The Greatest Sinner

Bam. Bam. Bam.

The young man tried with all his might to defend himself against the monsters' attacks, but sooner or later, there would be a breach in his armor. Blow after blow came down on the young man, and the sharp blades tried to cut him open.

But, to Evan and Gerda's surprise, he was able not only to block the first monster's attack, but also the other two behind him. The young man forcefully threw one monster back and at the same moment two of his hands were covered in a thin layer of metal. It was enough to block the attack of the other two. However, his strength was not infinite.

"He's at the limit, the other arm isn't completely covered, he doesn't have a drop of mana left." Said Evan watching the lad`s fight.

Like Evan had said, he was already out of mana and these two attacks were the last ones he could block. What's more, he was already wounded, not seriously, but sooner or later, the loss of blood would take its toll.

Evan was curious as to what would happen next. He didn't expect the young man to somehow get out of this situation or someone would save him, Evan wondered when the teachers would intervene and how.

Bam.

Evan didn't have to wait long. One of the monsters attacked the young man, he had no way to defend himself or dodge this attack. A little more time, and two blades would have seriously wounded or killed the young man, but he was soon saved.

Whoosh.

A white magical circle appeared next to the young man, and a Golem slowly emerged out of it, it was very similar to the ones, that had brought them to this room.

Bam.

The blades stabbed into Golem, but they didn't do it any damage. Golem paid no attention to the monsters, it grabbed the young man and made its way to the audience seats in one single leap.

"I see." Evan said slowly and headed on his way.

He wasn't going to fight that many "Blind Deaths" at once. Even if he didn't lose, he was going to get very seriously injured anyway.

"We have some guests." Gerda said calmly as she watched three lizard-like monsters running in their direction.

Whoosh.

The three monsters pounced on the young men from different directions, but their movements were not fast enough for Evan.

He took a couple of steps forward and swung his scythe at them. The snow-white blade killed two of the lizards instantly, but the third one was able to dodge.

Initially the monster wanted to attack Evan, but when it saw how easily he killed its comrades, it decided to run away. Evan wasn't going to chase the lizard, but he didn't want to let it go either.

Gerda was already thinking about casting "Wind Cutter", but suddenly Evan gripped his weapon tighter and the scythe blade disappeared.

Evan took aim, and with all his might threw "Reverse Death" right at the monster. The spear flew with a whistle and instantly reached the monster, piercing it through.

The young man slowly approached the monster's carcass and drew his weapon from it.

...

As time passed, there were fewer and fewer monsters. Evan and Gerda encountered some enemies on their way, but they quickly dealt with them. They didn`t waste any mana during these small skirmishes, as they tried to avoid large groups of monsters. There was no point in getting into unnecessary trouble.

During this short period of time, Evan and Gerda saw two more members drop out. One of them was near death and if not for Golem's help, he would have been eaten alive.

"How many monsters do you think are left?" Asked Gerda.

She wanted to get to the third stage as soon as possible. Although the steam was dissipating, the exploding geysers made it impossible for it to disappear completely. She didn't like the feeling of the unknown, and at any moment a monster might jump out of the steam and attack her.

Evan shrugged, "I don't know, I think less than a third for sure. The monsters were dealt with pretty quickly in the first stage. They're much stronger at this stage, of course, but they aren`t able to overpower us."

In fact, Evan hardly thought about the monsters: sooner or later, they would all be killed, and they couldn't do anything to him anyway. But, besides monsters they could be attacked by other students and Evan was well aware of that.

However, it was unlikely that anyone would attack them as long as they were on the same team. There unlikely were any fools, who would go alone against two, and that was one of the great advantages of their alliance. Evan had only other such teams to fear.

Moreover, according to Gerda, Evan realized that the best result was his. Even if he hadn't teamed up with the girl, he probably wouldn't have been attacked by anyone.

Whoosh.

Evan calmly paced forward and thought about what he should do next. Nothing seemed to portend trouble when suddenly a blue lightning bolt erupted from the steam. He hadn't expected such an attack, but Evan's reaction was quick enough to reflect the lightning with the white blade of his scythe.

"It's amazing that someone would dare to attack us." Slowly Evan muttered as he looked at the two figures emerging from the steam.

It was a tall guy with brown hair, dressed in leather armor, with a silver amulet around his neck. In his hands there was a short, wooden staff, it was Lewis Gyll. In front of him there was a girl with short red hair, she was armed with a long, two-handed sword, her name was - Chloe Morales.

"And why have you decided to attack us? You'd be better off dealing with monsters." Evan said calmly, looking into Chloe's brown eyes.

Chloe replied, "Well, we happened to notice you and decided to attack. You're the biggest threat, so it's best to deal with you now."

Gerda frowned and said grudgingly: "I think you've forgotten that he's not here alone, the two of us can handle you easily."

Chloe wanted to say something, but Lewis beat her to it: "Don't worry, we know what we're doing, this guy is very strong, but we're not weak like you."

"What?!" Loudly said an enraged Gerda.

<Hmm, I haven't seen all of her abilities yet, but isn't eleven and a half seconds a great time?>Evan saw no logic in Lewis' words. They would only make sense if Chloe and Lewis had lasted at least twelve seconds each. In that case, it would mean that they were very formidable opponents indeed.

Lewis grinned: "You lasted ten seconds with great difficulty and that was only thanks to the Magic Artifacts, you're just lucky to be here."

<So that's the thing... She lied about the time, since I had no way of verifying that information, slyly>. Evan thought to himself, but he wasn't mad at Gerda, she had been useful to him during the monster battles anyway.

Unfortunately, Lewis and Chloe were not going to back down and a battle between the two teams was inevitable.