Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Arza finished his countdown and appeared right next to Phel, sending his target crashing into the wall. 

Even though Phel saw this dash five times already, when he appeared right next to you like that, it was hard to not feel anything. It truly was like something out of stories

Although Phel felt nothing the first time Arza chanted a spell, this time, he felt like the boy was shrouded in an unfathomable aura. His pink eyes seemed to be leaving small linear trails whenever Arza moved his head, and the faint pinkish smoke emanating from all over his body also added to this powerful image.

Once again, admiration began to bubble up in Phel' heart, as he excitedly waited for him to designate his next opponent. But then Arza looked towards him and said in a barely audible whisper, one that only Phel could hear with his abnormally good hearing, "Next one is the final one. Pull me back afterwards." Turning towards the rest of the students he resumed confidently. "Sixth victory. The next lucky student would be… Lopar. In 25… 24… 23…"

"You damn bastard…" Lopar replied hatefully. "For two months, I asked if you could show me what you were truly capable of but you refused all the time. But when your roommate falls into trouble, you immediately reveal your secrets like they're nothing?"

Arza stopped his countdown for a second to reply to Lopar's words. "I've explained why to you as clearly as possible, so if you can't accept that, then there's nothing left for me to do. Just because we're dating, doesn't mean we have to share each and every one of our secrets. 12… 11…"

Lopar hmphed in a dismissive manner and began her dance, stirring the mana around her to service. When Arza's countdown neared the end, she performed the defensive movement everyone was so familiar with, timing it perfectly to intercept Arza's incoming dash. 

But while Lopar's dance was like the beautifully written music notes on a paper, Arza's dash was like a sudden knife that cut through said paper without rhythm or rhyme. The huge body of air that Lopar stirred could only dissipate under Arza's unreasonable attack, leaving her neck wide open for the follow-up attack.

After he was finished, everyone else seemed to wonder who would be the next one, but Arza's words suggested otherwise. "Final victory. I'll leave the rest to you."

Then, after promptly striking and knocking out another student who happened to be nearby, the pink light in Arza's eyes disappeared and he began falling down.

"Now's our chance! Take him out!" one of the students shouted.

Phel knew that something like this was going to happen, so he was already there when the boy as falling down. He effortlessly picked up Arza's body from between the gaping enemies, and pulled back to the corridor he blocked with ice.

At his will, the ice created by the Talisman turned to icicles and were sent towards the remaining enemies in the room. 

It effects weren't anything to write home about, but it succeeded in bogging down the chasing opponents at least for a few seconds more and also baiting them away from the ketricite floor for at least a few steps.

"Stop going after the unconscious enemy, you idiots!" Decatur shouted angrily. "We still have another one to deal with!"

Decatur was indeed right. They did have more problems to worry about, but they were too late. One of them was even making such a dramatic entrance of breaking through a giant rock lodged between a corridor. Evin was desperately trying to reach the non-ketricite room, so he could protect himself from the falling debris that were created alongside his flashy entrance.

In normal circumstances, the students who were trying to keep him in place would've immediately fired spells at him, now that Evin was at his weakest. But the whole situation with Arza managed to draw their attention enough, so they forgot about their original goal for a moment.

Evin, of course, would never fail to use such a chance, and managed to land on non-ketricite ground before the enemies could even realize what was happening.

Ever since Arza began attacking the students, Evin was relentlessly chipping at the rock, trying to break it enough to make it crumble down with a big enough push… while also being careful enough to not let the enemies think too much about the constant sound that was entering their ears. Evin never changed the rate and strength he used to hit the rock, so the noise he was emitting had basically turned to white noise.

The human brain always strove to ignore the useless things that it was perceiving, especially in a situation where they were greatly focused on another thing.

Phel could notice it because he wasn't the one fighting, and because his hearing was much sharper than others. He heard that the giant rock was becoming more and more brittle, judging by the sound it was making. He even wondered whether Arza also knew about it and timed his spell to end right when Evin was about to break through the rock, but decided that it was best to not worry about it too much.

He pulled out a Talisman from his pocket and threw it in the room. Immediately, the whole place was filled with pure white fog, but Phel was sure Evin would be able to navigate his way through it. After all, it was a simple straight dash across the room, with nothing hindering his path.

'Evin doesn't need more help than this,' Phel decided and ran towards the exit with Arza on his hands.

But just as he exited into the corridor, a powerful wave of water ran by his back.

"You thought you could escape if you just got through the ketricite corridor?" Decatur's voice resounded though the room. 

With his words, the water that was running through the room immediately turned to ice, blocking Phel off. 

'Shit!' Phel cursed. 

Of course, Decatur would have prepared a huge spell for the decisive moment. The blonde-haired boy was always flashy with his spells, but today, he barely stood out from the students around him. It seemed that he was preparing a big one for when Evin appeared through the corridor.

Of course, he would expect Evin to pull of something like that. Out of everyone in that room, he was the one who would be the most wary of Evin.

Phel considered trying to break through the ice wall, but decided to trust Evin to do something about the problem himself. He didn't doubt Evin's capabilities, and in his mind, it was difficult to decide who was harder to deal with, Evin or Arza. If Arza could keep a room full of mages busy, then surely, Evin will be able to do the same.

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