5.11

Qiao Chen's team obtained three different gems. They would be the first group to win the competition and gain the right to represent the country as long as they reached the designated area.

However, Qiao Chen and his group were on their way to the designated area, when Danny and his group stopped them. Many other students teamed up to stop them too.

"Qiao An. You have the three gems, don't you?" Danny looked at Qiao Chen and asked. He received a message from Harold earlier that told him Qiao Chen successfully obtained two gems already. He was surprised that Qiao An obtained the gems so easily. It was like the gems were just waiting for them.

Even though Danny couldn't use his abilities for the time being, Chad and Benji were strong enough without him. They had only obtained two gems, and they were the same color ones. This meant that they needed two more gems. All the other locations they suspected would have gems were either destroyed or the beasts had already been disturbed and were on guard. They couldn't attack the nests as easily as before without the chance for an ambush.

Danny figured that if Qiao Chen was able to obtain the two gems that easily, the nthe last one wouldn't take that long either. He absolutely didn't want Qiao Chen to win before he did, so he called the other cadets over. Then, he convinced them to team up to stop Qiao Chen from reaching the designated area.

"What if I do? What if I don't? Are you planning on teaming up and steal it from me?" Qiao Chen said as he looked at the ones who stopped them. There really was a lot of people who came to Danny's call.

"We just think it's strange that you can obtain all three gems so easily. With your guys' strength, how can you be the one to obtain the gems first? It's just too strange." Danny looked like he knew what was going on.

"Do you think that if we didn't rank first that meant that we can't win first place? What kind of twisted logic is that?" Qiao Chen replied.

"Just admit it already. We all know what's really going on here. It should have been General Au Luo who told you the gem's location in advance. He should have told you how to obtain the gems too, otherwise how would you get them so easily? Hmm?" Danny said in a righteous manner. He acted like he already had evidence of Qiao Chen cheating, when he was only trying to get Qiao Chen to admit to it on his own.

"Can you stop talking without your proof? Why do you think that we obtained these gems by cheating? You're the ones who were too weak to obtain the gems, but now you're going around framing others who are capable enough? Watch out, because I can see your true nature from here." Justin replied angrily. He was really angry because even though it looked like they obtained the gems easily, the process was really difficult. He was almost stabbed by one of those hairy spiders. Then he had to make that barrel for the bees. By the time they finished making the barrel, his hands were all cut up and splinters were poking out of all his fingers. Furthermore, Harold had to go ahead and jump out and break the barrel they made. If Qiao An wasn't prepared beforehand with those grasses' juices, then they would have been stung to death. They would have become just like Harold.

Danny ignore Justin and continued to talk to Qiao Chen, "Qiao An, please just realize that even if you win by cheating, that just means you didn't use your real strength to win. If you represent our country like this, then you'll only embarrass the entire empire. It's not too late. Just give the gems to the people who really can represent and bring glory to our country. Of course this means that you contributed too. Just admit your wrongdoings and stop committing these immoral acts." Danny persuaded. His face with filled with the fakest sincerity Qiao Chen had ever seen.

"This is a really good speech to frame other people. Really, Danny… only you are shameless enough to lie straight through your teeth like that." Qiao Chen said. "If I disagreed with you then, let me guess what you'll say. You'd probably say that I'm obsessed. That you'd have to use heavy handed means for the sake of our country's honor and glory. Then you'll tell everyone to work together to steal the gems. Did I get that right?"

Danny was about reply, but there was a sudden earthquake. Everyone felt it. Then the quakes got stronger and stronger. Everyone vigilantly scanned their surroundings to find the source of the shaking.

They all looked at the direction of the sounds they hear and saw a giant bear. It was a monster of a beast. It's size reached dozens of meters from such a distance. They noticed that every step the bear took crushed the towering trees.

They weren't necessarily the bear's opponents even if they all attacked together. Therefore, everyone choose to run away in order to avoid the giant bear beast. However, they hadn't gone far when they stopped in their tracks. Another giant bear was quickly approaching from the direction they were running away to.

Two giant bear beasts appeared at the same time. Nearly everyone was in shock as they panicked. The two bears began sprinting towards them. They couldn't escape.

Qiao Chen was on the verge of swearing out loud. Their mission prompts clearly said that the earth gem was only fifty meters deep. This kind of giant bear looked like King Kong. It should live in caves at least several hundred meters deep. Furthermore, these beasts were usually hibernating and rarely came out to exercise.

The ones Qiao Chen thought were idiots were desperately running towards them. It was obvious that they were the ones who brought the two giant bears with them. He saw their panicked faces and knew that they were probably scared to death. Once they saw the rest of the cadets, their faces looked more relieved.

The giant bear beasts looked dumb and clumsy. However, in reality, these bears were insanely fast and extremely, viciously strong. It was too late by the time Qiao Chen and his group wanted to escape. The giant bear beasts were already too close.

The two bears attacked at the same time. They slapped their paws down at the cadets below. Luckily, everyone was able to dodge it. Unluckily, the bears' slap caused a small earthquake. The bears lifted their paws, and there were paw prints appeared on the ground. If someone was hit by those paws, then they would become as flat as pancakes.

It was more dangerous to escape separately or even one by one. Only the strength of everyone combined would be able to deal with the giant bear beast. Therefore, they all couldn't escape. They can only dodge the attacks until they can launch a joint attack with their abilities combined.

Qiao Chen and the other cadets were fighting against the giant bear beast while still trying to think about how to fight both bear beasts at the sometime. Everyone, however, knew they would only be disadvantaged if they let things drag out for too long. Their physical strength and stamina wasn't as good as two giant bear beasts.

It no lingered mattered that this was a competition. They were all in a life or death situation, so they threw the competition out of their minds to work together.

Qiao Chen had barely warmed his heart with relief when it was quickly interrupted.

The two giant bear beasts began attacking. Qiao Chen was sure that their situation probably looked like the whack-a-mole game. He pushed the image that interrupted his thoughts aside and concentrated on the battle at hand. All the cadets gathered together to send a collective beam at the bears' attacks. Danny's hand was injured, so he couldn't emit a strong blast. No one thought anything of it. Danny should have been able to use more of his abilities, but he was holding back. Qiao Chen saw that and immediately knew that Danny was saving his energy.

Qiao Chen thought that Danny was saving his energy, so he could have an exit strategy. He never would have expected that Danny was actually scheming to win the competition. Danny, the one who always put up a fake face in public, suddenly began stealing someone's storage device while they were busy defending against the bear beasts. Then, he grabbed the stunned Chad and Benji and escaped.

The one who had their storage device stolen was the only person who was hit by the giant bear beast's blow. He could barely resist it. Blood trickled from his mouth, and he was on the verge of collapse. If he was struck one more time, then he would probably die.

Qiao Chen, Dick, and Justin quickly yelled out and moved their position to replace Chad and Benji who had just left.

Danny had specifically gone for that cadet's storage bag alone, so he should have already known that they had the gems he needed to win. The cadet just so happened to be the one closets to him, so he quickly stole the storage device in order to win. Danny threw caution to the wind and tossed his reputation aside just to win the competition.

"General, these beasts are beyond the competition's requirement. Will we begin assistance?" Fred asked Au Luo. He watched as the cadets defended against the two bear beasts, and he couldn't help but worry deeply for their safety.

"Have the men prepare for rescue. Stay on stand-by until further instructions. Let's wait and see what happens first." Au Luo saw as he looked at the screen. He wanted to see if Qiao Chen would exceed his expectations in this battle.

Qiao Chen usually hid his true abilities on purpose. He didn't like to reveal his true strength. However, he needed to exert his real strength if he wanted to resolve the problem with these two bear beasts.

Qiao Chen knew that he could have just taken Dick and Justin with him and escape. However, if he only protected his group and abandon the rest of the cadets, then people probably wouldn't hold on until the Lion Corps came to the rescue. Furthermore, he didn't want to do the same thing Danny did. That would mean that he and Danny were on the same level.

Qiao Chen had changed. He was no longer the type of person who was entirely apathetic to everyone around him, but he still wasn't an angelic type. Qiao Chen didn't want to be that kind of person either. He also wasn't willing to be such a heartless person, so he stayed.

Qiao Chen initiated the system and figured out the bear beasts' weaknesses. He wanted to quickly deal with them, but he needed to separate them first.

Qiao Chen had everyone concentrate their attention on one of the bear beasts, while attacked the other one. He jumped up the bear beast's body and scaled it. He ran up until he reached the bear's eyes. Finally, he successfully caught its attention and led it in another direction.

The giant bear beast's greatest weakness was its nose. Qiao Chen could greatly reduce the bear's attack power as long as he was able to attack the nose. However, it wasn't that easy. Giant bear beasts instinctually protected their noses more than they did their hearts.

Qiao Chen was waiting for the opportunity to land a fatal blow on the giant bear beast's nose while avoiding its attacks. Finally, there was a chance. Qiao Chen took aim. Without a moment's hesitation, he shot out a beam with his full strength right at the bear's nose.

"Groar! Grrrooarr!" The bear beast covered his nose and roared in pain.

Qiao Chen took advantage of the bear's pain. It was too distracted to resist, he had the system maximize the capability of all the powers in his body. Qiao Chen began to glow a bright color. He condensed his abilities all into one beam and shot it at the beam.

The bear beast fell backwards and collapsed once the beam dispersed. It had completely lost all the energy in its body. Black smoke surrounded the bear, and then it disappeared. A high level energy gem was left in its place.

Dick and Justin were getting more and more tired as they fought against the bear. Gradually, they weren't able to fight as well as they had before. Their bodies felt sluggish and movements slowed. The bear beast's attack passed through the cadets' attacks easily. Its paw swiped through and headed straight for them. Qiao Chen took advantage of the bear's concentration on the cadets and shot out an attack on the bear's nose. It was a direct hit since the bear wasn't guarding against him.

The paw that was about to slam into the cadets had returned to its owner. The bear clutched his nose and roared in pain. The blast caused the bear to take a few steps back, but Qiao Chen was already maximizing his powers again. He shot out another beam and shot it at the bear beast. And just like the initial bear, this bear collapsed and left a high level energy gem in its stead.

The cadets collapsed to the floor. Some were in shock, while others were trying to calm their fears. Everyone had escaped death. They knew that it was Qiao Chen who had saved them. He dealt with the other bear, and then he came back to kill the one they were fighting against. If he hadn't saved them, then they would have become pancakes from the bear's giant paw.

The cadets were in a complicated state when they finally settled their emotions. They had listened to Danny's persuasion when he told them about how they could steal the gems from Qiao An. He was the one that convinced them that Qiao An wasn't strong enough or qualified to represent the country. They believed in him. They trusted him, but when they were at their most critical point… The ones they believed were the strongest of them all, Danny and Chad, had escaped. Instead, it was the supposedly weak Qiao An who had saved them. The one they thought was the weakest of the bunch ended up single handedly killing the two giant bear beasts and saved them.

They all saw that energy beam Qiao An had blasted just now. It was Qiao An who was courageous. He was the one who had wisdom. He was the one who stayed calm and collected while fighting against the two bear beasts. They had seen it with their own eyes, so they had become convinced that there was no one besides Qiao An who was qualified to represent their nation.  Not even their so called strongest, Chad and his group were more qualified him.

Danny and his group had already stolen the gems they needed and made their way to the designated area. Qiao Chen already obtained the three gems, so they didn't need to continue with the competition.

Everyone took a short break. Once they recovered the strength loss because of the bears' attack, they all followed behind Qiao Chen as his team headed to the designated area.