Chapter 525 - My First.
The good news was that there were six groups, excluding Hal's group, that were to be involved in the battle royal of sorts, and Hal's group was not exactly a prime target.
But that did not let any of the five relax as they knew quite well how quickly all attention could be focussed on them.
No one in the opposing groups was hiding their cultivation and were will showcasing it for all to sense.
For all to be intimidated.
Especially those at the Cosmic Aurora realm.
And there were quite a number of them.
Every one of the groups in this part of the rundown district had at least one Cosmic aurora expert in their ranks.
Adeline gripped her ax cosmic Armament tighter while Pierre gripped his phenomenon rank sword artifact as he eyed the opposition with a frown.
Melinda and Nicole walked closer to Hal with the latter asking Hal,
"What now?"
Hal sighed,
"We decide. Do we want to wait out the battle or do we want to take an active part?"
Adeline frowned as she said,
"First, you don't lead this group. I'm only here to help my brother so you will not be ordering me around.
Second, standing around will be detrimental.
Even if we do survive this round, we could still get eliminated because everyone taking part in this exam is getting graded by how involved they are. How good they are."
Hal furrowed his brows as he wondered if Elsa had neglected to talk about the grading as a form of oversight or if it had been to pick out those who would not assist their groups and merely hang back to watch from the sidelines.
The second seemed much more likely.
So he shrugged,
"So we fight" he said and suddenly crouched to slam his palms on the ground.
The moment he did this, everyone in their part of the rundown district began to attack each other as though his actions had broken the deadlock.
More than one expert shot cosmic attacks imbued with phenomenon at Hal whose palms were still pressed against the ground but he was not worried.
Why would he be when Melinda and Nicole were watching his back?
Melinda was suddenly in front of him and swiping her white sword cosmic armament with the crisscrossing golden flames against the attacks and quite easily dispersed them while Nicole retaliated with cosmic attacks imbued with a phenomenon of her own.
*Bang!*
*Boom!*
As soon as the deflection and retaliation were complete... All of which had happened in the space of two seconds, the reason Hal had slammed his palms against the ground became evident when multiple rune circles appeared on the ground.
"Look out!" yelled a group leader but he was too late as the rune circles shot beams at one member each from all six groups, not to attack them which Hal had thought would be a waste considering he could not one-shot them with his Astral sense at the fifth rank.
Instead, the beam pulled the members towards himself and his group.
Then the rune circles got larger to form two Royal blue Astral Domes that camped Hal, Melinda, Nicole and four of the opposing group members pulled towards them in one of the Domes.
While Pierre and Adeline were camped in with two others.
Almost immediately those on the outside understood what was going on.
They had been separated.
If the ones taken into the Domes were defeated and their devices went red, every single one of the teams would lose.
Hal straightened up with a satisfied smile on his face.
To create the two domes, he had spent a lot of the Astral energy he had stored in his body but it was well worth it.
Then he joined Melinda and Nicole in staring at the four inside his Dome while he spoke to Pierre and Adeline who also understood what this situation meant,
"You can handle those two, can't you?" His words were mainly directed at Adeline who could tell and was even more disgruntled as she struggled with admitting that not only was this more than a decent plan but Hal was an intimidating fellow who was a capable runemaster as well as a capable Alchemist.
She was not the only one who thought so as among those in the VIP box was her Alchemy Master, Alexis who had come to watch his protegee crush the exams.
He and the other Alchemy masters present at the time Hal had gone to the Alchemist Organization building in the Silva Duchy were more than a little surprised to find out he was a Runemaster as well as an Alchemist.
"Tch, what do you take me for?" Adeline answered him with a sneer while the two she had been camped with furrowed their brows at what they believed was an underestimation of their capabilities.
"Break down the Dome!" Yelled one of the group leaders on the outside as all groups banded together to free their group members.
Showing inter-group solidarity in the face of a common enemy.
Alas, when they struck at the Domes with multiple attacks,
*Boom!*
*Bang!*
... The attacks ricocheted right back at them.
Smacking a lot of them in the faces and sending them crashing away.
Hal had tweaked the mechanics of the ricocheting Dome he had used when he had fought with Gregory.
Making it so that while the effects of all attacks sent at it were reduced upon rebound, the reduction in force was not enough that they were unbothered by it.
In fact, some of them were already noticing their devices green glow getting lighter.
The only one who had remained mostly unbothered by the rebound had been a large young man who had planted his feet solidly on the ground to avoid getting blown back.
And now he straightened up to barrel right at the Dome.
Since long-distance seemed useless, it only stood to reason that close combat was the answer, right?
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Hal said as he watched the large man get closer through the transparent dome.
Even though the large man heard, he merely sneered and ran faster to hit the Dome with such force, the sound of impact was almost deafening,
*BOOM!!!*
*BANG!!!*
However, the sound of impact was nothing compared to the *Bang* sound the Dome gave off when it rebounded the force of the large man's hit, and since said young man was close and still releasing a fair amount of force in his bid to shatter the Dome, the repulse not only sent him barreling away and into a building...
"ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH"
... It also wracked his whole body, weakening his muscles and causing him agonizing pain even before he smacked into the building.
In fact, hitting the building was a pillowy landing compared to the pain he felt from his contact with the Dome.
As shown by his continuous howls before he eventually fainted.
"Told ya" Hal said but since the young man's group mates were not yet teleported away, then the young man must still be capable of fighting.
A member of his group ran towards him to most likely feed him mending pills.
Then Melinda smiled at the four in the Dome who had summoned their Armaments and were charging Cosmic attacks
"Now, with that foolishness dealt with, we can focus on the matter at hand..." She began but was interrupted by Nicole,
"I can't not ask. Hal, why is there a Dane here?"
Not asking why Melinda was taking the exam itself as the golden-eyed beauty had more than shown herself to be capable but asking why she was in Hal's group.
Melinda had even been the only one with him when Nicole arrived.
Hal raised his brow, not because of the question but because she had not asked the question telepathically.
Nicole wanted Melinda to hear and it was probably meant as a kind of snide.
Antonovs or more accurately, the Sensual palace which was the sect Nicole was here to represent as the most gifted of their young generation, and Danes don't mix well.
At least that was what Nicole thought.
Melinda could actually not care less about the prejudice between both families.
"She's my first" was all Hal said not feeling the need or urge to explain himself.
However, that was more than enough for Nicole to understand the nature of their relationship.
It was more than enough for many watching the broadcast of their part of the rundown district to understand as well.
With members of the Silva family party, Adrien Silva especially, looking over at the Danes and Doxons with narrowed eyes at this unprecedented connection between both families.
-
*Boom!*
A partnership was quickly formed among the four in the Dome and they began working together to overwhelm their opponents without any worry or fear even after Melinda had showcased her Early-stage Cosmic Aurora realm cultivation.
Clearly, they had trump cards which were to be expected of the best in the young generation.
"You're not the only one with arrays," said one of them with a sneer as the other three bought him the precious seconds he needed to activate the Array in his hands which formed into a miniature cage.