"Kael..." Neraxis sighed in annoyance while, at the same time, preparing to fight.
However, to his surprise, one of the two students he couldn't recognize stepped up.
It was a kid with a proud smirk—and annoyingly long brown hair to boot.
Yet what he did next made Neraxis's brows furrow as, without warning, the student struck at Kael's face.
Kael seemed unamused by the action. With a mere tilt of his head, he evaded and, in the next instant, sent a punch straight toward the attacker's stomach.
But to everyone's surprise, Kael's punch was caught right before it reached its target.
The student who managed to do that wore a proud expression while condescendingly glaring at Kael.
Obviously, such a feat was impossible unless the student's strength had reached E- rank.
Therefore, there was only one option left: foul play, which, for some reason, Magnus was ignoring.
Evangeline, he's using a skill, right? he questioned, just to be sure.
[Yeah, something along the lines of physical reinforcement—a pretty neat trick, if I do say so myself,] she remarked, and he responded with a nod before glancing toward Magnus.
To his surprise, Magnus met his gaze and simply shrugged, returning to watching the fight between Kael and the mysterious cheating student unfold.
Is he letting this happen on purpose? But why? Neraxis thought, and in the very next moment, Kael's hand flickered toward the nearby student.
Soon, a spray of blood shot into the sky as the student now had a hole running clean through his chest, narrowly missing the heart.
"Sorry, my hand slipped," Kael said with a small laugh, ignoring the looks of horror from the students nearby.
The student quickly dropped to the ground, his face going slack. But Magnus intervened, flashing a glare at Kael before disappearing from sight, the student in hand.
Five left, Neraxis noted, seemingly uninterested.
Magnus let it go on, and it was only natural for Kael to pay it back in kind.
After all, out of everyone in class, he and Celina were the only ones who shouldn't be messed with carelessly.
Also, since this was quite a prestigious academy, the student wouldn't die—the healers here were quite special.
But now, another problem arose as Kael stared at Neraxis, his green tattoos lighting up.
"The distractions are gone, so what do you say we continue our earlier spar?"
"But you lost," Neraxis commented with a sigh before summoning his sword.
Whether Magnus was doing this on purpose to mess with Kael or not—who knew?
But one thing was certain: there would be no more holding back from either of the last five students left.
However, before he could make his way toward Kael, Soren appeared from the side, his blue eyes glowing.
Like before, Kael flicked his hand, about to whisk Soren away as if he were a fly.
But to everyone's surprise, Kael's tattoos didn't light up. Instead, a kick landed square on his jaw, sending him flying back a fair distance.
Neraxis stared at the scene with widened eyes. Is that a suppression skill? One that can turn off skills?
[Yes, that seems to be the case...] Evangeline stated, her voice tinged with surprise.
Damn... If he uses it well, then— Neraxis's thoughts were interrupted as, out of nowhere, the second classmate whose name he didn't know appeared, striking at him with a whip that seemed to be made of fire.
Quickly reacting, he used a Sword Dash to appear before the student and, without a second thought, stabbed straight into his ribs.
The sword was dull enough not to cut, but the impact was immense—Neraxis could practically feel the bones caving in and giving way under the sword.
But just as the bones caved in, they quickly bounced back as though he had just hit rubber.
Soon, the expression on the student's face turned to one of relief before he suddenly swung the whip down again.
These special class students are all freaks, he thought before dodging the whip and stepping closer.
That seemed to alarm the student, who swung his whip back in a panic. Just before it could reach Neraxis, he ducked.
"AAAH!" The student's scream rang out as his whip impacted his own face, leaving a scorching mark and catching his short black hair on fire.
Ouch. A shiver went down Neraxis's spine. Without wasting time, he delivered a sideways kick, sending the student tumbling off the platform.
But as he did, he realized Magnus wasn't around to put out the fires.
To Neraxis's surprise, the blue light embedded in the student's bodysuit suddenly began glowing.
Soon, the scorch mark faded, and the fire spreading through his hair halted too.
A very weak healing ability in the form of some weird energy, huh... interesting. Neraxis noted it down before turning to the side and meeting Celina's gaze.
"That was pretty pathetic," she remarked, glancing at the out-of-bounds student.
"Yeah, wasn't exactly a very smart move, bu—" Neraxis's words were interrupted again, though this time not by an attack.
Celina appeared before him, her daggers resting on both of his cheeks as she stared straight into his eyes.
Even though, under normal circumstances, he would feel threatened, this situation felt oddly playful.
"Do you want to fight?" she asked softly, pulling her daggers back and stashing them at her waist.
Neraxis's initial plan was to save his skills for the last fight, which would likely be against Kael, since he'd certainly lose without them.
But now, it seemed he'd need to use them on Celina instead.
[Why do you care so much about beating him?] Evangeline questioned in a puzzled tone.
I don't want my perfect 2-0 record to be stained. He replied smugly, even though that wasn't exactly the reason.
A loss meant he wasn't improving as fast as Kael—and he couldn't have that.
The experience, the skill usage—Kael was closing the gap with every single waking moment, and likely, the next fight would be Neraxis's first loss.
But... He glanced back into Celina's eyes. "Sure."
She merely smiled before completely vanishing from his view, just like the many times before.
Neraxis drew his sword in an arc behind him, trying to catch her usual patterns.
But alas, she wasn't behind him—or in front of him, for that matter.
However, he suddenly spotted a shadow to his left, which he quickly struck at.
A clash between metal resounded, but before his strike could fully connect, the shadow moved.
Turning around, he spotted it moving toward him at a slow pace, as if teasing him.
Neraxis decided to try his luck—more importantly, something that would ensure she wouldn't escape his sight.
Therefore, he used Eve of Ruin's Mark of Decay, and immediately, a black orb appeared exactly where he was looking.
Bingo. He smirked before suddenly dashing in her direction and slashing his sword sideways, trying to hit her.
To his surprise, the sword merely went through the black orb, and in the very next moment, her amused voice echoed around him.
"Is that the instant kill skill?"
"Instant kill? No?" he answered, puzzled, before swinging his sword once again, trying to hit where the black orb was.
But yet again, it was the same result.
Just what is she doing?