...

In the battle that was taking place on the special grounds of the academy, the two teams were still in a deadlock when the two professors who were controlling the 7-star Monster Beasts finally made their moves.

And just like what Professor Henry was expecting, the ambush that the two professors were beyond perfect. They made their moves at the most critical time when each member of the two teams was too committed to dealing with their respective opponents.

Moreover, the main target of their ambush was the two Mentalists of each side, who were guarding the floating crystals of their team.

Mariel and Rey quickly forgot about their opponents the moment they sensed the threat of the ambush. They even set up their toughest defensive technique as fast as they could. Unfortunately, they still couldn't endure the assault from the group of 6-star Monster Beasts alone, especially that there was a monster beast with a rank of 7-star to lead the group.

In the meantime, their teammates were still busy dealing with their respective opponents during that time. Moreover, each of them was also on guard against the two other groups watching their battle from a distance, so they were a little too late to respond with the ambush even though they were expecting it to happen.

Due to that, all of their floating crystals shattered into pieces which indicated that they got eliminated in this competition. Even if David and Shiella managed to kill the 7-star monster beasts leading the group, they still failed to salvage the situation in the end.

"Tch! I let my guard down, I should have guard the crystals alongside Miss Mariel earlier," David clicked his tongue as he put his hands on each side of his waist while looking in the sky. "I underestimated the strengths of the academy teachers."

"No, it should be our fault. We are the ones who are most familiar with them, so we should have expected this to happen," said Shiella, admitting their mistake of not paying much attention to their professors.

But at the same time, Mariel shook her head and quickly took the blame. "No, it is my fault. I failed to set up a stronger defensive Array to protect the crystals. And I also don't expect Professor Shane and Professor Billy to come up with such underhanded tricks."

"Hmph! I thought they were righteous, but I guess they also have a dark side on them," she added while pouting her lips.

On the other hand, Elijah couldn't help but smile when he saw the expression that she was making. And when Mariel saw that, her face immediately turned rosy as she felt embarrassed.

In the meantime, Jerimiah and Vincent were currently in deep thought and seemed to be reviewing the details of the battle that took place just earlier.

On the other side, their opponents seemed to be also discussing the same things as they immediately regroup with their respective partners before separating from each other. The battle was already over as well as the special test, so there was no point for them to group up together; their temporary alliance already came to an end.

Meanwhile, the other two teams immediately left the scene after seeing what happened; especially when they knew that they were going to be the next target of the Earthen Lizards after eliminating the other teams.

After leaving the place, these two teams seemed to have the same thought in mind as they quickly headed towards the place where Professor Bullen was waiting.

From the look of it, they seemed to be planning to fight this professor instead of fighting the remaining Monster Beasts under Professor Shane and Professor Billy's controls.

But unlike the other group who had Shiella, Mariel, and Elijah who were students of the academy, these guys had no idea what kind of ability Professor Bullen had. And when they started testing the waters, they immediately discovered how foolish their decision was.

Professor Bullen didn't even lift an arm when he was defending against the attacks that were being thrown at him. No, he was not even defending, he just let those attacks land on his body while body blocking them to protect the floating crystal behind him.

Realizing their mistakes, the Marines and Bright Feathers immediately understood their mistake and decided to drop the test since they knew that it was impossible for them to win right now.

Even if they tried to fight it out against each other, they were afraid that they were going to suffer the same fate as the other two groups. So, they decided to stop the test right away since they knew that it was already pointless to continue.

And with all of that, their special exam finally came to an end.

In the meantime, Professor Henry was laughing out loud inside the conference room while slapping his thigh. "See? I told you, those kids are too full of themselves! This is bound to happen when they are too proud of their own strengths. And that is why we need to whip them up a little."

On the other hand, Professor Cora who was sitting beside him, currently had a heavy expression on her face. She wanted to refute Professor Henry's words but she knew that what he just said was all true.

All she could do was clench her fist before glaring at the two girls on the screen before muttering with a heavy voice. "These girls, I'll make sure to give them an earful later."

Meanwhile, Professor Henry waved his hand while saying. "Alright, alright. Do whatever you want, just pay up later."

Hearing that, Professor Cora suddenly threw a sharp glare at him before answering. "Yeah, you can just pick the material that you want from my laboratory."

********

A quick two days went by and it was finally the day that Shin suspected to be the last day of their exam.

Over the time that they had stayed in here, they were coming out from the cave from time to time to 'exercise' and hunted quite a few monster beasts along the way.

Naturally, Shin and Arthur, who were familiar with hiding their trails, were tasked to clean up the battlefield to avoid getting tracked down by the prisoners residing on the island.

At the same time, it was also natural for them to bump into a few prisoners along the way, so the group had no other choice but to fight and eliminate them to make sure that their hiding place was not going to be exposed.

But this place was still the territory of those prisoners, so it was natural for them to be more familiar with the place than them. And with this, the prisoners started tracking down Shin and the others after learning that the group took down quite a lot of their prison buddies.

But thankfully, Shin and the others already made their preparations ahead of time. Not only did they set up a concealment array in the vicinity around the cave, but they also put quite a lot of traps to hinder the progress of the prisoners tracking them.

Naturally, such a method would expose their location by following the direction of the traps. But that fact had already been considered by Shin, so he purposely set up the traps that would lead those island prisoners towards a different location.

Obviously, their opponents were going to notice that there was something odd about it if the traps led them to some random location. After all, these guys were too familiar with the place in the first place.

Unfortunately for these prisoners, Shin already considered everything and even used their familiarity over the terrain against them. He meticulously set up the traps and led their pursuers towards a certain valley not too far from their actual hiding spot.

That place was a suitable location to hide from their opponents. And at the same time, it was also a good place to fight against a large group of people despite them being cornered; after all, they only need to focus on a single direction while defending.

And if ever the odds of the battle were against their favor, they could also use the cliff at the end of the valley as their escape route.

And even if the current of the river below the cliff was quite strong, the group of Mentalists in Shin's group were more than enough to save themselves during the fall. They also had the ability to create a spherical barrier that they could use to protect themselves while riding the water current to escape.

The leader of the prisoners seemed to understand this fact and immediately became convinced that this particular valley was the exact place where Shin and the others were hiding. And due to that, he immediately summoned the key figures of their group and started formulating some plans to corner their targets.

Unfortunately for them, they were already dancing on the palm of a young man who set all of these up, which made him finally catch the attention of all of the teachers and professors watching from the conference room.

Seeing that, Professor Henry started nodding his head repeatedly while wearing a satisfied smile. "Looks like he is starting to make his presence noticeable to the others, I wonder how far is he going to make himself known."

After that, he turned his attention towards another pair of virtual screens where two other groups of top candidates were gathered together before continuing. "Though, these guys seem to also plan to finally make their move."

"I wonder which group among them is going to emerge on top at the end of this exam," he added while wearing a mysterious grinning look on his face.

...