“Well, now’s your turn, Stella, hurry up,” Executioner Leywin instructed.

With her sword in hand, Stella stepped into the ring and assumed a fighting stance. Not even a second later, Executioner Leywin gave the starting signal, and Stella dashed toward Delta.

Not much time had passed since Stella had begun her training as a Black Guard cadet, and yet, the progress was evident. Her reaction time, as well as her speed and combat technique, had improved since the last fight she had had against Kurt. She had also improved the efficiency of her calculations, allowing her to swap or teleport faster while also consuming less energy.

Still, her improvement wasn’t enough to even get close to landing a hit on Delta. For a couple of minutes, Delta easily dodged all of Stella’s attacks. It didn’t matter where she swapped places or teleported to try to take Delta by surprise; it always seemed as if he knew exactly where she would appear next.

Stella tried to set up multiple swapping points around Delta, just like she had done with Kurt. However, even then, Delta was still faster than her as he saw through every single one of Stella’s attacks while destroying Stella’s knives one by one.

After she ran out of knives, Stella had nowhere else to run, and finally, overwhelmed by Delta’s attacks, he sent her flying out of the ring with a swift kick.

‘Looks like they all have some bothersome abilities,’ Delta thought.

“Well, that was rather disappointing… None of you were able to land a hit on him even though he didn’t use his ability. I’ll give you one last chance to earn today’s food. The three of you are now gonna fight him together, so if you want to go to sleep with a full stomach tonight you better give it your all,” Executioner Leywin explained to the three cadets, then she turned toward Delta, “You will limit your dark energy synchronization and reserves to that of the fifth step of the integration stage as well as your speed and strength,” she smirked, “Use your ability to your heart’s content.”

The three cadets shook when they heard the last sentence.

“Y-you know, eating is overrated, I think I’ll go on a diet,” Isaac said nervously. Chase walked up to him and slapped him on the back of the head.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“C’mon, get your ass up,” he said as he and Stella stepped on the ring. Isaac reluctantly followed.

Once they got into the ring, they got into a triangle formation, with Chase and Stella on the front and Isaac on the back.

“I don’t have much energy left; my last attack consumed a lot,” Isaac said.

“None of us have,” Chase said, then he looked at Stella who also nodded.

“We can’t rely on our abilities…” Chase silently thought for a few seconds before talking again, “Stella and I are going to attack first. Chase, follow close behind us and try to limit his movements with your explosions. Stella, try to stay close to Chase and teleport away with him if it’s necessary. Delta shouldn’t be able to do as much damage as before, still, until we know the specifics of his ability we can’t be too cautious.”

“Roger,” Chase and Stella replied in unison.

“You can attack whenever you want,” Executioner Leywin spoke from outside the ring.

Tension filled the air around the three cadets as they built the courage to attack. After a couple of seconds, Chase dashed toward Delta, quickly followed by the other two cadets.

As they closed in, Delta finally assumed a fighting stance and channeled the energy through his body. The first one to make contact was Chase, unleashing a swift kick to Delta’s head. Delta, on the other hand, focused the energy on specific muscles of his arm and blocked Chase’s attack in a swift movement.

BANG!

Still, his speed was drastically less than before, and Chase was finally able to see him move.

Without wasting a second, Stella appeared from the other side, ready to strike Delta with her sword. However, he didn’t even look at her, and in a fluid motion, he grabbed Chase’s leg, holding him tight in place.

‘F*ck!’ Chase barely had time to desperately channel energy to his leg in an attempt to mitigate the impact as Delta struck it with his elbow. Then he proceeded to send Chase flying with a powerful kick.

BANG!

At the same time, Stella, who was about to hit the apparently unaware Delta, found her attack blocked by an invisible barrier. Still, the strength of her attack was enough to break through the barrier; however, the millisecond that the barrier stopped her, gave Delta just enough time to easily dodge her attack after he sent Chase flying away. Taking advantage of Stella’s open defense, Delta counterattacked with a powerful punch to the side that sent Stella flying for several meters.

BANG!

‘I need to reduce their numbers,’ Delta thought as he dashed toward Chase, who was lying on the ground, ready to finish him off.

However, a black and red energy-filled sphere appeared in front of him

BOOOOM!

The sphere exploded in a big ball of fire; however, Delta came out of it completely unscathed, with an extended arm and what looked like the remains of a broken translucent barrier in front of it.

“Are you okay, Chase?” Isaac asked while offering his hand as he approached Chase.

Chase took Isaac’s hand and stood up, “He almost broke my leg with that one hit; it might take a while until it heals.”

“What do you think about his ability?”

“Those barriers will be annoying, but you saw Stella; we should be able to destroy them with our attacks, and your explosions seem to be able to obliterate them,” Chase pondered as he looked at Stella who was currently fighting Delta and barely avoiding his attacks.