"Damn!" William blurted out, witnessing Lucien slay another peak Recruit realm spirit beast without breaking a sweat.
"Didn't you say that your spirit energy reserve was almost gone?" He added, "What's all this?"
"It was," Lucien replied, prying out the spirit energy core, "I am not using any energy until the finishing blow."
For the last 45 minutes, William had been slaying and defeating nearly two-thirds of the threats coming their way.
But the third of them were being dealt with by Lucien, who was not only a lot worse than William, but also was barely using any spirit energy.
"You would definitely place in the top three, dude," William said, letting out an impressed whistle.
"I am trying." The tiredness was catching up to him, his muscles felt sore.
"But one thing I gotta say, though," William also harvested the spirit beast core out of his own hunt, "You are a treasure trove for these.
"It's like calamity is attracted towards you. Now I know why you were so battered when I met you."
Lucien nodded, sitting on the ground to regain whatever energy he could. "As long as nothing happens now, we should be passing easily now."
William nodded and sat down.
Throughout the entire time they were together, not once had Lucien let his back exposed to William.
This made it a bit awkward for William, but he kept quiet, not wanting to invade his privacy this early.
Being a hardcore extrovert, William might act over the top, but he was good at reading the room.
"Of course, as long as nothing happens, that is," Lucien whispered, getting on his legs and hiding behind a tree.
"What shitty luck you have, Lucien." William didn't know what was going on, but he also hid behind the tree.
Lucien wasn't the type to joke around like this, and he must have a good enough reason to hide right now.
And sure enough, a few seconds later, William heard a couple of voices.
A group of candidates was approaching in their direction, but they were not particularly aware of someone being there.
They slowly became more visible, allowing them to finally see what they were dealing with.
Five people, two girls and three boys.
Lucien signaled William to stay quiet, since this was hard.
It would be easier if they had to kill them, but merely subduing them without rendering them dead or seriously injured was harder.
If they could, they wanted to avoid this confrontation.
They stayed still, their breaths paused, waiting for them to go on their way without noticing them.
But of course, it wasn't in Lucien's luck to finally catch a breath for once.
Lucien realized that they knew their positions.
The group wasn't coming in their general direction, but rather straight towards them.
They had to attack first, or they would lose.
William had also realized this, and both gave each other a meaningful look.
They would have to take two of the weaker ones down, so they can at least be somewhat equal in numbers.
Lucien wanted to plan a bit more before, but William didn't know enough about sign language like him.
They slowly climbed up the tree, and Lucien noticed that they didn't look up.
'They only know someone is here, but not exactly where.'
Lucien grabbed William's attention silently and signaled him to follow a few steps.
Run, knee one down each, and uppercut to the jaw.
It was a lot harder to signal William in person, but they did it in time.
The group was slowed down, already in their fighting stance.
The people they sensed could be anywhere, behind or above any tree within a 5-meter radius they sensed.
Chime!
They suddenly heard chiming noises from behind two of the trees.
"Careful!" The girl leading the entire group warned everyone, their eyes tracking the bell chiming.
But suddenly, they heard the two bell chimes from the canopy above as well.
"You said there were only two here?" One of the guys panicked, but the main girl was calm.
She was trying to figure out what was happening, since he had complete trust in her sensory skills.
"They must be trying to distract us using bells they already hav-." She quickly figured it out, but the next second, one of the guys came out.
His entire appearance was like a haggard beggar who'd been dragged through the mud.
Everyone's focus quickly shifted to him, who strangely threw his sword towards them.
They dodged that sword with ease, but that split-second distraction was more than what Lucien needed.
As they were dodging the sword, a red-haired guy jumped from above.
Their eyes widened, seeing the red-haired guy drop down at full speed, and before anyone could react, he had pinned the meek-looking looking scrawny guy.
Keurgh!
All the air left the guy's chest, and the last thing he felt before passing out was an uppercut straight to his chin.
"Subdue him!" The girl reacted as soon as she could, immediately attacking William with her spear.
The others follow, too, but William had immediately fled from the scene.
Their team coordination was a mess, and it was pretty clear that the group was formed by the fear of the main girl.
While they were trying to attack William, Lucien immediately teleported to his sword, appearing right behind them without anyone even noticing.
'Good night!' He mumbled under his breath, hitting the nape of the second weakest girl as hard as he could.
He had imbued his palms with his spirit energy, which was why the power was more than enough to knock her out in one go.
When the rest of the group, who were distracted by William, heard a thud behind them, a chill ran down their spine.
Another one fell down.
"Cover each other's back," She shouted, seeing another one of them fall down this quickly.
She didn't know how the blond guy even snuck up to them this fast, knocked a girl out, and backed up before they even reacted properly.
Was he that fast?
Or was he someone from the Elite realm?
It didn't even take a minute before two of the five were defeated.
The leader girl, Janet, gritted her teeth, her anger flaring to a boil.
She was in denial.
She had used her power and her father's guild's fame to form a group of a few people, whose parents worked under her.
It was all going good, as they had defeated a dozen candidates and spirit beasts, amassing hundreds of points.
But then, these guys arrived.
"William, take down those two. I'd take on this girl."
Janet gritted her teeth, boring holes into the blond-haired guy, 'These cocky motherfu-'