BOOM!

Cassandra kicked off the ground, the floor cracking under her step as she blurred straight to Gray in less than a second.

"Dammit!"

Clang!

Thanks to his skill, Gray was still able to view the trajectory line of her attack, thus parrying her scythe.

Sparks scattered as their blades scraped, the force rattling his arms.

But before he could press back, Cassandra vanished again, slipping past his prediction, and this time, he couldn't follow her attack, or even swap positions.

Splurt!

A sharp sting tore across his back, blood spraying in a wide crescent.

"...Huh?"

Cassandra's eyes widened in complete surprise.

Gray... he didn't even flinch at her attack, not even a single wince, or gasp.

"...Wrap."

Fwip!

In an instant, countless threads wrapped around Cassandra's body, binding her in an instant. Taking the opportunity, Gray didn't hesitate.

He stepped back slowly, pivoted on his heel, and with one clean motion swung his rapier at her neck.

Rip!

Clang!

"Fucking hell!" Gray's eyes widened as he saw Cassandra ripping apart his threads with pure strength and even parrying his swing.

[Told ya.]

He quickly jumped back, his eyes tracking Cassandra; however, she arrived just below him while he was still in the air.

"Tsk!"

Threads shot from his hands, whipping against the stone floor. They spun his body midair, generating enough momentum for a downward strike.

"Really?!"

Her eyes widened at Gray's actions, not expecting him to do that.

The rapier came down like lightning, and to meet his blow, she lowered her scythe before slashing upward in a brutal diagonal arc.

CLANG!

Clink!

Steel crashed against steel, and Cassandra's strength won out. Gray's rapier was flung from his grip, spinning across the ground.

But before the Cassandra could do anything, his body blurred away.

"[✧Swap✧]"

He swapped with a stone on the floor, landing right beside his weapon and snatching it back into his grip.

"...Fuck, I'll need the other two to deal with them." he turned to the side, and almost immediately, he cursed again.

Both Raven and Lira were down, sprawled on the floor.

Maelis stood calm with gravity still cracking the tiles beneath her, while Selene smirked, wiping a streak of blood from her lips.

It didn't take a genius to know what happened: Maelis pinned them with gravity, Selene charmed, and finished the job.

"Three against one, huh? Not so fair odds..." Gray let out a deep breath.

[Do you still think you're going to win?]

Jasmine laughed coldly.

[Cassandra alone is stronger than you, much less with those two.]

But to her words, Gray's lips only curled, his eyes narrowing with a faint, devilish smile.

'Who said I want to win?'

[Then what?]

Jasmine pressed.

CLANG!

Gray slammed his rapier against Cassandra's scythe again, sparks bursting as the floor cracked beneath them.

'ALL I NEED—' he snarled inwardly, his muscles quivering from the blow, '—IS A FUCKING DRAW!'

"Got you now, Gray!" Cassandra snarled, spinning her scythe in a wide arc.

Gray's eyes shot wide, as he tried to swap away...

'Cooldown?!'

Instantly, his threads flew out to shield, just enough to barely defend against that flash of crimson death.

BOOOOOOM!!!

"What!?"

"Fuck what?"

Both Gray and Cassandra cursed as the ground split apart beneath their feet, the sound like the heavens themselves collapsing.

Stone shattered, dust exploding into the air.

"What the hell—?!" Cassandra staggered back, her eyes darting upward.

Everyone froze.

The sky above cracked open like broken glass, a gaping rift tearing wide across the air. From inside came a suffocating presence, so vile it made even the strongest students flinch.

Gray's rapier lowered slightly as he stared at the black fissure.

"Kyeheheh… oh, how weak you all look. Students… toys. I almost feel bad for spoiling the little game you've been playing."

Out of the rift stepped a towering figure, cloaked in darkness, horns curving back from his skull.

Behind him poured crawling, shrieking shapes, hundreds of imps, their glowing eyes and claws gleaming like blades.

A suffocating silence swept the arena before the students erupted in panicked cries.

'...Is that one of the Seventy-Two High-Ranking Demons under the command of the Demon King?'

BOOM!

Professor Otto appeared instantly, magic swirling around him in layers of blazing light.

His expression was calm, but his aura flared so violently that the nearest imps shrieked and turned to ash just from being close.

"You dare invade here, demon?!"

The horned figure chuckled, deep and cruel, each laugh scraping across the air. His jagged teeth stretched into a grin.

"Otto… I was expecting you."

Otto's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Wha—"

SNAP!

A sharp click echoed.

Otto's eyes widened as red chains of lightning erupted beneath his feet, wrapping his limbs before he could react.

"You—!!"

But before he could break free, the ground swallowed him whole. In an instant, both he and the demon vanished into the abyss, the rift snapping shut behind them.

"...We're fucked."

A student's voice reached everyone's ears.

And then...

SCREEEEEEE!!!

The imps screeched in unison, hundreds of Advanced Realm auras slamming down on the arena like a tsunami.

And just immediately, the first scream tore through the arena.

"AAAHHHHHH!!"

A girl didn't even have time to raise her wand before an imp slammed her to the ground.

CRUNCH!

Its jaws ripped into her neck, blood spraying in a thick arc across the tiles.

"NO! GET OFF HER—"

Another student swung his staff wildly, but three imps pounced onto his back at once.

RIP!

Flesh tore, his cries gurgling as his body collapsed in shreds.

Chaos exploded.

Dozens of students scattered in every direction, but the imps were too fast. They swarmed low, crawling along the floor, climbing bodies like insects.

SCREE!

One boy tried to form a barrier spell, but he wasn't fast enough.

Splurt!

Claws raked his stomach open, intestines spilling onto the dirt before he even realized what had happened.

His eyes bulged, mouth moving without sound as his knees buckled.

"HELP ME!! PLEASE!!" a smaller student shrieked, but the sound was cut short as an imp's claw burst through his mouth from behind, silencing him in a wet choke.

Blood soaked the ground, bodies torn apart within seconds.

The smell of iron grew heavy in the air, filling every breath with the stench of death.

"They're… targeting the weak first," Cassandra, who was beside him, muttered slighly as she waved her scythe.

"Of course," Gray muttered, stepping forward, threads coiling around his wrist like serpents.

"Cull the useless… then overwhelm the strong."

Fwoosh!

Gray shot forward like a silver blur, his rapier flashing in his hand.

Splurt!

The first imp's skull split open, black blood spraying across his cheek. But he didn't stop; his left hand snapped outward, threads unraveling and whipping across the arena.

Fwip!

Fwip!

Wrap!

Dozens of strands pierced into the stone pillars and the broken floor tiles, weaving into a crooked lattice.

In seconds, a glistening web shimmered under the torchlight.

The imps didn't notice until they ran straight into it.

Shrrkk!

Five imps were impaled mid-lunge, their bodies jerking as the threads cut through their flesh like blades.

They thrashed violently, shrieking, only to be yanked upward and sliced apart as Gray tightened his grip.

"Die."

His rapier spun, stabbing into the gut of another imp trying to flank him.

STAB!

Black blood splattered across the floor as the creature screeched. Without pausing, he twisted his wrist, pulling the threads taut.

SCCRREECHHH!

The trapped imps shredded into pieces all at once, raining chunks of flesh onto the ground.

"…This won't be too effective. There are hundreds of them," Gray muttered as his threads snapped through another imp.

His rapier pierced the skull of a snarling one, dropping it at his feet.

He glanced around, eyes narrowing at the sight of panicked students running blindly into death.

Idiots.

Their deaths would only draw more attention his way.

"I'll need to save a few of those useless classmates…" he hissed, more to himself than anyone else.

He didn't care about their survival, but he needed bodies on the field.

Meat shields and distraction.

His threads whipped out, coiling around the waist of a shrieking boy who had fallen.

FWIP!

Gray yanked him back, tossing him toward a cluster of others.

"Stay together!" he declared, forcing them toward a broken stone wall.

"Corner yourselves!"

The terrified students scrambled, clinging to each other as Gray's threads shoved them into the narrow space.

The imps noticed immediately, their yellow eyes flashing with hunger.

"Perfect…" Gray whispered, his lips curling.

A cornered herd was easier bait. With those idiots crammed together, the imps would swarm them instead of scattering across the field.

The horde surged, claws and teeth gnashing.

FWSSHHHHH!

The entire front line of imps disintegrated in an instant. A black-violet beam of void energy tore through the arena, reducing thirty of them into ash and scattered limbs.

Gray's eyes widened, his rapier lowering slightly as the dust cleared.

He turned his head sharply, and his eyes widened.

It was actually Leon.

The golden-haired prince, standing tall in his immaculate uniform, had void energy still crackling faintly from his fingertips.

His calm, righteous gaze swept the battlefield as though he owned it.

"Prince Leon!!"

"The prince is here!"

"We're saved!"

"Thank the gods!"

Compliments and desperate praises spilled out like a flood, the students' fear instantly melting into worshipful awe.

Their eyes sparkled, clinging to him as if he were a divine savior descended from the heavens.

But there was only a single thought in Gray's mind...

'How the fuck did he get so strong?'

Judging from the scale of that void beam, Leon was at least...

At the middle stage of the Master realm.

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