Past 8 PM. Hundreds of magical lanterns floated in the air above the battle arena, illuminating under the light from thousands of stars.
Other exam arenas had already determined their winners. Only this arena was still fighting. Many people traveled to watch, filling the bleachers completely.
Cool wind and cold night air blew in. Grass fragments drifted across the battle arena. Both stood silently facing each other. The little rabbit-squirrel stood sizing up the elegant white unicorn, completely motionless.
"Sereni, use Sacred Blessing and Unicorn Heal," Aria waved her hand, commanding the unicorn to use its magic.
Ray slowly read and analyzed the opponent's skills.
**Sacred Blessing Skill:** Buff that doubles all power stats for 3 minutes. 3-minute cooldown.
**Unicorn Heal Skill:** Buff that increases HP and MP recovery rate by 2% every 10 seconds for 5 minutes. 5-minute cooldown.
Sereni slowly raised its front hooves before casting light magic, scattering shimmering stardust over its own body. The horned horse's body was thus coated with golden aura and star particles across its form.
The beauty of the magical-level creature made all spectators fall silent. In the night, Sereni was like a mystery of the universe—both fascinating and enchanting, yet so noble it couldn't be understood or reached.
Ray read the various increased stats:
**Sereni**
**HP: 3600**
**MP: 3600**
**Attack Power: 48**
**Magic Attack Power: 80**
**Defense Power: 40**
**Magic Defense Power: 48**
"Wait, Sacred Blessing only doubles power, right, Aria? But why did it go from 900 HP to 3600?"
Ray was shocked before looking at the crescent moon necklace Sereni wore.
That was all it took for both Ray and the spectators in the bleachers to realize the class gap between world-level noble families and ordinary commoners like Ray.
**Crescent Moon Necklace**
**Rank: A**
**Manufacturer: Falerian Family**
**Ability: Increases the power of positive status effects on the wearer by an additional 100%**
Ray's fan club spectators holding fire signs nearly dropped their jaws. "This is insane! That rich girl is cheating too much! Using both magical beasts and master-tier items! Our boy Ray won't make it this time!"
"I told you! That girl is obviously a spoiled rich kid! She'll pass the exam no matter what, I said so! With a family that wealthy!"
"Sigh, exactly right. No matter how skilled she is, no matter how hard Ray tries and fights to the death, he'll probably lose to that rich pay-to-win girl. Really infuriating. People have hated this since prep school days!"
Ray scratched his head. "Are you serious?! Aria!" He smiled widely and shouted cutely at her.
"I can't go easy on you. Consider this an honor, our superstar," she said with crossed arms.
"Well then, let's give it a try! Let's go, Geed!" Ray commanded Geed to charge forward and attack.
"Sereni, Power of the Stars!" The unicorn summoned a glowing white magical energy ball at the center of its horn before shooting it at the approaching rabbit.
Geed easily jumped and dodged before kicking the opponent's neck hard.
Ray checked the damage numbers achieved. Level 15 Geed only dealt 10 damage per hit to Sereni.
This meant within ten seconds, Ray would need to hit Sereni more than 15 times, because otherwise the unicorn would recover 144 health every ten seconds. But the broken part was the mana recovery being even more, which would give Sereni endless mana to use.
Ray thought it was impossible for Geed to attack 15 times in ten seconds every time. Including using death move skills might not be worth it because it probably couldn't finish the account with a single attack.
Moreover, the Power of the Stars skill was very dangerous in prolonged battles. The unicorn alone might be able to wipe his entire team.
**Power of the Stars Skill**
**Uses 15 MP**
**Ability:** Shoots small starlight at enemies. This skill's speed increases progressively based on usage count during the duel.
This meant even if Ray had Geed continue attacking and dealing damage to Sereni, when it dragged on, Power of the Stars would become faster than Geed could dodge. Even seeing five seconds into the future might not be able to dodge attacks that kept getting faster without limit, because the opponent's mana recovery was endless.
"Geed has absolutely zero percent chance of beating Sereni! Wow, you planned this all out, so clever," Ray praised Aria's method of making it impossible to lose.
"I just watched you fight more than ten matches. All your battle data is already in here. If I couldn't think of a checkmate strategy, it would be embarrassing," she pulled out a notebook where she had recorded everything.
Ray got goosebumps. Aria was not only rich and good at controlling magical beasts, she was also smart and strategic. She was the most difficult opponent he had ever faced.
"Oh no! Nerds are so scary! Geed, switch out quickly!" Ray quickly recalled the Fluffy back to his bag and called out the one who had an advantage against Sereni—Rogue.
"Meow!" Rogue jumped out to show off along with its beautiful glowing tail in the night. Ray quickly threw gold coins for it to collect, understanding the routine, then Rogue leaped out and used "Shadow Blade."
It lashed its golden tail at the magic horse.
"Magic Barrier!"
*Clang!*
Rogue struck until the circular barrier covering the unicorn shattered. The dark element shadow blade slashed into Sereni's side, drawing blood. Damage dealt: 340!
"Alright! Light and dark elements are weak against each other. Now I can land some hits," Ray clenched his fist and smiled satisfactorily, having successfully countered the opponent's game. But the other person remained still as if knowing this would happen.
"Go back first, Sereni. Come out, Arnol!"
**Name: Arnol**
**Beast Species: ArtemisUrsa**
**Level 17**
**HP: 5,000 MP: 200**
**Element: Ice, Dark**
**Rarity: A-Rank**
**Info:** ArtemisUrsa has a peaceful nature, prefers solitude and meditates for long periods. Becomes very fierce during mating season or when awakened during meditation.
**Skills: Ice Claw, Ice Armor, Berserk, Swipe, Bite, Meditation, Ice Aura**
She recalled the unicorn. Aria summoned a giant white bear standing on two legs with ice-scaled fur to the middle of the battle arena instead.
Its size was five times larger than Rogue. When looking down, the black cat was just a tiny little thing.
"Rogue, hide in shadow!"
Arnol swiped at the shadow, scattering the arena floor, but the mischievous little cat managed to dodge into its own shadow in time. It jumped up again from behind the giant ice bear.
But with its ice aura, the bear could sense temperature changes around its body. Arnol spun around as if knowing about Rogue who was extending its shadow blade to strike.
"Ice Claw!"
*Slash!*
"Mrowwww!" Hit full force until Rogue's blood was reduced to half. It slowly stood up from its injuries, speed also reduced.
Ray held his mouth thinking hard. He didn't expect Aria to have predicted everything. When Fluffy couldn't fight the unicorn, he used an assassin to handle it. But when switching to Rogue, he had to face a fighter like ArtemisUrsa.
Ray had been read in every direction. Whatever move or technique, Aria had prepared countermeasures for him completely. Therefore he needed to think of new methods. He couldn't use the same old techniques that had worked in previous battles.
Both Copycat and Wind Dance would definitely be countered by Ice Armor.
Stone Curse wouldn't work on enemies too large. Only one method remained.
"Copycat, Poison Fog!"
Ray commanded using the Poison Fog technique copied from the Gorgon, spraying it all over Arnol until it was badly poisoned. But while spraying poison, Arnol's passive skill "Berserk" worked perfectly.
Its effect was being unable to stop, be stunned, or affected by movement-stopping statuses during battle.
The ice bear could trade damage with opponents at all times.
It had almost no chance of being dazed, asleep, stiff, or numb.
It charged forward and slashed its claws into the black cat full force until Rogue flipped over.
Life force reduced to one-third.
But what Rogue did worked. The ice bear was poisoned. From now on, its life force would gradually decrease every ten seconds by 2% of maximum health. Ray's plan from here was to stall for time until the bear died.
"Come back, Rogue! Go out, Geed!"
He called Geed out instead. Even though he knew Geed couldn't attack through Arnol's ice armor, Geed's job was just to dodge until the opponent died from poison.
"Your strategy is really terrible," Aria held her temples.
The people in the bleachers cheered for the poison and evasion combo Ray used. They never thought any ordinary person could fight people from famous families using two magical beasts in their team. That was called very unfair for spectators.
But Ray still tried to find ways to fight. Even though the opponent seemed to have better resources in terms of power and many items, Ray had almost become a hero for all those commoner spectators who only had weak creatures like him, which he made godly.
As Ray expected, no matter how much Aria's Arnol charged to attack, swipe, or bite Geed, the little rabbit-squirrel dodged everything easily, barely needing to attack at all. Arnol's five thousand health gradually decreased from poison.
It could be said Ray used the opponent's high maximum HP as his own advantage.
The ice bear with poison had its blood decrease progressively regardless of armor value, and there was no sign it could hit the incredibly graceful Geed.
"I really can't do it. Can't hit at all. You're really skilled, finding other ways to fight in this situation. Hmm, alright, Arnol, that's enough. Come back. If we keep fighting like this, we'll lose to Ray."
"That Fluffy has to face the unicorn only," Aria said as she switched, sending Sereni to face off against Geed once more. Everything was almost like the beginning, different only in that both sides had gained considerable information about their opponents.
From here, neither could switch creatures anymore, according to duel rules that only allowed switching magical beasts twice per round.
Ray needed to use Geed to fight in a battle with one percent chance of winning.
"You should know now that my chances of winning are much higher than yours, Ray. If I defeat Geed, who buys time for your team to think, this battle will end immediately."
As Aria said, Ray agreed. Without Geed buying time to think, he definitely wouldn't be able to think of anything in time. If Geed was handled, next would be Rogue with low health who had been completely countered.
The mental image from here was: Sereni beats Geed, then Rogue would lose to the buffed Sereni whose attack speed was at full brutal capacity.
He barely needed to guess further to know he'd definitely lose, because all his information had been calculated by Aria in every move.
But "anything can happen, Aria. No matter how much you use buffs or magic that gets faster and faster, Geed still has at least one percent chance of winning. I just need to try to make that happen," Ray spoke confidently, while Aria laughed lightly because she still believed in all her calculations.
Ray secretly smiled slightly.
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