The echoes of battle raged through the city.
Not even an hour had co to pass, and yet multiple skyscrapers had crumbled to dust under the wrath of the vicious students.
Displaying inhuman fighting prowess, they fought to their heart’s content, leveling a quarter of the city in the process.
Their destruction, while catastrophic in the eyes of the ordinary, didn’t even faze Cassandra as she sat in the comfort of her office, watching the ongoing assessnt.
She had—and still—lived in a ti when nurous powerhouses could sink continents with a re gesture.
Compared to that, destruction on the scale of a quarter of a city wasn’t particularly impressive.
Hence, if she were judging the students by the criteria of firepower they wielded, she would have been disappointed. But this wasn’t why this assessnt was held.
It was to see how students would respond in a real battle.
The points—and even the first rank—were all a sham to force the students to do their best.
"So, Miss Valaria chose teamwork!"
Among the various cara feeds on her monitor, the one that caught her eye the most belonged to the Spear Saint’s disciple.
The girl already had her interest, as she was a mber of the Seven—individuals with the potential to beco Saints and Magic Kings.
In essence, she was supposed to be a monster on the leagues of Trish Snowfield and Princess Morgan of Calot. That was Cassandra’s assessnt of her. But... ever since Art had co to her this morning seeking a favor for that girl, she had decided to reevaluate her status to sothing even greater.
Instructor Art was a mysterious man. He seed to hold many secrets and also harbored many answers.
He was an anomaly—a kind of individual who showed up out of nowhere and brought with them interesting things.
While she wasn’t a witch, she still found his existence intriguing enough to not kill.
As far as threat levels went, Art, in her book, was far greater than the Demon Lords of old.
So, if that kind of man called in favors for an already promising child, it was right to think there was sothing unique about them.
Her recent kidnapping case also didn’t help either.
"I guess I’ll sit back and observe. I might be right or wrong."
Valaria’s story was just now beginning, so she decided to ignore her feed for now and focus on the other students.
---
Cheshire lunged forward, her katana radiating an azure glow as it moved in a dazzling cut.
Her opponent—a beastkin with horns—blocked her strike with the base of their hamr, successfully parrying before following with a swing of their own.
Cheshire leaped back as the hamr struck in front of her with the force of a cannonball, shattering the asphalt and sending web-like cracks through the city block.
Landing on her feet a fair distance away, she sheathed her katana but kept her fingers on its hilt—ready and awaiting her opponent’s next movent.
The horned beastkin, lifting her hamr from the cracked ground, flared her nostrils and charged with a fierce scream.
Cheshire stood on her toes, continuously leaping back to widen the gap between them.
Eventually, she was cornered by an awkwardly parked car, forcing her to perform a backflip over it and gracefully land on the other side.
The horned beastkin, lacking in agility, banished her hamr forward and slamd it into the car.
The impact caused the car to groan before it was sent flying at Cheshire, who was positioned behind it.
"Huff!"
With a sharp breath, she drew her katana in the nick of ti and slashed forward.
As if cutting through butter, her blade tore through the tallic fra of the car, effortlessly splitting it in two.
She then tapped the hilt of her blade, igniting the lingering residue of her aura attached to the severed parts.
[Shredder]
Manifesting her intent, hundreds of cuts shredded the car into pieces before giving way for the horned beastkin to attack again.
She followed with a heavy swing, which Cheshire sidestepped before pushing her blade upward, aiming for her neck.
The beastkin, bringing her leg underneath her hamr, kicked it upward, launching the hamr to intercept the attack.
**Clang—!**
Sparks flew, and Cheshire was pushed back—but the horned beastkin wasn’t done.
Gripping her hamr tightly, she perford a spinning attack aid at turning Cheshire into paste.
Cheshire slashed the ground, tapped the hilt of her katana, and activated her intent again.
The ground was assaulted with hundreds of jagged cuts, so ripping through the horned beastkin and slowing her down.
"You can use intent!" the wounded beastkin exclaid in surprise, but Cheshire ignored her and plunged her katana deep into her heart, eliminating her from the ga.
[Student Cheshire has accumulated a point.]
Registering her success, she grinned and brought her hand to her wet nose, dripping with blood.
Intent was the essence of a warrior—sothing only a few could grasp.
She had awakened hers quite early in life, but because she had skipped over a few steps in the process, her body wasn’t fully adapted to its use.
Warriors received feedback for abusing intent.
For instance, Instructor Art’s intent—officially called [Power]—allowed him to accumulate an enormous amount of aura and release it in one finishing blow.
His feedback was exhaustion.
For Cheshire, however, her intent was called [Shredder].
It basically turned anything she cut into minceat.
Its scale depended on the level of attack landed—so if she only left a dent, her intent’s power would equal that.
If she cleaved sothing in two, her intent would continue to cleave the body until nothing remained.
A brutal ability she couldn’t use anywhere except in a battle of life and death.
"Your intent is as impressive as ever!"
Turning around, she was t with Ellie, who currently wielded a bow.
She tried approaching her with a reserved smile, but Ellie drew her bow and released a shot at her with one of her arrows.
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