Next Day,

The morning sun poured through the academy's open dome.

Many matches were already over, the outcomes logged and forgotten.

Students filled the stands their voices were a restless sea of noise. The energy in the arena crackled with anticipation as the next match was announced.

[Team 13 vs Team 14]

The crowd's roar echoed like thunder.

Azrael stood in the center of the arena he was wearing a black coat.

The twin swords on his back gleamed faintly, a new and untested addition to his arsenal.

His left arm was covered by Quill's gauntlet

'System,' he thought with a flicker of frustration, 'at least give me a quest. Something so I can fill my additional affinity slot. Or even buy a legendary sword for myself instead of these stupid chunks of metal.'

Selyne stood beside him, trying to look calm but her tense posture gave her away. Her fingers nervously brushed the blood-red pendant on her neck, a reservoir of her own essence.

Aelira adjusted the fine leather of her gloves and whispered to them without looking, her voice sharp and cold. "Both of you, keep your distance from me."

Azrael smirked faintly. "Don't worry, Princess. Wouldn't want to scuff your shoes with our commoner dust."

Across the field, their opponents appeared, walking out from the opposite gate with an air of absolute confidence.

Silas, the flame prodigy, grinned as his body began to burn with a soft red light, the air around him shimmering with heat.

Beside him was Aria, her long silver hair floating in an unnatural and unfelt wind, her violet-red was eyes calm and analytical.

And then there was Astrid. She was silent, her face was full of fury. Her body was wrapped in a faint golden energy, her muscles coiled like steel cables, ready to snap.

The referee's voice cut through the noise. "Begin!"

The ground exploded.

Silas dashed forward, leaving trails of fire in his wake, a living meteor aimed right for Aelira.

Aria vanished into her own shadow, her quiet, mocking laughter echoing faintly from the walls.

Astrid didn't run. She walked straight into the center of the ring, cracking her knuckles one by one. Her golden-yellow eyes were locked on Selyne, a silent declaration that screamed, 'You're mine.'

The air trembled as six figures collided.

Azrael's world immediately narrowed to a single opponent, or rather, the lack of one. Aria was gone.

"Looking for me?" her voice whispered, seeming to come from the shadows all around him. It was a playful, mocking sound that sent a chill down his spine.

He spun around, drawing his two swords and holding them in a defensive posture. He couldn't see her. He couldn't sense her. It was like she had just… ceased to exist.

'This is bad. Her skills are perfect for assassination.'

Then, the ground beneath him turned black. A hand, made of pure, solid shadow, erupted from the dirt and grabbed his ankle. He was yanked off his feet, crashing hard onto his back with a grunt of pain.

Aria reappeared a few feet away, stepping out of the shadow of a decorative pillar as if it were a doorway. She had a small, amused smile on her face. "You're very slow, you know that?"

He scrambled back to his feet, his heart hammering. He had known she was powerful, but this was on a completely different level. It wasn't just about hiding. She could manipulate shadows, turn them into solid objects, and travel between them instantly.

He charged, swinging both his swords in a defensive cross-cut. He was trying to use the basics of his new two-sword style, but his movements felt clumsy and desperate against an enemy he couldn't even properly see.

Aria just laughed, a soft, musical sound that grated on his nerves. She melted into her own shadow again, and his swords sliced through empty air.

Pss.

He felt a light tap on his shoulder. He spun around, swinging wildly, but she was already gone, her laughter echoing from the other side of the arena.

"You have to be quicker than that, gloomy boy," she teased.

He was being toyed with. She wasn't even treating this as a fight. It was a game to her. And he was the mouse.

On the other side of the field, a very different kind of battle was raging. It was a clash of titans, an explosion of pure, elemental power.

"Is that all the power the great elves have?" Silas taunted, a wave of brilliant blue fire erupting from his hands, turning the sand around him to glass.

Aelira didn't answer with words. She answered with action. She drew her bow, a legendary weapon that glowed with a faint ethereal light. She didn't nock an arrow. She pulled back the string, and an arrow made of pure, condensed spirit energy formed.

She loosed it. The arrow screamed through the air, leaving a trail of shimmering light.

Silas met it with a wall of flame. The two forces collided in a massive explosion that shook the entire arena.

BOOM!

"You're not bad, for a human-lover," Silas sneered, his own body now wreathed in a protective aura of fire.

She raised her bow to the sky. "Spirits of the wind, grant me a blade."

The air around her shimmered. Another bow, this one made of swirling green energy, formed in her hands. She now held two bows, one in each hand, both glowing with immense power.

She fired two arrows at once. The battle was a beautiful, terrifying spectacle. Silas was a monster of raw power, but Aelira was a master of strategy.

She saw her opening. She summoned a bow of pure light that fired an arrow that split into a dozen smaller projectiles, forcing Silas to create a massive fire shield. But it was a feint.

While he was blinded by his own flames, she summoned her strongest bow yet, a weapon of black, silent energy that seemed to absorb the light around it. She fired a single, deadly arrow. It passed straight through his fire shield as if it wasn't there.

It was aimed right at his heart. He was about to be defeated.

"Silas!"

Aria's voice cut through the air. A massive wall of solid shadow erupted from the ground in front of Silas, swallowing Aelira's arrow whole. Aria appeared at her brother's side.

Their teamwork was perfect. They now faced Azrael and Aelira together.

The crowd in the stands roared. "Look at their teamwork! The Selros siblings are unstoppable!"

Azrael, who had just barely dodged another one of Aria's shadow tendrils, heard the comments. He looked over at the furious, proud elf princess. "Let's use my threads and your bows together," he said, his voice urgent. "It will be great."

Aelira turned a horrifying glare on him, her blue eyes blazing with contempt. "Shut the fuck up," she spat.

Far away from the main battle, in the simulated forest patch, another fight was happening in brutal isolation.

Astrid had separated Selyne from the others, her incredible speed making it impossible for her to escape.

"Come on, little vampire," Astrid purred, easily dodging a whip of blood that Selyne had created from a cut on her own arm. "Is that all you have? I thought you Halloway types were supposed to be powerful."

Selyne was already bleeding from a dozen shallow cuts. Her uniform was torn. Her face was pale with a mixture of fear and exhaustion.

Astrid was a whirlwind. Her body was a weapon. Her muscles were like coiled steel, and her movements were a blur of perfect, practiced martial arts. She was too fast, too strong.

Selyne pricked her finger, and a spray of blood shot out, hardening into a dozen sharp needles that flew at Astrid.

Drip.

Astrid just laughed. She moved through the storm of blood needles, her body weaving and twisting, not a single one touching her. She appeared in front of Selyne and delivered a single, sharp kick to her stomach.

Thud.

Selyne doubled over, gasping for air, the taste of iron in her mouth.

"You're pathetic," Astrid said, her voice a low growl. She grabbed Selyne by the hair and slammed her face into the trunk of a tree.

BAM!

"You and your mother," Astrid continued, her voice full of a cold, deep anger from yesterday's humiliation. "You think you can embarrass me? You think you can treat me like some common animal?"

She punched Selyne in the gut again, hard. Selyne cried out, tears of pain and frustration streaming down her face. She was being beaten. Badly. She was being toyed with.

Azrael, still struggling to survive against the combined assault of Aria and Silas, heard her cry of pain.

His head snapped up. Through the chaos of his own fight, he saw it.

He saw Selyne, her body bruised and broken, on her knees in the dirt. He saw Astrid standing over her, a look of cruel satisfaction on her face. But it was the look in Selyne's eyes that made him sigh in relief. Selyne wasn't just in pain or in fear. It was a deep, burning anger. The shame of being so utterly powerless.

And in that moment, something inside her snapped. Azrael knew what was coming next.

He muttered a single word

'Astrid. That's the only thing you should not have done.'

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