Wave Five

The platform began rumbling beneath their feet again.

Elias and Orion exchanged a glance, this wasn't over just yet.

The air shimmered as the arena shifted once more. The remnants of the last wave faded into nothing, and in their place, dozens of targets began popping up all over the tower.

For the first time, there was an announcement at the start of the round.

"The final wave will be a rapid fire challenge. Good luck."

A sixty second timer appeared again.

Orion couldn't help the grin sneaking onto his face. Spells by volume was his specialty.

Elias immediately did two things: he expanded his slowing field to the maximum radius he could sustain, while simultaneously amplifying the intensity of the effect. All of his focus and energy poured into making the targets as easy as possible to hit, but he'd have to rely on Orion to actually land the shots.

Even beyond the magic, it felt like everything was moving in slow motion.

The timer ticked down to fifty-nine, signaling the start of the round.

Bolts of the five basic elements burst from Orion in rapid succession, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Wood. Each spell was precisely formed and immediately loosed, one after another.

Targets shattered, exploded, and cracked apart left and right.

Elias's body began to tremble under the strain of the field. He poured more and more magic into it, knowing they only had a minute left. Every last drop of power he had went into holding the zone.

The slowed area became impossibly thick and heavy, leaving the targets nearly stationary for Orion.

Orion didn't flinch. He adjusted his aim constantly, reading the movement of the slowed targets, sending elemental bolts in arcs, in bursts, in clusters, hitting multiple targets in rapid succession. Sometimes he even used one spell to redirect another, striking targets hidden behind cover.

He was completely in the zone. It felt like he couldn't miss, destroying some of the targets the moment they formed.

Halfway through the wave, even more targets began appearing on the outer edges of the arena, causing Elias to grit his teeth.

His vision was starting to blur, but he forced himself to widen the slowing field again, just enough, to catch the edge of the new targets, grinding them to a halt.

"Hold on, Elias!" Orion roared, firing spell after spell. He took full advantage of the quick casting time and low mana cost of the most basic spells, unleashing a continuous stream of magic.

The seconds continued their constant ticking.

Orion's spells blurred into streaks of color as he fired with unrelenting speed, his every movement fluid and efficient. But he was starting to feel it, his arms were actually starting to get hot from the amount of spells he was casting. 

Even though they were basic spells, he was multicasting up to seven spells at once. Which was already more than what most of the other students were capable of, but he was also casting them repetitively. Amplifying the difficulty even more.

They had realized mid way through the wave, that the other four waves were all a tutorial for this. The way they introduced things from one wave to another, building up to this.

This was the true Target Challenge.

A final barrage of targets erupted upward in a ring around the tower, reaching the final seconds of the challenge.

These targets zipped around until their own speed betrayed them, as they got struck in Elias's slowing field. Others seemed to have a mind of their own, dashing or diving behind cover. A few even had shimmering defensive attachments, requiring multiple hits to bring them down.

Elias was reaching his limit, falling to one knee as he held on.

"Don't give up on me now!" Orion shouted, he was reaching his own limits as well, but they both knew that they couldn't give up just yet.

Orion hadn't been paying attention to the remaining time, but when the timer began to beep, it snapped him back. A quick glance... five seconds left.

"We're almost there!" He shouted to himself as much as Elias.

Orion was determined to destroy every single target he could, his spells danced around him to the music that only he could hear. With him in the center, the conductor of his orchestra of spells.

Fire melted barriers. Wind curved shots around obstructions. Water sliced through enchanted shells. Earth destroyed those weekend targets. Wooden roots redirected and ricocheted to hit multiple targets. One after another, targets fell.

As the final second passed, Orion threw one last spell, then collapsed to the ground, unable to stop his momentum.

Elias joined him, the two of them leaning against each other.

"I don't know about you… but I'm pretty tired," Orion murmured between labored breaths.

Elias gave a soft chuckle and a weak nod, both of them still trying to catch their breath.

They weren't sure if they'd won or not.

But they knew they'd given it everything they had.