"Hello contenders. You have reached the last round of the test. If you passed this round, it means that you have accumulated enough points. And you would officially become a member of our club." inside of another training ground with six pillars standing on the edge of the main training area, Marco said to Caroline, and the one other contender, Mr. Srivanti, as well as the audience who were watching the tests with a wide smile: "Please bear in mind that the purpose of these tests are not to trick the applicants, nor were they intended as a means to haze you before you join us. If you think about it, the previous two rounds were all about basic hunting skills that a hunter would need to have in their arsenal in order to be successful. And the same theme goes with our next test as well. Everyone, please take a look at these pillars."
Caroline looked around, all six of the pillars were made of some kind of dark rock, and each had a full set of detailed engravings of different kinds of aggressive animals on them. And when she paid closer attention to the pillars, she could sense that they were all radiating some kind of aggressive energy wave.
"I will be the assistant judge of this round of test." Marco continued: "And as for the main judge, it will be these pillars. You might wonder what this round of test would be - it's quite simple, look at all these aggressive animals and even magical beasts on these pillars. They were the works of legendary craftsmith, Master Butana, and our very own Mr. Pratt Patterson. What they will do, is that they will project energy constructs that mimic the attack patterns of some of the dangerous game in the world. What you'll need to do in this test is very simple: evade all simulated attacks from the construct animals. You are not to parry or block. The only action you can take is evasion and dodge. You will face ten attacks in three waves, in the first wave you will face one attack, three in the second wave, and six in the third wave. The more attacks you evaded or dodged, the more points you will get. Now, just a quick demonstration."
Marco walked to the center of the training ground, then all six of the pillars lit up in different colors of light. The next moment, six shadows of different glow, in the shapes of different animals and beasts shot from the pillars in rapid succession, all aiming right at Marco. Marco's body also lit up, his movement speed was elevated, and with a swift hop into the air, all the animal shadows were not able to touch him even in the slightest.
"See? Should be simple enough." Marco smiled, then he asked Caroline and Srivanti: "Which one of you would like to go first?"
Caroline and Srivanti looked at each other, seeing that Caroline was older, she stepped forward and said: "I'll go first."
"Alright, Ms. Baker. You're up." Maro extended his hand at the center of the training ground.
Apparently, since Marco used his power, it would be okay for Caroline to also use hers. So without any hesitation, she stimulated her Xuanli and let it flow through her meridians, which caused her body to start glowing in faint orange and red light.
"Alright, heads up and watch out." Marco said: "Pay attention to the pillars that light up, it's a warning of from which direction the attacks will come."
The pillar on Caroline's left side lit up in light blue light, the shadow of a giant blue rabbit leapt out of the pillar, with its front claws extended in her direction and with its mouth wide open, exposing all the sharp teeth inside.
Though surprised that a rabbit would be this vicious looking, Caroline did not sweat at all in dodging the attack. The blue rabbit landed on the ground beside her, and disappeared.
Three pillars behind Caroline lit up next, in red, yellow and green, and with the intervals of less than a second, a red ox bull with fire on its hide, a yellow bat with a long tail and a long pointy snout and a green badger with forked bristles on its back lunged from the pillars at Caroline.
Caroline stomped on the ground and moved to the side, then she duck and rolled on the ground just to avoid the swinging spiked tail from the green badger.
There was a brief pause between the second wave and the third wave, it was just enough for Caroline to regain her composure.
All six of the pillars lit up, in dark red, yellow, brown, orange and red, dark blue and pale white. And in this order, the shadows of an ape with four arms, a scorpion the size of a huge labrador retriever, a centipede whose length was around two normal person's height, a monkey with wings, a giant wolf and a three headed lizard launched their attacks at Caroline.
These animals were coming at Caroline at all six angles, so Caroline was not able to see and gauge the movements of all of them with her eyes, so all she could do was open up all her senses and extend her power of mind and will to the space around her and use this power to detect the movements of these shadow animals and beasts and their attacks.
"Bang!" Caroline stomped the ground again, with a force so hard that she made a hole on the ground. Her body flew into the air from the stomp, leaving all the shadow animals below her.
But just when she thought she could relax a little, the monkey with wings raised its head , seemingly let out a roar and flapped its wings to change the course of its flight. Caroline immediately conjured a fireball to her left side and let it explode beside her, and the shockwave from the attack instantly pushed her to the right. The monkey with wings just missed Caroline when she rode the shockwave through the air.
"Nice!" "Woohoo!" the audience cheered, as Caroline landed on the training ground. Even Marco was smiling and nodding at her.
"Ms. Baker, ten points to you. Welcome to the club."