Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

There was definitely something ominous about the miniature cage but neither Melinda nor Nicole was going to let that stop them from attacking and together, they charged at the four, especially the one with the cage.

He seemed to be the glue that sort of held the whole impromptu alliance together.

Hal on the other hand was staring at the cage and attempting to decipher what the runes that made it up meant and with that, know what its effects were.

His eyes widened slightly at a sudden realization and he made to tell the two ladies but they had already shot attacks towards the young man who held the cage out in front of him.

Immediately he held it out in front of him, the cage released an eerie suction force that pulled the attacks towards it and actually trapped them inside the cage.

Melinda furrowed her brows while Nicole frowned as the two watched their attacks inside the cage begin to shrink as though they were being neutralized and rendered void.

"What the hell?" Nicole exclaimed right as one of the other three dashed towards her to strike her with her sword cosmic Armament.

The Antonov lady held up her large war hammer cosmic Armament in an attempt to defend herself but the cage erased another suction force that grabbed her Armament right out of her hands.

Locking it in the cate to be neutralized once again.

Since the Armament was a cosmic construct of which she could only create and use one at a time.

Nicole merely summoned it again in time to deflect the strike but as it had been a last-minute defense, she was still sent sliding back by the force of the strike, while her Armament was once again sucked into the cage.

Heading right for the dome wall but Hal stopped her before she could actually make contact.

He did not look down at Nicole's face as his attention was completely on the Cage wielding young man who was grinning, 

Hal noted that even with their victory looking close at hand, none of the other three were facing back.

Not even to look at the Array they had to thank for the said victory.

The young man launched into a gloating speech.

"It's a rank five Array called a neutralizing cage. It is meant to neutralize any cosmic energy-based attack, Armaments included, as long as they don't surpass the Cosmic Aurora realm.

With it, you have no hope... What do you think you're doing? That's useless" he paused and then said when he saw Hal summon his cosmic Armament and hold it loosely by his side.

Hal smirked and released Nicole so that his hand could be free to project runes on his sword Cosmic Armament.

The moment he was done projecting the runes on the flat edge of his sword, Hal tossed the sword at the cage-wielding young man who frowned with the knowledge that there was something dangerous about the sword spinning in his direction.

But as Hal had suspected, the young man had no say in which attack the cage absorbed.

The attacks just had to be moving in his general direction. I.e the attacker had to be facing him.

Which was why the other three with him were looking away.

He must have told them what not to do.

The cage absorbed the sword and almost immediately, the detonating runes Hal had placed on it set off, blowing the Array apart and sending the wielder smacking into the Dome wall.

Hal felt the young man should never have been cocky about wielding the cage.

Not only was it not an assurance to win as there were ways to defeat its neutralizing abilities one of them being the use of physical strength to knock out the wielder who was responsible for the Array's activation, but there was also the fact that the cage could not neutralize Astral attacks.

In fact, it was all the more vulnerable to them as proven by Hal's exploding Runes.

So shocked were the other three that they didn't notice Melinda dash past them and towards the young man to deliver the final blow that set his now orange device to red.

Activating the portable teleportation array that sent him out of the rundown district.

His group mares on the outside were teleported away as well.

With nothing to neutralize cosmic-based attacks, things returned to the physical confrontation they should have been with none of the three (Hal, Melinda, and Nicole) having any issues defeating their opponents.

For those watching in the coliseum, Melinda's success was impressive but expected. Even Hal's was a little expected as many were already suspecting he was at the Cosmic Aurora realm.

The one whose easy victory surprised the crowd the most was most likely Nicole who once again displayed impressive strength as she made short work of an opponent with which she shared a cultivation realm.

With the three defeated, they and their group mates were teleported out of the rundown district just like the two Pierre and Adeline had been facing.

When Hal brought down the domes, their group was the only one left in their area of the rundown district.

"That was fun" Hal said.

"Speak for yourself, I found it very boring" Adeline retorted which Hal ignored.

"So... What do we do now? We took down six groups and sent one in retreat, I'd say we've contributed enough to pass, wouldn't you?" Nicole said looking at all of them one at a time to see who agreed with her.

Hal shrugged, 

"Only miss Silva knows. Remember she's the one who knew about the grading" he pointed out and all eyes turned back to the Silva siblings who were standing side by side.

Almost as though the two had not been paying attention to the conversation, they asked simultaneously, 

"What?!"

...

One hour later...

An area in the Rundown District...

*Boom*

Two groups were locked in combat with both having ten members each.

A balanced battle.

"Ahhhh" yelled a man after he was blasted backward by an explosive cosmic attack and smacked through the walls of a building that promptly collapsed on top of him.

The leader of the group of the buried young man looked a tad panicked and quickly looked down to his device after which he released a sigh of relief when he saw that it was still blue.

That said, he knew that the longer he waited the more likely it was that the buried young man's device would eventually become red so he quickly called to two other members of his group to help dig the young man out.

While the two did that, the rest of the group would try to keep the attention of their opponents away from them.

Alas, that was easier said than done.

After all, the other group had even larger numbers and could therefore still divide and multitask.

Going after the ones attempting to dig out their comrade and also battling the ones attempting to keep attention on them.

"It is us, not you who will pass this stage. This exam is not for the likes of you" said the leader of the group with all its members.

(Let's call him leader one and call the leader of the group with a buried member, Leader two)

Leader one said those confident words with a smile while his dark eyes twinkled.

Then he charged a Cosmic Aurora but did not target the other leader or those with him, instead he turned his attack towards the collapsed building.

"No?" Yelled leader two as he attempted to intercept the attack and stop it from hitting and he succeeded...

*Bang!*

... And got himself blasted instead.

Leader two groaned and rolled over while looking down at his device to see it was now in orange.

He was still relieved.

He could still recover.

At least he had stopped the attack...

*Boom*

... He had not even completed the thought when Leader one attacked the now dug out, formerly buried young man to make his device, as well as the devices of everyone in the group, go red, 

"Oh, shit..." Was Leader two's last words before he was teleported away from the scene.

Leader one's group began to rejoice. 

Celebrating their win.

"It is done" Leader one said with pride with his eyes closed when the sound of merriment stopper abruptly, 

"Those are quite confident words to say" said a soothing voice in his ear.

Leader one leaped away as his eyelid flipped open and he faces the reason for his group's sudden quiet.

The group that had just arrived contained Seven individuals in immaculate dressing. They didn't even seem to have been in combat at all throughout the exam.

The one leading the group was a young man with long brown hair dressed in a white robe that had a golden bird embroidered on the chest.

A golden bird that all those in Leader one's group easily recognized as the symbol of the Golden crow sect.

And the young man wearing it had to be the genius, Han Doe of the Golden Crow sect.

Han Doe walked closer to Leader one and said with what was clearly meant to be a regrettable sigh even if it was a sarcastic one, 

"You've worked really hard. Unfortunately, from the moment it was said that only Ten groups would pass the first stage, the spots were already filled"