SSS-Ranked Awakening: I Can Only Summon Mythical Beasts
Chapter 334 - 334: The Second Test

The colosseum pulsed with renewed energy as the second round of the tests neared.

From above, magic wove through the air like golden threads unraveling across a vast canvas.

The audience had returned to their seats, conversations thick with speculation and nervous excitement. The platforms had been cleaned, the shattered earth of the Trial of Divergence already reconstructed with eerie precision. To many, it was simply beyond believable how they could quickly fix and turn the stage into whatever they wanted.

But something was different this time.

The arena hadn't taken shape yet.

It lay flat, a blank slate of smooth obsidian, surrounded by arcane conduits and rotating crystal pylons along the perimeter. The sky above dimmed—not from clouds, but from a growing veil of mana, forming a dome that shimmered with raw power.

Then, from the highest tier of the observation tower, a voice rang out—clear, elegant, and laced with barely concealed pride.

Dean Oryll of Wyrmere.

Draped in flowing robes, he stepped into the air, levitating down toward the center platform with slow grace. The white white gloves he now wore glimmered with delicate rune-work, and his long silver staff gleamed as though it had never touched blood.

"Esteemed guests. Nobles of the realm. Spectators from far and near…"

His voice wrapped around the crowd like silk. Even the background noise fell away.

"…Our Year Three Representatives have conquered the Trial of Divergence. Some emerged battered, others broken—but four still stand whole, and that means only one thing."

He lifted his hand.

"The next test must be harder."

The arena shifted.

Runes ignited along the border.

The smooth floor cracked in a sudden quake of arcane power. Segments of the blackstone ground split and fell away, forming narrow bridges, spiked platforms, and precarious walkways over yawning voids of lightless space.

It wasn't just a battlefield.

It was a maze collapsing in real time.

Dean Oryll spoke again.

"The Trial of Collapse. A test of three components: endurance, adaptability, and command."

His voice grew sharper now, aimed directly at the students.

"You will be placed in the arena in randomized quadrants. The ground will shift beneath you. The platforms will move. Some will vanish entirely. Constructs will pursue you. Environment hazards will trigger without warning."

He lifted his staff, and a single orb floated upward into the sky—a glowing red crystal with four trailing runes.

"There are four 'Beacons of Command' hidden in the collapsing zone. Your team must find one. Secure it. And defend it until time expires."

Another pause.

"Victory is awarded to the last team still in control of their beacon… or the first to eliminate every other team."

A murmur rolled through the audience.

This was no illusion test.

This was war on a shifting floor.

On ElderGlow's standing platform, Damon cracked his knuckles as the rune beneath his boots lit up.

Beside him, Daveon muttered, "He really said 'eliminate,' huh?"

"Not death," Anaya added quickly.

"But still violence," Celeste said, tightening her grip on her glaive.

"Just like real battlefields," Damon replied, voice even. "We adapt."

Their quadrant shimmered into view—an elevated triangular platform surrounded by shifting slabs of stone and a constant low quake beneath their feet. There was only one bridge connected to another mass of floating terrain, and already it looked unstable.

A voice rang out in all four starting zones:

"Begin."

In Crowgarth's path, Tavros roared the moment he landed, leaping forward before the rest of his team had even recovered from the teleportation. His muscles bulged with raw essence, and his hammer cracked the edge of a platform that tried to separate beneath him.

"Forward! Crush them all!"

His mages barely kept up, already scrambling to send scouting pulses across the maze.

Kaelis crouched low, her eyes scanning the rising segments around them. Their formation snapped into place instantly, shields out, spells ready.

"No reckless moves," she ordered. "We hold position until we see a path."

Her second-in-command pointed to the distance. "That platform's rising faster than the rest. A beacon's likely there."

Kaelis nodded. "Move. Quietly."

For the Wyrmere students, the remaining two members—wounded but still sharp—leaned on each other as they began sprinting.

"We can't win in a fight," the spellcaster said. "We'll win through attrition."

"Or trickery," his partner added, already laying illusion glyphs behind them.

Damon led the team across a narrow rotating walkway that spun mid-stride. Celeste steadied Anaya with a shield pulse while Daveon scorched a hole into a rising pillar just long enough for Damon to leap across.

As they landed on a wider platform, a Beacon of Command surged to life nearby—a floating orb of ruby light, encased in rotating steel rings and emitting a soft pulse.

Damon pointed. "Ours."

"No one's nearby," Anaya said. "But that won't last."

Daveon raised a flame ward along the south flank. "We hold?"

"For now," Damon said. "Let them come to us."

He narrowed his eyes.

"And we'll break them."

Fifteen minutes into the battlefield and it was already the incarnate of chaos.

Dozens of platforms had crumbled into the void. Spiked fields rose and vanished. Acidic mist drifted through certain lanes, glowing with mana decay. Constructs—metal beasts shaped like wolves, spiders, and serpents—rampaged at intervals, attacking indiscriminately.

One Wyrmere student was knocked off a tilting edge and extracted in a flash of blue light.

The other? Disarmed and eliminated by a Crowgarth spell bombardment.

Wyrmere: Eliminated.

Dean Oryll's voice announced the score without joy even though his team had been knocked out.

In the northern path, Kaelis and Tavros finally met—two commanding presences colliding like a stormfront.

Tavros slammed down his hammer.

Kaelis blocked with a shield wall, deflecting the shockwave.

Their teams clashed behind them—steel against spell, shield against claw.

Kaelis' squad was sharper. More disciplined.

But Tavros fought like a walking catastrophe.

They were evenly matched.

For now.

The first wave came fast for ElderGlow.

Three Crowgarth students, separated from Tavros, rushed the beacon ElderGlow controlled.

Damon intercepted the first with a brutal shoulder bash, sending him reeling off the side of the platform. He vanished in blue light before he hit the void.

Daveon's flame wall scorched the second's boots, leaving him scrambling on hands and knees—only to be struck down by Anaya's twin blades.

Celeste held the rear.

The third enemy never even made it close.

A crystal siren wailed across the maze.

From the air, four glowing projectiles rained down—wild essence storms, untamed bursts of chaotic magic essence that altered the terrain where they landed.

Boooom!!

One of them struck a platform adjacent to ElderGlow's.

The stone split.

New bridges formed.

And on one of them—Kaelis and two Thornevale fighters appeared.

Damon's eyes locked onto her.

She stared back, unreadable.

Then, to everyone's surprise—

She nodded.

And took another path.

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