Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Staring at the red-haired figure who was standing proudly before the stone, various emotions welled up inside Phel's dazed head. Awe, respect, thankfulness, admiration. This shock he was feeling only dissipated when Arza began to speak.

"See? It's easy to break through the false realities that you conjure," he said casually as he pulled outs his hand out of the giant rock, making it crumble down.

The sight of the Tenarak user standing speechlessly appeared from behind the scene, and Arza swiftly dealt him a punch to the gut. Since he was powerful enough to break through pseudo-metal, a normal mage's body should've been the same as paper in front of his fists… but none of the previous overpowering force could be felt from this punch.

Sure, it looked painful as the Tenarak user was slightly lifted upwards due to the punch, but considering what happened to his spell, his stomach should've been pierced by Arza's fist.

'Is that what the meaning of his chant was? To fists that allow him to shatter false realities… and according to what happened just now, false realities should mean things made from magic,' Phel thought excitedly.

'Or maybe he just landed a much weaker punch, and I'm just unable to tell the difference…'

Whatever it was, Arza swiftly chopped his prey's neck and took care of arguably the hardest student to deal with in the blink of an eye. He then looked around and his eyes fell on one of the commoner newcomers.

"You'll be next, in 10… 9… 8…" he began counting down.

'What is he doing? Just attack them normally,' Phel was confused. The various new feelings that were occupying his mind previously were also gone.

If Arza could move so fast it was hard for anyone else to even grasp his movements, then he should just jump between student and student and incapacitate them. There was no need for him to declare his intentions beforehand and even start a countdown. Now that he showed everyone what he was capable of, no one would be willing to let him do as he wished.

"What the hell are you doing? Staring at him like a bunch of idiots?!" Decatur screamed. "Kill him!"

As if a switch was flipped, everyone began to construct their spells one by one.

A relentless noise of stone being flung on stone began appearing in the background, and Phel realized it as Evin trying to destroy the giant rock that was blocking his way out. But it was faint, compared to the spells being conjured in the room by the students. But by the time they finished casting, Arza was done with his countdown.

His figure blurred out of everyone's sight, and a gut-wrenching cry came from the boy he singled out previously. This time, the opponent wasn't protected by a spell like the previous one, so he was blown away at tremendous speeds by Arza's sudden dash and landed with his back to the room's wall.

"How does he move so fast?!" Phel whispered with disbelief as he tried to process what just happened.

Although the first time was still shocking, it could be explained by the fact that no one was expecting something like that to happen. Naturally, things would look exaggerated if it happened out of nowhere.

But this time, he was very intently looking at Arza to see what exactly he did to move so fast. But even then, he still couldn't understand what he just witnessed. The only thing he noticed was Arza briefly crouching as if he was about to jump, before blurring out of existence.

"Second victory," Arza declared with a smile, and designated another student as his next target. "The girl over there. In 13… 12… 11…"

"N-no…" the girl in topic replied with her voice cracking.

Phel felt bad for the girl, but his attention was more focused on what Arza just said. Compared to last time, he added three more seconds to his countdown, and also mentioned that it was his second victory. If the Tenarak user was first, then the girl must be the third.

'So he would need to do this 19 more times until we would be finished?' Phel realized. 'And if three seconds are added each time he chooses a new target… then near the end of the fight, the timer would be more than a minute… This actually reminds me of something…'

"Attack him before he does that!" Decatur ordered and a cacophony of spells appeared inside the small room.

Among the spells, the array of Hard Fire swords conjured by the girl that was designated by Arza definitely looked much deadlier than the rest.

All these big and small spells homed in on Arza's location, while the melee fighters prepared to lunge at him after the effects of the ranged spells disappeared. From this, Phel could gather that the two groups had at least agreed on a battle plan beforehand and he was sure that this plan was originally prepared for Evin.

He felt momentarily worried for Arza, but he could see the red-haired boy showcasing his eerily inhuman athletic abilities once again, though for some reason, this time, it felt a little more underwhelming compared to last time. Phel immediately realized why. Arza was choosing to take some of the spells on his body, as he supposedly judged them too weak to dodge.

Sure, the spells of the newly awakened mages were a bit underwhelming, but everyone here were all elites of the 1st year students. Their spells definitely weren't anything so easy to just… deflect off one's body.

"1…"

"Nooo! ... Gah!" the girl's scream was short and in vain, as Arza's figure appeared in front of her the moment he finished counting down.

Perhaps Arza held back in this attack of his, as the girl didn't fly across the room like the last one. A closer look suggested that she fainted due to what seemed to be a mix of mana overuse, fear, and shock from Arza's small, yet sharp chop to the side of her neck… though Phel was able to notice a hint of gratitude in her expression which previously expected nothing less than death.

"Third victory. Next will be you, in 16… 15… 14…" unaware of the girl's emotions, Arza resumed his hunt.

"Stack defensive spells on the target!" Decatur offered a solution to this problem.

Everyone frantically began to create piles of spells between Arza and his target. Since the time frame was only 16 seconds, everyone was able to create something strong enough to deflect most casual attacks. Multiply that by 18 times, then a terribly potent defense would appear to protect the target.

Anyone would want to stop the stacking of defenses, as no one liked to idly watch as their enemies casted their spells… But Arza was only calmly observing the situation, as if it had nothing to do with him.

"1!" he declared with enthusiasm, as he once again disappeared out of everyone's sight.

In a split second, a variety of different sounds entered Phel's ears: rock crumbling, ice shattering, Hard Air being blown away, and Hard Fire sizzling. A dozen defensive spells that stood between Arza and his target were penetrated by his spell-shattering fist.