Extra And MC

70  Chapter 66 - Arcana Academy Entrance Exams VI

From the moment they had been dropped from the sky, Flynn who instead of looking downwards and figuring out a way to safely land onto the arena, had instead decided to glance back upwards out of sheer curiosity of how the dark space worked.

The green aquamarine-eyed youth had then noticed that the black rectangular structure had almost immediately began taking form again slowly, almost as if the academy had plans to put something or someone in there again.

Following this odd phenomenon that he had noticed, he had been glancing up at different intervals despite having to battle all manners of robotic beasts but at some point, he realized that it was inefficient for him if he had to keep glancing upwards at intervals.

That was why he had gradually moved around the arena till he found a good elevated point (case in point, the small hill) that would make it easier for him to keep track of what was going on in the black floating box easily while still battling the monsters.

Considering how immensely high the black rectangular structure was, the youth knew that the radius of his mana sense couldn't reach that high of an altitude but he still used it anyway to check if there were any weird distortions in the atmosphere following the reformation of the black box.

As a result of using mana sense though, which he had initially never expected to work on the robotic beasts considering they were purely machinery, he had actually been able to sense and use it on them due to the tiny mana orbs placed inside their bodies, which was probably how they were also able to use specific programmed spells.

Also, due to this, Flynn had noticed that another creature with many tiny orbs present within its body, was moving around the underground depths of the arena, seemingly waiting for the right time to strike.

"The golem…" Amelia suddenly spoke as she watched Flynn saunter away.

"I didn't mean for it to crash on you. I didn't even know you were situated there…" she continued but despite this, Flynn still kept walking away, almost as if he didn't care about her reasons.

However, Amelia proceeded with her explanations without minding his dismissal.

"It was an aftereffect of my weapon art and I was almost about to stop it from crashing on you but you already did that…"

"Hey! She's talking to you, you ungrateful bastard! Show some damn respect for her!" Lucas suddenly roared in annoyance due to how Flynn was ignoring his fiancé.

Flynn who had been calmly walking away without wanting to deal with both of them, suddenly stopped in his footsteps.

The youth then turned around, his eyes carrying a hint of confusion in them as he spoke.

"Hmmm… but I'm not obligated to respond to her though" Flynn replied calmly with a slight tilt of his head.

"What?!" Lucas responded with a perplexed expression, a frown now gracing his face too.

"I mean… I never complained about the golem landing on me so I don't really need an explanation as to why that happened" Flynn began.

"And neither do I have any reason to be annoyed. This is an entrance exam after all so stray spells or unexpected collisions are bound to happen" he continued, almost as if he was stating the obvious.

"So yeah. I don't see any reason as to why I should respond to her or even you for that matter…" he concluded in a calm tone.

"Also your shouts Lucas… It sounds like a bleating goat. Very annoying to say the least" Flynn added casually, a deadpan expression on his face. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Lucas who was now unable to say anything at Flynn's sudden words of mockery, just stared at Flynn with an even more perplexed expression.

Amelia however who had been just as shocked as Lucas when Flynn's words hit him like a truckload of TNT, suddenly shook off her shock and was about to say something but she was suddenly interrupted by a localized earthquake that shook the arena immensely.

Following this, the tremors in the arena continuously intensified and even the rankers in the audience who had thought the surprises the entrance exams had put the candidates through was all there was to it but it seemed like they were about to be proven wrong again.

Then, as if no one had expected it, a deafening mechanical roar rang through the destroyed grounds of the arena as the earth beneath the candidates split open to reveal a gargantuan robotic serpent with frosty metallic scales that glistened in the late morning sunlight.

***

(A few minutes before the localized earthquake shook the arena…)

Two youths, a male and a female who had been battling at separate regions of the arena which were fairly close to themselves had run into each other and an unexpected alliance had formed.

Although both youths could perform perfectly well on their own, they had realized that working together made it far easier for them to dispatch a few of the robotic beasts that were left.

Due to their almost flawless teamwork despite just fighting together for the very first time, a good portion of the audience was in awe at how well they were meshing together.

The youths in question were none other than Beatrice Adencia, the crown princess of Arcadia and Bryan White, the sole heir and the next Duke of the White Family.

"Princess. On your left" Bryan calmly said, as he himself used his gauntlet to bash a flaming basilisk's head in.

"Noted Bryan!" Beatrice responded, her footwork causing her to perform a slight twirl on her heels and instantly avoid an arachnoworm's searing net of flame's spell.

She then immediately dashed towards the robotic beast, and in one swift motion, struck her rapier in a piercing downwards motion, puncturing through the metallic worm-like head of the arachnoworm and killing it off in an instant.

Bryan on the other hand, immediately appeared directly behind Beatrice in a stream of light particles with his [Haze], just as an elemental golem was about to fire a beam of condensed flames through its robotic palms.

The youth then positioned himself, stepped his foot firmly onto the ground and launched himself towards the golem while using his weapon art.

"{Dawnbreaker Art – First Form: Bloomburst}!"

Following this, Bryan's gauntlet immediately lighted up and changed to a crimson hue, and collided with the now fired spell of the golem.

The collision of Bryan's fist with the oncoming fired spell, completely obliterated it, along with the arm of the elemental golem that had fired it while leaving a gaping hole in its chest and sending it flying backwards into the air at a rapid speed.

Beatrice on the other hand had her palms outstretched while releasing a destructive blue ball of fire that completely melted two flaming basilisks to mushy goo and was still melting everything currently in its path, a spell she termed [Blazeblue Inferno].

Immediately following this, the young lady with deep red hair discontinued her spell and quickly tuned around to face where Bryan was while using her weapon art in quick succession to summon a gigantic golden head of a dragon.

Its body, which was now in the form of flowing golden wave, launched itself forwards at a rapid speed with a thrust of her rapier and completely decimated two charging rhinobears that was heading towards Bryan in an instant.

"I could've taken them…" Bryan commented while watching Beatrice's weapon art slowly dissipate and revert back to her sharpened and pointed blade of steel.

"I know" Beatrice responded.

"I just wanted to steal your thunder!" she then added with an innocent smile.

"The contrast between your smile and your intent is something I'll never get used to…" Bryan commented with a slight shake of his head.

"Well at least I'm honest with my words. Have you by chance met my brother? He's the master of mischief…" Beatrice replied sarcastically to Bryan's remark.

Before Bryan could even respond to the crown princess of Arcadia's words though, a sudden earthquake began to shake the arena vigorously.

Following this, Beatrice and Bryan, along with the rest of the audience, watched as a mechanical serpent's massive form emerged from the depths of the arena's grounds.

They then watched in bewilderment as the giant robotic serpent, stretched its insane length in rampaging sinuous movements across the arena, instantly eliminating a few of the remaining candidates, it's silvery metallic frosty scales gleaming in the sunlight.

As the massive serpent slithered its robotic body around the arena, it left a trail of ice in its wake and as if trying to let the candidates know that they were absolutely fucked, it let out an exhale of billowing frosty breath onto the grounds, instantly eliminating even more of the few candidates that were left.

Derek's merry voice which had also been eerily silent for the past twenty minutes since the entrance exams had begun, once again, rang through the expanse of the vast arena that was now a few degrees colder.

"Now then survivalis-… -Ahem! I mean candidates! Your lovable announcer has returned, to give you an information of despair!" he announced, almost as if he had been waiting for this very moment.

"If you thought a Frost Serpent was bad enough, just look to the skies!"

"You shall see also see Vipertalons ready to strike!" he added with a delighted tone.

Although quite a good number of people in the audience had also spotted the floating black rectangular structure reintegrating itself back again, most of them had either dismissed its reformation or had been too distracted by the events happening in the arena to care about it.

Now, as they all raised their heads to view the rectangular black box dissipate once again to reveal the flying vipertalons this time, just as Derek had announced, they once again realized that the academy really was sparing no effort to push their wards to their absolute limits.

Amidst a portion of the blue sky that was surrounded by the crystalline dome, large robotic creatures that detailed a hybrid between the body of a hawk and the tail of a snake, glided through the skies in circles, the whirring of their gears humming as their metallic wings sliced through the rush of wind in the atmosphere.

Their metallic feathers, along with their sharpened metallic talons too, gleamed in the sunlight, catching and reflecting the rays of the sun while also casting shadows of their avian-like structures that raced across the expanse of the arena's ground.

"You've all done well to survive till now but this last ten minutes will really test your mettle as aspiring rankers!" Derek suddenly spoke again, almost as if he had given the audience a few minutes to take in the sights of the Vipertalons.

"Will you give up and get disqualified… or… Will you prove your worth and survive till the very end?"

"The choice is yours!"

"Now. Let's really see what you all can do against a monster that we never planned for you guys to win agai-…"

-BAM!!!

A resounding strike rang through the arena, shocking even the audience that was viewing the occurrence before them.

An afterimage of a gigantic large fist had crashed headfirst into the massive serpent with such a devastating force that the massive creature itself had been forced to collide into the ground in an instant, it's gargantuan body creating tremors as it crashed onto the arena's grounds.

As a mix of dust and frost settled, the audience who had been itching to know what had caused these turn of events, watched as the figure of a male youth with shiny jet black hair and deep emerald-green eyes, stand directly in front of the gigantic fallen serpent that was now slowly rising back up.

The youth had a greatsword in his hands and an excited grin on his face and soon enough, everyone recognized that it was Aiden Belmont.

As the audience and even the arena itself was put into pin-drop silence, Aiden's excited voice rang through a good portion of the arena's expanse.

"Derek! You're having way too much fun man! It's a pity that things won't go as you wish though!" Aiden commented loudly.

"Ai-Aiden? Yo?! Bro?! What are you doing messing up my grand spectacle?!" Derek instantly responded to Aiden's comment, almost as if he had known him for the longest time.

"It's not your grand spectacle! It's our entrance exam so start treating it like one, you menace!" Aiden replied as a matter-of-fact.

The audience at this point and even the candidates who were in the arena just listened to their conversations with a genuinely confused expression, almost completely forgetting that they were still in the midst of an exam.

In actuality though, most of the previous robotic monsters that numbered in hundreds had now been whittled down to just a mere few that didn't even number in the tens.

As a result, a lot of candidates had been able to take breathers without them even realizing it.

"Oh and if you thought I was the only one planning to throw a big wrench into your 'grand spectacle', you'd better think again Derek…" Aiden said with a smile, the backdrop of the massively big robotic serpent now fully up and scanning him with its red eyes, almost as if considering him a priority target.

"Because Derek, in your words, I'd also implore you to look up to skies!" Aiden said with his index finger raised up and pointing to the skies.

Following his words, everyone in the audience once again directed their gaze to the skies and this time, even some of them watched in utter bewilderment.

A green aquamarine-colored comet was streaking into the air and across the arena at a phenomenal speed while heading straight for the Vipertalons.

Yes. Just as you had probably guessed.

Flynn Belmont was flying through the air and into skies.

As Aiden watched his brother hurtle into the skies for a few seconds, his gaze averted from it and instead settled back on the giant robotic serpent standing right before him, making he himself look tiny in comparison to the serpent's massive size.

"So, big guy. You're supposed to undefeatable huh…" Aiden voiced calmly, his hands tightly gripping the hilt of his greatsword and a serious expression now on his face, replacing his previously excited one he had.

"Well, we'll see how that plays out…" the youth continued speaking, his legs carrying him in slow, casual yet purposeful steps.

As the youth began walking forward slowly, his greatsword dragging slightly behind him on the ground, he added a few more words.

"Let's tango!"

What? Why are you looking at me like that? It wasn't a cliffhanger was it? In fact, I'm sure it's building your anticipation for the next chapter. (¬‿¬)

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Okay maybe it was a small cliffhanger. Just a little bit.

Caeruleum_