CH 31: Entrance Exam 2

[AN: Finally done with vacation, so expect regular daily updates for a while.]

The small rodent jumped once it neared me and bared its fangs, preparing to end my life in one bite.

*WHOOSH*

A torrent of fire washed over the creature, effectively incinerating it on the spot.

"That was easier than I thought," I said without much emotion.

*DING*

A bell rang out through the room and another mana beast appeared across the large room.

*ROAR*

The beast was a giant lion with a beautiful mane. It also charged as soon as it saw me.

"A low-tier C-rank. Seems the difficulty will continue to increase the more I advance."

Without even moving a muscle, another torrent of fire escaped from my body and enveloped the creature.

*DING*

This time, a large gorilla beast appeared. But, unlike the others, it carefully observed me before attacking.

My eyes shone brightly as my mana vision turned on.

'Ground and wind mana. Interesting.'

*RUMBLE*

The ground shook beneath me and I lightly stepped to the side. The ground that I was previously above collapsed on itself, leaving a gaping hole in the floor.

Once the ape saw me dodge, it finally made its move and ran toward me. Currents of air surrounded its fist and it struck the air in front of it.

Two orbs of violent wind cut through the air at an incredible speed, aimed directly at my chest. As they approached me, the air around me stilled completely and condensed. The beast's attack dissipated on contact with the shield but that didn't discourage it.

It continued to charge and finally reached me. The beast raised its fist and covered it in hard rock. As it swung downwards, I stood still and calmly watched the rock-covered-fist fall.

"I wouldn't come so close to a fire user without a proper defense."

A dense and beautiful orange flame bloomed from my chest and spread over my body. The ape couldn't stop its fist in time and struck my chest. The flaming armor easily defended against the attack, but it wasn't done. The fire crawled up the beast's arm, incinerating everything it touched.

It tried to pull back its quickly disappearing arm but it was no use. My armor completely ensnared it and continued to leave behind nothing of the beast.

*HOWL*

The ape howled in pain as it resisted but was quickly saved from its suffering as the flames covered it entirely and ended its life.

*DING*

The ringing sound of completion rang out again. But this time, a new mana beast didn't appear. The floor began to slowly secrete water and continued until it filled the entire room.

'Saltwater.'

I used my wind mana to create an air bubble around my head. I peered around the waters and my eyes locked onto a large serpentine creature. It had bright violet scales and large teeth.

A slight smile spread on my lips.

'A Zanthei…'

The sea serpent wasted no time and instantly fired a dense beam of water in my direction. I swiftly dodged and the beam flew past me.

*RUMBLE*

It struck the wall behind me and shook the mysterious room.

The serpent converged on me with graceful slithering through the water. It opened its jaw and another massive amount of water mana swelled from inside it.

Before it could launch its attack, I swung my arm upwards and a large current of water slammed into the bottom of its body. The Zanthei's aim was thrown off and its next attack of water was shot off course.

*RUMBLE*

While it was disoriented, I manipulated the water around me and I flew directly at the beast. The floor split open underneath the Zanthei and a large wall of rock crashed into it. But that wasn't the end of the attack. The rock morphed and trapped the creature in a tight binding.

The beast opened its mouth and let out a muffled scream as it struggled to free itself. I knew it wouldn't hold much longer once the serpent used its mana, so I increased my speed and appeared in front of it, raising my hands.

All around its long body, several pockets of water condensed and formed serrated wheels that rapidly spun. I lowered my arms and the wheels converged on the beast, cutting into its thick scales.

The Zanthei realized the danger of the attack and water condensed on its skin, forming a strong armor. But my attack wasn't something a simple armor could handle. The spin of the razor wheels increased exponentially and carved into the beast's armor.

While it was busy trying to defend from my attack, I concentrated on the area around me.

*RUMBLE*

The water that submerged the room began to shake and slowly converged toward me. It took all of my concentration to keep the beast bound, attack it, and also control the surrounding water all at the same time.

The saltwater collapsed until the Zanthei fell out of its reach and landed on the floor. My hands shook as the water condensed further and further toward my body.

*ROAR*

The mana beast roared as the environment it thrived in was taken from it. The razor wheels cutting through its armor dissipated as I was forced to concentrate fully on condensing the water.

But my effort paid off and all of it collapsed on a single point above my index finger.

"That was a lot harder than I imagined," I said with an exhale.

I shifted my attention to the Zanthei still struggling in my rock binding.

Soft footfalls rang out in the room that was now devoid of any water. The beast heard my incoming steps and increased its struggle, but without it being in its natural environment, it was significantly weaker than before.

I walked up to its large head and pointed toward it.

"Hydrobolt."

The insanely condensed ball of water above my finger seethed with the influx of mana and shot in the beast's direction with a loud hissing sound of flowing water.

*WSHHHHH*

The beam was concentrated in a single line and passed through the mana beast's head without any resistance from its armor or scales.

Its life faded away before it could react.

*DING*

The Zanthei's body disappeared from the room and the rock binding collapsed and dissipated.

I looked at the bottom left of my vision which showed my current mana reserves. It was sitting at nearly three-quarters full.

"Not bad. I expected more of a challenge against a low-tier A-rank but I guess upgrading my mana capacity helped a lot."

As I pondered about my improvements since the Zone of Silvercrest, the air of the room began to become unstable. Gusts of wind cut through the air and the lights of the room dimmed in the thick air.

'I remember this feeling…'

I quickly formed a thick metal armor around my body and covered it with my flame armor as well. My body was tense and I waited for what I knew was coming.

A light blue silhouette of a beast formed on the opposite side of the white room. Eventually, it finished and a large green dragon appeared.

The aura of a high-tier A-rank mana beast spread through the room, making my hair stand up on the back of my neck. This pressure was several times stronger than what Professor Dynelle had tested the exam participants with.

*FWOOSH*

The large green-scaled dragon exhaled through its nostrils, kicking up the wind of the area. Its eyes were locked directly on me as it stood unmoving.

After 15 seconds of observation, the beast finally made its move. An insane amount of wind mana built up in its opening jaw, causing the surrounding air to freeze in anticipation. A light green glow spread through its mouth that originated from deeper in its throat.

*FWOOSH*

A large torrent of wind shot from its jaws with unprecedented speed directly at me. Like last time, I didn't have time to dodge so I quickly erected the densest wall of rock I could.

*BOOM*

The attack from the dragon hit the wall and shook the room. But the wall was able to resist the attack at the expense of a large amount of the rock being destroyed.

As its attack was successfully blocked, I used every movement spell I knew and disappeared from the dragon's sight.

It looked around in confusion at my sudden disappearance while also covering its body in an invisible barrier of wind.

*BOOM*

I appeared next to the dragon's head and landed a massive kick. My foot was surrounded by a metal spike covered in incredibly dense flames. The blow managed to barely pass through its armor and slightly pierced through the dragon's cheek scales.

*ROAR*

The beast roared in anger and its eyes instantly locked onto me. More wind mana began to condense but I quickly disappeared again from its sight.

But that didn't deter the dragon from continuing its attack. I flew toward its chest but noticed the way the mana acted in the beast. It was fluctuating with power and with each fluctuation, the power increased exponentially.

*VWOOM… VWOOM… VWOOM*

A pulsing vibration rang out from the beast and I discarded my plans for attack and escaped to the other side of the room. I poured in half of my remaining mana and a large dome of pure metal surrounded me.

*VWOOM… VWOOM… VWOOM*

The dragon's mana continued to fluctuate. The air of the room converged on the beast and everything went silent.

…

As I sat in the dome of metal with my eyes glowing, watching the mana of the beast, a cold sweat formed on my brow.

Once the air had completely converged on the dragon, all of the mana that had built up was expelled from its body at once.

*BOOOOOM*

Wind exploded from the creature and nearly destroyed the white room that contained the dragon and me. My metal dome also was in the same condition. The wall dented and caved in on itself. I continued to send mana to the dome and strengthened it to resist the attack.

Once the wind had dissipated, I breathed a sigh of relief, and the metal dome unraveled and revealed the room that was now in shambles.

But the structural integrity of the room wasn't what I was focused on.

All around me, there was a soft light green glow. The rapid wind of the room was constantly shifting direction and I had to use mana to keep my footing on the ground. My gaze eventually landed on the giant green dragon across from me. Around its body, the same green light of the room surrounded it but was much brighter. Tendrils of dense wind mana swam through the sea of green light surrounding the beast. Its eyes were now shining with a brilliant green light and they were staring at me with a calm, calculating precision.

[Master! Do not engage! That dragon has engaged its domain! It's now on the level of a low-tier S-ranked mana beast!]

My eyes narrowed in concentration, waiting for any slight movement of mana within the beast. Emy's warning caused me to throw all reservations to the side and only focus on staying alive.

But my focus was useless.

A large blow to my back caused my body to fly directly at the unmoving dragon. The flames covering my body were damaged in the attack but with my metal armor supporting them, the sudden blow didn't manage to reach my body.

As I flew in the dragon's direction, I tried to use wind mana to stop my momentum but it didn't respond to me. Even with the sudden failure of my mana, I stayed calm and switched to the spell I had used the most since coming to the mana realm.

*BOOM*

An explosion from my chest completely stopped my momentum. I landed on the ground 10 meters from the still unmoving dragon.

As I landed, I barely sensed a large amount of wind mana falling toward me from above. I used -Rocket- again to quickly evade the sudden attack and flew backward.

*BOOM*

The impossibly fast scythe of wind crashed into the ground where I had just been standing. After I was able to finally see what attacked me, I realized what was happening.

'The dragon can control all of the wind mana of the area due to its domain.'

But knowing that didn't help my situation at all. I racked my brain for anything I could do to counter it but I couldn't find a solution. My power and control were too weak to compete against the beast's domain.

Sensing another almost imperceptible attack, I used an explosion on my shoulder to propel me out of the way again.

*FWOOSH*

A scythe of wind passed from behind me but what happened next caught me off guard. The scythe turned around from its path and flew at me. I tried to evade again with -Rocket- but it was too fast.

*BOOM*

The wind scythe collided with my chest and sent me flying backward. My armor of metal and fire caved in from the attack and I could feel the blade of wind slowly piercing through my skin underneath. My endurance eventually won and the wind dissipated, but not without leaving my armor in pieces and a large gash across my chest.

"Gugh."

I grunted in pain as I flew back, landing on my feet. But I quickly fell to my knees, holding my bleeding wound. Fire mana raced to my hand and out to my chest, cauterizing the wound closed.

"ARGH!"

The pain of my skin being burnt and closed was nearly as bad as my worst upgrades.

Once it was fully closed, I put my hand on my knee and raised myself to face the dragon again. My mana reserves were nearly empty but enough was left to create one more attack.

My eyes landed on the still creature that was also staring at me. Its countenance was still calm.

I gritted my teeth. "Come on, you overgrown lizard!"

The dragon's eyes narrowed. Suddenly, I could feel several different sources of wind mana condense in the room. I looked away from the dragon and at the countless scythes of wind floating in the air around me.

'Shit.'

*FWOOSH*

*BOOM*