As much as it pained both Adam and myself it was undeniable that we needed to do the sixes as even Joey and Travis received armor from the royal family. This also meant that we wouldn't be in a fight for the next two weeks. That time was spent with the six of us working closely on what we were going to do now with all of our new abilities.
The previous years I was told the sixes were first and the solos were last, ending in the culmination of the solo championship on the last day for all ten grades. This year it would be the championship for the sixes on the last day for all ten grades. The fact that we couldn't participate in the other events caused all six of us not to even go and watch. It was our own protest to the new ruling.
The campus was now a completely different atmosphere now that all eight academies had their students on our campus. There were buildings in the back of the academy that I never went to that were built specifically for this time of the year to give extra housing for all the students. This also meant that Adam's neighbors were now on our campus full time but so far no one had messed with him.
Our first fight was announced the day before the sixes even started. The overall listing of the personnel and their beast was the only scouting report we had to go off of. The first team we were facing was from Frumshire Academy. They were dressed in matching academy armor of blue and red with the school's emblem on their chests. That is when I realized we didn't have anything showing Ghostrun Academy. I also found it comical that they color coded their team. The offensive beast masters were wearing red while the defensive were wearing blue and the mixed beast master was wearing a mix of blue and red. Then I realized we were kind of obvious as well given the energy colors flowing through our own armor.
The tank for Frumshire was an armadillo beast master. The beast rolled up into a ball and as the battle started had shot forward at us to start the match. Adam didn't blink, we decided to use it as a secondary move instead of the opener. The armadillo was rolling at an intense speed at us and Tim, our turtle, set up his extended shell. The armadillo right before getting to the shell bounced up over and came crashing down into the center of our group.
Joey and I had to jump out of the way at the last second realizing we were about to be smashed by the beast. That is when Wispy attacked someone for the first time which left all of us stunned for a moment. The armadillo that landed had its momentum take it out of our group but as it passed me Wispy unloaded a stream of attacks faster than I could have imagined.
The best I can recall was an icespike followed by an arcane missile followed by a fireball then a lightning bolt then a boulder knocking it even further away. The armadillo was knocked out of its enclosed position and was sprawled across the ground as the lightning bolt had stunned him and caused his body to go limp releasing his circle. The exposed body was hit by an arcane missile that made contact with the chest turning the armadillo into a golden light and suddenly the beast master on the other team was kicked out of the arena.
That all happened during my dive away from the initial attack. The attacks were so sudden and quick from Wispy that all of us were shocked, making audible responses. "Who would have thought!" Adam announced seeing the sudden bombardment from Wispy.
The armadillo was a distraction anyways as the rest of the Frumshire team charged to attack with their melee abilities. We were so used to having to fight mixed groups that we had never only fought melee beast masters before. It was six on five now with all beasts summoned as well as everyone clashed together in a melee scrum.
Frumshire's team had a beast master of a fox, an alligator, a cobra, a monkey and a tree that seemed to be their healer. I never really thought about how lucky we were to have a healer like Maddy, her life faery was considered the beast healing beast that had been discovered. The tree seemed to heal but not as effectively as Maddy's heals. I noticed that the tree had to stop and concentrate on healing while Maddy could send a heal while attacking or blocking.
The monkey was the biggest problem as it was quick and effective knocking us off balance at the last moment. It was something that this particular beast master had been working on with his monkey that was knocking others off balance. The strategy was quite effective as he went around saving his teammates from being dealt killing blows. Adam's blinks were effective but not as effective as before. They somehow knew of Adam's blink attacks so the second he blinked they all started hooting which everyone would then turn a 180 real quick to defend themselves.
I started helping out with chain lightning arrows as it would stun the beasts and masters alike if I made contact and then there was another within 10 yards of who I connected with the chain lightning attack would extend out to that being. The stun gave us the upper edge in the end as Joey's sais were able to get a killing blow on the tree knocking out their healer.
Adam and Dante were now focusing on tag teaming one at a time since they weren't able to blink effectively but it also meant that the alligator and its beast master were in their toughest fight they had ever experienced. Adam and Dante could blink back and forth between the two attacking from different angles; it just took longer than before as the beast masters had armor on their backs. We had fought so often with no armor we weren't used to trying to find the weak points versus the angles of attack.
Wispy and I were supporting shots where we could. With it being six on four I had been left alone especially after they saw what Wispy did to the armadillo. Wispy had turned into a defensive beast sending barriers and heals to Travis and Joey who were engaged with the fox and cobra. The monkey was still going everywhere but the beast master wasn't as agile so Maddy asked me to focus on him.
Adam shot out an arcane orb from both himself and Dante creating a massive explosion of arcane energy that ejected the alligator and its beast master. The move had used up the last of Adam's mana as he was exhausted from his battle, he had used a lot of mana blinking back and forth then doing a simultaneous attack with Dante drained the last of his mana. He was on one knee leaning against his massive longsword struggling to breathe.
The fox recognizing the situation quickly attacked Adam's back and Adam was ejected out of the arena, shocking all of us. Adam had never been defeated in a battle thus far and the fact that he was just "killed" threw all of us off our game for a moment. Travis was so shocked that he didn't see the incoming attack from the cobra and he too was suddenly kicked out of the arena.
Abby, who had been chasing the monkey as best she could, stopped and shouted at all of us in our minds. "Get it together! Focus! Attack one at a time! Everyone attack the fox!" I fired a chain lightning arrow at the fox's beast master when the fox was close to him hoping to get a two for one. Both were stunned and Joey's sais made contact with the fox's head creating the golden light and the beast master was ejected out of the arena.
The monkey and cobra beast masters were both skilled warriors with shields and swords making them quite difficult to deal with. Their beasts were agile naturally and gave them much better agility than most who would use shields and swords. Then I realized the two had to be twins or at least brothers as they had similar facial features and hair. They also had quite similar fighting techniques and they did a good job defending each other.
My arrows would bounce off their shields which was frustrating. I then changed it up to firing firewall arrows at their feet to make them have to jump out of the way and also it started to create gaps in their defenses as they were separated. Joey's sais were flying back and forth as he had become proficient at throwing and returning them in different ways to attack, one of which on the return got lodged in between the arm and shield of the monkey beast master. This actually pulled the beast master towards Joey leaving his back exposed to me and I was able to fire an arcane missile into the back of the head of the beast master knocking him out of the arena.
The last beast master, seeing he was four on one, yelled "I yield" while lowering his shield and sword and taking a knee. He was ejected out of the arena and suddenly an announcer loudly proclaimed our victory. "Victory Arcanum from Ghostrun Academy!" The cheering was deafening and for the first time I realized how many people were actually watching us fight.