Ignoring Lassim’s ntal dilemma, the slits in the coliseum walls slid open again, releasing eighty-eight new constructs onto the field.
The mont the fourth wave assigned itself to the competitors, the constructs launched their synchronized assault without hesitation.
A massive surge of coordinated lightning strikes erupted across the arena as every remaining Personal Disciple braced for impact behind their barriers. Eighty-eight disciples, now facing four constructs each, were forced to withstand twenty total strikes in unison.
So formations, built with reinforcent in mind, absorbed the attacks without breaking, while others flickered violently under the sustained barrage. Every strike absorbed mattered, keeping their hopes of obtaining a God’s Trial token alive, as mana was stretched to its limits. Any mistake or flaw could an imdiate elimination.
A young man near the western section of the battlefield of arenas and constructs battling it out had been relying on carefully asured mana cycling to distribute force across multiple barriers. Up until now, his technique had allowed him to survive by steadily shifting defensive energy from one section to another.
But with four constructs attacking simultaneously, the gap between each cycle grew thinner, and his control over the process beca too slow. The first three strikes landed successfully, dispersing through his weakened formations, but when the fourth hit, the shift was too slow.
A deafening crack echoed through the coliseum as his array shattered completely. The protective ward flared to protect him, signaling his elimination as his constructs imdiately ceased their attack and withdrew. He let out a shaky breath, stepping off his hexagonal platform with a frustrated expression before walking toward the exit.
Another competitor fell seconds later. Her structure, designed for layered reinforcent with pure lightning mana, had worked well against lower numbers of enemies, but against four, the pressure distribution was too much for her array lines. Her barrier crumbled under the sheer volu of force, and before she could recover, the final attack tore through her defenses entirely. She clenched her jaw as the protective ward activated, and she, too, was removed from the test.
Despite the growing eliminations, many competitors remained steadfast. Those who had prepared for endurance had begun adjusting their formations in real-ti, predicting where attacks would land and reinforcing weak points before damage could spread.
So, like Dain, who had barely survived the previous wave, had shifted from simply absorbing lightning to redirecting it more efficiently. His conductive rods that struggled with the physical attacks now cycled their energy output in staggered intervals, preventing a full collapse in one section by allowing controlled overloads in designated points. It was a desperate adjustnt, but it was working—for now.
He still had one last trick up his sleeve to keep him longer in the competition, and unfortunately it seed he’d most likely need to use it sooner than expected.
Ardan, abandoning long-form inscription, had moved to a fully adaptive combat style, his hands moving without rest as he patched runes mid-strike. Rather than reinforcing his entire array evenly, he focused only on the weakest point each second, constantly adjusting his formation on the fly.
His breath was labored, sweat glistening on his forehead as the projection screen caught a good look at him, but his barrier remained intact despite the unrelenting onslaught.
The next few seconds were filled with flickering arrays, staggering breaths, and the sheer willpower of those determined to remain standing. When the fourth wave concluded its five-strike sequence, another four competitors had fallen, their platforms flashing with the activations of the protective array wards to keep them from serious injury as their barriers collapsed.
As soon as the last strike of the sequence landed, the coliseum walls slid open once more.
The fifth wave of constructs erged, their tallic bodies stepping in unison onto the battlefield. This ti, however, only eighty-four constructs appeared, perfectly matching the number of remaining competitors.
Now, every Personal Disciple still in the test had five total constructs assigned to them.
There was no ti to process the shift. The mont the final construct took its place in front of its designated disciple, the next round of five attacks began imdiately.
The battlefield erupted once again, a coordinated barrage of 440 strikes landing across the field simultaneously. The arena air trembled under the intensity of such concentrated lightning mana in one spot, and for the first ti, so of the more stable formations visibly wavered.
Competitors who had braced for this mont reinforced their barriers as quickly as possible. Those who had failed to adjust earlier now suffered imdiate consequences.
A disciple to the south had spent the previous rounds relying on automated defensive matrices, his structure carefully pre-etched into the arena’s surface. He had assud that layering more defenses would compensate for higher numbers, but five constructs attacking at once exposed a fatal flaw in his design.
Similar to i’s previous design that struggled with attacks on opposite sides of the barrier at the sa ti, his runes had been calibrated to handle staggered attacks, not perfectly synchronized ones.
The mont all five strikes from five constructs landed together, the delayed absorption cycle of his barrier failed to process the full impact in ti. His defense shattered in a single sequence. His platform flashed protectively, and his test was over.
Another competitor, visibly exhausted, had been surviving purely by conserving mana and barely holding on. His design overused his mana storage and being only Spirit Transformation stage, level 3, the inefficiency cost him dearly.
When the first few strikes landed, he reinforced his barrier successfully with what he had left. But by the fourth, his body locked up from mana depletion, and he could no longer react in ti. The final attack overwheld his formation, sending him into imdiate elimination.
The battlefield was now down to eighty competitors.
With every disciple now at five total constructs, the test structure shifted. Following the already announced test format, rather than continuing to add more constructs, the difficulty reset.
Now, every competitor that was still standing, had four of their five constructs take a single step back away from the barriers. Leaving them assigned only one construct once again—but this ti, a surge of power erupted across the constructs. That single opponent’s power levels soared and reached 2 levels above their targeted disciple’s current cultivation.
The instant the shift occurred, there was no break or announcent from the MC. She stood, watching behind her goggles in rapidly intensifying attacks, just as the judges were, as the next set of five strikes at the 2 level landed.
The change in attack strength imdiately caused new eliminations.
Several competitors had been ntally prepared to manage five opponents simultaneously, but the increase in sheer power caught them off guard. Lots of barriers that had successfully held against five enemies at 1 level broke instantly when faced with a single, stronger attacker.
One competitor collapsed outright, his formation annihilated on the first impact, his body shaking from the shock as the lightning mana circulation reversed flow due to a bad array line he’d drawn that was only exposed when he was forced to overexert himself against the attacks. If he’d never faced a stronger opponent, he’d never have found this flaw in his design.
Unfortunately, this was incredibly dangerous and not even his protective ward’s activation, signaling his elimination, could prevent that kind of damage. A pair of attendants quickly flew over to lift up the personal disciple and carry him off to the sect’s recovery center for imdiate treatnt.
Another disciple fought to withstand the first three strikes, adjusting mid-test, but his barrier shattered on the fourth. The protective ward activated, removing him from the battlefield as well.
The test continued in escalation.
Once every competitor had endured five attacks from a single construct at 2 levels, the waiting constructs moved. One additional construct joined the attack, repeating the sa thodology of a single increasing attacker each round, but now at the 2 level from their targeted disciple.
And as if finally rembering that she wasn’t just a silent observer but the voice of the event once another few disciples fell to the synchronized two construct attacks, Ilyara let out a sharp, theatrical exhale, her right hand moving to adjust her runic goggles as she sat up straighter.
"Oooh, we are just burning through disciples now, aren’t we? Would you look at that—down to sixty-five already! That’s what happens when you gamble on a ’hope-for-the-best’ array and expect to last against constructs whose only job is to expose your weaknesses." Her voice carried over the battlefield, amplified through the coliseum’s projection arrays, as she swiped through the image feeds on her display, flicking between failing barriers and staggered competitors struggling to keep their mana flow stable. The audience chuckled at her amusent, though a few voices winced in sympathy for the disciples who had lost their chance at getting the trial token.
The projection feed zood in on a disciple whose barrier had just collapsed under the synchronized force of the now three attackers. His reinforcent script attempts were completely overwheld by the crushing tempo of the constructs’ synchronized strikes. His protective ward flared, halting any further damage, but the competitor looked like he had just witnessed his worst nightmare unfold before him.
Ilyara grinned, tilting her head as she pressed her fingertips together in mock understanding. "Oh, darling, I feel for you, I really do, but you had to know that was coming. A fantastic barrier and comndable effort, but that design is really best suited against a single opponent. Absolutely useless when you’re being hit like a chorus drum! I believe your strong foundation and skill of fortifying the basics carried you this far, and should be worth extra points from the judges. However, consider this a very public lesson in why redundancy in defense design is not a waste of effort when you may suddenly be encircled by enemies from all directions."
She didn’t pause before shifting her attention to another unfolding disaster. "And what do we have here? Another case of ’I can definitely handle this mana load’ followed by ’oh no, my array’s overflow cores are collapsing’? Yes, yes, that’s exactly what’s happening."
She gestured toward the projection screen, where a disciple’s attempt to channel a rapid burst of inscriptions to weave in an additional overflow node to compensate for the currently sparking and collapsing one into their formation had backfired, overloading their personal mana circulation and causing yet another reversal loop in that section of the barrier.
The effect was instant—his barrier imploded instead of breaking outward, or shattering, mana rippled in a destabilized collapse that forced his protective ward to flare violently to compensate for the recoil.
Ilyara let out a dramatic gasp, pressing a hand to her chest.
"Oh dear, oh dear. That one looked painful. But hey, at least you learned sothing! The human body? Not designed to act as a primary conductor for five overclocked lightning constructs. Try to avoid funneling high amounts of mana into a hastily attached and unplanned core next ti, hmm? And by next ti, I an in about a month—because that’s how long you’ll probably have to wait before you can even think about trying again after the admonishing I’m sure your master is going to give you for panicking like that."
The disciple groaned in frustration and in injury as he was escorted off the battlefield, this ti at least on his own feet compared to the other disciple that had to be quickly flown away. The spectators cheered wildly as another competitor was removed.
The cycle continued without pause, the steady escalation now weeding out those who had been surviving on sheer endurance rather than true adaptability. After three constructs at 2, the next sequence brought four. Then five.
As five total constructs reached 2 levels, the difficulty would reset again—returning to one construct, but now at 3 levels above the competitor instead of 2.
The battlefield was thinning quickly, and for the first ti, the number of truly competitive disciples beca clear. Those who had managed to adapt, anticipate, and react to the test’s escalating structure were standing firm, though none without visible signs of strain. And for those who had made it this far? Ilyara had nothing but respect.
"Well, well, well. Look at this fine group of survivors. If you’ve made it to this stage, you’ve already outlasted most of the academy’s finest, and that’s worth at least so bragging rights, wouldn’t you say?"
She smirked, watching as the constructs took their synchronized step back, signaling the reset. "But don’t get too comfortable. The real test for who will eventually win the token, and who may possibly break the all ti record, begins now."
The constructs stepped back into place, and the first sequence of 3 attacks launched instantly.
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