[Total number of acolytes: 18/692]

One full hour had gone by, but none of the acolytes in Group 7 were eliminated, despite fighting the mystical-level creature Bone Dragon. The battle was intense and cutthroat, where one mistake would immediately spell their doom.

This resulted in severe exhaustion and mental burden for these eighteen young acolytes, evident from their expressions and sweat dripping all over their bodies. Even so, there wasn't a trace of resignation in their eyes nor faces.

This sight made Group 7 become one of the most cheered groups still left in the Magus Games.

If only Lodos could see this very clamorous commotion. Being the only one who died within the first few minutes of the battle, he would definitely meet the death god one more time just from the sheer rage and shame.

There were seven teams left within group 7, but they were separated into three different sides.

A large group of eight people consisted of Emery, Chumo, Gerri, Igor, Orycon, Orion, Roran and Amara on one side. A group of s was a collaboration between Annara and Armand's teams that was exclusively made up of privileged acolytes. The last but not least, the temporary alliance between Micah and the archer girl named Reyne, together with the Kaleos acolyte Anas and his quiet, brown-skinned fighter named Sigurd.

Despite having only four people in the team and only two of them being privileged class, this last group that Micah entered was able to hold on and fight back as long as the other two groups. This noteworthy accomplishment was all thanks to the Kaleos brown-skinned warrior named Sigurd.

"Titan's bloodline!!", exclaimed someone knowledgeable within the crowd who recognize a marking on Sigurd's forehead.

Sigurd was apparently a descendant from a special human bloodline. This bloodline of his granted him extraordinary strength, making him much stronger than the other acolytes.

The man could hold the dragon back with his two arms, showing a level of strength comparable to that of Igor's Beast Transformation. Moreover, the force behind his every strike was also as strong as Orycon's attacks.

When he activated his inherent bloodline, Sigurd's overall stats would increase exponentially and become a monster of his own. He was Kaleos' proud secret weapon.

When it was their turn to fight the bone dragon, Sigurd would immediately charge forward and stop its advance with his huge ax, while Micah would do his part to obstruct it by creating several large ice crystals on the dragon's feet.

The moment the two managed to successfully contain the dragon, Anas and Reney would use their ranged attacks to deal damage to it. The latter would use her speciality by sending a relentless barrage of arrows, while the former used his new speciality to strike - one of spirit readers' weapon of choice, a blade almost comparable to Armand's [Soaring Shuttle].

With this configuration , where they would take turns every five to six minutes, each group would have more time to recover their stamina and spirit force, which allowed them to keep doing this for a long time. As a result, the Bone Dragon's health had been reduced by 40 to 60 points every turn.

[Bone Dragon]

[321/1000]

The supposedly mighty dragon had been facing each group in turn for more than an hour by now. This all thanks to Roran's achievement, who managed to be convincing enough when he invited the other two groups to take part in his plan.

Everyone had some degree of belief, when he said the longer they survived and the more they contributed in this so-called bonus challenge, the higher the final points they would receive. The only way to do that was by working and cooperating with each other.

Of course, his status as the Harlight family's protege played a decisive role in making his voice heard. After all, there was no way these proud individuals would be willing to listen to the words of someone they considered below them.

After they managed to cross the 300 health points, everyone was elated. It seemed it was actually something feasible to defeat the Bone Dragon.

However, their happiness was cut short, when they saw things gradually heading in a bad direction.

The group realized the longer they fought, the stronger the fatigue would appear, which in turn shortened their rest time, as they had to take the place of the other team, who were already exhausted.

As if that wasn't disastrous enough, they currently were only able to shave off 30 to 40 points of the monster's health each turn. A striking contrast when compared to their earlier performance.

This only proved that all of his acolytes had finally reached their breaking point, that rest and healing didn't have that much benefit for their condition anymore.

[200/1000]

Another milestone reached, although the acolytes found this collaboration to give benefit to them all, most of them knew better than to think they would work together like this until the end. They all knew this fragile cooperation of theirs could be shattered at any moment. It only needed that one spark to trigger it.

In the end, this was a competition and all of them understood the one who managed to defeat the dragon in its last moment would get a better result one way or another. Because of that, the closer they got to the dragon's demise, the more tension and wariness they had toward the others than the dragon itself.

"Switch!!" Armand shouted loudly, asking for Roran's side to take his place.

The young Harlight was certainly annoyed by this, as the six privileged acolytes, who proclaimed to be the strongest, only dealt a precise amount of thirty points off the dragon's health, before they asked for a switch.

[193/1000]

"That Damned Nephilim!" Gerri cursed harshly at those people's antics.

Meanwhile, Roran quickly suppressed his annoyance, maintained his calm and ordered the team to take over. After all, they couldn't just spoil the hard work and efforts they had put in just because of this.

To be a good example, Roran decided to jump to the front and fight directly with the Bone Dragon. This time, using his large shield which was then followed by everyone in his team.

Clank!! Clank!! Clank!!

The sharp sound of metal clashing with other hard materials rang out, as Roran defended against the dragon's attack.

He wasn't as strong or talented as the others, but he had come completely prepared with top-of-the-line equipment, such as tier 4 shield, armor and sword. Moreover, the equipment he used was one of those enhanced versions, that cost three times more than the normal tier 4 artifacts.

Still, Roran knew he couldn't overestimate his ability, as those items had their own limits as well.

All eight people worked together to fight the dragon, giving their best to contribute. Roran stood with Igor side by side, deflecting the dragon's attack, while Emery used both his [Shadow Root] and [Shadow Mist] to hold and distract the dragon. With the dragon movement being contained by the three, the rest would comfortably give all they got to rain multiple attacks to the bone creatures.

[152/1000]

This pleasant development continued until suddenly Roran's shield could not withstand the dragon's assault anymore and broke apart, causing the former to be hit and thrown back injured.

An opening appeared in the team's formation with Roran being flung like a worthless rag. Fortunately, Igor managed to cover it up before it could lead to worse consequences.

The half-blood acolyte then took the vanguard position until the half-conscious Roran shouted.

"Switch!!"

Now it was Anas's group's turn to take over, but at the same time, a few people secretly smiled, as they knew the moment had finally come for the final blow of the bonus stage.