damage to his allies. The 4 retreated while randomly releasing spells, hoping to stop their opponents' advance.
Unfortunately for them, Astolfo was at a completely different level of speed than the other students and managed to get closer before any of them had fully recovered.
"Hello, sleeping beauty," Astolfo brought his spear down at high speed against the side of the nearest wizard. His opponent threw himself back, but came away with a deep cut on his arm.