The molten glass crater in the center of the arena was still glowing.

Arthur slid his hands casually back into his pockets, standing beside a deeply flushed Alicia. The silence from the VIP boxes above was deafening.

"Well," Arthur drawled, his voice carrying easily across the dead-quiet colosseum. "I think they pass the integration test."

Instructor Samantha Hall didn’t look terrified like the bureaucrats above.

Instead, a slow, predatory smile spread across her face. Her blood-red eyes gleamed with a dangerous, thrilling light.

"Don’t get cocky, Arthur," Samantha said, her voice amplified by mana. "A Vanguard squad doesn’t pack up and go home just because they cleared the vanguard. You hold the line."

She raised her hand.

Up in the observation deck, a heavily armored mage slammed his fist onto a control crystal.

A loud, mechanical screech echoed through the colosseum. The translucent magical barriers partitioning the arena into separate combat zones flickered—and then completely shut down.

"What are they doing?!" Cedric yelled, stepping back in panic. "They dropped the safety nets!"

Before anyone could process the sudden vulnerability, the massive, adamantine-reinforced gates at the far end of the arena didn’t just open.

They were blasted off their hinges.

A monstrous, unnatural roar ripped through the air, carrying such intense physical force that the weaker students were immediately brought to their knees, clutching their bleeding ears.

A massive shadow stepped out of the darkness.

It was an A-rank Chimera.

It was a nightmare forged from dark alchemy and corrupted mana. It stood twenty feet tall, possessing the heavily muscled body of a massive lion, the jagged, horned head of a demonic goat protruding from its spine, and a thick, thrashing tail that ended in the snapping jaws of a venomous serpent.

"An A-rank?!" Kaela shouted, her wolf instincts screaming at her to flee. "Are they insane?!"

"Formations!" Alex Stale roared, drawing his gleaming broadsword. "Knights to the front! Mages, begin chanting!"

But the Chimera wasn’t a mindless beast. It possessed predatory cunning. Its three sets of eyes swept over the scattered students, instantly locking onto the two densest sources of mana in the arena.

Arthur and Alex.

The beast’s powerful hind legs coiled, and it launched itself across the arena with terrifying, explosive speed.

"Scatter!" Arthur barked, shoving Alicia backward out of the impact zone.

BOOM!

The Chimera landed exactly where they had been standing a split second prior, shattering the stone floor and kicking up a massive smokescreen of sand and debris. The shockwave violently separated the squads, entirely cutting Arthur and Alex off from the rest of the students.

The beast let out a deafening roar, whipping its serpent tail in a wide, lethal arc.

Alex ducked, the venomous fangs missing his head by inches, the acidic saliva hissing as it melted the sand beside his boots.

"Don’t just stand there, Arthur!" Alex shouted, his golden eyes blazing as he channeled his mana. "Help me kill this thing!"

Arthur dismissed Ignis and Zephyra with a thought, sending them back to their spiritual space.

"They did their part," Arthur muttered, his eyes narrowing as he stared down the towering monstrosity. "This one’s mine."

He reached into his spatial ring.

A heavy, suffocating wave of dark mana instantly flooded the arena. Arthur drew the Abyssal Fang. The pitch-black blade seemed to drink the sunlight, humming with a demonic, bloodthirsty vibration.

The Chimera sensed the lethal threat. The goat head opened its maw, charging a blinding sphere of condensed fire, aiming directly at Arthur.

"Not happening!" Alex roared.

The Chosen Hero moved. This was why he possessed the protagonist’s aura. Alex didn’t just rely on brute force; he was a master of the elements.

"Aqua Bind! Earth Shackle!" Alex slammed his hands onto the sand. The ground beneath the Chimera instantly liquefied into a deep, pulling swamp, trapping its massive paws. A split second later, the mud froze solid as Alex seamlessly transitioned to Ice magic, locking the beast in place.

The Chimera roared in fury, its fire blast firing wildly into the sky, exploding against the colosseum’s dome.

"It’s too strong, the ice won’t hold!" Alex gritted his teeth, blood dripping from his nose from the sheer strain of holding an A-rank monster down. "Gale Chains!"

Currents of razor-sharp wind wrapped around the beast’s goat head and serpent tail, pulling them taut. Alex was burning through his mana reserves at a terrifying rate, playing the ultimate, high-stakes support.

"Arthur! Now!" Alex screamed, his muscles trembling.

Arthur didn’t hesitate.

He bent his knees, dark mana erupting from his calves.

"Shadow Step."

Arthur vanished. He didn’t run; he slipped through the fabric of space, reappearing directly above the immobilized Chimera.

The sky seemed to darken as Arthur raised the Abyssal Fang high above his head. He poured his mana into the blade, the dark aura expanding into a massive, twenty-foot projection of pure, destructive energy.

The Chimera’s lion head looked up, its eyes widening in primal terror.

"Die," Arthur whispered.

He brought the sword down.

"Abyssal Severance."

The dark slash descended like a falling crescent moon. There was no resistance. The blade sheared through the Chimera’s mana barriers, sliced through its dense, armor-like fur, and cut cleanly through bone and muscle.

A sickening, wet tearing sound echoed through the arena.

The dark energy hit the ground, carving a massive, smoking fissure into the bedrock of the colosseum.

Arthur landed gracefully on the other side of the beast, slowly rising to his full height. He casually flicked the Abyssal Fang to the side, sending a spray of dark, corrupted blood onto the sand before sheathing the weapon.

Behind him, the massive A-rank Chimera remained perfectly still for a single second.

Then, its body slowly slid apart, cleanly bisected down the middle. The two halves crashed heavily into the sand in a pool of expanding blood.

The arena was dead silent.

Alex released his binding spells, dropping to one knee as he gasped for air. He wiped the sweat and blood from his face, looking at the bisected A-rank monster, and then at Arthur.

Arthur turned around, walking over to the exhausted golden-haired boy. He stopped, looking down at him.

"I set that up," Alex panted, forcing himself to stand, refusing to look up at Arthur from the dirt. "You just took the glory."

Arthur smirked, a genuine, thrilling amusement dancing in his golden eyes.

"You made a very decent footstool, Alex," Arthur replied smoothly. "Keep that up, and you might actually survive the frontlines."

Alex glared at him, but then, a tired, grudging smirk broke across his own bruised face.

"Fuck you, Arthur."

"Likewise, Hero."

They stood there, back-to-back amidst the blood and ruined sand. There was no toxic hatred left. Only the raw, heavy respect forged in the heat of battle.

Up in the VIP boxes, the Archmages and Royal Knights were absolutely speechless. Two first-year students had just perfectly coordinated to execute an A-rank Chimera in under a minute.

Down on the field, Samantha Hall crossed her arms, her red eyes gleaming with absolute, twisted pride.