After being teleported by the simulator, Moriah, Ben, and Nemerah appeared inside a classroom.

Without missing a beat, Ben walks out of the room. Moriah calls Ben's attention.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Ben stops to look at Moriah.

"What do you think? I'm gonna hunt them down and take all of them out alone so I get more points."

Moriah frowns, a bit annoyed by her teammate. At first, she thought that they were just at odds because of the origin of their unique powers but it seems that they're at odds because they have different attitudes.

"We're defenders. We can just wait here and still get points. Can't you be any more arrogant?!"

Ben frowns.

"What is arrogant with just trying to be the best?!"

Moriah sarcastically retorts.

"When you're trying to be the best means beating the shit out of people horrendously weaker than you. Can't you just sit down? Your attitude is unbecoming of a 'great dragon'."

Ben is silenced by Moriah's words but his inner fire quickly invigorates him.

"Bah! Why should I listen to the words of a filthy conniving demon?! I will go! And those horrendously weak people you mentioned? They're students of this class of monsters! They're not going to be weak."

Ben slams the door behind him, destroying the door hinges in the process.

Moriah angrily groans. She looks at her other teammate.

While the two were bickering, Nemerah planted multiple seedlings in the room. Each seedling carried a portion of her will. Within a few seconds, they flourish and quickly grow to a monstrous size.

Moriah looks approvingly at the plants in the room. She gives Nemerah a thumbs up.

"At least, I have you as a teammate Nem. Thanks for staying."

"~~Don't thank me~~ Thank the plants.~~ They're always so helpful.~~ And they help me stay calm...~~"

Nemerah is very relaxed. While taking a seat on one of the desks in the room, she talks to the plants and small animals inside her bag.

Moriah looks at the bag and is surprised to see that Nemerah brought with her small hamsters and young chicks. Despite being different animals, they behave properly, a side effect of Nemerah's unique power.

Moriah screams when she sees the cute animals.

"Oh, they're so adorable!"

Nemerah smiles.

"I know right?"

While Ben is outside looking for the attackers, Moriah is chatting with Nemerah about her cute pets.

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While the defenders were teleported inside the school's building, the attackers were teleported just outside of the school's main doors. The three attacks look around. Nicholas sees Cieran and immediately asks his best friend a question.

"Soooo Cieran, what's the plan?"

Nicholas smiles at his trusty friend. Cieran rolls his eyes. Despite that, Cieran immediately tries to formulate a plan.

"Well from what we know about those three, Nemerah is the weakest followed by Ben and then Moriah."

The other two agree with Cieran's judgment. Cieran continues.

"If we can isolate them, maybe we can win? But we'll need to split them up... The question is... how?"

Before Cieran could continue, Anne speaks.

"I don't think we need to attempt splitting them up."

Cieran and Nicholas look at their female comrade with curiosity. Anne continues.

"Well, I think it's obvious but it seems they're not a cooperative team... well at least, not as cooperative as us. They might split up on their own."

Nicholas agrees with Anne.

"Yeah, I saw Ben shouting at Moriah. They might not like each other. On the other hand, Nemerah seems like a very relaxed person. I doubt we'll be able to get to her without Moriah beside her."

Cieran chuckles.

"I'm surprised you already know their names, Nicholas."

Nicholas proudly smiles.

"Of course I do! I already memorized their names from the list of names that sir Ivor has."

Cieran rolls his eyes but he kept his smile. He knew that Nicholas would do that.

Anne shrugs at that. She can't be bothered to memorize all of their names since she isn't really interested in befriending all of them. The same goes for Cieran who's a natural loner. In their group, Nicholas was the exception.

Before the topic strays any further, Anne grabs their attention.

"Anyway, Cieran and Nicholas... have you two ever fought someone above your will rating?"

The duo looks at each other and nods. Cieran speaks for the two of them.

"Yeah, Nicholas and I were always fighters so we've clashed with guys stronger than us."

Nicholas nods in agreement.

"Good, because we're facing at least 2 classmates who are significantly stronger than us. What do you guys usually do to beat stronger enemies?"

Cieran recalls the time when their will was lower than now and they fought a guy with a higher rating.

Nicholas and I have been fighting people at least 20 to 30% stronger than us. But it's no longer the same. These guys are abnormal... But I guess, if we can beat guys that are regularly stronger than us, then that means we're also abnormal.

Anne sighs.

"If I could use my unique power, it'd be easy to defeat all three of them..."

Anne grumbles a bit. Cieran agrees.

"Yeah... the speed you gave us during the fight with sir Ivor was great."

"Yeah... I already miss my unique power..."

Before Anne and Cieran enter a vicious cycle of negativity, Nicholas cuts in.

"That shouldn't matter! Our opponents are still our classmates! They're not massively stronger than us, so we can still try! And even if we fail, it's still better to say we did our best than to give up and lose by not trying at all!"

Looking at the optimistic Nicholas, Anne and Cieran nod. Gaining some optimism from his best friend, Cieran speaks.

"We should go in. While doing that, let's plan how to separate them."

Before Anne or Nicholas could agree, the three of them hear an ominous voice.

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"There's no need for that."

The three attackers were startled as they turn back to look at the school's entrance.

To get the attackers, Ben ran at full speed from the room he came from. He figured the attackers will be outside the school.

"At least, I don't have to hunt you down one by one."

Anne, Cieran, and Nicholas were about to 'strategically withdraw' but when they don't see Moriah or Nemerah, they stop.

A single thought occurred in their just-above-poverty-line teenage minds.

This idiot is alone. We should mug him.

Cieran shakes his head to clear his pre-academy mindset. Anne shared the same thoughts.

No, he's our classmate... if we're gonna mug him, it should be outside the academy.

Cieran looks at his teammates. They looked at him with an understanding. They were going to fight Ben together.

"So no one is gonna go first?"

Ben raises both of his fists, a gesture that he's ready any time. He lightly flexes his arms which releases a small shockwave around him.

Anne scoffs at Ben's arrogance.

Nicholas shrugs. He asks Cieran what to do.

"So guys, how do we deal with this guy?"

"Like how we always deal with strong people Nicholas. We beat the fuck out of them."

Despite being the kinder of the two, Nicholas rushes forward, delivering a will-infused punch towards Ben.

Ben easily blocks Nicholas' weaker attack. Without missing a beat, Ben immediately grabs Nicholas' wrist and delivers a punch. Nicholas tries to back away but Ben's hand has already transformed. It has scales and claws reminiscent of a dragon, which enhances his already great strength.

Before Ben's clenched claws reach Nicholas, a plume of dark energy flies towards Ben. Sensing the corrosive power of the darkness, Ben lets go of Nicholas and backs away.

Cieran follows up and kicks Ben straight at the chest. Instead of groaning in pain, Ben smirks. His chest underneath his clothes is already covered with dragon scales.

Cieran curses to himself as he backs away but not before swiping his hand in front of him, releasing a burst of darkness.

Ben counters by roaring with his draconic might. The darkness quickly dissipates. When the darkness disappears, it is quickly replaced by a beam of light that hits Ben straight on. Ben is sent flying to the school entrance with a powerful thud. Cieran gives Nicholas a thankful nod.

Cieran backs away to regroup with Nicholas and Anne.

"Cieran, this guy's tough. He took my light beam head-on and he's still fine.."

Anne calms her breath, slowly recovering her lost will. Cieran replies while keeping his guard up.

"Yeah, we'll just have to keep pummeling him. Let's hope his unique power runs on fuel or else we're toast."

The trio feels a chill on their spine as they hear an ominous sentence from their enemy.

"Well, you guys are toast. My power doesn't run on fuel and as long as I'm awake, I can keep using it."

Ben comes out of the school with his clothes ruined, leaving his pants on. Without his clothes, Ben's muscular body is free to be gazed at. He obviously trained his body to its absolute limits.

The trio takes a combat stance, unsure if they have a chance to win.

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Outside of the simulation, Selena was starting to drool which disgusts Dante. He looks at where she was looking and saw that Selena was staring at Ben's toned abs.

"Wait, you're into that?!"

Selena quickly wipes the drool off her face and shrugs. She speaks without any ounce of shame.

"What do you want me to say? The man is handsome and a good fighter, my favorite combination."

Dante scoffs, annoyed at Selena's reaction.

Price and Vergil look at Ben's ripped body and they both nod respectfully.

Almost imperceptible to the normal eye, Giles also approves.

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Cieran notices Ben's growing power. He starts to panic.

"Anne, any plans?!"

"Yeah! Run!"

Anne starts to run away from school and towards the gym.

Ben's jaw drops to the ground, especially since he was expecting a fight.

Nicholas, who was near Anne, also runs.

"You heard the boss, let's run Cieran!"

Cieran starts to run as well but not before releasing a ball of darkness towards Ben.

The trio gets a headstart as Ben dodges the ball of darkness which completely erodes the ground it hit.

Seeing that his enemies have no intention to fight, Ben sighs.

Putting power in his legs, he starts to run forward to catch the trio. He uses his full speed, even expending some of his will to boost it.

Within a few seconds, he closes the gap that the trio created with their head start.

As Ben was about to grab Anne who was the slowest of their group, Cieran, and Nicholas both turn around. Ben was surprised to see that Cieran's eyes were determined. Looking at Cieran's best friend, Ben notices that Nicholas didn't have a trace of fear either as they both turned to face him.

"Nicholas now!"

"You got it!"

Cieran and Nicholas gather a large amount of will and use their technique.

~Abyssal Lance~

~Longinus Spear~

The moment Cieran and Nicholas turn around, Cieran conjures a dark lance and Nicholas creates a spear made of pure light. With a single step, they thrust it toward Ben.

The surrounding air seems to burn around the hot white spear and the dark lance froze the very space it moved through.

Ben, who had the upper hand, was surprised. He immediately raised all his defenses with his will.

The two sharp manifestations of power clash with the dragon.

A shockwave of energy emanates out of the three, obscuring the battlefield.

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Vergil frowns. He couldn't see past the smoke covering the combatants.

"I can't see it."

The class murmurs their worry as they watch the mixing light and darkness obscure their vision. To placate his student's worries, Giles offers some comforting words.

"Class, do not worry. They're fine... The dean's power is unquestionable."

I think.

Giles looks at the exit area if any of them have been teleported to see if anyone was about to or already took lethal damage. Since no one was teleported, Giles concluded that no one was dangerously wounded. He had trust in the Dean's power.

Even if these runts had their power multiplied by 100, they'd still be a thousand times weaker than Dr. Lyo.

Before Giles could think anymore about the situation, the exit area flashes.

Oh, there's our first losers.

----------------------------------------

It connected!

Cieran was confident that his lance and Nicholas' spear connected and hit their target.

Once the smoke and light dissipate, Cieran sees a disheartening scene.

Ben is grasping the ends of Cieran's lance and Nicholas's spear. The hand grasping the abyssal lance has turned black and gangrene is starting to spread. Ben's other hand which is grasping the Longinus spear is scorched with his scales peeling off, revealing burnt black flesh.

With a pained grunt, Ben roars.

"I-I've got you!"

Cieran and Nicholas quickly look at each other and they nod. They release their conjured techniques and supercharge them with their will. They try to back away from Ben as their techniques start to convulse in Ben's hands.

Realizing what was going to happen, Ben charges forward, still gripping the about-to-explode techniques. Cieran and Nicholas panic at the sight of Ben closing the gap between them in a second while still holding the supercharged lance and spear.

Desperate, Cieran and Nicholas quickly move to attack Ben. Cieran makes a roundhouse kick towards Ben's head while Nicholas lets loose a powerful punch.

Now that he has his targets in front of him, Ben releases his full strength, immediately crushing the two supercharged techniques. With a speed that the two best friends couldn't dodge, Ben attacks.

Cieran, who was used to fighting stronger enemies, could not see the fist that was going towards his face.

Nicholas, who focused a lot on defense, could not defend against the kick that was moving towards his ribs.

Then Ben's attacks connected.

Cieran was immediately knocked out as Ben's fist broke Cieran's nose. Nicholas' ribcage fractured as Ben's strike broke through his defenses.

Both of them were immediately teleported by the simulator to prevent any more damage.

Anne closes her eyes as her teammates disappear in a flash of light. When she opens her eyes, Ben delivers a punch towards her.

And just like that, Anne is teleported out of the simulation.

All of this happened in the span of a few seconds.

Once done knocking out the trio, Ben returns to his normal state. Looking around to clear the area of any surprises, Ben eventually calms down.

That was dangerous. If I didn't go full power, the unique power of those two could've killed me.

Ben remembers Giles' words.

Monsters... all of us are monsters... to think that such weak individuals could harm me... No matter.

Before Ben could call out his victory, Giles' voice rings throughout the simulated school.

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Nemerah and Moriah were relaxing the whole time Ben has been fighting.

Nemerah showed Moriah the pleasures of a plant-based massage. Moriah, on the other hand, made sure to keep the room temperature optimal for Nemerah and her plants.

In the middle of relaxing, Nemerah speaks out.

"~~Oh~~ It seems that Ben won~~"

Moriah raises an eyebrow in surprise.

"Wha-"

Before she could speak, Giles' voice floods the simulation.

"Ben Priger of group 5 has successfully eliminated group 1 while alone. In addition, he is the one holding the 3 point ball, giving him a total of 12 points. This activity is over, everyone will be teleported out in a few seconds"

Moriah is silenced a bit. She takes out her ball and sees a single 1 on it. She chuckles.

Huh, really unlucky.

Without any more delay, the members of group 5 disappear from the simulation.

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Once the members of group 5 appeared outside the simulator, Giles called the attention of the class.

"So, class what did you learn from that activity?"

The students look at each other, a bit confused.

It was a fight, what important lesson do they need to learn from it?

Iza, who's always been a good student, raises her hand. Giles calls her with some surprise in his voice.

"Well, I think that we should always try to be the best! Even if we're horribly outmatched, we should keep trying. That's what I learned from this fight."

Some members of the class, especially Cieran and Nicholas, agree with Iza's words. Cieran and Nicholas look at their bodies and face. They were completely fine. It seems Giles' words about the simulation's safety were true.

Iza looks at Giles for some acknowledgment.

Giles is silent...

What the hell? I expected them to learn more about how to fight and their classmate's strengths... Let's roll with it.

Giles fakes a cough and speaks.

"I'm impressed Iza! Even in fights, one can learn important lessons. But for now, class tell me what you think about your classmate's performance."

The class was quiet for a bit, contemplating Giles' words. After a bit of silence, the first one to talk was Vergil.

"I think that Ben wasted too much energy trying to force an overwhelming fight."

Giles agrees. He saw how much more stronger and experienced Ben is compared to Cieran and Nicholas.

If Ben didn't focus on getting an overwhelming victory, he wouldn't have suffered that much damage.

Ben speaks out after having his hands healed by the Dean's energy.

"What do you mean by that Vergil?"

Vergil looks at Ben.

"I already said what I said."

Vergil looks at Giles.

"Can we move on now sir? That fight wasn't too impressive."

Giles smirks.

"Ben wasn't too impressive then?"

Ben looks at Vergil with a frown, preparing to give a retort if needed.

Vergil looks at Ben then he scoffs but he stays silent.

Giles chuckles.

"Next group then."