Wizard starting from shoeing donkeys

Chapter 1216: Chapter 411: Secret Contest

As the brief opening remarks ended, the Dragon Knight Reserve selection’s preliminary test officially began.

With a strong wave of witchcraft, a white light curtain suddenly appeared above the Dragon Knight Reserve camp, which resembled an Ancient Roman gladiator arena.

From above, it looked like a bowl with a lid.

Or like a sealed can.

”Now, let’s proceed with the order drawing!” announced one of the officials.

A servant holding a transparent glass box walked over to the candidates.

Everyone could see that inside the transparent glass box was a stack of folded papers emitting a slight wave of witchcraft, seemingly to prevent anyone from using spiritual power or some perception to discern the numbers written on the papers in advance.

The rules of the preliminary test are simple: draw lots to determine order and then battle.

The battle is limited to three minutes; once three minutes are up, the preliminary test ends, regardless of whether the enemy is defeated.

Next, five judges will score on the spot. After calculating and accumulating the total points, the scores will be ranked at the end of the preliminary test, and the top thirty will be selected.

Moreover, the opponents for the battle are chosen randomly.

However, this is done using a spinning wheel format.

Seven options are available: Hurricane Element, Thunderstorm Element, Firebird Flock, Sting Giant Wasp Swarm, Shadow Vulture, Frost Winged Wind Snake, and Bloodthirsty Dragon Hawk.

The first two are Legendary Level elemental creatures with considerable strength and high immunity to physical attacks.

The middle two creatures are group-oriented fierce species. If their numbers are large enough, they also possess formidable Legendary Level combat capabilities.

If candidates have group combat skills, dealing with them will be somewhat easier; otherwise, it will be quite troublesome. Even if they can win, they might run out of time or appear quite disheveled.

Although defeating the enemy is not mandatory within three minutes, being attacked or failing to defeat the enemy will result in significant point deductions.

The last three are all powerful flying fierce species, also of Legendary Level, each with distinct combat features.

Of course, all seven powerful creatures are fierce species capable of flight.

In other words, the battle tests the candidates’ ability to control flying mounts in aerial combat.

However, if candidates can immobilize their opponents or turn the battle into a ground fight, it is not against the rules.

But achieving this is clearly extremely challenging.

”Number thirteen.” As the servant holding the glass box approached Rein, Rein drew a paper, opened it, and said in a low voice.

”Damn! I’m actually number one!” Luther couldn’t help but exclaim!

Usually, the judges need a ’warm-up’ to score properly.

Generally speaking, it is difficult for the first and second candidates to receive high scores.

Or rather, the scores tend to be conservative, naturally resulting in lower points.

Typically, after the first ten candidates, the judges have a better sense of how to score appropriately.

As someone participating in the Dragon Knight Reserve selection for the second time, Luther was naturally not pleased!

”Number seventy-two!” Halowin’s number was clearly much later than Rein’s and Luther’s, which relieved him somewhat.

After all, with so many strong individuals present, having more time to observe is beneficial.

Luther drew the Sting Giant Wasp Swarm on the spinning wheel.

The Sting Giant Wasps were roughly the size of a five or six-year-old child, and their tails featured a sharp, black-purple glowing toxic sting.

Their notable traits are extreme speed and an airflow disturbance shield around them, making their defensive power against physical and witchcraft attacks quite good.

Their signature tail sting, when fired, acts like a spike, with highly potent penetrative power.

If a single Sting Giant Wasp’s strength were considered, it would be insignificant—a Liquidized Wizard could easily eliminate it.

But Luther was up against a full hundred Sting Giant Wasps.

”Buzz!”

The Sting Giant Wasps, many times larger than a hornet, swarmed like a black cloud towards Luther and his Chimera beneath him.

Luther squeezed his legs, controlling the Chimera to take the initiative and attack.

Although Chimera Knight Luther clearly had the upper hand, as time went by, Luther swiftly eliminated the Sting Giant Wasps, and their corpses fell like raindrops.

But as Luther cleared the scene, the time limit of three minutes was reached.

This left Luther looking displeased.

Having participated for the second time, he knew that his battle duration was a significant point deduction factor.

Also, being the first battle, the judges’ scoring would typically be conservative.

”Six points!”

”Seven points!”

.....

”Total score thirty-two points.” the servant shouted.

Indeed!

This score was borderline.

Whether he could advance to the re-examination was uncertain.

When Luther returned to the crowd, Rein and Halowin both offered a few words of comfort.

Next up were the other candidates.

After watching a few contestants, Rein noticed,

even though the preliminary test had a three-minute battle time limit, in reality, few candidates fought for the full three minutes.

Those with strength often resolved the battle within a minute, and such candidates were likely to score high, essentially forming the first tier.

Those slightly less skilled typically resolved battles in around two minutes. The scores for this group varied significantly, but they formed the second tier, which had the most participants.

The third tier consisted of those whose battle duration hit the three-minute limit without settling their opponent, relatively fewer in number.