Chapter 62 Final Trial Strategy

A massive eyeball with a brown iris five feet in diameter stared blankly at candidates, drivers, and retrieval team members.

"T-That-That's the titan from yesterday!" Mindy cried.

"No! They are the titans from yesterday!" Cynthia yelled from the truck next to them.

On the other side, they could see glossy-black skin in the outline of a large humanoid beneath the wreckage. The titans were buried near the barrier of the sanctuary under the walls.

They were the candidates of Atlas and Cronus, and both were over three hundred feet tall. (Atlas = Holds Up Earth, Cronus = Zeus' Father.

Each had shaved heads and unnaturally chiseled faces. One had obsidian skin, and the other had brown skin that looked like a boulder.

Luckily, neither had gotten up because screeching was coming from the other side of the wall.

There was a reason.

Ding!

—

Due to the earthquake, God Candidates Kargon and Monitus were forced to brace themselves. As a result, the road to paradise has been blocked from driving.

Since Kargon and Monitus were originally supposed to block the exit before the first candidates could exit, the trial has been postponed for another ten minutes.

Remember that both titans are God Candidates and thus are allowed to be on the road. However, their role was restricted to the end for fairness reasons.

Attacking either titan will negate the effect of this rule.

Time until the group can continue: 00:10:58

—

Leon sighed a breath of relief when he got the notification. He knew a hard trial remained, so he wasn't shocked. Getting to prepare turned out to be a life-saving development.

Now he could get his members out front to safety; that was all that mattered.

The ten functioning survivor trucks had caught up with the original group, and the group spinning on popped tires was a couple of minutes out if they didn't break down completely.

Mirth, Kazz, and the rest of the team had loaded up important individuals in the trucks, set eighty living women loose, and managed to restart one truck.

After getting the notifications about the road closing, they knew the survivors they saved were dead.

So they gave the truck to a survivor to drive, and the drivers hopped into the two pickup trucks and drove to the main group at full speed.

The survivors were officially on their own.

Leon jumped from Tricksie's bra once Caitlyn reached the group and became full size before hitting the ground.

Booooom!

His entrance left a huge smoke cloud. When everyone saw him, they were shocked he was still on the battlefield.

They looked up and found Caitlyn and Lindy giving them mocking glares for judging Leon, and Tricksie gave them a murderous smile.

Everyone shivered and immediately placed more faith in their new leader.

"What's your name?" Leon asked Manka, the lamia snake with mountainous muscles.

"Manka, I crush shit." Manka replied in a serious tone.

"No, you crush shit on your time." Leon replied dryly, "You move shit on my time. Start clearing a path without hurting the titans, and you can leave once the trial starts. Your retrevial team time will have concluded."

Manka narrowed her eyes and then looked at Caitlyn, who had a murderous grin.

"You the one who shoots the death rays from the sky?" She asked.

Caitlyn summoned her scythe, which started growing by the second. "Yes, and if you ignore my man again, this will get twice as long. Don't test my patience bitch."

"Hah! That's all I wanted. I'll stay till the end, then." Manka laughed.

Immediately afterward, she grew to twenty feet tall—half her max size—and began throwing iron support beams around with ease.

Leon ignored her and continued.

"I need thirty survivors in this area to stay. Otherwise, the rest start running as fast as you can." Leon ordered.

"If you're capable, you should be capable of making it most of the way by yourself. Expect to die."

Survivors came forward, and the rest booked it. Leon grinned when he saw the thirty-two that stayed. They would immediately understand that following his orders always yielded results.

"We need volunteers to fight from the original corps. Everyone from the original group can leave now; we'll take care of the rest. The people that stay will likely die.

However, those who stay and survive will be compensated well and get higher standing in Harem City.

There isn't time for a pep talk, so if you're willing to fight for the survivors, speak now." Leon ordered.

"That's a stupid question." Kazz scoffed.

"Good, go help Manka." Leon replied.

"Sure." Kazz, who was still in tiger form, said.

"It's my mission to be here. I don't leave missions until they're done or I'm ordered to." Mirth said.

Leon nodded.

"I'm not leaving the party." Tricksie giggled.

"I haven't done my job yet." Kern replied lazily.

"Good answer. Here's a recovery kit. Start with the men and then retreat to the barrier to complete the rest with flying beasts if possible." Leon replied.

Kern replied while getting the kit.

"I'll coordinate, but ask you'll prioritize my life if necessary and possible." Cynthia said.

Leon nodded in assent. "If we see you're trapped, we'll help if able. However, we'll be busy trying to kill the titans without them falling on us. So you can't count on that.

However, anyone who is a retrieval team member can leave anytime they wish. With your spatial magic, you should be able to do so. Does that ease your request?"

Cynthia nodded. "That's more than enough."

"Request granted. Thank you, Cynthia." Leon replied while panning the group for more volunteers.

"I'll just get in everyone's way." Mindy said with shame in her eyes.

"Same." Quinn said.

"That's okay. You, Quinn, and Minx are leaving the battlefield now." Leon said while flashing Minx an icy stare. The black-haired cat woman averted her gaze.

"Kira, your power is useful, I'd like you to stay for a while, but I'll fully accept you leaving." Leon said.

"I… I'll stay then," Kira replied hesitantly.

"I'm in." Foxy said.

"Okay, everyone else—"

"Are you going to kill me?" Minx interjected, "If so, I'd like to prove useful, and my power isn't my only source of strength."

Leon sent a chilly glare in her direction.

"No. I'm not going to kill you because your antics helped the candidates survive the impending trial and the men." He said coldly, "But if you think I'm happy with you, then you're dead wrong."

Minx's eyes froze in a surreal puppet-like state before snapping back to reality, and Leon glowed bright pink.

"What the fuck was that?" Leon asked.

"I gambled for the power to split the men from the women." Minx sighed with shame in her eyes, "I lost so, I'm… officially your pet for the next seven days."

Leon's eyes trembled in anxiety but quickly snapped out of his fear.

"Good. Get on the bus with Mindy now, that's an order." Leon said coldly, "When you get to the sanctuary, stand at the barrier and await orders to gamble again if I ask you to or send a messenger."

Minx's eyes widened in shock, but she immediately complied.

"That's it for the volunteers. We can't have anymore potential casualties." Leon said, ignoring her temporarily.

"If anyone has the hangover recovery kit, give it to them now." Leon continued, "Even if you're fighting. They need to go to those who need mana for retrieval tasks or heavy fighting."

Five people took out their kits in the morning and handed them over.

"Good, all of the drivers, retrieval team members, and survivors that stayed. Get on one bus right now. Congrats to the survivors, this is what happens when you follow orders."

The survivors gulped and nodded.

"You'll be packed like sardines, but you'll be alive. I also you recommend buckling in, laying on each other, and getting under the seats. It's about to be a bumpy ride."

In total, ninety-six people got on a bus that held sixty. Everyone nodded in assent.

Every candidate they saved had already exited the buses and moving trucks, as driving was impossible. So it was a fast process.

"Tricksie, here's a recovery kit. I need you to shrink this bus small enough for us to fly. We have a minute before hell breaks loose." Leon said while throwing her a kit, "Is it possible?"

"Yep~! I can shrink any~thing, but the larger and more complex an item is, the more mana it takes.

Ninty humans will be exaaaaausting, but with the kit, it shouldn't but shouldn't take that much time. I'm level 87, ya know?" Tricksie replied cheerily.

Leon's eyes widened in mild astonishment. However, after watching her power and personality, he wasn't that surprised. He could imagine her shrinking oversized enemies and then stepping on them. Tricksie's skill was remarkably overpowered.

"Good, get started."

Tricksie immediately walked up to the bus, closed her eyes, and put her hand on the bus.

"Okay. Caitlyn, there's a few minutes left." Leon said with a serious voice, "I need you to take Tricksie and drop off the bus—"

Caitlyn began to object.

"So you can hurry back to me. We can't focus on our safety if we don't finish our mission to save the drivers and retrieval team volunteers." Leon continued.

"It'll be far faster and safer for you to get them there and then come back to me. Can you do that for me, lovely?"

"I can, but—lovely?" Caitlyn asked in shock. Her entire soul swam in a sea of positive emotions instantly after.

"Right away, babe. I lo—" Caitlyn stopped herself.

"I can't say those words in good faith, but you can say them." Leon said with a smile.

"Okay! I love you!" Caitlyn squealed, "I'll be right back, babe!"

The whole area looked at the two with lukewarm gazes. However, they immediately shifted their view when Caitlyn turned to Tricksie and presented her palm in an aggressive [give me that, bitch!] gesture.

"No~no~no. I can't leave, silly!" Tricksie giggled with a vicious look in her eyes.

"If I leave, this will become rweely, rweely, rweeeeeeely big, and then you couldn't do your duty and get back to your nom snack."

Caitlyn narrowed her eyes and prepared for [certain battle].

"Caitlyn, Tricksie, please work together." Leon ordered, "Caitlyn, bring her back as well. People will die if she's not here, and I'll get sad. Please don't make me sad."

"I wouldn't dare!" The blonde vowed.

"I know you wouldn't. Bye, bye, sweetheart! See you soon!" He said loudly to get his point across.

"Get on my back, cunt." Caitlyn demanded.

"My~pleasure." Tricksie giggled while jumping into the harness, "Now giddy up!"

Caitlyn growled but complied.

A moment later—

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Tricksie squealed in delight.

The two flew off at a surreal speed, making Leon chuckle.

He made a mental bet of how many people were likely unconscious from smashing into a window or from the insane amount of gravity pushing against them.

They were alive, though. So Leon didn't think anyone would mind.

—

Time until the group can continue: 00:01:49

—

Once he confirmed the safety of the original team, he turned to the second goal: saving as many survivors and candidates as possible.

"Tch. This is obnoxious. It's not like I can just say move to hundreds of people and expect a fraction of them to live." Leon sighed.

He turned to face the hundreds of candidates.

"Okay, here's the game plan. What you're seeing is something that takes an excessive amount of mana. So if you think it'll happen for you, you're shit out of luck!" Leon declared.

"As of this point, you're not obligated to stay with us." Leon said.

"However, those that stay to help others will be rewarded. Those that don't won't get help in 60 seconds.

If you're not helping, we may be rewarded if you pick up a survivor along the way. Run NOW!"

Forty people immediately began sprinting, and another fifty followed.

"If you don't have a strong or useful attack power, magic that can aid in traveling, or a non-combat class that's generally useful, start running too.

Repeat, if you have a useful non-combat class, [don't] start running!

Everyone else, pick up a survivor by default and have an explanation why you couldn't save them later. RUN!"

Another sixty people began running.

"Cynthia, Kira. Try to open up a portal people can hop in and jump out of the other side. If you can, come to get recovery kits to replenish your mana.

I have a few reserve mana potions if you're really useful. Don't kill people with debris."

The two nodded in agreement.

"That's a great idea." Cynthia said.

"I can do that too." Kira nodded pridefully.

"If you have any form of transport magic, wind magic, gravity magic, spacial magic, or any other magic that we can use creatively for mass travel, go to Cynthia." Leon ordered while pointing to the silver-haired elf.

Many people immediately started moving. There were only a dozen people, but that was enough.

"If you have attack magic that can be used in groups, go to Lindy." He said while pointing to the brunette next to him.

"If you're extremely strong, fast, or have transformation magic, go to Kazz.

Those with high strength, combat skills, bows, guns, or other long-distance attacks go to Mirth.

If you have support magic, including barrier, earth wall defense, or anything else, go to Mona.

Non-combat-related powers or variable skills that are game-changing liabilities are with me."

Kira blushed, and Minx turned away in shame.

"Squad leaders, delegate the sorting into three people to take note of skills!" Leon barked, "Then meet up with the other squad leaders, and talk about coordination. Move!"