The three-horned horse disappeared with a flash, leaving Rosalind gasping and vulnerable. The sudden severing of the beast connection sent a shock through her system. "Rosalind, fall back!" Hector ordered, nearly dragging her to the edge of the arena. The minotaur charged again, its horns striking with renewed force. Several new cracks appeared on the Stone Lurker's surface, but none deep enough to cause real damage. Each impact sent stone fragments flying, but the monster's integrity remained largely intact. "They should change their strategy," Ren murmured. "Winning through frontal attacks would take nearly five times the energy they've spent so far... But they don't even have half that remaining." Yet the team persevered with their original approach. Vern sent his centaur to execute quick charges, striking and retreating before the monster could respond. The beast's hooves striking against the stone made strong thuds travel through the arena. By the fifteen-minute mark, his strength was also faltering. The centaur showed signs of fatigue, its movements becoming increasingly less fluid. The Stone Lurker, detecting the weakness, executed one of its characteristic short but surprisingly quick leaps. The huge creature seemed to defy gravity for a moment, all its bulk in a trajectory aimed directly at Vern's beast. Before it could react, the monster's mouth opened wide. Hector tried to intervene, but his minotaur, also exhausted, couldn't reach them in time. A flash of light marked the moment when Vern's centaur was neutralized by the attack. Vern cried out, dropping to one knee from the backlash of the connection disruption. "No!" exclaimed Hector, his frustration evident, face flushed with anger and desperation. Only he remained, facing a beast that barely showed signs of damage after more than a quarter-hour of constant attacks from all three beasts. But he didn't surrender. With a roar that blended determination and desperation, the minotaur charged one last time. Its horns, directed toward one of the deepest cracks, struck with all the strength it had left. The impact created an explosion of rocky fragments. For a moment, it seemed he had managed to penetrate the defense, but when the dust settled, the Big Stone Lurker remained intact, protected by several deeper layers of rocky material. The crack had widened but failed to reach any vital area. Finally, Yang raised his hand. "Trial concluded," he declared. "The target has not been defeated." The auxiliaries reactivated the roots, containing the Stone Lurker while the students, exhausted and defeated, left the arena. "They had ways to win," Ren commented as he watched them exit. "But obviously they didn't ask you," Min completed with an ironic smile, nudging Ren's shoulder lightly. "They never would," added Taro, his beetle markings shifting slightly with his emotions. "They're from Klein's inner circle. They'd rather fail than accept advice from the 'mushroom boy'." Ren nodded, his expression neutral but his mushrooms pulsing with a rhythm that his friends now recognized as amusement. The soft glow ebbed and flowed like silent laughter. "Their loss," he said simply. "Each failure is a lesson for us." While the auxiliaries prepared the arena for the next combat, Ren continued observing, absorbing every detail, every strategy, every mistake. When his turn came, he would be more than prepared. ♢♢♢♢ The stands vibrated with the energy of dozens of simultaneous conversations. Students analyzed the battles they'd witnessed, debating strategies and predicting outcomes with passionate intensity. The first battles had established a clear pattern: brute force was ineffective against the Big Stone Lurker; strategy and exploitation of its specific weaknesses were necessary. This realization spread through the crowd, changing expectations for the upcoming matches. "Team Three of Group A, prepare to enter," announced the auxiliary, his voice cutting through the chatter. Three students advanced toward the arena. Unlike the previous teams, these seemed to have a well-defined plan from the beginning. Their movements were coordinated, their expressions focused rather than arrogant or uncertain. "I know the girl in the middle from my morning class," Min commented, leaning forward with interest. "She has a water undine, good for support but not for direct attack." "And the one on the left has an Earth Cricket according to the board," added Taro, squinting to see better. "But the third is..." "A fat roots dwarf Treant," Ren completed, his mushrooms pulsing with interest. "An uncommon plant beast. Its roots are exceptionally thick for its size." The three students took strategic positions around the Big Stone Lurker, maintaining a prudent distance. Like most students from previous teams, they didn't fuse their beasts with their bodies but fully invoked them externally. The iron-rank dwarf treant appeared next to its tamer, a vegetal structure approximately one meter tall, with a thick, twisted trunk from which sprouted roots that seemed disproportionate to its size. Its "face," barely distinguishable as a collection of knots in the bark, emitted a creaking sound. Beside it, the iron-rank water undine took form, a small translucent female figure composed entirely of crystalline liquid that flowed in constant movement. The digger cricket completed the trio, a robust creature with enormous claws and black eyes adapted to darkness. "Phase one: terrain preparation," ordered the treant's tamer, his voice calm and methodical. Immediately, the digger cricket launched itself toward the ground, disappearing beneath the surface with surprising speed. "I guess trapping it in a hole always works... They're copying Ron and Roran's teams' strategy," Taro observed, folding his arms across his chest. "Yeah, but… Not exactly," Ren corrected, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Watch what the undine is doing." The aquatic creature had begun generating a fine mist that spread across the arena floor, concentrating especially around the Stone Lurker. Where the mist touched the earth, it visibly darkened, becoming wet and more malleable. The packed dirt transformed gradually, from dusty firmness to damp clay. "They're softening the terrain," Min realized, his eyes widening with understanding. "Facilitating both excavation and root penetration." The Stone Lurker, sensing the threat, began moving with its characteristic slowness. Its crystalline mouth opened, trying to reach the undine's tamer, but she retreated agilely, maintaining her distance while her creature continued saturating the soil with moisture. Meanwhile, the dwarf treant had remained motionless, apparently accumulating energy. Its trunk pulsed with an increasingly intense glow, the bark seeming to breathe as it expanded and contracted rhythmically. "Phase two: extension," indicated its tamer when the cricket emerged briefly to confirm that the tunnels were complete. The undine directed its elemental energy straight to the treant, water flowing from its hands into the plant creature's base. The connection formed a shimmering arc between them, power transferring visibly from one beast to the other. The transformation was immediate and remarkable. The dwarf treant's roots began extending and branching with unnatural speed. Like vegetal serpents, they slid through the newly created tunnels, spreading outward in an expanding network beneath the arena floor. "Normally dwarf treants are very slow although their roots are very strong. But the moisture," Ren noted, observing how the undine continued feeding it with elemental water and keeping the soil saturated. "The water not only weakens the earth, it also allows the trent's absorption ability to work faster. It's a basic elemental synergy between wood and water, but doubly effective thanks to their specific passives." The Stone Lurker, though slow, wasn't stupid. Sensing that the real danger came from underground, it began stomping the ground with its extremities, trying to collapse the tunnels and crush the invading roots. But it was too late... "Final phase: constriction!" shouted the treant's tamer. The water undine suddenly submerged into the wet ground, disappearing from sight. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then, the terrain around the Stone Lurker began to shake violently. In a perfectly orchestrated demonstration, dozens of massive roots simultaneously emerged from the ground, wrapping around the Stone Lurker and anchoring it in place. Other roots, thinner but equally strong, introduced themselves into the natural cracks in its rocky surface. The stone beast struggled against its vegetal bindings, its mouth opening completely in what almost seemed like a silent roar. But the roots, strengthened by water and nutrients from the earth, squeezed with immense force. "Crush it!" ordered the treant's tamer with a firm voice, his hand closing into a fist to direct the final attack. The dwarf treant began contracting all its roots at once, exerting constant pressure from multiple angles. Its trunk shuddered with effort, the glow intensifying to almost blinding brightness. The sound was like a mountain splitting apart.