Leonie was barely managing to fend off the Ice Mage.

Two factors determined an individual's power: physical and magical prowess. Physical prowess began to become noticeable closer to the Lv.20 softcap. Magical prowess was more variable; even from Lv.1, it depended on the Class's baseline mana, titles, and skillset. Leonie's Lv.11 Sorcerer Class, her [Fae Curse] and [Mana Regeneration], mixed with a powerful skillset, could—in theory—defeat most cadets.

She had done so with the other applicants during the entrance exam, but the Ice Mage refused to yield. He also seemed to have completely recovered after drinking the potion, which was unusual considering the secondary effects of [Fae Stars].

The environmental mana quivered, and clouds formed, blocking the sky. A chilling wind fell from the northern mountains, and hail fell on the forest. Even with the wounds covering his body and the [Fae Stars] interfering with his mana manipulation, the Ice Mage stood on his feet, channeling more mana than before.

Leonie smelled foul play. She could accept someone being a stronger mage than her, but not after getting hit by [Fae Stars] at full force. More than anything in the world, she wanted to run, but her body wouldn't allow it. The presence of the cadet felt like a heavy object on an extended blanket, curving the surface and dragging everything down. Her seventh sense wouldn't allow it. It was an irrational thought, but she couldn't lose sight of the cadet, at risk of something bad happening. What, she didn't know.

"Hey! You aren't allowed to bring potions from the outside!" Leonie shouted, but the Ice Mage ignored her. Instead, he created a red icicle the size of a small house over his head.

Leonie didn't expect such an attack from a low-level mage. Her instinct screamed in her ear, and she cracked her thunder whip. A portion of the icicle broke down, but most of the mass remained intact.

The icicle crashed against [Stormveil], slowly disintegrating as it came in contact with the skill.

Leonie let out a groan as mana exited her body to fuel the skill. Her arms suddenly became weak, and a shiver ran down her back. She recognized the first signs of mana exhaustion. Using [Fae Stars] and a full-powered [Stormveil] seemed to be her limit.

The storm swirled around her, hailstones hitting her body from all four sides.

Leonie prepared her whip for one last desperate attack, but the Ice Mage stopped in his tracks. He began to act erratically, channeling mana without casting any spells and taking hesitant steps in no particular direction.

"Hey! Marl, are you okay?" One of Astur's cadets shouted from the other side of the icy threads that surrounded the clearing. He had also drunk his potion, but Leonie's fae sense didn't react to him.

The Ice Mage didn't respond.

Leonie shot her thunder whip forward. Her attack met no resistance, and the whip curled around the Ice Mage's neck. Leonie squeezed. She only needed a minute, and the Ice Mage would pass out. It was as much as she could do with her current mana.

The Ice Mage, however, didn't seem to realize he was being asphyxiated. His body contorted, and glowing red stripes of mana appeared on his skin, like molten iron had been poured on his body. Leonie's stomach lurched as her brain drew blanks. At the age of eight, Leonie set the personal goal of reading every book in her father's private library, but even after reading thousands upon thousands of pages, she had never read about a transformation like that.

"Marl, cut it out! It's not funny!" Astur's cadet shouted from outside the wall of icy threads.

But this was no illusion.

A wave of mana hit Leonie like a punch to the gut.

The Ice Mage turned around, changed. His facial expression had morphed into a bestial mask, his eyes were two bright rubies devoid of any white, and his arms had seemingly grown beyond human proportions.

The hailstorm raged, and a thick mist rose from the ground. The temperature suddenly fell, and Leonie's summer outfit soon was useless against the cold. Her hands trembled. Breathing was painful. Even with her [Enhanced Vision], she had trouble focusing her sight on the Ice Mage—or what was left of him.

Her fae instincts told her she was facing a monster.

The Ice Mage grabbed the thunder whip around his neck and shattered it like it was made of glass. The ripple of magic scorched Leonie's hand.

"Run! Seek help!" Leonie shouted, preparing the little mana she had left.

Astur's cadet ran west. Station 2 was at least an hour away, less if the cadet was a Wind Fencer, but Leonie didn't get her hopes up. Chance had no place on the battlefield. She had to figure out how to defeat the monster.

Each second that passed, [Mana Regeneration] captured a small amount of energy from the environment and deposited it in Leonie's manapool. If she wanted any chance of surviving, he had to draw out the fight as long as she could while using the minimum amount of mana.

A hailstone the size of Leonie's head appeared out of nowhere and smashed against her chest. She fell to the ground and spotted a swarm of red icicles raining upon her. She rolled away, her reinforced shirt turning the piercing attacks into blunt damage. It wasn't going to last long, not the shirt nor herself.

The storm and the mist prevented her from seeing clearly beyond arm's reach, and she did not have enough mana for a full-power [Stormveil].

Think, Leonie. You are fighting the way the System wants, not the way you must.

"Ah… he hates the System very much," Leonie muttered. "Maybe I should, too."

She channeled her mana, but the System told her, without words, that she did not have enough to cast a proper [Stormlash].

"I don't care."

Leonie closed her eyes and threaded a strand of bright white mana from her reserves. For six months, Cabbage Class had been training to understand the System as a tool. A tool that didn't control you. Leonie got it now. [Stormlash] coiled around her sword and fused with the metal, like a snake ready to strike. She raised her guard, still with her eyes closed. Small hailstones made tiny cuts on her face, but she didn't care.

With a swift strike, she destroyed the icicle coming in her direction. Then, a second one. And a third. [Stormlash] drained the thin strands of mana her [Mana Regeneration] managed to gather. It was the first time in her life she was so close to mana exhaustion. She felt like the empty husk of a magician with a void where her manapool used to be.

Leonie put every single second of training into her movements, destroying icicles and hailstones, guided by her mana sense alone.

The Ice Mage appeared through the mist. Jagged red icicles—curved into serrated blades at the end like an ice pick or scythe—had replaced his forearms just above the elbow, giving them an appearance similar to the arms of a praying mantis. He began to walk around on all fours like an animal. He barely looked human.

The Ice Mage landed on top of Leonie, but the girl sidestepped and blocked his scythe-arm. Her spell quivered, but the Ice Mage advanced, stabbing the air and leaving deep holes in the ground with every one of his attacks. The ground froze in their wake. Only the rigorous training regime she had endured for the past months allowed her to keep up with the pace of the beast.

Leonie parried the jagged ice blade, but her manapool couldn't sustain [Stormlash] anymore. The skill shattered into bright mana particles. Leonie tried to pull more mana, but there was nothing left. She jumped back and closed her eyes, trying to dig deeper for the last scraps of mana forgotten in the depths of his mana pool, but there was nothing there.

Leonie refused to believe the System's negative feedback.

Instructor Clarke had said that magic existed beyond the System.

'Obey me.'

Something cracked inside her, and suddenly, Leonie was elsewhere, floating in the middle of an empty cavern. Her body was a distant memory. She looked around: smooth stone walls, a dark depth beneath. Instinctively, she knew where she was. Without a moment of doubt, she dived down, frantically looking for even a mote of mana, but all she found was emptiness.

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Leonie didn't give up and continued going downward for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, when her heart faltered, a quivering ray of light reached her eyes. Her heart raced. It wasn't the familiar bluish mana she was used to. Part of her psyche warned her against the unknown, but there was no other way out. If it were mana, Leonie was going to get a hold of it.

After another eternity, Leonie reached the bottom of her manapool. Cracks split the stone beneath, and through them rose warm rays of mana that caressed her face. Leonie scratched the cold wall. Shards of stone crumbled under her nails. The hole grew.

The void extended as far as her eye could see, and in the middle of the nothingness, a dying white sun.

The Fountain.

Leonie knew what came next, but she didn't care. She extended her arm through the cracks of her manapool. Pain shattered her brain, but she clung to the white-hot mana. Her hand boiled like she had dipped it into molten iron, but she refused to let go. With a silent scream, she pulled.

Not an instant had passed in the real world, but the pain followed Leonie. Her right hand had turned black, from the tip of her fingers to her elbow, but it wasn't frostbite. It was worse. Corruption. But the power surged through her body. White, pristine Fountain Mana.

Leonie covered her sword with [Lighting Glaive] once more. Her attack shattered the Ice Mage's frontal scythe, but the red ice regenerated. Leonie clenched her teeth as she felt the raw strength of her opponent. She thought she had a good leverage point on her sword, but her muscles strained to the limit, and her joints complained.

Leonie jumped back, but the creature that used to be the Ice Mage chased her. The more they fought, the more the surface froze. Leonie used [Mana Manipulation] to create small spikes at the bottom of her boots and reinforced her [Lightning Glaive] until the thunder surrounding her sword became reddish, like every time she overcharged the spell.

Leonie pushed forward, reading the mana currents inside the Ice Mage's body.

The creature, because it couldn't be called human anymore, wasn't something Leonie had seen or heard of before. It was evident that the transformation wasn't deliberate. The arms of the cadet had already disappeared under the red ice.

Leonie jumped to the side and slashed off his arm at shoulder height. The creature screeched, but a new limb grew right away. Suddenly, the cadet's jacket tore apart as bright red crystals emerged from the creature's back.

Adrenaline and the rigorous sparring regimen kept her from panicking.

No matter how much damage Leonie did, the monster never went down. She lost track of the passage of time. Nothing mattered other than avoiding the icicles. The storm and the mist surrounded her. Only the hit of tiny hailstones against her face let her know the world continued moving.

Leonie's body grew numb as the storm sapped the heat from her body.

Out of nowhere, a new sound reached her ears.

Leonie looked around, but all she saw was the white wall.

The sound became clearer.

A voice calling her? A mana pulse hit her body. Someone was trying to detect her.

Leonie allowed herself to feel hope despite the logical part of her mind telling her that help would take hours to arrive. The voice became clearer. Leonie parried the Ice Mage's swipes, sending iceshards into the storm.

"Here!" Leonie shouted, hitting the Ice Mage in the face and forcing him to step back.

A pair of bright eyes shone through the storm, behind the Ice Mage. The next moment, a dagger made of crystal stabbed her stomach. Leonie lost control of her spell, and the [Lighting Glaive] scattered. She clutched her stomach. Blood painted her hands red.

Pain exploded in her shoulder.

An icicle?

Leonie looked behind her just to see a second pair of bright eyes and another dagger stuck in her shoulder blade. She closed her eyes, searching for a scratch of mana, but the stone walls of her mana pool didn't appear. She wasn't able to focus, and had lost the grasp she held over the Fountain Mana. The coldness numbed her wounds. The pain felt distant.

Then, she stopped feeling cold at all.

A flying dagger bounced against her chest, making silver sparks fly into the air.

A barrier?

"Drink your potion!"

Zaon appeared through the mist wall and slashed the ice creature's side. The hailstones shattered against his silvery aura. Red crystal daggers flew from outside Leonie's vision field, but they shattered against Zaon's [Steadfast Shield].

Leonie had seen Odo using the same skill, but Zaon's mastery was clearly higher. His shields were small, just the right size to catch the projectiles. Zaon didn't need to see the dagger's path to block them. He seemed to have eyes on the back of his head.

Leonie recovered from her stupor and rummaged through her belt satchel. She used her mouth to remove the padded glove from her right hand, grabbed the potion, and broke the mana seal before chugging it down. Her whole body seemed to burn as the wounds were closed. Then, she pulled the dagger from her stomach. Thanks to the fortified jacket, the tip was only a couple of centimeters deep.

Zaon's blade turned invisible. He moved through the battlefield, moving his arms and severing pieces of the Ice Mage, whose transformation had reached the point that Leonie wouldn't have guessed he was originally human if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. The red crystals grew over the creature's body. Zaon seemed unable to pierce them with his sword.

"You need to get out of here!" Zaon shouted over the sound of the storm, but at that moment, the creatures who had been stalking them, hidden behind the wall of mist, lunged at the boy.

There were two of them, dressed in cadet uniforms. They were still humanoid, but their skin was covered in the same red veins as the Ice Mage. Leonie noticed how similar the red patterns were compared to the Corruption tendrils on her hand. She shuddered and put her glove back on.

Zaon parried one of the daggers, while the other approached from behind and kicked him in the back of the knee. Zaon clenched his teeth but jumped away before they could stab him. An outside observer could've thought that Zaon had wind powers, but he was a Sentinel. Despite having above-average physical and magical defenses and a solid magic stat for a martial class, Sentinels lacked in the offensive department.

"Leonie!" Zaon shouted.

Instead of running away, she jumped to Zaon's side and raised her guard. The last strands of Fountain mana still raced through her body, so she surrounded her sword with [Storm Lash]. The silvery aura didn't just provide her with a defensive layer, but also helped her maintain her temperature.

"Your wounds are going to open!"

"They aren't deep. Instructor Clarke gave us fortified shirts!" Leonie shouted over the raging wind.

Zaon seemed to be surprised, but the icicle attacks caught his whole attention.

"What is wrong with them?!" Leonie asked.

"Their potions must've been contaminated."

Leonie's heart skipped a beat. She made a quick account of her limbs. Nothing felt like it was going to grow red crystals.

Mana surged through the body of one of the dagger cadets, and his body contorted. His arms and legs became longer, and the red crystals growing from his forearms tore apart his jacket. The other dagger cadet suffered a similar transformation, but instead of longer arms, he sprouted insect wings and red crystal armor.

Thunder cracked in the sky, and a wind current forced Leonie to cover her eyes.

A figure had seemingly teleported in front of them, because a second ago, Leonie was sure they were alone.

"Missed the Thunderbolt, bitches?" Firana asked with a smile.

Not waiting for an answer, Firana used [Aerokinesis]. A hurricane emerged from her body, blowing in the opposite direction of the storm. In a moment, the mist wall was no more. The summer sun shone over Leonie's head. Hailstones covered the ground as far as she could see.

Zaon and Firana had probably seen the storm from afar even before anyone asked for help. Leonie's knees were about to fail her, but the Ice Mage roared again, sending a rush of adrenaline through her veins. She might not be able to fight, but at least she was able to stand up.

Instructor Clarke's old students fought the three contaminated cadets. They fought better than the knights of Almeida. Not only were their movements perfect, but they seemed to share the same mind. Leonie could barely believe what her eyes saw, and she had to remind herself that those two weren't high-level combatants yet.

"Their skin is tough! I can barely penetrate it with [Puncture]," Firana shouted.

Not even the raw destructive power of [Lighting Glaive] could do real damage to the Ice Mage's body.

"Use that technique!" Zaon replied.

Firana nodded, and her rapier became bright white. [Puncture]. Then, she contorted through the flurry of crystal daggers, dodging every single swing. The insect cadet could change directions like a dragonfly, but that didn't seem to hinder Firana. The girl stood in front of the Ice Mage and stabbed him in the chest.

Leonie held her breath.

The rapier's tip only went a centimeter through the defensive crystal plaques.

Then, an explosion occurred and a jet of compressed air emerged from the Ice Mage's back, sending crystal shards in every direction. Not even a drop of blood spurted from the huge hole in the creature's back.

The Ice Mage retaliated, and Firana jumped back.

"How is that thing still alive!" she shouted.

The fight continued, but it was a stalemate. Damage regenerated, and the creatures seemed to become faster by the minute. The mana surging through their bodies was becoming stronger.

"Ideas?" Firana said, her face covered in sweat after using 'that technique' for the tenth time in a row.

Not even blowing their heads off worked.

"Grab Leonie and get out of here! The cadet's safety comes first!" Zaon replied.

Firana used her [Windrider] to change directions midair and jump over the creature's heads. She landed by Zaon's side and patted his shoulder.

"Let's go!" Firana said, but Leonie couldn't move.

Leonie's seventh sense screamed into her ear, but her brain froze. Despite the three monsters standing before her, her instinct told her to turn around. Her arms trembled and her knees faltered. It was the first time she felt something like that. A presence of pure hostile mana that made even the Nychtys Queen pale in comparison stood behind her.

Her fae sense told her to face the biggest predator.

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