Battle Frenzy

The doors of the gathering hall closed up. Right before them was a large row of steps. Under the indications from the staff members, the hundred over participating assassins from the various squadrons proceeded to take a seat. It’ll be false to say if one wasn’t nervous, as a vast majority of the people were looking in all directions, whispering into the ear’s of one another or pretending to be bored, in order the relief the anxious and nervous feelings present in their hearts. The hum of the whispers sounded akin to the buzzing of flies as they resounded within the gathering hall. Being the first arena of the 2nd elimination round, the results of this arena was exceedingly essential and crucial for the morale, total points and other various aspects of the squadrons. Under such pressure, there truly weren’t many that were genuinely able to maintain a calm and collected heart.

Emily of one of those few who could be considered to be able to do so, sitting exceedingly calmly at the steps. From the very instant when the doors of the gathering halls had closed shut, the chaotic and messy thoughts flowing within her mind were tossed away by her. This was her family’s technique, “heart cultivation”. Although it wasn’t able to successfully turn her into a cold-blooded and ruthless assassin, it clearly had its uses towards the tempering of one’s character.

Very quickly, popping sounds rang out as lights started turning on. As they did so, a small old man that appeared skinny and weak had already appeared right before them. Dressed in a rather normal set of uniform, a warm smile was present on his face

This little old man appeared exceedingly affable and genial. At this moment, everyone present had no reason not to relax, as a feeling akin to a cleansing spring wind blew past them. That’s right, they were elites! What was there anything frightening they couldn’t face!

“Lightning Evasion Formation as well as the Sealed Room, huh? That’s okay!”

“I was originally worried about obtaining poor results of this test. Ha, although I dare not speak about other types of tests, the Lightning Evasion Formation’s my speciality! I’ve always maintained the best record in my academy, the Caliban Academy! This topic’s truly the best!”

There were quite a few people who clearly had felt as though they had just taken a breath of relief. All of them were nervous due to the implementation of this new particular test topic, which turned out to be to be the Lighting Evasion Formation as well as the Sealing Room. Those were standard topics during an assassin’s specialized training. The rules were exceedingly basic and straightforward. Naturally, though, there were ranges in its difficulty. This was an absolutely good piece of news for the absolute majority of ordinary assassin participants. If by the off chance that the arena was testing some strange and obscure assassin methods of some large aristocratic family, they would really be too much in a disadvantage due to their lacking knowledge.

“Are there only these 2 tests, and not anyone that is combat focused?” feeling a tad bit unwilling, some combat oriented assassins asked out.

“This is a test for scouts. Combat is only one aspect, with agility, speed, reflexes, survival capability and perception being the key factors that we’re evaluating.” the little old man replied in a rather good-natured manner as he pointed towards the empty grounds behind him. Four running paths approximately 400 metres in length were present at the location where he had indicated. The running paths were covered with many square shaped lattices, with the same sized lattice structure composed out of metal wires present in the air above them. This was precisely the most common method used by the federation to test assassins, the Lightning Evasion Formation,

With everyone present being able to be considered a veteran in their occupation, they were all too familiar with this test. With a single look, they were able to tell the difference this Lightning Evasion Formation had from the ones they had been through.

Firstly, it was about double its usual length, as most Lightning Evasion Formations were of 100 metres in length, while this one was 200 metres in length. Secondly, the square lattices that covered its surface were smaller and more numerous in quantity than usual.

“Everyone here should be privy to the rules of this Lightning Evasion Formation. The entire runway is lined with high voltage electricity. You’ll be safe as long as you follow the tiles flashing in white. What you guys need to do is to stand on the correct tiles while crossing over the finishing line in the fastest possible time.” the little old man explained with a chuckle. “On the side note, the difference between this formation compared to conventional ones is that the voltages you’ll be facing in it are above 200 thousand volts. The flickering speed of the tiles are set at 0,5 secs. Therefore, it’s best for all the participating students to be mentally prepared for that.”

“200 thousand volts? 0.5-second intervals? ”

The Lightning Evasion Formation wasn’t frightening, as what’s frightening were those numbers!

That’s 4 times more than the voltages used in conventional Lightning Evasion Formations! Generally speaking, 50 thousand volts was more than sufficient to cause even new humans to feel numbness throughout their bodies. Unless one possessed as specific kind of special ability related to lightning, new humans weren’t much stronger than ordinary humans on aspects like voltage and current resistance. As for 200 thousand volts, it was life threatening if one had any heart problems. What’s more shocking was the 0.5-second duration for the square tiles to light up and stop flashing. Those who are just a tad slowly would completely possess no confidence in heading forward. One would basically be unable to make any conscious observation before, while still needing to land in 2 locations within a second.

The voice filled grounds immediately turned quiet as the colours present on the faces of many people changed in response.

Despite this, the little old man continued his briefing. “Okay, let’s start the test! The order of the test will be chosen randomly by me. Those whose name has been called please automatically stand up and head over! There’ll be 4 people in 1 group that will do the test at the same time!”

Upon finishing his briefing, he casually grabbed 4 little balls from a box, each with the number of a participant labelled on its surface.

“Number 37, Halamu Academy, Zorma!”

“Number 67, Adolf Academy, Elena!”

“…”

The 4 people whose names were called out walked forwards, of which 2 of them were males and the other 2 being females.

As they walked out, Emily was able to spot a familiar face, Elena, someone that she had deliberately paid attention to. During the last time when Tianjing had crossed hands with Adolf, Elena had smashed Colby in a duel. Although she had ultimately fallen to Grai’s sword, Emily was somewhat confident that the latter was quite a bit stronger than her former self.

As 4 people stood at their individual starting points, the officials didn’t waste any time on words, pressing the start signal after saying “ready” to them. “3, 2, 1”, the voice of the robotic announcer rang out, before white flashing tiles started lighting up on the individual runways. Every single runway was observed by their own set of official staff. Clearly, the performance of each squadron was ultimately tied to the points they have obtained from the various arenas. Due to the reputation that the 1st elimination round had created in the hearts of every squadron, everyone did not dare to show any neglect to this 2nd elimination round. Although one might not be eliminated if they weren’t able to complete the tests given, no one dared to give it a gamble.

Travelling and reacting at exceedingly quick speeds as headed out, 1st steps taken by the 4 landed perfectly on the tiles. Clearly, they were considerably familiar.However, even before a second had passed, a dense stretch of visible lightning arcs appeared, immediately causing a male and a female participant to faint on their respective runways.

Taking the first step was easy. However, reacting and making the 2nd step within 0.5-seconds was the problematic part.

It truly was difficult!

The 2nd white flashing tile was at least 5 metres away from the first. Although it wasn’t too difficult for an assassin that excelled in speed to travel 5 meters within 0.5 seconds, this difficulty was compounded by the need for one to react. One had to observe the location of the white flashing tile before moving out! Due to these 2 factors, even the sliver of hesitation would result in one being stranded in the air and unable to find a place to land on.

Appearing the have prepared for such events to happen, the staff members standing by the sides of the runways immediately ran over to administer CPR on the unconscious participants. Even with their soul power defenses, the 200 thousand volts of electricity passing through them was more than they could handle. Despite being informed of the change in voltage and interval time, the only thing they could do was to make estimations in accordance. Only when the test had officially started were they truly able to discover that the given interval time was basically not enough for them to even react to.