‘If someone kills your team’s monster, you will be disqualified. If you kill another team’s monsters, you’ll get extra points.’

What will happen if your team gets disqualified? Will they fail the exam immediately? Or will they receive a minus point? And what was that extra point for? Will they pass the exam if they receive an extra point?

No one knew the answer to those questions, but something was for sure. Being disqualified would affect the team negatively and getting an extra point would benefit the team. That was just… obvious.

‘If a lot of people get minus points, it will increase the other people’s chances to pass the exam as their rivals lessen. And if you get an extra point…’

It wasn’t hard to understand. It wasn’t hard at all. That was why Kairen moved as soon as he understood the situation. He moved his mana as fast as he could and created a shield around their team’s monsters.

DANG

His newly created shield broke down as if it was hit strongly with an attack.

“Oh? They reacted fast!”

Someone wearing an orange ribbon on his forehead and standing on the right corner of the area muttered that and lowered his sword.

“What are you doing?”

Serria who was also wearing an orange ribbon on her arm yelled at the man.

“What am I doing? Isn’t that obvious?”

He snorted and looked around at the other teams. By then, everyone had already formed a defense wall around themselves and their team’s monsters.

“Mage boy, keep creating shields. We have to kill our own monsters as fast as possible. There will be people who will start attacking other teams soon.”

Arran was right, they had to kill their monsters before anyone had the chance to kill them.

Arran wrapped his sword in aura again and rushed towards the other smaller monster as soon as he said those words.

SHHHH

The mist slowly surrounded the group. It was their teammate’s ability. It was in order to prevent others from seeing and attacking them.

Kairen turned his back to the monsters. He started creating layers of shields and defensive spells around themselves and observed the other teams’ movements meanwhile.

CLANG

He could see two people from two different teams starting a fight in the left corner of the area and one team hurridly attacking their own monsters on the other side. The situation turned into a mess in just a few seconds.

“Stop it. T-this isn’t right. Please! Everyone should just kill their own monsters. We shouldn’t attack each other!”

The mage that had just mistakenly caused the other team to be disqualified cried out loudly, but no one paid her any heed.

“You have to stop them! This is an exam, not a battlefield. Can you hear me?”

She raised her head and turned towards the screen that was showing the time limit. She was talking to the staff, but still, no one paid attention to her.

BOOM

“Eeek!”

She jumped back because of the explosion that happened right under her feet. The girl clasped her trembling hands and looked around with fear.

“Shut up! You were the one who started this so shut up!”

Someone yelled at her from a distance. She pressed her lips and walked back hesitantly.

“Huff… Hey, mage? Can’t you lend me a hand?”

Arran wiped away the sweat that was running down his chin and looked at Kairen’s back. He had killed the second smaller monster, but the bigger one was the issue.

The bigger monster was much stronger than the other two and on the other hand, the team’s power was divided into two. With Kairen and the team’s attribute user completely focused on defense, and the support mage gradually running out of mana, Arran and the gunner were the only ones left to deal with an almost level 3 monster.

Kairen turned his head and glanced at the monster. It was injured and hurt, but the damage wasn’t enough to kill it. He was almost finished with casting defensive spells so he was free now. The problem was the amount of mana he had left. Kairen still had problems with controlling his mana. Also, continuously casting spells without a break uses up more mana than usual.

“I don’t have that much mana, only enough for one or two spells.”

“That’s alright. I can’t use my aura for too long either. We can finish it in one move if we all work together.”

Kairen looked back to the shields. He had cast enough spells and shields to stop one or two attacks. There was also the mist that was helping them.

Kairen didn’t know why, but his spells seemed more efficient against monsters than humans. The spell that could kill a level 4 monster in one shot was only enough to push a swordsman a few steps back. That’s why he thought it would be better to kill the monsters sooner rather than focusing on defense too much. Kairen walked a few steps towards the team.

“I have your back.”

“Nice!”

Arran took a deep breath and wrapped his sword in aura again. Kairen also prepared to cast a strong attack.

GRRR

The monster was standing a few meters away from them and glaring furiously at the team. Arran kicked the ground and ran towards it at a high speed.

BANG BANG BAANG

The monster raised its paw to strike down at the swordsman when sharp bullets cut its skin and pierced its paw.

KYAAA

Arran reached the monster and swung his sword when it was busy screaming in rage and pain. The fierce aura of the swordsman cut the monster’s side. Blood poured out from the deep wound and soaked the swordsman’s clothes.

It was now Kairen’s turn. He had to kill the monster in one blow before it could hurt Arran that was still standing near it. But when he was about to finish casting the spell-

[Team orange successfully annihilated all of their monsters. You can leave the area now.]

He heard the woman’s voice again, and right after that-

BOOMMM

“Argh?”

Something exploded behind his back and he was sent away because of the shockwave. Kairen fell to the ground and rolled on the floor.

“Haha! This is fun!”

He could see someone standing in front of him and pointing his sword towards the team. No, he was pointing it at the monster.

‘Did he… destroy the shields and the defensive spells?’

The explosion just now was one of the defensive spells that he had placed around the shields. It would be activated and cause an explosion if the shields were broken. He wanted to stay away from the shields in case the spell was activated, but the shield was attacked before he could move away.

‘No, there are still a few shields left.’

“What the-”

Arran hurridly avoided the monster’s paw. He distanced himself as much as he could from the crazed monster that was roaring and attacking everything around it from rage.

“Hey! I told you to stop!”

Serria angrily grabbed the man’s collar and yelled at him.

“What the f*ck do you think you are doing?”

[Team yellow failed to kill their three monsters. Team yellow, disqualified.]

[Team green receives one extra point.]

[Team green successfully annihilated all of their monsters. You can leave the area now.]

[Team red successfully annihilated all of their monsters. You can leave the area now.]

Four announcements came one after another at the moment. For a moment, everyone in the area turned towards their team.

‘This is bad.’

They were the only ones left. This was really bad.

“What am I doing? Don’t you want to get some extra points?”

“I don’t give a shit! We have killed our own monsters so fuck off!”

Serria yelled angrily. Her voice was too loud enough for everyone to hear her.

“Heh! Look at that little girl.”

Someone from another team scoffed at her words. It was a really annoying situation, but Kairen couldn’t sit and watch them fight each other.

Because of the explosion, Kairen’s spell was interrupted. There was a monster going rampage a few steps away and lots of people looking at their defenseless team with hungry eyes.

Thankfully it was hard to see the team because of the fug that was surrounding them. Kairen looked at the monster. It would die with just one blow. The problem was that Arran was out of energy and Kairen didn’t have the time to cast the spell.

DANG DANG

‘What are they doing?’

Kairen could hear the sound of metal clashing in the distance but he couldn’t see what was going on because of the dense mist.

BANG BANGGG

The gunner was shooting the monster continuously, but his bullets weren’t enough to kill it.

Kairen gut up and moved his mana. He didn’t have time to cast a proper spell.. He put all the mana he had in his half-ruined spell.