The eastern clearing kept shaking every few seconds — short bursts of pressure rolling through the trees like distant thunder. Kazu and Gildarts were still going at it somewhere deeper in the forest, their spells pulsing hard enough that the leaves shivered overhead.
Dust drifted with each shockwave. Bits of bark rattled down from branches. Nobody in the clearing said it out loud, but every mage here could feel that fight like a heartbeat; after all, it was a battle between S-rank-level entities.
Gray stood still, his expression stoic.
Mira arms crossed, stood in the forest like she had all the time in the world.
She wore her usual delinquent getup — a cropped black top, a short skirt, the tattered over-jacket hanging off her shoulders in that 'touch me, and I'll break your spine' way.
Her hair framed her face sharply, and the smile she gave Gray wasn't friendly. It was the one she used on people she wanted to annoy for sport.
It's a sight that Kazu rarely had seen because Mira deliberately tries to hide it in front of him.
"Well?" she said. "You gonna move, or are you still sulking because Kazu didn't pick you?"
Gray exhaled slowly. "You're still stuck on that?"
"Oh, please. You were pouting hard enough to freeze the ocean. You think I didn't notice?" She leaned down, hands behind her back, voice dripping mock sweetness. "Grumpy little Gray… abandoned by his precious friend…"
"Yeah," Gray muttered, "that's definitely it. Has nothing to do with the fact that you tried to jump into their fight."
Mira snorted and turned away. "Relax. I'm only here because you blocked the path. If you'd stayed out of it, I'd already be watching Kazu from a nice tree branch."
"Yeah," Gray said. "That's exactly why I didn't let you through. You would probably ruin his plan." 'Though I don't know what exactly Kazu's plan is, Mira, going there could become an untracked variable. I can't let that happen.'
Behind them, the rest of their teams shifted. Lisanna and Levy exchanged a look. Lisanna stepped closer to her sister. The moment stretched thin.
Then, Levy and Lisanna moved in a different direction, leaving Gray and Mira alone.
Mira cracked her neck. "I'll finish this fast."
He didn't answer. He saw her hair lift, her aura thicken. Her muscles tightened, as if she were stretching into a more familiar skin.
Then she shifted — black markings crawling across her limbs, nails sharpening, eyes narrowing with feral confidence.
"You ready?" she asked.
"No," Gray said. "But you're coming anyway."
Mira laughed.
And in the same breath, she fully triggered Satan Soul.
Her body twisted into the demonic silhouette — dark wings, jagged claws, scaled limbs, fanged grin. The ground cracked beneath her feet as she vanished from sight.
Gray felt the pressure spike behind him.
He didn't think. He slammed a hand into the earth instinctively.
"Ice-Make: Absolute Freeze!"
A ring of frost erupted around him instantly, exploding outward like a low, brutal tide. Mira's kick hit the ice barrier a split-second later. Her attack forced her leg through the frost, but the magic inside the ice surged upward, crawling over her skin and clothes and burying half her thigh in frozen armour.
Mira's face twisted in pain.
Her heel hit the ground, and she staggered back, instinctively creating distance. Claws dug into the ice to break the surface layer. Her blood was frozen solid under her skin, and even she winced as she drove darkness magic inward to thaw it.
Gray didn't miss the opportunity.
While Mira smashed through the frost on her leg, he launched a barrage of sharp, needle-like constructs — each one glowing faintly. They sliced toward her in rapid succession.
She leapt up, wings flaring, but the cold clung to her. A few shards clipped her shoulders and ribs. One grazed her cheek. Another hit her side and actually forced a grunt out of her.
All the parts that came in contact with those needles faced a similar fate to her damaged leg.
"Seriously?" Mira hissed as she shot higher. "You little—"
"Try flying again," Gray said flatly.
He continued sending condensed bolts at her — each tuned colder than the last, each forcing Mira to dodge earlier, sharper, messier.
It was working.
But not for long.
Mira finally tore the last of the deep frost from her leg and hovered in the air, breathing hard, eyes narrowing. "I'm done playing."
Her wings folded back. Her body shifted again.
The demonic markings appeared again. The scales darkened. Her silhouette flickered with something heavier and eviler from before.
'Partial Halphas form.'
"Time for round two," Mira coldly said.
***
Levy and Lisanna drifted into a smaller clearing split by tangled roots and tilted sunlight.
The distant shockwaves from Gildarts and Kazu's fight rolled through the trees every half minute, rattling branches overhead.
'It's a shame that I can't see the boss fight and need to take care of a minion.' Levy sighed.
Lisanna bounced on her toes, smiling with the confidence of someone who'd never read a combat pacing manual. "I'll go easy!"
Levy pinched the bridge of her nose. "Please don't."
"What? Why not?"
"Because your 'easy' is the same as a charging boar. It just hurts more."
Lisanna blinked, then laughed nervously. "O-Oh. Right." She exhaled, then shifted into Rabbit Soul — ears up, legs coiled, body lighter. "Okay! Full speed it is!"
Levy muttered, "Of course she picked the dumbest option of the two," but quietly. Mostly.
Lisanna vanished in a hop that cracked the ground under her takeoff. Her foot crashed down on stone hard enough to explode it. The shockwave kicked dirt into the air and snapped the trunk of a thin tree clean in half.
But Levy was no longer there.
She reappeared several meters away, standing behind a fallen log, hair mussed by debris. "You telegraph your jumps too much."
Lisanna turned, ears twitching. "What does telegraph mean?"
"It means you move in a predictable, stupid villain of some lame arc who likes to say it's move out loud."
"…Is that bad?"
"Yes."
Lisanna switched to Cat Soul without warning. Her limbs elongated, claws gleaming as she crouched low. "Alright, then I'll get unpredictable!"
"That's not how that—"
Lisanna sprinted. Claws tore into the ground, sending dirt flying in narrow trenches. Levy dropped low and rolled under her swipe; Lisanna's missed strike smashed into a boulder behind her.
The boulder split in two.
"Lisanna!" Levy snapped. "Do you realise what you almost hit?!"
"You? …Sorry!"
"No, I meant the boulder! That split way too easily." She paused. "But also me. Yes. Both."
"That's a lame way to stall for time."
Lisanna lunged again. Levy darted sideways and pressed a glowing finger against the air.
'Solid Script: Barrier!'
A rectangular shield flared to life just as Lisanna's claw came down. The impact rattled the entire clearing and forced Lisanna back a step. Cracks spiderwebbed across the barrier before fading. Levy wiped sweat off her forehead.
"You do realise this is supposed to be an exam, right? Not an ecosystem destruction test."
'Fuck. She's stronger than I expected her to be.'
"I'm just trying to tag you!" Lisanna protested.
"You say that like it makes this feel less like getting hunted."
Lisanna dropped into Bird Soul next, wings unfolding with a rustle. She shot into the air, a blur of white feathers and momentum, before swooping down.
Levy braced. "Oh come on—"
Lisanna's dive bomb cratered the ground where Levy had been standing. Dirt and shattered roots burst up like a small explosion. A thick branch snapped off a nearby tree and fell with a heavy thump.
Levy coughed dust from her lungs as she peeked out from behind another trunk.
'This really does feel like the boring middle chapter of a serialised fight arc. Predictable pattern, linear attacks, and a heroine forced to keep dodging until the hero arrives.'
She pressed her hand to the earth again, drawing faint lines of light. Another pair of script circles sank into the soil.
Lisanna landed and spun around. "You sure know how to dodge! How did you do that?"
"Illusions."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. I will explain after the exams."
"Fine." Lisanna dashed again — Rabbit Soul again — her claws leaving gouges in the ground. Levy didn't run this time. She flicked her wrist.
"Solid Script: Bullets!"
Multiple small glowing pellets fired out from the circle she'd planted earlier. They peppered Lisanna's approach, forcing her to shield her face. The bullets didn't injure — Levy tuned them intentionally light — but each one pushed Lisanna's momentum off-angle, forcing her into a sloppy skid that tore up another patch of earth.
Lisanna stumbled and shook her arms. "Ow— hey! That stings!"
"They're supposed to."
"That's mean!"
"So is trying to punch me through a tree!"
Lisanna pumped her legs, switching back to Cat Soul. "I just wanna hit you once!"
"And I just want you to diversify your move set!"
"What does that mean?!"
"It means you're predictable!"
Lisanna flinched, as if this was worse than any damage. "Hey! I'm totally unpredictable!"
"Lisanna, you've cycled through forms in the same order twice."
"…Have not."
"You literally have. Rabbit → Cat → Bird. Then again, with Bird of the second cycle only left. You're repeating like a poorly written villain of the week."
Lisanna puffed her cheeks. "I'll show you a villain!"
She kicked off again. The ground cracked for the third time, a huge root splitting under her force.
Levy stepped back, palms glowing. She'd laid enough groundwork. Enough circles.
'Time to stop stalling.'
She inhaled once, steady and calm.
"That's enough," she said. "I'm ending this."
'After all, there's no hero in this story. I will end this on my own.'
Her fingers touched the last script mark on the ground — and the field lit faintly beneath their feet.
***
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