Chapter 40: Ancient Pillars

But no answer came, as he could still watch the surroundings slowly change; Steven got ready to fight.

Lowering himself slightly, he could watch Merency summon a flaming bow in the air.

But before she could catch something, it already flew their way, as Steven was only able to push her down in time.

The projectile shattered his barrier on impact, leaving a smile cut on his arm.

The rest of the attackers only seemed to get ready for their attack, but he wouldn’t let them act so easily.

As he jumped forward, letting Merency alone, instead of aiming for one of his targets, he chose one of the stone pillars instead.

Crashing right into it, the stone shattered to pieces, just for a windblade to barely miss his head, cutting off a few strands of hair.

Barely having enough time to pick up a stone from the rubble, another wave of attacks was already incoming.

To avoid it, he simply did a backflip high into the air, letting himself open to any attack.

But before they could react, he had already crushed the stone in smaller pieces with his hands and with a swing of his hand sent them flying with hyper speed.

They wouldn’t be deadly or even cause any serious harm; instead, he had been aiming for something entirely else.

As he covered most of the field with small rock projectiles. He could see six barriers activating.

One of them had been Merencys, of course, but the rest had been the ones of his foes.

Just as the stone connected with the barriers, their invisibility wore off because their focus switched from the spell to their automatic barrier.

Five people stood around Merency and Steven, who just landed next to her elegantly.

Three of the students had been wearing the crest of a sapphire while the other two had emerald coated on to their uniforms.

"Only five of you? I expected more than that." He spoke, trying to provoke him, but he showed him no reaction at all.

Merency seemed to have finally regained her focus, firing a fire arrow directly towards one of them, who only barely evaded it by letting his barrier break.

"We will be more than enough." One of the sapphire students spoke while casting some kind of golden shield in front of him.

Their barrage of attacks only continued, and Merency slowly seemed to fall behind under all the pressure, making one mistake after another.

As an ice shard sliced her thigh open, smearing the royal uniform with blood. And even Steven barely was able to push her away from the next attack.

Steven wasn’t doing much better without his mana sense and was only growing stronger headaches.

His legs felt weak, and his resistance could barely be called even one.

The burning sun from the day let them sweat buckets as a fireball connected directly with his chest, sending him flying against one of the pillars.

Out of nowhere he could see the Topaz class student standing in front of him, her face filled with sorrow.

"Who are you?" He whispered, but she only turned her head slightly as if she couldn’t understand him.

But before he could continue their conversation, someone stepped right through her as she faded away.

Then the sapphire students had come over to finish him off.

"Talking big words and not much behind it?" He said as he tried to grab Stevens’s shirt to pull him up.

But Steven was only staring at the spot the girl had been standing until a sudden blow to his abdomen woke him from his trance.

"This is what you get for making fun of us nobles." As another blow, this time connected with his chin.

But Steven didn’t move one bit; he had enough. As the student watched him standing there unfazed, he took a cautious step back.

As Steven slowly opened his mouth, he said, "You’re going on my nerves," and with a swift movement grabbed the hair of the student and smashed him against the pillars behind him.

With the girls’ disappearance did his mana sense return finally, and his headaches wore off.

And they had ruined his experiment with her, as the rest of their group seemed to set their focus back to him.

Merency had barely been standing anymore; her already red uniform strained even redder.

But a smile still filled her lips as she took steps back, retreating.

Steven finally let go of the poor student, letting him just fall to the ground groaning.

There was only one thing bothering him, and that was with the return of his mana sense he could also get confirmations of the marks of fingers being close by.

Which meant they had seen his short outburst off-strength too.

So he had to focus now; one moment of strength could easily be explained by his opponent lowering his guard.

As without any warning powerful wind arrows shot towards him, only having time to move his head, they barely missed him, piercing holes in the stone.

Lethal attacks? Are they going insane? "What are you doing? You could’ve killed me!" He yelled this was a school event, after all; any lethal force was forbidden.

But the student only stared at him, shaking heavily, and even his teammates were staring weirdly towards him.

The shaking only increased as the student fell forward to the ground groaning in pain.

The fight stopped abruptly, nobody daring to act, as blood slowly started pouring from the poor guy’s mouth and ears.

Steven didn’t wait one moment, jumping forward towards him with new power.

In just an instant he hovered over him, already being able to feel three people readying the magic to strike him down.

But Steven didn’t attack; instead, he only slowly lowered his hand, touching the chest of the student.

He could feel his mana, not raging like a person in his situation would be. No, it looked like it was being pressed away from something, or rather, someone.

There was a second mana inside the boy’s body, trying to gain control.

"Merency, come here," Steven yelled, his tone firm.