Combat.

Nicole was the first to enter the portal after receiving 'good luck' from her group.

She was nervous but controlled her breathing to stay calm.

Inhaling and exhaling, she reduced her nerves.

When she entered the portal her surroundings changed and without any discomfort from being teleported, Nicole arrived at an arena.

This place looked like a coliseum, and Nicole was in the center of the arena.

She was grateful that there was no audience in sight, but she was sure she was being watched.

Reinforcing her body with magical energy she prepared herself.

"Are you ready?"

Professor Miller's voice sounded around, but she took a deep breath and after a moment nodded.

She had been training hard for this and had worked hard with her group.

Alice and Aurora had given her a lot of advice, so she was prepared not to ruin not only her hard work but the support of others.

Nicole bumped her white fists and looked at the center of the arena where the magical energy was beginning to condense.

A magic circle was engraved in the center of the arena and as Nicole concentrated on facing the enemy, a creature came out of the magic circle.

"..." Nicole froze at the sight of the creature.

A muscular body of rock-gray skin, its features were grotesque as it sniffed and looked around.

The pair of wings on its back gave it the final touch to become a classic creature of the horror movies.

A gargoyle.

Only this gargoyle was not made of stone but seemed to be made of flesh and blood.

Nicole did not freeze because of how terrifying the creature was, the truth was that it had a fierce and frightening expression, but the reason for its freezing was that it was expecting a more grotesque creature.

"Waaa!" Giving a cry that raised her own battle spirit, she charged at her opponent.

The gargoyle was frightened by the human woman who approached her like a lunatic but revealed a fierce, beastly smile when it noticed that she was just a simple human woman who looked weak.

As a C-rank creature, it did not have high strength and high intelligence, just being guided by appearances.

Which was a mistake.

"Gaa..."

Hit after hit, Nicole let out her fear with every hit she made.

It was as if she was venting her fear into the face of the gargoyle.

She had learned to perform 'combos' from Aurora and now that she had a 'punching bag' she was not willing to let go quickly.

"Grhhh..." The gargoyle growled weakly and used its claws to push Nicole away.

She quickly retreated, while in a fighting position.

Her breathing was still light and her concentration was in perfect condition.

"Grrrr..." the gargoyle snarled in anger.

Nicole was not intimidated by me because the gargoyle was missing several teeth that she had forced out.

Her face was bruised and a liquid that Nicole identified as blood was streaming down its face.

Feeling Nicole's willingness to hit him, the gargoyle began to float and rise.

The arena was large enough to allow for fluid combat both on the ground and in the air.

Although the gargoyle could not escape, because the roof was closed and the edge of the arena was reinforced with barriers, the gargoyle had room to fly freely.

"Waaa!" Nicole shouted and charged again as her expression changed.

She couldn't let that creature fly at will, she didn't have the ability to fly and if she faced the gargoyle's air attacks it would surely make things difficult for her.

Nicole strengthened her body with magical energy and then jumped to where the gargoyle was flying.

Aurora was someone who fought everywhere, using her surroundings and controlling her body in general, it was she who taught Nicole how to increase her weight or decrease it.

In-flight she decreased her weight with her magical energy and then when she was able to grab the gargoyle's leg, she condensed her magical energy and made her whole body heavy.

*Boom*

The gargoyle hit the floor and Nicole rolled on the ground because of the force with which she had thrown her enemy, but she quickly moved and trapped the gargoyle on the floor kicking and punching it with her body reinforced in magical energy.

Leslie was someone who always shot the creatures when she was on the ground claiming that a situation like the horror movies where they get up after 'dying' could happen.

The gargoyle looked like something out of a horror movie and Nicole was not willing to 'shoot' a scene from a movie.

******

"Wow, that girl is wild. I like her!" exclaimed Oliver with an amused smile.

He stood in the private grounds of the coliseum and had a real view of the situation.

Sure, he could also connect dozens of screens showing the fight from different perspectives, but for Oliver, there was nothing better than the real thing.

"I have to admit it. I might not have beaten her at the time." Confessed one of the comrades that Oliver had invited.

"I think I could have won." Said the other student with a dignified tone.

One was a fighter and one was an archer, clearly one would have had more of an advantage than the other.

Oliver as a fighter liked how Nicole acted looking to defeat the gargoyle on the ground.

The reason was that C or B Rank fighters who did not have magical objects dedicated to flying were useless when their enemy rose in the sky.

And those objects were quite expensive for ordinary students.

"Let's see another one," Oliver muttered, looking at the screens with different combats and changing them.

There wasn't just one coliseum, but several throughout the academy.

The most important ones were in sight and the others were underground, to reduce space.

But since these were the private arenas, they could connect to the cameras of the other coliseums and watch the fight as if they were watching it directly.

Professor Miller had used all the coliseums because there were about seventy students and it would be difficult to finish everything in one day.

As he was changing the screen, a match caught his attention.

Cristian Cortés, a swordsman was fighting a 'Stone Boar', that creature was a little bigger than a normal boar, but its skin had the appearance and texture of rocks.

It was only in appearance because the hardness was greater than some rocks.

That swordsman had trouble cutting his enemy because of his high defense, Oliver immediately realized that he lacked a study of the characteristics of creatures and monsters.

The 'Stone Boar' had a complete defense, but it was weak in its butt... It could seem that it was protected with stone everywhere, but once hit in its butt the boar would squeal like a pig.

The reason was simple... The boars could not be covered with stone everywhere and more so in the rear area where they did their business.

Oliver switched to other combats.

He found an archer facing a 'little' rabbit with horns that moved very fast and dodged his opponent's arrows.

He was the size of an adult dog, but his speed was fast.

As the fighting ended, others entered and more creatures appeared.

A young ice wizard faced another gargoyle and she had to cast fast spells to keep it away and then cast a stronger spell to defeat it.

She had slight problems with the first, but in the second her spear of ice was devastating.

Then a psionic appeared and faced a rabbit with a horn.

The young woman created a barrier around her and the rabbit moved quickly around her seeking to penetrate the barrier with its horn, so when it made its last charge, the young woman opened a breach and locked the poor creature up.

In the end, she made the barrier start to shrink and... The next thing was a grotesque scene, so Oliver kept changing.

"A major battle is about to begin." said one of his companions.

Oliver quickly changed the channel and attentively watched the fight.

Clémentine Delacroix, one of the best students who led her group in the test.

Oliver turned his attention to the strong psionic.

"How is everything?"

At that moment a voice sounded and Oliver looked at the door.

"Gregorio, Frank take a seat and look at one of the people who beat you," Oliver said with an entertaining smile.

Gregory the A-ranking swordsman who had led the 'thugs' in the test quickly sat down and his gaze trembled at the sight of Clémentine.

Then the psionic Frank did the same and unconsciously rubbed his hundred.

"Damn it, I never agree to work with you again." Frank spat at Gregorio with a trembling tone as if he remembered the headache Clémentine had caused him.

Gregorio laughed amusedly and only looked at the fight that was about to begin.

Clémentine, a B-rank psionic, had to be touched by a creature that would test her limits.

"She's screwed," Frank muttered with a serious expression as he saw the fire elemental in the shape of a deer.

Clémentine was known for her telekinesis, but it was impossible for her to control an elemental that naturally had magical barriers that repelled her control.

Although this elemental had taken the physical form of a deer made of fire, it was a creature of magic.

It was known that psionic and magical energy naturally repelled each other.

Clémentine's expression did not change, and with a rapid movement, she made the earth under her feet begin to move by throwing rocks at the elemental.

The ground in the coliseum could be broken and used against her enemies, which was the reason why Clémentine was able to break it.

The fire elemental agitated her body and sent dozens of fireballs against the rocks, colliding with each other.

In the midst of the small explosions, the deer charged toward Clémentine trying to damage her with its horns of fire.

"Ughh..."

Clémentine was only able to defend herself by creating a psionic barrier to retain the deer and the heat it emanated.

But fire was magic and made Clémentine's psionic barrier difficult to maintain.

Clémentine did not hesitate and tried to lock the deer in a barrier, but it stopped its charge and shook its body creating a small explosion.

"Perfect." Frank praised the fact that Clémentine was floating in the air surrounded by a barrier.

She used the force of the deer's explosion to get away and levitated so she didn't have to hit the ground while taking advantage of the entire shock wave.

The deer shook its body and threw small fireballs at Clémentine which she dodged rising into the air and then...

"..." They both looked at each other.

The deer could not fly because it had taken the physical form of a deer to fight on land and like Clémentine, it was only a B-Rank elemental, which could not control the element to rise in the sky.

Clémentine smiled and opened her arms.

Dozens of psionic daggers were created.

These daggers looked like 'lights' that glowed incandescently and covered the deer's vision.

The deer threw its fireballs while shaking its body, but the daggers were superior in quantity.

"Go!" shouted Clémentine and sent all his daggers in an unparalleled bombardment.

Some daggers and fireballs collided with each other, but in the end the deer was hit by the daggers and disappeared leaving an extremely exhausted psionic.

Ending their fight.

"First-year students are full of monsters." Gregorio commented by shaking his head without hiding his surprise.

"Yes, she is a real monster." Added Frank stroking his head.

"Monster? Please." Oliver scoffed and when he saw that the person who had beaten him up was about to start his fight, he declared. "This is a monster!"

The screens changed and revealed Alice eating some chips with a lazy expression.

Watching a beautiful young girl eat some chips seemed more 'cute' than 'monstrous', which is why everyone looked at Oliver as if he was an idiot.