Ambush

Brandyn, who was walking through the forest with his group, continued to scout out the surroundings. His vision was beyond perfect and he could even see microscopic particles sometimes flowing in the air. It bothered him a little but it was quite easy to almost filter these particles out in his mind.

*whoosh*

"Did you hear that?" Brandyn asked his crew, who were completely oblivious to the sound.

"Stop being so paranoid. We'll just win if someone attacks us anyway." Aria boldly claimed, without even turning to look at the area the sound came from.

Brandyn decided to brush it off and he just said to himself that it could've just been some animal playing around.

"It was probably a rabbit or something." Brandyn thought, before turning back to catch up to his walking crew.

"Idiots!" Clark thought, hiding behind the branches.

Clark knew how strong Aria was and a random and blind ambush could mean gaining unnecessary injuries. This time, he decided to use stealth to his advantage.

*FWOOM*

At full speed, Clark soared from the branches above and caught attention of the crew below. From another direction, Elias came charging in with his alight claws.

Botan pulled up his gorilla-like arms and Aria started to accumulate earth across her arms in protection but also for offence. Brandyn's eyes glowed as Clark approached, also making him involuntarily grow the physical traits of the archdemon. The elbow bone appendages, claws, fangs, all that.

*slash*

Brandyn violently threw out his claws but Clark was able to swiftly swerve over this slash without being harmed. As he swerved over this attack, he came in dangerously close to Brandyn and kicked him across the face as hard as he could, swerving his entire body in the process.

[HP: 10/20]

"That took off 4 HP with just that attack alone? This guy could kill me right?!" Brandyn thought to himself in fear as he lifted his arms to protect himself.

*BAM*

Clark threw out a shockingly powerful punch that cracked one of Brandyn's forearm bones. The pain was excruciating but Brandyn still managed to retaliate by hurling forward his elbow bone. Clark didn't even attempt to evade this bone and got slashed across the cheek with a shallow cut. Visibly, the wound healed and he was completely unfazed about it.

"Brandyn. The regular-born scum. I wonder how many Marks you paid to get that damn ability you have off the black market!" Clark exclaimed with arrogance, viciously kicking him in the stomach.

[HP: 5/20]

"This can't go on! If my HP gets to 0 then, well I don't know what'll happen and I don't wanna know!" Brandyn thought to himself, actively submitting to Clark in front of him.

What Brandyn thought about 0 HP was that he would die. Judging from how he was treated by these upperclassmen, getting killed by them wasn't an option that was off the table. In this exam, it was made explicit across the years that dying was your responsibility. The school knew how dangerous the exam could be with the strong in direct conflict and the highly advanced medical team simply wouldn't be enough to provide complete protection for the students.

Of course, the chances of death were low, but they certainly weren't 0.

"Good stuff, trash." Clark said to Brandyn.

He then just walked right past him to watch the fight at hand with Elias, Aria and Botan.

"Die!!" Aria shouted vehemently, chucking out one of her golem arms.

Elias simply blocked with his forearm and stopped her in her tracks. She was completely unable to move her arm in the wanted direction and this annoyed her. She decided to try with her other arm, throwing a bunch of punches. Firstly, she threw 2 to the head but due to Elias' excellent discernment of distance, he was left untouched.

Finally, she threw a hook to the body but Elias just blocked by slipping his forearm down to the right position. For Elias, her sluggish movements were as if she was trying to attack him through a pool of syrup. His perception dilated the very speed of the battle, giving him the needed time to think of counterattacks and decisions.

Elias just made a light chuckle before lifting his right foot to drive it into Aria's chest. Embers flew off his extended leg but Aria was also launched in the opposite direction, being left to roll across the floor in pain.

Botan came in with a snarl, throwing a punch with his extra-long arms. Luckily, it connected. His range was far superior and Elias decided to see how strong his punch could actually be.

Of course, it felt like a slight bump to him.

Botan became over-confident, thinking he had a certain advantage with his ability. He threw again, this time using his other arm. The speed was definitely impressive but it simply wasn't enough to faze Elias. His eyes widened in excitement as he observed the number of openings across Botan's body. When he had thrown this punch, he hadn't even pulled back his other arm for protection since his only thought was putting as much force into his attack as possible.

Elias skilfully slipped past his punch, with his arms simply dangling from his shoulders. Seeing his left side was open, he cocked back his right, scaled fist, and it engulfed in flames. With a swift turning of his upper body, he was able to slam his fist directly into this part of his body. The flame caused even more damage as it burned the point of impact too.

Botan's side caved in at this point and as his arm was coming back, Elias slipped under it again to land 2 swift strikes. One to the liver then the final uppercut to the chin.

*BAM*

As this last blow landed, his eyes seemed to roll to the back of his head. His legs instantly started to bend and his arms fell to dangling to his side as he was dropping.

*thud*

His arms slowly began to return to their ordinary human form and Elias was provided with all of his points.