GUARDIAN OF THE END

Jason had been expecting a smooth victory. But their teamwork turned out to be a blunder.

The moment Izzy had started the match, both the golems and launched themselves into the air.

They started shooting arrows made of darkness at those standing below to utilize the advantage of high ground.

Amber erected a wall of flames, similar to what Andrew had done during the tournament. The arrows of darkness were melted by the flames.

But instead of feeling relieved, the red-haired girl could only grit her teeth. She could tell that the arrows would strike a curse on them the moment they were touch by it.

"I can protect us but I don't think I can push the fire towards the golems," Amber explained while widening the wall of fire. "Those arrows are packing some serious curses which are requiring me to focus or else they will pass through the fire."

With Amber covering them up, the quartet decided to launch their own attacks.

"Any of you have dark element or light element?" Jason had a good amount of knowledge about the dark element.

He knew that to rival it, they needed someone with the light, dark or fire element. The former two could counter the dark golems effectively since they were made from the same thing.

It was similar to how the fight between two fires would go. The greater fire would overcome the smaller one.

The other three shook their heads, making Jason sigh. He was the only one amongst the group with the dark element, unless Wade's aura could be counted as a part of the dark element.

"Let's just try to defeat the golems," Jason sighed and summoned two lightning bolts.

He threw them at the golems one after the other until a chain of lightning bolts had been created.

The others used his volley of lightning bolts as a cover and shot their own attacks behind them.

Jason expected one of their attacks to hit the golems. Both of them were still shooting arrows towards the group, leaving Amber preoccupied.

"Don't think that your opponents will let you do whatever you want," Izzy reminded them. Their teacher had been hovering beside the golems and observing her students.

With a flick of her wrist, the golems immediately started dodging the attacks. They also concentrated dark mana in their hands, something only sensed by Jason, and released them after a few seconds.

Two complete black spheres shot out from the golems palms. The spheres shot towards Amber whose flame wall had weakened slightly.

"Attack those balls!" Jason shouted. He could feel condensed dark mana inside the two spheres which was enough to corrode an entire house.

The silver-haired boy couldn't help but wonder whether Izzy was trying to kill them or not.

The others heard his warning and concentrated their attacks on the spheres of darkness. Amber focused on her flames a bit and created a fire Phoenix from it.

Jason watched in awe as the Phoenix charged towards the spheres. He too used his lightning to attack the spheres though he didn't create anything fancy.

The Phoenix and the lightning attacked one of the spheres while the remaining three attack the other sphere.

Zeke had shot ice spikes while Mila had released wind slashes. Wade seemed to hesitate a bit before he shot three fireballs.

The three attacks hit the other sphere one after the other. Simultaneously, the fire Phoenix and Jason's lightning destroyed one of the spheres while the combined attacks did the same to the other sphere.

Smoke was produced from the clash of the attacks. Jason's eyes tracked the dark mana spreading in the atmosphere as it corroded everything near it.

'Wait…' Jason's eyes whipped upwards. He tried searching for the golems yet he couldn't track them with his eyes.

He tried using the dark sense but that didn't allow him to pinpoint their exact location.

"In the midst of battle, never lose the location of your enemy." Izzy's voice resounded in his ears.

What he had feared turned out to be right. The golems suddenly appeared behind the group and raised their hands towards the group.

Had it been a real match, three of them would've been obliterated for sure. Jason and Amber would have been protected by their guardians.

Both the guardians had decided that participating in the training match wasn't worth it. They had agreed to intervene only if something extreme happened.

"At least now I know what to train you guys for." Izzy landed down on the ground and dispelled the golems.

The blond-woman had gotten a good idea about what she had to help her students get better at. A month was a short time to make extremely high amounts of improvement but Izzy would still try her best.

"The first thing we are going to work on is… teamwork," Her black eyes moved from one child to another. "Now I know that the chances of you all getting into a fight together are less but I still want to teach you. You all agree to this?"

"You are asking our choice on this?" Mila slowly asked.

"Yes, why wouldn't I?" Izzy tilted her head in confusion. "If you are not willing to learn something, I wouldn't force it on you. It won't wield the necessary results."

After hearing her reply, the group of children exchanged glances. All of them, except for Jason, were getting this opportunity for the first time.

They had learned what their family had taught them with no questions asked. This was a new thing for them.

"Well, I don't see any problem in this," Zeke stated out his opinions. "All I want to do is something exciting that will make me feel less lazy."

"I don't see anything wrong as well," Amber agreed.

"Let's try this thing."

"Yes, let's do it. We will also get to know each other better," Mila nodded.

"I agree." Jason replied at last.

Once all five of them had agreed, Izzy rounded them up and started drawing a magic circle below their feet.

"We are going to go to the nearby forest in search of beasts," She explained while continuing to draw the circle. "The ruler of the forest allows the academy to train their children alongside the younger beasts in exchange for some resources."

Jason remembered Risa telling him about this. Most of the bigger academies, including the top three academies, had forests or other beast habitats situated near them.

The headmasters formed contracts with the ruling beasts of the region. This benefited both sides since the academies would get to train their children while the beast ruler would get to see the younger beasts becoming stronger.

This also decreased the mortality rate amongst the students. Though this made them feel a bit safer, it was the best way to train them.

"You will fight in the forest until your third year. After that, you will be allowed to enter and explore dungeons but that will still take some time." Izzy finished the magic circle. "I hope all of you are accustomed to teleportation magic."

The children could only nod before they were teleported away. Izzy took them to a part of the forest specially reserved for first years.

"Ok so the first thing I am going to ask you to do is spend seven days inside this forest," Izzy explained the task they had to perform.

"Wait, we have to spend a week here?" Jason repeated her words.

"Yes, and you are going to do that alone. I will give you enough food to last for a week and water to last you for ten days. You will have to make one person incharge of one specific thing." Izzy continued.

Her hand then closed around the golden ring on her right middle finger. She took out a small leather bag and put it on the ground.

"These contain exactly a hundred and forty seven pills inside it. They also contained forty nine water pills. The former has to be taken thrice a day and you will stay nutritious but its the bare minimum.

The water pills have to be taken once a day and you will remain hydrated for the rest of the day. Anything you want to ask?"

"What are we supposed to if a beast attacks us?" Wade immediately asked.

"You are going to fight it obviously. What else do you think you can do?" Izzy replied calmly.

"What are we supposed to do about sleeping? I am sure we can't sleep on the ground here…" Mila stared below at the ground to see a few ants crawling by.

If more of such ants showed up and they were sleeping on the ground, they were fcked.

"You have to build a shelter, which I don't expect any of you to know about. Instead, you can try sleeping on trees or perhaps using your magic to do something creative."

"What if we can't control our magic to be that efficient?" Jason asked with narrowed eyes. He could tell that none of them could use their magic that perfectly.

It was impossible for ten year olds to have that high precision with magic. Jason had to admit that they were more mature than ten year olds from Earth, probably around fifteen to sixteen years of Earth children age.

But despite that, he was pretty sure that they wouldn't be able to create a good shelter.

"I am sure you guys will figure something out," Izzy replied cheerfully. "Any other question before I leave?"

"What if we are in a near death situation?" Amber asked at last.

"Then you either defeat the beast or pray for someone to save you. I might come to your rescue but no guarantees," seeing that no one was asking any other questions, Izzy waved. "I am leaving now. Good luck surviving in the wild!"