Chapter 9: The Exam And The Misunderstanding.

"Get ready." Baelor yelled loud enough so Elara heard him. Suddenly, a Monster Summoning Circle appeared on the ground, similar to the scanner at the gate, but this one bigger and glowing a golden color. A monster similar to a wolf from Alex's previous universe, just bigger, stood on it. The Monster Summoning Circle disappeared and the wolf-like creature launched itself towards Elara, closing the distance between them in less than 3 seconds. Alex paled at the creature's speed, scared that something could happen to his only friend.

"Don't worry." Elara told Alex telepathically and made Alex's perception of time speed up, because she wanted to show off, obviously. She grabbed the spear and threw it at the monster. The spear traveled fast enough to almost create a vapor cone, and yet, to Elara's surprise, the creature dodged and the spear flew towards Alex. Fortunately, Baelor grabbed the spear before it hit Alex and put it away. She had underestimated the monster's strength, mainly because she didn't analyze it and was instead thinking about visiting the different food shops in the capital. As the monster jumped at her, she moved aside and, in almost an instant, drained the whole arena of Xen, using it to simultaneously send a concentrated beam of gamma rays straight through the monster's brain. The beam, after piercing through the monster's head, hit the barrier previously set by Baelor, which glowed in that area until it absorbed the attack completely. Throughout the entire confrontation, Elara's face was blank, except the single moment when the monster dodged the spear. As the monster fell to the ground, she allowed Alex to see time at a normal rate again.

"Wh-what the hell...? T-that was an F rank monster?" Alex asked under his breath, seeing the monster lying dead on the ground. Baelor chuckled lightly at Alex's words before clapping to congratulate Elara.

"Nope, kid. That was a Black-Furred Elanr, a healthy adult male at that. It's more of a B- rank, maybe B temporarily if you let it break its limit. I do have to admit, I didn't expect that girl to defeat it so quickly." Baelor said, throwing the spear back to Elara.

"Do you know what attack she used? I didn't see anything and the Elanr just suddenly had a hole through his head." Baelor added, now looking at Alex.

"I have no idea." Alex responded, at which Baelor shrugged and looked back at Elara.

"Guess I'll have to ask later." Baelor said.

"You want another, stronger monster to fight or are you satisfied with a B- rank?" Baelor yelled the question to Elara, at which she nodded and her face looked more determined than earlier.

"Another." Elara yelled back a simple answer, making Baelor smirk a little. A new Monster Summoning Circle appeared, this time a humanoid creature stood in front of Alex. The monster this time was a Fire Spirit. The Spirit's hands and legs were on fire, hotter than the surface of the Sun. The only reason Alex, Baelor and the arena itself were unharmed is because of Baelor, or more specifically, the barriers he put up.

The Spirit suddenly changed its body into pure fire and heated it up, causing itself to move forward at an insane speed, getting dangerously close to Elara in just shy of 2 seconds. Elara realized that the spear would be useless as the tungsten arrowhead liquefied almost immediately as soon as the heat hit it after the Spirit's transformation. She quickly sped up her own perception of time, allowing her to analyze the situation and make the best decision. After analyzing the Spirit, she found out that the flames were used to radiate the Fire Spirit's excess Xen. The Fire Spirits would normally have an overflowing storage of Xen within their bodies, and letting it stay inside them would cause them to explode, destroying themselves as well as the surrounding area. Some towns were destroyed like this, as some of the Spirits of this race were willing to sacrifice themselves, just to cause destruction. Elara thought about pouring literal tons of water on this Spirit, knowing that it would probably just turn the water into steam, which, due to the extreme pressure and heat, would cause an explosive reaction. She knew that the barriers Baelor put up were strong enough to survive it with ease, but she wanted to show off to Alex a bit, to remind him who was better. Basically, she wanted to boost her ego. She could easily kill the Spirit and just move on, but then it wouldn't be as effective in showcasing her superiority over Alex.

"Alex, what should I do?" Elara asked, her voice not showing panic or alarm but instead brainstorming ways to show off. Alex mistook her tone to be of a desperate call for help, which made him respond in a panicked voice,

"Are you okay?! Do you need help?!" Alex couldn't see Elara due to the grass burning because of the Spirit's heat, so he assumed that she's panicking.

"Stop screaming, it's annoying. And why wouldn't I be okay?" Elara asked, at which Alex got slightly confused.

"Huh? D-do you not need help?" Alex asked back, which this time made Elara confused.

"No? I'm just asking you how I should kill it. I could just explode it from the inside, but that's too easy. I could also just pour water on it but the steam would block the view..." Elara responded, getting lost in her thoughts.

"S-so you can kill it, but you don't know how...?" Alex asked, trying to make sure that he heard her right.

"Yeah, I wanna have fun, after all. And I also wanna show my superiority over you." Elara responded, her voice calm and composed.

"Just go for the damn kill then! Stop playing around and worrying me!" Alex screamed at her, making her sigh and shake her head internally.

"Fine, fine. Such a boring way." Elara responded, her tone showing her slight annoyance. She slowed down her perception of time to the point where the Spirit was noticeably but still slowly moving. Elara decided to go for a quick kill, so she released the Xen leftover inside the 'Incomplete Complex World' after the gamma ray beam. She created a new, stronger spear, both infused with and coated in Xen. The heat resistance was so high that even if that Spirit touched the spear directly, it wouldn't even react. She threw the spear faster than last time since she knew that this Spirit was faster than the last one. The spear broke the sound barrier dozens of times over, unfortunately Elara forgot to raise her body's durability, and that caused her arm to be ripped off. The spear made contact with the Spirit's body, and because Elara set the properties of Xen on the spear to be the counter to the Spirit's Xen, resulting in an explosion of Xen. The explosion shook the ground and barrier, and even though the barrier also had noise-canceling properties, the explosion was still heard outside. just very quietly.

In the middle of the Testing Arena stood Elara, her arm missing but her face blank, as if nothing happened. She saw her arm on the ground and realized what happened, quickly regenerating her arm back.

"Look at that, an A rank monster, killed just like that." Baelor said, impressed, but his tone also indicated that, while rare, it wasn't that special. He looked down at Alex and nodded his head in approval.

"She sure can fight. You chose well, kid." Baelor said, his voice approving Alex's choice. Alex nodded in agreement, feeling lucky that Elara was the one with him. Elara slowly made her way towards them, looking around the arena proudly at the amount of Xen flying around after the explosion.

"Just make sure to invite me to the wedding!" Baelor laughed, a grin on his face. Alex looked confused for a second before it clicked in his head.

"Wh-what?! Woah, woah, woah! Hold on a second!" Alex screamed, scaring Elara slightly as she stood beside him at that moment.

"Hm?" Baelor raised his eyebrow, confused at Alex's outburst. Elara hit Alex on the back of his head with the wooden part of her spear.

"Shut up! Stop yelling! You scared me!" Elara screamed, making Alex look at her and then back at Baelor, completely ignoring being hit. His face didn't show embarrassment or anything similar.

"You got it all wrong. Me and Elara are friends, not lovers." Alex said calmly, this time Elara raised her eyebrow.

"You assumed that this guy and I are lovers?" Elara asked Baelor before looking at Alex and almost bursting out laughing,

"Pffft- Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean that, Alex. You're a good guy, it's just that... you know..." She didn't finish her sentence, instead covering her mouth to not laugh.

"You know, Elara, I'm not interested in you, but your words kinda hurt." Alex said, which made Elara stop quietly laughing and instead put on a serious face. Baelor watched from the sidelines, finding their exchange amusing.

"I'm glad we can agree about not being interested in one another." Elara said before sitting down next to Alex and pushing him out of his seat.

"Go for it. It's your turn." Elara said before winking at Baelor, a barely noticeable smirk on her face. Baelor nodded in agreement, understanding what she meant without words.

Alex nervously made his way towards the middle of the Testing Arena, pulling out his sword once he got there.