Cael managed to knock the wind out of this large, burly fighter with a straight punch to his gut, and his teammates decided to rush right in after they could see that they possibly had a chance.

Emily used her thin sword and dealt numerous slashes to try and put down the enemy. It was hard initially, and Keagan was being quite troublesome with his aggressive fighting style.

Adriano managed to reach for his leg and kicked it inward to force him onto a single knee.

Emily then slashed at his right bicep, cutting through the tough armour in a clean slice. Keagan screamed in pain upon feeling the intense heat of the blade, and he grasped this part of his arm tightly.

The agony from the burned wound was excruciating, but he remained resolute and returned to both feet.

He continued to battle these three fighters, while Blaine and Vanessa were struggling to reach him. Soon enough, Keagan had received another slash from Emily’s extremely hot blade, and Cael delivered a final blow to his helmet to drop him right to the floor.

The three fighters continued to unload with numerous attacks to try and beat him down. Their attempt was successful, and Keagan was soon responding to their vicious attacks less and less.

Blaine grabbed Adriano’s attack drone, tanking an energy blast straight to his chest. His force was so strong that it could no longer move freely, then he slammed it right into a tree adjacent to him with a shout.

It was destroyed, and he stared down the fighters that could see he was now free.

Vanessa was still engaging Cael’s bot, but Emily’s drones couldn’t attack, as they were simply sensory and munitions type drones.

Cael could see that Blaine began to run toward them, and they simply didn’t have much time.

Clenching his fist tightly, he activated his power surge skill and could feel the actuators within his exosuit running on overdrive. He threw a technically flawless punch onto his helmet, knocking him out right away.

His punch shook the ground due to the added strength from his powered gauntlet and his power surge skill, and Keagan was knocked out cold.

With Blaine only a few metres from them, Cael knew they had no time to meddle.

Cael called back his bot, and it shot numerous energy blasts at Blaine as it returned to him. Each shot shook his body, but the final blast managed to pierce through his heated armour and hit his skin.

The blast forced him forward and onto one hand in reaction, then the bot slashed at the side of his right leg as it whizzed past him.

Emily’s drones followed them, but Adriano could see that his drone had been totally dismantled.

“Run! Run now!!” Cael urged, charging forward as fast as he could.

He still had a few seconds of power surge, and managed to create a significant gap between him and his teammates.

It was like he was flying forward, and the other two couldn’t believe how fast he was moving.

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Blaine tried to raise back up to his feet, but felt a sharp pain that almost kept him planted on the ground. Watching the receding backs of these three fighters, he felt rage bubbling up inside him.

“F*CK YOU, CAEL!! F*CK YOU!!” He roared, totally furious.

Cael couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing these taunts coming from behind him. He knew that the two fighters were powerless and with Keagan unconscious, he had eliminated him. This gave him a massive 13 coins, that gave him 20 coins on total, while his friends were both on 7 each.

This gave them 27 coins, and he was sure that they were performing decently well if they had that sort of tally.

They decided to settle in another area of the forest, because they could hear battling all around them. It wouldn’t be smart to bring attention to them with their high speed sprint.

“Phew, I can’t believe we actually did that!” Emily said with surprise.

She then saw a map of the surroundings, which was handed to them by her sensory drone. Many students were smart and managed to utilise frequency disruption devices that made it hard for her sensory drone to pick up much.

However, intense activity like noisy battles were picked up in pieces. It wasn’t accurate but it was good enough for them to avoid certain hot zones in the arena.

They kept a low profile, and Cael’s bot decided to take to the trees. With its six limbs, it could climb it but did so somewhat awkwardly.

He had coded his bot to have seamless, skilled movement in terms of its feet and arms independently. However, he didn’t spend much time putting these six limbs together for activities like climbing.

Since it was adept at using its hands and legs, it didn’t take long before it adapted and used them in unison to climb the branches.

They returned to a stop once again, and decided to set up shop here. Their eyes remained open and attentive, but they remained silent and covert. In doing so, they received 3 extra coins and were now on a team total of 30 coins.

“Who would’ve thought we’d come this far. Three students that didn’t even really know each other before this coming this far.” Emily said, much to the humour of her teammates.

“I must admit, you have quick thinking Cael. If not for that last trick you thought of pulling there, I think we would’ve been toast.” Adriano admitted.

Cael could tell that it took a lot out of him to admit his good work, but that confused him slightly. He had no friends to form a team with and wasn’t extremely talented.

He was more like him where he had great technique but fell behind when it came to physicality.

Violence remained intense around them, and they could tell that people were becoming a lot more aggressive. With more coins being awarded, they were sure that teams just got more confident in themselves.

“Argh!” Emily groaned, holding her back in pain.

Cael rushed to her pain, as he thought that something grave had happened, but she waved him off.

“Sorry, it’s just that slam. That first big guy really hurt me bad.” Emily commented, stretching.

Cael’s medical bot rushed to her aid, and provided minor aid to the large bruise on her back but it couldn’t do much. The nanobots soon removed themselves from her back, and her injury would now slowly heal on its own.

Tap. Tap.

Cael’s bot turned into battle mode once again, looking into the looming darkness ahead of them. The three humans couldn’t really see what this bot was looking at, but they remained vigilant.

Rmph!

They heard the intense exhale of some form of beast. It didn’t seem human, but they still couldn’t see anything from the darkness.

The WM-01 Valiant model unsheathed its blade and aimed it forward, while using its other two arms to defend its body.

Cael raised one of his eyebrows upon seeing pretty much nothing within the darkness.

However, whatever was in such darkness slowly revealed itself.

The students were frozen.

“There’s no way.”

They saw a large humanoid being, that stood at 2 metres tall. It had the body of a muscular, burly male but the head of a boar. It had a menacing smile on its face as it revealed itself, and was clad in a sleek spandex-like grey, with a few plates of thin armour on its exterior.

What stood before them was not a human, but instead an alien.

One of the infamous boarmen, known for their ruthlessness, brutality, and dangerous power.

Emily began to shiver upon seeing this beast, and its dark red eyes. Adriano tried to hide his fear, but also could not move himself. It was only the WM-01 Valiant that managed to stay put, living up to its name.

“Hello there, humans. Looks like you’re going to be my first victims.” The boarman declared, with a beastly, demonic voice.