Tania quickly stood up, not wanting anyone to see her perverse acts. "Come in!!" She was all flustered.
Valen opened the door. "Damn, she went to sleep," he sighed. "Are you her friend?" The instructor pointed at the dryad, his hand slightly twitching.
"Yes, I am. Did something happen?" She was concerned that Alice got herself into trouble and was put off by Valen's weird movement.
"Yes." His voice was very serious all of a sudden. He slowly came closer. "I'm very interested in her after that fight." His movements were very weird. Like he was being struck with electricity.
"But she barely tied the match; what would be interesting enough about that?" She could feel goosebumps all over her body; sensing that something was very wrong, she tried to think of a plan to escape.
The dryad started to think "I'm completely out of mana, and I doubt I could use another Flash Step as well as I did before. She looked towards the window, contemplating leaving her best friend behind and saving herself. "I'm so scared!! Sorry, Alice!" She was about to let her go. But her hands firmly held to her. Her instincts fighting against her heart, "N-No! Alice would never leave me behind like that. And besides..." With a newfound confidence, she decided to stay by Alice's side and think of any plan that she could. She stared at the window, thinking of a plan.
"For example?" His speech started to fall apart more and more. "For EXAM-EXample, her c-c-connection to guiLDmastER Mo-MonikA," Valen stood there. An awkward silence ensued as Tania remained too scared to move. She tried to command her roots to break out of the window to alert anyone for help.
Alice opened her eyes, interrupting their conversation. "That was a good nap. I'm all better now. She sat up and took a look around, noticing the instructor standing in front of her bed. "Oh. Professor Valen, what brings you here to us? And you're not drunk?" She was taken aback by this sight. "Man, did I get myself into trouble again?" She stared with a cheeky smile at horrified Tania, realizing the situation is far more dire than she thought.
"I wanted to ask how you chained your Flash Step." It sounded more like a prerecorded message than a real sentence. "How did you figure it out so fast? Tell me ̵̵̻̻͘͘N̶̞͌O̴͈̒W̴͇͐!̷̟̐!̷̩̓! The thing's voice sounded like a screaming beast. Alice and Tania wanted to do something, but they could feel the overpowering aura sent by the thing in front of them.
"I don't think I can tell you that." Alice was too tired to move. She had no clue why someone would target her specifically but was horrified by it. She hoped, begged any god that existed. That she might talk her way out of this somehow.
The fake Valen sighed. "You aren't making it easy." He toddled towards the window, closing the curtains and cutting the roots down. Destroying Tania's only plan: "I hope you won't make it too hard, though." If the mood in the room was unsettling before, it had now turned into pure horror as his expression contorted. He started slowly turning to them. Both of the girls were scared beyond belief, as only its head seemed to turn. The sound of bones cracking and veins popping filled them with so much fear that they were too afraid to even move. Hoping that it's just a nightmare.
While the girls were being tormented by this monster, the situation in the arena also started to deteriorate.
Charles and the students were making quick work out of the ice that was still left after the previous battle.
"I must say, we are getting rid of this ice faster than I expected. It's almost like we sped up suddenly," he chuckled. "At this rate we will start the next round in a moment. He couldn't wait to see if other matches would turn out as he expected.
"Hey Charles!" Charles heard a familiar sound. "It took me a bit longer than I expected, Blrrgh." The tall man with the short beard vomited. "I had a few drinks too many yesterday." It was... Valen?
"Are you joking? You just left to check on Alice in the infirmary," the prince was dumbfounded. "You saw him, right?" He asked one of the students who stood next to him.
"Yes... He did." The student was as confused as the prince.
Screams of students could be heard.
"They are fighting!"
"Help!"
"Run away! Run away!"
Charles quickly ran towards the commotion. There was a human student fighting together with a Bunari student.
"Run away!" The Bunari shouted to everyone behind him. Shooting a bolt of rock through the other student, piercing his stomach. The horrified look of everyone around the Bunari student made the prince enraged. Thinking that he is slaughtering them.
"Elden Swiftfoot! What is the meaning of this? Charles dashed towards the wounded student, trying to aid his wounds and take him to a doctor, but was tackled to the ground by the alleged killer.
"Prince, you must believe me!" Tears falling down his face, "Run away. This is not a real human!" The Bunari student had pure terror on his face, breathing heavily and trembling. "Just look at him!"
Charles stared and saw the student stand up, a hole through his stomach still present. But it didn't seem to bother him one bit as he growled loudly.
"Run ̸͈̑away." The thing disguised as a student mimicked Elden's words and shouted while running towards the prince. It's movement is jittery and animalistic. The edges of his mouth tearing.
"Those things are mana beasts, Prince!" Elden explained. His eyes glowing purple, seeming to tell him something about them.
Charles nodded, understanding the situation a bit better now. He blasted the thing away. He was forced to think on limited information. After all, he had to protect his students and fend off the attackers. While not knowing anything about the enemy, "I don't know how many there are; I don't know their plan. So the best scenario would be to just keep everyone safe." He shot a beam of light through his staff into the air.
"Everyone! Gather around me!" The students quickly gathered. "I will just have to trust that Valen solves the problem in the infirmary by himself." The prince had to throw this worry away so he could easily focus on the problem at hand. More and more of the doppelgangers started running towards them.
During this chaos, Valen dashed towards the infirmary to confront his doppelganger. Getting there in just a few seconds as he easily chained Flash Step after Flash Step, with much higher proficiency than Alice. He jumped up and broke through the covered windows. Kicking the doppelganger straight in its twisted face.