The moment that Chaos Slash comes in at full speed from a vertical angle and hits Magnus’s shield head-on... Magnus’s armor—whether it’s some rare relic or mythical—starts rattling violently. Still, he stood his ground right there, blocking that attack with his mana shield using his full strength...

Sera and Elira, with tense faces and narrowed eyes, were watching this crazy guts of Marcus...

Is this guy even human? Or some wild beast...

After holding back that slash for almost 5 seconds, it was clear now that Magnus’s shield wouldn’t withstand it for much longer. It had crossed its limits as slight cracks started appearing on that mana shield...

"HEY, ARE YOU CRAZY?! MOVE.... IT’S GONNA SLASH YOU!" Sera yelled.

"Hah... hah... Kid... What’s fun in that... now?"

SHATTER!

The shield broke. That berserk energy slash pushed forward with a loud ’vooom’ sound, landing a deep cut straight from his shoulder down through his torso armor.

The blast pressure was so intense that Magnus got blown back, flying across the area.

Uhh...

Drenched in sweat, Sera and Elira stayed in their stance for a while, just standing there... they thought Magnus might get back up again...

But he didn’t. He just lay there, arms sprawled out on the ground...

A dead silence fell over the whole arena, no one moving at all.

All the students present there were completely stunned... their eyes weren’t even blinking after witnessing this monster of a fight between these three...

Ahh... the sound of heavy panting was still coming from Marcus’s unmoved body...

Ding!

[Quest Completed]

[Reward will be sent to your inventory]

Just then, the sound of falling rubble echoed from the back wall. Everyone’s gaze instantly snapped toward that direction...

Lucian had pulled himself free and was standing there, dusting the dirt off his blazer and hair. Then, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, he looks towards both girls... and at Magnus who was lying flat in front of them. Just that was enough to tell who the winner was.

Damn, they totally beat the shit out of Instructor Magnus...

Standing nearby, Kaelen and Lyria kept their eyes on Lucian... as Kaelen slowly moved toward him...

"A-are you okay... Lucian? You didn’t break any bones, right?"

Lyria kept watching silently...

Clang-clatter... the sound of an iron sword dropping to the ground echoes..

Before anyone could process anything, Sera closed the distance and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

"L-Lucian, you are okay! Oh, thank God..." Her eyes went glassy with tears as she let out a small sniff.

Lucian just smiled, gently patting her head. By then, Elira had also moved closer, a relieved smile forming on her lips.

"Why aren’t you saying anything? Speak, why don’t you speak!" Sera pressed, tightening her grip a little.

"Weww hww imm sussps to takk whihw keeppn sommngg in myy moulll..."

He was trying to answer, but something was stuffed in his mouth, muffling his words completely.

Sera grabbed his shoulders and pulled back from the hug.

The metal badge... the very thing this was all for, was already in his mouth...

Spitting the badge into his hand, Lucian looked at the two girls with a completely deadpan face. Every single one of them stood there dumbfounded, staring blankly at the badge.

Wait, Does that mean this entire intense fight was completely pointless from the very moment Lucian took that aggressive kick! Kaelen breathed in disbelief.

Lucian’s words were practically written all over his face...

"I mean, come on... you two... okay fine, I didn’t have any expectations from Sera’s hot-headed brain, but Elira, even you..."

Sigh.

"Heh..." Sera sheepishly rubs her temple.

"I think I made a mistake..."

Elira had just looked the other way... though everyone could already see the bright red flush creeping up her ears, making her embarrassment painfully obvious. And this was the second time...

Another sigh...

Lyria stepped closer, looking genuinely intrigued.

"Hmm... Lucian, how did you do it?"

A knowing smile played on Lucian’s lips.

"Well, I used a skill and there I have it..."

Kaelen came a little closer...

"You mean you have some kind of skill that lets you freeze time?"

Seeing Kaelen’s innocent face and hearing that absolutely spot-on guess, Lucian tried his hardest to keep his expression completely flat. How could he let anyone find out about his unique skills? when he hadn’t even told his own three partners about them...

He leans down towards the boy’s face...

"Kaelen... do you honestly believe such a skill that freezes time really exists?"

Kaelen innocently blinked and shook his head.

No.

Good boy...

And then began his top-notch performance...

Sigh.

"Alright, look, I’ll explain..."

The girls also stepped closer, listening intently.

"Whenever a physical attack is about to hit me, I use a skill to foresee exactly where it’s going to land."

Gesturing with his hands, he continued.

"You see, the moment that old man got that close, I already saw it coming. Even though I didn’t have the time to dodge, I knew exactly what would happen. So I quickly reached my hand out towards the Instructor’s predicted position and grabbed the badge. Simple..."

"But the badge was in your mouth..." Sera quickly asked.

"Hah... that was just I shoved it in my mouth so that old man wouldn’t snatch it back."

Before Kaelen could open his mouth and ask some new confusing question, Lucian leans on his shoulder... and speaks super softly, in a way that even someone who wasn’t suspicious would definitely get suspicious...

"The skill is called Overdrive," Lucian whispered.

"Now get this... you are asking me to expose my hidden skill in the middle of all these people, and I’m still answering you. Do you get it now? I mean read the room a little my boy.."

Kaelen immediately caught on and quickly bowed.

"Oh, I-I am sorry, Lucian! I didn’t mean to... I didn’t realize..."

"Oh nah, nah, no worries. Come on, act normal now..." Lucian said with a reassuring smile.

Both of them plastered stiff, forced smiles on their faces. The girls narrowed their eyes at them suspiciously before letting out a synchronized sigh.

Though the truth really was that Lucian had managed to see Magnus’s movements with the help of ’Overdrive’, Still he had to use ’Zero Domain’ to actually take the badge. And in his panic while time was frozen, he had wasted almost 7 seconds just trying to get that badge out. Because of that, he couldn’t find any safer place to hide the badge other than his mouth...

Now, he obviously couldn’t explain all these things to them, so it was necessary to change the direction of the situation... and somehow he managed that.

Groan...

A low grunt broke the tension as Magnus sat up. The deep slash Sera had left on his chest armor was completely split open, cleanly exposing the bare unharmed skin underneath.

Magnus pushed himself to his feet and started walking straight toward their team...