Woosh!
Vinny slashed as soon as his Scythe fully materialized, leaving an afterimage behind.
However, Calista simply tilted her head and skipped backward as Vinny followed Calista's footsteps, charging at her at full speed.
Slash! Slash!
Vinny attacked Calista relentlessly, aiming to exploit the smallest gaps she deliberately left open.
She was trying to see if the students could detect them. Noting Vinny's ability to exploit her intentional openings, Calista landed a restrained kick to his liver.
Restrained by her standards.
Thud!
Vinny fell onto his knees, spitting a mouthful of blood. It was a brutal sight, but Vinny didn't give up just yet. The blood started to rise, building spears that pointed at Calista.
"Go."
With Vinny's command, the spears shot toward Calista. However, Calista wasn't fazed at all, with a smile on her face she dodged four of the blood spears and caught the last one with her bare hands.
She rotated her torso and sent the spear hurtling at Vinny, intentionally missing him
"Next one," Calista ordered as Vinny slowly got on his feet and started making his way to the stands.
'It's her turn,' Lami thought.
From what Lami had heard from Lucian, Lumia was ranked third, passing Lucian.
'But Vinny felt stronger than Mateo? Were the rankings wrong?'
Lami wasn't sure. As he replayed both fights in his mind, a sweet voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Ms. Calista. I'll have to pass. You must know I can't fight you at the moment," Lumia said.
"Understood. …These fights aren't mandatory—I just want to assess you all to support your growth better," Calista replied in a neutral tone. "If anyone wants to not take part, I won't object."
"Then I will pass too."
Lami looked to his right, seeing Lucian's sleepy face. Noticing his gaze Lucian simply shrugged.
"It's a hassle, you know," Lucian said, rubbing his eyes as Lami shook his head.
"Well, then rank five of this class is Seren Steinhart."
Lami observed a girl with deep black hair and ocean-blue eyes standing up.
Her hair fell gracefully down her back, swaying with each elegant step. Her pale white skin accentuated her flawless face. She was undeniably a beauty.
She could rival the likes of Lumia and the princes.
Despite her exceptional beauty, Seren exuded a cold aura that made her seem unapproachable. As a result, the prying eyes could only watch her from afar, never daring to speak to her.
Each step she took was full of confidence.
'So she is the adopted daughter of the strongest.'
After Aurelio's passing, Blake Steinhart took the title of strongest human Monarch.
A weird sensation ran through Lami's body. It was a similar feeling that he had with Lumia.
He had thrown that feeling away after their initial meeting as he didn't understand it back then. But now it was once again present.
As Lami tried to figure out why he was feeling that way, Seren entered the arena, summoning a lusterless silver bow.
She didn't have a quiver because she was materializing arrows directly from her dimensional bracelet.
Drawing the bow with all of her might in a split second, Seren released the string.
Fiuuu!
The arrow flashed toward Calista, but without even checking the trajectory, Seren put five arrows into the string simultaneously, infused with her mana before she released them at Calista.
The arrows shot forward like bullets. However, this time, none were aimed directly at Calista—they flew all over the place.
Calista had already destroyed the arrow with a knife hand strike and now was dashing at Seren while also following the arrows with her calm, lavender eyes.
As Calista was about to make contact with Seren, a wind wall appeared just before her, making her stop for a split second.
Calista could easily walk through the wall, but she decided not to. It wouldn't be fair to her students.
Flexing her legs, she launched herself upwards, deciding to jump over the three-meter tall blockage.
Woosh! Woosh!
Just as Calista prepared to leap over the barrier, Seren's arrows from earlier suddenly shifted direction, targeting her midair.
Seren had imbued her mana onto the arrows before releasing them. With the help of her wind affinity, she was able to change the arrow's trajectory to a certain extent.
She wasn't proficient enough to precisely control the arrows, but it sufficed this time.
At least it was what everyone thought. Calista gracefully rotated her body, dancing between the flying arrows, dodging each of them. It was a majestic sight to behold.
"Woah!"
Similar noises escaped from many students' mouths, and everyone was surprised. To move to that extent, that fast without using a single drop of mana was unimaginable.
But it was Calista after all, she was a Grandmaster for a reason, it was just that students hadn't experienced anything close to this. Watching them live was a different experience.
Landing behind Seren softly, Calista brought the tip of her fingers to Seren's nape; this time with no brutality.
"Tch." Lucian clicked his tongue. "Double standards."
Chuckling slightly at Lucian's remark, Lami turned his attention back to Calista.
"It was a nice plan but the area of impact wasn't exact, leaving a chance to dodge," Calista said calmly.
"Thank you."
After bowing her head, Seren left the arena slowly. Lami finished taking notes of this fight as well and raised his head from his notebook.
A pair of ocean-blue eyes were staring at him from afar, not showing any reaction. Lami returned the action by doing the same.
Two pairs of eyes stayed interlocked onto each other for a good couple of seconds, before Seren turned her head, going back to her seat.
'What was that?'
Lami wasn't sure what was going on, but the weird sensation once again washed all over him.
"Next!"
Calista's voice shook Lami awake.
Tak! Tak!
The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the arena, each step carrying an air of authority. It was Eleanor Silverblade, the next successor to the throne.
Strands of wavy turquoise hair fell all the way to her hips, dancing as she moved. Her emerald-green eyes were mesmerizing.
Almost everyone's gaze was locked on Eleanor; her alluring presence captivated many. Lami didn't even need to turn his head to imagine the expression on Lucian's face.
The whole arena erupted into cheers, frantically shouting Eleanor's name.
Lami frowned. He didn't understand what made her and the royalty so important.
Monarchy in this day and age…
The throne merely served to give people a sense of safety with the new laws.
The Union also had demon and elf executives who played a huge role in decision-making, and since most of society didn't fully trust them, the King and Queen acted as 'filters' for potentially dangerous laws.
To Lami, it was common sense that the royal family functioned like puppets. However, most appeared to be oblivious.
'Maybe it's because of her talent and... looks.'
She was quite beautiful. Lami could already picture people debating who was the most attractive between Lumia, Seren, and Eleanor—unless, of course, someone else appeared to rival them.
There was Ivy, but to Lami, she had a more 'cute' charm than an alluring one, though he couldn't quite describe it.
Lami's thoughts drifted to his own status.
Even though he had made a poor first impression by not wearing the school uniform, he still believed he was more favorable than the other male students—at least in his own mind.
He noticed other students giving him odd looks and occasionally heard his name whispered. Both he and Lucian had already earned the nickname 'the two idiots.'
Lami's face twitched now and then as he picked up on the ill-intentioned comments about his half-demon heritage.
Meanwhile, people called Lucian a 'fraud' for being a no-show, and the insults toward Lumia were even harsher. Lumia appeared unaffected, but Lami knew better.
'She probably buries her emotions; I used to do that a lot, too,' Lami thought. Though just an assumption, he knew from experience that hiding true feelings only led to implosion. He resolved to talk to her later.
As for Lucian, Lami couldn't care less. Lucian was still dazed by the beauties he'd seen today, existing in his own world and seemingly unbothered by anyone's thoughts.
Lami figured he'd just let him be.
Truthfully, Lami didn't want much to do with Lucian, but it was probably too late for that now. After today, they were a package deal—the two idiots.
Turning his attention back to the arena, Lami focused on the fight about to begin. Like Seren, Eleanor was also a Beginner with a high affinity for lightning, water, ice, and fire—four of the six elements.
She was a prodigy in elemental magic, though still ranked lower than Seren. Lami hoped to see why that was and had a few theories, though he wasn't certain.
Eleanor entered the arena, empty-handed.
"Ready?" Calista asked.
Eleanor gave a simple nod, and five magic circles appeared above her.
Fiuu!
She launched five large icicles aimed directly at Calista. Without pausing, three fireballs materialized beside her, hurtling toward her opponent.
Calista didn't counter the attacks directly but dodged, elegantly weaving between the attacks.
Realizing her long-range attacks weren't working, Eleanor quickly conjured a stiletto using her ice affinity.
At the same time, she summoned a towering wave of water, surging it forward toward Calista. Moving in sync with the wave, Eleanor closed the distance between herself and her opponent.
As she approached, Eleanor suddenly split the wave with a sharp motion, propelling herself upward. Disappearing behind the cascading water, she reappeared midair, descending rapidly in an attempt to launch a surprise attack.
Unfortunately for Eleanor, Calista was ready. Hearing the surge of water and anticipating her student's move, Calista looked upward, caught Eleanor's wrist mid-air, and tossed her to the ground—this time not quite gentle.