“I… I don’t know…”
Ashen smiled and shifted his attention to the trial.
The stalemate between the three tribes was broken. The group wearing red attire attacked first.
One of them noticed a chance to strike a boy from the orange attire tribe. The attack was from a spear that struck the boy’s heart, killing him instantly.
Not wanting to lose the momentum, the Red tribe pushed forward from the gap that was created. The children rushed in like madmen and chopped off the unprepared and surprised orange tribe.
In an instant, five more boys were killed, leaving only three children.
Meanwhile, a red hue rose from the corpses of the dead children and went into the altar stones surrounding the ring.
This red hue was the blood essence of the children that was constantly been extracted from the dead children inside the ring.
The three children who were left knew that they would be crushed by the red tribe if they didn’t use some tactics.
Hence, they ran towards the Yellow tribe which was led by Yan Li.
“Help us, Let’s fight them together!” The three children offered Yan Li and his group.
Yan Li nodded and accepted: “Alright, Let’s go and kill them with our number advantage.”
It wasn’t a new situation. This situation has repeated itself many times in the previous trials and hence the children didn’t have to think about what to do next to increase their winning chances.
The three children wanted to even the battlefield by letting more children of the other two tribes die, so atleast they would have a fighting chance.
Yan Li, on the other hand, was simply taking advantage of them to increase his forces and push with the larger number of attackers on the Red tribe.
The red tribe’s children were the strongest out of the three tribes, so if Yan Li decided to take them head-on, he would certainly lose his life.
The leader of the red tribe, a boy with red short hair and muscular physique was the predicted winner of this trial according to them since he was the child of the strongest member from the red tribe.
His name was Li Qi and he was trained from a very young age by his father. It would be odd if Li Qi didn’t win this trial.
Even though Yan Li had also trained hard like the other children participating in the trial, he could never compare to the guided training from a strong warrior like Li Qi’s father.
It was only due to Li Qi’s leadership and prowess, that they were able to easily overwhelm the Yellow tribe. If Yan Li wasn’t careful, his tribe could end up the same way and he could lose his life here.
“Everyone, We need to kill Li Qi, If we want to even dream of winning this trial, let’s give it our all!” Yan Li encouraged his group and led them to attack the red tribe.
They had a simple strategy, each member would engage one member from the Red tribe and four remaining children would gang up on Li Qi to kill him as soon as possible.
Yan Li decided to be in the group that would attack Li Qi along with the three children who had come into his group.
Li Qi was the most dangerous and Yan Li didn’t want his tribe’s children losing their lives to Li Qi in vain. It would be much better to sacrifice these three children from the Orange tribe.
Yan Li was the second strongest competitor after Li Qi, so he could hold his own against Li Qi, and with the help of the other three children he could even kill him.
According to their plan, Yan Li and the other three children surrounded Li Qi, while the others engaged each other.
Li Qi wielded a Polearm as his weapon, It was mainly a pole that had a huge sword attached on top. It was the best weapon for considering his massive physique and strength.
“Li Qi, let’s see how you will defend against four of us attacking you at the same time,” Yan Li said while pointing his long sword at him.
Li Qi, not fazed in the slightest, replied with a smirk: “You are a fool if you think you can even touch me with only four of you! I have gone through hellish training for this trial since I began to walk. Do you really think I can’t kill four children who are still wet behind their ears?”
Pointing his polearm at Yan Li, he continued: “You might not know but I have prepared myself to face even my own group if they decide to betray me and kill me to win themselves. Even if everyone in this ring attacks me at the same time, you won’t be able to defeat me. It is not me who is surrounded by four of you, it is you four who have knocked on the door of the underworld!”
As soon as he finished he lunged at the boy standing behind him. It was a cause of surprise for them since Li Qi was facing Yan Li and they did not expect him to attack the person behind him.
He swung his polearm with full force as if trying to cut the boy in two. In response, the boy decided to block his attack with his sword.
Clung!
Crack!
Break!
Spurt!
Upon the collision of the polearm and the sword, the polearm pushed through with sheer force, cracking and breaking the sword into two.
Seeing the sword break, the boy was struck by fear, unable to move, resulting in getting cut in two.
It only took Li Qi one attack to strike fear into his opponents. It was clear that no one in this ring was his opponent.
Yan Li, however, managed to stabilize himself as he shouted: “Don’t let him attack again. Attack together and take him down!”
He thought that they could overwhelm him if they attacked together, however, as soon as he made a step, Li Qi lunged at the boy on the left who hadn’t moved till now.
Clung!
Crack!
Break!
Spurt!
In a similar fashion, this boy was also cut in two. The sheer speed at which Li Qi took down two opponents was unmatched.
Even if Yan Li wanted to call the others to help, he couldn’t. Others were all busy fighting their own opponents. No one had finished their fight. Li Qi had finished the two boys too early for Yan Li’s plan to work.
Yan Li’s expression was grim as he knew that Li Qi was a greater monster than he had expected.
Seeing this scene, Ashen sighed: ”
Sigh… Looks like Yan Li will die in this trial. Well, it was his choice to participate in the trial to begin with. I should respect his choice and not interfere!”
While he was thinking this, he suddenly felt a pull on his clothes from below.
He looked down, only to find Yan Xiu and Yan Pingtu with tears in their eyes.
Yan Xiu asked with a quivering and scared voice: “Big Brother Ashen, will Brother Li die?”
Though Ashen wanted to say yes to these innocent children, however, he couldn’t.
Yan Li was already going to die in the next few moments so why lie?
Also, it would be easier for them to prepare themselves if they knew.
Hence, Ashen nodded: “Yes, He will die!”
Hearing this, Yan Pingtu couldn’t hold back his tears as he shook Ashen’s clothes and asked: “Big Brawder Ashen *sob**sob* ywou are strawng right? Please save brawder Li!”
Yan Xiu also remembered how all the tribe-heads were begging Ashen before. She knew that Ashen could save Yan Li if he wanted to.
She fell to her knees and joined her hands as she pleaded with tears streaming down her eyes: “Big Brother Ashen, Please save Brother Li. I know you can do it, please!”
Clung!
Clunk!
Clunk!
Right now, Yan Li was facing a ceaseless barrage of attacks from Li Qi. Even his sword was beginning to show cracks in it. It was clear that his life would end after some more attacks.
Ashen looked at the scene and shifted his gaze to the two children pleading to him.
What should I do?
He thought with a conflicted expression.
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(A/N – Thanks for reading. ^..^)
