Max assessed his situation after the fourth lightning strike and realised that he had no direct means to handle the power of the lightning from the sky.
He was not sure if he was allowed to use indirect means to block the lightning or not, but at the moment it seemed like a better option than being roasted alive so he decided to take the gamble.
[ Giant Summoning ]
Max summoned his 3 giants and asked the first giant to stand over him in such a way that Max was sheltered under his legs and then told the other two to do the same and wrap arms around each other's shoulders to create an umbrella type layer of extra protection.
*Kaboom-Thunder*
Lightning struck the three giants above him and a second later Max heard a loud *THUD*
The massive giants had become paralyzed and their humongous HP pools were reduced to a critically red HP bar, even with the three of them sharing the load, all three were barely alive.
[ System Notification - You have survived the fifth lightning strike. Survive one more to pass the trial and five more for a perfect score ]
Max's breathing quickened, thankfully he was not penalised for using indirect means to deal with the lightning, which meant that he could pull one more trick off to at least survive this stage.
The gears in his head turned at full speed trying to think of what more he could do to survive the lightning as in his focused state Max did not notice the qualitative changes taking place inside his body.
His body had started to digest the latent thunder energy of this special lightning as his body was finally moving away from the realm of a mere mortal to the realm of a demi-god.
Tier4 was a benchmark that separated the best from the rest.
In the wide universe where trillions of individuals resided, only a few million were ever able to reach the tier4 realm.
Those warriors that did reach this threshold were considered important assets of any army/ organisation in the world.
A qualitative change occured inside an individual when they turned from tier3 to tier4 which was primarily in their rate of utilisation of mana.
At tier4 a warrior's mana veins widened and was capable of handling a much more robust load which made them capable of producing spells with large scale destruction capabilities.
If the mana veins of a tier3 warrior were like a house tap, whose maximum flow rate could only tickle the skin, the mana veins of a tier4 warrior were like a fire hose that could cut through stone.
A similar change also occurred inside one's muscle structure as the muscles became much more elastic and dense, giving the warrior the capability to express his/ her explosive strength much better.
While Max did not understand that he was evolving in real time, his body became better and purer every passing second.
For saving himself from the last mandatory attack, Max closed his eyes and activated his [ Way Of The Wind ] to the maximum.
In one hand he prepared his Inferno spell alongside Fire Compression, ready to unleash it towards a lightning strike the second he sensed it coming.
Max had already tried thrice to see if he could actually see the attack incoming but he could not. His eyes were not fast enough to catch the movement of incoming lightning and hence he now had to rely on his way of the wind for sensing the attack before it came.
With his eyes closed, Max could feel every leaf movement swaying to the wind, alongside every droplet of water forming within the clouds above his head.
His hyper senses felt overexert while tracking so many objects at once as Max's back became drenched in sweat.
He technically had only one single shot to counter the lightning as it struck, and if he missed the timing by even a split second he would definitely end up getting hit by the attack.
*Frrrrr*
*Kaboom-Thunder*
*LABOOM*
Max sensed a slight vacuum pocket being created high above his head, as he instantly released the compressed inferno spell, hoping that the lightning strike had indeed been formed.
Everything moved so fast, that even Max himself was only able to witness the subsequent explosion which occured when his fire met with the thunder from the sky and created a streak of beautiful fireworks.
His attack which was around peak tier4/ early tier5 strength was actually neutralised by the lightning strike as Max did end up still getting a small electrical buzz from the remnant energy as he received a -2000 damage.
Max's eyes widened in surprise, just the sixth attack in the sequence was strong enough to reach tier5 strength, which meant that the subsequent attacks would undoubtedly transcend into the realm of the true god's.
[ System Notification - You have successfully survived 6/10 lightning strikes and have passed this trial with a C grade evaluation, you may choose to stop now or recieve the 7th strike.
Do you wish to end the trial now?
Yes
No ]
Max read the notification with much relief, however, the ' C ' grade evaluation part bothered him a lot.
Max had already pushed himself to his absolute limits and was not sure that he could do anything new that would help him survive the 7th strike which was sure to be much more powerful than the 6th one, but in retrospect he knew that he would rather die than be mediocre in this lifetime.
He was not settling for a ' C ' grade evaluation and even if it killed him he was going to persistently keep pushing forward.
Selecting ' No ' Max gritted his teeth and began preparing yet another Inferno spell enhanced by the fire compression spell, hoping that the clash of the two attacks will give him half a second to prepare a subsequent attack that would further reduce the power of the 7th lightning strike.
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/// A/N - This chapter marks the 50 chapter mark for this month, which is the highest ever recorded pace, with 2 weeks still left to go for this month!
Let's go guys! ///