"Let's make sure this bastard pays for what he did to Rion." Nathan cursed under his breath before reloading his bow and firing another arrow towards Ashton.
Ashton ducked to dodge the arrow, but thanks to the curse, his movements were a bit sloppy. Even with his heightened sense, the arrow ended up grazing his shoulder. But that wasn't all. Rami wasn't sitting idle all this time either.
The moment Nathan had hurled an arrow at Ashton, Rami had rushed to attack him as well. After all, someone would not be able to dodge two attacks one after another, would they? Well, Ashton could have... if not for that pricky curse on him.
Ashton was hurt a bit by the arrow. However, the next moment a sword stabbed him in the exact same place as the arrow. And this time the pain was real.
"Oi Nathan! Aim well!" Rami roared at his brother, turning his face away from Arnold, "Our sync ability would only- what the hell?"
"I was wondering... why you hit me in the same place with such high accuracy..." Ashton mumbled through his gritted teeth, "So it was your sync skill, huh... not bad, not bad at all."
Synchronised skills were not easy to come by. At least that's what the Mistress had told him. Only a few people could learn to use these skills and even fewer could manage to execute them perfectly. There was no particular criterion that could be fulfilled to obtain these skills.
Some even said people are born with such skills and spend their life trying to master them. It went without saying that these skills were stronger than individual skills, but only when they had been perfected.
If not, well, then using these moves would only cause more harm than good. And by the looks of it, these brothers might not have perfected their sync skill yet. But that didn't mean Ashton could ignore them either.
The look on Ashton's face had turned from someone who was in pain, to that of a serial killer before hunting his prey down. A dark and grim look that would even make the toughest of them sweat.
The next moment, Ashton grabbed onto the sword as Rami repeatedly tried to rip the sword away from the former's grasp. However, no matter how many times he tried, Rami's efforts proved to be useless.
"Idiot! Let go of the sword and retreat!" Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs.
Rami nodded and tried to leave, but it was too late. Ashton pulled the sword out of his shoulder and threw it like a javelin towards Rami. Ashton had come here to enter the academy. But right now, he only wanted to see one thing... blood.
Before Rami or Nathan could even react, the sword had already found its mark... The sword went right through Rami's left thigh.
"Argh!" Rami let out a blood-curdling scream as he fell on the ground, blood gushed out of his wound as if it had been waiting to escape through his body for a long, long time.
"You bastard!" Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs.
The following moment another announcement was made. Rami had willingly given up and was no longer a part of the examination. As soon as the announcement was made, the watch and the belt fell off of his body, allowing Rami to access his inventory. He quickly took out a potion and emptied it with huge gulps.
The vial must have contained some sort of potion, as a few seconds later, Rami's wounds completely disappeared.
As Nathan saw Rami access his inventory, an evil plan entered his mind. A plan if it worked would have destroyed anyone in the competition and if it didn't work... well then fck.
"Rami, empty out your inventory right where you are. I want potions, weapons, accessories... everything!" Nathan ordered his brother who immediately understood what Nathan wanted to do.
Rami dropped everything he could before walking out of the zone. There was a rule that eliminated examinees could not attack the ones who had not been eliminated. But there were no rules stopping them from 'accidentally' dropping items in the zone as they left.
"You wanna play dirty? Fine by me." Ashton mumbled to himself.
***
"Madam director! The Marcellos are playing around with the rules!" One of the teachers in the academy pointed out, "There is a rule that no eliminated participant can influence the outcome of the match in any way, shape or form. But Rami is clearly violating this rule!"
"I know about it very well, madam Rosefly." The director humbly replied, "These are indeed the grounds for disqualification. But... I want to see what, what's his name again?"
"Ashton, ma'am."
"Ah yes, I want to see what Ashton would do when forced to fight against overwhelming odds. Aren't you excited as well?"
There was a weird shine in the Director's eyes. One none of the teachers had seen in a long time. It was clear that the Director had taken a liking for Ashton... thus teachers could not help but feel sorry for him. This examination was not going to be easy for him, now that he was on the director's radar.
However, Ashton was not the only one who had caught her eyes. The director had picked one student from each zone to test their strength and mettle. If these people were able to make it to the next round and effectively to the academy, they were sure to be shown some preferential treatment.
Or maybe not. After all, everything depended on the director's mood. She had absolute power to do anything she wanted to anyone she wanted in her academy. Her blatant disregard for the twisting rules was just a small example of it.
She was not afraid of screwing over any noble family. Why would she? After all, she had support from all of the Five stars kingdoms and also the countess of vampires. One could say, she was the strongest being in Contingent.
"Show me what you are capable of, my sweet, sweet dolls!"