Luo Bingqing stood in the ring with a serious expression, his eyes fixed on Azrael.
The reason he had decided to step into the ring was simply because he wanted to see the difference in strength between himself and Azrael.
The rankings of the Elite Class students were not permanent. Every three months, there would be an official examination, and rankings would be decided based on those results.
Every person in the Elite Class aimed for the first rank in order to gain greater benefits.
As the current third-ranked student, Luo Bingqing wanted to test the waters before the examination three months later to determine how much he needed to prepare in order to attempt taking the top spot.
Azrael had seen Luo Bingqing coming out of the third mansion earlier and thus knew that he was the third-ranked student. Because of this, Azrael was far more serious now than he had been when fighting Dante earlier.
"Are you guys ready?" Ronald asked once Azrael and Luo Bingqing had introduced themselves.
Hearing Ronald, both of them nodded.
"Alright, start!" Ronald announced loudly.
The moment the match began, an ice wall rose in front of Luo Bingqing, and he swiftly leapt back.
His control over cosmic energy was far superior to Dante's, and since he had already witnessed Azrael's attack speed, the first thing he did after the match began was to create distance between them.
He had only moved a few meters back when the ice wall shattered with a deafening crack, breaking into icy fragments as Azrael charged toward him.
Seeing Azrael close in, Luo Bingqing's expression sharpened.
Suddenly, Azrael lost his balance and nearly fell. However, using precise control over his body, he planted his right hand on the ground to steady himself and leapt sideways.
It was then that he noticed a thin layer of ice covering the floor, which had caused him to slip and lose his balance.
The moment Azrael landed from his sideways leap, the temperature around him plummeted sharply and in an instant, dozens of razor-sharp icicles formed in midair, surrounding him from all directions.
'When it comes to manipulating cosmic energy, he's much faster than the Elite Vampire I fought in the Tower of Trials,' Azrael thought, recalling how the Elite Vampire had once used a similar move against him—though that opponent had been far slower than Luo Bingqing.
As the icicles rained down toward him, Azrael's eyes flashed with a vivid green light, and the next moment—
Blades of wind formed around him, shooting outward in all directions with Azrael at the center.
The wind blades clashed with the falling icicles, and in an instant—
Bang! Bang! Bang! — — — — —
Every icicle shattered into clouds of icy dust.
At the same time, Luo Bingqing's instincts screamed danger. Instantly, two thick ice walls rose to his left and right, shielding him from an unseen attack.
The moment they formed, two razor-sharp wind blades seemed to materialize out of nowhere, slamming into the walls and almost breaking through in a single strike.
Azrael raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed that Luo Bingqing had sensed his sudden attack. But he didn't slow down and immediately stepped forward to close the distance.
The instant he moved, however, he felt something unusual. Looking down, he saw that some of the icy dust from the shattered icicles earlier had clung to his body.
Luo Bingqing's eyes gleamed with cold blue light, and the next moment, the icy dust on Azrael's body began to move, trying to envelop him completely and turn him into a frozen statue.
Simultaneously, walls of ice rose on all sides, trapping him inside as the temperature inside the enclosure dropped to the very bottom in mere seconds, plunging far below zero.
"He's got him! Even a high-level Elite Monster wouldn't be able to escape this move," Xavier said in an excited voice when he saw Luo Bingqing trap Azrael in the ice.
Hazel and Richard were equally thrilled, as they were well aware of how strong this technique was. Luo Bingqing had used it against them in previous spars, and the extreme cold had rendered their bodies sluggish and their minds frozen, leaving them unable to break through even a single ice wall.
Luo Bingqing's face was pale now as he had poured all of his cosmic energy into this one move. His gaze remained fixed on the cube-shaped ice prison, watching it intently.
The walls of the cage were trembling slightly, showing that someone inside was attacking them. But having spent over one hundred points of cosmic energy to create the walls and freeze Azrael's body beforehand, Luo Bingqing felt confident that he could keep him trapped until the cold forced him to surrender.
Ronald watched the ice cage without any visible change in expression.
'It's over…' He said to himself and the next second—
A terrifying burst of power erupted from within the cage.
Luo Bingqing's expression changed instantly, and he tried to reinforce the structure. But—
The ice cage suddenly exploded, and a massive green tornado, with Azrael at its center spiraled upward toward the gymnasium ceiling.
The tornado instantly rose to a height of twenty meters, its immense pull making it difficult for Luo Bingqing and the other students to keep their footing.
Ronald raised his hand and neutralized the tornado's suction, containing its effect entirely within the ring.
Standing at the tornado's core, Azrael appeared completely unharmed, with only a few icy crystals still clinging to his clothes.
His indifferent gaze locked on Luo Bingqing, who was struggling to resist the pull by holding onto a small ice pillar he had created.
"Let's end this…" He muttered in a low voice, slightly raising his hand.
As he did so, the tornado began to contract, winding itself tightly around his arm like a swirling gauntlet.
Azrael shifted into a punching stance, his left leg positioned slightly behind. His eyes glowed green once more as he stepped forward and threw a punch.
A deafening blast echoed as the spinning tornado wrapped around his arm erupted forward with devastating force.
Like the gaping maw of a beast, the wind surged toward Luo Bingqing, carving a deep scar into the ring floor as it advanced.
Luo Bingqing's face went pale with terror as he felt the breath of death coming from the approaching attack.
He hastily formed ice walls to block it, but with his cosmic energy completely depleted, they were weak and shattered instantly.
The tornado reached him in the blink of an eye, and just when it was about to consume him—
A gentle wave of energy dispersed it entirely.
"Alright, the match is over," Ronald announced, appearing beside Luo Bingqing without anyone noticing, having stopped the attack in time.