So, after talking a bit about the plan the preparation time was over and the last examination began. Suddenly the roof opened and a giant ship landed.
The supervisor mounted us and left us in different places, separating each team in different parts of a large forest on the side of the academy, it was a huge forest but we only used a small part of it for this examination.
But even so it was an area used for the examination was huge even I would take hours to cross it from side to side even if I ran at full speed, even so, for the flying boat it was a piece of cake to divide us in this huge area so in less than five minutes we were left in our place.
in the center of this place you could see huge hourglass that marked the remaining time, was made of magic of illusion, and not elemental besides that had the function, to mark the pulses of detection in the allotted time, I think it is to give us a sense of urgency and pressure.
I had nothing special planned, I simply divided the flag among three people and told them to stay together while following my instructions.
Even the rebel Mike agreed with what I said and will follow all my orders.
At first he did not agree and resisted following my orders, even if he was the team leader, but he changed his mind easily after a little gentle persuasion.
My diplomatic persuasion was so good that there were no more objections after that, even the cynical Ban had nothing to say, so now we don't move as one while they all follow my orders.
There were about 500 people left after the will test and the teams were of ten people, which means that there are about 50 teams spread over this large area.
composed of many different ecosystems, now we were in a tropical one with sand but with many plants similar to palms, and others that only existed in this world.
which gave lushness to the place even though the soil was sandy, so it was difficult to walk, if you had no experience.
But it didn't take long to find another group that Ban detected as a scout the team.
We quickly moved in their direction, it seemed that they had also noticed us, so we could not ambush them, we could only face them head on.
When they came into our view I could see that there were only nine people in their team. that made me think of numerous situations, and it was very likely that they did not have their flags.
no time to think anymore , the battle began. I moved forward while the other team, with three magic users, attacked me with fire, lightning and plant magic. Which I easily avoided as they lacked control and accuracy at least by my standards.
Ahead of their formation they had a guy who wielded a huge shield. All the weapons in this examination were given by the supervisors to make it fairer so size didn't matter, even I had some supervisor-given gauntlets in my hands,
My speed was steady as I approached, but when I thought I was close enough, I changed the timing of my movement, and accelerated suddenly, which allowed me to catch them a little off guard.
bamm!
I made a blow to the shield of the guy in front of me. The blow was so strong that I sent him backwards cocking with the warriors he was defending making an opening in their formation.
I could see that he had some magic on that allowed him to coat himself in rock, so I didn't cause him much damage, but, that wasn't my goal. Now on the ground I used it as a stepping stone to propel myself and bypass the other warriors.
My actions were so fast that they couldn't react in time and the mages in the back could only put up weak defenses that I mercilessly broke through.
Plack
Plack
Clack
Uggg
I hit the 3 mages and knocked them out. Then, one warrior tried to attack me, but was hit with an arrow to the head, knocking him out.
Then, a blast of fire magic cast by three of our mages caused the rest to be knocked out, without needing the intervention of the rest of the warriors.
We all had protection magic due to the bracelets, so they could withstand lethal blows, but you were immediately eliminated from the examination and had to wait in place until an overseer came to pick them up.
I saw the guys who after the hit were unharmed, but their wristbands were pulsing red, meaning they were eliminated.
Well this examamination was not at all difficult for my strength, but the point of this test was not strength, so I needed to act accordingly.
Now, they didn't seem to have a flag, so it was necessary to look for the remaining member who never showed up.
As long as you possess at least two flags, it means that, even though you were eliminated, two people from your team can still pass. and possibly get more for the rest to pass, but they are unlikely to do so if they do not know each other.
So it was a good strategy in a situation where they were defeated if you were the leader. Anyway, I checked everyone well to see if they had flags and the guy with the shield had one, so the rest must be with the other guy.
"Silvia, how long until the area is scanned?"
"huh? Ah! Yes there's 2 minutes to go."
"Don't even think about it, our flag wielder must be long gone by now."
Said the guy with the shield with a smirk as if his plan had worked out even if he is now out of the examination, but immediately disappeared when....
"Hey, I'm back already there was nothing to the oest...?"
The moment he said that, a guy some distance away appeared, silencing the shield guy. From his pale face I understood that he was the last member and holder of the flag.
"Ban, get him!"
I immediately sent Ban. I saw that the guy turned around and started running the moment he saw the situation.
"It's no use. He's a guy who has three metamorphoses, plus he specializes in speed. You'll never be able to catch up with him unless you all surround him."
The guy got confidence again, I wonder if it is because he is sure that he will be elected by the guy who still has two flags that he can still act like that, I am surprised that the rest don't say anything, but it may also be because they understood the essence of the test or they have other things in mind, humm.....
'Hmm...., even so, there seems to be something weird here.' At the moment when I was thinking whether I should personally pursue the guy and the strangeness of the situation, Silvia approached my back and shyly whispered to me.
"~They're hiding something."
"oh!..that was it!",
I did not doubt at all what silvia said if she said they were hiding something it must be true and finally I joined the points that bothered me.
Obviously, anyone would think they no longer have any flags, since they clearly entrusted it to their strongest and fastest member.
Seems like it's just for show if it wasn't they wouldn't instigate us to chase the remaining member even with confidence in their abilities.
I looked again and noticed that there was something strange. I approached one of the mages I had previously attacked and noticed that his bracelet, like the rest, was glowing red.
However, a closer look revealed that it was only a small light simulating it.
At that moment, I understood what was going on. The magician noticed my attention on him and tried to run away, but it was too late. I was already close enough not to let him escape.
With a big blow to the back of his head, I knocked him out and this time, he was really knocked unconscious and his bracelet was activated. Before, he had only pretended to be out cold.
Apparently, they had a lot of backup plans in case they failed and planned to make us think they were out to get us to chase the guy who seemed to have the flags, since they had split them three ways instead of two, and they needed to get the remaining member to escape.
I thought too much about it and we found him at a good time when they were most vulnerable, although it was foolish of them to confront us instead of fleeing, without their strongest member, but hey, what can you expect from people who were strangers just a short time ago.
I took a good look at him and noticed that he had one flags tied to his pants under his tunic.
It wasn't a bad strategy, but unfortunately, Silvia had the ability to see people's intentions, and since they obviously wanted us to chase the fast guy, it meant they still had one left.
Now they only had one flag left, and they were disqualified unless they could somehow rob others of their flags and they will take away one of the two we just got .
I gave up chasing the guy since he specialized in speed, and although I've farmed a lot thanks to Elena, I still haven't reached the rank of third metamorphosis.
We now had two more flags, making us five in total, which I entrusted to Silvia, who stayed in the rear and was one of our team's flag holders along with William, only three of us could carry them.