The dust from Finn's devastating sniper victory had barely settled, and yet the battlefield was already shifting once more.
A new Arcane Titan emerged—its gargantuan frame even bulkier than the last, with reinforced exo-armor, dual energy lances, and a spiked shield as large as a fortress wall. Unlike its predecessors, this Titan's stance was different—lower, more aggressive, like a predatory beast waiting to strike first.
It was not an enemy to be felled from afar.
This was an opponent that demanded a warrior willing to fight at close range.
And Miracheneous Academy had just the man for the job.
Wang Ji-Pang.
As he stepped forward, rolling his shoulders, there was a crackling in the air, a static charge dancing around his fists.
Unlike Finn's relaxed, lazy swagger, Wang walked with the confident energy of a fighter who lived for battle—a man who threw himself into the storm with a grin on his lips and fire in his veins.
And that was exactly what he did now.
"Alright, big guy…" Wang murmured, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he clenched his fists.
"Let's see if you can keep up."
The Arcane Titan's glowing emerald optics locked onto Wang, processing his lack of ranged weaponry, and made a tactical decision.
It didn't charge forward.
Instead—it raised its shield, anchoring itself into the ground like a fortress of steel.
A defensive strategy.
The Titan intended to outlast him, knowing that a close-quarters fighter would eventually tire.
Unfortunately for the Titan—Wang Ji-Pang never tired.
With a thunderous exhale, Wang's fists ignited in a crackling storm of blue energy, his Arcane-Forged Gauntlets—Stormbreaker Fists glowing with pure kinetic force.
Then—
He vanished.
Or at least, that's how it looked to the untrained eye.
To Finn, Aleeman, and Shi Zhao Mei, however, they saw the truth—
Wang had activated Wind Step Combat, propelling himself forward at blinding speed, using the force of the wind itself to close the distance in a fraction of a second.
BOOM!
His first strike connected, a right hook reinforced by Steel Fist Technique, landing against the Titan's shield with enough force to shake the entire battlefield.
CRACK!
The Titan skidded backward, its feet digging trenches into the ground.
But it wasn't enough.
Wang clicked his tongue.
"Tch. That shield's annoying."
The Titan recovered instantly, lunging forward, swinging its massive energy lances in a cross-slash meant to cut him down—
But Wang was already gone again.
He sidestepped midair, propelled by Wind Step, landing on the Titan's left arm before delivering a devastating elbow strike.
BOOM!
A massive dent appeared in the Titan's plating, sending a tremor through its entire structure.
Aleeman, watching from the sidelines, gave a smirk.
"He's not just attacking. He's testing its endurance."
The Titan, realizing the threat Wang posed, activated its offensive protocol.
Its runic engravings glowed ominously, and suddenly—
BANG!
A shockwave burst from its core, sending Wang flying backward.
Midair, Wang twisted his body, kicking off the wind itself, before landing on the battlefield with a skid, his gauntlets glowing brighter.
"Heh. Finally getting serious?"
He flexed his fingers, and then—
With a smirk, Wang slammed his fists together.
And suddenly—the sky darkened.
A tempest of electric blue energy spiraled around him, his Steel Fist Technique merging with the winds of his combat style, forming a storm-like aura around his body.
His Stormbreaker Fists crackled like thunderclouds, the engravings pulsing with runic energy.
The students watching gasped in awe.
"He's…he's generating a storm around himself?!"
Shi Zhao Mei smirked, folding her arms.
"No. He's becoming the storm."
The Titan lunged forward, energy lances raised, its form a blur of raw destructive force.
Wang met it head-on.
His fists struck first—
And in that moment of impact, time seemed to slow.
The battlefield exploded in a shockwave, dust and wind whipping violently in all directions.
The Titan staggered, its entire arm crumpling from the sheer impact—but Wang wasn't finished.
With one final strike, he launched himself into the air, flipping over the Titan's head, and came crashing down with a devastating axe kick, channeling all of his remaining power into one, final blow.
"TEMPEST BREAKER!"
BOOOOOOM!
The Titan's core shattered, its entire body collapsing in a cataclysmic heap of metal and etherium energy.
The battle was over.
Wang, breathing heavily, rolled his shoulders, dusting himself off before flashing his trademark grin.
"Phew. That was a good workout."
The arena erupted into cheers.
"He just punched the Titan to death!"
"No, he used a goddamn storm as his weapon!"
Finn laughed, shaking his head.
"Remind me never to fight him in close combat."
Shi Zhao Mei simply smirked, glancing at Aleeman.
"Your friend fights like a raging storm, Hakiman."
Aleeman, arms crossed, nodded in approval.
"No. He is the storm."
As Wang stepped off the battlefield, grinning ear to ear, he glanced at Finn.
"How was that? Not bad, huh?"
Finn grinned back.
"Not bad at all. But you still can't beat me in a shooting contest."
Wang snorted.
"Yeah? Well, next time, you bring your rifle, and I'll bring my fists."
Finn smirked.
"Deal."
As the arena settled once more, all eyes turned to the final challenger.
The final test.
Shi Zhao Mei stepped forward.
Her raven-black hair flowing behind her, her crimson dao flickering into existence from her palm.
She turned to Aleeman, smirking.
"Now then, Hakiman. Let's see if I can top your friends."
The battlefield still crackled with residual energy, the air thick with the lingering aftermath of Wang Ji-Pang's Tempest Breaker.
The Titan lay in ruins, its mechanical carcass a testament to the sheer, unrelenting force that had crushed it.
Yet, as the dust settled, a new Titan emerged from the shadows of the arena—a sleeker, deadlier version of its predecessors.
Unlike the previous models, this Titan did not wield brute force.
No, this one was built for speed.
Twin razor-sharp blades extended from its forearms, humming with plasma energy, its exoskeleton sleek and aerodynamic, crafted for lightning-fast strikes and precise kills.
It was a duelist's nightmare—a Titan that did not overpower its prey.
It outpaced them.
And there was only one person who could match it.
Mika Yamana.
As she stepped forward, her obsidian-black hair catching the breeze, she exhaled softly—her demeanor as calm and serene as a still pond.
But beneath that tranquility, there was a storm waiting to be unleashed.
Her fingers brushed against the hilt of her sword, the name slipping past her lips like a whispered promise—
"Akai Tsukikage—The Crimson Moon's Shadow."
A faint red gleam flickered along the blade, as if responding to her voice.
Then—
The Titan moved first.
The Titan surged forward, its plasma blades flashing through the air in a blur.
Mika vanished.
A streak of crimson light replaced where she once stood.
SHHHING!
The Titan's first strike met only air, its blade slashing through the empty space where Mika had stood a heartbeat ago.
Then—
She reappeared.
Perched on its shoulder, her blade already drawn, resting just beneath its head joint.
A single precise strike would end it right then and there.
But she didn't move.
Instead, she whispered—calm, quiet, almost amused.
"Too slow."
The Titan reacted instantly, launching itself into a spin, attempting to shake her off.
But Mika was already gone again.
A crimson blur, dashing across the battlefield in a flickering dance of movement—too fast to follow, too unpredictable to anticipate.
Aleeman, watching from the sidelines, smirked.
"She's not just fighting it," he murmured.
"She's toying with it."
Shi Zhao Mei, arms folded, arched an eyebrow.
"That Titan was made for speed, and she's still outrunning it?"
Finn, adjusting his rifle, let out a low whistle.
"That's Mika for you. She fights like a phantom."
The Titan, frustrated, adapted its approach.
Its blades split apart, forming dual plasma whips—their energy coursing like arcs of electric fury, capable of cutting through steel like butter.
It lashed out, sending a web of crackling plasma toward Mika, aiming to trap her in an unavoidable strike.
For the first time, Mika stopped moving.
She simply stood there, watching as the whips closed in.
The Titan had her.
Or so it thought.
"Fool."
Mika flicked her wrist.
And then—
The battlefield exploded in a flash of blue and crimson light.
Electricity crackled around her, the air itself charged with lethal voltage as her ability activated—
Arcstorm Ascendancy.
Her entire body became a living conduit, drawing the Titan's own plasma energy into her sword, absorbing the charge and multiplying it tenfold.
Then—
With a single step forward, she unleashed it.
"Plasma Slash!"
BOOOOOOM!
A crescent-shaped arc of electrified crimson energy erupted from her blade, slicing through the Titan's attack, its arms, and half of its torso in a single, precise motion.
The impact sent the Titan skidding backward, sparking wildly, its systems overloaded.
But Mika wasn't done.
Not yet.
She tightened her grip on Akai Tsukikage, her eyes burning with quiet intensity.
"This ends now."
The Titan attempted one last desperate attack, lunging forward with everything it had left.
But Mika—
She stepped past it.
No wasted movement.
No unnecessary strikes.
Just one clean cut.
A single horizontal slash, so fast and so precise that the Titan froze mid-motion, as if it hadn't even realized it had already lost.
Then—
SHHHHHINK.
Its entire body split in half.
A shower of sparks erupted as its two halves collapsed onto the battlefield, motionless.
Mika, standing behind it, slowly sheathed her blade.
The moment the hilt clicked into place—
The Titan exploded.
The battle was over.
And Mika Yamana had never even broken a sweat.
The crowd erupted into cheers, some staring in awe, others in sheer disbelief.
Finn grinned.
"One shot, one victory? Maybe I should have been the one using a sword."
Wang let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Another one making it look easy. I swear, do I have to start using lightning now?"
Shi Zhao Mei, arms folded, simply smirked.
"No. You'd electrocute yourself, Steel Fist."
Aleeman, standing with his arms crossed, watched Mika calmly step away from the battlefield, her expression unchanged, as if she hadn't just dismantled a war machine with a flick of her wrist.
But as she passed him, he caught the smallest glimpse of something rare—
The faintest curve of a smirk on her lips.
"Hmph. That was entertaining."
And just like that—she was gone.
As the battlefield reset once more, all eyes turned to the final challenger.
The last test.
Shi Zhao Mei stepped forward.
Her crimson dao materializing in her palm, the glow of Blood Dragon energy flickering across its blade.
She turned to Aleeman, smirking.
"Try not to blink, Hakiman. You might miss it."
As the dust settled from Mika Yamana's crimson lightning storm, the battlefield shifted once more.
The mechanical remains of the previous Arcane Titan were dragged away by automatons, clearing the stage for the next challenger.
Then—
The ground trembled, and a new Titan emerged.
But unlike its brutish predecessors, this one was different.
Its design was sleek, crafted with deadly precision—not a towering juggernaut, but a phantom hunter, forged in the image of the most ruthless assassins.
Its razor-thin daggers gleamed like moonlight, their edges humming with a vibrational frequency sharp enough to cut through steel.
The crowd fell silent as Elizabeth Feng stepped forward.
Her movements were unhurried, deliberate, almost casual, as if the massive automaton before her was nothing more than an afterthought.
She lifted her rapier, the blade glinting under the artificial sun of the arena.
"Lüe Xīfèng—The Western Wind's Elegance."
The name rolled off her tongue, its syllables laced with an ancient reverence, as if the weapon itself was a living entity—an extension of her very soul.
The Titan scanned her, its AI-driven mind analyzing every detail, searching for patterns—for weaknesses.
There were none.
And then—
It vanished.
A flicker of black metal, a whisper of motion, and the Titan was gone.
A blur of steel and shadow came from behind.
But Elizabeth was already gone.
A mere afterimage remained where she had stood.
Then—
A whisper of silver.
A glint of moonlit steel.
And suddenly, she was behind the Titan, her rapier's edge tracing a slow, deliberate arc through the air—so close to its neck joint that if it had been human, it would have felt the whisper of death itself.
Aleeman, watching from the sidelines, smirked.
"She's toying with it."
Hua-Jing, arms crossed, scoffed.
"That's just Elizabeth. She fights like she's painting a masterpiece—except the canvas is her opponent's demise."
The Titan recalibrated, adapting to her unpredictable movements, launching a flurry of light-speed dagger strikes, its precision bordering on perfection.
Elizabeth… laughed.
"Adorable."
She stepped backward, her feet barely skimming the ground—like a dancer in a ballroom of death, weaving through the flurry of strikes with an effortless grace that defied logic.
Then—
A shimmer.
Her body flickered, like a mirage under the heat of battle.
The Titan lunged, piercing straight through her form—
Only for it to dissipate into mist.
Elizabeth reappeared above the Titan, balanced on the tip of its shoulder, her rapier's edge pressed gently against the crevice of its throat.
"You're far too predictable," she murmured.
The Titan reacted instantly, twisting and swinging its daggers upward—
Only to strike another illusion.
The real Elizabeth stepped out of the Titan's shadow, untouched.
The crowd gawked, unable to track her movements.
John Wei-Tang clenched his jaw.
"She's just… dodging everything!"
Finn grinned, loading a new bullet into Serpent's Fang.
"Not dodging. She's never there in the first place."
The Titan, desperate, released its ultimate move—
A web of spinning daggers, suspended in mid-air, forming a death trap that would shred anything within range.
The blades descended in a whirlwind of razor-edged chaos.
For anyone else, it would have been impossible to escape.
Elizabeth?
She simply stepped forward.
And vanished.
SHINK!
The Titan froze mid-motion.
Elizabeth stood behind it, rapier outstretched, its edge still glowing with a faint silver light.
For a moment—
Silence.
Then—
The Titan fell apart.
A hundred precise slashes across its entire frame manifested all at once, its structure crumbling like a sculpture cut by an unseen force.
It never even had time to register that it had already lost.
As the sparks settled, Elizabeth twirled Lüe Xīfèng with a casual flick of her wrist, exhaling as if she had merely finished a light warm-up.
"A shame," she mused, watching the Titan's remains collapse into the dust.
"I was hoping for something... more elegant."
The arena erupted in stunned silence.
Then—
A wave of applause.
Some students looked bewildered, others exhilarated, and a few—terrified.
John Wei-Tang scowled.
Celeste Marlowe pursed her lips, arms crossed.
Shi Zhao Mei… smirked.
"That was almost impressive."
Elizabeth turned, her scarlet eyes glinting in amusement, tilting her head toward Shi Zhao Mei with an expression of mock arrogance.
"Almost?"
The roar of the arena had barely died down from Elizabeth Feng's graceful dismantling of her Arcane Titan when the next name was called.
"Mei-Xi-Li."
The moment her name echoed across the auditorium, the arena stirred with hushed whispers.
Unlike the raw bravado of John Wei-Tang, the precision of Elizabeth, or the brute strength of Wang Ji-Pang, Mei-Xi-Li's fighting style was something else entirely—a mesmerizing fusion of elemental sorcery and acrobatic blade work, her movements akin to a symphony conducted by the ocean itself.