Suddenly, a female voice speaking through the speakers intervened.
"The remaining number of students is 689. The remaining time is 43 minutes."
"I've focused too much on you two, that I've forgotten about the others."
Ryujin clapped his hands together, and bowed, causing shocked reactions to emerge.
"I'll be back, maybe in the 15th minute, I'll take care of them first," Ryujin added before he quickly jumped out.
Silence remained as they stood there in disbelief...
"That's Ryujin-like. *Sigh*, well, at least we got some time to rest." Kyouko suggested as she sat down on a nearby fallen branch.
"O-Okay..." The others hesitantly sat down. They checked their tracks, and as Ryujin said, he was indeed on the other side of the map.
"Uhm... That was a bit..." Hina murmured...
"Unexpected... Right...?" Arata awkwardly added.
"Let's use this time wisely. If he's coming back later, all of us better be prepared." Ryo suggested, all the while retaining his nonchalant expression.
He doesn't care about Ryujin's weird acts. All that matters is to survive, with or without them.
"He's right... I passed by Ryujin, and good grief, his speed is impeccable." Airi said,
"Same here. I saw him fighting from a distance. His skills are no joke." Haruto added.
As they were talking, two figures emerged from the forest, who seemed to be eavesdropping from the beginning.
"Right, right, he's crazy-strong." One of those figures spoke in a playful, and carefree, female voice.
They all turned their gaze towards those figures. It was a girl and a boy.
The girl has long, wavey, dark blue hair, carefree and playful, while the boy has white hair, expressionless and stoic, both in their white uniform.
"He's quite scary, indeed, indeed. But that aside, you were pretty cool, Mr....?'
She looked at Ryo in the eye, waiting for him to say his name. Their eyes met. The girl's gaze was friendly and playful, yet something lies deep within.
Ryo feels like he's staring right into the abyss.
"Who are you?" Ryo responded.
"Oh... Me...? I am a student from class A. Aoki Reina. I am acquainted with Akamine-san and Takahashi-san right there."
"Okay. What do you want?" He again, coldly replied.
"Let's win together. With just us two, it will be quite hard."
Ryo turned his gaze to Haruto, who quickly caught on.
Everyone on Ryo's side briefly introduced themselves to them.
"Haruto-san, Akamine-san, Fujimoto-san, Takahashi-san, Ayane-san, and, Kyosuke-san... I understand." The girl briefly looked at the tracker, before continuing.
"The hunter is still quite far away, and there's still 40 minutes right on the clock. I'll share some information I found regarding him so that we could all survive." She added.
"What kind of information?" Kyouko asked in serious curiosity.
"We stumbled on him earlier, and we noticed some things. Firstly, his attacks rely on speed and ambush. His most common attack usually involves suddenly disappearing, and reappearing somewhere around the target."
Upon hearing this, Ryo remembered his clash with Ryujin. Indeed, he disappears first and reappears out of nowhere.
"All you have to do to counter it is to focus on sensing him. His presence usually surfaces when he is near you. Well, exceptions for the strong ones, who can sense him from a mile away." Reina smiled as she finished her sentence.
"But, it's still hard, followin' him and all," Arata complained, with a groan.
"Well, I'm afraid that's the easiest way. Another would be, compiling into large groups."
Reina raised her point finger up as she continued speaking,
"The mistake that students usually make is going alone, or not with a huge group. Although It's difficult, the strategy that the council wants us to use is teamwork. Not stick together, but, spread out, yet still having each other's blind spot. That's the only thing that can lead to victory."
"But, I've seen some groups easily get annihilated by Kajiyashaki-Senpai..." Hina worriedly contradicted.
"Well, of course, while having a group certainly helps, the weak would certainly fall. This is a prestigious school and this entrance exam is designed to separate the weak from the strong and capable. It aims only to nurture the strong ones. A weakling has no place here." Reina calmly replied.
A cold, tense atmosphere winded over them. The clouds seemed dark, and the wind felt stronger.
"But, let's all be positive that we'll all pass this exam. Let's keep a lookout for each other." She enthusiastically said, trying to lighten them up, especially Hina and Arata, who seemed nervous.
"I understand what you are saying, however, how exactly should we implement this group strategy that you've been saying?" Kyouko asked seriously.
"Well then..."
...
10 minutes left.
They discussed the plan on what to do, and right now, their positions are dispersed.
As per what Reina said earlier,
(All italic texts are events prior to the battle; the events where they planned things out.)
As I've said earlier, if Ryujin gets close to a certain person, his cover will be revealed. Therefore, we need each person to look after one another. In the moment that he reveals his location, especially if the attack is from behind, make sure to be alert and respond quickly. Also make sure that the distance between each of us isn't that far, so that responding wouldn't be hard.
With that being said, they stood their ground. Some, like Arata, who has telepathy, acts like a lookout, and guards from the top of a tree, while another person, like Airi, who can easily respond, watches Arata from another nearby location.
Ryo looks after Reina while looking after Ryo is Hina.
Suddenly, the voice on the speaker spoke.
"Ten minutes exactly left. In the 3-minute point, all the locations of the remaining 498 students will be revealed."
All of them stood their ground, and with great caution, looked after their assigned person.
Not long after, they hear the familiar splashes of water, slowly coming towards their direction. It was none other than the hunter, Kajiyashaki Ryujin, with still a glowing blue hue around him, looking around as he spun his two swords around his hands.
"I wonder where everyone is." He mumbled to himself, as he continued looking around. Then, in the far distance, he caught a glimpse of a person running away.
"There you are...!" He excitedly said, as he immediately followed towards that person. He sped up and prepared to unsheathe his blade. He quickly closed the distance between the boy and him.
At one point, he caught up to the white-haired boy.
"Eliminated." He yelled out, as he swung both of his blades, targeting the boy's badge. But... before it could reach his badge, the boy turned into a murder of crows, dispersing all around.
"C-Crows?!" Ryujin blurted out in confusion and surprise.
While he was occupied and in mid-air, from above, the sound of lightning energy sparking echoed, tingling his ears. He looked above him, and there, Kyouko was, with her fierce, energized lightning energy, ready to pierce through Ryujin.
Now, we won't just stand our ground. Souta here will act as bait and then, all of us will follow through. As a human too, he must be tired. We can use that. The important thing is, that we keep an eye on our assigned person.
Ryujin and Kyouko's blades clashed fiercely. They broke contact and landed a few meters away from each other.
"I'll turn you to dust," Kyouko murmured as she entered a fighting position, and lunged towards Ryujin. The electric lightning, and the calm water engaged against each other. Each collision of their blades leaves a momentary spark.
Their battle was fierce and flashy. At one point, Kyouko managed to parry away Ryuijin's attack, setting up an opening for an attack. She quickly took this opportunity and struck him in the solar plexus.
"O-Ow, that hurts..." Ryujin remarked as he held his solar plexus.
Kyouko pointed the tip of her blade toward the weakened Ryujin before she chanted.
"Freeze"
"W-Wait, I-I-Ice?!" He blurted out in disbelief. In the next second, a small circle manifested under his feet, that began gathering energy circularly, like a vortex with him in the middle. He quickly and instinctively jumped out of there, but he didn't have a breather.
As soon as he jumped in mid-air, tree roots emerged from the ground, and tied themselves around Ryujin, immobilizing him in the air. This also caused him to drop his weapons.
"I see, you have this all planned out. I'm impressed, I actually fell for it." He laughed.
Then, in the next second, Ryo appeared, standing in one of the trees, looking at Ryujin.
"So, you planned this all out?" Ryujin asked curiously."
"I didn't. I'm just a part of that plan." With those words leaving his lips, he graciously dashed towards him, and swung his fiery blade, before smoothly landing on the other side.
Ryujin fell lump, and his glow disappeared, while the roots still held him high up.
The people from the council looked at him with intense focus. "Is he unconscious?" They all asked themselves.
Maybe, he is. Many hours of battling will surely render the mortal body tired and lump. Yukime was about to speak through the speakers, when suddenly,
Ryujin defied his own body and raised his hand up. Up in the sky, the clouds were swirling, as if their being mixed together. The wind grew violent and strong as if a storm was approaching.
The council watching was utterly surprised, including Kyouko.
She has known him since middle school, however, this is the first time she's seen this ability of Ryujin.
All within Ryujin's vicinity held their ground, and covered their heads, trying their best not to be swept away.
Ryujin, like a God, arose from the roots binding him and levitated on the sky.
"I'm the fourth for a reason. There's no way tiresome will hinder me." He mumbled as he looked around. "Everyone on the battlefield, run and hide, the last minutes will be hell!" He yelled out so loud, that his voice echoed throughout the whole forest.
In the next second, it began raining. Each droplet of water felt cold, and freezing.
"Run, everyone!" Kyouko yelled out. Everyone began running, as the rain slowly became stronger.
In Ryujin's eyes, everything was slower than usual. He swiftly summoned his two swords and a smile formed on his face.