Third Phase (2)

The feeling of uncanniness worsens when Markus did not give any response to her. She decides to take a look behind her to find out. Terror took over her emotions as she saw herself surrounded by 5 gigantic golems.

"RUN!"

Markus shouted to alert her. Without hesitation, Angelina quickly acts and runs towards Markus while bringing the magic stone with her. He then attacks the golems with the same attack he used on the previous golem.

"Ink magic: Black Thorns!"

Multiple thorns appeared and took out 2 golems while temporarily immobilizing the 3 golems, buying them enough time to get away. After a while of roaming around, the two of them decided to take a break in a room.

You gotta be kidding me, every room we entered had all fancy furniture. But besides that, it seems like we're in an endless room with hunting golems roaming from different rooms. Each room contains 5 doors that lead to different rooms. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I should check up on her.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Y-yes, I'm fine."

"I see."

That's good to hear. But, we still have 45 minutes left to survive until the time runs out. Not to mention, there are other participants who want to eliminate me as much as possible. While we're here, I should use my hearing senses to eavesdrop from the distance. I could hear multiple footsteps from different directions, but most of them are several meters away from us. We should be safe here for now. While at the same time, we gotta defend this huge magical stone from attacks.

Markus took a glance at the magical stone as he thought about it.

A floating stone with some fancy patterns and a purple glowing magical stone at the center of it. It's not just the room, but this magical stone is fancy as well huh?

*Sigh*

Markus sighed out of boredom.

"Hey Angelina."

"Yes..?"

"Would you mind staying here with me while there's no enemy around?"

"Eh?-"

For some reason, his words made her feel embarrassed. But she tried to brush it off and respond quickly.

"Hm, is there something wrong?"

"N-no, nothing. I don't mind at all."

"Oh, alright then."

Several minutes had passed after that. Surprisingly, no golem had gotten after them during that time. They also avoided making conversation to prevent attracting unnecessary noise. Angelina is seen roaming around the room nonstop, while Markus is sitting in a fancy chair, trying to eavesdrop on other people's conversation from several meters away.

•

"Any sightings on that filthy peasant yet?"

"Not at all, perhaps they got eliminated by the golems along the way."

"Hah, that'll be good."

"I bet all of his achievements from the first phase are some senseless luck."

"I wouldn't want a shithead like him to be my classmate."

These groups of participants are roaming in the hallway as they discuss and mock Markus at the same time. As they're about to cross another hallway, they unexpectedly cross paths with a magical golem. Unlike the previous golem, this particular golem has long legs, making it taller. Everyone shook in fear as the golem's eyes met with theirs. Both of the golem's hands took the form of double edge blades as the golem saw them.

"Hey… RUN!"

As one of them shouted, their instincts kicked in and immediately started running. They ran with their utmost effort, but the golem's long legs allowed itself to cover a long distance with a couple of steps. Unfortunately for the group, they've met another golem in front of them. Everyone despairs as they see themselves cornered. In a second, the golem swiftly swings its bladed hand. The huge magic stone was sliced in two before it completely shattered in a single swing.

"Group C, eliminated."

Everyone falls into despair and frustration as the group gets eliminated. The golems that were pursuing them are now walking away. The eliminated group were automatically transported to the gate outside the academy.

Hah, that's what you all get for talking shit about me.

Markus lets out a smirk as he listens to the events that occur from afar. Angelina noticed him and was confused on why he's smirking.

Oh yeah, I forgot to check the timer.

Markus decided to check the time on the hourglass timer he created with ink.

Ah, I see. Still have 34 minutes left huh? Looks like things are going well for us for nearly half an hour.

•

"Oh? Well that's surprising. Over 26 minutes had already passed yet only 6 participants were eliminated. Not bad, I must say."

The proctor praises the participants a bit as he watches all of them on multiple screens produced by magic. But the proctor's demeanor quickly changed as he saw Markus in the room doing nothing.

That filthy useless peasant… How dare he have the luxury to rest?! Don't get too cocky just because you've been doing well from the first phase and second phase, you ugly marking peasant!

While the proctor is infuriated about Markus, something malicious crosses his mind and lets out a smirk.

Very well… Let's see how well you'll do about this one.

•

Yes! Just 31 minutes more and we're good to go.

Markus was complacent about the third phase exam. However, his confidence about it will soon come to an end.

"M-Markus, they're here!'

"What..?"

As Angelina let out a sudden warning, Markus was immediately alarmed about it.

What the hell… I didn't notice them at all… No, that's not it. The real question is…where did they come from?!

Both Markus and Angelina were both aware that within every door, a horde of golems were waiting on the other side of the room. Every room has over a hundred golems that are coming for both of them. In other words, they are cornered and have no escape route.

"Angelina…"

"Y-yes?"

"I have a plan. Wanna hear it out?"

Markus immediately told his plan after Angelina nodded and both of them created a strategy. Afterwards, all the walls in the room had been destroyed and hundreds of golems from different rooms swarmed in the room. To their confusion, they couldn't see the two and the floor across the room was flooded with ink. One of the golems notices a huge half sphere shaped ink at the center, which is where the ink keeps coming from. As every one of them began to take notice, they began going after the ink barrier and started attacking it. One of the golem's hand changes form into a huge hammer and hits the ink barrier with full force. It only took a single hit for the ink barrier to burst and explode violently. Even though the explosion did not kill the golems, the ones that were close to it took some considerable damage. Due to the explosion, the ink flood had spreaded across the other room and breached through the different doors as well. Beyond the door, Markus and Angelina along with the huge magic stone appeared from the ink flood that had breached through the door.

"Sorry, I had to put you through that."

"N-no, it's fine. I'm glad your plan worked."

"Oh, uhm thanks I guess."

I'm really glad my plan worked out pretty well.

"So I'm going to flood the floor with my ink magic as much as I can until it spreads across the other rooms. While at the same time, I'm going to deploy a barrier that will temporarily protect us and this huge magic stone by the time those bronze people come and break in."

"What are we going to do after that?"

"Once the flood manages to breach one of the safe rooms, I'll transport ourselves there right away."

"But, that requires a huge amount of mana reserves to pull that off."

"Don't worry, we'll make it."

Markus remembers their conversation about his plan minutes ago and was relieved that everything went well with his plan.

How many more minutes? Ah, 28 minutes left. Looks like I can't let our guard down anymore.

"Angelina, may I coat the magic stone with ink?"

"Sure."

With her permission, Markus started coating the huge magic stone with ink that's nearly the same size as Angelina. After that, he started creating something with a large portion of his ink magic. Angelina's eyes widened as she realizes what was Markus's creating.

"Impossible…"

Angelina was deeply astonished by what her eyes were seeing. What's in front of her is her own figure that was replicated by Markus's magic. While at the same time, he replicated himself with magic as well. His clone has the same feature as him with short black messy hair, yellow eyes with a fine looking facial features. He however, was viewed as ugly because of the spilled ink marking that covers his upper face. Lastly, he replicated the magical stone that was coated with ink, concealing the magical stone's glow. Angelina couldn't help but feel amazed as he watches him using magic to a great extent.

"Let's go."

"Y-yes."

Angelina nodded and both of them continued roaming along with their clones.

•

"Just what are those stupid copper creatures anyways?"

"I don't know, seems pretty stupid to me."

As these groups were roaming while talking, they noticed a thin golem slowly approaching towards them. It's considerably smaller than the other types of golem, making it seem less of a threat.

"Hey, hey, would you look at that?"

"Oh, looks like I'll destroy another piece of junk. TAKE THIS!"

This participant instantly launched a magical attack on the thin golem without consideration.

"What…?"

The participant who attacked the golem was surprised when he saw that the golem was still approaching them unscathed.

"This stupid PIECE OF JUNK-"

Before he could react, this thin golem suddenly went towards their magical stone and destroyed it effortlessly despite the magic stone being protected by a magic barrier. This type of golem was so fast that nobody in the group was able to react on time.

"What the hell was that…?"

"Group G, eliminated."

•

There's 21 minutes more until the exam ends. We've been roaming much more cautiously to avoid getting cornered like last time. While at the same time, I've been marking every room with an ink puddle as an escape route just in case we find ourselves in trouble. As for our clones, it got destroyed by another group along the way. Despite being more vigilant than before, we barely escape from that one.

"Uhm.. Markus?"

"Yes?"

"Y-your wounds…they're gone."

"Oh, that?"

Oh yeah I forgot. I've been injured twice during the second phase exam. But they're all minor injuries and didn't seem to affect me much.

"Don't worry about that."

Markus tried to convince her it was nothing. Angelina however was skeptical about it, but decided to let it slide.

It's better not reveal to her some uncertain information that might cause her to be suspicious of me. Not even I know how I got this weird healing ability anyways. Well, time to get going-

"Hm?"

Markus suddenly felt his arm trembling as Angelina held it nervously.

"M-Markus…"

"Yeah, I know."

Markus immediately understood what she was talking about. A group of participants are heard entering from the other room. However, he couldn't understand why she was trembling until they heard the voice.

"This voice…"

THAT BASTARD!

Markus's blood boiled immediately as he recognized whose voice it was. It's the voice of the same upper class elven race that he had bad blood with since before the exam.

I'm still not through with that bastard.. Every inch of my body wants me to kiss that bastard's face with my fist. Since this is a third phase exam where a participant is allowed to attack, this is my opportunity to turn that bastard's face into a mashed tomato for what he did to me during the second phase.

Markus instantly created a trident with his hand and attempted to attack the group. Angelina however, clings to his arm tight preventing his arm from moving.

Oi, oi, what the hell?

Markus, who possesses inhuman physical abilities would have no trouble escaping from Angelina's grip. However, it was something else that was halting him from moving. It's her chest being pressed against his arm that put Markus in an awkward situation which halted him from even moving his arm a slight inch.

"Hey…your chest…"

Markus's awkward feeling however was soon turned into confusion the moment he shifts his towards her and saw her expression.

Ah, I almost forgot. She's always anxious and nervous around people. But, it's neither of those emotions that are sensing from her right now. Instead, I'm sensing fear, even from her expression. But why?

"Wait, I've heard something from this room."

Both of them panicked when they realized that they had been heard.