“Where do you come from?” Ansel’s voice was indifferent, unlike a normal student’s. It sounded more like a scholar who was engrossed in his work.

“The outer ring.” Syllis responded plainly, looking down on the man in front of her.

Ansel seemed confused with this answer. “Where are you originally from?”

“The outer ring.” Syllis repeated before leaning in, she spoke into his ear. “I’m not some freak pretending to be from a lesser background. It is through my hardships and luck that I am here right now. Those hardships are what’s going to make you kneel.”

Syllis pulled back, briefly touching his—longer than average—red locks of hair. She then began moving towards the back of the arena.

Ansel followed her lead, walking in the opposite way.

The suffocating atmosphere seemed to relent as they turned away from each other, letting the students bicker freely again.

“That was scary!” A female student shook slightly.

“Has she always been able to do that? I’m glad that I forfeited!”

“What kind of a monster can make Ansel so fearful?”

A couple of male students turned to each other and wiped their foreheads in relief.

Syllis looked up, nearing the back of the arena. Clyde, Korman, and Aura, all looked down at the secare nymph.

Two of them had looks of pity and sympathy, once again strewn across their worried faces. They were Clyde and Korman. They mouthed words of sympathy.

Syllis merely dismissed them, instead focusing on Aura.

Aura did not share the same, sympathetic and pitiful eyes. No, hers held a flame within. This flame swirled with a need for revenge. It was easy to decipher what her expression meant.

It was wrathful. Aura wanted Syllis to take Ansel down, to tear him down to his most basic elements of flesh, blood, and bone. She wanted Syllis to tear not only his arm off in revenge, but for her to take his legs, eyes and teeth.

A faint, wispy mist manifested in front of Aura, beckoning her attention. It coalesced into a large, icy ring.

Aura smiled slightly before she turned back to Syllis and gave her a thumbs up. Then, the ring shattered into a sea of frosty particles, slowly dissipating into the air.

The both of them shared a sort of darkly twisted smile before Syllis turned back to her emotionless opponent.

‘I’ll try my best, Aura.’

Syllis had already wanted to tear Ansel’s limbs from his body, but she wanted to do so even more now. The possibility of it giving a good foundation for a friendship between her and Aura was a nice incentive.

‘Well if this isn’t a weird, wholesome scenario…’ Syllis grinned slightly, amused by the odd situation she found herself in.

Professor Ruvhernim clapped, sending a loud wave throughout the large room.

‘As expected of someone with four anathema.’

Ever since Syllis learnt this fact about her professor, she found herself realizing more situations in which he applied his superior strength.

“Alright everybody! Time for the main event, Syllis against Ansel!” He hyped up his students.

“You two have thirty minutes so feel free to take a while.” Ruvhernim added.

It was not unusual for the A tier match to take the longest. With more potent bonds also came more minds, forged through battle. In a D tier fight, a single swing could end it. This was not the case in an A tier fight. Weapon mastery was higher allowing for them to not only be used for offense but for defense as well, prolonging fights. Not to mention the fact that some bonds could temporarily offset damage, others could get rid of it all-together.

“Fight!” The professor exclaimed, raising both of his arms high in the air and letting out an even more deafening clap of his hands.

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Syllis was a passive fighter, though the class did not see her as one. This was because throughout the first three tiers, she was more concerned with getting the spars over with. There was no point in giving the opponent hope. It would only crush their spirits more once they lost. Now though, against Ansel, Syllis was cautious.

Ansel on the other hand, was not the least bit cautious. He immediately invoked his bond before dashing over.

This bond of his was horrific and powerful, though it had an easy to exploit flaw. From the battle Syllis had witnessed of him versus Aura, she realized that his bond heavily drained him. The corruption within him grew at an alarming rate, even faster than Aura’s seemed to.

‘Winning in such a way is a last resort, I need to inflict as much pain as possible to please Aura…’

Syllis spun on her heel, narrowly avoiding a beam of fleshy substance.

From within this substance, cries could be heard. They were both mature and juvenile, death did not discriminate. Where they came from, Syllis did not exactly know, but because of the—arms, legs, and eyes that writhed within the flesh—it was not unreasonable to assume there were a few mouths accompanying them.

‘It’s just as chilling as when I saw Aura get corroded by it.’

Syllis manifested a large wall to encase herself, the type of wall that would take several miners no less than a week to break through it.

Although Ansel’s bond was very lethal, and he possessed remarkable skill with his jian, there was a limit to his pure destructive capability. Sure the acidic quality seared through flesh at an alarming rate, but it would not fare so well against ice.

As Ansel tried to sear his way through the massive wall, Syllis had begun manifesting a weapon of ice. This was a new weapon, one she had practiced making every day for the last month.

This was her normal needle-point spear, with a couple modifications. The first and lesser of the two, was a longer tip, with a lesser incline. This was to let it soar through the sky with greater efficiency. This was especially important due to the second modification. Two foot-long handles stuck out at the base of where the spear began to converge into a point. These handles were immensely useful, but came with a cost.

These handles served as guards when Syllis called the spear back to her. Over the last couple months, she had learnt to be able to call a weapon back very consistently, though it still harbored the problem of potentially piercing her own body. This was why she implemented the bars, she would grab onto them if the spear came back with the end pointing towards her. Though they greatly reduced the airborne effectiveness, hence the first modification.

Syllis condensed the spear, ensuring it would not break no matter the strain it went through. She had been able to refine spears to the point that they would not shatter until over one hundred throws! It was a commendable feat.

As she neared the end of condensing her spear, the first specks of color from Ansel’s hair were seen through the thick ice wall. Then, the first hole was burned within.

The structural integrity was compromised and the wall began to collapse, though it had already bought enough time. Syllis had perfected her spear.

Syllis dismissed the wall aside from a small portion. The rest of it dissipated into the air but one chunk hastily fell.

Ansel turned, invoking a stream of flesh to shred though Syllis’ skin. He was met with a large block of ice which collided with the ground, shaking the arena.

Syllis saw his stumble and sent an ice crag to throw the chunk into him.

Ansel used a wall of flesh to shield himself, corroding the ice that threatened to enter his domain.

Though the ice had accomplished what it needed to. Syllis had sent herself flying above through the use of another crag, she dropped down onto Ansel, pointing her spear downwards and standing on its handles.

Ansel realized a split second too late. “Ahh!”

He shrieked in pain as the azure blade peeled a healthy amount of flesh from the top of his shoulder down to the waist, he had turned just a slight bit too late.

This slight pain and display of emotions brought a smile to her face. Previously, her face was plain and indifferent to hide her intentions, but after Ansel’s outburst, she grinned—from ear to ear.

The class did not erupt into cheers or yell words of praise. Instead, they yelled negative words, calling her names.

“Siren! Siren! Siren!” The majority of the class joined into these hollow, racist cheers.

Syllis was not the favorite to win, everyone wanted her to lose.

‘How am I somehow the villain of this matchup? This red-haired freak is a cruel monster, lobbing off his opponents limbs for fun. I will avenge all those that he has toyed with in battle, how is that wrong?

They continued to boo and shriek at Syllis.

“Forfeit! Give up! Cheater! You play cheap!” They all erupted.

As Syllis heard Ansel mending himself with globs of flesh, she turned to face the stadium. Almost every student heckled her. Even the slight few that had not heckled only remained silent.

Syllis then turned to Clyde, Korman, and Aura. None of them let out a single sound, they basked in the silence.

‘This is the flaw of people. They are afraid to speak up if they are in the minority. They do not stand up for the truth, turning a blind eye if there is any opposition at all.’

At that moment, Ansel finished mending himself and turned to Syllis. Wearing his normal, emotionless expression.

“Thinking of forfeiting the match. They seem to want you to.” Ansel spoke indifferently, though clearly attempting to taunt his enemy.

Syllis turned slowly, eventually meeting his crimson eyes. ‘I—

Syllis interrupted her own thoughts, instead staring into Ansel’s crimson eyes again.

They stood only five meters from each other, so their words would not reach the audience.

The secare nymph spoke with a cold tone. “I really—hate humans.”