Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

The chief examiner had the hair on the back of his neck stand, as he had a bad premonition of what was going to happen for this trial. 

---

Back on the Arena, everyone had warmed up and prepared for combat the first 4 names had been called as they walked up the stage confidently ready to take on the trials. 

As they got ready, a horn sounded asking them to get ready for battle on the first stage, a young lady prepared herself as she got ready. She crept up near the castle and prepared to mount her offensive. 

Finding a spot with the least number of guards, she took out a dagger and moved silently, taking out 3 of them before being spotted by the ranged soldiers on the top of the walls. Arrows rained down as she was forced to retreat running back she tripped on an arrow that had been shot in front of her. Looking at her hp, she realised it had dropped down to 3 quarters. 

With the soldiers surrounding her, she panicked, and let out a shrill scream. The soldiers that caught up to her were immediately thrown back as they were rendered unconscious, the arrows that were raining down were dispelled by the shock wave from her voice. 

She finally took a breather as she slowly stood up, the ordeal taking half of her life, but unfortunately. That shrill scream had a downside, it had alerted the rest of the soldiers who had made their way to the area. Approaching her the soldiers fanned out while moving forward, the ranged soldiers keeping a safe distance while the melee soldiers approached with caution. 

She looked around and tried to find a common point to unleash her manifest but unfortunately wherever she could turn to, her manifest would only take out 2 to 3 soldiers at maximum, her only chance is to wait for them to approach closer so that the spaces between them would shrink and she could blast more of them away. 

The soldiers upon reaching closer to her stopped suddenly, every alternate soldier held their position as the other 2 moved forward some more maintaining the same distance.

She still hasn't gotten the chance to do anything. 

Gripping her blade tighter she had sweat dripping down from her brows, they were fast approaching her but the distance they kept was immaculate, there was absolutely no way she could hit more than 3 people with her manifest. 

As the soldiers approached closer, they stopped again as every alternate soldier once again stopped as the rest approached slowly. 

At the back, the archers nocked their arrows as they were ready to take their shot.

She was desperate right now, but her training wouldn't let her down, she calculated the risk of dying if she continued waiting vs the risk of charging forwards towards a single direction. 

With a deep breath she psyched herself up, before clenching her fist and charging straight into a single direction, as she ran, the soldiers who were equidistance started to converge to the centre to prepare for an assault. 

She smiled, looking at them converge as she let out a shrill cry, the shock wave rattled those in front of her as they flew backwards knocking themselves out. 

As she took her breath, getting ready for another scream, a rain of arrows rained down from the sky catching her off guard as her body was pierced by the multiple arrows bringing her Hp down to 0 and eliminating her entirely. 

She stood up in disbelief as she looked at the screen waiting for her score. 

6 points, she had only managed to kill 6 people, in her struggles she had knocked out more people but as for actual kills she only managed to kill 6 people. 

She clenched her fist as she left the stadium, in her opinion, it was a major disgrace for her. 

"What the heck! Wasn't the AI too advanced?"

Someone from the crowd shouted. 

"The moves were totally calculated. Who would count the number of seconds she could maintain her manifest before she needed to take a breath. That's insane!"

"I demand a retake! How could this be allowed! What the heck!"

The crowd was stirred by the vocal opinions of some making everyone angered and triggered. 

---

In the control room, there were smiles all around, the examiner was happy with the outcome, so was the chief examiner who stood behind him. 

"mmm, this is how the trial should be, the people eliminated should be quick and the trial should end faster. Otherwise, how would it weed out the weak."

The chief examiner smiled as he continued monitoring the screen. 

----

The first batch of students have ended their trials, with miserable results to boot. 

The formations that the AI had formed were manifest specific, which means it had already calculated what was the best course of action once you showed your manifest once. 

The next batch of people was called, as they slowly made their way up to the arena as they swallowed a huge gulp of their saliva. 

At their starting point, they waited for the starting cue. 

The minute it started, they each went ahead with their plan. They already knew from the first batch that their manifests shouldn't be used willy nilly, so they could only wait a bit to see how they could proceed. 

In the third area, a young man was hiding behind a rock while monitoring the situation. He already formulated a plan and he was hoping that it would be more efficient than the first batch. His goal, to kill more soldiers than the first batch, he just had to survive for the final exams. 

His plan was to wait till nightfall before he started to engage the soldiers. But at the 10-minute mark, he heard the S.A.D sound. 

"All participants, please engage the enemy within the next 5 minutes, otherwise your location will be disclosed."

Hearing this, the student panicked, what could he actually do in 5 minutes? With this he urgently found a group that was separated from the main body and launched an attack there, using his sword artefact to take them out, before waiting once again.