Demon Wolf

As long as they don’t use high damage attacks, the troops should recover what they spend in three and a half minutes of inactivity they have, but it’s cutting it close. I have enough arrows for some twenty waves, but once soldiers start losing Qi, it will quickly spiral out of control. I don’t think they could endure if the wave was five minutes long.

Is that why they shortened it? Could be. What will appear now? Archers? Mounted warriors?

While Wolf kept imagining ways Earth Pavilion’s elders could have increased the difficulty, his troops recuperated and a dust cloud signaled the fifteenth round starting.

Wolf awakened his senses and examined the enemy heading his way. The same? Did they make only fourteen waves, and after that they will repeat the fourteenth? That would be really good, but it seems too simple. Maybe they will increase the number of enemies?

Frowning and recalculating the time his troops will endure, Wolf sent his senses dormant, listening to the sound of a Monster Beast stampede.

I guess it depends on how much they extend the waves. If the increments are thirty seconds, I can hold out a while longer, if the waves increase by a fold, I’ll be out of the game soon enough.

Wolf awakened his senses just before the wave crashed into his defenses. The chargers did not charge, opting to waste his troops’ Qi as much as possible.

The dual-wielders, on the other hand, charged, startling Wolf. In the dilated time-flow, he observed fifty nude men and women unexpectedly rush forward. In perfect sync, they raised their swords and their feet blurred in motion. Fifty brilliant swords wielded in left hands landed on fifty of Wolf’s defenders. Prioritizing self-preservation, the defenders blocked, their spears also blazing with maximum Qi they could muster. Then, fifty glowing swords wielded in the attackers’ right hands broke fifty luminous screens and cleaved fifty defenders’ heads.

Finally, having completed their mission, the dual-swordsmen died as fifty pairs of defenders pierced their chests.

Wait! No, no, no! Stop! Wolf screamed inwardly as he watched the blades split the Qi defense and hack into the skulls of his soldiers. Defenders did not die soundlessly. The cracking of bones and the pained screams filled Wolf’s ears. Instead of clean deaths, blood fountained from the mortal wounds, and in slow motion, Wolf followed every drop.

“Archers, shoot dual-wielders like chargers!” he shouted in panic, but the order came too slow. Before Wolf finished his shout, the next wave struck, massacring another fifty soldiers.

Treat them as chargers. I need one shot a tenth of a second after they charge, then three attacks to take them out as double-wielders. I’ve lost a hundred men.

No. They are illusions. They made them scream and bleed to mess with the trial taker’s head, but I held on too long without it happening. This does not matter. Focus.

Wolf coiled his quads, ready to dash into melee. I can eliminate three to five percent of them. Roughly eight attackers, that will free twenty archers. Wrong, ten archers, melee is also engaged with enemies.

Just as he burst into a run, Wolf stopped. Without elites, my involvement is insignificant.

The stopgap orders worked, but Wolf’s troops wasted two hundred arrows every second. “Melee, ignore staff-wielders. Archers, group four, take out the staff-wielders, following the existing pattern. Melee, attack all your targets an eye-blink after they are three meters away. Then follow the standard procedure for attackers wielding one sword and attackers wielding two swords.”

“Archers, group one and group two. Fifty will leave their groups and join the melee to make up the lacking numbers.” Damn. I made a mistake. I should’ve kept my reserve troops with the archers outside the fort, not inside.

“Fifty archers from group one will join group three. Fifty archers from group two will join group four.” That should fix it. However, this would be impossible with actual soldiers. Then again, in an actual battle, I would scribe a Spell Formation minefield and I wouldn’t be in this mess.

Why did the corpses remain? Is it to remind the candidate of their error? To make them feel guilty over illusions? That would only work on children…

Wolf’s calls stabilized the situation. He had lost a hundred of his reserve, and had a hundred left, shuffled into the archer squads to provide additional support.

Two and a half minutes after the wave started, the dust cloud disappeared and as the tide of enemies dwindled into nothingness, Wolf cursed himself and his carelessness.

Smith, that old kook, always said I’m assuming too much. I thought I had fixed that flaw years ago…

Wolf tsked and dashed ahead. I’ll probe the next wave, then sprint back and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Attackers wielding a single sword immediately caught Wolf’s attention. They aren’t naked?

The runners, as Wolf referred to them, wore black robes marred in fresh blood, their swords dripping scarlet in sync, as if the blades themselves bled.

It’s not just cosmetic. Wolf charged the nearest runner, stabbing his spear a split moment after she dashed.

In the dilated flow of time, she slapped Wolf’s spear with the flat of her sword.

Heh, cute. They can act while using their maneuver. If the attacker and defender had similar physical strength, that blow would have cleared the black-robed woman’s path. Unfortunately, Wolf outweighed her by ten times.

The sword rebounded, as if striking an immovable object. The next moment, she threw herself onto Wolf’s spear, the crazed grin dancing about her face even as her illusory life winked out.

She didn’t dodge; her sword glowed brighter as she sent a surge of Qi into it. That means their realms are higher than the naked people’s. Regular enemies can deflect energy-saving arrows with Qi shields, it’s safe to assume… Don’t assume.

“Three archers from group four, shoot the leftmost robed man with mid-power arrows.”

Three glowing arrows silently flew, and, just as Wolf expected, harmlessly bounced off the luminous screen.

Tsk. Should I move stronger defenders into archer squads? It won’t change a thing. I have too few of them, and I’ll likely need them on the front lines to handle these stronger guys. Why did they bother giving me weaker and stronger troops?

“Melee line, rearrange so that stronger melee meets stronger attackers.” Troops immediately shuffled, obeying the orders like automatons, scuttling about wasting minimal effort.

“Archers, use maximum power attacks when targeting robed enemies.”

With that command, the clash began. There were no surprises this time. Wolf’s defensive line held, but the youth still frowned.

There’s no way archers will recover all their Qi in time for the eighteenth wave…

***

Eleanor had stopped drinking tea twenty minutes ago. Her cup lay untouched on the table, no longer steaming. Even the outer elders forgot to replace the cool beverage with a fresh one, their eyes locked onto the wall.

“Twenty-two? Will he pass this one too?” a middle-aged woman asked as the counter below the hourglass flickered from twenty-one to twenty-two.

“I have no idea,” Elder Dreadingham muttered, disregarding the difference in status. Pavilion Master will go crazy when she sees this. With this level of talent, the Earth Monastery officials may come and take him directly to the monastery, skipping the pavilion.

Eleanor furrowed her brows. No, that doesn’t suit her. It’s in our interest to sell him to another pavilion, not to ship him up the ladder. Master will keep a tight lid on this. There’s no rule requiring us to state how many levels a disciple cleared, save to brag to other pavilions.

Fifty-seven seconds passed since the counter showed twenty-two before the hourglass froze and the door opened.

“This thing is impossible to beat,” Wolf growled, holding back a barrage of curses at test designers who found it appropriate to continuously increase the incoming attackers’ power and number of abilities.

“That’s the point.” Eleanor cleared her throat, realizing she had said those words aloud.

“Ahem. Congratulations, Core Disciple Hillman. You have probably set a record across all Earth Pavilions. The reward for clearing ten waves is the title of a core disciple. For each wave beyond the tenth, Earth Pavilion awards you one month’s worth of stipends. For each wave beyond fifteenth, Earth Pavilion awards you three months’ worth of stipends. For each wave beyond twentieth, Earth Pavilion awards you nine months’ worth of stipends. In total, you have earned twenty-nine month’s worth of core disciple monthly stipends.”

We will have to pay this out of our own pockets to keep his result a secret. Well, it’s not that bad. Twenty-nine least Qi crystals and twenty-nine hundred contribution points is some three months’ worth of my wages, but that’s way too much wealth to give to a disciple. He’s gonna squander it all. What am I saying? It’s best if he squanders everything here.

“Come, follow me. I believe our esteemed Pavilion Master would love to meet the record-breaking disciple.”