And the way her aura was flaring up, everyone could feel it clearly—she wasn’t going to just stay quiet anymore...

Zenith turns to face Lucian, taking slow steps forward...

"Hey..."

Lucian stood up, meeting Zenith’s pissed-off face... However, his own face remains completely blank...

Both of them release their auras. Suddenly, from behind, that giant ogre that had been standing there all this time... slowly started advancing toward them.

"Sera, handle it," Lucian commanded.

"Okey-dokey..."

Bringing her sword forward, Sera walked up.

The ogre was a towering, muscled giant with thick, leathery grey skin. Its single yellow eye glared down with raw aggression, and with every huge step it took, the floor slightly trembled. It was dragging his massive crude wooden bat studded with iron spikes, looking exactly like a brutal S-rank destruction machine.

Though Not minding much Sera easily walks right past Zenith... acting as if an S-rank ogre was just a piece of cake for her... And obviously, it was. After all, they had gone through some real rough training under Myra, and they had learned a whole lot.

Sera stepped forward. Completely ignoring the other two teams standing nearby, she easily cut the giant ogre down with a single, clean slash.

Then, she turns around with a smug face, glancing over to see if maybe this time her strength had made an impression on them...

Well, it definitely did. Everyone was left standing there completely stunned...

Then Eryx spoke up.

"Hey, are you dumb or what? Didn’t you know this was supposed to be teamwork?"

Riven from Nyx’s team chimed in as well.

"I must say you have quite the strength, though I thought you possessed some brains as well. And would you please tell your team to elaborate on why they are continuously fighting over there?"

Sera got totally pissed and barked right back.

"Teamwork? If I waited for you useless background extras to draw your weapons, that oversized potato would have died of old age first! Next time I’ll make sure to chop its legs off so you guys can hold hands and sing a fucking lullaby around it while it bleeds out!"

They were left entirely speechless by the massive taunt.

On the other hand, Zenith’s expression didn’t change at all, not even from Sera’s performance... she was just standing right in front of Lucian, glaring at him. And Lucian was just waiting for her words with cold, blank eyes...

Zenith glanced at Adrian, who was still lying near his feet.

"Do you even know what you have done... attacking another team without any reason. For this—" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"I don’t give a shit about this," Lucian said neutrally.

Hearing this exact tone from Lucian, Zenith completely loses it...

"Demon Art: Basilisk Claw..."

In a single moment, she pulls her hand back, and when she thrusts it forward to strike Lucian, her hand had already transformed into a massive, sharp black claw...

Her fist pierced through the air, heading straight for his face.

Though Lucian wasn’t kidding around.

Activating Overdrive, he easily dodged it and caught that demon fist right in his hand by the wrist.

Huh.

"Do you really wish to go that far?

Zenith froze in shock for a split second, then quickly pulled away and took two steps back.

Her breath hitched as she stared into his cold eyes...

He really stopped my Basilisk Claw... He dodged it? No, to dodge and catch my wrist like that shouldn’t be possible for anyone. Even Master Magnus couldn’t see through this movement of mine, so how the hell did he do it...

As an undefeated prodigy, Zenith had always carried that supreme confidence whenever she challenged anyone, whether they were a sword master or a high mage. With her never-give-up attitude, she had never bowed down to anyone, nor had any student ever managed to defeat her. Even the second-year students hesitated to spar with her; they knew that in a bare-handed fight, nobody could beat her. Over time, she had left everyone at her Academy far behind, and the power gap became so massive that she was given the title of the first undefeated prodigy.

But the dead stillness of the black-haired man standing in front of her made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It felt like whatever words came out of his mouth, he actually meant them and would carry them out without hesitation...

Still, true to her attitude of never giving up, she stood her ground and moved.

Suddenly, Zenith’s demon hand begins to flare with a dark pink aura... As she raises her face to look at Lucian once again, she speaks.

"Stop... huh...?"

"So you want me to stop...?"

"Try making me stop, cause I don’t even know how to stop..."

Saying that, she lunges forward once again with blinding speed. This time, Lucian didn’t even blink. Her fist was incredibly close to his face, and Lucian was well aware of it... yet he did absolutely nothing, as if he completely trusted his instincts, or perhaps because he knew that if he made his next move, Zenith wouldn’t even be able to get back up. Still, somehow, Zenith’s hand stopped dead in its tracks.

Nobody around could even see when Elira had moved from the side, or when she had grabbed Zenith’s wrist.

Releasing her pure bloodlust, Elira’s icy gaze locks dead onto Zenith crimson eyes. After a few tense seconds, she breathed,

"Don’t you dare try to get your filthy hands on my man..."

Standing nearby, Sera was aggressively gnashing her teeth against the scabbard of her sword, her eyes fixed solely on Elira with a burning intensity.

"Ughhh... I’m so pissed off... Why the hell does she get to look so damn cool...?"

Kaelen, standing just a few feet away, reached out and gave her shoulder a hesitant, consoling tap.

"There, there..."

Hearing this, Zenith forcefully yanks her demon hand back in one sharp movement. Gritting her teeth so hard the veins bulged on her face, she swung her arm wide and slammed a direct punch right into Elira’s side face...

WHAAM!

Elira’s face merely turns to the side — nothing else. She didn’t budge even a single inch from her spot...

Zenith lowered her hand while Elira simply spat the blood out...

"Get ready, you bitch. Take this head-on and it will kill you..."