Chapter 199 Robbers in the Examination Room
On the road from Hams City to Demisool Magic Academy, children were running around in the wild.
Along this stretch of road, there are plains, hillsides, grasslands, woods, and rivers, each of which can be used as an ambush point, making it an excellent hunting ground.
However, what they are fighting for today is not the prey, but the Philosopher's Stone that allows them to become students of Demisool School of Magic, the most famous magic school in the Kingdom of Fifiore.
At this time, in addition to the candidates, there was also a graceful figure in the hunting ground, a woman with long black hair, cool white clothes, tall and graceful figure, holding a crystal ball.
The devil's heart, one of the seven servants of Purgatory, Urrutia!
…
On the flying carpet, Kira and Haiberion looked at the candidates below.
The candidates did not all come in groups or cliques. Most of them were like Ika and his companions, who gathered a few people of similar strength and walked together in twos and threes, keeping watch on each other, scouting the terrain, and guarding against sneak attacks. Of course, there were also many lone rangers who were skilled and daring, or who could not squeeze into the crowd.
The teams were not far apart, the closest was 20 to 30 meters, and the farthest was only a hundred meters or so. They probably thought that "as long as there are more people here, the losing team will not dare to attack."
Further away, there were several people who looked like academy teachers watching the candidates. Kira knew that they were arranged to monitor the candidates to prevent them from using magical means of transportation or asking for outside help.
Haiberion sat next to Kira, shaking his cup of milk, looking relaxed and comfortable, but in fact, he was not as relaxed as he appeared, but was worried instead.
He hadn't been able to concentrate since Conas told him this morning that the Demon's Heart was about to attack the Demisol School of Magic.
When Conas received the news, the exam had already begun. Half of the 120 candidates with the Philosopher's Stone had already left the city, not to mention that the candidates in the "failure group" had been lying in ambush on the road since last night, making it impossible to stop the exam.
They were not clear about the purpose of the Demon's Heart, nor did they know how they would attack. Based on the idea that "the Dark Guild has no bottom line", they could only split their forces into two groups.
Conas is the dean of the academy and also one of the Ten Saints. She should go back in every way. Gulan has always been tough in the council and has a zero-tolerance attitude towards dark guilds. When faced with such a thing, he would take the lead.
Therefore, Haiberion had no choice but to protect the candidates; and since the three were not clear about Kira's specific combat power, they assigned him the relatively safe task of protecting the candidates. However, they were afraid that Kira was young and impulsive, and would rush to the academy without caring about anything after knowing the news, causing accidents to the candidates, so they did not tell him the truth.
“Here it comes!”
Haiberion was awakened from his deep thought by Kira's voice. He thought that the devil's heart was really so cruel as to attack these children. His face changed immediately, his eyes shot red light, and at the same time, the magic power gathered in his body, and he entered combat state in an instant.
"Senior, what's wrong with you?"
Hearing Kira's question, Haiberion realized that he was too sensitive. He shook his head and said, "Nothing. What did you just say?"
Kira pointed downwards, "Those little guys from yesterday are here!"
Haiberian looked down, and sure enough, when the candidates passed the hillside, a small group of people rushed out from the other side of the hillside. They were the ones who were eliminated yesterday.
"Everyone, go ahead!!"
Someone shouted, and this group of losers rushed forward and instantly dispersed the large group of candidates.
They had obviously been waiting and observing for a long time, and there were even people giving orders and cooperating with each other, just like well-trained robbers , bandits, and brigands, specifically attacking those candidates who were alone or in small numbers.
For a moment, all kinds of magic flew all over the hill.
“Tsk tsk tsk… This scene is even more spectacular than the usual internal wars in Fairy Tail.” Kira complained in his heart, with a smirk on his face, and his hands unconsciously clenched into fists, “Go… Go…”
Haiberian turned around and saw Kira's little fist. He thought he was worried about the safety of the candidates. He couldn't help but secretly admired: "It seems that Mr. Kira is more stable. If Mr. Markrov was here, he would have shouted excitedly a long time ago..."
Haiberian found it incredible when he thought of Markov's childish style of watching the fun and not minding the trouble.
"It seems that not every Fairy Tail wizard is like Mr. Makrov..."
If Kira knew what Haiberion was thinking, he would definitely laugh out loud, and then give him a thumbs up and praise him for his broad vision.
On the chaotic hillside battlefield, bright magic circles kept lighting up and disappearing, and lighting up again in the tender palms and in front of the small bodies. At the same time, the shouts of the candidates shook the sky and soared into the sky.
The strong impact of sight and sound caused ripples in Kira's heart.
After an unknown amount of time, a voice rang out: "We can't hold on any longer. Get out of here!"
After this sound, a small number of people began to retreat in a certain direction.
"Oh~ I didn't expect that they even thought of a retreat plan. It seems that there is a military advisor among this group of people..." Kira showed an interested expression on his face, "But it seems that some of the 'robbers' are lost."
Kira noticed that several children ran in the wrong direction and lost the support of their teammates, and were caught and punished.
The first raid of the third exam was a hasty retreat, probably because it was just the first wave of attempts, but this method was indeed effective, and some people did grab the Philosopher's Stone, and then...
The companions around you become enemies, and the enemies in front of you become your companions.
The situation between the enemy and us changes instantly!
It may be a bit too much to ask these children with little social experience to rely on their little brains to cope with such changes, but no matter when, following the crowd and hiding in the crowd is the best way of defense.
Those kids who succeeded were like wolves hiding in a team of huskies, temporarily hiding themselves from the public eye and waiting for their chance to strike.
They were waiting, and when the next bandits attacked, they would bare their sharp fangs and claws again, attack the prey they had been eyeing, and snatch another piece of the magic stone.
Those candidates whose magic stones were stolen had to hold on to their own magic stones in order to pass the test, so they chased after the person who stole the stones. They stood up again and again, and were knocked down again and again, until they could no longer get up.
When they found out that the man they were chasing didn't have the Philosopher's Stone, they started biting like mad dogs, beating anyone they saw until they forced the other party to show him the Philosopher's Stone.
"Poor kid, he must have been devastated when he saw that man didn't have his own stone..."
Kira sighed as he felt the cool breeze from high in the sky, and expressed his deep sympathy for the candidate who was beating people up like a mad dog.
Haiberion said nothing. His focus was not on the candidates, but on other places along the way. His scarlet eyes moved like a vampire's eyes, observing any movement on the ground from the sky, not missing any place where someone from the dark guild might appear.
"It's been more than three hours since I left Hams City, and I haven't seen any suspicious people other than the candidates and the academy teachers," Haiberian thought to himself, "Could it be that the people from the Devil's Heart have no intention of attacking the students? If that's the case, then we couldn't be more lucky!"
"But doesn't this mean that their main forces are all in the academy? Can Dean Conas and Speaker Gulan hold on with just the two of them?"
While his thoughts were racing, the candidates below had already reached the next unfavorable terrain, the river.
"According to the map I bought yesterday, as long as we cross this river, we'll only be halfway to our destination!"
The leader turned around and said to his companions behind him, "This river is very wide and deep. Be careful when you cross the bridge. Those guys may be lying in ambush nearby and will attack us when we cross the river!"
There are no established military tactics in this world, and even if there are, these children probably don’t know them, so they naturally don’t understand what “attack the enemy when they are halfway across the river” means, but they must know which terrains are disadvantageous to them.
In front of him, a child asked: "Where did you just say you were going?"
The leader didn't know why he asked that, so he repeated, "Bridge!"
The child pointed to the empty river behind him and asked, "Where is the bridge?"
There is no bridge over this river, or rather, there has been no bridge since yesterday.
