CHAPTER 315: ARENA (3)

The first pillar collapsed.

Then the second.

Then the rest cascaded one after another—

CRRAAAAAAAAAAASH—!!

The ceiling cracked.

Sand erupted upward like a tidal wave.

And the colossus was crushed beneath tons of falling stone.

Dust swallowed the chamber.

The students regrouped outside the collapse zone, coughing and shaken.

Nathan panted. "D... Did we win?"

Ethan sprawled on the sand. "If we didn’t, I’m retiring."

Seraphina wiped dust off her hair with extreme irritation. "This is a disaster."

Adrian laughed. "We’re alive! That’s good enough!"

Elara stood next to Merlin, eyes softening.

"You guided all of us."

Merlin exhaled.

"I just knew the trick."

She nudged his shoulder lightly.

"You knew more than that."

Before he could answer—

The exam sigil glowed again.

The arena dissolved into light.

The world reformed around them—

Not with sand, not with forest, not with ruins—

but with silence.

An endless, echoing silence.

The kind that swallowed footsteps and held breath hostage.

The team materialized inside a MASSIVE, circular stone chamber—unlike anything they’d seen in the academy’s training systems before. The air was cold, thin, and humming with some kind of harmonic mana vibration that made everyone’s skin prickle.

Nathan shivered.

"...I don’t like this."

Ethan hugged his arms. "Why is it freezing? We just left a desert."

Seraphina’s eyes narrowed. "This isn’t temperature. It’s mana compression."

Dorian scanned the room, red eyes alert. "This place is... old."

Elara stepped beside Merlin, staring forward at the center of the chamber.

There, floating in the middle, was a blue crystal core, rotating slowly, casting long shifting shadows.

Merlin felt something tightening in his chest.

’I remember this. This wasn’t in the early-year exams. This... is new.’

The simulation had inserted something the novel never mentioned.

That alone made the hairs on his neck stand up.

Adrian scratched his head. "So—what are we fighting? The crystal?"

Liliana frowned. "It looks harmless."

Nathan poked Merlin’s shoulder. "Please tell me it’s harmless."

Merlin didn’t answer.

Because the moment Ethan took a single step forward—

The chamber SHOOK.

The crystal brightened.

The shadows on the walls stretched—

twisting—

warping—

until they detached from the surface entirely.

And rose.

Tall.

Massive.

Silent.

Six towering shade golems, each shaped vaguely humanoid, formed out of pure blackness. No eyes, no mouths—just imposing silhouettes with runic markings glowing a ghostly white across their bodies.

Liliana squeaked. "NOPE."

Nathan flinched. "WHY DOES THE SHADOW LOOK LIKE IT HATES US?!"

Ethan raised his sword. "I vote we run."

Seraphina: "We are locked in."

The entry point had vanished.

Merlin stepped forward.

"...These are Shadow Constructs. Pure mana entities. Not physical. Not elemental."

Elara lowered her spear.

"So how do we kill something with no body?"

Merlin exhaled slowly.

"You don’t. You break the core that’s powering them."

Nathan pointed at the floating crystal. "SO WE HIT THAT!"

"Except," Dorian said, "the golems will adjust to block anything approaching the core."

"And they don’t get tired," Seraphina added.

The golems simultaneously lifted their arms—

shadows rippling like living ink.

Then—

They ATTACKED.

The chamber erupted into chaos.

Nathan flipped backward, darkness swirling around his legs to boost speed.

Ethan unleashed a wave of flame—

The golem absorbed it, the fire disappearing into its form without a sound.

Ethan’s jaw dropped. "HEY! That’s cheating!"

Adrian slammed his axe into one—

It passed straight through like slicing fog.

Adrian blinked. "...What the—"

The golem’s counterpunch sent him flying across the floor.

Liliana tried to restrain one with water pressure—

The water vanished inside it like it had never existed.

"This is BAD!" Liliana cried.

Seraphina fired ice darts—

They melted instantly.

Dorian narrowly avoided being sliced in half by a shadow blade. "These things are extremely durable. And very annoying."

Elara leapt in front of Merlin as another golem lunged at him.

"Merlin, focus on the core! I’ll handle this one!"

But as she thrust her spear—

The golem SLID around the attack like liquid darkness.

Merlin’s mind raced.

’They shift their form to avoid damage. They don’t respond to elemental attacks. They don’t respond to physical ones either. They protect the core. They’re barriers, not enemies.’

The crystal pulsed again.

The golems grew larger.

Nathan cursed. "Merlin?? Any bright ideas???"

Merlin looked at the ceiling.

Thin cracks.

Old stone.

Mana lines carved into the walls.

A pattern.

This chamber wasn’t built to test brute strength.

It was built to test perception.

Merlin’s eyes widened.

"Elara!"

She spun back toward him, breathing heavy. "What?!"

"These things aren’t meant to be destroyed—they’re meant to be destabilized!"

"What does that mean?!"

"Interrupt the mana pattern! The chamber’s structure is tied to the core!"

Meaning—

If they couldn’t destroy the guardians...

They’d destroy the room supporting them.

Merlin pointed to the glowing mana lines etched around the walls.

"Everyone! Attack those sigils! If we break the pattern, the core becomes vulnerable!"

Nathan nodded immediately.

"GO, GO, GO!" he shouted.

The team split.

Seraphina froze a mana line instantly, halting its flow.

Liliana blasted another with a high-pressure strike, disrupting the circuit.

Ethan melted a segment with heat.

Adrian simply smashed his with brute force.

Dorian restructured the final sigil with precise, razor-thin ice cuts.

Merlin darted up the wall using wind-assisted steps and slammed his palm onto the highest sigil—

Disrupting the chamber’s entire mana grid.

The core began to flicker violently.

The golems froze in place.

Elara saw the opening.

"MERLIN! NOW!"

He leapt.

Wind swirling.

Space bending.

Lightning arcing.

A full convergence of his affinities.

He reached the core—

And slammed his hand into it.

KRRRRRRAAAAAAACK—!!

The crystal shattered.

The golems evaporated instantly, melting into trails of harmless shadow.

The chamber rumbled—

Then dissolved into blinding white light.

Silence.

A gentle breeze touched their faces.

The white light faded...

And they stood in the academy’s central hall again, surrounded by instructors, instructors’ assistants, and the evaluation staff.

Nathan dropped to his knees.

"I AM NEVER TRUSTING A FLOATING CRYSTAL AGAIN."

Ethan flopped onto the floor. "I think my spine is gone."

Liliana lay on her back. "I want boba tea."

Seraphina dusted her uniform irritably. "We look ridiculous."

Adrian laughed loudly. "That was awesome!"

Dorian, for once, agreed. "It was... satisfying."

Elara stood beside Merlin, cheeks slightly flushed from exertion.

"You always figure it out," she said softly.

Merlin shook his head, amused.

"We always figure it out."

Her smile widened almost too gently. "Yes. We."

A notification ringed through the hall:

[SECOND-YEAR EARLY EXAM — PRACTICAL COMPLETED]

[RESULTS PROCESSING...]

Nathan groaned. "I swear if they don’t give us extra points for trauma—"