“Why are you both up there, Nora?” Merlin began, pushing aside his annoyance at the development as the rest of his team mumbled between themselves. “Isn’t that siphoning a lot of energy from you guys? You should come down and fight on equal footing as the rest of us.”

  Nora scoffed and shook her head. “No, thank you. We love it up here.”

  Merlin frowned. “This is a ‘trap’ test, Nora. You’re meant to set and disarm traps.”

  “And, yet, the condition for winning is simply that fg over there,” she said, nudging her head in the direction of the fg billowing behind Merlin. “Monsters are shrewd, yes. They may set traps. But if we can avoid the traps in their entirety, there’s no need to willingly walk into one.”

  “So you’re going to brute force your way to victory?” Merlin noted.

  “Exactly,” Nora smiled. “You really know me in and out, don’t you, nerd?”

  Merlin snorted. He didn’t have the time to battle words with her now. What he had to focus on was how he could get past this dilemma.

  “I’m sorry, Merlin,” said Lee Jaehyun with an exasperated look on his face. “I would have preferred to get through the test in the intended way.”

  “Eh…” Merlin waved his hand nguidly. “There’s no need to apologize. I know that witch was the one who came up with the pn.”

  “Why, thank you for the compliment,” Nora jested.

  And now he had to come up with his own.

  There was a great chance of victory against Lee Jaehyun and Nora if he and the rest of his teammates joined forces to overwhelm them.

  However, there was still a possibility that they could fail. Merlin knew his sister well, there was no way she and Lee Jaehyun had come all the way to their camp without considering that they could be fighting every single person on the other team. In fact, he was sure she had come all this way intending to do just that. Her reason, though, Merlin couldn’t figure out, as well as how she intended to retrieve the fg in such a situation.

  Which was why Merlin decided to focus on what he could do. And there was only one thing…

  “Are we just going to keep staring, Merlin?” Kim Yiseo asked, obviously itching to take Nora on. They had both been shooting gres at each other for a while now. They must have been waiting for this moment.

  Well, Merlin had other pns.

  “Take Lee Jaehyun on, Yiseo,” Merlin said, dragging the girl's attention his way. He then turned to Park Yuri. “And you fight my sister. The rest of us will take care of ourselves. Just focus on the battle.”

  Kim Yiseo frowned. “What are you talking about? I’d do better against Nora. She’s an air user and Yuri is a fire user.”

  Merlin had noticed this during the physical assessment involving Nora and Kim Yiseo, but it seemed that Kim Yiseo had a hard time putting some basics into practice, evident from how she had thought swimming in frozen water would be faster than running. It was the same now.

  Yes. Air and fire had complex retionships, which, in hindsight, one would think air was guaranteed to win, since it could just blow away the combustible gases and oxygen fire needed to exist. But that went two ways. It could also amplify the fire.

  On the other hand, Kim Yiseo had fought and defeated Lee Jaehyun once already; it only made sense that she took on someone she had experience against. And since Park Yuri was also an A-Css Mage, who was one heck of a fighter, Merlin was a bit certain that she could hold her ground against Nora.

  “Just fight Lee Jaehyun, Yiseo,” Merlin pleaded. “You’ll do better against him. Why should we pair you both against opponents you have never fought before when one of you can just take on someone you’ve already dueled with once?”

  Kim Yiseo blinked and then sighed. “I understand.”

  Great. Merlin gnced at Park Yuri and she nodded.

  “Are you lot done?” Nora called from above, a smile perched on her lips. “We’re gonna attack now, so do your best to survive.”

  Merlin’s lips twitched. She was really in character with this whole thing, wasn’t she?

  Park Yuri and Kim Yiseo both let their Grimoires loose and prepared to attack their sky bound opponents.

  The matchups were ones Merlin was particurly interested in, but now was not the time.

  He turned to the rest of his teammates as the world behind him erupted into chaos.

  “We’re going full on attack now,” he started. “Can you all do it?” They frowned, not understanding what he was talking about. He decided to expin it further. “I’m saying we’re going to raid their base like they have done ours.”

  “What? Wouldn’t that be risky?”

  Merlin shook his head. “An A-Css and S-Css Mage from their party is here. There’s only one more A-Css Mage in Cohort Dragon Eye, and that is Choi Sangook. I seriously doubt Dr. Elias would have thrown all their powerhouses into a single team. In other words, they are heavily underhanded at their base now.”

  “But so are we,” they argued on. “Our S-Css Mage and A-Css Mage are fighting here too.”

  Merlin nodded. “That’s why you’ll be taking Man-Shik along, after all, he’s also an A-Css Mage.”

  Everyone’s eyes widened. It was not that they didn’t know that, it was just that Hwang Man-Shik had quite the easily forgettable appearance and demeanor. He faded into the background as fast as he came to the spotlight. Merlin had also forgotten for a split second that he was an A-Css Mage—the fifth A-Css Mage of the bunch accepted into Prestige Academy—despite having watched the boy fight during the Grimoire sparring css.

  But that didn’t matter now. They had an A-Css Mage; they could do it.

  “All right,” they agreed. “Are we to take Sofia too?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you?”

  Merlin gnced at the fg. “I’ll stay back and protect it. There’s no certainty that there won’t be any surprises. I know my sister best, so if anything goes awry, I will be able to handle her in a fight.”

  Hopefully…

  They nodded, and without any more words dashed into the woods.

  Merlin retreated step by step until his back was against the fg. He looked towards the ensuing battle then and was gripped by awe. It was a magnificent show that he believed would leave even the most seasoned of Mages impressed; and he wasn’t exaggerating.

  Unlike during the Grimoire sparring css, Lee Jaehyun was not raising his hands up in surrender at the sight of Kim Yiseo web spears. Instead, he danced away from her attacks in a way that should have frustrated anyone.

  Kim Yiseo, though, had always come off as nonchant to Merlin, and this battle proved it. Despite continually missing, her gaze was still pcid; there were no signs of growing anxiety in her demeanor.

  She really was the daughter of the Consortium’s Guildmaster.

  Park Yuri, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. Merlin wondered if he had paired wrongly. He knew Nora was strong, but he hadn’t thought she was that strong. His knowledge on her capabilities was long outdated. She was far stronger than he remembered; and that showed in how she was overwhelming her opponent with a smile on her face.

  Park Yuri had been firing fire phoenixes at Nora for a while now, but unlike how they had troubled Merlin, they did very little to bother Nora. After all, Nora simply bsted them apart with her air.

  Park Yuri, however, didn’t seem like one to give up to Merlin. She realized that her fire phoenixes weren’t going to cut it, so she took things up a notch. Her Grimoire flipped open pages raggedly, and the air shimmered from the pressure of bubbling heat. Merlin felt it lick at his skin even though he was some distance away. He knew the spell she was about to cast.

  Roses made out of fire blossomed in the sky above just behind Nora, each one a threat to her life.

  But Nora smiled.

  “You’ll have to do better than this, Yuri,” she said. “After all, I spent the st few nights creating a special spell for this ability of yours.”

  Park Yuri’s eyes twitched. But she didn’t say anything and only went ahead to let her magic loose.

  Merlin had been unable to see what exactly the fire roses did during his fight with her, and he didn’t get to see it now either.

  In the space of a second, mana surged out of Nora, creating a spherical region around the fire roses, and instantly they dissipated, turning into nothing but steam.

  Park Yuri frowned, and so did Merlin.

  “Air Vacuum,” Nora said, raising her chin high. “Made specifically for you, Yuri.”

  Merlin blinked. Nora was an asshole. How could she have come up with something so quickly in a night or two?

  Merlin was well aware about the complexities of creating a vacuum, and he could very well picture how she had come about making it work.

  Since Nora’s mana served as a link between herself and air itself, what she had done was surround Park Yuri’s fire roses with her mana, and have it suck out the air in the space outwards. And fire couldn’t survive where oxygen didn’t exist.

  Merlin clicked his tongue. He had made a mistake. He had thought Park Yuri would be able to use Nora’s air to amplify her fire to push her back, but it seemed Nora had prepared herself well enough for any possible fight that could have ensued between both of them. And if that was the case, then it didn’t matter if it was Kim Yiseo who was fighting against Nora, his sister would have definitely prepared spells for her webs too.

  Geez… She didn’t manage to clear the sylbus in a week, but she studied every prospect and came up with spells to counter them. Damn your genius, Nora…

  Drastic measures called for drastic actions. Since Park Yuri was having troubles, Merlin came to the conclusion that he had to help her here. All she had to do was draw Nora closer into the path of the ballista.

  “Yuri!” he called. She turned around, her forehead leaking sweat. He made some gestures with his eyes, and thankfully she was a smart girl. She nodded and returned her attention back to the hovering Nora in the air.

  Park Yuri channeled her mana once again, the pages of her Grimoire flipped, and Merlin felt a new spell brimming to life. He didn’t know what it was, or what would happen, but he moved either way. He would trust his teammate.

  Nora gnced in Merlin’s direction and narrowed her eyes. She quickly turned her attention back to Park Yuri, however, knowing better than to take her eyes off her opponent for too long. She opened her mouth to say something, but decided to remain mute instead, only readying herself for whatever might happen.

  At that moment, Park Yuri bit her lower lip and the air behind Nora shimmered once again. But this time it was different from when she had used her fire roses. Instead of rge scales of fire magic to become visible, there were only sparks in the air, compressed into mini pockets spread out.

  Nora arched her brows, turning around slightly to get an inkling on what was going on. But she was too te to come to a decision. So, instead, she pushed herself forward away from whatever spell Park Yuri was conjuring up. However, she didn’t get too far before the spell activated.

  A bst so loud it threatened to rip apart Merlin’s eardrums boomed through the surroundings and shook the earth itself. Nora activated a wall of air behind herself in time, and covered her ears with her air vacuum spell so she wasn’t affected. However, the bst pushed her a considerable distance forward.

  Park Yuri dropped to her knees in that instant and gnced in Merlin’s direction. “Now!”

  “Understood.” Merlin narrowed his eyes at his sister as he channeled his mana into his hands, grabbed the firing lever of the ballista of webs, ripping it apart. The trunk of the ballista shot through the air, heading for Nora with a blistering pace.

  Nora gritted her teeth. “Are you trying to kill me, Merlin Tyrrell?”

  He wasn’t. In fact, he hadn’t been expecting to face her. He had created the ballista solely because he had suspected that some Mages might make their entrance from above. The fact that it was becoming useful was a mere coincidence.

  But she wouldn’t die. He had locked eyes with her while he was heading towards the armory, and he was well aware that she had gotten an inkling on what was about to happen. What he didn’t know was how she would get out of the situation.

  Nora showed him.

  She deactivated her current spell, air vortex, twirled around in the air, and shot a bst of wind at the trunk. The piece of rge wood exploded into splinters. Merlin’s heart skipped a beat. It was easier to avoid a rge wood than countless pieces of it. What was she thinking?

  However, a second ter he couldn’t come to a decision as to whether his mind was put at ease or if he was plunged into more pressure as to what the outcome of the battle may turn out to be, because Nora baffled him even more. The air behind her turned lightly chaotic, and condensed behind her back to form the same gossamer structure of a butterfly’s wings. In seconds, she evaded every single splinter, and was breathing a sigh of relief.

  A trickle of sweat went down Merlin’s cheek. “My goodness, Nora. You must be out of your mind.”

  “What next, nerd?” Nora tilted her head with a grin. “Do you still have anything or can I just head over to the fg now?”

  Merlin clicked his tongue and gnced at Park Yuri. She was still on her knees, breathing heavily. That st spell of hers had taken the wind out of her sails, it seemed. He looked in Kim Yiseo’s direction. She had her hands full with Lee Jaehyun. From what Merlin could deduce, it looked like Lee Jaehyun knew that a direct approach against Kim Yiseo was equivalent to losing, so he instead dragged out time. In other words, the S-Css Mage was leaving their victory all up to Nora.

  Merlin sighed. “It seems I’ll have to take you on myself.”

  “Oh?” Nora raised her brows. “I don’t think so.”

  Merlin frowned, freezing in his steps. Immediately, a prickling feeling rose up his spine. He turned around sharply as a twig snapped behind him, wrapping his arms with his mana and raising his guard just in time to block a jab that would have struck him right in his ribcage.

  The attack flung him out of the woods where he had hidden the ballista and back out into the open. Merlin cushioned his nding by channeling his mana to his back as he rolled onto the ground.

  He flung himself back to his knees before he could even catch his breath, raising his eyes to see who had struck him so hard his arms were vibrating so erratically.

  “Hi, Merlin,” a familiar guttural and primal voice said as a figure covered completely with orange colored fur and bck stripes walked out of the woods.

  “What the…?” Merlin frowned. “Nikoi?”