Mira's group started traveling through the forest and went towards the mountain. Mira just had Maria kill any beasts that they come across because there isn't much in the forest that can actually threaten them.
After reaching the mountain, they started to traverse up the mountain at great speeds to try and find a Peak-Stage Rank 3 magical beast to practice on. Celaine, Nisha, and Audra might find it more difficult to deal with a Peak-Stage Rank 3, but with Mira and Maria here there shouldn't be any problems.
After a few hours of traversing the mountain in search of a beast to fight, they finally spotted a Peak-Stage Rank 3 magical beast. The beast looks like a goat, but instead of horns, it had a rock-like head and hooves that seemed to be made out of the earth. It isn't that big, but there's still quite a bit of power packed into it. Mira knew this would be the perfect training dummy.
"Celaine will go in first and distract the goat. Maria needs to get in position to prevent the goat from killing Celaine, and when you see that it's locked onto her then you need to rush in there and attack the goat. While Maria rushes in there Audra will also do the same but from another angle. Remember, this is only a training exercise Maria so limit your power a bit so we can drag this fight out. You two will try to sync your attacks, but coming from different angles. Nisha will be circling the beast until you find an opening. Sneak in there and attack the goat in a blind spot then immediately back off to let Maria and Audra fight with it. Celaine will be continuously trying to attack the eyes and draw its attention away from everyone. Use any ranged attacks you have. I will offer support to all of you to help prevent you from getting hit. I want you all to limit your power in your attacks so we can drag this battle out. It's a pain to find another beast to practice on. I'll let you know when we can go in for a finishing move. Maria and I will be in charge of finishing moves, you 3 just need to be prepared to follow up in case we can't kill it. Understood?" Mira explained the plan to everyone and they all nodded in understanding. They all got into position and waited for Mira's order.
"Go!" Mira yelled.
Celaine mustered up her confidence and ran out to grab the attention of the goat. The goat saw Celaine and immediately rushed at her. Celaine started running away when she grabbed its attention. The goat quickly caught up to Celaine, but before it could grab its free food the goat had to swiftly dodge two attacks that came from the side. The goat was angry about being stopped after it almost killed its prey so he focused his anger on the two people on its sides. Maria and Audra both tried to sync their attacks, but they are a bit staggered mainly due to them not being used to this. But Maria is also faster than Audra by a significant margin. This allowed the goat to dodge both attacks and try to retaliate, but as soon as it tried to attack Audra, Nisha came in swiftly and sneakily and attacked its legs creating large cuts on its legs. Nisha then immediately backed out into the shadows and waited for another opportunity.
The goat cried in pain, but nobody let up on their attacks. Celaine came back in when the goat's focus changed to Audra and launched a couple of wind blades towards the goat's face. With Celaine's weaker cultivation and being against an element that countered hers, the goat was barely able to feel anything but it was still annoying. Like when a fly is buzzing around your face, but you can't kill it. That's what Celaine is to the goat, an annoying fly. But sometimes flies can be so annoying that they require your full attention to get rid of them. After a few dozen shots to the face, the goat couldn't take it and switched its focus back to Celaine and immediately charged at her completely ignoring everyone else. Mira decided this is her time to shine, so she shot a small ice needle at one of the goat's kneecaps. Mira's aim is close to perfect and is able to lodge the needle into the kneecap. This caused the goat to stumble a bit and allowed Maria and Audra to attack the goat together. Maria could've killed the goat relatively easily fight now, but Mira told her to limit her power so she swung her sword down and left large gashes on the body of the goat. Mira also used this time to start her Ice Prison technique as the ice in the goat's body started to consume its inside and replace it with ice.
The goat felt fear once it realized it is badly injured on the outside and felt it freezing from the inside. It decided to try to escape, but how could Nisha allow that to happen. When the goat tried to escape, Nisha used the blunt end of her daggers to knock the goat back towards Audra and Maria. The goat started to realize that it is not allowed to leave, so it decided to fight with nothing held back.
The fight went on for another 5 minutes before the goat was trapped in Mira's Ice Prison. Nisha, Audra, and Celaine were surprised that Mira had such a technique that could completely incapacitate her target from inside of its body. Though they weren't sure if she could pull off this technique while fighting since Mira never entered the fight except for using an Ice Needle and this Ice Prison. Mira tried to extend the amount of time it took to complete the Ice Prison on the goat so they could continue practicing but after around 5 minutes everybody started to understand their roles a bit more and things went a bit smoother. The only person stressing out is Celaine due to her being the weakest.
"Time for round 2." Mira said as she released the goat and the fighting continued.
After 30 minutes or so, lost too much blood and ran out of energy eventually dying. But everyone seemed to feel a bit more comfortable in their roles now. Audra began to understand how strong Maria and Mira are. Even with their attacks blunted, they could probably beat the goat in a minute or two of fighting. They might even be able to fight a Rank 4 beast by themselves if they used their full power. But this is a group hunt and the whole group is required to participate.
"I'd say that you all performed decently for your first time fighting together. The coordination and timing of attacks could be better. I also think that Maria and Audra should stagger their attacks just slightly in case the beast dodges. Nisha missed quite a few openings, but at least you attacked weak spots or the legs. This was a bad matchup for Celaine and she also lacks the strength to do any real damage to that beast. At least you were annoying though which is all you need to be. It was hard for me to do much without killing it too soon, but at least you got to see my Ice Prison technique along with how I will be supporting you all. I think this is more than enough to kill a Low-Stage Rank 4 beast. Let's take a quick break and return to our peak form then head out to kill the Rank 4 beast." Mira explained all of their faults but didn't scold them. Their performance was good enough and probably wouldn't get much better even if they spent the rest of the week practicing. Mira also just wanted to kill the Rank 4 beast and be done with this challenge.
They decided to take an hour-long break before trekking up the mountain for a Low-Stage Rank 4 beast. After their break, they started to head higher up the mountain. They trekked up the mountain for a full day before they made it out of the forest and saw a barren and rocky mountain. They were now halfway up the mountain. They continued to trek and hunt for another full day before they found a Low-Stage Rank 4 beast. It is now their third day in the challenge before they finally found their objective. The beast looks like a large 4-meter long Mountain Bear. It has rock-like fur and its chest is covered in earth. Its spine also has rock spikes protruding from it as well. The bear looked extremely menacing.
Mira's group is around 200 meters away and everyone but Mira gulped when they saw the bear.
"This beast might be a bit annoying for Celaine to rush in there by herself so Audra will accompany her. I want to launch attacks at it from a distance and immediately run in opposite directions when it starts chasing you. Then Maria will go in and attack it. Feel free to use your full power now as this thing probably takes pride in its defense. Your Triple Draws Sword Art will be extremely useful in this battle, but use it wisely and only on weak spots. Nisha and I will do the same thing, but Audra will play both as bait with Celaine and Vanguard with Maria this time. When you notice Celaine trying to take its attention away, then you should do the same thing and switch positions. Let Me and Maria deal the big damage to it. Understood?" Mira commanded like a true leader and everybody just nodded.
"Alright. GO!" Mira said as both
Both Celaine and Audra ran over to the bear and when they got within 100 meters they started launching lighting and wind at the bear.
*ROAR*
The bear roared as it started to run towards both of them leaving footprints in the rock as it ran. Audra and Celaine immediately split and ran in opposite directions. It took a split second for who the bear should chase after, and it chose Celaine because she is the weakest. But in that split second, Maria came in with her Triple Draws and slashed at the neck of the bear. The bear lifted its leg to block the sword with its claws, but the impact from that slash is immense for someone who is still in the Qi Condensation Realm and ended up cracking its claws and leaving a mark on its neck. Maria then jumped back to reset and out of the corner of her eye she saw Audra running towards the beast. Maria timed her attack to be before Audra's attack so she immediately rushed towards the bear's legs in hopes that Audra would attack the neck.
Audra seemed to catch onto this and jumped up to stab her spear into the neck of the beast. The bear attacked Maria first and was too late to stop Audra. Audra's attack made contact with the neck but wasn't able to penetrate it fully. She could only break apart the rock-like fur and leave a small cut on the neck, but she was satisfied with this. Audra backed off to reset and Maria did the same.
Audra then noticed Celaine coming back in and started tossing wind blades at the bear's face. Again, she couldn't even leave a mark on the beast but was just a really annoying fly. Audra joined and started shooting lightning bolts from her spear that the beast's face as well.
The bear is now extremely annoyed and roared in anger as it tried to push Maria aside to kill these two bugs. Nisha took this opportunity to come in and aim for the same spot that Audra hit on the neck of the beast. She sliced that spot with her dual daggers and dug a little deeper into the wound leaving an 'X' wound on the bear's neck. The bear immediately swung towards where it got hit, but Nisha had already run off.
'It seems breaking this beast's skin is rather difficult. Ice Prison might not be too useful in this situation, but I know exactly what technique is useful. Hehe.' Mira thought to herself.
Mira walked forward towards the bear and called out to the others fighting it.
"Celaine and Audra, keep attacking its face! Maria, I want you to get ready.! Have a full-power Triple Draws ready after I attack! Nisha, be on standby and follow up after Mira if the beast isn't quite dead!" Mira commanded as the 4 of them were surprised to see Mira come walking towards the beast, but this isn't the time to question her thought process, so they only nodded.
Mira started to gather a large amount of Qi into her right fist as she approached the bear. Once 80% of her Qi was in her right fist, Mira formed a small ball of Qi in between her knuckles that contained around 30% of the Qi in her right hand. Once the ball is connected to the rest of the Qi, Mira charges towards the bear fighting with Maria right now while its face is being bombarded by lighting and wind. Maria noticed Mira rushing in and started to prepare a full-power strike.
Mira jumped up on the beast and launched her right fist towards the 'X' shaped wound on its neck.
*POP**CRACK*
Everybody heard a small explosion happen as a shockwave spread throughout the bear's body and the fur, skin, and bones around its neck all shattered and formed cracks in them. Mira jumped off of the bear because she felt a ton of energy coming from Maria's sword.
Maria noticed Mira jump off the bear and immediately swung her sword towards the bear's neck and decapitated it. The energy from these two attacks caused the ground to shake as Mira's punch caused the ground below her to crack and Maria's sword made a small crevice in the ground below them.
Mira collected the head and corpse of the bear immediately and sat down. That attack had used a lot of her Qi. The same went for Maria as she immediately sat down to recover her energy a bit after noticing the bear was dead. The other 3 girls walked over to guard them.
"That was quick. I thought it'd take longer than that to defeat a Rank 4 beast. But our teamwork seemed better than normal and Mira and Maria are just too strong. It was fun though!" Audra said as she walked over towards Mira and Maria.
"I agree. I guess the practice we put into our teamwork as well as their power allowed us to take down that beast rather quickly. The power between Rank 3 and Rank 4 is much more vast than between Rank 2 and Rank 3 though. I didn't think that it would be so difficult to defeat it seeing that we could easily deal with a Peak-Stage Rank 3." Nisha commented as she walked over to the group. Celaine stayed silent, but one could see that a heavy burden seemed to lift off of her shoulders. She seemed more tired than Mira and Maria.
"I will be going to the starting area with the beast for the rest of the week. There is no more point in killing any more beasts if we have already passed. I'd rather spend my time cultivating. You are free to do whatever you want, just be sure to be back at the starting area by the end of the week so we can move onto the next test in the Exam." Mira said as she kept trying to recover her energy.
"I think I'll go back to the starting area with you to cultivate as well. There's no need to stay in this place any longer." Nisha said.
"Even though I'd like to stay and fight we already passed, so there is no reason to stay here anymore. I'll go back with you." Audra said.
"M-M-M-Me too. I-I'd like to go back." Celaine said as she was finally able to get out of here.
"I will keep our beast companions company! Hehe!" Maria exclaimed as she grabbed Vulcan and started rubbing his belly. Mira just sighed when she heard this, but honestly, a babysitter for Rhydian doesn't sound so bad.
After everyone recovered their energy, the five of them left towards the starting point where they will be graded.
