It had been minutes since Ren started his pursuit on Luna Longbow. After her attempt to snipe Ren failed miserably, Luna began to retreat from her enemy. Since then, Ren tried to chase her. This was the best chance for Ren to put himself at least on the third place and prevent his demotion from S Class.
This was because just not long after he started his pursuit on Luna, an announcement rang out and informed the elimination of Vesto Aspas from the test. That's mean that right now there were only four candidates that still on this test.
If he could eliminated Luna, he could grabbed at least the third place.
However, it seems that it would not be easy to track her. As a wind magic specialist, she could conceal the sound of her surroundings and made it harder to track her, even he used Aura Sense to enhanced his hearing.
Ren detected a sound of people in hurry from northwest. He turned to that direction and started increased his pace. After going through the bushes and trees that barely hindered on his path, Ren reached an open space.
And it seems that he was not alone. In front of him, two figures were staring to each other and a few of magic formulas hovered near them. There were Marcus and Elena. Elena was holding something looked like a spear made by ice and a few levitating Ice Bolt near her while Marcus with flames on his hands and a few will o wisp floating near him.
Both of them noticed Ren arrival on that place and turned their attention to Ren at the same time.
"Ahahaha, looks like I'm interrupting your business. Please don't mind me and continue your fight. I will get out of here." Ren put his hand on the back of head and laughed awkwardly. He quickly turned his back from those two.
Before he could took a single step, a blast of fireball and icicle lew past him by his left and right side and hit trees in front of him. The hit surprised him a little.
"What was that for?" Ren asked with flustered voice. The volume of his voice raised a little.
"Don't you think you can run away from here." Elena opened her mouth. Her voice was flat as her expression looked as stoic as ever. Then, it was Marcus's turn to speak.
"Hahahaha, it seems I don't have to find you, Milford. You are miraculously appear before me."
Both of them now had turned their bodies towards Ren. It looked like they had changed their target and made Ren as enemy.
"Whoa, whoa!! Hold up!! Let's talk first. It was not fair for me fighting you two at the same time. Show some mercy." Ren opened his palm and put it in front to calm those two.
"Right. You should stay there, Marcus. He is my prey. I will not tolerate if you disturb my fight." Elena spoke, still emotionless.
"Hah!! As if I would listen to you. I already told this man I would fight and humiliate him in this test, so I would not back away. Moreover, as the saying goes, early bird will catches the worm."
After he said that, Marcus immediately blitzed towards Ren in seconds. He wrapped his fists with flames and struck one of them at Ren. He was shocked as Ren dodged the strike quite easily.
It was a perk of using Aura Sensory. Ren already used Aura Sensory to heightened his observation skills and read Marcus's attack. With a swift movement, Ren attacked Marcus with an uppercut, but Marcus evaded it barely by leaning his back slightly.
As Ren punched the air, two ice bolts flew towards his direction. However, only one of them was aiming for him while the other went towards Marcus. Noticing the incoming Ice Bolt, both of them leaped backwards as the ice bolts stabbed on the ground they previously stood.
As Ren tried to regain his footing, Elena coming to him with an ice spear and thrusted it onto Ren.
[Rock Pillar]
Ren casted an Earth-type spell and a long block of stone came out from ground diagonally towards Ren. The block hit Ren from the front and made him knocked back a little before the ice spear could reached and penetrated him.
Elena flustered seeing Ren used his own magic against him so that he could avoided the spear. This was the first time she witnessed such an unorthodox way to use magic.
After Ren regained his footing, he quickly casted a water-type magic and directed it towards Elena. At the same time, Marcus at the back of Elena, also constructed a magic of his own and shot it to Elena's back.
Marcus already planned to get rid of Elena from the beginning. He pretended to change his target to Ren and attacked him to let Elena lower her guard. When Elena met Ren on close quarter combat, he went to Elena's back and threw a magic attack from behind.
[Water Cannon]
[Blaze Arrow]
Elena looked at the incoming attacks that aimed at her from front and her back. She still looked composed and never wavered a bit. Then, she started muttered her own magic in a low voice.
[Frost Domain]
In an instant, any substances near her turned into ice. The ground, the trees that surrounded them had became frozen solid. Ren could felt the cold air penetrated his skin. The temperature there dropped significantly.
The water stream that Ren shot just now was also been frozen and became an ice while the arrow of flame that flew towards Elena before had been extinguished by the frosty air that filled this place. By looking at its feat, Ren guessed it was a 4th circle magic.
Ren and Marcus felt dumbfounded after witnessing the extent of Elena's power. Marcus conjured dozens of fireball and throwing them at Elena one by one. But, a series of ice bolt coming from the ground and clashed with every bit of Marcus's fireball and protected Elena.
The *huff* sound clearly be heard coming from Marcus's mouth. After series of attack he threw at Elena, he began to show exhaustion and started gasping for air. Marcus felt more irritated as not even one of his attack could hit Elena.
"Damn it!!" Marcus cursed to no one.
"I already told you before.I will not tolerate it if you disturb my fight." Elena constructed a new spell and dozens of magic formula began to appear in the sky.
[Requiem of Snow]
Spears with various shape emerged from the dozen of magic formulas and all of them were pointing at Marcus. With a command from her, those spears went towards Marcus with accelerating speed.
Marcus avoided and deflected most of the spears with his magic but with that huge number, he couldn't avoided every one of them. Some of the spears completely penetrated his limbs. His body was covered in blood caused by the penetrated spears on his body. His breath was heavier than before.
"Just surrender. You have no hope to turn this around." Elena ordered him.
"In your dreams!! You forced me to show my card earlier than I hoped." After he said those words, Marcus reached the inner pocket of his uniform and pulled a pendant from there. He then crushed the pendant with his palm.
A sudden surge of energy began to emerge and circulated around him. Marcus's body was engulfed by a red flame and the mana inside of his body was increasing exponentially. His magic power currently could rivalled a 5th circle mage.
"Hahahaha!! Witness the true power of my bloodline magic. Pride of Merra." Marcus laughed hysterically.
Bloodline Magic, or also called as Inherited Magic is a type of Magic that is unique to those sharing the same bloodline or ancestry. Only a handful of high noble family did have this type of magic and every family had different kind of magic as their Bloodline Magic. One could only inherit one Bloodline Magic although the parents possessed different Bloodline Magic.
For Blaze family, their Bloodline Magic was known as 'Pride of Merra', where the user borrowed a fragment of Merra the Fire God's power as their own. When this magic was activated, the user would be engulfed on red flames and their magic would raised exponentially, same thing what had happened to Marcus right now.
"Now, princess. It's time to settle this once and for all!" Marcus leaped upward into the sky and conjured a massive fireball from the palm of his right hand. But before he could released his magic, an announcement suddenly sounded out.
[Marcus Blaze had violated the test rule. He would be ejected from testing ground immediately.]
Marcus was surprised with the sudden announcement. "What are you tal..." He couldn't finished the sentenced as he was ejected and vanished from there. The huge fireball he conjured before also vanished with him.
Ren blinked a few times. He quite astonished with the event occured before him. At one moment, a man with huge amount of magic power threatened him with a giant fireball and in a blink, the man suddenly vanished.
Then, Ren let out a sigh of relief. Whatever happened, he felt grateful that he still on the test. However, it was not over yet. A spear went past him as he dodged it in time. In front of him, Elena was staring hard at him. On her right and left side, dozens of ice spear was floating in the air, ready to thrust her foe.
Ren smiled. "It seems this princess is not wasting any time. Now then, should I entertain her?" Ren asked rhetorically as he stretched his shoulder.