Chapter 15: Prestige Solo!

"Everyone, today we'll be practicing solo battle". Dr. Burggraf brought her whole class to the technologic room. "This is a VR practice battling room, we'll be using this one to calculate your ability and fighting style".

She turns on the machine, and suddenly, the whole room becomes a galaxy view. Esserine really loves it, she's only been out of space once in her life when her mom was still alive. Maria, she's just playing around, pretending like she, herself is the creator of all. 

"It's such a mesmerizing view right?" - Phoebe turned her head to Kayden.

"It is, even though it's not real". Kayden peacefully nodded.

"Woa, woa, woa". Lucas accidentally jumped too high, now he's just floating around like a balloon. "Can someone pull me down?"

"As you wish". Adelphia activated telekinesis, she forced Lucas to go down.

"I know Adelphia is already the strongest one in the class, so today she'll be a referee". Dr. Burggraf turned on the gravity mode for the room so everyone could move easily. "Maria and Esserine will solo first, I know you two would love killing each other".

"We are fated to have a rematch, Esserine". Maria was stretching her body. "I am ready".

"Remember, this is only a practice battle, not a real fight and y'all are allies". Adelphia warned Maria. 

"You guys will be protected by the magic shield, don't worry when you get hit". Dr. Burggraf explained. "The pain is felt, however, there would be no wounds".

"Okay, I'm ready Dr. Burggraf". Esserine tied up her hair.

"Everyone backs off now, except for Maria and Esserine". Adelphia flew up high. "3, 2, 1, let the battle begin!".

"Wait, are we allowed to use weapons?". Maria asked energetically. 

"No" - Dr. Burggraf and Adelphia both said at the same time. "This is only a practice fight, not a real war".

"Got it"

"Fireball"

Maria threw a flaming rock at Esserine, however, she dodged smoothly with Shadow Cloak, and ambushed Maria from the behind with Shadow Wind. Maria didn't expect something like this so she got blown away.

"Shadow Chains". Esserine's strategy is the same as always, controlling the enemy, and then torturing them in pain.

Maria isn't a duck soup, she quickly rolled her body to break away from the vicious trap. And returns Esserine with Ice Gun. 

Esserine turns her body aside, rapidly dodges it. "Shadow Sphere". She created many balls of darkness flying toward Maria.

Maria keeps running to avoid the damage from shadow balls, but there are plenty of them. One of them hits her feet, and she gets blasted away. 

Before Maria could get up, Esserine pressured her with another attack: "Black Hole". The galactic object kept pulling Maria in, she was struggling to stand up again.

"ICE COFFIN". To able to escape the perilous situation, Maria locked herself up by her elemental power. The ice covered the whole battle ground, it was so slippery that Esserine slipped and fell. 

"ICE BREAKER". Because of the fall, so Esserine lost control of the galactic object, it faded away. Maria rapidly broke the ice from within. Pieces of rough ice flew all over the battlefield. 

"Magnetic Shield". To protect others, Adelphia built up a forceful veil around Maria and Esserine.

Pieces of ice hit the veil of force and break itself.

"Just with one smart move, Maria gained the upper hand". Phoebe was really impressed. 

"She could be mean and highfalutin, however, that's understandable since she has such power like that". Kayden elucidated wisely.

"Lucas, who do you think would win?". Phoebe asked. 

"It's a perplexing question to be honest". Lucas fixed his eyes on the battle. "They are both strong, experienced, and clever".

"Shadow Wings!". Esserine felt like she would lose if she didn't have a big view to think about. She opened her wings and took up high into the air.

"I dare you to come down and face me". Maria said furiously. "You coward!".

"No girl, I am smart enough to not fight you without using my brain". Esserine harnessed the shadow around, then she released a powerful attack move. "Curse of Fallen Angel".

A sable magic circle appears above Esserine, it starts to spread out uncountable black feathers. These mysterious things slowly drop down on Maria's place.

"What are these?" - Maria looked at Adelphia.

"Ask Dr. Burggraf, I'm not an encyclopedia" - Adelphia answered unemotionally.  

"Dr. Burggraf, can you scan these black things?". Phoebe uttered curiously.

"Okay honey, give me a second". Dr. Burggraf spoke. "Oh, it's the Curse of Fallen Angel. Esserine did use this skill move last year when she was fighting against opponents at the Superb Academy's Olympic". 

The Superb Academy's Olympic is one of the two semester tests in those types of special academies. If you perform well (based on the calculation and judges) or you're in the top 20, then you pass the test. And the second semester test is a theoretical test, which means testing on papers and writings. 

"Curse of Fallen Angel, each of the raven feathers contains an unknown debuff. If you get hit by one, you'll receive a tremendous amount of damage and a random debuff".

Just by hearing it, Maria quickly creates an ice pillar to protect herself from these feathers. However, when the feather touches the pillar. The ice pillar gradually starts to decay itself.

"How da fack???" - Maria stared at the ruined area. 

"Maybe you didn't meet me last year". Esserine looked down compellingly. "My power is the proof of the reason why I'm in the top 10 of the regional ranking board".

"Shadow Blast"

"Dragon Breath"

Their attacks met in the middle, this event created a gigantic explosion. It broke through the Magnetic Shield of Adelphia and blew everyone away including Maria and Esserine.

"Oh my back, it hurts terribly". Kayden exhaustedly stood up. 

"My Energetic Shield is charging, the explosion was too massive to bear". Phoebe was typing on her high technological screen.

"THAT BATTLE WAS EPIC!!!". Lucas has raised his hands toward the above. 

"Okay girls, well done, the system got your stats and it is analyzing". Dr. Burggraf gave them a thumbs up. 

"Good job Maria, you too, Esserine". Adelphia looked at both of them lying on the floor of the practice room.

"The bell is about to ring". Dr. Burggraf turned off the system. "Tomorrow we'll do Kayden and Lucas, about Phoebe, she'll fight against another VR enemy". 

"Bye bye" - Dr. Burggraf waved her hand.

"See you tomorrow!" - Everyone said in unison.