In an open stretch of the Virtual Forest, several figures furtively poked their heads out of the bushes. These students were also freshmen at Shrek Academy, but none had made the Young Genius Ranking. In their class, they were ordinary performers who rarely drew attention.
"Look! It's Yang Nianxia and Tang Wulin!" one of them whispered, greed flickering in his eyes. "There are only two of them, and Tang Wulin looks like a support system type. With this many of us, if we eliminate them, we'll have a chance to compete for Class Monitor!"
"Right! Attack before they notice us!"
At a low shout, they sprang from their hiding places. Soul rings flashed as a disorganized barrage of attacks hurtled toward Tang Wulin and Yang Nianxia.
Tang Wulin instinctively began to raise his hand, ready to restrain them with Blue Silver Grass. After all, as far as he was concerned, even small fry were still classmates. If he could settle this without violence, he would.
"Wulin, my friend, leave this to me! Small fry like these aren't worth dirtying your hands!"
Before Tang Wulin could unleash his soul skill, however, Yang Nianxia charged out like an enraged giant bear.
"Roar!"
Three soul rings—yellow, purple, and purple—flashed in turn beneath Yang Nianxia's feet as his Dark Gold Bear martial soul possessed him. His already burly frame instantly swelled to two and a half meters tall, his muscles knotted, and a layer of short, dark-gold fur covered his skin.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With the overwhelming force of "one measure of strength subduing ten measures of skill," he plowed straight into the ambushers. Their seemingly sturdy soul skill attacks were as flimsy as paper before his terrifying physical strength. A few headlong charges and several screams later, the attackers were blasted out of