After the break, all of us headed to the Arena. In total there was fourteen of us left. 

"♪ Now we will test how our participants fare against numbers, their opponents will be a group of direbears!" dryad addressed the crowd.

"♪ Sadly we can't make this match more interesting by letting them fight a variety of monsters. Our Arena simply doesn't have necessary enchantments to prevent them fighting one another." 

Her words reminded our expedition in the dungeon. There we interrupted a war between 'killer ants' and 'greater spiders', Formida we meet later had corpses around her as well. Yes, it's one thing if they are the same species, but usually, monsters are hostile to each other. I wonder if it was the same during 'Dark Ages'.

"Direbears? Hmm, archers might have it tough, but it shouldn't be a problem." said Cloud.

In the coming battle, earth magic of this human should be useful. While technically he knew some water magic as well, it wasn't even close to the power of earth. My suspicion that he was some sort of noble only increased when he shared his knowledge about summoners. It wasn't just a fact or two. He explained all the details as if he himself was a summoner. Maybe he had a friend who was one, but most likely he learned it in Academy.

"Who cares about some useless archers? We are more than enough." said the elf.

Just one look at him and memories of my worst bet surfaced again. My poor gold coin..

I learned that his full name was Darson Akane Gorval'dur. If his arrogance and three names could be an indicator, he should be a noble as well. I have no idea why two nobles choose a path of adventurer.

No, I probably do. In the old world, I was the same. There was no need for me personally to 'remove' the source of our problems. Father could hire best of the best even for this kind of work. I realized that even the saying 'if want the job done well, do it yourself' was just an excuse. What I really wanted was a thrill of battle with a life on the line.

It might be something similar to them .. or they just want to run away from their responsibilities as nobles.

"Just to make sure I will repeat the plan. I will try to kill most of them with 'wildfire', but the spell is long to cast and hard to control. We need fastest people to lure them into one place and then retreat before I activate the spell. Others will intercept survivors, don't expect much help from mages if they get close. We will kill as many as we can from a range, but if they get there, our spells will do more harm than good. As for archers .. your job will be to provide a distraction for people in need and if possible rob monsters of their sight." started Phoenix.

Mmm, commanding tone suits him well. Still, considering his experience with people who started rumors, I am surprised with his initiative. During the discussion with Cloud, he started making suggestions and in no time became our temporary leader.

No one was against him taking that role, not even the summoner. Maybe he thought we were some nobles as well? While I had only one name, it's not impossible to assume I hide my family name to avoid the attention of parents. As for me, I was not interested in leading. I always preferred to act alone, my father and Phoenix were the only exceptions.

"I will lure." I said and Phoenix just nodded his head.

"I will lure as well, my shadowstep is well suited for fast advance and retreat. Elmor, you will stay to intercept." said Tia to her slave.

"Be careful." said the minotaur.

"Cloud, you should start." said Phoenix and archers started line up near them in preparation for his earth wall.

As gates of Arena opened, monsters started showing up one after another. I, Tia and wolfs of the beast tamer started heading forward. Mauro, the owner of wolfs, stayed with archers. Two cats of beastkin race, and one dwarf with a crossbow were his companions.

Minotaur, summoner, two orcs, one dwarf and human warrior were left to intercept monsters on the ground.

As soon as Cloud started his spell, summoner started his as well.

After Phoenix, Cloud and archers raised with 'earth wall', I stopped paying attention and looked ahead. By now there were ten direbears in Arena and more were entering through the gates. All of them, just like the one Mauro fought in the first battle, were huge.

After we waited for a bit longer, gates closed and their final number was twenty-three. I looked at Tia and after a nod, both of us rushed ahead with wolfs following from behind. White wolf was following me, while black was after Tia.

Only a few monsters headed to intercept us, while a majority were eying the group behind us. I charged at the monster heading in my direction. Direbear swept with his claws, but I slid under him, sliced one 'arm' with the tail and after grabbed his another 'hand' with phantom claws, tossed him over my shoulder. Normally, with his size and mass, it would be hard to pull it off, but my phantom claws were quite large and my stats were not a joke either. Vertical kick with a blue ghostly leg helped to toss smoothly and the beast fell on the ground.

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I quickly followed with a slash of tail and a large head of the beast rolled on the ground. It will take some time before I grab their attention with pheromones, so visually noticeable feats were needed. I charged at the next bear .. and accidentally killed him as well. Oops.

I promised to Red to 'hold back' and planned to only injure them now, but the excitement of battle got over my head and before I noticed one more beast fell dead. Hmm, I seriously should hold back a bit. Their number is limited.

I started running around clawing direbears here or there, sometimes even jumping on their bodies to annoy them. 

With a quick glance, I noticed that Tia was doing fine as well. She used her speed and occasionally shadowstepped to injure many of them without being caught. We were running from opposite directions and with our actions herd them into one crowd. As for wolfs .. they behaved like mosquitos, almost zero damage but very annoying.

All this time a large, almost twenty meters in diameter, magical symbol was forming under our feet. It was the highest tier spell Phoenix knew.

"Spell is almost ready! Return!" shouted minotaur and we quickly disengaged monsters.

"Wildfire!" Phoenix activated his spell when we were away from the circle.

The magic circle glowed a bit brighter and after a moment flames burst from the ground. It was as if the ground was soaked in fuel and was ignited all at once. A loud roar of monsters echoed through the Arena. More than half died in intense flames and only some at the edges of fire managed to escape. Even they didn't leave unscratched and were burning as rushed out.

"Earth Claws!" as Cloud activated his spell, a charging direbear drove into large spikes and quickly died.

"Fireball!" Phoenix launched his spell as well.

With a newfound fear of fire, the beast leaped to the side in an attempt to avoid the spell. But all was futile. With a gesture of hand, Phoenix changed its direction and after the explosion, only a headless mangled body slid on the ground.

Archers were firing their arrows, but injuring or blinding monsters was the most they could do. Except for the dwarf. His large crossbow started glowing and when he fired, a direbear fell to the ground with only a small part of bolt visible in his eye.

That's some impressive firepower, that crossbow must be enchanted. While the eye tissue is soft, to reach the brain, the bolt had to pierce through a bone of the skull. None of other archers were able to do that.

I wasn't sitting idly and rushed to one of direbears charging at the group of Phoenix. After losing one of his limbs, the beast rolled on the ground. I walked closer and after summoning Hano type gun shot him in the head.

With a strong kick of phantom leg, I rolled his corpse. There was only entrance wound, so the bullet was stopped by another side of the skull. The fact that it pierced it at all is worrying though. This is a beast that could stop arrows with his skin alone. And the power of arrows fired by adventurers can't be compared to the power of an average human.

Almost all bullets in our possession were made of steel and basically were armor piercing rounds. Without bullets made of lead, even Hano type gun is dangerous and might cause collateral damage. If bullets go through the intended target or wall and kill some innocent bystander, that would be problematic. No one uses guns in this world, so we would be prime suspects.

The problem is that there is no lead for sale. While this world has this metal as well, without practical use, no one bothered to extract it. Or at least that's how it was explained to me in the merchants guild. There was a lot of use for it in my old world, but without people even bothering to get some, it was different there.

Well, It's time to test my less dangerous ammunition.

I reloaded the gun with blunt bullets and fired at a nearby bear. It wounded the beast, but wasn't enough to pierce his skull. In case we ever have to fight against people in streets, those bullets will have to do.

Only three monsters reached the group. Minotaur and summoner (in arachne form) dealt with one each. Few warriors wanted to help them, but after one look at their gaze changed their mind and just ganged on the last.

After a short exchange, the monster that attacked minotaur lost his limb from a powerful swing and was stabbed with another greatsword. With one more swing, the beast was decapitated and Elmor roared to announce his victory.

This time summoner wasn't using stealth, with an arrogant smile on his face he caught a sweep of a monster with his bare hands. Well, stealth alone would be meaningless if arachne don't have the strength. As the bear angrily roared, summoner spat him into the jaws and the beast started to convulse. That spit was a poison!

Other warriors finished their battle as well. It would be shameful if they can't do that four against one.

You have gained 4827 experience points for overcoming your adversary.

Level Up.

You have reached level 19.

I was in a party only with Phoenix, so the majority of kills were ours and I leveled up.

"♪ What a battle! You wouldn't see something like this every day. There is no doubt .." As dryad announced our victory my thoughts drifted away.

I should visit the captain and see if that assault on assassins is ready. I am very eager to go back into the dungeon and search for formida, so the sooner we finish with those pests, the better.

*

"Congratulations! All of you passed the test. As you probably guessed. those tests were within upper limits of what you should be able to handle as E rank adventurer. While most take it easy and plan their every attack, it's important that you have means to deal with a tricky situation. Here, take this. It's your proof of passing the test. Once you show it to the receptionist, you can update your rank to E" greeted us Red with a smile and started passing orbs with a symbol of the guild engraved on its surface.

As we received them, we said our goodbyes and left the building together .. only to enter it again from the main square. There were some doors leading to another part of the guild directly, but they were only for staff members.

As we entered the guild, some adventurers rushed to us from a bar section. They were party members of those who took the test.

"How did it go? Did you pass?" asked an old dwarf.

"Of course I did!" answered Cloud with his arms crossed.

"That's great news, so how did it go?" asked the dwarf.

"If you are so curious, should have watched instead of sitting here and drinking the beer." Cloud teased him.

"You must be joking! Do you have any idea how much it cost? I prefer spending my money on something I can touch."

"Or drink." said Cloud and after a short pause both started to laugh.

My attention was drawn by a familiar smell. If I was right then he should be the one who spread the rumors about Phoenix. Blaze! He was in a queue just ahead of us together with his elf slave.