The team stayed close together.
They all kept their senses sharp as they watched out for any attacks from Nex and his team. No one had their minds focused on the mission or the test anymore, but they all looked out for anyone who was going to try to maim or injure them, as none of them wished to lose.
"Sshh, stop. I hear something," Edith, the girl from before, announced, getting everyone on high alert.
"Hahaha," she laughed loudly, with her hand on her stomach. "You all should have seen your faces, you all looked hilarious. Hahaha," she kept laughing at her own joke. It took the rest of the team a while to realize that it was a trick and nothing more. She had only pulled a trick on them all to laugh herself out.
"That was not funny, Edith," Linthorn frowned at her.
"Do not do that again, else I will be the one to harm you myself," Lyra threatened.
"No need to be rude, Lyra," Edith frowned at her, "it was just a joke, you don't have to threaten me because of it."
"You think so, Edith? You almost gave us all a heart attack," she added with more anger in her voice than before.
"Speak for yourself, missy! I believe you almost had a heart attack because you are too scared to face Nex's team," she retorted.
"That's a total lie!"
"Enough! Both of you!" Linthorn called them to order. "Forget this and let's continue."
"Hmm, someone is coming," Florate announced abruptly.
"That better not be another joke, else I will cut your..." Lyra was not able to finish her statement before she saw Edith drop on the floor, knocked out by a girl from Nex's team who hit her. "Wtf!"
"They are here!" Linthorn said aloud, for those who didn't see Edith get knocked out.
"I trust that everyone here can defend himself or herself," he said finally before hitting a death blow first to the girl who hit Edith earlier, and the fight began between the two groups.
"Aaaah!" Rain breathed as she hit a boy's joints hard with blows in such a way that she was sure he wouldn't be able to rise for the next two months.
"The aim is to maim them, Lilith, not fight with them. We don't have much time."
"I know, Rain, but I do enjoy playing with my opponents first before finishing them off," she replied with a smirk. She was beating a girl into a pulp and seemed to be wasting time on one of them instead of maiming her and taking on another opponent.
Their team seemed to be winning, as they succeeded in bringing down at least thirteen of their opponents while just ten of theirs were struck down. The remaining twenty-six of them split into two teams, as instructed by Linthorn. He asked that the strongest ones stay back and fight, while the weaker ones leave to keep searching for the bridge, because it was obvious that not all teams were down. Some were still on the search for the bridge and if they were lucky enough, they would get there before them and then return to lead the others to it.
Lyra led the team that went in search of the bridge, while Florate, Rain, Lilith, and of course Linthorn stayed back to fight with the rest.
"Rain, watch out!" Florate called before pushing her down to avoid the hard kick a boy was going to send her way. He seemed very skillful with kicks because he barely used his hands.
"Thanks, Florate," Rain said plainly, "but I got this. You don't have to watch out for me. Just keep fighting and don't..." The words died in her throat when she felt something hard hit her head. She tried to turn back immediately to see what it was or maybe fight whoever it was, but her head could not take the hit, and she just fell to the floor, unconscious.
Florate, however, did not let her hit the floor; he caught her in his arms and saw she was no longer conscious. He was about to place her on the floor and deal with the boy who kicked her on the head, but Lilith stopped him.
"Take Rain out of here, join the search. I will take care of him," she said to him with full assurance.
Without words, Florate nodded to her and carried Rain out of the fight scene as they went on their way to join the search for the bridge.
Lilith looked at the boy before her. He was quite tall and his white hair reminded her of someone she hated so much, Nex.
"You... kicked the wrong girl." She clenched her fist and landed him a hard punch on his chin. She did not wait for him to recover but followed the punch with a brutal kick on his jaw that got him whining in pain.
Still not satisfied, she bent his head low and gave him a hard knee on the face before finally hitting him on the right spot that left him fainted on the floor.
She breathed hard after she was done with the boy, then looked around for the one person she had always wanted to beat, Nex.
Her eyes searched everywhere for him, then finally she found him. He had just beaten one of her teammates down and someone whispered into his ear and then he was just walking away.
What did that girl tell him, and where was he heading to? That was something Lilith planned on finding out herself, as she followed him to wherever it was that he was going.
"Lilith, the fight is not over yet," Linthorn, who caught her leaving, said to her. "We seem to be losing; so many members of our team are down already. Where are you going?"
Lilith gave it a quick thought. She could follow Nex right now, find out what he was up to and stop him, which was also part of helping her team. Or, she could just stay here and save as many as she could. "I will certainly do what is right," she said to herself.
"You can go for now, Nex, you got lucky." She rejoined the fight to strengthen Linthorn and the others before Nex's team could finish them off...