Instinctively, Serah slashes out with her sword at the air around her. Disturbed by the slash, the concealing blur in the air is unraveled and a man is revealed, a deep cut on his stomach. Unable to continue, he collapses onto his knees before falling to the ground and laying on his back.

Serah's eyes widen. “Fuck man.” She exclaims before taking out a healing potion and bending over to pour it into the man's mouth. After quickly finishing up, she continues to move, finding somewhere among the defenders to hide herself.

At the corner of her eyes, Serah spots some people who didn’t look students of the college. The had armor on and were carrying swords and bows, instead of staves and wands.

A leading man in front signals with his hand and immediately after, the bowman let their arrows loose.

Serah watches with wide eyes as several students collapse, arrows lodged in their bodies.

“Hey! Everyone! We got company! We’re being attacked by bandits!” Serah yells with as loud a voice as she can.

Several people in the midst of the fight look over, but the students continue to fight amongst themselves.

“This could be part of the exam! Everyone ignore them and focus on the fruit!” One of the attackers yell.

Serah watches with disbelief. Are these idiots this dumb? She asks herself.

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Deciding to do something, Serah takes the apple out, immediately drawing a few eyes. “Hey! Assholes! The fruit’s right here! If you want it, come help us out with these bandits!” She yells again.

“Hand it over and we’ll help you!” One of the attackers yells.

Frustration and angst appears on Serah’s face. You dumb assholes! She exclaims in her mind. After a moment, she remembered that she decided to prioritize her life, so, while cringing at what she was about to do, she applies pressure to her hand and the apple is immediately crushed.

“There! Are you happy now, you dumb idiots? Now help us repel these bandits!” Serah yells in defeat.

“Join forces to kill the bandits!” One of the attackers yells, immediately receiving shouts of approval in response.

But Serah didn’t have time to appreciate her success. She drew too much attention with her yelling, and the bandit leader began to walk in her direction.

Serah watches the broad-shouldered man walk towards her confidently. As he continues to get closer, Serah began to feel the pressure from his presence. “Shit.” Serah exclaims. To Serah’s surprise, this particular bandit seemed stronger than her. Damn, since when were bandits at this level. She thinks as she prepares herself for battle.

As Serah steadies herself and takes a deep breath, a purple aura expands from her body, creating a dome of purple tinted air that extended four meters away from her body. Traveling through the dome were several veins of gold that created a sort of sensory network throughout the area. Within her simulated sword domain, Serah would be able to react immediately to any threat, with a fierce and deadly force.

The man casually walks into the purple tinted area, looking mildly impressed. “Not bad. A simulated sword domain. Unfortunately, it’s not anywhere near to the real thing.” The man says as he takes out his sword. Sensing the man’s presence, the purple tinted area retracts itself from his body, leaving a small area where the man could move freely.

Damn. Serah thinks. “Also unfortunate is that you don’t even happen to have the real thing. You’re not at the grandmaster level yet.” She calls out, attempting to look confident.

The man smirks. “I won’t need the real thing to deal with you. A sword master won’t have any trouble dealing with this fragile domain of yours.” He says as he moves to slash out with his sword.

Serah’s eyes widen, sensing the harm to her domain. She immediately retracts the domain closer to her body to avoid the slash. The man’s slash is only greeted by the whistling of air, and Serah lets out a sigh. She continues to compress her domain around her body, causing it to glow with a deep purple, and golden veins seemed to decorate the area near her. The gentle glow was a very soothing sight, but it was unknown whether it would be of use in the fight. With this, I should at least somewhat match up to a sword master? Right? She thinks, somewhat unsure.