"Alright, listen carefully." Jyorta shouted as he craned strength into his legs, "I have one shot of my basic aura beam. It can give us a time buffer. But as for the rest, I'm the weakest of the team now. When we are near the goal and are blocked by Frenzy Beasts, even if you have to throw me towards the goal, do it."
"Alright," Sreshta shouted, "We'll take care of it."
The four of them immediately formed a protective cover around Jyorta. Rishana covered the front and Duvic covered his back. Sreshta and Bilena covered his left and right respectively. The Graduation Ceremony had started the moment they landed on the ground.
"We'll make a path, follow us!" Jyorta bellowed as he and his team shot forth without a second's delay.
"Follow Jyorta! He'll make a path!" Dalna Doppler shouted, trailing right behind him.
"Yeah!" Followed by a collective shout that thundered across the area, even drowning out the roars of the Frenzy Beasts for a second, all the students made a beeline towards the first green circle. It was the closest green circle they had seen. It was more like the only green circle they were able to see.
The ground was flat, covered by slightly moist mud that splattered when one stomped hard. The only other variety on the ground was the presence of numerous boulders of all shapes and sizes, ranging to almost 20 metres high.
They formed large obstructions that blocked their view, preventing them from seeing beyond their immediate surroundings. Moreover, it also created a good vantage point for the Frenzy Beasts to use against them.
His team had only crossed ten metres when the floor underneath them caved in. They didn't have enough solid footing to leap away. His teammates were only slightly stronger than regular humans, so they weren't able to do anything drastic.
Duvic's first action was to shield Jyorta as they fell into the pit. The pit was 10 metres in width, having pulled in the teams of Jyorta, Dalna Doppler, and a couple others. Thankfully, its depth was only three metres. But, that was the free depth, for the layer was covered by wriggling Ring Worms, numbering hundred in the area.
The actual depth of the pit wasn't seen thanks to them covering it in its entirety. There were Tier 1 and Tier 2 Ring Worms mixed into it, moving about in a degree of freedom only available to their serpentine wriggly bodies.
Their sheer quantity determined one thing. The moment they fell into the pit, irrespective of how well they fought, they were done for by this point. Without any hesitation, Jyorta collapsed his two psychic arms, fuelling the psychic energy into his body by activating Regen.
Before collapsing, he seeped it inside his body and covered every inch of him. This way, the Regen made it target every part of his body at the same instant, causing the recovery of his presence to skyrocket.
It was a technique he learned from the Tier 3 Relic, Wave Formation. It was a dangerous technique due to the fact it strained the body and the mind, making the user enter a state of lethargy immediately after.
But, it was the fastest method considering the slow speed of movement of an Area Controller's psychic arm. The collapse of his psychic arm wasn't done slowly, rather he had forced them to detonate. As the psychic energy was his, it didn't face any resistance as it flowed through his body. But, this abrupt action strained his body, tearing numerous muscles.
But in the end, it did its job. The scenario was something he had practiced enough times to do by heart. In reality, he had only done it once. But, he experienced the memory thousands of times—using his blue soul—that he instinctively did it in a fraction of a second.
They had only fallen halfway through the pit when Jyorta finished all the preparations, summoning his corrosion as he unleashed his aura beam using all his presence, this time, from his feet. His feet were facing the pit as he fell, so it was the perfect outlet to attack, considering the time constraints.
Adding onto the property of corrosion on his aura caused his aura beam to also affect the air, corroding everything in its path. But, this also caused something else to happen. The force of the aura's ejection, and the resistance it faced in the air—due to the aura in it and the molecules in the air—caused his action to become something akin to a rocket thrust.
The air was blown to such an extent it created a platform, a cushion of sorts that acted as a blanket to temporarily halt everyone for a moment. In the meantime, the aura slammed into the wriggling mass of Ring Worms. Just the force from the thrust air flattened them while the property of corrosion in it melted their bodies.
Adding onto the aura that annihilated their own, the bodies of all the Ring Worms splattered into a pool of blood. A fraction of a second later, the four teams landed into the pit, getting submerged into the pool. It seemed the depth of the Ring Worms was greater than they had expected, for the gooey mass alone surpassed their height.
A second later, a student flew out from the pit and landed on the ground above. After every second, two students flew out in the same manner. It was Dalna Doppler who was using her strength to throw them all up.
The pool in the pit wasn't water, but the blood of the Ring Worms, filled with their respective Essence of Frenzy. There was also Jyorta's corrosion in it. So, it became a deadly place for them to be in. Thankfully, Jyorta's corrosion was acting against the Essence of Frenzy and the Frenzy Beast blood, so they could still manage to survive.
Within ten seconds, everyone managed to come out as Dalna Doppler climbed out of the pit, gasping for air as she rested on the ground. There were faint burns all over her body, but overall, she hadn't lost any combat strength.
Jyorta rubbed his hands over his eyes, trying his best to wipe the layer of blood off so that he could see.
"Wait, let me help you." Ashten's voice resounded as he arrived with his team. He removed his shirt and used it to wipe away the blood from Jyorta's face. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Jyorta panted, "Thank you. That was a dangerous situation."
"We don't have time to waste. Let's hurry up." Ashten said, using his shirt to wipe the blood off the others.
The moment Dalna Doppler cleaned her face, her eyes shot open, looking around to see the figures of numerous Frenzy Beasts growling at them from all sides. They were atop the surrounding boulders, ranging from Spiked Lizards to Spindle Bees.
"This is just a freaking wave," Jyorta cursed, feeling pain in his chest as he coughed up blood. His quick thinking had saved him and the other three teams, also annihilating all their foes with a single blow. But, it also rendered him weak, unable to fight unless he healed himself.
"Let's do it this way." Ashten looked around before offering his suggestion, "I'll carry you to the green circle first. Let our teams follow us. Once you heal, create some breathing space for us using your hallucination."
"Alright," Jyorta had just nodded when Ashten pulled him, giving him a piggyback as he nodded at their respective teams, saying, "Keep up with me."
Plans were useless as they lacked the energy to activate their Skills. As compared to before, Dalna Doppler was a tad thinner. To react on time, she had activated her Tier 2 Skill. Since she didn't have an iota of energy in her Heart Crystal, she burned her flesh to supplement its activation.
The quick thinking of her and Jyorta saved them all from failing at the start of the Graduation Ceremony.
Ashten began with a leap, sprinting through the area as he unleashed a powerful flux of aura. His body was thinning at a slow but noticeable rate. He too was burning his flesh to sustain the activation of his Tier 2 Skill.
A Tier 2 Life Leech sprang out of the ground and clamped his legs, almost throwing him off. Ashten changed his running posture, swapping the positions of his right leg to his left and vice-versa. This abrupt action threw him off, causing him to leap forward.
If he didn't do anything, he would crash face-first into the ground. Ashten slammed into the ground with his hand, using the rebound to push his body up a little while adding torque to his body. Using the circular momentum, his leg—the one clamped by a Life Leech—shot forth, aiming at a Tier 2 Spiked Lizard that had its jaws open, intending to bite him.
The force and his aim caused the Life Leech to slam into the face of the Spiked Lizard like a whip. The force peeled its tough skin off while the Spiked Lizard automatically clamped its jaws shut, shredding the Life Leech's body.
His foot landed on the ground as he leaped a little, using his free left hand to slam onto the Spiked Lizard's head, using it as a foothold to power himself up, leaping over its body. He then stomped on a Crust-Mantle trailing right behind, cracking the shell on its head as he used its hardness to jump higher into the air.
Three Floating Spiders flew towards him at tremendous speeds, clicketing their mandibles as they swished around him through different angles. Ashten used Jyorta's body, shifting his weight around him to turn mid-air while he curled his hand into a fist, smacking a Floating Spider to a pulp in one hit.
When the other two Floating Spiders closed in on him, he unleashed a blast of aura, killing them. He saw the number of Frenzy Beasts covering the path between him and the green circle, frowning as there were too many flying-type Frenzy Beasts among them.
They would just spam attacks on him and severely injure him before he reached the goal. Most of the other teams hadn't made it as far as him, except Dalna Doppler that was trailing right behind. He then craned strength into his legs and retracted them as close to himself as possible, unleashing them with all his might as he landed on a One-Horned Rhino, sending its heavy figure flying by a metre.
He landed on the ground as his body rapidly thinned. Ashten's voice resounded in a murmur, only audible to Jyorta, "Thanks for teaching me this technique, bro."
"Do it." Jyorta smiled with anticipation as Ashten faced his palm forward.
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