The candidates seemed shocked at his unscathed appearance as Raelis walked past them and arrived in front of one person in particular.
Elandra Varekan.
The two stared at each other for a few moments, tension growing. That was when she finally spoke.
"Huh? So you're still alive," Elandra remarked, looking him up and down. "Your muscles seem pretty defined too. Did you really achieve this in the year since you woke up?"
"I did. And I'm sure you know why I approached you as well," Raelis replied flatly. "I'd like to fight you, Elandra."
Her brows twitched. "Seems like lifting weights made you grow some balls. But do you even know who you're dealing with? I hunted a Grade 8 Mana Beast all by myself. And what did you do?"
Raelis barely held back a laugh. She's proud of killing a Grade 8 Mana Beast? I killed one a month into my training.
After that, he faced more and more of them. Eventually, his Grade 8 Mana Beast kill count reached the hundreds.
That was also when he killed his first Grade 7 Mana Beast, and a few weeks before the academy, his first Grade 6 Mana Beast.
All by himself.
Even so, he wasn't one to brag. Not in public, at least.
"So are you going to refuse?" Raelis asked, taunting. "I remember you always used to train with the guards. It was to the point where not a single day passed without you being in the royal courtyard, fighting someone... but to think that very same Elandra is now running away from a fight against someone with 1% bloodline purity..."
Silence ensued for a few moments, yet he could see her brows twitch uncontrollably.
But in the end, she simply took a deep breath, then flashed a wide smile.
"I agree. Let's fight," she replied. "But don't blame me when you lose. Oh, and the headmaster never said anything about breaking bones, so be prepared for that, 'kay?"
He simply flashed her a warm smile and stood beside her, waiting for the five minutes to be up.
Though they passed very slowly. Too slowly—
"That fire absorption technique you did back then. How did you do it?" Elandra asked, staring straight ahead. "I tried to replicate it, but I always made the flame explode between my hands. Did you use a trick?"
Raelis chuckled as he walked in front of her, staring her straight in the eyes.
"Elandra, when you're brought to the brink of desperation, you can do whatever you set your mind to. That's exactly what I did. I was too slow to dodge, and if I hadn't blocked the attack, you would've killed me," Raelis said in an emotionless tone.
It was really that simple. He was in a life-or-death situation, and if he hadn't done it, he would've been killed. She clearly never once in her life experienced such a situation, so she was never able to recreate what he had done.
As the seconds passed, her brows furrowed further.
"So it was a trick. You really are a shameless low blood—"
"Now, now, everyone. I see you've gotten your partners," Arius remarked, floating above them. "I will now transport you all. Good luck."
Raelis felt as if his guts twisted again. But not even a moment later, he found himself standing on the familiar stone platform, with Elandra opposite him.
The platform was slightly bigger than last time, and thankfully it was. After all, he was planning to do a lot more than go into her shadow and wait it out.
They stared at each other for a few moments, unable to move.
But not for long, as the pressure disappeared and both of them dashed out at once.
Raelis didn't hesitate to open up with his fireballs, shooting tens of them at once toward Elandra.
Yet she seemed unfazed as she raised her fists and punched his fireballs into nothingness.
Just as she thought that was the end of it, Raelis appeared in front of her and slashed upward.
She was slightly surprised by his speed, but still managed to avoid it by jumping up into the air.
But that was exactly what Raelis was aiming for. Behind him, five tiny fireballs shot out, heading straight for Elandra and hitting her head-on.
A smoke cloud emerged, and he took that time to wait until his mana regenerated a tiny bit.
Or that was the plan, but when the smoke parted, he saw a fiery-eyed Elandra glaring at him.
What was most surprising was the fact that her body itself had turned to flame, which meant she had entered the first stage of the Flame Body.
Flame Body made the individual basically immune to physical attacks, as most would just pass straight through it, making magic the only effective counter. In this case, both of them only had fire spells, and since the Flame Body granted immense fire resistance, the spells were rendered useless.
But that was exactly why Raelis had focused his attention on one ability in particular.
Advanced Heat Resistance Barrier (★★☆ — Mastery: 32%)
The barrier acted like armor, and it let him hit things normal attacks would pass through, even someone made of fire.
He infused his entire body with the barrier, then slowly covered his daggers as well. And finally, he was done.
"You've made me use the Flame Body technique. You really did improve from the last time. Though your attacks still don't hurt as much as I thought," Elandra remarked. "But let's end this, shall we? I promised my friends we'd go out to eat somewhere fancy after we make it into the academy."
The moment she finished speaking, she raised her hand, then brought it down. Immediately, a flame pillar burst out from the sky, nearly striking him.
He dodged in time and ran up to her. She was confident he couldn't touch her.
And yet, when his daggers reached her right arm, they cut clean through. Her eyes widened as she instantly detonated her flames outward, sending him flying across the platform.
Just as he was about to fall off the edge, he summoned a massive fireball and launched it behind himself, using the blast to kill his momentum as he landed right at the edge of the platform.
He glanced back toward Elandra, who was now huffing in panic, glancing at her contorted flaming arm that was lying on the ground.
With trembling legs, she knelt and picked it up. Slowly, she brought it to the stump, pressing it against the flaming wound. The flames crackled as she let out a pained groan.
Soon, the arm was reattached, though the flame surrounding it was clearly weaker, so much so that her Flame Body technique deactivated around her reattached arm.
Noticing this, she lifted her gaze to meet his. There was no arrogance in her expression anymore.
Only rage. Pure rage.
"...I'm going to fucking kill you."