Chapitre 20: The Selection Exam [7]

"I like your spirit," she smiled at his enthusiasm.

"So, what now?" he asked.

"We're both going to make the largest explosion spell you've ever seen. I've poured some of my mana into your wand. It will give you temporary control over fire," she explained.

"Really...? Awesome!"

Adrian was more than excited to fight alongside a beauty like Elizabeth. Because of the blue lighting from the roses, her skin appeared as white as snow, and her blue eyes even looked more dashing when serious. Half of her blond hair was pulled into a ponytail, and the rest was in front of her shoulder blades.

She was like a character from a romance novel, the type that the protagonist. And in this case, he was the one. Yes, he was the main character, the one who gets the girl…the protagonist favored by the plot. This was his story, and he had just met with the female lead...in other words, his love interest.

His friends said he was too much of a daydreamer. But as long as you keep dreaming, it can happen. Right?

'Yes, this is my story, and I am the main character.' He cackled from within seeing how this moment would play out: the protagonist has found the love interest.

"Let's go."

Elizabeth's sharp voice brought him back to his senses.

"You've recovered already?"

"I thought I already told you I'm different?" Elizabeth didn't like repeating herself.

"Oh yeah, the curse on you…got it," he faltered, seeing the frown on her face.

About an hour had passed since his party left. And because of that, there was no need for resources to help them survive long enough before help arrives.

They were going to attempt to fight against the beast on their own and earn enough points to promote them into the sectors of choice. This exam was meant to test their mental and physical abilities to see if they were worthy of the title Mage or Dark Knight. None of the two was sure about how many points the beast and its minions would get them, but they hoped that their teamwork contributes something.

"Wait if it doesn't work…?" Adrian asked nervously. He was sweating excessively despite the cave being very cold. He was barely trying to hide the fact that he was too afraid to go out.

"Then we exit the test. It's that easy," she shrugged.

"R—Really…? But then we won't qualify to go on with the academy."

"Yes. That's why we have to do our best," she maintained a calm look, knowing that if she lost it right now, they would be dead. There wasn't room for two cowards.

"O—Okay…" he sighed to reduce his anxious stuttering. "I am the main character after all…"

"What did you say?"

"No…no…nothing!" he quivered after her surprise question; she almost heard him speak out his delusions.

Elizabeth decided not to ask anymore and walked to the entrance of the cave—it was also their only way out.

She stared and the darkness and exhaled. She crouched and touched the ground with her right hand. She then used her power to search for magical beasts outside the cave. The energy she had drawn from the roses was known as cursed energy, a unique form of power that could only be used by those who had a connection to the dark realm.

Her eyes suddenly flashed red, turning into perfectly red rubies that glowed from within her iris. With her new type of vision, she could see every magical beast's core and tell how powerful it was. In her eyes, all she could see was black and red.

Black represented anything that wasn't magical and lacked mana or magical energy, whereas red represented mana—the brighter the red, the stronger the being. This ability was one of the curses placed on her family, making it almost equivalent to a divine gift.

She could see multiple faint red colors around the cave. And judging from the weakness of their cores, they were probably the minions the boss had set up to guard the only way out of the cave. They were not that strong, but they were so many…and fighting could only lead to mana depletion on their side.

"There are none at the entrance, but once they notice us, they'll attack immediately," she stated, keeping her hands on the ground.

"And for the boss?" he asked.

She narrowed her eyes to focus on what she saw. "I can't sense it at all…even after expanding my field of vision, I can't seem to find it."

"Do you think it's on another floor?" he asked.

She pondered. "Maybe. But Class S beasts don't just abandon their territory just like that," she answered. "There is only one way we can find out."

She stood up, then drew in a cold breath of air, concentrating the mana in her body. Slowly, she raised her right arm halfway with her palm pointing outside.

"I summon the element of destruction from the gods."

Immediately after chanting those words, a magic circle appeared in front of her palm. And without breaking her concentration, a spear engulfed in crimson flames slowly emerged from the center of the magic circle with an unbelievably hot temperature coming from the heat.

Currently, she was using up so much mana on a high-level spell.

While sweating from the heat, Adrian took a few steps back before she released the spear. It shot itself from the circle like an arrow after being fired from a bow—the only difference being that this one was moving at the speed of light.

And in a matter of seconds, it flew past the weaker beasts and exploded after colliding with a wall far away from the cave they were in.

BOOM*

All the weaker beasts reacted to the explosion, and the entire cave rumbled as they attacked the source of the loud sound.

That was their cue.

"Let's go!" she grabbed his arm and they both ran through the entrance, with her leading the way. She had scanned the entire place so she knew where it was safe and where it wasn't.

But she had made one miscalculation…

She stopped when they both sensed another presence.

And immediately after sensing that, an eight-foot beast burst out of the ground and appeared in front of the students as if it had been waiting for them. It was about the size of three carriages stacked together, and its entire body resembled that of a spider with hairy black legs and a cephalothorax having a mark of a circle on it showing where its beast core was.

This was a tarantulus, the Class S boss they had tried fighting earlier. The mark on its body granted it the ability to control mana and made it resistant to magical attacks. The enhanced skin made it something a mage should fear.

"RAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!"

It released an ear-splitting scream the moment all its eight eyes landed on Elizabeth and Adrian.

Immediately, Elizabeth drew her sword and charged head-on for the boss without wasting a second. They needed to take down the boss before the entire army got here—and since magical attacks didn't work on it, they needed to affect its environment or harm it physically.

She covered her sword in flames, then swung it, aiming for one of the monster's legs. She was planning to slow it down first.

*Whoosh.

Her flames had cut through nothing.

'What the…even its presence is gone.' Her eyes widened. Then she realized something, the beast could conceal its core's mana by turning off its magic.

"So that's how you escaped my vision—"

The spider appeared behind her with its pedipalps ready to grab and tear her apart.

"Behind you…! Adrian yelled, noticing the monster and pointing his wand at the beast. He was holding it with two hands.

"Graviole!"

With a wave of his wand, the beast was crushed into the ground by a force that seemed to be coming from above it. He moved it to the right, and the tarantulus was driven into a wall by the same force Adrian was now controlling.

With the help of his wand, Adrian could change gravity's rules by making it stronger or weaker on his targets. He also had the ability to shift the direction of the gravitational pull, and make it do as he wished.

"Thanks for the save," Elizabeth faced him. She was perplexed by the strength of Adrian's power.

"Hurry…the…the… it's stronger than I expected, it's fighting against my magic…" he struggled to speak while keeping the beast in the wall.

Elizabeth's eyes sparked with an idea. She converted the mana in her body into energy that she distributed in her arms, legs, and chest. Then put her left foot forward to pin herself to the ground and launched her sword at the captured beast like it was a spear.

The strength she used was incredible. And as the sword cut through the air, a thundering noise followed it before landing in the beast's core and finally pinning it into the wall.

At least that's what she thought she had done.

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