Chapter: Time to rack up points

Everyone was waiting in the dining room for the next task to begin. Some people were even studying in case we had another written exam, and others were just stressing trying to figure out what the next task was going to be. Seems like this exam is really getting to them, I don't think some people even got proper sleep, with all the stress keeping them awake throughout the night which in my opinion is not good. After a couple of hours, Ace and the others finally showed up and were ready to tell us our next task.

"Okay, you lot listen up!!" Falera shouted easily catching everyone's attention

"Thank you Falera. Now everyone congratulations for making it to the second last day of this Exam, it'll only get harder from now on, so make sure your resolve is strong, and you will make it through to the end" Ace announced trying to uplift everyone's spirit

"Now for this task, there won't be any groups you'll all be put together in a mock town, where you will be fighting level one to five combat robots that the Vaevalon Kingdom has given us. The point of this task is to collect as many points as you can, by destroying the robots." Ian explained

"Each robot will give you a different amount of points. Level one robots are worth 100 points, Level two are worth 200 points, level three are worth 300 points, level four are worth 400, and level five robots are worth one 600. You will be given three hours to gain a total score of 10,000 points" Ian continued to explained

"And the total points you gain from this take will be transferred to your bank, so go all out!" Ace added on

Everyone started to talk with each other, most were relieved that this wasn't a written exam but some were worried that they didn't get enough sleep last night, and others were worrying about the time limit they had to complete the task.

Combat robots are military-grade robots, used by the Empire and its four kingdoms. They can also be found in other kingdoms and cities, not with the Empire. Since the robots we will go against are from the Vaevalon Kingdom, one of the kingdoms under the Empire, they must have been remodelled so they couldn't do any life-threatening injuries to us, while still keeping their original stats. I haven't seen any combat robots in real life, but big brother Alister has talked about them during our training when I was younger.

"Quiet down! You will all be given a tag with your name on it, you must keep it at all times during the task. If you lose your tag or have it destroyed by a robot, or another student takes it from you, then your point will become useless" Ace Explained as he held a tag in his hands

"Even if you reach or exceed the number of points you need to pass, you won't pass if you don't have your tag. But there will be a chance of redemption. There will be a golden robot running around, who I have enchanted with high magic and physical defence. Now, this gold robot will give you no points if you somehow manage to destroy it, so don't waste your time trying to destroy it, the only time you should be focused on destroying it, is if you have lost your tag, as destroying the golden robot is the only way to pass without your tag" Ace continued to Explain

"Now there are no rules against students attacking each other, but know that you will gain no point from doing so. Once you have collected the number of points needed you can choose to leave or continue to collect more points" Ace further explained

"Now as some of you probably know a lot of injuries are going to come from this task, but fear not as I'm here. For the students that don't know, one of my specialties is healing magic as I'm from the Papilionem family. So any injuries you may receive during the task, I will be able to heal you completely" Sophia said with a smile ensuring all our safety

"Okay now that everything has been explained, let's get this started!!!" Falera shouted with excitement

Everyone followed Falera, west of the Zeless Hotel. We walked for a few minutes until we finally arrived at a giant magical wall. By the looks of it, it was probably more of a magical gate than just a wall, which i'm guessing will lead us to the mock town Ace was talking about. Falera went around giving everyone their tag before standing back in front of the gate.

"Okay, this magic wall is the gate to the mock town Ace was explaining. This gate will always be open, if you think you can't handle this task you are free to walk out the gates, but do know that it'll be an automatic fail" Falera explained

"Every single robot will be labelled a number showing their level. Now if you're up for the challenge you may head in!!!" Falera shouted explaining the extra rules

Everyone quickly ran through the magic gates and were transported to a large town with no sign of life, only robots wandering the place. Each robot had a number printed on their chest, the higher the number was the bigger the robot was, the biggest robot was as big as buildings and they were the level fives. The lower the number was, the smaller the robot was.

There was a giant mana projector high in the sky that would show who was in the lead with the most points. Everyone quickly spread out and went hunting for robots to rack up points, but most people avoided attacking the big robots for now as they looked really dangerous.

"Well I'm off," Krow said before vanishing into a flock of crows

"Alright Drew, let's see who racks up the most points!" Leo said challenging Drew

"I hope you're ready to lose" Drew replied before he and Leo dashed off

"I was hoping to stick together as a team, but it seems like that won't be happening. If any of you guys need help just call my name alright!" Mira said before running off

"This is going to be a long three hours" Catherine sighed before walking off

"Nawww Catherine don't be like that, I'll stick with you so it's fun," Koko said in a flirtatious voice before following Catherine

"Ken, do you want to work together?" Hanako asked

"Yeah, of course, that sounds great" I replied with a smile

Hanako and I ran off together hunting down robots while making sure to keep our tags safe. We mostly attacked level one to three, so we could get a feel of how strong these combat robots really were. The level ones and two's were easy to take down, the level threes were stronger but not strong enough to put up a good fight.

Meanwhile

In a different area of the mock town. Claire was taking out robots left and right with ease using her magic bow. She moved as elegant and as swift as a leaf dancing in the wind. Claire unleashed storms of magic arrows, taking out hundreds of level one to four robots with ease.

While Claire was firing off at the robots below, a giant level five robot came from behind Claire, and with a single punch, it completely destroyed the house Claire was standing on. The robot lifted its fist to see if it got Claire, but Claire was nowhere to be found, the robot looked around but couldn't find her anywhere.

"I'm up here," Claire said standing upside down on a magical square in the air, above the level five robot

Claire pointed her bow down at the robot and pulled back on the string as far as she could, charging up a magic arrow. The robot looked up at Claire and raised its right hand up towards Claire. The robot's arm morphed into a giant blaster that started to charge up a ball of energy.

"Die. Spirit Magic: Spiraling Gale Strike" Claire said looking down at the robot

The magic arrow Claire was charging up finally finished charging, it was a vibrant green, brimming with spirit magic. The robot fired a huge blast of energy straight towards Claire at high speed, but Claire did not flinch an inch. Claire released the string on her bow, firing the magical arrow down at even greater speed.

Upon the release of the arrow, it spun like a drill at high speed creating a wild cloak of wind around it. The arrow pierced through the energy, obliterating the ball of energy completely into the wind. The arrow then proceeded to strike straight through the level five robot's cannon arm, then through its head. This all happened in less than a second.

After the arrow pierced through the robot, the robot exploded into several chunks. Every student that witnessed Claire destroying the level five robot with a single strike, was all left speechless and very impressed. Claire was the first person to successfully beat a level five robot, putting her in the lead of everyone with the highest points within the first seven minutes of this task.

-Clare: 3,000Points

In a different area of the mock town, Catherine and Koko were working well together to annihilate level ones, twos, and threes.

"Man these robots are annoying," Koko said a little tired

"Yeah they sure are" Catherine added on

As Catherine and Koko were fighting, a small army of level four robots marched towards them and started to rapidly fire at them with their energy blasters. Catherine and Koko moved around dodging all the energy blasts that came their way.

Catherine stood in front of the line of fire while Koko jumped to higher grounds to gain an aerial advantage. A thick opened grimoire floated in front of Catherine. A barrier formed around Catherine deflecting all the incoming energy blast from the level fours.

"Koko get ready!" Catherine called out to Koko "Sky Magic: Rising Winds" Catherine said raising her Right hand towards the army of level four robots

As Catherine raised her right hand to the sky, a light blue magic circle formed underneath the level four robots, from within the magic circle a burst of wind, flung the robots high into the sky.

"Right, leave the rest to me!" Koko said standing on top of a tall building

"Swift Barrage" Koko whispered to herself

Catherine quickly moved away to a safe distance, away from the floating army of robots. Koko jumped off the building high into the sky above the army of level four robots, before coming down with a flying kick, blitzing through the robots, in a zigzag pattern, she then came smashing into the ground creating a deep crater.

The army of robots broke up in bits and pieces before raining down onto the ground. Koko walked out of the crater without a scratch and made her way to Catherine.

"So Catherine dear, how many kicks did you count?" Koko asked with a smile

"Hmm I counted fifteen" Catherine replied

"close, but it was actually twenty-eight," Koko said pulling Catherine's cheeks

-Catherine: 1000Points

-Koko: 1,600Points

In another part of the mock town, Leo and Drew were having a heated competition of who could score the most points.

"Getting tired already Drew?" Leo shouted

"I'm pretty sure I'm winning, little man!" Drew replied

Drew and Leo's competition only got more aggressive and competitive as time went on. Leo and Drew ran around destroying level one to three robots until they suddenly ran into an ally way, where they were trapped by an army of level four robots on both sides. Leo and Drew stood back to back facing the army of level four robots.

"Well looks like they got us surrounded" Drew said with a smile as he was quite happy being in this situation

"This is great! It means I get to unleash more of my flames" Leo smirked also feeling the same way as Drew

The robots at each end of the alleyway raised their blasters at Drew and Leo and started firing at them relentlessly. Some of the robots morphed their hands into energy blades that they used to charge at Drew and Leo.

"Exploding Lion Paw!" Leo shouted, smashing both his fist together. Leo's arms sparked into flames covering his entire hands in the shape of a lion's paw. Leo charged into his side of the robots and started unleashing a flurry of punches at the robots, each one of Leo's punches, causing a blazing explosion.

"Raging Bull Stampede!" Drew said, putting both his hands on the ground. A brown magic circle appeared on the ground in front of Drew, summoning an army of bulls created out of stones.

The level four robot started to shoot at the bulls but their energy blast was only able to make small cracks in them. all the bulls ran towards the robots crushing them with their horns, and hooves. It didn't take long until Drew and Leo took out all the level four robots.

"That was pretty wild" Leo laughed

"level five robot is next" Drew said excitedly

-Drew: 2,500Points

-Leo: 2,500Points

Back to Ken and Hanako.

It's been over half an hour now. Hanako and I were working well together taking out level one to four robots, raking up lots, and lots of points. It's great since I got to see even more of her swordplay, and more of her Four Seasons Style.

She only used Autumn and Winter which is great but I'd really love to see Summer and Spring style. Come to think of it, I've actually never seen Hanako use Summer and Spring style, for all the times I have known her, I wonder why? Right now Hanako and I are in the middle of taking out a wave of level three to four robots.

-Ken: 2,400Points

Hanako: 1,800Points

"Frozen Thunder Storm!" I called out, as I pointed my right hand towards a group of level four robots in front of me. The sky above slowly turned black, as it glowed and flashed with purple lightning. Multi purple lightning shot out of the clouds and struck the robots underneath, with each strike a lightning explosion would occur, before instantly flash freezing, whatever was caught up in it. The entire army of the robot before me was destroyed and frozen in a huge ice sculpture

I turn around to look over at Hanako, to see how she was doing, but weirdly she was just standing still, completely motionless it was like she was unconscious, but she was also mumbling to herself, altho I couldn't clearly understand what she was saying, I could tell it was some sort of argument with herself.

"Hey, Hanako! What's the matter!" I called out looking at Hanako

But Hanako did not reply, she didn't even open her eyes. This is bad since another army of robots we're heading her way. I kept on calling out her name, but she wouldn't reply, she didn't even budge.

Without a second more to waste, I quickly dash towards the army of robots heading towards Hanako, I intercept them, taking each of them out, although none of them was strong enough to pose a threat, there were a lot of them and I was slowly getting overwhelmed.

While defending Hanako I strayed away from her without realizing it. Once I finally had the chance to, I looked back at Hanako, to check if she was safe, but unfortunately, she was in grave danger, a level five robot was standing in front of her, ready to crush her with its hands.

"Hanako look out!!" I shouted as I jumped high into the sky

Looks like she is still unconscious as she did not move. The robot clenched its fist and launched its giant fist at her.

"Oh no, I don't think I'll make it in time!'' If that level five hits her with its giant fist, it won't be good" I said to myself with a worried look. I used my accelerator boots to move faster towards her while avoiding all the other robots trying to stop me

Next Time: Release Odayakana-kazarashi!