Scarlet

And just like with the other challenges, I fight the students back to back, finally starting to feel just a little mentally tired from the number of battles I’ve fought back to back. But I still don’t lose to any of them, keeping the win streak that I’ve created and quickly become proud of.

“You shouldn’t really be feeling proud of beating a bunch of human students when you are half blood lycan…” Tar mutters, and I do the sensible thing of ignoring him as I focus on the remaining four students in front of me. Two of them being the ones I was watching earlier. The monk guy and the death magic user.

“I’m a little surprised you waited this long,” I honestly tell the guy with death magic. And he just points at himself with a vaguely surprised look after having just yawned. “Yes, you.”

The guy is still wearing just his t-shirt and shorts version of magi-tech armor, and he looks to be in his mid-twenties at a glance. Which is a little surprising for new Guardians, since the fae apparently like to pick people who are younger than their mid-twenties on average. Mostly because while leveling does stop your aging, it doesn’t revert your age. Not unless you get a skill that does or are treated by someone who has a skill that can do it to others. Which is expensive as hell.

“Oh, yeah, the others looked like they wanted to fight you more, and I wanted to study your fighting,” he says rather shamelessly before shrugging. “It worked out.”

I blink in surprise.

Wow. This guy doesn’t have a filter, does he?

“Hey Scarlet!” I hear a familiar voice shouting, making me look past the four people who are standing in front of me – one of which is a girl and the other three guys – before finding Denise walking over while waving. So I raise my hand in a simple wave back, then turn my attention back to the four. And of the four, I only recognize the guy who I found out was titled Necro and the other one who was titled Sentinel. But the other two, who also happen to be twins judging by appearances? Never seen them before.

“So who wants to fight first?” I ask with a frown.

The four share a glance before Sentinel and Necro step back, leaving the other two to step forward at the same time. And reach for me at the same time. And almost challenge me at the same time when their hands are placed on opposite shoulders.

I blink in surprise but accept the challenge that comes from the one who touched my shoulder first to find myself appearing in a plain white room with nothing else in it but me and the girl that appears. She has stark white hair with a single streak of gold, differing from her brother only in that one area, as he has a streak of blue. Well, and in her different figure, considering that she’s a girl and all while her brother isn’t. Although both of them have long hair.

And they’re both wearing the exact same magi-tech armor consisting of a rather gender neutral cloak, although one has a golden one while the other has a blue one.

They’re also both higher levels than me in regard to mana, which is surprising.

I get ready as always, but this time I stand back instead of charging in. Because there’s just something about her that feels different to me from the others.

Out of nowhere, bolts of golden electricity begin to spark all around her, then her form straight up blurs and she appears right in front of me, giving me only enough time to raise my arms to block her punch. But even then, I grit my teeth as I feel my arms – which took the hit – beginning to get pumped with some of her electricity.

She’s fast. Very fast.

But…

I grin as I ignore the electricity that’s burning my arms to push her away, sending her flying a few meters before she lands on the ground and rolls for a few more. Then she quickly gets back up and becomes a blur again.

She’s physically weak as hell. Meaning it’s all speed.

I quickly hit her with blood boil and life drain after she enters my line of sight again, since those skills need them to be in my line of sight to activate. Although not to keep them activated, fortunately. And she was too fast for me to activate them at the beginning of the match.

The moment they are activated though, I find her suddenly staggering and no longer being a blur for a second before returning to almost her previous speed but with a trail of red energy following her from life drain, making the corner of my lip quirk upwards.

That’ll work.

The girl tries to run circles around me, but my ears manage to keep up with her movements after I realize that I should just use them in more than just a hearing far off things capacity. And the moment I hear a change in her footsteps, I turn around to where they’re coming from and raise my claws to strike, tearing a bloody streak straight from her hip to her opposite shoulder.

I wince for a second, only to remember that the magical reality automatically censors any sort of nudity from damaged gear in the form of the strongly blurred out portion of her front that I can see.

Never really thought about that since the only ones I went even close to going all out against were guys.

Anyways, I walk up to her now that she’s down before seeing her close her eyes. So I simply kick her head to knock her out quickly, sending us both back to the dome again.

And I immediately find her twin brother looking rather surprised – the first emotion I’ve seen on either of the twins’ faces thus far – before reaching forwards and challenging me as well.

Guess I’m in for another round then.

Wonder if the other twin is any better?