The Strongest Team

Asher's team wasn't the only one to notice the special quality of the monsters. Zero's arrangement was for every team to face at least one first-stage Guardian beast once they were allowed to move.

While the students were mostly made up of fourteen and fifteen-year-olds, they were all first-stage Guardian mages and although this was their first time facing a monster, no extreme casualty was suffered by the teams. In the end, they were all elites raised by the best academy in the kingdom. They might have been surprised at first and found it difficult to beat the monsters but after regrouping and regaining their senses, each team was able to defeat the monsters with no or little injuries.

Defeating the monsters led to them experiencing the same situation James and Noah had, and this created a change in the mentalities of the students. They no longer feared monsters but began to actively approach them while at the same time keeping a lookout for other teams.

"Tomune, have you found any?" The leader of the team, a youthful boy with an arrogant expression asked.

"Not yet, leader, but I have found what seems to be traces of one. It's not as big as the last one though so it could mean that it's not as strong." The team's tracker, Tomune, replied.

"This is the Manchurian forest; the weakest creature here should be at least a first-stage Guardian. Having a smaller frame doesn't mean it's weaker." The leader said.

"Ah, yes you're right, leader." Tomune nodded.

After a few minutes of following the trail, one of the group members spoke up.

"I feel like something is off about this."

The remaining members of the group immediately grimaced.

The first time this companion of theirs had made a complaint, they were ambushed by a monster. The second time he did the same, they crossed paths with another team and almost lost the battle if not for a monster interfering following which they fled. Now that he had made a similar statement, they couldn't help but tighten up and become worried.

"Can you like ever say something good for once?" The group leader frowned.

"What do we do now, leader?" One of the teammates asked.

"Tch. Let's retreat then." The leader spoke up.

"To where exactly?" A feminine voice interrupted.

"Who is it?"

Every member of the team went on alert and turned toward the source of the sound.

A young girl with blonde and purple hair with a French braid by the right side of her head walked out from a part of the forest. She moved with a dignified aura and a cold look on her face, almost like a goddess overseeing the world. The spotless purple-gold battle gown she wore further added to her beauty despite her young age. Even though she was outnumbered one to eighteen, she remained calm and unfettered.

"Princess Aurora." The leader muttered with a terrible look on his face.

"Oh my, you recognize me?" The princess smiled politely.

"Why wouldn't I recognize your most lovely self?" The leader responded with a bow.

'Shit. We're definitely fucked. This is even worse than the previous two times. We actually stumbled across her.'

While his outer countenance looked calm, in truth he was sweating profusely and extremely worried.

Before the students left on the zeppelin and during their time on it, each team had gathered as much information as possible about the others. It was then that they discovered the most dreaded team in the division, the twin princesses' group which was composed of eight top 50s; two of whom were the top two in the academy while the remaining six were four top 20s and two top 30s. Such a line-up could easily bury other teams in a fight and as a result, was number one on the list of groups to be avoided.

Unless it was the young lord's group -which was another dreaded team- if anyone else crossed paths with the princesses' team, escape was barely an option and surrendering was the best course of action.

At the same time he addressed the princess, the leader was looking for a solution.

The rules of the tests were quite lax and apart from death, nothing else was banned including injuries. If a fight were to break out, their loss was quite certain and it would surely not end nicely for them. If they surrendered, they could leave uninjured and still be able to participate in the test and rob others of their tokens.

"What? Are you considering attacking since it's only me?" Princess Aurora smiled.

"Or maybe you want to make a run for it?"

The leader began to sweat as he realized that all his thoughts had been laid bare by her.

"No, no. How can I? Please princess, here is our token. Just let us go." The group's leader said.

"Lead-"

"Shut it." The young leader glared at his teammate.

"Hand over all your tokens to her, and be quick."

Begrudgingly, the teammates did as they were told and handed over their tags to the princess who smiled as she watched this play out.

"Can we go now?" The leader asked.

The princess smiled and nodded following which he thanked her profusely before leaving right away.

A short while later, a figure appeared atop a branch close by.

"What a smart guy." The figure said.

"But that's bad for us. I didn't get to play with them." Another voice spoke up.

Within a second, six figures appeared at the spot and one other walked from behind princess Aurora. In total, seven new arrivals appeared at the scene. They were the other members of Aurora's team.

"It might be bad for you guys but at least we got what we wanted without a stretch." The only female in the group apart from the twin princesses said.

"But where's the fun in that?" The second individual to speak, questioned with a downcast expression.

"Forget about them. Let's find the next target." Aurora cut the conversation short.

"Sister, have any leads?" Aurora glanced at the girl who stood slightly behind her; her twin sister.

Unlike her twin sister, Lyn had an affinity towards wind magic hence the reason why her hair was a light azure green. Compared to lightning magic, wind magic lacked attack potency and was even a bit slower than lightning. However, it had its advantage in the fact that it could be used for tracking and reconnaissance. Also, Lyn's constitution boosted her abilities to a significant level, bringing her infinitesimally close to her sister's strength. It was for this reason that she was the undisputed second place in the entire division even though one of her dual elements was a common element.

"Hmm. 30 degrees East," Lyn replied. "It's a beast. A third-stage monster."

"Good. I've been meaning to test out a new spell." Aurora smirked.

"Let's go."