Chapter 19: Academy Entrance Examination. Part Four
A ball of flame shot out of the center hole and began shooting flames at Coal.
Coal rolled on the ground dodging the first few fireballs.
Coal then got up and blocked a few of the fireballs with his shield to test its power.
Each fireball had a kick to them, but they didn’t push Coal back if he was ready, and the heat they radiated didn’t seem to damage Coal in any way.
Curious Coal allowed one to hit his arm that he reinforced using Earth Skin where the impact hurt, but he wasn’t scorched or burned in any way.
His affinities apparently gave him enough resistance to the temperature and impact.
He decided to see if they gave enough resistance for him to take on the fireball without Earth Skin.
He blocked once again with his arm and although he was still unaffected by the heat, the impact almost pierced his skin with damage on his arm pretty noticeable.
Quickly he shakes off the pain and throws a fireball back at the tier one sprite.
It is knocked out of the air onto the ground, and Coal quickly takes advantage of that to burst toward it and pierce it in the head where a core was located with his sword.
It dissipates into embers and the tower voice announces wave two.
“Wave One complete! Wave two commencing! Three tier one fire sprites summoned!” - Tower Voice
Three balls of fire emerge from the hole and all begin bombarding Coal with fireballs. The three sprites fly around and form an erratic moving triangle always with him at the center as they unleash fireball after fireball.
Coal moves forward trying to get out of the center of their formation blocking fireballs with his shield and dodging most of them.
He repeats his actions that were used on the first wave except this time with sextuple the amount of fireballs. Two fireballs from Coal went towards each of the sprites and two of the sprites are struck out of the air onto the ground.
A sprint and two swift sword strikes finish the two grounded sprites, but after taking them out their energies could visibly be seen going into the air towards the remaining sprite.
It grew brighter and bigger than before. Coal did not simply watch as it was growing in power, and since it was stationary during this power up Coal jumped then applied fire burst to both of his feet and launched upwards, his sword raised that completely pierced through the sprite’s core that was growing.
The core shattered and dissipated, and Coal was once more met with the tower’s voice.
“Wave Two Completed! Wave Three Commencing! Two tier one sprites and a tier two sprite summoned!” - Tower Voice
Two balls of fire and a larger ball of fire that seemed to have the upper body of a humanoid emerged from the hole.
It held out its arm and a halberd made of flame condensed.
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“Woah, well that’s new! I didn’t realize the waves got so much harder so quickly. Come at ME!” - Coal
The two tier one sprites hid behind the tier two sprite as they summoned and threw fireballs at Coal.
Coal dashed towards the tier two sprite dodging fireballs as it burst towards him, and the two clashed. The sword and halberd continually met, but Coal could feel himself being pushed back.
The tier two sprite had a longer reach and pushed itself with bursts of fire for every move, and Coal had to dodge fireballs and the swings, stabs, and cuts of the tier two’s halberd.
Coal’s reserve of spiritual energy was getting lower as the fight continued.
Current Spirit energy - 83/120
Each move consumed as much as he put into it, but even with minimum consumption a battle of attrition was not in his favor.
Thinking of a plan during in combat, Coal decided to first try and get rid of the two tier one sprites so he could focus on the big boy.
During the next clash between the sword and halberd, Coal pushed into the tier two sprite past its ideal range and while the tier two sprite began its retreat, Coal used fire burst to shield bash it.
During the shield bash, he repositioned underneath it, and he shield bashed again using a lot more spiritual energy and pushed it up into the air.
It could float so it didn’t really have an impact, but now the two tier one sprites were visible.
A quick cast of fireballs knocked them down and he sprinted toward them while continuously casting fireballs at the tier two.
He swung his sword into each of the tier ones’ cores making them dissipate into the air and the energy went towards the tier two sprite.
“Oh crap!” - Coal
Coal had forgotten that the slain sprites would empower the sprites still remaining.
Luckily or unluckily, the energy from the two tier ones did not seem to empower the tier two sprite much. Luckily because if it became too strong he likely would not have been able to defeat it. Unluckily because if it did give enough energy for it to be empowered it would likely be immobile during that state in which he could attack.
Coal quickly regained his composure and continued the fight with the tier two sprite. He knew that he had to end the battle quickly before he ran out of spiritual energy. He continued to dodge the tier two sprite's attacks while continuously casting fireballs and using fire bursts to increase his speed and power.
As he got closer to the tier two sprite, he noticed that its movements were starting to slow down. It was then that he realized that his continuous casting of fireballs and attacks had somehow caused the tier two sprite’s core to have a crack in it.
Coal saw this as an opportunity and charged toward the tier two sprite with all his might. He used all of his remaining spiritual energy to deliver a powerful blow to the tier two sprite's halberd.
The halberd broke and dissipated while Coal’s sword continued forward, shattering the sprite’s core and leaving it to dissipate back towards the hole. With the tier two sprite defeated, Coal was once again greeted by the tower's voice.
“Congratulations! Wave Three Completed! Wave Four Commencing! Two tier two sprites and a tier three sprite summoned!” - Tower Voice
Coal was tired and drained of spiritual energy. He would likely immediately fail wave four, but Coal was determined to try and see what wave four brought.
Once more flame emerged from the hole. Two with humanoid tops and one that was fully humanoid. The tier three sprite seemed more condensed than the tier two sprites and its core had a blue flame surrounding it.
Coal once more readied his stance this time with his shield in front and sword on top.
The two tier two sprites held out their arms and fireballs much bigger than the ones summoned by the tier one sprites appeared.
The bigger fireballs impacted Coal’s shield pushing him back with each impact.
The tier three sprite summoned its own sword and shield and spoke to Coal.
“Congratulations on making it to wave four. We sprites may be randomly created for this test, but tier three and up sprites have intelligence, so I thank you for allowing me the chance to do something.” - Tier Three Sprite
It charged at the turtled up Coal and delivered a kick to the shield that knocked Coal completely off his feet and into the air flying back a few meters.
Coal tried to get back up, but he couldn’t find the strength.
“Wave Four failed! Results recorded goodbye!” - Tower Voice
Coal was ejected out of the tower and appeared standing outside the tower where other examinees and the professor were standing.
The professor patted him on the back and informed him to go stand next to the other examinees in line.
Once a dozen other examinees exited the tower and stood in line the professor directly pointed out around twenty-two of the sixty examinees for the fire school and told them that they failed and wished them luck for next time.
“Now that they are gone, those of you left congratulations on getting past wave two or higher! All of your actions once inside the tower have been recorded and graded by your seniors and professors.
You are all now officially students of the academy! Orientation will be held in two days where some senior students will show you around the academy! See you all in the classroom now if you plan on minoring in any other schools I suggest you move quickly!”