Versus Ophelia

[Watch out.]

Ophelia took her stance as if she was preparing to sprint at high speed.

"The time starts now!" she announced vigorously.

In that instance, Mika heard the screams of multiple people to his right side while he reflexively put up his arms in front of his face protecting himself from the strong gale that came out of nowhere.

He slowly turned around and saw the people he heard screaming lying on the ground. They had burn marks and twitched as if they were struck by lightning. His eyesight followed the trail of unconscious examinees until he saw Ophelia standing at the end of the line.

"How many did I catch? Maybe 20?" she talked to herself as she shook her hands which emitted electricity.

It was Ophelia, who ran straight through the examinees with her high amount of lightning power.

Just like the others, Mika carefully tried to create some distance between him and Ophelia as he took a few steps back.

And just like back then, she took her stance preparing for the same attack. Luckily for him, she intended to attack in the opposite direction of him.

People pushed, screamed, and ran for their lives trying to escape Ophelia's attacks.

It took her roughly a minute to trim down their numbers by a quarter.

"You can take them away now." Ophelia ordered those who were on standby.

"Yes!" they responded.

Thus, the people in red uniforms pointed with their hands to the unconscious people, which led to gigantic roots emerging from the ground outside of the circle. Those roots then proceeded to sling themselves gently around the lying people and took them out of the circle.

Now in one half of the circle were the examinees, whereas Ophelia stood alone in the other half.

"Alright, with this being taken care of, let's get back on track, shall we?" she announced as she clapped her hands once.

The others started to get nervous again, however, amongst them were some who seemed confident despite the dire situation.

Then, a girl emerged from the crowd. She had blonde hair, which she tied up into a medium-length ponytail with a red ribbon on it, and beautiful crimson-red eyes. Those round eyes of hers looked fierce and innocent at the same time.

With an aura of elegance and confidence, she faced Ophelia with the rest behind her.

"Want to give up?" Ophelia mocked her.

But the girl shook her head in denial.

Shocking everyone, she turned her back to Ophelia and looked at the crowd.

"Everyone please listen to me! We only have about two minutes left and the only thing we did thus far was running away. You saw for yourselves that running from here is pointless. Therefore, I suggest that we team up and take her down. This way more people can pass the exam!" she declared.

Most examines saw hope in her and cheered. Some nodded in silence. And some reacted indifferently.

Mika was one of those who agreed with her idea.

"You sure got some nerve to turn your back on me…" Ophelia muttered with a quiet and yet angry voice.

Then, with her flat palm facing the mass, Ophelia concentrated a great amount of lightning in front of her palm.

"Does she really intend to fire that at us…?" Mika pondered nervously.

"Everyone, dodge!" the blonde girl shouted in panic.

"Die!"

Ophelia's inner thoughts leaked out.

A lightning beam, which was big enough to consume a person, was shot out of her palm.

The beam even reached the walls surrounding the academy, however, in comparison to the destroyed ground, the spot where the beam hit the wall was still intact.

The examinees looked at the trail of destruction the beam caused and all of them had the same thought.

If they got hit, then they would have surely died.

Everyone was immersed in the sight, but a few people used this as a chance.

"!"

Ophelia, who let her guard down for a moment, noticed in her peripheral eyesight a person who was about to attack her.

It was a girl with grey shoulder-length hair, who stealthily approached Ophelia. Her hands touched the ground and fitting her icy light blue eyes, she let a huge number of big icicles appear from the ground.

But Ophelia managed to dodge them just in time by jumping sideways into the air.

Not wanting to let this opportunity slip away, the blonde girl quickly gathered flames in her hands and threw a massive fireball at Ophelia.

It was impossible to dodge it in midair.

Everyone watched anticipatingly as the fireball, which carried the hopes of everyone, was about to hit the instructor.

And then it finally happened. The fireball hit her causing an explosion in the air.

Nobody could see Ophelia due to the smoke, but they still cheered and celebrated thinking that it was over.

But it was not over yet.

A few people understood that, including the girls who were fighting her.

[Dodge!]

"!"

Mika was too late.

Not only him but almost everyone was struck by lightning.

"Argh!" he groaned in pain.

His body was burning and steaming. It was not listening to him. He could still sense the jolts.

He fell on his knees.

One after another collapsed and lost consciousness.

In the beginning, about 2000 people participated. Now only a mere 200 were conscious or half-conscious.

With his hands pushing against the ground, Mika tried to not fall onto the ground completely, although he was nearing his limit.

Those, who were able to dodge the attack, faced into the direction of the smoke after they recognized a silhouette emerging from there.

"Oh, seems like I wasn't able to finish off everyone…" Ophelia stated regretfully.

"H-how is that possible? Weren't you hit by my attack?"

The instructor, who was by no means unscathed, looked at the shocked blonde girl.

"Did you really think I would be down after one attack?"

The other girl immediately took up her stance and was about to launch another attack.

"Hold your horses, ice girl." Ophelia motioned her to stop with her hand.

She heaved a sigh.

"You and that fire girl over there passed this exam. Now leave the circle."

"W-what?"

The blonde girl was taken aback. On the other hand, the other girl was leaving the circle already.

"What is it? I told you that you passed. If you don't leave the circle now, then I will change my mind." the instructor said annoyed.

Realizing that it would be pointless to say anything back, she frustratingly went away.

In the meantime, Mika was desperately grasping for air as he tried to stay conscious.

Only 30 seconds remained, he had to hold on.

But as soon as he attempted to stay optimistic, he heard the clacking of the instructor's boots louder and louder. It was as if she was approaching him.

"Hey, system…" Mika began to talk with a shaky voice.

[What is it?]

Mika was talking to the system until someone stood right in front of him.

"Did my lightning strikes cause you to start talking to yourself?"

Mika was still facing the ground, however, he knew it was Ophelia talking to him.

"Poor child. But don't worry, after all, I will kindly obliterate you from your suffering. So let me finish you please."

She slowly raised her hand.

"System…" he muttered.

[It's too risky.]

"System."

[I cannot allow-]

His voice got louder.

"System!" he yelled.

[…]

"Yikes, I damaged his brain more than I intended." Ophelia stated apologetic and also grossed out.

He clenched his fists tightly.

"I won't let it end here. So please, let me do it!"

The system sighed.

[Alright, fine.]

At that moment, a smile crept onto Mika's face.

[Permission granted.]