Extra And MC

68  Chapter 64 - Arcana Academy Entrance Exams IV

(A few minutes before Ivelia had run into Caroline…)

"Honestly, I'd expected their fighting prowess to be rock-bottom considering they seem more like alchemists but damn, they're really using everything they've got to stay in the exams and survive till the end" a young man in his late twenties said to his friend who was seated beside him.

"So true man. I'd never expected it either…" his friend responded, his eyes darting away from a section that was showing Ivelia's battle with a golem and onto a section of the holographic screen that was currently showing Ivar's battle with a serpent and a rhinobear that had ganged up on him.

The orange-haired youth had a frown on his face as he watched a robotic rhinobear and and the flaming basilisk ready themselves to attack him and pincer him from both sides after spotting him.

The rhinobear immediately charged at him with immense speed from one side while the flaming basilisk opened its mouth to fire a concentrated beam of flames at him from the other side.

'Think Ivar! Think!' the youth inwardly said to himself.

Ivar's eyes then lighted up and in a split second, he quickly summoned a single wall of earth that faced the charging rhinobear.

His eyes then darted over to the flaming basilisk who was almost about to fire the flaming beam, immense concentration present in his eyes as he began an inward countdown and a few beads of sweat pooling towards his chin and ready to drop.

'3… 2… Now!'

The moment he completed the countdown, the bead of sweat that had pooled at his chin, dropped down as Ivar himself leaped onto the earth wall he had created and almost immediately leaped off of it again and watched as the charging robotic rhinobear crashed into it, reducing it to rubble in an instant.

The robotic flaming basilisk however, had already fired the searing beam of flame just as Ivar jumped and narrowly evaded it and now, it's beam collided with the rhino bear that destroyed the earthen wall, melting the head of the charging rhinobear's into molten magma.

The rapid momentum that the robotic creature was carrying however even as it shut down completely due to its head been melted completely, did not stop and instead, it crashed into the ground while skidding and hit the flaming basilisk with an immense force, throwing it a few meters backwards.

Ivar who witnessed his on-the-fly plan come into fruition, made sure not to miss this opportunity and almost immediately, as soon as he landed, dashed towards the disoriented robotic flaming basilisk while raising his hammer in upwards motion and bringing it down almost instantly while using his weapon art.

"{Thundering Strikes – First Form: Impact Blast}!!!"

The hammer that was rapidly coming down towards the robotic basilisk, instantly crackled with lightning and immediately let out a thunderous bang as it slammed into the head of the mechanical creature and completely compressed and pulverized its head, all the way downwards to its tail while also smashing the portion of the rocky floors into bits in an instant.

Briar who currently had her eyes on her brother's battle, let out a cheer, not that Ivar could hear it anyway.

Ivar however, after dispatching the robotic creature, suddenly dropped to his knees while panting heavily.

While recovering his stamina, Ivar raised his head and looked around the vicinity he was in. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Although so many other candidates were still currently dealing with their respective robotic adversaries, the rocky area around him seemed relatively safe… for now.

As Ivar was gathering himself, he watched from a distance as a young lady was who was seemingly launched into the air, streaked forward like a bullet, her short orange hair fluttering in the air as two rhino bears were relentlessly charging after her.

"What the hell?!" Ivar voiced in confusion but soon enough, he immediately had to roll sideways as a robotic elemental golem stomped his foot on the part of the ground he was previously at

Along with that was a petite black-haired lady with big blue eyes that was currently about to attack the golem from behind with her hands outstretched to release what seemed to be an attack spell.

'Sis will be fine! I believe that! But I also have to make sure I survive till the end' Ivar willed himself and got up while retrieving an explosive potion from his spatial ring, immediately dashing towards the golem that had now turned around and was about to attack the black-haired lady whose eyes now had a hint of panic in them.

Prior to Ivelia flying through the air, the young lady had previously been at a high vantage point a fair few minutes ago from the tallest tree in one of the small thickets of forest present in the vast expanse of arena.

She had also been doing quite well despite her lacking skills but she covered up for her weakness with her alchemical prowess.

Ivelia from the moment she had read the enrollment letter and had also realized that she would need to participate in the entrance exams, had diligently started sharpening her skills, both with her weapon arts and a few basic spells here and there.

The young lady had also created variants of explosive potions, each one more dangerous than the last but due to a short time span of just a week, she had still required more time to tweak most of them.

As a result, she had ended up just taking the potions as is, hoping she wouldn't need to use the most dangerous ones among them.

Adding to that, Flynn had also taught her a few tricks here and there, despite him spending most of his time trying to master his newly created spell.

She had also coated each of the arrows along with some other things she felt would be needing today with a layer of explosive potion materials, hoping to maximizing her damage output as much as possible based on simple chemical reactions.

As Ivelia fired her arrow at another robotic golem that had spotted her and was about to fire a wave of scalding hot acidic watery fluid through the red orb that also served as his eye, the arrow drilled into the red orb, sticking into it and in a moment, the head of the golem exploded into smithereens while crashing to the ground with a giant thud.

Almost immediately, she watched as a green-haired youth was flung towards the tree she was currently standing on by three robotic rhinobears that had charged at him, his body instantly shimmering with a white light and indicating that he had been disqualified.

The tree branch she was on quaked vigorously, almost as if it was about to fall from the impact of the youth's collision.

Now, the rhinobears who had gotten rid of their human adversary, immediately began to scan around the area with a mechanical whir and red holographic rays from their eyes while seemingly searching for their next prey, just as they had been programmed.

Soon enough, they spotted Ivelia on the tree and without reason or motive, instantly began charging towards the tree she was on.

Ivelia upon realizing that she had to find a new vantage point, instantly began to jump from one tree branch to the next.

However, the young lady had soon realized that she was about to run out of tree branches to land on as the robotic variants continued smashing through every single tree in the area, almost as if trying to instigate a stampede of raging destruction.

Ivelia, as a result of this, while making her escape, had summoned one of the more dangerous explosive potions from her spatial bracelet.

Upon landing outside the thickets of forest and onto the rocky plains, she had immediately thrown the explosive potion at the very first rhinobear who was in front and charging towards her rapidly while also nicking a bow into her taut bowstring and firing it simultaneously.

The explosive potion and the simultaneously fired arrow, struck the charging rhinobear at almost the exact same time, resulting in a fiery explosion that completely obliterated the charging robotic creature into chunks of metal that was now raining down from the air.

The other two however who were charging just behind the first rhinobear that was demolished, were unaffected by the explosion and kept their relentless assault on her.

"Dammit! I need to find a new vantage point!" Ivelia had muttered to herself, her unique shade of orange and blue eyes rapidly scanning her surroundings and soon enough, her eyes settled on another thicket of forest in the distance.

'There!' she had inwardly exclaimed while also retrieving a less dangerous explosive potion from her spatial bracelet.

The orange-haired lady then took a quick deep breath and threw the potion to the ground, splattering its liquid content to the floor, all while the charging rhinobears were now getting dangerously close to her.

Some of the people in the audience who were watching what she was doing, along with the two friends who were previously watching her before switching over to Ivar and had now diverted their attention back to her, had their brows furrow in confusion but soon enough, they watched as she retrieved another object from her spatial bracelet.

Anna and Leopold who had diverted their attention back to her from Ivar and their sons, just shook their head at what she was about to do while having the same thoughts.

'Our sons' recklessness has definitely rubbed off on her and Ivar…'

Ivelia who had retrieved a long metal slate all in the span of seconds as the rampaging rhinobears were just a few inches from her, had instantly slammed the metallic plate on the spilled liquid while simultaneously jumping on it.

Following this, a small crackle of sparks formed beneath the metal slate and immediately transformed into a small localized explosion that propelled her through the air at a rapid speed, immediately covering a wide expanse of the arena from the rocky plains she had previously been at and straight towards the other small thicket of forest she had spotted in the distance.

That was how Ivar had seen his sister speeding through the air like a bullet and how Ivelia had also ended up finding herself in the thicket of forest Caroline had been at, all while the two robotic rhinobears kept chasing after her and even smacking some other unsuspecting candidates and eliminating them along the way.

After seemingly muttering loudly to herself about how she was supposed to tweak her explosive potion while landing just a few meters away from her, Caroline cautiously watched as Ivelia calmly walked over to her.

'Does she perhaps have something to tell me?' Caroline asked herself.

"Sorry about those rhinobears. I led them here thinking it'd be easier to get rid of them if I had a better vantage point but you were forced to deal with them instead…" Ivelia suddenly spoke apologetically.

"No. It's alright… I guess…" Caroline replied calmly after which she then followed up.

"You did just also save me from that basilisk so I'd say we're even Ivelia Steelblade"

"Ah! That's good then I guess Miss. Caroline…" Ivelia responded with a sigh of relief.

For some odd reason or the other, no robotic monster had attacked them while they were speaking but still, both ladies ensured to stay completely alert despite the current respite they were having.

Caroline cocked one of her eyebrows in curiosity as Ivelia mentioned her name but before she could ask how Ivelia knew her, the latter had spoken.

"You are Miss. Caroline Roseblade, right?" Ivelia questioned again after which she then seemingly continued.

"My younger sister talks about you a lot. You know her as Briar…" Ivelia added while tentatively looking at Caroline.

"Oh… I see… Wait?! Your sister?" Caroline asked in a surprised tone.

Ivelia just nodded her head at this while also responding with a genuinely happy smile.

"She calls you a beautiful princess. Says you look like those ones she's read about in her bedtime storybooks" Ivelia started and proceeded with a chuckle.

"And she's always describing how you look every so often to me, so much that I'd instantly realized it was you the moment I saw you from a distance" Ivelia concluded.

Caroline who had been wary of Ivelia's intentions from the moment she had arrived, instantly dropped her guard and relaxed herself while also returning a sincere smile to her.

She had realized too from the way Ivelia was conversing with her that she was being totally genuine without any other ulterior motives.

However, as she was about to respond, two elemental golems appeared along with one flaming basilisk and one arachnoworm, all poised and ready to attack both ladies.

Both ladies immediately turned their back towards each other and took battle stances while getting ready to overcome the sudden ambush of the robotic creatures.

As they did, Caroline quickly said what she had wanted to before they were interrupted.

"Remind me to get a beautiful care-package for your sister once we're done with this exam Ivelia" she said with a lovely smile on her lips, her bladed whip suddenly elongating like a slithering metal snake.

"Sure! I'm certain she'd love it Caroline" Ivelia responded with a similar smile mirroring Caroline's, her hands immediately summoning three arrows on her taut, pulled-back bowstring.

And here's the second part! (-‿◦)

Caeruleum_