Mara's and Jynn's fight had ended in a draw, a first in this Combat Test. Even if the two opponents were at the same level of strength and skill, it wasn't guaranteed that it would end in a draw, rather most of the time, it would be up to luck. Sometimes, one would find opportunities that others didn't, and that led them to victory.
In this last fight, though, Mara was at a disadvantage. Jynn had the same levels of mana as her and an equally huge aura reserve. The only things in her favor were her strategic thinking, her mana control that far surpassed his, her mastery of magecraft, and the advantages of being an Allgemein, elemental fusion.
In the end, she cornered him by creating a spell that used his own water constructs to better conduct the electricity conjured by her own mana. And it was amazing considering that she created it on the fly. However, Jynn Caster almost seemed indifferent to pain, or rather he embraced it like any other sensation.
This was something that Ray had seen before. In his first real fight with Gideon, the Last Hero, he had tortured the man in several ways. He had burned him, trampled him, gutted him, chewed him, broken his bones, and killed his friends, some of them at least. Most of them were killed by his hands under the Dominion Magic.
Yet, he kept going, even when his body was giving out, even when tears of pain trailed down his face and his voice had grown frail from the screams, his skin pale from the lack of blood, he still wanted to fight.
But Jynn was different, he felt pleasure in it. If Ray treated him the same way he had treated Gideon, would he still smile and feel pleasure? Or would he die feeling something else from the pain?
The fact that Ray couldn't reach a certain answer was... worrying.
Regardless, to be able to react in those circumstances was a great feat, one that Mara was not expecting and almost lost because of it. In a last-ditch effort, she tried to force the magic circle to implode before his sword slash reached her, but the explosion ended up taking both of them out.
While it did not end well for Mara, she was still able to showcase her abilities.
And Jynn...
'What an interesting man.'
Ray would love to fight him. When he saw his current strength after gaining a new body, he was ready to no longer be at the top, however, not only did he discover that he was still there, but he was no longer alone there.
Cù Sith's soul attacks could only be defended because of his nature as a long-living dragon, if not for that, he could have lost that time.
Mara? Extremely talented in magecraft, if she was not so heavily reliant on flame magic, he might have had quite some trouble.
And now, there was Jynn, with insurmountable amounts of both mana and aura of exquisite quality, landing him among some of the greatest talents he had seen, even for his era.
He would be forced to go all out with his magic and aura. He wouldn't be capable of using demonic power, although that might make things a little more fun.
Mara soon returned from her fight. She seemed spent and a little down.
"I should have controlled the explosion better, but I fell into a panic and failed..."
She lamented in this manner as soon as she sat down.
"There was no way for you to know that he was going to react in that situation."
"What would you have done?"
"Not sure. I don't normally find myself in that type of situation, I mostly destroy everything in my path. I'm not the type to set traps and elaborate plans."
"I suppose you aren't."
As they were talking, another fight was happening, although both participants were not regarded as particularly strong or weak, the difference between them was considerable, and it ended quickly.
"Next is participant number 1, Stelle Meyer!"
"Against participant number 200, Ray."
'Oho~'
Now this was an interesting development. He was hoping to fight her as well, but after Jynn's display, he was really hoping to not be disapointed.
"Oh, her. I've heard some stuff about her."
"Hm? What exactly?"
"Apparently, her family boasts a lot about this, but she is a descendant of the Last Hero. And her strength doesn't seem to fall short of the expectations that brings. That's what I gathered since the start of the entrance exams."
"..."
"Everything alright?"
"Yes, everything is perfect."
Ray grinned.
"I couldn't ask for a better opponent."
Mara felt that there was more to that smile but did not ask further.
Ray walked towards the room Professor Eris pointed him to and entered the capsule waiting for him, sending him to the virtual world.
There she was already waiting.
With her golden hair tied into a ponytail behind her head, she carried a typical longsword, her gaze fixed on him.
'It's him. The ring said I would die if I fought him. How strong are you really?'
"You are a descendant of Gideon Meyer, the Last Hero?"
That was the first thing he asked.
«Participants, prepare yourselves. Once the countdown reaches zero, you can start the combat.»
«3»
"Yes, I am."
She simply answered.
«2»
"I see."
Ray's grin widened into a mad smile, battle lust radiating from his entire being, almost making him release his demonic power.
«1...»
"Then it seems that I CANNOT hold back at all."
«0!»
Without any warning, Stelle's aura burst forth. And how heavy its pressure was! Anyone who was not in the particularly strong category would surely feel scared to fight such a warrior.
She stepped forward, intending to cut down Ray before he could make a move.
Judging by her senses, even if her opponent was skilled, due to his aura and mana levels, she could surely overpower him in pure stats.
Or that was what she was thinking before missing her strike completely.
Not that her calculations were wrong, nor was it because she was a bad swordswoman, but rather, Ray had disappeared when the blade reached a few millimeters from his neck.
Her instincts screamed at her, alerting her of danger, but amidst her confusion and surprise, she failed to react in time.
A punch landed right in her right cheek, making her head launch back, forcing her to lean back.
Ray had dodged her strike and moved behind her, it was so fast that he had time to prepare such a strong strike before she turned around.
She tried to shake off the pain in her head in order to concentrate. She raised her sword in front of her with determination.
This time, she was on the defensive. Somehow, Ray was able to completely outclass her in terms of speed, and his physical strength surpassed what she was expecting of him.
"Do you want the answer?"
He said. She could tell that he wasn't going to actually give her an answer. Since this was a spar and not a serious duel, some people had shared information pretty easily, even the stronger participants revealed some of their abilities without a care.
However, she could tell, in Ray's eyes, this was not just a spar or a match meant for the fighter to be evaluated.
For him this was a real fight, a real confrontation between enemies.
Why would he reveal such information.
"You are right... why would I reveal such information?"
Her eyes widened.
'H-he completely followed my train of thought? How is this possible? Not only was he able to accurately predict what I was thinking, but also when. Or is it a coincidence?'
"No matter, you will figure it out on your own."
And with that, he disappeared from her sight. She tried everything to locate him, both her mundane senses and her magical senses. In that split second, Ray's presence seemed to be completely stretched between the point where he was and the place right in front of her.
He reappeared right in front of her before that second ended, already completing a kicking motion, launching her into the air.
He didn't take long to stomp the ground and follow her into aerial combat.
Concentrating, she sent several sword slashes in his direction, however...
"?!"
'He dodged midair?!'
No, it was not just dodging midair, what Ray had done was completely change the direction of his movement to the side before once again coming back to the original path.
'He can fly?'
There was not much room for thinking as he swiftly landed a resounding punch in her gut. The force of the strike was greatly augmented not only by his aura and mana but also by the insane speed that he was traveling with. With such power she was supposed to be sent flying but was stopped by another strike.
A dropkick had come from above where she had been launched, kicking her back down.
He proceeds to repeat this process over and over again. Launching her up and kicking her back down.
Until she had enough. Either by luck or a significant improvement of reflexes, Stelle dodged one of his strikes and restrained him in a lock.
Creating a small aura blade in her hand, she tried to stab him in his side before she was sent to the ground by a resounding shockwave.
Looking at him from the ground, she was vastly surprised.
Various chunks of the ground floated a few meters up into the air before compressing onto themselves, creating several constructs. Giant swords or simply very compact pillars of stone.
With a wave of his hand, he sent them flying in her direction.
She reacted as fast as she could, conjuring several sword slashes at the stone constructs, destroying them on impact.
As the remains of the constructs fell from the sky, she couldn't help but point out...
"Gravity. Your magic is gravity, that is the reason you can move so fast with so little aura and mana. You use several gravitational pulls to change your weight and increase your speed, that can also be used to make your strikes more powerful as well."
"Oh, so you've figured me out? Shall I talk about your abilities, then? Your control of aura is incredible, but ever since the first time I saw those sword slashes, they are not simply aura, are they? Instead, you only used tiny amounts of aura and inflated the sword slashes with natural energy from the surroundings, reinforcing it and allowing you to save aura, which you have little of..."
After saying that, he landed in front of her.
"... or rather than having little amounts of aura, it's more like you don't have access to most of it due to overexertion of the body, creating several injuries over time, which affects the way your body lets aura flow."
Her eyes widened. He had figured her out so quickly.
She had purposefully showed off her skills when fighting the virtual monster in the last island in order to make everyone believe that she had insurmountable amounts of aura or at least that she had aura of great quality. And yet, after seeing her moves only a couple of times, he had already figured her out?
He took a step forward and disappeared from her view. Reappearing beside her, almost without a sound.
Without a word he kicked her, and yet she was able to react, placing her sword between her and the attack, absorbing most of the damage but still making her fly out.
'She is improving. Did her body mutate to rapidly adapt to circumstances to prevent further injury, or is she that talented in combat?'
Regardless, at her level it seemed that she was incapable of withstanding his full power, even if it was the full power of a weakened version of him.
He waited for a while, seeing if she was capable of making a counter-attack.
ZOOOM
The air vibrated as Stelle fired all her aura in conjunction with all the natural energy that she could gather, sending an enormous sword slash that seemed to be capable of engulfing all the virtual world where they were standing.
Ray reached into his Dominion affinity and gave a simple order.
"Rise"
The ground broke apart as various amounts of stone and dirt from the ground stood between Ray and the sword slash. Normally, this wouldn't be enough to hold such a fearsome attack, but once again Ray used his Dominion Magic.
"Hold"
The wall made out of the materials of the ground stood in place, incapable of breaking apart a path for the unrelenting force of Stelle's attack.
And soon, the sword slash dissipated, losing its momentum and power, it was only a mass of energy being scattered by the wind.
Once again, Ray waited for another attack, but none came.
'It seems that it is over. How disappointing.'
Or so he thought.
BOOOM
A rush of mana, aura, and divine power swept through the devastated field of the virtual world as a bright golden light illuminated the horizon.
Stelle was not done yet.
**************************
Who do you think is going to win?
Ray?
Stelle?
or Neither?