He channeled mana into his legs and jumped, clearing the shield by inches as flames licked at his boots.

He came down right in front of Clarissa.

"Impossible..." she started to say.

Lucas's fist caught her in the solar plexus. It wasn't his strongest punch, after all, he was exhausted and injured but it was enough to drive the air from her lungs and interrupt her spell casting.

He didn't give her time to recover.

He grabbed her wrist, the one she'd been forming fire magic with, and twisted hard. She gasped in pain, and the flames flickering around her hand sputtered out.

"Here's a message for your fiancé," Lucas said coldly. "Tell him if he has something to say to me, he can say it himself."

He swept Clarissa's legs and followed her down, pinning her with his knee across her chest.

"And while you're at it," he continued, his face inches from hers, "tell him that this 'mongrel' isn't going anywhere. I'm going to stay at this academy, I'm going to excel, and there's nothing he or anyone else can do about it."

Clarissa's face was red with rage and humiliation.

She tried to form another spell, but Lucas had positioned himself specifically to prevent her from making the hand gestures she needed.

"You... you can't treat me like this!" she sputtered. "Do you know who my family is?!"

"Frankly, I don't care," Lucas said. "Your family, his family, you all think you're so important. But here, right now? You're just another eliminated student."

He drove his elbow into her sternum with just enough force to trigger her protective barrier.

The flash of blue light was satisfying.

[Host has gained+2 Points. Current total: 10 Points.]

Lucas stood up slowly. The adrenaline that had been carrying him was starting to wear off, and he was becoming aware of every bruise, cut, and burn he'd accumulated.

His hands were in particularly bad shape. Fighting barehanded against armored opponents and fire mages had not been kind to his knuckles.

"THIRTY STUDENTS REMAINING!" Professor Hendricks announced. "THE BATTLE ROYALE WILL CONCLUDE WHEN ONLY TWENTY STUDENTS REMAIN!"

Only ten more eliminations, and this part is over.

Lucas looked around the arena.

The battlefield had changed dramatically from the chaotic free-for-all at the start. Now, the remaining students were more cautious and more strategic.

Some small alliances had formed between some students although everyone knew those would dissolve once they reached the final twenty.

He spotted Damion in the distance, still fighting with that infuriating smile on his face. The protagonist was facing three opponents simultaneously and seemed to be winning effortlessly.

Of course he is.

Near the eastern side of the arena, Celeste was locked in combat with two A-class students. She was absolutely dominating them despite "merely" being a class C student.

Lydia was nowhere to be seen. Lucas knee that she was probably still in the fight but had found a place where it was easier to defend herself.

"Yo, Lucas!"

He turned to see Damion jogging toward him with his sword resting on his shoulder.

The blonde youth looked barely winded, though his uniform was stained with dirt and what might have been someone else's blood.

"Zacard just took out three more," Damion said. "That puts him at... let's see... eighteen total. I took out twenty. How about you?"

"Five," Lucas said.

"Only five? Come on, man, you gotta pump those numbers up!" Damion laughed. "Though I saw you take down that Tavn girl. Nice work. She's been needing someone to knock her down a peg for a while now."

"She said she was sent by..."

"Rayon Ylois, yeah, I heard from Zacard," Damion said. "That guy is crazy. He's constantly making political maneuverings or some other plots. It's strange that he decided to attack you, though but who knows what these nobles are thinking."

"Aren't you adopted by a noble house?" Lucas asked.

Damion's expression got dark for just a moment. "I am. But let's just say my family and I don't exactly see eye to eye on... most things."

Before Lucas could ask more, a massive explosion rocked the arena. Both of them turned to see a pillar of lightning erupt from the center of the battlefield.

"What the hell..." Lucas said.

"That's Zacard," Damion said. "I didn't know he could do that."

Through the dissipating smoke, Lucas could see Zacard standing with three students lay unconscious around him. Their barriers triggered simultaneously.

"TWENTY-SEVEN STUDENTS REMAINING!"

"We're almost there," Lucas said. "Just seven more eliminations."

As if in response to his words, another barrier flashed on the opposite side of the arena, then another, then two more in quick succession.

"TWENTY-THREE STUDENTS REMAINING!"

The remaining fighters were getting desperate now. Everyone wanted to make it into that final twenty.

"Lucas, behind you!"

Damion's warning came just in time. Lucas threw himself forward as a wind blade sliced through the air where his head had been.

He rolled and came up to see a lanky student with wild green hair grinning at him maniacally.

"Finally found someone who looks beat up!" the student crowed. "Easy points!"

The green-haired student laughed and formed another wind blade. "[Cutting Gale]!"

Multiple blades of compressed air shot toward Lucas.

He dodged left, then right, but there were too many of them. One caught his shoulder, slicing through his already torn uniform and drawing blood.

[Warning: Host has sustained multiple injuries. Healing recommended.]

No shit.

He couldn't keep dodging forever. He was too tired and too beat up. He needed to end this quickly.

The green-haired student was forming another spell. He was clearly confident that he had Lucas on the defensive.

That confidence was his mistake.

Lucas stopped dodging and charged straight forward.

"What the...you're insane!" the student shouted, releasing his spell in a panic.

The wind blades were less focused this time so Lucas weaved through them. He got a glancing hit to his ribs that would definitely bruise later, but he made it through.

The green-haired student tried to backpedal, tried to create distance, but Lucas was faster.

He closed the gap and delivered a devastating uppercut that lifted the student off his feet. Before the student could hit the ground, Lucas grabbed his collar and drove his knee into the student's stomach.

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