There was a thud as their heavy bodies touched the ground once again. Due to the sheer weight of exosuits, your weight could increase by 1.5 to 2x just by wearing them. This made movement in the equipment much more noticeable audibly.
The WM-01 Valiant stood tall and proud, in a battle stance beside its creator.
Out of their wrists came miniature projections, showing how many coins they all had. For now, Cael and his team were on one just like everyone else, but Cael had a mission to change that.
"Now, how should I go about increasing the number of coins we have?" Cael wondered.
Playing too aggressive would likely result in a higher chance of getting eliminated completely. However, a team that eliminated a lot of other teams then got eliminated could even beat a team with less eliminations, that lasted longer.
He would have to try and strike a balance, where he could experience the best of both worlds.
His teammates didn't seem to have much direction either or didn't even seem that motivated to be in this event. He could tell that they were scared, and Cael felt the same.
Unlike them, he had a lot on the line and had to see a lot more success than them. If he couldn't manage to reach the top fifteen, he'd receive an extremely significant setback.
"I can't believe I found you so quickly, Adriano." Another kid stated from beside him.
He had a keen smile on his face and had bright green cornrows with shaved sides. He had lime green eyes and pale skin, with a heated blade pointed right at the silver-haired fighter.
He approached the team and Cael could then see that in the trees above, there were two of his other teammates. One of them seemed to be a girl, with black hair that had her wrist aimed at the crew. He could tell that what was being aimed at them was either an energy blaster or deadly crossbow.
Whatever it was, they couldn't allow themselves to be simply rained on with whatever was being aimed at them.
Emily remained calm and put on a ruse of fright. However, from beside the black-haired girl in the trees, an energy blast soared right toward her.
It slammed into her shoulder, causing some damage to her armour and forced her into the main trunk of the tree she had been standing on.
Adriano's attack drone came out of no where, then he revealed his large, heated dagger.
The edge of his blade started to glow a bright orange, and he aimed it right at the incoming fighter.
The green-haired kid, called Miro, stood tall at 6'3, and looked very slim. His exosuit barely had any mass to it but then meant he was going to be focusing on great speed.
"Get him!" Cael announced, pointing at the green-haired man.
His support bot almost snapped into action, then rushed past the surrounding warriors. It unsheathed the heated blade tucked at its waist, and then began shooting out a barrage of energy blasts right at the tall boy.
His armour took the initial barrage, but he was quick to rush away from this incoming blast of beams before it pierced through his exosuit entirely. The armour of an exosuit could barely handle repeated energy blasts, and the human body fared much worse against them.
If he received even just a mere handful of those blasts, he would surely have to forfeit.
From beside Cael, a large man with a mace-like weapon swung right toward him. He was a gargantuan fighter, and he made sure to stay as far from the man as possible.
If he was to take a direct hit from the powerful warrior, he was sure that he'd receive grave injuries.
He stepped back and evaded his first swing, but the man seemed relentless. He continuously swung this large mace at him, with ferocity and serious power. Each time that he would miss and hit the ground, Cael could feel the ground quake from the impact.
The boy shouted in rage and lifted the mace above his head as he approached. Cael remained prepared for the attack that came his way, but the swing was simply too fast for him to step back from and evade.
He was forced to catch it before it could reach him, and this is what he did.
He grabbed the mace and tried to overpower the man that he was fighting. However, he soon realised that he was playing a losing game doing that. The man's arms just continued to descend, and the spiky metal ends of his mace were reaching close to his armour.
Cael then decided to activate his power surge skill, making his suit glow more brightly. He thrusted the man's mace to the side, landing a punch to his jaw with the amplified power of his powered gauntlet also.
The punch sent the large student rolling, and he was shocked that Cael could use such power. It was like he had turned into a different person in a split-second.
Instead of just rushing back like a maniac, he could tell that he took a second to just think about what had happened. However, his battle-hungry style of fighting took form once again, as he thrusted himself up by placing his weight on his mace, then charged right back toward Cael.
"Come on then!"
The battle was on between the students, and Cael's support bot spent a lot of time relentlessly harassing Miro with its assault.
Its four arms proved to be quite troublesome, as it could use two of its limbs to wield the weapon, while using the other two to throw punches and grapple.
Miro received an energy blast right to his stomach, and his armour had been thinned at that point so much that he was starting to feel the intense heat of the blast.
He then received a slash across his armour from the large, extremely hot sword, and the bot then clasped its two right hands together.
Using both of its right arms together, it threw a punch right to his jaw that was so powerful, he lost the strength in his feet.
As he fell, the WM-01 Valiant made sure that he remained on the ground and threw ruthless punches onto his person. He continuously beat down on his armour, while also shooting occasional energy blasts.
"Amelia, help me now!" He shouted out, while grappling with this bot.
Amelia was currently trying to break the attack drone that had been circling her. It was shooting energy blasts and very agile, making it hard for her to make the right shot.
"I'm occupied right now. Handle your own battles!" She called out, trying to take down the drone.
However, as she stood still, trying her to best to pick the shot with her wrist-mounted crossbow, she was tackled to the ground by Adriano.
She struggled to try and release herself, and Adriano seemed stronger than her. He could keep her pinned to the ground, and with Cael's bot solitarily handling one of their fighters, they could focus on the other two.
Cael didn't want to exhaust his mana now by spamming his power surge skill. It took 0.5MP, and he didn't want to just endlessly spam it for that reason.
It would be better for him to save it for his later fights, so that he wouldn't just run out of energy.
Cael had been battling this burly fighter and had received some significant damage to his armour. There were deep cuts in it, and some had even reached deeper enough to cut his skin in some areas.
He was still calm, though, as he knew it wasn't something that his robot med kit couldn't fix. He landed two straight punches to his adversary's face, only for his head to be smashed with his mace. His attack was wild, and it was just unlucky for Cael that it had landed.
The strike dazed him a little, then he received a straight punch to his stomach that knocked the wind right out of him. He fell to a knee, holding his stomach after taking such a powerful hit. The strike had made him wheeze, and he looked up slowly to see his opponent steadily lifting his mace.
It was now well over his head, and he began to shoot downward to deliver the final attack.
All Cael could do was use his strength and speed to leap to the side, but he was too slow. The mace seemed to be approaching him faster than he could jump away from it.
With mere inches between him and the mace's closest spike, he began to close his eyes in anticipation of the impact.
He gritted his teeth, as well, as he knew that it would cause great affliction.
Thud!