Before Ophelia could say anything back to Mika, he already vanished as he went after Lucio. The only thing she could do was to heave a sigh.

"..."

Her gaze wandered to Loram who was getting up from the ground after getting thrown by Mika.

"Could you please not embarrass us any further?" Eliza mocked him with a sigh.

"Shut it..."

Loram was clearly ticked off.

"I won’t let him get away with that...!" he added resentfully.

However, before he could enact his revenge on Mika for embarrassing him multiple times, he had to deal with the obstacles right in front of him.

"You can decide first. Whom do you want to fight?" Ophelia asked Lereon without any tension in her body.

"I will choose Loram then." Lereon replied bluntly.

The two switched positions after deciding on their matchups.

"Don’t underestimate them, Loram. Especially him." Eliza warned sternly.

When she was fighting against Ophelia and Lereon alone for a while, she was able to keep up with them, however, she noticed that none of those two were serious.

However, the same could be applied to her.

"I don’t want to hear that from you." Loram huffed.

At that moment, Eliza summoned an object that emerged from the dark matter around her hand.

"I never said that I wouldn’t fight seriously though." she said with a grin.

She was holding a black ax which she swung skillfully around. The ax was almost as big as her and yet, it seemed like she had no problems wielding it.

"So she was also a relic wielder, huh? Never knew that." Ophelia muttered apathetically.

"Does it matter?" Lereon commented.

He fixed his glasses as roots emerged from the ground beneath and around him.

Lereon took off his white gloves and revealed a dark eerie-looking ring on his right index finger. The dark purple diamond, which was engraved in the ring, began to shine.

"Don’t let yourself get caught by his attacks, Loram. Lereon wields a relic which allows him to drain the life force of any opponent caught up in his attacks." Eliza explained.

"I knew that already."

Loram finally turned stern, too.

"But instead of focusing on him and me, you should rather worry about yourself." he said.

"?"

Then, Ophelia appeared before her after rushing over to her with her lightning-enhanced body.

She equipped her black gauntlets and threw a punch at her, which almost connected if Eliza had not erected stone walls just in time.

Eliza jumped back reflexively as she erected those walls that were destroyed by Ophelia’s punch.

However, Ophelia did not intend to let her have a moment to catch her breath so she went after her right away.

She threw one heavy punch after another which Eliza all blocked.

Contrary to her doll and child-like appearance, her skill with that threatening-looking ax was exceptional.

She managed to parry all her punches until she swung her ax strong enough to make Ophelia back off for a second.

"..."

Eliza was now the one who initiated the offense as she jumped high with her ax raised.

Ophelia, who knew how robust her gauntlets were, raised her guard, intending to block the ax. Due to those exchanges a while ago, she came to the conclusion that her ax was too light.

And like that, Eliza slammed her ax against Ophelia, who used her armored hands to block the attack effortlessly.

"?"

However, Ophelia felt something strange.

Eliza was grinning as she pressed her ax further into Ophelia.

The ground beneath them started to crack as if Ophelia was pushed into the ground.

"This ax can change mine and its weight whenever I want to so don’t be surprised if you get crushed." Eliza stated amusedly.

That explained why Eliza was able to swing the ax so skillfully, making it appear as if it did not weigh anything. After all, she set its weight as low as possible so that she could wield it.

"Hnngg...!" Ophelia groaned.

Her arms were about to give in due to the weight but she knew that it could end fatally if she would let her guard down now.

Thus, she gathered all her strength to push against the ax.

"Hm...?"

Eliza also sensed a change in Ophelia.

Despite the ax’s weight being comparable to that of an elephant, it looked like the ax was pushed back.

"Haaa!" Ophelia yelled as she freed herself and blew Eliza away.

"W-what...?"

Eliza could not believe that she lost the strength competition.

"..."

Sternly and sharply, Ophelia glanced at Eliza.

"?!"

In the brink of a second, Ophelia appeared in front of her face again.

Eliza put up her ax out of reflex, avoiding a direct hit from her fist but she was still sent flying after Ophelia punched her ax which was protecting her.

She crashed through a nearby building after taking that hit with her weapon.

"Where does that monstrous strength come from...?!" she muttered vexedly, ignoring the blood flowing down from the top of her head.

But Eliza had no time to think.

"!"

Ophelia was once more before her.

This time, the whole building, where Eliza crashed through, collapsed when Ophelia launched her punch.

"This isn’t funny...!" Eliza muttered nervously after she jumped high into the air, dodging Ophelia’s punch.

She gripped her ax with both hands and increased the weight on her and her weapon again when Ophelia chased after her by jumping, too.

Ophelia launched her fist while Eliza swung her heavy ax.

Both relics clashed with each other.

"!"

But Ophelia was one step ahead of Eliza as she grabbed the ax with her free hand.

Having her grip on that, Ophelia pulled herself up and launched a kick to her face.

Eliza was sent crashing into the academy building.

"..."

Ophelia glanced at Lereon and Loram for a short moment before she headed to Eliza.

"How annoying...!" Loram murmured irritatedly as he kept running in circles.

Lereon stood still, commanding his roots to chase after Loram.

"Indeed. It’s getting annoying so stand still and let yourself get hit." Lereon remarked indifferently.

"Oh, yeah! How couldn’t I think of that solution?!" Loram responded sarcastically.

He gathered wind on his index and middle finger and once there was enough, he swung his arm horizontally, shooting off a small and yet sharp wind slash at Lereon.

"..."

Lereon simply summoned another thick root from the ground.

"?!"

However, that root was cut in half as Loram’s attack slashed it and eventually scratched Lereon’s cheek.

Lereon’s gaze turned sharper.

He placed his hands on the ground, making hundreds of thorny stalks and vines emerge from there and covering the whole ground with them.

"Tch!" Loram clicked his tongue.

He had to levitate as he would have been caught by those stalks and vines otherwise.

"!"

But surprising to him, hard and stiff stalks shot up vertically from beneath the layer of flowers, which appeared from the ground-covering stalks.

One of those hard stalks managed to stab Loram’s left calf.

"Shit!"

He raised his hand, attempting to cut it off, however, he suddenly felt nauseous.

"Damnit...!"

His hand was stopping for a moment but after he bit his lower lip, he followed through and cut it off.

During that, more stalks shot up and scratched Loram’s body as he tried to dodge them desperately.

"You bastard..." Loram berated him exhaustedly.

"How much of my life did you just suck out...?" he asked grimly.

"Not enough." Lereon answered as he got up after crouching down for a long time.

"As long as you traitors are still able to talk I will keep on sucking out the life energy out of you." Lereon declared sternly.

Lereon’s relic enabled him to suck out the life force of anyone who got into contact with his magic, which was in his case, his plant magic. And depending on the type of contact, the amount of sucked-out energy differs.

"?"

Lereon rose up from the ground thanks to the gigantic root beneath him. He held a sword-looking stalk in his hand while said hand was wrapped up in thorny stalks.

"Today will be your last day." Lereon declared sternly as he readied himself.

Meanwhile, Sara, who was leading the other class of third-years to the east gate, encountered a wave of enemies.

"The timing couldn’t be more awful..." she muttered with a wry smile as she glanced at the enemies and the third-years.

Dozens of demons were surrounding that group. Those demons were all either middle or low-ranked demons but they should not be underestimated as they were in a large group.

If she were alone, then she would have managed to get out of the situation, however, this time, she had to protect students, who were not all on the level of being able to fight demons.

"Hm?"

And while most of the students were stunned in fear by that sight, one student was courageous enough and stepped toward Sara.

"Could you please listen to me? I think I have an idea of how to escape them." Gerard suggested nervously and at the same time, firmly.