"Hold on!" Min directed a concentrated water jet toward Jun, forcing him to retreat while using another stream to heal the cracks in Taro's defense.
Ren dodged Han's first web, noting how the mana had been channeled for the attack even before it was launched.
'The edges,' he thought while jumping aside. 'They're 4 ters from his hip.'
Jun vaulted over Taro with monkey-enhanced agility, attempting to strike at Min. Taro's arm extended just in ti, his shell's reinforced surface intercepting the blow while Min counterattacked with a precise water jet to Jun's face. The coordination between defenders and healer had beco almost instinctive.
Sora seized the montary distraction to charge again, her antlers blazing with accumulated power. Taro pivoted to intercept, but the sheer force of impact drove him back several steps, leaving small furrows in the packed earth.
Han had woven an intricate network of hexagons, the nearly invisible threads limiting Ren's movent options. The pattern was beautiful in its complexity, a deadly spider's web catching the afternoon light…
But instead of retreating, Ren advanced.
'The weaving pattern has a rhythm,' his mushrooms pulsed as he analyzed each intersection. 'Three gaps large enough for between each main connection.'
Ren slid between the web's gaps with serpentine grace. Lin's technique gave him the confidence to approach, but it was his analytical mind that revealed the exact paths through Han's deadly maze.
Han's eyes widened in surprise, he hadn't expected the mushroom boy to enter his trap zone so directly.
Spectators leaned forward, sensing sothing unprecedented was about to unfold again.
anwhile, Taro held Jun at bay, his carapace absorbing blow after enhanced blow while Min alternated between healing his fracturing defense and keeping Sora at distance with precisely aid water jets. Their teamwork had evolved dramatically since their first training sessions, each movent supporting the others.
Ren surveyed the battlefield with calculating eyes. Han's hexagonal webs reached only hip height, unable to rise higher without anchor points, a limitation of the field he could exploit.
In a forest, Han would have been far more problematic for them.
Han launched another web, trying to snare Ren as he approached. The hexagons glead faintly, nearly invisible except for how they distorted light and their mana content. The pattern was srizing but deadly.
Ren moved.
Not backward as Han expected, but sideways. A calculated leap carried him over the low webs, landing perfectly in another gap.
Then he sprang forward to finally close the distance, but...
"Got you!" Han's smile was triumphant as he launched a web directly into Ren's trajectory, mid air.
Ti seed to slow.
He was in trouble, but not trapped. Not yet.
Ren hung suspended in the air, the web approaching with inexorable certainty.
From the stands, several students held their breath. It seed impossible to dodge in that position. Jin's smile widened knowingly...
"Ren!" Min's cry echoed across the field, but he couldn't help while maintaining Taro's defense.
Sora tried to exploit the opening to charge Min. Her antlers blazed as she rushed forward, but Taro remained vigilant.
In a move that demonstrated how much his initiative had improved since his defeat against Jin – thanks to the hope Ren had given him – Taro grabbed one of Sora's antlers. Using her own charging montum against her, he spun and hurled her directly into Jun. The impact sent both sprawling.
Ren calculated angles and distances in the split second he had left. The web approached, its hexagons glowing with Han's anticipated victory.
'Now.'
The mushrooms in his hair flared brilliantly, temporarily blinding Han with their sudden radiance.
It was all he needed.
In that sa instant, Ren covered his right hand with spores. As the web was about to catch him, he grabbed one of the threads he'd been jumping over and pulled hard, canceling his jump's forward montum to drop faster.
The spores adhered to the sticky thread while his hand ca away clean.
Han blinked away the afterimages, expecting to see Ren trapped in his web. But there was nothing above.
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The strike ca from below.
Ren had crawled under the web network.
His kick connected perfectly with his opponent's legs, sweeping the weaver off his feet.
Han tried to break his fall by putting his hands down, but before they could touch earth, Ren's fist was already threading between his arms. The uppercut, perfected through countless sessions with Lin, found exactly the right point on Han's jaw.
The weaver crashed unconscious to the ground.
"Han is out!" Yang announced, his voice cutting through the stunned silence.
When Taro had thrown them together, Sora and Jun collapsed in a tangle of limbs, giving Ren ti to rejoin his teammates. Their expressions showed a mixture of relief and renewed determination.
Without Han's support, the combat dynamics shifted dramatically as Ren joined the fray.
"Shall we finish this?" Ren smiled, his mushrooms pulsing as he adopted one of Lin's combat stances.
Min and Taro nodded, falling into position beside him.
Taro and Ren moved to flank their opponents while protecting their healer. Lin's training sessions with Ren and their practice as a team finally bore fruit.
Within minutes, Sora and Jun also lay defeated. Their resistance was skilled but futile against the team's synchronized assault.
"Victory for Ren's team!"
"The first round has concluded!" Yang announced while assistants tended to the minor injuries.
The mushrooms in Ren's hair pulsed softly as he helped Han to his feet. The weaver blinked in confusion, still processing what had happened.
"How...?" he began to ask.
"My spores," Ren explained, showing him the residue still clinging to the thread. "They stuck to the thread but my hand didn't."
Han studied the spores for a mont before laughing. "Using my own web as an anchor point... brilliant."
From the stands, Luna observed with renewed interest, unable to completely hide a small smile from her watchful maids. Her shadow wolf seed to ripple at her feet.
"For the semifinals: Luna's team versus Jin's team! Klein's team versus Ren's team!"
Ren's mushrooms pulsed steadily as he looked toward where Klein smiled arrogantly, his golden lion's mane shimring.
The real test was about to begin.
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