"What kind of beast is that?" asked Francis.
"It's a Cinderhorn Wolf," Bell lied. The real answer was that it was a Cinderhorn Direwolf, but there was no need for them to know.
Before Vivian could give the signal to begin, Bell's attention drifted, and he turned around. Where was he looking at, a few people wondered.
His eyes eventually stopped at a student standing with the rest of the crowd.
He walked over to them. "May I borrow your weapon?" he asked. Just like how he had been looking at the wolf the entire time, knowing that he was likely going to have to face it, the weapon the boy in front of him used was also the weapon he deemed most fitting to deal with the beast.
The classmate stiffened, not expecting the Bell to talk to him. Let alone ask to borrow his weapon.
"Can I?" Bell asked again.
"O-Oh! Yes! Please! It'll be an honor," the boy responded while nodding his head far too fast.
The boy unhooked his weapon from his body, which was this long, thin steel rope that had a kunai attached to it at the end.
This wasn't an unusual thing to happen. Although there was an assortment of weapons that Vivian would let the students use, most people would stick to what they were good at.
Bell, on the other hand, switched weapons more often than not.
Sometimes it's because he wanted more practice with them, while other times, he felt it was best suited for certain scenarios such as this one.
Testing the weight of the weapon, the rope slid smoothly through his fingers. He spun the kunai, flung it forward, pulled it back, and caught it.
Satisfied with the weapon, he walked back to where the rest of his team was.
"That's your choice today?" Francis asked.
'How does he know how to use every weapon?!' Jess wondered with blushed cheeks.
'...' Cormier thought.
"You took your sweet time, but it seems that your team is ready now," Vivian. "Good luck. Try not to get hurt."
She disengaged the lock and it hit the ground with a dull clank as it echoed against the stage floor.
A moment later, iron scraped as the cage door slid open. Before the beast even got out, heat was starting to spill out. The heat smelled like scorched earth and old ash.
The wolf slowly rose as if it wasn't in a rush to escape its confinement.
There wasn't fury in its eyes either.
It unfolded itself as though waking from a slumber; it even stretched its limbs, arching its back, and yawning.
Lifting its head, it began to leave the cage. Its claws dragged lazily across the base of the cage, then the surface of the stage. Thin white scars were being created on the stage as it walked.
Once its entire body was no longer in the cage, it stopped walking and settled its eyes on the four students in front of it.
Team 3 didn't blink.
'It's not behaving like the beasts the previous two teams faced,' Jess thought, a chill running up her spine. 'Why is it not charging with rage?'
Her bow had come up on instinct, her shoulders tightening as she drew back her string all the way back, ready to fire.
Lifting the hand not holding the roped-kunai, Bell prevented her from shooting prematurely.
The motion was very loose and relaxed, showing his teammate that he wasn't worried.
If Bell wasn't worried, then they shouldn't be worried either.
"Hold."
There was no urgency in his word, and yet, the three obeyed as if he had yelled it in their faces.
Jess loosened her tension a little bit, just enough to relax her arms, but drawn far enough to let out a shot in a near instant if she needed to.
'Bell's clam so it's fine,' she told herself even though her pulse was refusing to slow, disagreeing with her mind.
It was natural to feel that way. They were facing off against a powerful magical beast they had no business dealing with, but they didn't know this. Their body's instinct was a step ahead of their mind.
Without taking his eyes off the beast, Francis asked, "Same formation as last time?"
"Yes," Bell answered.
Cormier stepped forward, getting in front of the team. He raised his shield, his boots set wide. His posture was very textbook — solid, dependable, and forged from constant practice.
From the outside, Team 3 looked composed as they usually were.
Vivian didn't buy it.
'Bell, I believe. But those three, they're probably feeling the wolf's beast energy oozing through its body even if they can't sense and see it.'
Her gaze was tracking the wolf's breathing. The muscle beneath its fur subtly flexed. Heat warped the air around its mouth.
'This wolf knows that it will not survive today with me around so it's taking its time analyzing its opponents. It plans to take one down before it goes down.'
Although her arms were crossed as she watched, she was ready to snap forward at the first sign that a student was in true danger that they couldn't handle.
"It's coming," Bell uttered, his sight having been enhanced by Diana's blood so he could see things that he couldn't before.
As if he had seen the future, the wolf vanished from Team 3's sight.
There was no sound of its legs moving. There wasn't even a sudden rush of displaced air from how fast it was. One moment it existed, and the next — the space it had occupied was empty.
A murmur rippled through the watching students.
"Did it just disappear?"
"Where did it go?"
Not through sight or sound, Bell felt its location using the pressure he had sensed earlier.
"To our left. Be prepared to attack on sight."
The command left his mouth just as the beast tore back into existence mid-lunge, jaws stretched wide as fire bloomed deep in its throat like a flower unraveling its petals.
Cormier rushed to readjust the area his shield covered. Raising it, he blocked most of the flames, but some of it still leaked thoroughly, mainly where Bell was standing.
Twisting his body in a clean movement, the fire hit the ground behind him.
"The beast can use magic?!" one of the observing students yelled in shock.
Seven claws shredded empty space as Francis dodged after Bell told him to. If he hadn't reacted, his torso would've been cut open.
More heat was released and it slammed past Bell's face.
Jess didn't wait for instructions. Rather, she'd already received them when he said to "attack on sight".
Releasing the string, her arrow spun and traveled, striking the stone ahead of the wolf and detonating in a sharp, concussive burst. She didn't think she'd be able to hit a beast this fast, so she was hoping to send an attack that it wouldn't bother dodging.
The shockwave forced the beast to veer, skidding as its trajectory was suddenly broken by a "badly aimed' arrow.
It adjusted very quickly and swiped at Cormier, who had to brace with an arm behind the other.
Taking the hit, the impact slammed into his shield like a battering ram trying to collapse a wall.
His boots shrieked as he was pushed backward, stone even cracking beneath them. His knees bent dangerously, but before he could get in too much danger, Francis activated a star ability that allowed him to shoot a sharp beam from his sword.
The wolf had to dodge it.
Blood spilled from the corner of Cormier's mouth as he repostured himself. He was the first line of defense. He had to keep as much attention on him as possible and not allow those behind him to aggro attention, especially Jess, their archer.
"How are they supposed to defeat that?" someone asked from the crowd.
"Don't panic team," Bell said as he moved immediately, darting in from the flank. The kunai left his hand, and like a whip, it aimed at the beast in a controlled arc. He wasn't trying to kill it with this attack because that was a pipedream, but he was trying to grab its attention.
The wolf reacted instantly and whipped its tail around to hit the kunai before it could land.
It then leaped backwards, creating more distance between itself and Team 3 before going invisible.
"Don't worry that you can't see it. It's moving slowly because the instant it lunges, it'll be visible again," he informed his team. But his enhanced sight allowed him to essentially see the wolf, or rather, the energy it had.
Francis believed in his team leader, but it was still terrifying to be facing something he couldn't see.
"Francis. In front of you," Bell said.
The warning was helpful but as the wolf appeared, Francis focused all his strength on blocking and the impact still caught him across the ribs with a sharp and hollow crack that echoed through the chamber.
Lifting clean off his feet, he was thrown into the air, across the stage, and skidding along the surface before rolling to a stop.
"Francis!" Jess shouted, panic in her voice.
Bell didn't look.
'He's alive,' he assessed. 'He might be hurt but nothing should be broken in his body.'
The wolf turned.
Heat gathered rapidly, pressure spiking as beast energy twisted inward. Bell could feel it happening.
'That's different than its previous attack.'
"Cormier, forget the formation. Go stand directly in front of Jess. Your only job is to protect her. Got it?"
"Nnn."
Fire erupted again from the wolf's mouth, but this time, not in a wave; it was a focused blast.
The flames slammed into Bell head-on, swallowing him completely. Heat crushed against him, tore through the upper layer of fabric before stopping at the reinforced material that all combat uniform was made of.
Even with the "armor" on, it wasn't able to erase the heat entirely and the fire burned into his muscle and bone.
The air itself became lethal, scorching his lungs with every breath.
Students screamed. Someone stumbled back and fell on their butt.
"Oh gods—!"
Bell didn't scream which was the only reason why Vivian didn't immediately dash in to save him. She could see through the fire that his expression hadn't changed.
Pain tore through him and it was a bright and violent pain.
Any other student here would've succumbed to the flames, but not Bell.
"Teacher, save him!"
"He's going to die. I'm going to throw up."
"Why would you have them face a beast that powerful?!" Was Vivian crazy?
No one saw it. Not even Vivian, whose muscles coiled tighter with every second Bell remained in the fire, her restraint weakening as the urge to intervene sharpened.
What was it that they weren't seeing?
The answer to that is that Bell's pupils had dilated and an insignia bled into existence within his eyes: a black lion, mane flared wide, eyes burning a deep, violent red.
The Mark of Solmire.
The same symbol used for the crest of House Agnus.
The blessing the marking gave him didn't make him immune to flames; however, it answered the call differently.
He did have a certain level of resistance to the fire but the true blessing was that the flames itself was empowering him. It fed into him like tossing wood into a fire.
All the heat and energy flooding his body caused his muscles to tighten and his perception to sharpen even further beyond the vampiric boost Diana's blood gave him.
His skin blistered, splitting up, but quickly began knitting itself back together beneath the heat.
'It hurts,' he acknowledged calmly. 'But pain is only temporary.'
Bell stepped forward and the wolf faltered as it saw the human it envisioned turning into ashes looking like he was unaffected by his most powerful attack.
A ripple of disbelief moved through the room.
"Is he walking through it?!"
"How is he not burning?"
"This must be one of Solmire's abilities."
Solmire wasn't exactly an unknown god. Not only was it one of the strongest gods in the world, but it was also the Familial God of House Agnus.
Most people in the room could only assume that Bell was unaffected by the flames because of Solmire.
They weren't exactly wrong. Nor were they right.
"That's insane!"
"I'm jealous. I wish my god were as powerful as his," a student muttered subconsciously before quickly closing their mouth as they realized the sin they had just committed against their own god.
Seizing the moment, Bell snapped his arm forward and hurled the kunai with perfect precision. The blade was thrown with such velocity that the wolf was unable to dodge as the blade sank deep near the base of the horn.
Metal was biting into bone.
Yanking the thin steel rope hard, Bell twisted the beast's center of mass off balance.
Stopping his foot on the ground, he cracked the floor below but more importantly, the energy that he generated pushed away all the fire around him.
Francis, who had picked himself off the ground, was in shock. He thought he had seen everything about Bell but to his surprise, the bag of tricks was deeper than he could imagine.
The wolf staggered a bit, but it didn't fall. It quickly dug its claws into the stone.
"Grooooowl."