"I give up."

Zara had never thought a day would arrive when she would say the same words most of her opponents were forced to. She had even summoned her true form, even though it was partial, yet she wasn't even able to touch a hair on the little kid before her. She was totally and completely dominated.

Seeing the massive shadow on the ground that resembled an abyss within the outstretched maw of an ancient beast, and the illusions below and above her slowly disappear, Zara couldn't help but look at the only kid remaining with a complicated expression on her face.

His long glistening golden hair was tied into a bun, and his long blue-slit pupils seemed to pierce into her to peek into her deepest secrets.

Slowly, the red aura around her slowly disappeared, and the pillars of the earth fell back to the ground. As her enchanting body fell back to the ground, Zara slowly reverted to her human form, and her transformation was undone.

"I must say, you would be a top genius even among my race. To think you were able to dominate a ten-star warrior such as I am simply..." Shaking her head, Zara didn't complete her sentence but Arlo understood what she meant.

"Are you not a twelve-star warrior?" Arlo questioned as he moved closer to her, his dragon armor slowly retreating into his body. The two horns on his head slowly returned into small bumps, that could be barely noticed, especially when covered by his hair.

Zara watched with a wry smile when she saw that the dragon's tail was still swinging behind Arlo as she believed Arlo was being cautious around her. But what she didn't know was that Arlo had already tried to un-summon the tail, yet it refused, giving him a headache. The dragon's tail rubbed his face gently as if begging him not to send it away. Left with no choice, he could only relent for the moment, allowing the tail to swing around him playfully.

"I am a ten-star warrior."

"But..."

"Duh, do you think you are the only genius? I am a god-tier talent, and I could already defeat an average twelve-star warrior when I was but a nine-star." Zara rolled her eyes at him.

Arlo became a bit embarrassed. He didn't underestimate Zara, as she was the most powerful teen he had ever encountered. That was further shown by how he revealed his new summons powers, something he didn't initially plan to do. But without going all out, he would have been the one on the losing side. Since the amount of Ki and pressure he felt from her was simply enormous, he had assumed she was at the last point before the Astral warrior stage.

"Since you are now a ten-star warrior, does that mean you can now face an Astral warrior?" he quickly changed the topic to hide his embarrassment. Besides, he wanted to know how far his current strength could take him. But what he didn't expect was for Zara's expression to suddenly turn solemn.

"The gap between a nine-star warrior and an Astral warrior is too wide to be bridged by talent alone. The same goes for a grandmaster mage and a red-core mage. I can already predict that I could only stand a chance to an Astral warrior when I become a twelve-star warrior, and that is considering the Astral warrior must be among the weakest."

"The gap is that much?" Arlo's eyes widened in surprise.

Zara nodded her head with a serious expression, "I hope you won't compare yourself to them as you are now, if not you won't know how you died."

Arlo fell into deep thoughts, 'It seems as I am now, I can safely say I am unrivaled in the preliminary stages of cultivation, just as I have deduced. The only people I would need to fear would be people with the same talent as Zara and Arianne who have reached the peak of the preliminary stages.'

Now that he had a good grasp of his current strength, Arlo could relax. Entering the secret realm was a life-changing experience for him.

"Thank you."

"No need. I almost killed you after all."

"You..."

"Haha, I am just kidding."

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"Who are you?"

Before Zara could reply, the ground suddenly shook greatly. It took them a moment to realize, it was not just the ground beneath them but the entire realm that was shaking.

'Shit, it's been already two hours?' Arlo's expression changed greatly. Principal Stanley had already informed him that once the last mana fruits were plucked, the students would all be forcefully teleported to the third zone, where they could compete to regain the fruits in two hours. After that, the dragon medallions with them would forcefully teleport them back to their worlds.

Seeing the pressing look on Arlo's face, Zara quickly sifted through the spatial ring on her hand.

"You can call me Zara. Here take this!" An object flew at Arlo.

Arlo swallowed his question about how she was able to use a spatial ring and instead looked at the object in his hand. It was a palm-sized transparent stone filled with countless intricate formations. Arlo noticed there were formations with two distinct colors. One was silver while the other was light orange.

"That is a communication stone, and I have its pair. If you ever need my help, do not hesitate to contact me." While she needed Arlo's help, she wasn't in a hurry. She planned on getting closer to him and showing some goodwill before she revealed her goal.

Pressed for time, and worried about how his team was faring, Arlo nodded his head before placing the stone in his space pouch. Then he ran with all his might in the direction he had previously left from.

.....

The battlefield could be separated into three main areas before Arlo and Zara left.

The Male Asura clashed against Theodore and his group, with the humans of other worlds watching the fight in the hope of an opportunity.

Steven and Tron fought against Eleanor and Landon, with no other figure daring to interfere in their fight. It was clear to all, that they were simply out of their leagues, especially Eleanor and Steven, not to mention that just the aura around Tron scared many of them away.

And lastly, a group of little kids collided with Rook and his party.

Initially, Arianne had caused several people to swell and burst, and while many were angry, they didn't tangle with her, as acquiring the mana fruits took priority. But now that they saw the group of little kids decimating Rook's party which could be counted among the strongest of those present, many of them threw away any thoughts of revenge.

Arianne had killed three out of Rook's ten-man party with her sudden first attack, leaving only seven behind.

Now only three remained, and they were the Royal beasts, Rook and his two cousins. The worst was that they were all killed by just one person.

Ella.

Arianne, Joe, Tina, and Miller watched from the sidelines how Ella singlehandedly dominated Rook.

Several lightning rings filled the sky above Rook and his cousin's head. Surrounding them were ten huge lightning wolves about eight meters high, who lunged at them at terrifying speed, before tearing chunks of their flesh with their sharp fangs made of pure lightning, electrocuting them on contact and causing the smell of burnt flesh to permeate the area.

This was Ella's unique talent, Lightning pack.

However, what truly terrified Rook and the other two, was the streak of lightning that flew at them with a bright purple flash from the lightning rings high in the sky, before retreating before they could do a thing. This streak of lightning was exactly Ella. She had transmuted into lightning that could instantly teleport around them with the aid of the lightning rings. In tandem with her transformed claws, she tore into their flesh and drew a fountain of blood every time a purple light flashed past them.

An angry light shone within Rook's eyes. While he was happy the little kids were yet to spill the beans, the thought of killing them had long been crossed in his mind. Just escaping alone was proving too difficult for them, and what further shamed them was that their opponent was just a little kid about twelve years old.

The massive poison tridents revolving around Rook couldn't do a thing as they couldn't even touch their targets, and even when they were used against the lightning wolves, they were simply blasted into purple mist immediately after coming in contact with them.

'How did she become so strong?' Rook was frustrated, 'We never should have attacked them even if they saw what we did. That was a big mistake.' They knew the identity of Ella and Arianne and knew that attempting to kill them was a sin that their deaths could not redeem. It was in the spur of the moment that they had attempted to kill them, and they hadn't properly reflected on the repercussions of their actions. After all, they had slew almost the entire vampire team, then the werewolf team, and even two elves. Their consecutive victory blinded them and in their excitement, they had attacked.

Suddenly, tens of massive pillars appeared in the distance attracting their attention and stopping the onslaught of Ella and the lightning wolves. Rook and his cousins used this moment to catch their breaths. Even though they were also stunned by the sudden appearance of the massive staff, they were able to quickly come to their senses.

'We need to escape.' They shared the same thought. Their only hope now was surviving till the two-hour limit was up. As for what would happen when they were teleported back to the Lunar World, they could only leave it to fate.

Just when the trio was about to move, Landon's voice drifted into their ears, causing their expressions to greatly change.

"Your Highness, what are you doing in the third zone?" Landon quickly approached with a pale face after escaping from Tron's hands, before he knelt before Arianne.

Arianne shifted her gaze from the huge pillars to the kneeling figure beside her. With ruby eyes shining with an intense glow, she spoke with her voice laced with anger:

"How are you still alive when our entire members are dead?"

"What!?"

*****

AN: Thanks to all those who are following the novel.