Kate felt absolutely defeated upon hearing Lake’s words.
Although she didn’t want to admit it, there really wasn’t anything she could do at this point.
With how precarious her current situation was, Lake could simply win by just waiting until her mana was exhausted.
She had really lost big time.
Kate spoke out with a pale face.
Although she had originally intended to lose this match in order to help Lake advertise the event, however, she didn’t plan to lose this badly.
Upon hearing Kate’s words, Alec nodded before walking out.
"This special match has ended in the victory of Lake Egoven!"
After his short but impactful words, everyone was still speechless.
After all, they had just witnessed something incredible.
A Martial Apprentice had just fought against nearly fifty students led by a Martial Warrior and won!
This was something that had never happened before in the history of both the academy and the continent!
There were some cases of Martial Apprentice fighting with Martial Warriors but without exception, the Martial Apprentice was an awakened and the Martial Warrior was only at most a Low Rank one. It was a clear one vs one fight without any outside interference.
Not only had Lake fought against a group of people who had undergone basic training in martial arts and could already enhance their physique with mana, he also fought against a High Rank Martial Warrior!
Kate’s newly recorded fitness index had already spread throughout the entire academy so everyone knew how strong she was which made the results of this match even more astonishing.
Lake walked up to Kate and helped her up once the match had ended.
Kate looked at him with a little resentment in her eyes but still took his help.
"Next time I won’t lose..."
Hearing Kate’s whisper, Lake smiled slightly.
"Don’t worry, stick with me and I’ll help you reach Martial Master within a year. Do you dare to believe?"
Kate didn’t say anything. Although she knew how difficult achieving Martial Master within a year from her current position would be, Lake’s repeated actions had left her doubting her own knowledge.
"You’re a double Awakened?" Kate suddenly asked something that she had been confused about throughout the entire match.
The skills Lake used from the casting of spells to the sudden "invisibility", she and everyone else had been extremely curious as to how Lake did it.
If he wasn’t a double Awakened then they really couldn’t explain what they just saw.
Lake didn’t speak, instead turned to look at the injured students.
Walking up to them, he saw that most of them had already regained consciousness after being treated by the nurse.
Although their injuries could be considered severe for a normal person, they were all considered half a martial artist and had tough physiques.
Looking at Lake, most of the injured students thought that he had come to gloat about his victory. After all, Lake had severely beaten each of them in a fair fight and had the right to do so.
This was the way they did things in the martial arts community.
However, they were slightly stunned when they heard Lake’s next words.
"As promised, I have come to give pointers after the match. Although I was slightly out of it during the battle, I still clearly remember the fights and spotted some mistakes during the battle. Since this was a group battle, I wouldn’t explain what each of you did wrong in detail but instead what the group did wrong as a whole. Consider this an advanced lesson for the upcoming exam at the end of the month."
"Although your idea of launching a volley of arrows at the start was good, you could have separated the archers into two groups. Since there’s only one target, there was no need to spread out all of your shots into one volley like you did."
"If you had launched one smaller volley first before firing a second one immediately after, even if the target blocked the first volley like I did, they wouldn’t have had enough time to react and defend against the second volley."
"The next thing was in the way you all rushed at me with different weapons. Coordination is key when working in a big group and taking advantage of the role your weapon plays in such a battle is key."
"The spearmen had longer ranged and should have rushed forward as a group first, aiming to pin down my position and lower my chance of resisting. Afterwards, the swordsmen should have rushed forward while I was stuck before attacking with your blade."
"If I was a big monster and not a human, you could have used this opportunity to leave several lacerations on the creature’s body that would eventually weaken it from blood loss before retreating in time for the archers to fire their second volley."
"Also, your formation was to spread out allowing me to pick you off one by one. If you had wanted to win, you should have..."
Lake started to go off on a detailed explanation of the flaws in the group’s battle formation, giving them detailed advice on how they could have mended their problems and improved their overall strength.
Although his advice didn’t explain how they could’ve defeated him or bypass the unique abilities that he used, they were so general in nature that they would be of great help to their future endeavors.
After Lake finished explaining, one of the students who was only slightly injured couldn’t help but ask, "Why are you doing all this?"
This was the question that had confused everyone the most. Although the prospect of improving themselves through this training was extremely enticing to the group of students, they simply couldn’t understand why Lake would go out of his way to help them so much.
Lake really wanted to say because there was a great danger approaching and he needed to train up some "meat shields" to save him down the line and make it easier to survive the disaster but he held back.
"Hmm, how should I say? I don’t really have an exact reason I could explain but I should state what I want. Consider it me making a wide range investment by helping you all. In the future if you all become experts. I only hope that we could lend each other a helping hand if the situation arises. Consider it like training my future allies."
Lake spoke plainly, however, he suddenly smiled as he asked in an inquisitive tone.
"What do you say? Are you willing to join my ’Alliance’."
This time, it didn’t take long for the group of students to make a decision.
"I’m willing to join!"
"I’m also willing to join!"
"Fuck! If everyone else is joining I’ll abandon my pride for today and join too!"
"Bro, you’ve already said enough. I’ll abandon my pride and join with you!"
"Wherever the bros go, I must obviously follow. Bros unite!"
Soon, many people started to actively express their willingness to join. After all, Lake had already proven himself more than capable of teaching them after today’s events or at the least, better than anything they could teach themselves.
Because of this, they all pretty much decided that it would be better to join than to fall behind everyone else.
What would happen if the training really worked out and they were left behind by the rest of their classmates? Wouldn’t they be a laughing stock at that point?
To avoid such a future, many people jumped at the chance to join once someone agreed, setting off a chain reaction.
As Lake heard everyone’s agreement, the smile on his face continued to widen more and more. If it wasn’t for the fact that his facial structure didn’t allow it, he would have been smiling from ear to ear.
Soon, the sound of the system notification ringing repeatedly in his head sounded out.
[49 allies have been acquired. Detected that the group of allies haven’t met the level requirement of the system. Please work hard to advance the group to meet the requirements as soon as possible!]
[Allies - 1/150 (49 ally waiting to be advanced)]
Looking at the list of allies, Lake was simply overjoyed!
Receiving so many allies could already be considered completing one third of the quest! After all, Lake had a few methods to advance a group of students to the High Rank Martial Warrior Realm within a year.
The problem he had was with gathering the allies in the first place. Now that such a large group had joined him, Lake was ecstatic.
However, Lake knew that he still had a long way to go if he wished to successfully complete the quest.
Thinking of this, he looked over to the crowd of spectators on the other side of the field.
"The recruitment for the training event is still ongoing! If you wish to join after today or later on, signup is always available!"
"We also accept students from higher years who wish to join in as well so all is welcomed!"
When the spectating students heard this, they were also tempted as they had also just witnessed Lake’s rampage and expert level skills.
"The earlier you join the better! After all, starting early allows you to set your foundation for your future endeavors early! Why wait till later to start advancing along the martial path? Start now!"
After thinking about it, there wasn’t anything wrong with joining as later on if they’re dissatisfied they could just leave and since there were no disadvantages to joining, why not just join earlier?