The terrain shifted for the final time.
Deep fissures split open the ground, and molten lava surged up, filling the chasms like a fiery lake.
The heat that suddenly descended upon the coliseum was almost unbearable.
Yes, the last shift in terrain had created a sea of lava, with small islands of solid ground floating atop it.
Some Cadets failed to move in time when the ground cracked open and fell into the molten red sea.
As soon as their flesh made contact with the lava, the protective barriers of their orbs shattered.
However, before any of them could be harmed, several shadows fell from the sky and swooped in to rescue them — all in the fraction of a second it takes for a heart to beat.
These were the high-level instructors assigned to oversee the exam.
Their job was to ensure that none of the Cadets participating in the evaluation were killed, and they executed their duty perfectly.
Nodding to himself, Samael looked ahead only to see Alexia and Michael locked in a duel on a small patch of solid ground in front of him.
He decided it was time to stop holding back and go all out.
After all, there was no point in saving his Essence and strength when only thirty minutes were left in the exam.
In front of him, Michael charged at the petite girl again, summoning stone obelisks that shot toward her, their jagged edges aimed at her sides.
But Alexia danced around the spikes with ease, weaving in and out as if the stones were moving in slow motion.
She then leaped forward, slamming a spinning heel kick against one of Michael's stone walls and shattering it like glass.
The impact sent chunks of debris shooting toward Michael, who had to raise another wall to block them.
Alexia seized that moment to jump over the wall and descend on the protagonist with an axe kick.
Luckily, he was able to move away in time from the spot where Alexia landed her kick, creating a net of cracks on the ground.
How were her attacks so powerful when she was so small and weighed next to nothing? Michael would never know.
But he knew this was his chance, so he rushed forward again.
At the same time, Samael also decided to jump in on the action.
Alexia smirked as though she was finding all of this very amusing.
In fact, it was amusing. Entertaining, even.
She felt so free being far away from her home and out of the suffocating influence of her father, doing what she loved most — beating her opponents senseless.
She giggled as she danced between the two boys, effortlessly dodging their combined strikes with a playful ease.
Her movements were so efficient that it looked like she wasn't even trying.
She ducked beneath a roundhouse kick from Samael, spun away from Michael's oncoming fist, and twisted her body to deliver a brutal knee to Samael's ribs.
In one spinning motion, she flicked Michael in the forehead with a quick jab that knocked him back a step.
But Samael didn't back down.
Instead, he launched a mix of feints and direct attacks, shifting between fists, elbows, and powerful kicks that would have put any ordinary opponent on the ground in seconds.
Even Alexia was finding it challenging to dodge and block his blows now.
She was being pushed back in hand-to-hand combat. But for some reason, she was enjoying it!
"Oh, now this is good, golden boy!" she exclaimed with palpable excitement. "You had been holding back on me earlier, huh?"
Alexia had met Samael a long time ago when they were kids. Although he didn't seem to remember their meeting, he left quite a terrible impression on her.
And although she was not the one to hold grudges, she always thought the boy wouldn't amount to much in the future.
That was until she recently heard about him.
She learned that he had fought his father in a duel. And though he lost, that didn't change the fact that he had the courage to face his father!
She would never admit it aloud, but that news didn't just spark her curiosity, it also compelled her to look him up and see what the youngest son of the Theosbanes had been up to all these years.
As it turned out, she discovered that he was a pretty skilled fighter. Not on the same level as her, of course.
Let's be honest — no one was like her.
However, he was still very impressive.
If rumors were to be believed, Samael had suppressed all the Awakened teen gangs in his city. It was even said that he rarely ever lost a fight.
Now that she was facing him head-on, she understood why.
Samael's fighting style was rough and unrefined, almost too crude and easy to predict.
He never bothered hiding his intentions and relied solely on his strength to overwhelm his opponent into submission.
However, that didn't mean it was easy to break through his defenses.
In fact, Alexia might just have met her match in close-quarters combat.
Samael's attacks were precise, and each blow he dealt carried incredible power. He never masked his intentions, as he never felt the need to.
So what if you knew he was about to throw a right jab followed by a low kick?
Even if you blocked his punch, you would still feel the heavy impact behind it. That would stun you enough for him to land that low kick.
Moreover, he was highly observant.
His hand-eye coordination was beyond exceptional, allowing him to follow attacks right to the last second.
It was nearly impossible to catch him off guard.
He knew how to take a hit and minimize the maximum damage possible as well.
This battle style of his was honed on the streets, not in some fancy dojo where he would never feel threatened for his life.
Truly, he was impressive.
However, he wasn't the only one who had been holding back all this time.
Alexia tilted her head back to evade a hook from Samael, then jumped back and landed a couple of strides away, as light as a feather.
Michael approached her from the left, and the blind girl twisted her body just in time to avoid being skewered by a lance he had fashioned from the concrete.
Using the momentum of her spin, she slammed an open palm against the lance, shattering it in one hit.
Come to think of it, this guy was also very good.
Alexia didn't know his name, but she could tell he was a peasant.
Yet his fighting style was as refined as any noble trained by the finest martial arts instructors.
…But he lacked certain skills.
From what she had deduced — he was fairly proficient in using weapons, but he wasn't much of a bare-handed fighter.
So once he was disarmed, it was easy for her to deal with him.
That's why she lunged forward and struck the side of his ribs with a quick jab. Michael grimaced and reached out with a hand to grab her head.
But Alexia ducked low and landed a few loose punches on Michael's outstretched arm from beneath it.
Michael couldn't help but frown. That did… not hurt as much as her other attacks. In fact, it did not hurt at all!
What happened? Was she out of strength? Did she fully exhaust herself? But how—
"...Huh?" Michael's train of thought came to a sudden and terrifying halt as he felt his arm go limp.
He couldn't feel or control his hand at all as it fell flaccidly to his side!
He froze for a second — and it was a second too late for him to dodge the boot that came crashing into his face, sending him flying back a few paces.
Alexia was about to gloat when she felt the aura right behind her shift. She sidestepped just in time to let a fist pass by her.
Without any hesitation whatsoever, she turned around and delivered a chop to the boy who had sneaked up on her, aiming to strike the side of his neck.
Unfortunately, Samael had already moved back to a safe distance, so her chop cut through nothing but air.
"Sneaking up on a lady is not good manners, you know?" she quipped as she assumed her stance.
"Please, you're hardly a lady!" Samael scoffed.
"Excuse me?!" Alexia gasped in mock shock.
"Sure, you're excused," Samael waved his hand dismissively.
He didn't fail to take notice of the sudden change in Alexia's fighting style, though. Even her stance was new.
She had bent her knees slightly and created a gap between her legs to keep herself firmly grounded. Her elbows were tucked, and her hands were clenched in the shape of claws.
Her stance reminded Samael of a praying mantis.
Earlier, when she struck Michael, she hadn't put any strength behind her attacks. Instead, she had increased the speed of her moves three-fold.
Now she was incredibly quick, sacrificing attack power in favor of explosive speed.
Samael knew what it was — a special martial arts technique that Alexia had developed by herself for herself.
Since she could 'see' the auras of her opponents, she could identify the energy pathways and pressure points in their bodies.
By hitting those pressure points in quick succession, she could temporarily paralyze a part of their body, granting her an unavoidable advantage in close quarters.