The first student stepped forward, a blonde, overconfident swordsman.
Julian nodded. "Good. Point to the one you wish to fight."
"Hmm..." The student fell into thought for a few moments before pointing at the black-haired senior from earlier.
A faint smile appeared on Julian’s face, but it soon faded.
"His name is Jean, and he’s someone who has a bloodline related to Gravity, just like me," Julian said confidently.
Julian has a gravity bloodline...? Raelis mused with mild surprise. I guess that explains how he was so easily able to deal with Zeri’s final attack. Freezing projectiles in midair like that wasn’t normal at all.
The confident student and Jean exchanged a few glances and approached each other.
Jean was surprisingly calm, a stark contrast to how talkative he’d been earlier.
Once they were a few meters apart, Julian stepped forward and raised his hand.
"Remember the rules. The spar ends when one of you is knocked out or thrown out of the arena."
After receiving a nod from the two, he brought his arm down, signaling the start of the fight.
The confident student unsheathed his sword in a heartbeat and slashed vertically.
With a bored glance, Jean stepped aside and raised his palm, almost like he was flicking away an insect.
In the very next moment, the confident student, who was in the middle of a swing, froze.
Less than a second later, his sword crumbled, and his legs twisted at odd angles, with loud cracks resounding.
Of course, that was soon followed by a pained scream.
"AAAAAAH! Y-You! This is a spar!" the student yelled. "If I knew you were going to fight , then I wouldn’t have held back!"
"Pfft... held back?" Jean said. "With your feeble strength, I don’t think there was much to hold back."
A large smirk appeared on his face.
"After all, you’re weak."
Silence descended, and after 5 seconds, Julian clapped his hands once.
"Round over. Jean won," Julian announced, then turned his gaze to the students. "So who’s next?"
"..." fre eweb\(n)ovel(.)co(m)
Raelis scratched his cheek.
I don’t think anyone wants to go after that...
A few hours later, 161 students had fought.
That included Clea, Auren, Alice, and the others.
Out of every student present, Clea and Auren were the only ones who managed to defeat a senior.
Their fights took a considerable amount of time, but Clea’s was the most interesting.
She fought against a person who wielded an earth-type bloodline, so he was incredibly durable.
But that was where Clea’s special abilities came in. She could practically cut through anything by sharpening her nails.
Even though it looked easy, Clea nearly lost because the senior was that powerful.
Unsurprisingly, after the first round by Jean, no one else dared to approach him.
They chose the other seniors, even if they looked slightly scary.
And yet, their bloodlines and abilities weren’t that special. Instead, the way they used what they had was enough to set them apart from the normal batch of students.
Still... Raelis glanced to the side.
He locked eyes with Jean.
He’s been staring at me for a while now.
Noticing that no one had stepped up in the past five minutes, Raelis decided to go next.
"Hmm?" Julian tilted his head, a look of amusement appearing on his face. "Raelis, who will you fight? There are eight seniors remaining, most of whom are in peak condition."
Raelis pointed at the one on the far right end.
"I’d like to fight Kyros."
"Hmm, a water mage? Sure, it’s nice to test your limits from time to time," Julian remarked with a chuckle.
With that, Raelis stepped forward, and Kyros followed.
"It almost looks like you chose me because you’re looking down on me. You do know water beats fire, right?" Kyros asked, baffled.
Raelis didn’t respond as he simply waited for Julian to start the match.
And after a few moments, he did.
The ground cracked beneath Raelis’s feet as a sharp torrent of water emerged, yet as it was about to make contact with his skin, he used Basic Flame Step.
Thanks to how well he understood the ability, he was able to arrive in front of Kyros in an instant, wasting little to no mana.
He was so fast, in fact, that Kyros only had enough time to create a single-layered water barrier around his face as Raelis’s fist struck head-on.
A loud crack resounded, followed by a few droplets of blood hitting the ground.
They belonged to none other than Kyros, who had a surprised expression on his face. But at the same time, a broken nose.
"You’re fast..." Kyros remarked, his eyes bloodshot. "But if you think that’s going to work twice on me, then you’re wrong."
Raelis tapped the hilt of his daggers, considering taking them out. Or maybe even using the Flame Body technique.
Yet he soon went against that idea as he Flame Stepped toward Kyros.
But unlike last time, he was met with a fully durable shield made of water that slowed Raelis’s movement considerably.
Then, the water wrapped itself around Raelis’s limbs, completely restricting his movements.
And yet, Raelis wasn’t panicking in the slightest.
A victorious smile appeared on Kyros’s face as he stepped closer to Raelis.
"That was a bit easier than I expected. Did you not want to win or something?" Kyros mused. "Not like it matters. I’ll have to visit the infirmary after I’m done here anyway."
He raised a single hand, causing a sharp water blade to appear.
With a single thought, the water blade burst forward, heading for Raelis’s left arm.
That was when something completely unexpected happened.
A single fireball formed in front of Raelis’s chest, and from its sheer heat alone, it managed to completely destabilize the water that had bound him.
At the same time, the water blade that had been heading toward him turned to vapor.
Kyros’s eyes widened as he summoned a large water shield in front of himself.
However, when Raelis let the giant fireball fly loose, it turned Kyros’s entire shield into vapor.
But as it was about to engulf Kyros and kill him, Raelis controlled the fireball to fly upward.
Then, he clenched his fists, causing it to burst like a firework into three different colors.
White, golden, and silver.
Kyros’s attention waned for only a moment as he glanced above in amazement.
Snapping out of his stupor, he lowered his gaze.
However, Raelis was already gone without a trace.
Kyros was about to turn around and look for him, but a cold steel dagger stopped him from doing so.
Of course, that dagger belonged to none other than Raelis, who had used the decoy to reposition.
Kyros took a deep breath. The edge of the dagger grazed his neck, drawing a thin line of blood.
And only then did he realize that trying further was not going to work, and the only way to save face was simple.
"I forfeit..." Kyros said with a sigh. "I really didn’t expect to fight someone like you. Just what is up with that flame of yours, huh? It’s too strong."
A faint smile appeared on Raelis’s face. "You’re not half bad yourself."
"Oh? The flame boy talks?" Kyros chuckled and extended his hand. "Would you like to spar sometime?"
Raelis stared at the outstretched hand for a few moments, not sure whether to accept.
But he had come here primarily to gain allies, and naturally, he could turn friends into allies.
Julian coughed, getting their attention. "The match is over. Good job, Raelis. You may go back now. You too, Kyros."
Kyros nodded at the two of them and made his way to the other seniors.
Raelis, however, remained still.
"Is something wrong?" Julian asked, puzzled. "It’s done, so you can go to the cafeteria. Lunch will start soon."
Raelis ignored Julian’s words and pointed toward another senior, a white-haired man whose knuckles were all bloodied.
"I want to fight him next."