Zone 1: Verdant Meadows
Aurora hummed softly behind her white mask. "Are you done mentally preparing yourself, Lyralei? Because I'm about to escalate."
A massive fire blast erupted from the floating fire orbs surrounding Aurora—to call it a "spell" would be a criminal understatement. It was practically a solid train of compressed flames racing toward Aurora at terrifying speed, wide enough to engulf an entire building.
Lyralei dodged it with enhanced reflexes, black lightning crackling violently around her body.
Natural lightning struck down from the stormy sky above, attracted by the massive electrical charge she was generating—but Lyralei's body simply absorbed it like a sponge drinking water. Of course it did. Lightning was her own specific element. She was completely immune to electrical damage and could actively feed on ambient electricity.
She zapped around the battlefield at impossible speeds, moving so fast she left afterimages, her Valen Lightning Style forms flowing seamlessly from one into another.
Aurora followed her movements effortlessly, her white dress billowing dramatically despite the lack of wind.
"Well, I thought super strength was your special element," Aurora remarked conversationally, as if they were discussing academic theory rather than fighting to the death. "Considering your ridiculous physical power and speed, and all those rumors about you... you see."
She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Lightning is quite good too. You and I have a lot in common it seems ? Having the lightning element in a family that practices lightning-based sword techniques? That's extraordinarily rare—usually the element skips several generations."
Aurora squeezed her hand, which had been marked by Lyralei's black lightning earlier. The skin hissed with residual heat, the flesh dulling to grey and nearly charred against her normally sun-kissed complexion. "It's difficult to regenerate instantly from your attacks. Quite annoying, honestly."
She hummed curiously. "So, did you figure out mine?"
Thin wind cutters—invisible blades of hyper-compressed air—slashed through the forest with whistling sounds, felling ancient trees like they were saplings. Lyralei dodged them with practiced ease, her combat instincts screaming warnings microseconds before each attack arrived.
But then Aurora appeared directly behind her, moving faster than Lyralei's enhanced perception could fully track.
"The strongest freshman turned into a scared cat," Aurora said softly, almost tenderly.
A thin lightning bolt materialized—not from Lyralei, but from Aurora herself, the electricity compressed to needle-point precision. Lyralei absorbed it instinctively, her body drinking in the energy.
We've never actually fought before, Lyralei thought rapidly. She's certainly something else entirely. I thought I knew her capabilities from watching her spar, but this is different. She's holding back even now.
"Compression," Lyralei said, breathing hard but managing to sound confident. "That's your special element, isn't it?"
She wagged her finger almost playfully, as if she'd just solved a particularly difficult puzzle.
Aurora clapped her hands together delightedly, the sound echoing through the forest. "Yes! Exactly right! You figured it out faster than I expected!"
"Well, no wonder your lightning was actually hurting me," Lyralei admitted, rubbing her side where one of the compressed bolts had grazed her. "Compressed electrical discharge has enough penetrating power to bypass my natural resistance. But now that I know the trick, no more free hits."
Her mind raced with tactical calculations. Then why didn't any of my physical hits damage her earlier? Is it some sort of compression-based nullification? Damn it. It's known she has a special element, but she never used it in combat . No such combat records exist.
Aurora sighed, her body language shifting to something almost apologetic. "Honestly, I was supposed to go to a different zone today. Zone 3, actually, in Frostwind Tundra"
But here I'm enjoying the calm winds of Verdant Meadows. It hasn't changed much since my first year.
"But a perverted brat has been bullying my little brother Ashen," she continued, her voice taking on a protective edge. "So I figured I'd humble that pest personally today. Teach him some manners."
She smiled softly behind the mask.
"So here we are. And I'm telling you this because it ends here and now."
The giant fireball floating above them suddenly compressed to a fraction of its size—then reshaped itself into a waffle-pattern grid of fire slashes, each segment burning with concentrated heat that made the air shimmer violently. The attack accelerated dramatically, making its way toward Lyralei with terrifying speed.
Lyralei remained unfazed, her eyes tracking the attack patterns. "Yep. Predictable."
"I'm done with you toying with me!" she declared.
Her black lightning exploded outward in all directions, creating a protective sphere of crackling energy. Then, like a living spear, she bolted in a single perfectly straight line directly toward Aurora, dodging all the fire slashes through a combination of enhanced speed and combat prediction.
She closed the distance rapidly—ten meters, five, three—
Aurora smiled behind her mask. "Darling, you're never getting close with such a scattered, conflicted mind. I can read your hesitation in every movement."
The ground beneath Lyralei's feet suddenly vanished—not just shifted, but vanished entirely as if it had never existed. Then from both sides, compressed earth shot inward like massive jaws, trying to crush and bury her alive between two walls of solid stone.
But Lyralei's power detonated.
"The Valen Lightning Style—First Form: Flash Severance!"
Her entire body became a streak of pure black lightning, cutting through the compressed earth trap like it was made of tissue paper. The ground exploded outward in a shower of pulverized rock and dirt.
Her fist finally connected solidly with Aurora's face, drawing a thin but definite line of blood across her cheek.
Aurora was actually staggered, pushed backward several steps for the first time in the entire fight.
She touched her cheek gently, feeling the warm blood on her fingertips. "Wow…"
As the cut quickly started spreading , in a second Aurora's cheek crumbled.
Flesh dissolving into blood that dripped down her jaw.
Lyralei panted hard, her entire body trembling from exertion and the adrenaline rush of landing a clean hit. "Yes! That felt amazing! You know what? You're right about something."
Her eyes blazed with renewed determination. "I know now what I have to do. The next one? I'm going to pop that smug face of yours properly!"
Aurora chuckled warmly, the sound genuinely amused rather than mocking. "There won't be a second time, I'm afraid—"
Aurora released a barrage of compressed wind cutters toward Lyralei—
"Hello, people!!" A cheerful, almost theatrical voice cut through the tension. "Take this somewhere else, would you? You're scaring the other students! But if the slots are open for a three-way match, I wouldn't mind joining in on this!"
Draekon stood at the edge of the clearing, his hands casually on his hips, grinning widely with that confident, laid-back energy that seemed to follow him everywhere.
His golden hair caught the sunlight filtering through the trees, and his Dragon's Bracelet gleamed on his wrist.