Meanwhile, while Adam's group was battling it out, another group or rather another alliance came face to face with Aurora's group. Seeing that it was less than an hour before the trial was ending, Damien and Quinn decided to head to the centre, but upon reaching it, they saw Aurora sitting calmly, her back to a fountain, and her group members who were frightened upon seeing them standing behind her.
"What do we do?" Quinn broke the silence. "We fight, of course, there isn't a chance that she'll let us go, and I'm not about to surrender our flags," Damien replied. "Just what I was thinking," Quinn echoed. "But first…" As he spoke, the shadows around them moved like snakes and held on to the members of his group amidst their panic. "I don't need extra baggage," he said, as the tendrils of shadows crushed the cadets like twigs, and soon they were sparkles.
The members of Damien's group paled at that; some were even shivering, but that wasn't all: what increased their despair was Damien's voice: "Eliminate yourselves," he uttered coldly.
Their fear further intensified. They should eliminate themselves? How should they go about that? Fake or not, they still didn't want to commit suicide.
After a few moments, and no one moved, "Fine, I'll do it for you." Then Damien proceeded to slaughter the lot of them so easily it seemed as if it were an adult fighting an infant.
Meanwhile, as the debacle occurred, Aurora was watching the two, making sure both of them were finished with whatever they were doing before she attacked. After she was sure they were done, she disappeared from her spot, and appeared in front of the duo. And just like with Victor, "Your flags," she extended her hand.
"I must comment, Aurora, if you think I'll just hand my flags over, then you must be dreaming," Damien said. She turned to Quinn, but he raised his scythe towards her. "What he said."
They were both holding their gold flags in one hand and their weapon in one, but they had no choice; had they left it with their group members, then they might as well hand it to Aurora themselves. It was because Aurora could effortlessly take the flags from their group members.
"So be it," Aurora calmly replied. Now she was going to eliminate them both. Had they handed their flags peacefully like Victor did, she would have let them keep their gold flags.
But now, for disturbing her peace, and since they really were planning to fight her, she would have to remind them the difference between her and them.
Damien's and Quinn's faces grew grim as an ethereal purple blade manifested in her hand, but they didn't want to give her the chance to attack first, as Damien's aura erupted with blue lightning crackling all around his body. He decided to go all out from the start, and so did Quinn.
A dark tinted aura burst out from him as he brandished his scythe. As if in sync, they both attacked Aurora at the same time. Damien's thrust of his spear that hummed with energy at her, while Quinn made a wild swing with his scythe. But alas, she disappeared just as the weapons were about to touch her. Even still, neither of them panicked, for they had fought her before, after all; they instantly changed directions mid attack, and swung around behind her.
*CLANG* *CLANG*
"The sound of metals clashing echoed as sparks...well, sparkled. Aurora had deflected Damien's spear and blocked Quinn's scythe.
"Weak," Aurora muttered.
And somehow that word seemed to irk Damien more than he expected. He had always prided himself on his calmness, but the utter disregard with which Aurora said "Weak," incensed him. Quinn, on the other hand, didn't care; he took back his scythe and tried to swing it again, but a kick from Aurora sent him flying. Damien, who had regained his bearings, thrust his spear at her, but with a swing of her sword, she deflected the attack.
Damien felt the spear in his hand rattle so much that it almost flew out of his hands.
"Did you see anything?" asked one of Aurora's group mates to another.
"What are you saying? I barely saw them flash before one of the three was sent flying."
"These guys are monsters."
"Do you think we can ever get as strong as that?"
"Hah, you wish."
From the first attacks made by Damien and Quinn, to the deflection of Damien's thrust after Quinn was sent flying, not even two seconds had passed.
Meanwhile, after Aurora deflected his spear, Damien didn't relent; this time he swung his spear horizontally, but she dodged with a sidestep and swung her sword to the side, where it met Quinn's scythe. "Not thinking of getting rid of me that easily, were you?" he smiled, but it was a strange smile.
The series of attacks that followed after were impossible for the eyes of Aurora's group members to follow. Damien executed a flurry of spear techniques, but all failed to meet their mark. Aurora dodged them all with effortless grace. There was even the time she used his spear to block Quinn's scythe. And also, his lightning never touched her; it was like she had some invisible shield around her.
Quinn could teleport using the shadows, but Aurora always seemed to predict where he would appear before he did; then she either put her sword where his head or heart would be, or also put Damien in the way of Quinn's attacks. That was how the fight was going; since they started fighting, Aurora had only attacked them once, and that was when she kicked Quinn. All she did was deflect their attacks or push them back.
Deep down they knew she was toying with them, but their pride wouldn't let them accept it. Not until, "I've had enough of this farce," Aurora said.
Before Damien could react, his hand holding the gold flag was severed from the shoulder.
*kheum*, he stifled his cry of pain; it was beneath him to scream of pain. And Quinn seeing that, "I give up Aurora, you can have my flags," he smiled slyly. He wasn't like Damien; he did have pride, but he knew when he was completely outclassed. Well, the Ashbourne Family were known for being prideful.
Aurora took the flag from Damien's severed hand, stretched her hand towards Quinn once again, and asked, "The flags?" once again. Quinn didn't haggle, simply threw the gold flag at her. Almost half a minute later, Damien dissolved into sparkles, and Quinn soon followed after.
"Hmmm, twenty-two flags, not bad," Aurora muttered as she gathered the flags left behind by the duo. Plus the fifteen she had before, that made it thirty-seven. It was probably enough for her to get the first rank.
------
Meanwhile, back with Adam and co, Lily was getting the edge over Tokito; anytime he even thought of approaching closer, extremely sharp spikes that could pierce his body would get launched at him, and his wind blades weren't sharp enough to pass through her defence.
**Adam's POV**
We were somehow stuck in a stalemate; Aurelia and Victor were long out of view, their fight taking them elsewhere. Now only Lily, Lara, Tokito, and I remained here.
Oh shit, Lara was about to get eliminated; she had become completely bound by the vines. I stuck the two flags in my hands to the strap at my waist, and ran towards her. When I reached her, I tried to undo her bounds, but they weren't budging; her face showed exhaustion. 'Poor girl,' I thought. But then I felt something; I hurriedly looked behind me, and there it was: a vine bolting away, it had taken the gold flag from my waist, catching me unaware. But instead of getting desperate, a smile appeared on my lips. "A little something to cease fire," I muttered. I looked at the flag Lily was holding in her hands. I waited, just enough for her grip on it to become a little loose, and when it did, "attract," I muttered.
With no sound, the flag shot out of her hand and into mine. Now we had each other's flags.
Everyone ceased their actions. Lily looked at me, frustrated. By now, the vine with our flag had reached her.
Lily was furious; she was this close to winning, when that maggot managed to swoop her flag out of her hands. But she can still salvage the situation.
"A flag for a flag," she spoke. "If not come twenty seconds, we would be all eliminated." 22
"What if we want to get eliminated?" Tokito said, but his beastly voice made it as if he growled. "Why would you want to get eliminated after coming this far?" she asked.
"Fine, let's exchange, how should we go about it?" I asked. "Let's throw it at each other. Hurry, only six seconds remain," she almost shouted as she poised her arm for the throw. She, who was the epitome of bubbly in class, was acting like this.
I smiled before saying, "You know what, I changed my mind," "What…" she started, but the time was already up, she turned to sparkles.
--------
A/N:
IF YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS NOVEL,
PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW 🙏🙏🙏🙏.