Astrid lay on the ground, the sound of the few classmates laughing echoing in her ears. Humiliation burned hotter than any spell.

She pushed herself up, her knuckles white where she gripped the dirt. The playful, mocking smirk was gone, replaced by a cold, murderous fury.

Her muscles tightened, a faint golden energy wrapping around her body like a shroud. She rushed toward Selyne, her movements no longer a playful dance but a brutal, straight line of attack.

She leaped high into the air, her leg a blur of motion, and launched a powerful kick aimed right at Selyne's head.

Selyne, who still had the blood armor coating one fist, barely managed to dodge.

The kick whistled past her ear, the force of it making her hair fly back. She felt a sharp sting on her cheek from the displaced air alone.

What came next was a relentless barrage. Astrid was a storm of fists and feet, each blow aimed to break, to punish. She was no longer toying with her.

"Thought that was funny, did you?" Astrid snarled, a kick slamming into Selyne's defensive block with a heavy thud. "Let's see you laugh now, little vampire!"

Selyne tried to defend, creating small, hardened shields of her own blood, but Astrid's attacks were too fast, too powerful.

An aftershock from a missed punch rattled her bones. A misjudged kick slipped past her guard and slammed into her ribs, stealing the air from her lungs.

Pain shot through her body. But with the pain, came a surge of her own anger.

"Is that all you have?" Selyne shot back, her voice tight with effort as she blocked another blow. "A few fast kicks? I'm not impressed."

Astrid just laughed, a low, dangerous sound that held no humor. "I'm just getting started."

She attacked again, her movements becoming even more ferocious. This time, as she moved, all the blood rods that were still scattered across the arena floor shot back toward Selyne, rejoining the armor that now erupted to cover her entire body.

The fight became a true battle of equals.

Astrid's fists hammered against Selyne's blood coating, each impact a dull, heavy thud that echoed through the arena.

She could feel a faint, jarring pain in her knuckles with every hit, but she pushed through it, her pride refusing to let her back down.

Selyne wasn't just defending anymore. She launched a punch of her own.

Astrid dodged but Selyne was already adapting. The armor on her arm liquefied, reformed into a long, brutal staff, and she swung it in a wide, vicious arc.

Clang!

Astrid parried the staff with her forearm, then drove a powerful punch into Selyne's side. Both girls staggered back, hurt but far from broken.

Their chaos was destroying the arena. The once-green patches of grass were now a scorched, cratered wasteland. The ground was littered with shattered stone and blackened earth, a testament to the raw power being unleashed.

The students in the stands watched in horror, their earlier amusement gone. The whispers died. Jaws hung open.

This wasn't a student spar anymore; it was a battle between monsters. They were getting a brutal reality check, a terrifying lesson in where they truly stood in the face of real power.

Selyne and Astrid, both panting, both bleeding, ran towards each other one last time, their patience gone, ready to end it. They were both angry, both channeling their full power into one final, decisive blow.

Astrid punched. Selyne punched.

Fist met fist.

The collision was a deafening roar, a sound louder than a dragon's cry that shook the very foundations of the arena. A storm of wind and raw energy exploded from the point of impact, so powerful that the spectators in the front rows felt their clothes and hair whip back violently.

The force of the collision was so strong that it sent both of them flying backward. They landed hard on the ground, exhausted, in pain, and unable to stand.

Astrid was frustrated, her mind screaming. 'How can I be this weak? How can I not take her down? She's just a pampered little girl!'

Selyne was just as angry, her own thoughts a mirror of her opponent's. 'That loudmouth is still there, right in front of me. Why can't I just defeat her?'

Then, a single drop of her own blood fell from her split knuckle onto the ground.

Drip.

She looked down at it. And then, her voice, starting as a low growl, rose into a furious shout that echoed across the now-silent arena.

"You will pay for all of this!"

The ground began to vibrate. The blood on the arena floor from every previous battle started to boil, crawling out of the sand. Her own blood began to merge back into her regenerating armor.

Then Astrid's, from the small cuts on her face and arms, floated toward her as well, answering a call she couldn't resist.

But this time, it was different.

This time, the blood didn't just come from old wounds. It began to seep out from every student, every person in the arena.

The weak ones felt their bodies being pupated by Selyne's power.

Small cuts opened on their hands, their legs, even their mouths, as tiny streams of blood were pulled from them against their will.

The strong were not immune. Silas gasped as he felt something happening inside his body. Small, round spots began to form under the skin of his arms, as if his own blood was trying to tear its way out to answer her terrifying call.

Everyone could feel it. A parasitic, horrifying drain.

And the one person it hit the hardest… was Azrael. He was struggling, unable to even speak the simple words, 'Selyne, stop.' His body gave out. Blood, which he had forced back, now leaked freely from his lips and from the wrapped wound on his hand.

It wasn't just his blood she was taking. It felt like she was draining his very life force, as if he was a fuel tank for her uncontrollable rage.

On the battlefield, Selyne's armor grew, becoming ten times its previous size. She rose to her feet, a walking golem of coagulated fury, her eyes glowing with a terrifying, golden light.

Astrid, for the first time in her life, was truly scared.

Then, the massive coat of armor left Selyne's body. It liquefied in the air above her, then reformed, splitting not into one, not a hundred, but a thousand sharp, pointed arrows. They hung in the air, a sky of red and gold, all of them aimed at one terrified person. Astrid.

"No way…" Astrid muttered, her voice a cracked, disbelieving whisper. "I… how…"

Then they moved, traveling at the speed of light. They were barely visible to the others, a storm of crimson death. But Astrid saw them coming. A thousand arrows of death, a thousand reasons she was about to die.

She lay there, her body broken. She knew it was useless to even try to run. Even in her healthiest form, she couldn't escape this. She surrendered. She accepted her defeat.

But then, a figure appeared, standing in front of Astrid. It was Professor Reon. He created a shield of pure Aether around them, a shimmering dome of blue light. One arrow struck, then another. The sound was a rapid-fire series of deafening cracks that made the students in the stands cover their ears. The shield was shattering.

The professor looked worried. The shield finally broke, but then another was created, this one made of solid, black ice. Another professor had joined from afar, seeing the chaos of Class 1-A. But the ice was not enough. It was shattering too. Then, a wall of thick, gnarled vines erupted from the ground, created by another professor. She wasn't the only one. Others joined in, layering their desperate defenses.

The wall was now a massive, ugly thing, covered with ice, vines, stone, and swirling wind.

The arrows collided with it, one by one, the sound of a bloody war filling the arena.

And then, it was over. All the arrows had fallen, their energy spent. The shield was barely surviving, cracked and smoking.

The professors sighed in relief, looking at each other with a silent, shared thought: 'What are these students?'

They all looked at Selyne. She had passed out even before the first arrow had struck. No one had seen it. They had all been looking at the terrifying sky of arrows.

"Hurry!" Professor Reon shouted, his voice hoarse. "Take her to the infirmary!"

No one stepped forward. They were all scared of that petite, unconscious girl.

Everyone was looking at Azrael. He hadn't seen any of what she did after she had sucked all his blood. He was rolling on the ground, struggling with the intense, full-body pain.

He finally stopped, pushed himself up onto his elbows, and saw the hundreds of students in the stands all staring at him.

He blinked, his mind a fog of pain and confusion. 'Why are they looking at me?'

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