Chapter 236 - Sabotage

All the students began rushing past Damian and the weaker students were overjoyed by Damian's actions, since it increased their chances of passing, while Elder Ray and Elder Norris who were watching, were outraged. 

"He can't do anything to us since the rules say he can't attack us," 

"Yeah and how does he expect to stop us all by himself, anyway," 

That was what the people in Larry and Trevor's group said and believed, but none of them were yet to make a move, especially Larry who had seen his powerful Damian was. 

"He isn't alone, we are with him," said Milo as he stood by Damian's side along with the others. 

Milo still held a grudge against Trevor and had never had his chance to get his revenge against him, while they didn't know what Damian had against Larry, but they were planning on supporting and standing with him. 

"How long do you think you can hold us here for, without ruining your chance at passing?" asked Trevor who was confident that he would still make it even if he was stuck there for 15 minutes. 

"You guys just go ahead of me, I will hold them back then catch up," said Damian to his friends, ignoring what Trevor had asked him. 

They didn't want to leave his side, especially Milo who wanted to be involved in getting in Trevor's way, but he reassured them that he would make it.

Since he was the fastest out of them and was so adamant about them going ahead without him, they began rushing down the path. 

That left Damian standing alone against 2 groups that were led by Larry and Trevor that were made up of roughly 30 of some of the strongest students taking part in the examination. 

They were beginning to become restless and worried, but still didn't act without the permission of their group leaders.

Despite all the other things that were occurring in the first round of the assessment, most of the elders watched what was occurring between Damian and the two groups of students, interested to see what would happen next. 

As soon as Trevor took one step forwards, Damian placed his palms on the ground and almost instantaneously, a wall of blazing hot flames appeared before him. 

The heat caused him to move back, and the flames were red and golden, while they were also a lot more powerful than they used to be after all the cultivation that Damian had done using the Golden Flame Inheritance. 

The students and the elders watching were shocked and amazed by Damian's power and flames, along with his control over them. 

Fire energy was very difficult to wield in such a way and control so precisely, with Damian only managing to do it because of his practice in the use of Clay's ability. 

"You are all better off giving up right now. I am confident in my speed and can make it in half an hour. I am sure you guys can't say the same and won't be able to get past my wall of flames," 

As he said that, Damian stopped supplying energy to the flame wall and moved back, to create more space for him to be able to use it again. 

He needed to preserve his energy as much as he could and it was clear that he could only use that skill a limited amount of times, while blocking off the entire path would be almost impossible for him to do. 

Staring each other down, it became a competition of who would run out of energy and still had enough strength and time left to reach the end in time. 

Each time they would make a move, Damian would block off their path with his Fire Ability and he managed to block them all for 10 minutes. 

They had made some distance, but Damian made sure that they couldn't get far and blocked them in any way he could, using his Maxwell Fire Ability.

In that time he had used a lot of energy, but they had also used quite a lot themselves and just as they were about to make another attempt to get past Damian, they were shocked to see that he had begun dashing in the opposite direction. 

They all instantly bolted after him and wanted to repay Damian back for holding them at the start for so long. 

However little did they know, that was exactly what Damian wanted and while they wasted time and energy trying to hold him back, he was conserving his strength and not running as fast as he could. 

Trevor, Larry and their followers were all furious and wanted to make sure that Damian didn't make it to the finish line, so worked together.

From what they could see, Damian's speed appeared very average, and they assumed that it was because he was fatigued after holding them back for so long, but the truth was, he was saving the last of his energy.

"You better stop there, I won't let you get past,"

As he said that, Larry flung a Wind Blade using his ability that cut a tree on the side of the path that was prepared, and the tree came crashing down towards Damian.

Rolling forwards and increasing his speed for an instant, Damian avoided the tree that was very close to crushing him along with every other way that they tried to stop him.

Unlike his use of fire, they didn't have many effective ways of getting in his way, while Damian was also very skilled in dodging, so it was hard for them to do much to him.

Maintaining the same speed, they had just passed half way and yet there were only 15 minutes left.

They had wasted so much time and energy trying to stop Damian, that they had forgotten about passing the first round and knew that entering the Inner Academy was inevitable with their capabilities and background.

However, they were amazed and infuriated by what Damian did next.