Beware of the meek man who unsheathes his sword
"Got one!" Kevin shouted, as a bolt of lightning barely struck him. Both of his hands were charred, but he was still holding on fairly well. Josh, noticing Kevin's injuries, tried to run up to him. "Get back!" Flynn shouted, noticing his opponent lock on to Josh. The dummy with a baton rush towards the unsuspecting Josh, who was healing Levin with a beam of organic magic. "I'm on it, support Bones!" Brian shouted, two metalic serpents shot out of his sleeves. Hearing this, Flynn, who was originally rushing towards Josh, drove his feet into the ground, instantly changing directions.
The two snakes slithered towards Josh, lunging towards the dummy. The dummy, noticing the two new entities, tried to strike them with the baton. The silver snake was struck by the stick, but the high voltage released by the baton had no effect on the well-insulated machines. The snake coiled onto the baton, its jaws opening. Clamping down onto the dummy's forearm, it completely shattered the arm. The other snake wrapped around the dummy's two legs, tripping it. As the dummy fell to the ground, the two serpents mercilessly devoured it.
Flynn, who was rushing to help Kevin, chanted, "Scalpel!" A dagger sized blue blade appeared in his hand, about a third of the size his mother created. The two dummies were focused on Kevin, completely unaware of the approaching death. Scalpel in hand, Flynn lashed out at the nearest target. Although Scalpel was mostly used to cut through organic material, it was still decent at tearing through metal. With sparks flying from the initial impact, Flynn had no problem piercing through the tough armor. Striking its mana core, the dummy collapsed to the floor, unmoving. Kevin was pummeling the other robot with pure combat skills, since the green level mage robots weren't really that good at fighting. Choking the robot, Kevin activated his spell. "Energy conversion, vitality!" he chanted, as he began to suck the mana out of the dummy. Instantly, his wounds began to heal, and his originally pale face got a lot better. The last enemy fell to the ground, unmoving.
"Group up, the next wave will come in no time," Drew said, assessing the situation. His mana reserves were still full, so was Brian and Josh's. "Can you still fight?" Drew asked Kevin and Flynn, who did most of the fighting this round. "Still have about ninety percent of my mana," Flynn said. He hadn't really cast any spells, he just casted Scalpel once and powered up his body a couple of times. "Less than half," Kevin said, trying to recover some mana before the next wave came. His body recovered from converting the dummy's mana into his vitality, but he couldn't recover his mana with energy conversion.
"I'll take on the next wave, prepare for the wave after that," Drew said, pulling out his catalyst, a thin laptop. "You sure?" Flynn was going to ask. Although Flynn was pretty sure he could take on the next wave if he used some trump cards, but it wasn't a easy task. But remembering that Drew was the top Tech mage in his class, and perhaps the best in the school, he put away his doubts. "Josh, prepare that weird seed you used yesterday," Flynn said. "I haven't yet restock my serpents exploding charges, so they can't do much against powerful opponents," Brian said.
"Level two cleared. Calculating skill level... Three indigo dummies," a monotone voice rang out. Three robots appeared, this time with an intimidating purplish glow coming out of their eyes. Instantly locking on to the student closest to them, they saw Drew, who was standing not too far from them. Without chanting, they instantly shot out a myriad of spells at Drew. "Oh lord, they are much stronger than the previous robots," Kevin said, not knowing if he could successfully absorb the spells if they were aimed at him.
"Polarized Barrier," Drew chanted, as a thunderous barrier appeared around the robots. Instantly, the disarrayed magnetic field tugged on the dummies. "Break!" Drew yelled, as he poured half of his mana into the spell. The magnetic force instantly became stronger, the dummies were directly ripped in half. Drew closed his laptop, the chaotic magnetic field disappeared. His face was a bit pale from the spell, but overall he was still in quite decent condition. Trying to close his mouth since his jaws almost fell to ground because of Drew's performance, Flynn began to doubt if he had chose the wrong profession. "That was sick! Could you do that?" Flynn asked Brian, who was standing next to him. "Drew is very skilled in Electromagnetic spells, I'm more into robotics," he said.
Before they praise Drew's display of power any further, the monotone voice rang out again. "Level three cleared under ten seconds. Reevaluating skull level... Six purple dummies," it said. The coach, who was monitoring everyone's condition, almost spat out his drink when he saw Flynn's group clear out three indigo dummies within ten seconds. He was quite an experienced mage, but even him couldn't imagine himself clearing three blue dummies under ten seconds, not to mention indigo dummies.
The five students almost spat out blood when they heard the system's evaluation. "Bro, seems like you killed us," Flynn said, not knowing if they could successfully win against six robots that were on par with experienced mages. "Josh, how much damage can your plant take?" Flynn asked, thinking if they could instantly take down a couple of enemies. "It depends, I have no idea what spells they could use," Josh replied, shaking his head. Large thuds could be heard as the six dummies landed on the arena, creating large craters. The mana radiating off their bodies were akin to powerful mages.
With the data that the AI collected from the previous battles, the dummies instantly chose their first target, Josh. He was a healing mage, so he was someone to be taken out first. He was also much weaker than Flynn, who had an abnormal physical constitution. "Protect Josh," Drew yelled, instantly realizing their target. With their arms raised, they unleashed a barrage of spells. "No freaking way, double silent casting? This is not meant for us to fight," Flynn said, getting out of the trajectory of the spells. Only very experience mages could double cast, since mages had to imagine the spells they are casting. Imagining two spells at the same time required a lot of mental power, and a slight mistake could make the mana go rampant, perhaps even exploding. Fireballs and thunderbolts shot towards Josh, who instantly threw down the seed he was nourishing. Waving his hands, Flynn helped to cast Invigorate on the seed. Right away, massive vines began to sprout out of the seed, creating a wall of plants. The spells, hitting the tenacious wall, dispersed.
The dummies scanned the plant wall that sprang out of nowhere. Recognizing the spell from their large database, they changed the spells they used. Half of the dummies shot out blobs of green liquid, while the other began to chant in a monotone voice. "That's not good," said Brian. The spells that experienced mages needed chanting to cast were not something that they could defend. "Acid magic!" Josh shouted, as the green liquid began to sizzle as it covered the plant. The corrosive liquid slowly chewed through the plant, and in no time, there will be nothing to protect them from the barrage of spells that the dummies could unleash. "Invigorate!" Josh casted, trying to heal the plant. Although the plant could regenerate at speeds that were much faster than animals, the acid was still chewing through the tough skin of the vines.
"Wither!" three of the indigo dummies casted. Finally recognizing the spell, color drained from Flynn's face. "Josh, abandon the plant right away!" he yelled, as a ray of black light covered the plant. Instantly, the vines began to wilt, as the spell slowly withered the whole plant. Losing it's vitality, the whole plant turned into dust. "Immobilize one of them, it's our only chance," Brian said, powering himself up with mana. "That one!" Drew shouted, pointing to one of the dummies that fell out of formation due to Josh's plant. Drew and Brian rushed towards the isolated dummy, while Kevin and Flynn protected Josh. Five of the six robots were still targeting Josh, while the other one switched its attention on the approaching Tech mages.
Flynn, tanking some fireballs, rushed towards the four dummies. Slipping on his new Mithril alloy ring, he casted, "Scalpel!" A decent size blade appeared in his hands, as he brandished it at the first dummy. However, unlike the previous times, the spell failed to cut through the dummy. Allocating a large amount of mana to its forearms, the dummy managed to block the blue blade. Slightly stunned because of the counterforce, the other dummy instantly punched Flynn right in the stomach. Not having the time to react, Flynn could feel his ribs shatter from the impact. "We could really need some help over here," Kevin said, as the five robots slowly encircled him and Josh.