The opponent obviously wouldn’t let such an obvious weakness slip by. In the following attacks launched by Zhang Wen against the trio, nearly seventy percent of his strikes were aimed directly at Amelith. Zack and Cloud did their best to support Amelith, but they were barely able to protect themselves, and powerless to stop Zhang Wen from carving wound after wound into her body.
As a girl of noble imperial bloodline, although Amelith could hardly be called a refined and delicate aristocratic lady, she had certainly never even dreamed she would one day endure such hardship!
Indeed, the pain from her injuries surpassed anything Amelith had ever imagined. Yet, she endured it all with a willpower that Zack and Cloud could barely believe possible. After more than an hour of relentless attacks from Zhang Wen, Amelith had already sustained over a dozen大大小小 wounds across her body. Yet she gritted her teeth and endured every blow in silence, never uttering a single cry of pain.
Moreover, even when the pain left her barely able to stand, she still diligently fulfilled her duty of covering her comrades whenever Zhang Wen attacked Zack or Cloud.
“Wow! Amelith, I’ve really got to hand it to you!” After Amelith once again shielded Zack from one of Zhang Wen’s strikes, he couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment.
Having witnessed countless grueling military drills during his time in the Shinra army, Zack knew precisely how much willpower it took to endure at Amelith’s level.
“Hey! Don’t lose focus, you idiot!” The moment Zack spoke, Zhang Wen’s sword took advantage of a blind spot in his vision, slicing a nearly inch-long wound across Zack’s handsome face.
“Wah!” Startled into a cold sweat, Zack shouted in alarm and hastily refocused all his attention on the battle before him.
Despite the three cadets’ desperate defense, Zhang Wen was still unable to land any decisive blow on any of them.
Of course, Zhang Wen continued to inflict fresh wounds on the cadets, especially Amelith. However, since injuries sustained in the simulator didn’t actually bleed or drain stamina, these minor wounds that didn’t impair mobility or functionality didn’t affect Zack and the others’ combat effectiveness.
“Pause for fifteen minutes.” Seemingly sensing that his attacks weren’t achieving the desired effect, Zhang Wen suddenly furrowed his brow and stopped his assault.
By this point, four full hours had passed since Zhang Wen began his “hellish training” with Zack and the others.
“Darn it! That cold-blooded instructor finally stopped! This is insane! We know all the techniques he used, so why can’t the three of us beat him?” As soon as Zhang Wen moved away, Zack dropped to the ground, panting heavily and grumbling loudly.
“Save your breath! He can take on twenty Temmis cadets alone without even using his battle energy. Do you really think the three of us together are stronger than twenty Temmis cadets?” Amelith coldly replied, slumping down beside the wall, exhausted.
“So you’re saying that cold-blooded instructor was holding back?” Zack retorted, feeling indignant.
“Not necessarily. After fighting for so long, I’ve more or less figured it out. His specialty seems to be disrupting his opponent’s balance and then using their own force against them. Since none of us have battle energy, the force he can draw from us is limited.”
“In other words, the stronger the opponent, the stronger he becomes. Anyway, whether or not Teacher Zhang held back, if we keep going like this, we’ll eventually get a chance to counterattack.” Cloud concluded with a smile, and the three cadets fell silent together.
Although the simulator didn’t drain physical stamina from either side, the prolonged battle still consumed mental energy just like a real fight. The burning pain from countless wounds only made things worse for Zack and the others.
The fifteen-minute break provided by Zhang Wen felt like a divine blessing for Zack and his companions.
However, happy moments are always fleeting. No sooner had Zack just caught his breath than Zhang Wen mercilessly announced the resumption of battle unilaterally.
Seeing Zhang Wen’s ghost-like figure rushing toward them, Zack and the others hastily got up and reformed their battle formation.
Clang! Zhang Wen’s sword clashed heavily with the crystal-energy blades of the three cadets.
“Huh? Why does it feel like the cold-blooded instructor’s strength has increased again?” Zack immediately shouted in surprise.
“Hmph! Idiot! You’ve never tried fighting purely with physical strength, have you?” Zhang Wen responded to Zack’s confusion with merciless mockery. “When you tense your body’s strength, it gradually builds up to a peak. If you suddenly relax, that strength dissipates. If you want to build it back up to that peak again, it’s not something you can just do at will. So the strength you can exert now is at most seventy percent of what you had before resting.”
“What? You cold-blooded instructor, that’s too underhanded! When you can’t break through our defense, you resort to these underhanded tricks!” Zack couldn’t help but angrily roar, his temper flaring.
“Hmph! Tactics are part of strength too! When you’re fighting enemies, can you really go around telling them in advance not to use tactics?” Zhang Wen dismissed Zack’s anger with disdain.
“Un…unforgivable!” Zack was so furious he was practically seeing red, yet utterly powerless against Zhang Wen. He could only pour all his strength into carefully dealing with Zhang Wen’s attacks alongside his two companions.
And when he truly couldn’t withstand Zhang Wen’s “relatively surging” strength, Zack cunningly learned from Zhang Wen’s usual techniques, desperately seeking weaknesses in Zhang Wen’s attacks and attempting to counter them by disrupting his balance.
With the three cadets struggling desperately, they finally managed to survive the initial dangerous period. However, no sooner had they just readjusted and adapted to Zhang Wen’s strength than Zhang Wen once again voluntarily stopped, announcing another fifteen-minute break.
“Underhanded! So underhanded! You cold-blooded instructor!” Zack angrily stomped his foot.
Yet from start to finish, the trio of cadets had always been suppressed by Zhang Wen, completely lacking the strength to launch any offensive initiative. Thus, despite Zack’s furious outbursts, he had no choice but to swallow his anger.
Then this cycle continued repeatedly. Every time after about three or four hours of battle, just as Zack and the others had finally adjusted and adapted to Zhang Wen’s strength, Zhang Wen would immediately call for a ceasefire. Then, Zack and the others would once again fall into a desperate struggle.
The three cadets kept accumulating more wounds under Zhang Wen’s attacks. But they all tried their best to endure, only choosing to regenerate when the pain became so severe it would significantly impact their combat effectiveness.
However, as the saying goes, tremendous pressure is also a driving force for growth. Facing a “hell” worse than death, Zhang Wen’s three cadets rapidly grew stronger.
In just a single day, Zack and the others had already developed such smooth coordination that it seemed as if they’d practiced together for months. They could not only stably defend against Zhang Wen’s attacks, but even occasionally manage one or two effective counterattacks.
Of course, among the three cadets, the one who changed the most was undoubtedly Amelith. In this twenty-four-hour continuous fierce battle, Amelith underwent a complete transformation. At least in terms of proficiency with the Spring Water Sword Technique, after a full day of intense combat, she had already reached a level where she could keep up with her two companions without dragging them down.
In fact, whether it was Zack, Cloud, or Amelith, Zhang Wen had held absolutely nothing back when teaching them the Spring Water Sword Technique. After practicing sword techniques for more than two months, the applications of the Spring Water Sword Technique were already deeply ingrained in their muscle memory. In terms of pure technique, Zhang Wen had nothing more to teach them.
However, for Zack and the others, who had never experienced real combat before, they hadn’t even realized until now that after learning the Spring Water Sword Technique from Zhang Wen, they had already unlocked tremendous potential!
They hadn’t even considered that the Spring Water Sword Technique they learned from Zhang Wen itself contained combined-attack techniques!
If Zhang Wen had enough time, he could also use relatively gentle methods to gradually help Zack and the others realize their potential and gradually unleash it. However, with only five days total before Zack and the others would face Link in battle, Zhang Wen had no choice but to adopt a more brutal approach to awaken their potential.
“Hey! Zack, Cloud, I feel like something’s not quite right!” After experiencing six or seven similar cycles, Amelith suddenly said to her two companions during a break.
“Hmph! Of course it’s not right! That cold-blooded instructor only knows underhanded tricks! If it were right, that would be strange!” Zack grumbled angrily.
“No! It’s not about the techniques.” Amelith shook her head firmly. “Don’t you find it strange? We’ve been fighting him for so long. In terms of coordination, we’re completely different from when we started. In terms of individual strength, at least I feel like if the current me fought the Amelith from the beginning of training, I could easily take on three or four of her.”
“Uh…now that you mention it, I do feel like my strength has improved quite a bit too!”
“Then why is it that even though our strength has improved so much, when fighting against Zhang Wen, we’re still only at a stalemate or slightly disadvantaged?” Amelith clenched her fist tightly, voicing the question that had puzzled her endlessly.
“Yeah, why is that?” Zack also scratched his head in confusion.
“Don’t talk anymore! Teacher Zhang is coming again!” Cloud, who was keeping watch, shouted loudly, making Zack and Amelith hastily end their discussion and quickly stand up.
However, just as Zack’s eyes met the sword in Zhang Wen’s hand, he suddenly let out a sharp cry as if he’d been pricked by a needle.
“Ahh! Look at his battle energy!”
“What battle energy?” Zack’s sudden exclamation left Cloud and Amelith somewhat confused.
“Idiot! Look at his sword yourselves! Amelith, the answer to your question just now, don’t you understand when you look at his sword?!”
“What do you mean?” At Zack’s shout, both Amelith and Cloud instinctively looked at the sword in Zhang Wen’s hand.
Immediately, both of their expressions turned extremely strange. If not for Zack’s reminder, they probably wouldn’t have noticed until now that the blue glow on the sword in Zhang Wen’s hand was definitely beyond what a first-stage battle energy could produce!
“Look at the brightness of the crystal-energy sword—it’s at least second-stage battle energy! That cold-blooded instructor is really enjoying torturing us!” Zack angrily ranted.
Although all three cadets were extremely nervous and didn’t believe they could handle Zhang Wen’s suddenly increased third-stage battle energy, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and charge forward together.
However, as the battle resumed, all three cadets were surprised to find that Zhang Wen’s crystal-energy sword, now infused with second-stage battle energy, didn’t feel nearly as terrifying as they had imagined. Although they felt Zhang Wen’s strength had indeed increased slightly during their sword clashes, it wasn’t unmanageable.
In fact, the degree of Zhang Wen’s strength increase felt strangely familiar to them. Every time after a break, when they first engaged Zhang Wen, their feelings were actually quite similar!
“I get it now! Teacher Zhang didn’t suddenly increase his battle energy from first-stage to third-stage—he gradually increased it! We just didn’t notice it all along! He must have been secretly increasing his battle energy a little bit every time we rested. Since the brightness difference between first-stage and third-stage battle energy is already quite small, and he always slightly increased it after we had adapted, we naturally couldn’t detect it!” After exchanging a few blows with Zhang Wen, Cloud suddenly had a revelation and shouted the truth aloud.
“What? So that’s how it was?!” Zack stared in shock.
“So all that talk you had before about ‘not being able to fully exert your strength again immediately after relaxing your body’ and other theories was all lies?” Amelith’s beautiful eyes locked onto Zhang Wen’s face.
“Hehe! Finally figured it out, huh? You guys really are pretty slow! That’s right! All those theories were completely made up by me, just to prevent you from noticing that I secretly increased my battle energy a little bit every time we rested. Heh! In the real world, how many strange theories like that actually exist? I’m really impressed you fools actually believed them!” Zhang Wen sneered as he spoke, but his hands never slackened their assault.
Zhang Wen’s long sword, now infused with third-stage battle energy, slashed repeatedly toward the three cadets. With third-stage battle energy, Zhang Wen’s speed was also far beyond his initial state at the start of training.
However, whether it was because they had already gotten used to fighting at a disadvantage or not, this time the three cadets actually adapted to Zhang Wen’s strength faster than ever before.
“Take a fifteen-minute break.” As soon as the time was up, Zhang Wen coldly threw out the command and left the three cadets behind.
“Tch! Can’t handle us with third-stage battle energy, so he’s going to increase it again right away!” Zack sprawled lazily on the ground, muttering nonstop.
This time, Cloud didn’t respond to Zack’s words.
Unlike the straightforward Zack, Cloud had already fully recognized the changes happening within himself. Just a day ago, Cloud hadn’t felt any different from an ordinary fifth-stage physical martial artist. Yet now, together with his two companions, they could actually fight evenly with Zhang Wen using third-stage battle energy without using any battle energy themselves!
Didn’t that mean that if they three restored to their normal state, they could break through the limitations of battle energy and fight opponents three stages above them? And this seemed far from reaching their limit!
When Cloud put all these thoughts together, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sensation. He had never felt such complex emotions before—fear of the upcoming battle, yet also filled with anticipation.
Perhaps, this was what it felt like to grow stronger… Cloud leaned against the wall motionless, only his right hand unconsciously repeating the motion of “gripping and relaxing” the sword.
“Time’s up!” Fifteen minutes later, with Amelith’s sharp cry as the lookout, the three cadets immediately sprang into action, facing Zhang Wen’s attacks once again…
Thus, the “trial training” continued for more than four days. For Zhang Wen’s three cadets, it felt like four days spent in hell.
At the beginning, the three cadets couldn’t adapt to the intensity of the battle, barely managing to persist through sheer determination not to give up. But later, they gradually became numb to it. Eventually, they no longer had the energy to think about anything else. Day after day, it was nothing but battle after battle, as if they had become tireless fighting machines…
“Heh…” With a long exhale, Zhang Wen finally removed the simulator helmet after over a hundred hours inside the simulator in Room 147 of the Temmis Inn, tiredly standing up.
“Only took four and a half days? A day shorter than the expected five.” Zhang Wen casually removed the neural conductive wires from his body, looked up at the pitch-black night outside, and a faint smile flickered across his face. “Looks like this might be even more promising than I imagined.”
“Ah?!” Not long after, a strange commotion arose from several other rooms in the Temmis Inn. Zack’s loud, excited voice could clearly be heard even from Zhang Wen’s own room.
Zack certainly had reason to be excited.
In the final battle that had just concluded the “hellish training,” it was precisely Zack’s desperate distraction that had given Amelith the opportunity to land a fatal blow on Zhang Wen. Although Zack himself was seriously injured in Zhang Wen’s counterattack, this was their first true victory against Zhang Wen in a fair fight, making it extremely significant!
As for the question puzzling Zack, Zhang Wen could roughly guess what it was. At the beginning of this hellish training, Zhang Wen had told Zack and the others that he himself had ten chances to regenerate. Yet by the end of the training, Zhang Wen had only used four regeneration chances. The actual number of times he was defeated by Zack and the others was only once before he exited the game, not continuing this “trial” any further.
After all, before earning their first official point from Zhang Wen, Zack had already used eight regeneration chances! Cloud had regenerated seven times. Amelith had used up all ten of her regeneration chances. She had persisted to the very end purely through sheer willpower, enduring countless wounds’ excruciating pain.
From any perspective, as long as Zhang Wen chose to regenerate, the three cadets would have no resources left to continue battling him. With Zack’s straightforward personality, he couldn’t understand why Zhang Wen, who had victory within his grasp, suddenly abandoned the trial. As a result, he kept questioning Cloud, confused about whether they had passed Zhang Wen’s test or not.
“Sigh… Is it because of my age? These little brats still have so much energy after four and a half days of continuous training.” Hearing Zack’s noisy commotion from his room, Zhang Wen couldn’t help but shake his head and smile bitterly once again.
It was already past 2 AM! With Zack jumping and shouting like that, Zhang Wen was sure to be reprimanded by the head instructor of the psychic arts department for poor discipline tomorrow.
But at a time like this, Zhang Wen certainly wouldn’t go interrupt their excitement.
At the beginning, when Zhang Wen told Zack and Cloud that he had other methods to defeat Temmis Academy without relying on them, that was just a lie. He had said that only to test the cadets’ determination. After all, if they had only chosen to participate in the training because of Zhang Wen’s grand claims or a momentary impulse, they absolutely could not have persisted to the end of such a brutal battle.
Frankly speaking, when Zhang Wen told Zack and Cloud those words, he was somewhat nervous. If Zack and the others’ answers had been different from what Zhang Wen expected, or if they had chosen to give up after witnessing the training’s cruelty, what would he have done then? However, the final result was that the three young ones not only persisted through four and a half days of hellish training, but also won a fair and square battle.
In terms of talent and perseverance, Zhang Wen’s three cadets proved through concrete actions that they exceeded even Zhang Wen’s expectations. Their level of effort left Zhang Wen in awe. What complaints could he possibly have about such students?
Just as Zhang Wen had just removed all the psychic conductive wires and was preparing for a good night’s sleep to dispel the fatigue accumulated over four days, his door suddenly opened. A ghostly shadow quietly slipped inside.
“Xiaoxi?” From the sound of the footsteps, Zhang Wen immediately recognized who had sneaked into his room.
“Tch!” Originally wanting to sneak up and scare Zhang Wen, Xiaoxi, seeing her cover blown, could only stand straight, revealing a face filled with disappointment after her failed prank. “The training is over?”
“Mm. It’s over. You’ve worked hard these past few days.”
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