572 Chapter 572: Beyond a Hundred

Theodore's girlfriend gasped in shock as she watched from above. Beside her, Theodore Hammond guffawed good-naturedly.

"All of you underestimated him. I'm starting to doubt that you've watched the national tournament last year."

"I saw your matches, but I didn't actually watch the others," his girlfriend admitted guiltily. Theodore sighed and shook his head.

"Yeah, well…if you have a chance, you should watch his matches as well. He's quite the insane dude, you know?" he burst out laughing. "In fact, it's all because those guys didn't bother to do their research properly and find out what Richard is capable of that they ended being beaten up so badly! Serves them right!"

"You seem to hold him in very high regard," his girlfriend remarked, amazed. "I've never seen you respect anyone else like this."

���Fight by his side and you'll see why," Theodore replied with a scoff. "He's one of the most reliable teammates you can ever have."

"I can see why," she acknowledged, glancing down and watching me check on my Celestial Guardians.

Meanwhile, the other students were milling about at the exterior of the cage, looking dismayed.

"What should we do?" one of them asked, dread filling his voice. "None of us stand a chance."

"I guess all we can do at this point is wear him out by sending team after team," another student replied. "A battle of attrition. Even that monster shouldn't be able to last for much longer."

"Eighty-three…all they need is seventeen more and they get to keep their own resources."

"Well, it's too bad, but it's not as if we lose anything, right?"

"Yeah…"

While they were discussing amongst themselves, amidst the spectators, a single person sat back, looking down on me with contempt. Beside him, his friend glanced at him.

"Bro, shouldn't you give it a try?" he asked. "At this rate, nobody will beat him and the summoning students will reach their target."

"Good for them," the other guy replied with a shrug. He was from one of the major families, and he was enjoying the show. "Why should I care? We're just having pity on them, that's all. If we beat them now, then they won't have any resources. Do we really need their resources? Are you that desperate for scholarship money, equipment and elixirs?"

"No, that's not it. It's just…" his friend scratched his head and shrugged. "…just a waste, I guess? An opportunity that's too good to pass up."

"Nah, that's fine. Wait and see. It's not my turn yet. We'll give them the illusion of hope, and once they are near the hundred mark, I'll swoop down and crush their hopes."

His friend grinned, but his humor was lost when they saw the next group show up. They were taking no chances and were coming in waves now.

"Whoa…they are getting serious."

"That summoning guy is doomed. Even with three Soul Beasts, there's no way he can defeat twenty opponents at once."

I watched silently as the twenty students from the other departments flooded the cage. Zhang was looking a little concerned, but he waved them in nonetheless.

"This is our last chance to stop the summoning students from reaching their target!"

"We can do this!"

"Drown him in a human tide!"

"Wear him out!"

How naïve. If they thought they could defeat me with sheer numbers, they had another thing going. Sighing, I waited for the match to begin and then raised a hand. a green magic circle appeared above me.

"Green Dragon."

"Huh?! He has a fourth Soul Beast!?"

"What?!"

Their shock was overcome by the materialization of the majestic Celestial Guardian. Green Dragon appeared in a storm of leaves and petals, which obscured their sight. Before they could react, vines were already wrapping around them and restraining them.

"Why, you…!"

"Attack!"

"Focus on the summoner! As long as we take him out, his summoned beasts will naturally be defeated along with him!"

Many of them got their spells off, but Black Tortoise conjured a water sphere to protect me. I watched as the elemental projectiles slam ineffectively against the magical barrier and harmlessly dissipated.

"Fuck!"

"This is cheating!"

"This is unfair!"

"How is this allowed?!"

Thrashing about, restrained by vines and creepers, the twenty or so students howled in protest. I couldn't help but shake my head at how thick-skinned they were. They had no compunctions ganging up on me twenty to one, yet they complained about how this was unfair or cheating. I couldn't believe their nerve.

On the other hand, I did have like four Celestial Guardians under my command. This was the equivalent of having four boss monsters show up at once. I didn't play a lot of games, but I did hear that normally you would show up in huge groups just to take down a single boss monster.

So to face four of them at once…I could see why they thought it was unfair. Not that I cared. The whole system was unfair to begin with. It was rigged in their favor. Seven summoning students against a hundred? What a joke.

Feeling rage well up within me, I sent a mental command to Vermillion Phoenix and White Tiger. They cast their fire and lightning spells before launching them at the entangled students. None of them were able to break free in time, having used their spells to aim at me instead of cutting themselves out of the overgrowth.

The vines and plants that held them were combustible and needless to say they caught fire very easily. Within seconds, the twenty or so students were screaming and shrieking in agony as they were enveloped in an infero without any way of escaping. Pushing up my glasse, I watched as they were incinerated into charred corpses.

Again, if it weren't for the boundary field that covered the entire area, they would have died. As it was, Zhang waited for the flames to soften a bit before he used his telekinesis spell to levitate the twenty or so students out of the cage and pass them over to a frantic Yi Ya, who began casting her healing spells as quickly as possible. Right now, she was accompanied by an entire team of healing mages, no longer able to contain the situation by herself. It was only natural. No matter how powerful she was, healing a hundred casualties in a single day was taxing even for the most skilled healing mage.

Yi Ya was clearly exhausted.

With this, I had achieved our target of a hundred and even surpassed it. I had defeated fifty-six students all by myself, and our total tally for the summoning department as a whole was 103 people. We had successfully surpassed our target and defended our resources. Yay.

I beamed as I studied the holographic screen, and then turned away to leave. Before I could dismiss my Celestial Guardians and exit the cage, however, a single voice called out to me.

"Please wait."

Turning around, I looked up and saw that it was Dean Xiao. He was smiling as he stroked his beard.

"Yes, sir?" I asked, blinking in confusion. What was this? Was the match not over? Why did he want me to wait?

"Did you never wonder about this?" he asked, watching me. I stared at him, confused.

"Wonder about what, sir?"

The bald dean sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Seriously? You didn't question the situation? If you summoning students don't meet the target of defeating a hundred people, your resources for the semester will be distributed to the student from the other elemental departments."

"Yeah, you told us that," I agreed with a nod.

"Indeed. But hasn't it occurred to you that if you succeed, you don't really win anything? All you achieved is to keep what was already entitled to you."

"Well, yes, I guess?" I still didn't see where this was going.

"Don't you find this unfair for you summoning students? Why are you participating in a match that has no benefits for you at all, where you risk losing everything for nothing in return?"

"Eh…the dean kind of has a point, right?" one of the other students murmured. His friend glared at him.

"Shut up! Whose side are you on?! You're not a summoning student, right? Why should you care?"

I didn't say anything and merely held Dean Xiao's gaze for a moment, waiting for him to get to his point. He narrowed his eyes and then I sighed.

"If that's how the school system is, then who am I to oppose it? Are you expecting us to question your authority or something?"

"Ha ha ha! Not at all!" Dean Xiao burst out laughing. "But I thought you would at least object to this unfair challenge."

"Even if we object, would you have cancelled the whole thing?" I asked dryly.

"No, but we do have a prize for you summoning students. After all, if the students from other element departments stand to win something from challenging you, then it's only a fair wager if you get to win something in return from this challenge, right?"

"Isn't that the purpose of the spirit enhancement elixir?" I asked, confused. "I thought that was the prize for reaching the target."

"No, the spirit enhancement elixirs were originally the summoning department's to begin with, part of the resources allocated to train you. You were going to get them regardless…unless, of course, you had lost to the students from the other element departments. Then they get your share of the elixirs instead."

"So we get an extra prize?" I asked. Dean Xiao grinned.

"Not yet. Actually, after the 100-person target, there is a higher target." He pointed at the holographic screen, which displayed my achievement of 103 students. He spread his hands dramatically. "If the summoning students are able to defeat 200 people, then all the training resources of the other departments will go to the summoning students!"

There was a long, stunned silence as everyone stopped talking to digest what they had just heard. Of course, that included me. Even Theodore was quiet as he listened, his brow raised. Zhao Zi Jun smirked, as if he knew about this all along. Apparently, as the information gatherer for the Hei clan, he actually did hear about it before.

Then there was an uproar.

"All our resources go to the summoning students?! What nonsense is that?!"

"Yeah, that's ridiculous! There are 4,000 of us and only seven of them! How is it that all of our resources go to them? What's next? Should we start worshipping them and addressing them as gods from now on?"

Dean Xiao ignored them and continued with a smile.

"The reason why we never mentioned this particular condition was because there hasn't been a single batch of summoning students who were able to achieve it. Not for the last few decades, at least. So we didn't think we needed to announce it because it wouldn't have made any difference."

"So why mention it now?" I asked dryly. Dean Xiao grinned at me and I suddenly felt a chilling premonition.

"Because…you might just have a chance of achieving it, Richard Huang." His grin grew wider and wider. "Why don't you give this so-called impossible target a shot?"

"Because I don't want to?" I retorted.

"Oh, come on! You know you want to! Just give it a shot!" Dean Xiao was goading me for some inane reason. "I know you need more resources than the average mage, after all."

"No, I don't."

While I was arguing with the dean, the other students were exchanging wary and skeptical glances.

"I mean, I know the guy is strong, but does the dean really think he's capable of defeating over 150 students by himself?"

"That's insane!"

"No way that's happening!"

"He doesn't even seem that interested."

They were right. I was tired, and as powerful as my Celestial Guardians were, there was no way in hell I could maintain their materialization in the physical world for so long. Two hundred students? That meant I had to defeat ninety-seven more students by myself? Like hell I would do something so tedious. I already proved myself superior to my pathetic classmates – all of whom looked down on me, mocked me and called me useless or trash, only for them to fall short of the target and get their asses kicked. And as it turned out, I had to carry them myself.

Fuck this. I wasn't going to carry them through for this.

At least that was what I thought, but…

"That trash just got lucky. No way is he defeating 150 students on his own. He probably can't maintain those Soul Beasts for much longer."

"Just look at him. He's a coward. He's so ready to give up."

"Good for us! Heh!"

"Sh! Are you guys idiots?! Why are you provoking him?"

"Because he's a spineless wimp, he won't do anything even if we…"

"Now you've done it," I interrupted their taunts and insults, feeling something snap inside me. "All right, bring it on. Let's see if I can really hit that 200 people target."