"All the participants have made it to the river now, how will each person pass?"

Pewterschmidt's voice resounded in the square.

On the screens, twelve different images of students by the river could be seen.

"Oh, we have our lead participants, Ricard Burton, Alfred Mason, Eric Ead, and who's that? Max Browne at fourth place!"

Ricard paused upon reaching the river and started chanting spells.

A wave of water about three meters long rose from the river.

Without any deliberation, Ricard jumped on top of it, but he didn't move immediately.

Only a few seconds later, Alfred Mason, the Fireblaster, and the fourth place runner, Max Browne joined him and jumped on the wave.

"What's this what's this? the Elemental Saint and two other students are teaming up!

Would you look at that performance, a brilliant strategy!"

Pewterschmidt announced, the image of the three apparent on the screen.

Max Browne was an air Element Knight so he couldn't do much at the moment, but Alfred, who was a mage was blasting away any Carp that approached the three of them while Ricard focused on moving the wave across the river.

The three of them made it past the river successfully in no time thanks to their strategy.

Cheers sounded out in the square one more time.

"Go Ricard Go!"

"You're the best!"

"Oh my gosh he's so hot, i think I'm gonna bust one!"

The girls yelled, frantically enough for their cheeks to turn red.

Some male students cheered too, but they weren't nearly as inclined as the females were.

In fact, some of them cursed under their breaths.

"Hmph, pretentious prick, stealing all the girls."

"So what if he's an Elemental Saint, all the girls are dying for him like he's some kind of messiah."

"Shut up fatass, should they be cheering for you instead?"

"What did you say? Say it again, i dare you!"

"I'll say it again fatass. Why don't you roll back to your mama and cry to her if you don't like it?"

A small fist fight soon broke out, but not many paid attention.

Back on the stage, Eric, seeing how the three students joined hands and were passing through the river, decided not to waste time and began moving.

He chanted a haste spell on himself and augmented his body before jumping in the river.

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The combinations of both boosts helped his swimming reach incredible speeds, leaving no Carps able to even touch him.

Soon, other students arrived too and started using their own measure to pass through the river.

One problem arose at this stage though.

Unlike previous stages, not everyone had an equal shot in passing.

Knights were fine for most of the part, they could augment their bodies and swim. even still, doing so involved a lot of risks if you didn't bear either the Air or Water element, since you wouldn't have enough control or speed to swim through the river.

The same went for Mages.

Even if they had the right elements it was still dangerous for them to pass by themselves.

Hence, some people, both Knights and Mages of varying elements, started teaming up while some others decided to waste no time and move by themselves.

At the end though, some people, both solo and in groups were taken out by the Golden Carps before making it past the river, teleporting them out and disqualifying them.

At this point, about 25% of the participants were disqualified, while the rest moved on to the fourth stage.

Emil finally made it to the river as the final batch of students were passing through, allowing him to catch a glimpse of what to expect.

He watched as hundreds of Golden Carps swam to the participants frantically and bit them down, sending them straight back to the Academy.

Emil's mind spun in full gear, coming up with ideas and discarding them on the spot.

"It seems our last runner, Emil Ashdown is having some trouble.

That's to be expected, considering he's alone and bears the Fire element, not so suitable for this stage.

Will he be able to pass this stage?"

Pewterschmidt started spicing things up upon seeing Emil reaching the river.

"Hmm? What is he doing? Has he figured out a way?"

On the display, Emil could be seen dipping his feet into the water.

The Golden Carps showed no reaction.

After deliberating for a while, he grit his teeth and jumped into the river.

He was already far behind everyone else, he couldn't afford to waste any more time.

Earlier, he saw how the Carps attacked the students frantically, but just now when he dipped his feet into the water, they showed no reactions.

If his conjecture was correct, then he could possibly pass the stage without any problems.

He just had to test it first.

Emil started swimming to the other side of the river upon diving in.

To his delight, the Golden Carps didn't show the slightest of reaction to his presence.

"Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute! How is this even possible? Emil Ashdown, the madman jumped into the water without any form of protection whatsoever, and seems to be just fine too, none of the Golden Carps are attacking him!"

Pewterschmidt's voice, full of energy and excitement, resounded through the square like a thunderclap, drawing everyone's attention to the screen displaying Emil.

"How the hell?"

"I told you that trash was cheating!"

"Yeah, the forest, the formation, and now this, what a piece of shit."

"If you're gonna lose then accept it like a man, he's ruining the competition for everyone by cheating like this!"

Soon, the audience's voice unified, chanting "cheater, cheater" In protest.

However, the judge's had nothing to say about this.

Finally, Piers stood up and started speaking in response.

"I ask for everyone to remain calm, if a student is found cheating us judges will be sure to disqualify them on the spot."

However, his words did little to silence the protestors.

"How is that not cheating!?"

"Even a blind dog can tell he's using underhanded methods to pass the stages!"

"Disqualify him!"

The voices kept getting louder and louder, until another one of the judges stood up.

"SILENCE!"

Osric's defeaning yell reverberated throughout the entire venue, making everyone with a low enough cultivation kneel over and cover their ears in pain.

The square fell into pin drop silence, not a single person daring to raise their voice voice again.

The students, for a moment, forgot they weren't speaking to mere judges, but teachers and powerful cultivators, governors of the academy.

***

The race continued, with Ricard, Alfred and Max reaching the foot of the mountain first, followed by Eric and the other students.

Large rocks and boulders could be seen falling from above intermittently, before hitting the ground and disintegrating into the air.

The rocks weren't real, they were the result of a formation.

What was real though was the pain and damage inflicted by them, as well as the fact that they could take them out upon contact.

Ricard and his allies had two methods at hand to pass this stage.

They could either split up and climb individually, or join hands like last time and work together.

As it appeared, they were going for the latter option.