Aurora's legs swirled in the air, leaving a trail of scorching fire in her wake.
Her right leg, enveloped in blistering fire, appeared in front of the man's face.
The man's expression was the personification of shock. To think this petite girl could pack so much punch? But regardless, at the end of the day, he was an advanced- rank individual.
His armor suddenly lit up in a low glow, a translucent purple shield forming on his right hand. He ignored the numbness in his arms, his right arm shooting sideways towards the trajectory of the kick.
But he would have never expected what happened next to happen.
The flames enveloping Aurora's leg suddenly raged, their forms erupting like a fiery storm that threatened to envelop the whole of the man's body.
The man's eyes widened, the glow on his armor increasing in intensity as a shield suddenly appeared in his second arm.
Both shields suddenly morphed together in front of him, shielding his face from the fire.
The fire enveloped his whole body, an incredibly amount of heat racking him.
After a few seconds, the fire cleared, a bit of smoke covering the scene and obscuring his view.
Intending on retaliating, the man's shields suddenly separated. It was just a tiny gap, a very small gap, but that had been exactly what Aurora had been after.
A blazing dagger shot through the gap between the shields, its form piercing and lodging itself into the man's exposed throat.
The man's gaze widened in absolute shock. A fountain of blood erupted from the man's mouth, his hands moving toward the blade, instinctively trying to stop the blood streaming out of his wounded neck.
His legs shook, both of them buckling, unable to support his weight any longer.
He fell on his knees, his eyes fixed directly on the inflictor of his pain. His mouth moved as though he was trying to say something, but only unintelligible sounds came out.
Aurora's figure stood directly in front of the man, her blazing red eyes flickering as she fixed her gaze on the man dying in front of her. Both her hands were clenched, one gripping a dagger tightly.
Although the battle had been short, Aurora's body was drenched with sweat. Her heart was beating fast, her body subtly trembling.
Aurora's breathing was ragged as she breathed in and out as though she had just run a marathon. She met the man's gaze, seeing the tear that fell from the side of his eye.
Aurora clenched her dagger tightly, raising it up. Her hand trembled with intensity as she inched closer and closer to the man.
'Atticus is right, It's necessary,' Aurora steeled her mindset as she stopped shaking. With an abrupt motion, the dagger moved, the bald head of the man falling on the earth.
Blood erupted from his neck, drenching Aurora's body.
Aurora stood there for a few seconds, taking in deep breaths and trying to get herself together. After which she turned her gaze backwards, suddenly meeting Atticus's gaze.
Spirals of water whipped around his figure, the earth around him drenched with crimson blood.
Every single one of the remaining 7 members lay around him, their bodies cut up into pieces and lifeless.
And yet, despite this brutal scene, there was not a single drop of blood on Atticus.
They both maintained their stare at each other, neither uttering a single word nor moving. After a few seconds, Atticus finally moved.
With a small sigh, he approached Aurora and enveloped her body with water, cleaning away the blood that had spilled on her.
Throughout the process, Atticus didn't say a single word. After thoroughly cleaning her up, Atticus then spoke up,
"We need to move."
Aurora nodded gently in response, not saying a word.
Atticus chose one of their storage spaces and placed each of the warrior's bodies inside after taking what they needed from them. After which, Atticus cleaned up the whole scene with his water element.
Seeing that the area was all cleaned up, they both left the scene, with Atticus intending to look for another target.
…
The whole coliseum cheered loudly as they witnessed the battles happening on the screens.
Despite more than two days having passed for Atticus and the other students, that wasn't the case for the students and academy staff watching the unfolding battle.
In fact, in real-time, it hadn't even been up to three hours yet. The academy had gone through a lot of efforts to ensure the academy grounds as a whole were under their complete control. The entirety of the academy was laced and filled with runes.
For this competition, the academy had altered the time of the summit location, making time move faster there than in the outside world. In fact, the screens they were each watching weren't live; the AI would automatically filter any scene that wasn't important, displaying only fighting scenes or anything it deemed important to show.
The students had just watched Atticus and Aurora easily take care of the Advanced- rank warriors and were cheering loudly.
At this point in time, many battles were happening simultaneously, unlike the first time where Atticus had been the only one battling.
Many were focused on the first years who had displayed very impressive feats along with some other powerful 2nd and 3rd years.
On one screen was Gerald with Seraphin along with many others who were currently discussing.
On another screen was the figure of Kael's massive form effortlessly breaking through the ranks of the bone race warriors, decimating everything in his path.
On another screen was the perfect form of Zoey who had a purple translucent giant form of a dragon's head suspended behind her back, spewing out raging purple flames and turning her enemies to cinders.
On another screen was the perfectly synchronized forms of Ember and Orion, the former with a spear and the latter with two pairs of sabers, moving deftly through their ranks and effortlessly cutting down the bone race warriors.
However, despite all of this, most still kept a close eye on Atticus' screen, hoping and already anticipating the battle that is to come.
They didn't have to be a genius to figure out why Gerald and the rest of the other students were meeting up.
The booth with all the instructors maintained its quietness with only the sound of Jared's annoyingly loud chewing echoing across the room.
Isabella's gaze was fixed on Atticus' screen, a small smile playing on her lips as she watched both Atticus and Aurora deftly navigate through the forest, defeating the warriors of the bone race easily.
Upon seeing the direction Atticus was heading, the smile on her face was instantly replaced with a frown.
'So it's about time, huh? It's about to get harder. Good luck.'