Chaos intensified.
Screams echoed as our comrades fell one by one. Some were taken down cleanly. Others, too slow or clumsy, didn't even have time to understand what was happening to them.
Kaera showed no mercy. She didn't need to.
Within minutes, the ten students were reduced to four. Then three.
"Damn… this is really bad."
It wasn't just a matter of being outmatched. Every elimination was permanent in this phase — and Kaera knew it well. This wasn't just a simple race for points.
It was strategic.
The more members of our class we lost, the greater our long-term disadvantage. This was more than an exam. It was endurance, territory, domination. And she knew it.
She was already playing the next game.
But so was I.
I tightened my grip on the handle of my odachi. My gaze fixed on her, unwavering.
I could use [Shiva Eyes].
But I wasn't allowed.
Not here.
Not now.
I knew the cost. Activating my Trait would likely give me an opening to defeat her, but the backlash would be brutal. Far too brutal.
If I used it now, I probably wouldn't be able to use it again until the trial was over. And that was out of the question.
No, my goal wasn't to defeat her.
Just… to get through.
To reach the base.
Once inside, I'd be safe. She couldn't touch me.
I didn't need to win.
I had to survive.
One of the two remaining students launched a desperate attack, screaming as he sent a concentrated fireball straight at Kaera.
She didn't even move.
A simple wave of her hand, and a crystal flower blossomed in the air. The explosion was absorbed, muffled as if it had never happened.
The boy froze.
Too late.
A scarlet ice filament shot out, hardened in midair, and pierced him cleanly. He vanished in a burst of light.
Only two left.
A heavy silence settled.
Kaera wiped her lips with the back of her hand, stained with a trace of blood.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch, Noah?"
I didn't answer.
The other looked at me, panicked.
"What do we do?! She's going to take us all down!"
I swallowed.
I slowly slid the tip of my blade to the ground. The metal grazed the surface with a muted, almost imperceptible sound.
A chilling wave spread rapidly, compressing the air. The thermal shock was so fierce that thick frost covered the ground in less than a second.
The ground, the stones, even the grass… all coated in a translucent, smooth, silent frost. The atmosphere froze.
Kaera frowned slightly.
[White Symphony]
This wasn't an ordinary spell. It was known among ice users but rarely mastered. Too demanding. Its mana consumption was absurd — you needed a Grandmaster rank core to use it properly.
When Noah was younger, he had taken the time to learn it, convinced that the day he regained a functional mana core, this spell would become a pillar of his arsenal.
And he was right. Later, at full potential, [White Symphony] could freeze an entire domain, turning its user into an absurdly powerful, nearly untouchable force.
The cold seeped everywhere: in the air, in the ground, in bodies. But most importantly, in the mana.
And that's where it became dangerous for her.
I knew how her blood worked. Full of mana, constantly flowing — the heart of her power. But in this unusual cold, the mana flow lost stability. It reacted poorly, slowed down, became confused.
As if my own mana disrupted hers, scrambling signals, chilling her internal flow.
She tried to move. But her motions lost fluidity. Her gaze changed. She understood.
She was losing control.
The ice responded to every movement of my blade. Whenever it touched the ground, sharp, precise spikes shot up. I shaped the terrain as I wished, block by block.
My body screamed under the strain. My core burned like a fierce fire, every breath was a struggle. Yet, the more pain rose, the sharper and more precise the ice became, under my command.
It was a death zone. A frozen hell I controlled.
This was [White Symphony]. Within this frozen perimeter, the user became the absolute center. Their affinity was multiplied.
The circle closed. Not a dome, but controlled terrain. Light twisted within. The air vibrated.
Inside, Kaera was losing ground. Her crystals took longer to form. Her blood no longer responded the same way. Her strength was melting away, slowly but surely.
I turned to my comrade. I was out of breath, fingers clenched on my weapon.
"Follow me… if you can."
He nodded, more out of instinct than conviction. His legs trembled. He ran.
And so did I.
Kaera, despite the ice, tried to stop them. A volley of crystalline spikes shot through the air. I felt them vibrate, filled with unstable but deadly mana.
I moved.
[Silent Flow].
My body bent, twisted, slipped like pure flowing water between the projectiles.
My torso tilted at an impossible angle, my leg traced a spiral that would have broken anyone else's balance. I felt the breath of shards brush my cheek, but I kept moving forward.
The world slowed down.
Kaera blinked. She was used to seeing me stiff, hesitant, defensive. Not like this.
Not like a dancer.
I vanished from one spot and reappeared a meter away, my footing invisible, trajectory unpredictable.
[Silent Flow] wasn't made to confront. It was made to dominate the rhythm. To unbalance, to destabilize.
I spun between the shards, brushing the frozen walls I had erected, dodging mana blades with unreal ease.
She struck, with all her might. A fist charged with pure mana.
I didn't expect it — until now, Kaera had always avoided close combat.
I arched back, slipped under her arm, slid on the ground, pushed off one hand and launched myself to the side with a sharp movement.
She growled. It was no longer a duel.
It was a symphony for two, and she was playing offbeat.
But I felt it.
My vision blurred. My breath grew rough. [White Symphony] and [Silent Flow] at the same time… it wasn't sustainable. My core creaked like twisted metal.
So I made my decision.
I glanced at my comrade running beside me. Breathless. Clinging to the idea of survival.
He thought we'd make it out together.
He didn't know.
Not that Kaera couldn't be beaten, not here. Not that I'd ever wanted to defeat her.
He didn't know I only needed one thing.
I slowed my pace by a step. Just one. Then accelerated again, shifting slightly.
Kaera saw the opening.
And she lunged.
I saw him turn, confused. His gaze met mine.
I didn't even blink.
A crystal blade pierced his chest.
He vanished in a shower of light, just in front of the base's door.
Kaera stopped dead.
She understood.
She thought she had trapped me. By attacking my teammate, she thought she'd force me to turn back, defend him, break my run to the entrance.
She thought I'd bite the bait.
But she was the one who took it.
The opening? I created it.
I'd let him advance. Just enough for him to become a target. For her to see a flaw in our defense.
She jumped on it. Too quickly. Too confidently.
She hadn't seen that I'd stopped covering him several seconds ago.
Her attack left a gap.
Just the right amount of time.
I crossed the line. With a firm, unwavering step. The base was mine.
Kaera looked at me.
"I got fooled…" she finally admitted, without hesitation.
"Honestly, I didn't expect such a performance from you."
I let out a dry, harsh, joyless laugh.
"As if you gave it your all. You sure held back."
She raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
"First, you had to stop us from passing while fighting us. That gave you a disadvantage."
"And then, you weren't going to reveal your cards so early."
I tilted my head, almost mockingly.
"Right?"
As she looked at me, a familiar image suddenly came to Kaera's mind: someone she had always known — her older brother, Elric Silvaris.
"You two look alike," she murmured, almost to herself.
"Huh?" I replied, intrigued.
She shook her head.
"Forget it."
Like her brother, Noah gave off the same strange aura. Not that of a genius, no. More like a monster no one could understand.
As she turned to disappear, figures began to emerge from the forest. Leading the group was a stunning elf, with snow-white hair and deep emerald eyes: Maelys.
Kaera watched them for a moment, exhaled softly, then a diamond-blue energy began to pulse around her.
And in an instant, she vanished.