The ground beneath them shook when Eliza put her palms on it. However, she only affected the area around her and Harik.

"!"

Sharp stone pillars emerged from the ground but Harik fortunately sensed the danger beforehand and dodged just in time.

However, Eliza did not stop with just that attack.

She went after him immediately, retracting her arm and her relic which was an ax that could change its own and the wielder’s weight as desired.

Harik put up his guard, trying to block the swing with his armored right arm.

"Ugh...!"

His arm was flicked away by the first swing. It came fast but it lacked the weight to deal damage.

"..."

Apathetically, Eliza raised her arms, gripping the ax with both hands before she swung it down.

"Argh...!"

And this time, she adjusted the weight so much that a crater was created by just purely standing on one spot.

Harik tried to evade the attack somehow but could not as the ax came down in an instant, shattering his chest armor which was made out of the best material in Rostanta.

The ax cut him vertically, starting from the right chest to the hip.

Luckily for Harik, the cut was not too deep to kill him but it still did a lot of damage to him as blood flowed out of the wound without any signs of stopping.

Eliza raised her ax again after it was shortly stuck in the ground.

"...!"

When Harik tried to back away for now, his back hit a stone wall that was not there a few moments ago.

"I won’t let you run away." Eliza remarked expressionlessly.

Harik rolled to the side when Eliza swung her ax once more.

"..."

Eliza charged after Harik whose back was facing her.

"?"

However, when she was almost caught up to him Harik suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around, throwing his right fist at her.

He put all of his strength into that punch and the result did not disappoint him as she was sent flying away.

Following that, he amassed water in his hands and launched water slashes at her by chopping the air with his hands. And to top it off, he summoned a large water ball in the air.

That water ball turned smaller and smaller as it descended into Harik’s hands.

And once it was small enough to fit into one hand, Harik threw it like a ball at Eliza who was not visible due to the dust created by crashing into a building.

The water ball hit something and exploded into its original size, destroying everything in its radius.

"..."

Harik’s breathing was ragged as he waited for the dust to disperse.

"?!"

However, in the blink of an eye, Eliza appeared before him again, trying to cut him.

Harik jumped to the back.

"These were some nice attacks but they weren’t enough to defeat me." she admitted.

Her tone and expression remained the same although she had some cuts on her drenched body and blood coming out slightly of her nose and mouth.

She squatted down a little before she leaped toward Harik.

Again, she swung her ax but Harik dodged it barely.

Eliza let go of her ax which was stuck in the ground and clenched her fists.

"?!"

If it was a fistfight, then Harik was confident that he could keep up with her, however, before he could move as he wanted, he noticed that his feet were stuck in one place as Eliza used her magic to trap him with the ground by engulfing his feet with the sand and hardening it.

Eliza took a deep breath before she threw her fist while increasing her weight tremendously.

"!"

The sound of something cracking was heard not just by Harik but also by her as she hit the center of his chest.

Harik was sent flying far away, crashing through multiple buildings.

"..."

He stared at the sky while lying on the ground.

He had difficulties breathing and blood was constantly coughed up.

After that punch, Harik could even barely move a finger of his.

"Am I done...?" he muttered tiredly.

From the beginning, it was clear to him that he stood no chance against her. After all, she was a former member of the Grand Order and even had a relic whereas Harik was just an ordinary student.

Still, he chose to fight her and he did not regret his choice as he understood that the situation could have turned to the worst if he had Lereon face all those former Grand Order members on his own.

Even if it was not for long, Harik managed to distract one of those members for a while, letting Lereon focus on the others.

"..."

His head turned to the side after he noticed something.

"...?!"

But his eyes widened when he realized what it was.

Just a few feet beside him were the corpses of the local students. And among those students was the body of Asak, a person with whom Harik shared a long history.

"A-Asak..."

Desperately, Harik called out his name while crawling in pain toward him.

"Oh, did you perhaps know them?"

Because he was so distracted, he did not notice Eliza arriving there.

"He and his comrades actually put up a good fight when we arrived here. I don’t know what those demons were thinking but it seemed like they didn’t kill them immediately because they wanted to toy with them a little longer."

While Eliza was talking, Harik was checking up on Asak’s body but once he got a closer look at him, he realized that his lower body was torn off from him.

"Even though we’re cooperating with the demons, I still have some humanity left inside me so I granted them their deaths." Eliza stated, shrugging her shoulders.

"..."

However, at that moment, Harik could not care less what the reason was. For him, it was enough to hear that she was the one who took the lives of not only Asak but also the other students of the academy of Youra. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Harik knew many faces from there as he grew up in Youra and aside from that, he also actually enjoyed his time during the exchange program here.

Thus with rage driving his body to move, Harik launched another punch.

Eliza sighed.

She launched an attack, too, and cut deep into his waist.

"Hm?"

But Harik did not stop. Even though an ax was stuck in his body, his fist did not stop and hit Eliza in the face.

"..."

She frowned as she spat some blood on the ground.

Harik may have managed to land a punch on her but that punch lacked power.

After that punch, his arm sagged down.

Then, Eliza pulled out the ax which caused a lot of blood to spray.

"Student, I respect the fact that you didn’t back off and chose to fight me even to the very end. You’re not weak, remember that."

Eliza raised her ax one last time.

"..."

Harik had no strength left to move. Instead, he fought against his body’s desire to slump down.

"I’m sorry, Mika... I wasn’t able to pay off my debt to y-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Eliza mercilessly cut him in two.

She swung her ax again to get the blood off her ax and then turned her back to Harik, whose corpse lied right next to Asak.

"I wonder how it’s looking over there..." she muttered.

While she was done dealing with Harik, the situation on the battlefield with Lereon and Loram at its center changed.

"This is... This is utterly stupid!" Loram laughed.

He was covered in injuries and blood, however, he still laughed from the bottom of his lungs.

"..."

Werena, who was unscratched, just stood on the sidelines, watching the battle unfold in front of her apathetic eyes.

Meanwhile, Lereon was in the same physical state as Loram but that was not the problem that bugged him. Rather, it was his troupe that was the problem there.

They all fell already, making Lereon the last one standing.

Contrary to his group, the enemy group was still fit. Every former candidate and member was on their feet, looking as if they were just done with their warm-ups.

"Hey, how about this? Why don’t you join us, Lereon?" Loram suggested with a grin as he stretched his hand out.

"..."

Lereon smirked.

And at the same time, the whole battlefield was surrounded by thin roots with peaky ends.

"I refuse." Lereon answered proudly.

The roots he summoned suddenly went wild and chased after everyone randomly.

"Are you for real...?" Loram muttered taken aback.

"Are you trying to fight every one of us...?" he added.

Lereon slowly walked toward Loram.

"Loram, I think you’ve forgotten something."

"...?"

"I am Lereon Pantl. The youngest to ever join the Grand Order."

"So what about it...?" Loram asked tensely.

"I assume that you should realize what the reason was for that achievement."

But before Loram could come up with an answer, Lereon was right in front of him and threw a punch into his abdomen.

"Because I’m exceptionally strong."