The Flame Empress

The strongest among the group of eight made the first move.

With his intent to surprise Alicia, he dashed forwards and slashed his sword— he did not want to waste time playing around and employed a battle technique from the very start.

Following the man's sword slash, countless shreds of earth element morphed in various shapes, surged toward Alicia.

Meanwhile, the remaining seven did not remain idle; each launched their own strongest battle technique in her direction. One fire element user among them sent a massive fireball soaring towards her head.

Every path for Alicia to dodge was blocked. She appeared trapped in a cage, surrounded by attacks of almost every element. If it had been anyone else, surviving such an onslaught—or even emerging unscathed— would have been nearly impossible.

But she was not just anyone. She was Alicia Telon.

With a relaxed expression on her face and a slight amusement and a sparkling in her eyes, she let out a smile.

In the very next moment, a massive, fire-shaped dome erupted with her body at its centre.

All the attacks from the eight students—regardless of their elemental nature—were devoured by the dome. The moment the attacks collided with the dome; they were absorbed into it.

It appeared as if the fire dome burned everything that came in its path. Even the giant fireball descending from above was consumed by the fiery shield.

It was said, after all, that if fire is strong enough, it can burn anything.

The searing heat emanating from the dome was extremely high and the temperature of the surrounding was rising, and Alicia's attack—or defense—left the audience in shock.

Although such displays were common for those powerful and thos were reaching the pinnacle, to witness someone of Alicia's age accomplish this was a truly shocking feat.

The surprise was that Alicia had not employed any specialized battle technique in the attack. It was her pure, masterful control over fire-attributed spiritual energy.

Without even moving a muscle, she allowed her fire to devour all the incoming attacks. This kind of spiritual energy control at her age was truly, truly remarkable and astonishing.

After consuming every attack in its path, the dome vanished to reveal an unscathed Alicia. She stood in the same spot, a serene smile still on her face.

Her opponents, however, began to feel a slight fear of Alicia and quickly prepared for the next round of attacks.

But Alicia was not going to give them any more chances. She spread out her hands, and suddenly wings made of fire appeared behind her.

The wings flapped once, and she rose into the air— she had employed a floating battle technique. And battle techniques which allowed one to fly were rara.

As she floated above, eight massive fireballs, covering the entirety of stage five, materialized above her head.

In that moment, with fiery wings on her back and eight enormous fireballs burning behind her back at an extreme temperature, ready to be launched at her command, everyone felt as if she were the Flame Empress herself.

"Surrender or die," her bone-chilling voice reverberated throughout the entire arena.

Hearing her declaration, the eight students trembled to their core. They had no doubt in their minds that Alicia would not hesitate to follow through on her threat.

They knew there was no possible way they could face those fireballs head-on. The seven F-Ranked students leaped immediately from the stage, while the sole E-Ranked one stared at the fireball for a few moments before finally gritting his teeth and jumping as well.

Alicia's expression remained indifferent. She calmly landed on the stage and waited for the chaos to subside. By the time she touched down, almost all the matches had either ended or were nearing their final moments.

Few moments earlier:

On stage four, six students remained, and Tim Clove was among them.

Although he had displayed considerable strength up to that point, he had not yet performed exceptionally enough to stand out from everyone else.

Among these six remaining students, three—including Tim—were at the E Rank.

While the other five were busy contemplating whom to attack and were wary of each other, Tim have had enough this 'nonsense' and he leaped into the air and landed on the other side of the stage, at some distance away from the other five students.

The neutral expression he had maintained until now was replaced by an arrogant smirk.

"All of you, come together at me," he declared, "I have already wasted enough time."

Tim had been holding back. Even the Clove family, including his parents, was not fully aware of his true powers.

In the spiritual forest, he could have easily taken over Leo Acalo, but he restrained himself.

As for Lucas and Luna, he simply attributed their successes to luck in finding weaker magical beasts. Although he never revealed his full potential, his arrogance was unmistakable; he truly believed that no one was more talented than he was.

The remaining five students squinted their eyes.

One of them, in an angry tone, retorted, "Tim Clove, you've gotten really cocky."

"Looks like your brain has stopped working," he sneered in anger.

The boy who spoke was Alan Parker, the son of the leader of the Red Moon Organization— a faction no less powerful than the Clove family.

Tim, meanwhile, only laughed disdainfully in response as his gaze bore into Alan Parker.