Dame could hear it; he could hear the other students shuffling in the Dark Space. Their footsteps were light, something they had adapted and learned when doing whatever it was they needed to do to survive.
However, with so many of them, Dame could tell they were on the move. They had been gone for quite a while, perhaps a day or so, so he was worried. They would be fully fed and had gathered the rest of their Qi, ready for a fight. Compared to the rest of them who were in pain, lacking energy from fighting, it was going to be extremely tough.
Dame and the others had shot through into the training area, the look on their faces said it all.
"Are they coming?" Tinson asked, hopping to his feet, and his two friends, Violet and Joe, stood up as well. They had been cultivating as much as they could, trying to regather their energy. For them, there was no energy for training; they could only fight using everything they could to preserve their life.
"They are. There are more of them than us, so we need to work together!" Dame shouted. "Do what you did before; if we have our backs up against a wall, they can only come at us from one angle. It will limit our movements, but if we stay close to each other, we can protect each other's sides."
Working together, it was what Dame was suggesting. To all of them, when they originally entered the underground area and started the assessment, they had thought about it; some of them had even made groups. As time went on, though, the idea of working together seemed impossible. They were at each other's throats and knew this assessment required them to be pitted against each other.
Even now, after they dealt with these attackers, what would become of them? But they couldn't think about later; they needed to do what they could to survive now.
All of those in the lit-up training area had run straight toward the back wall. Now they were just staring at the hallway, the gap, the entrance where they would come from. Firmly in their hands, they held onto their weapons.
"It's okay," Simyon said. "We're stronger than last time; we're better than we were before. We can do this!"
Right on cue, three of the headband students came leaping out from the exit, and the rest followed like a horde of beasts coming to attack them. Rather than running straight on, they had split up and were coming from the sides.
Seeing this, one of the students leapt and swung the sword from above, and the one that had decided to step forward was Ricktor. He timed his footing perfectly as he shifted forward and swiped upward with his wooden sword. In doing so, it smashed against the chin of his attacker, who flipped back and fell onto the floor. It was clear; the student, the attackers, they were hurt much more than the last time they had attacked.
However, they were outnumbered; the Red Headband students, in total, consisted of 13 altogether, and the attackers were seventeen strong and wild enemies. It didn't seem like a large gap, but one thing was clear: the others were stronger.
Tinson went for a swing, and his attack had missed; he then was punched by the side of his shoulder and he was thrown into the wall. As the attackers got in closer, Simyon ducked under a swing and punched the attacker deep in the stomach, sending them skidding across the floor.
"Thanks for the help," Tinson said.
"You can thank me once we get rid of all these guys!" Simyon shouted.
The person he attacked was quickly getting up, and another came from the side, swinging a sword, hitting him on the back of his head. The sword didn't do much to hurt him, though, and he managed to spin, hitting the attacker with the back of his fist.
But the first person he had attacked had leapt right on top of him and had hardened Qi into his fingernails. Glancing to his left and right, he could see that the others were having their own troubles that they were dealing with.
Safa was going head-to-head with one of the attackers; she was thrusting fast and able to keep an attacker off from her, but they were almost in a stalemate. The attackers weren't the same as they were before. Their movements were slightly faster, they were also more switched on. They wouldn't fall for the same trick once and weren't wildly rushing in after they had been hit.
Although they had improved, their attackers had done so as well. Before, it took three of them to take down one or two on their own; at least now they could hold off one each, which was an improvement for them.
Dame was also keeping a good eye on everyone, and he saw one of the attackers leap forward towards Liam before he reached them, though, Dame had grabbed the back of the attacker's shirt and threw him behind him back onto the ground.
'I can't help them out, not yet. The other students need to feel the desperate situation they are in, and then when we save them, they'll be even more in debt to us. As for the others, they've improved to the third stage, but that's not enough... they need to get out of this situation themselves and improve to the fourth stage just like their attackers!' Dame thought.
The struggle, it was real. Safa had her spear finally knocked to the side, and a swipe of a wooden sword had hit her shoulder. She screamed in great pain, but the next attack was coming to her head. She had no choice but to roll, and as she did, she swung her spear, hitting the student and pinning him against the wall. No help was coming; this was something they had to do themselves.
As for Simyon, he had been trying to get the student that was on top of him off for a while; he was pinned down, and the student was stronger than him. His nails had dug into the side of his arm, and with a headbutt, he smashed it against Simyon's head. However, the student felt a little light-headed after he lifted it back up.
"Yeah, I have a hard big head, you idiot!" Simyon shouted, nearly getting off, until he saw another wooden blade whack him right on his forehead, filled with Qi, causing the back of his head to smash on the ground.
The three he had helped before, they were all struggling against just one of the attackers, so now he was left to deal with two on his own.
'Crap, how do I get out of this situation!' Simyon thought.
There was one person who would always keep an eye on him and knew he needed help: Ricktor. He swung his sword, knocking his attacker away, off to the side, and quickly moved into position, that was until two people had turned to face him.
"One threw out their fist, and Ricktor had no choice but to jump back to avoid the hit."
"What do you guys think you're doing?" Ricktor asked.
"What do you mean, we're surviving in this place?" Lisa replied, one of the main disciples, and standing by her side was Sherry, the other main disciple.
Mada, who was also fighting against the attackers, suddenly saw two of the Red Headband students in the same area as him, surrounding him as well.
"They've betrayed us, turned against us!" Mada shouted.
