Meanwhile, the swordsman had vanished, uo withstand the fmes. The mage, however, ignored him, fog solely on Mikael. When he saw Mikael rushing at him, he took it as an insult. "You think you take me on, oner? You’ll see!" he sneered. "Fme Arrows!" he shouted, summoning multiple fming arrows that floated around him. With a hand sign, he sent them all hurtling toward Mikael.

  Mikael dodged the first arrow by shifti, cut through the sed, and leaped over the third. At that moment, the mage smirked. "Got you!" he said, as a hidden fourth arrow shot toward Mikael.

  Realizing he couldn’t dodge in mid-air and that his sword wasn’t positioo block, Mikael quickly focused his aura into his fist and puhe arrow, shattering it with the force of the impact.

  Now above the mage, he grasped his sword with both hands and sshed downward with all his strength. The mage desperately raised his staff to block, but the bined forikael’s strike, the momentum of the fall, and his aura shattered the wooden staff. Mikael’s bde grazed the mage’s hair before a protective barrier appeared with a loud "k!"

  Mikael used the recoil from the barrier to flip and nd on his feet.

  The mage, stunned, muttered, "I… lost?" before disappearing in a fsh of light.

  At that moment, Mikael’s bracelet emitted an artificial voice, "12 Points acquired."

  Seeing his haul, Mikael whistled, thinking, 'Nice! With this, I’m at 28. I’m pretty sure that’s enough to pass, bined with my double talent type from the first test.'

  In that brief moment of calm, he reflected on the girl who had set him up. 'Hmm, that was Amelia Mournsky. Holy, we’re about the same strength, but ime we fight, she won’t escape!'

  He aowledged the risk of challenging a high-ranking noble like Amelia, especially if she decided to take offense and have her family send assassins after him. But he wasn't ied in keeping a low profile and trying to avoid offending everyoually, that would fail anyway. He’d earn far more LP by making a name for himself.

  'Besides, the idea that a noble could send assassins into the tral Academy uhe nose of Principal Silvius Carius—The Mystuardian and an SSS+ mage—is practically impossible. And if I win the sed test I’ll be in the spotlight, it’ll go from nearly impossible to pletely impossible.'

  Finished with his thoughts, Mikael checked the map on his bracelet. He was surprised to see that in just the one hour sihe sed test had started, the map had shrunk from several thousand square kilometers to just a thousand.

  He made a mental note of this and tinued searg for other examio take down. After all, his LP was at stake, so he o eliminate as many people as possible to maximize his points.

  During the hour, Mikael tinued hunting other examinees. Most often, he mao surprise them, but he was also ambushed a few times. However, thanks to his Sixth Sense skill, his instincts were sharp enough to easily evade these sneak attacks and eliminate his attackers.

  Within this time, he took down arouher people, each worth between 5 to 9 points. He also earned 5 points for surviving this long. His toughest fight was against another swordsman who proved to be quite strong, but Mikael was able to defeat him, though he suffered a cut on his left arm.

  Now leaning against a tree, Mikael took a moment to catch his breath, mildly tired from his st fight. After a few minutes of rest, his stami signifitly better, and he checked his points.

  He saw that he now had 124 points. ‘With 124 points, plus my results from the first test, I should be iop 100 students, right? Probably. Maybe I should stop searg fhts and just find a hiding spot until fewer people are left, to serve my energy. The battle zone is still huge—200 square kilometers—so there could still be a lot of people out there…’

  ‘Nah, that’s not a good idea. I’ll o keep moving anyway, so even if I find a resting pce, it won’t st. I’ve already had to keep moving because of this fast-shrinking border. So, I’ll just tio fight occasionally, but I’ll prioritize serving my energy.’

  ‘I’m close to my 100% physically, so I’m fine on that front. But I’m down to about 80% of my aura, and regeion is slower since I ’t meditate without risking an ambush at any moment.’

  He began moving again, staying hidden among the trees. Using this stealth strategy, he mao avoid dete. Suddenly, he heard the distinct “whack-whack” sound of wooden items g.

  Not being stupid, he suspected a nearby fight and cautiously approached the area. There, he saomen fighting. One had bck hair, and the other brown; both wielded wooden swords and were enveloped in the blue light of aura, reinf their bodies and ons.

  The training swords met in rapid succession, produg a cck-cck sound. Mikael watched the fight without intending to interfere, at least for the moment. However, he picked up a small rock from the ground, preparing it for when the fight ended.

  The fight tinued for several minutes, as the two fighters seemed evenly matched. But eventually, exhaustion began to set in, and the bck-haired woman tripped over a root she hadn’t noticed. The hter seized the opportunity and sshed with all her strength toward the bck-haired woman’s sword-wielding hand.

  The bck-haired woman realized her mistake but didn’t give up, trying to trate her aura on her arm. But it wasn’t enough. The aura-infused wooden sword of the brown-haired ierced her defenses and struck her arm with a loud “thwack.” She let out a small, pained cry, “Ahh,” but seemed ready to keep fighting.

  Unfortunately for her, a simir strike with a real sword would have severed her hand—a crippling blow. She was immediately enveloped in a barrier. Looking frustrated, she muttered, “No, I’m not down; I keep fighting,” but the barrier still teleported her away.

  The remaining woman exhaled heavily, leaning on her sword to rest. Seeing an opportunity, Mikael prepared to throw the rock with his aura. But just before he could act—

  “Wind Ssh!”

  A sudden wind ssh shot out from a hidden spot a few meters from the exhausted woman. Caught by surprise and still fatigued, she couldn’t dodge in time. The attack hit her, and she disappeared in a fsh of light.

  The bushes where the attack inated were shredded, revealing a man in dark sports clothes with a serious expression, now visible to Mikael, who was still hidden. The examinee sed his surroundings, wary of any hidden observers, before leaving the se.

  Mikael quietly trailed him but didn’t immediately strike, knowing the man was still on his guard after exposing himself with his sneak attack. Over the few minutes, Mikael shadowed him until he stopped near a fight between a fire mage and a water mage.

  The man hid himself behind a tree trunk, apparently waiting for the right moment to ambush the winner of the duel.

  Mikael focused as much aura as he could—around 5%—into his left hand, trating it specifically on the roaximize its impact. At the same time, he enveloped his entire body in aura, using a greater amount than usual to ensure his surprise attack would take down the wind mage in a sirike.

  He turned slightly to the left, pulled his arm back, took a throwing stance, rotated his hips, and uhe rock. The small stone sliced through the air at high speed, striking just at the back of the wind mage’s head. The instant before the rock reached it’s target the barrier appeared around the wind mage proteg him from fatal damage.

  Stuhe mage turned around and spotted Mikael, but he only had a moment to cast an incredulous look before he was teleported out.

  “Who’s there?” shouted the fire mage.

  Both mages stopped their fight, looking in the dire of the retly eliminated wind mage. The barrier was hard to miss—a fsh of blue light in an otherwise dim forest.

  Realizing someone else was nearby, the two mages stopped fighting, unwilling to risk giving anyone else an advantage.

  However, their caution was unnecessary; Mikael was already gone. He had decided to fight less often and focus on serving his energy, so he slipped away unnoticed.

  This strategy served him well for the rest of the test. Occasionally, he engaged in fights, but he evaded most enters. This approach worked smoothly—until now.

  Mikael stood at the edge of the battle zone, cheg his map. ‘Only 10 square kilometers left... and it doesn’t seem like it will shrink any further. This must be the final battle zone—a small area, approximately 100 meters by 100 meters.’

  ‘I don’t know hoeople are left, but in a zohis small, there ’t be many; otherwise, I’d have seen them by now.’

  He remained in his hiding spot, thinking, ‘The frustrating part is I don’t kly how many are left, so I ’t pn anything! If it’s just two of us, great, but if there are three or even four, that’s a problem. I don’t want to win a hard one-on-one fight just to be ambushed by someone else afterward.’

  ‘I should try to stay hidden while searg for the other examinees so I kly hoeople are left and pn accly.’

  He moved through the forest quietly, using the dusky darko his advantage. He tio move slowly, methodically sing the area.

  Unfortunately, he wasn’t a master at staying hidden and realized he’d been spotted when an aura arrow came flying his way, he narrowly evaded it. The arrow crashed into a tree, leaving a small crater. He looked in the dire it had e from and saw Amelia, her expression focused, already aiming another arrow at him.

  They locked gazes for a sed before she released the arrow. Mikael shifted his body to the right, dodging it, and shouted, “WAIT!”

  Amelia was momentarily startled to hear him speak aated, but quickly ignored him and nocked another arrow on her bow.

  Seeing her reaikael sighed in exasperation. “Why don’t we call a temporary truce? At least until we’ve searched the whole battle zoo make sure no other examinees are hiding. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of having a tough fight only for someone else to be from it.”

  Amelia paused, sidering his words. ‘He has a point,’ she thought. ‘I hadn’t sidered that, but he’s right. It’d be best to make sure I won’t be ambushed after I win this fight.’

  After a few seds of silence, Amelia’s calm, soothing voice replied, “Alright, I accept your proposal. Let’s do a temporary trutil we’ve searched the area. But I’m warning you—I’ll be watg you. Don’t try anything funny!”

  “I could say the same to you,” Mikael replied, and the two began to methodically search the surrounding area, each keeping a careful eye oher.

  After about 15 mihey regrouped in the ter of the small zone.

  Hearing no sounds of a struggle, Mikael asked, “Nothing on your side either?”

  She shook her head. “No, it seems it’s just the two of us left.”

  As she spoke, she tightened her grip on her bow, holding an arrow iher hand, ready for a fight at any moment.

  Seeing her cautious stance, he offered, “I’ll move 50 meters away from you. Once I’m at that distance, we start the fight. Sound good?”

  Amelia was surprised by his proposal, expeg him to use their proximity to unch a surprise attack. After all, as a close-bat fighter, he’d be at an advantage if he ambushed her. But his fair suggestion raised her opinion of him a notch—he seemed more honorable than she had thought.

  And that was exactly Mikael’s iion. He khere wouldn’t be a huge differeween first and sed pce, but if he tried a surprise attack, he might earn the wrath of Amelia Mournsky, heir to a powerful family. By making this ‘fair’ proposal, he hoped she’d see him in a better light.

  It was a small gesture that he figured might help if she respected it, but wouldn’t be a big loss if she didn’t.

  Amelia finished sidering it and gave him a nod of agreement. Seeing her response, Mikael leaped back, and Amelia followed suit. They moved until they were 50 meters apart.

  They locked gazes, gave each other a small nod, and the fight began.