The group of them all stood silently, looking at each-other as the tension surged. No-one wanted to make the first move and put themselves at a potential combat disadvantage.

After all, there was still hundreds of students out there remaining to Hunt once this battle was completed, and everyone wanted to win, and go clean up the rest.

The tension remained, all the way until a single leaf fell from above. Just before it touched the ground, chaos erupted.

~BOOOOOOM!~

Zeus was the first to move, launching himself like a meteor toward William's nobles, his Battle Axe in his arms.

Lucian mirrored him, vanishing in a streak of silver, appearing beside Morgana with a slash aimed at her heart.

Miranda disappeared entirely, space twisting in her wake, reappearing behind Albedo with a flick of her wrist, her blade humming with Stellar Paradox, a time-wound spell that could force her opponent's body to rewind a second while their mind moved forward.

Albedo's instincts screamed and he moved, leaving Miranda to only slice through a flickering afterimage, whilst Albedo reappeared a decent range away from her, Havoc raised in Mana-Drain Mode.

A shot fired straight toward her back. Miranda tilted her blade, and the air itself folded around her. The bullet vanished into a different dimension mid-flight.

'Tsk, why did the Author go so overboard with her power,' Albedo thought, quickly unleashing another barrage of attacks.

Meanwhile, behind them, Zeus crashed into William's nobles with all the subtlety of a crashing mountain. His Battle-Axe glowed with molten gold, each swing shattering whatever piece of nature it collided with.

"YOU WANTED A BRAWL?! HERE I AM!!" he roared, slamming one noble into a crater while ducking a spear slash and grabbing the weapon with his bare hand.

"Get off me, maniac!" Kaden Nightstone shouted, raising both hands and casting a spell.

[ Crystal Coffin ]

Ice surged forward, aiming to encase Zeus.

"NOPE!"

Zeus exploded with a flare of fire and lightning, punching through the spell and uppercutting Kaden through a tree.

Elsewhere,

Lira was holding the western line. Her Thunder Lion had grown to the size of a car, lightning arcing across its fangs as it clashed with an enemy beast tamer from William's squad.

"Keep them busy, Leo!" she commanded, launching a barrage of whip-like vines toward a caster.

Veronica was standing beside her, calm as always. Her hands moved in a rhythmic spiral as she activated another spell.

[ Gravity Lock ]

Another one of William's nobles were slammed into the ground, their bodies too heavy to even twitch.

Elara moved behind them, chanting softly, healing Lira's lion while firing bolts of glowing green wind.

"We're holding for now!" Elara shouted, "But they're pushing hard!"

Veronica's eyes narrowed, "We just need to stall until the real monsters settle the rest."

The "real monsters" were living up to their title alright, as Morgana and Lucian were clashing ferociously in a flurry of blade and blood.

"Blood World!" Morgana said coldly, a dome of blood surrounding the two of them and obscuring the battlefield around them.

Then, strands of the blood peeled away and became daggers, all of which sliced to Lucian, each dagger poisonous and corrosive, ready to gnaw away at his skin and flesh.

Lucian immediately began running, dodging the blood daggers while slashing those that were too well placed to dodge.

Morgana grunted and snapped her fingers, calling forth the darkness from Lucian's shadow to trip him, causing him to stumble towards a tree and get struck by one of the daggers in the leg.

"Oh," He quickly gasped, turning his head just before another dagger hit it and deciding to go on the offensive, unleashing a full-force slash that shattered the daggers and the Blood World with a vacuum shockwave.

"I don't do tricks!" Lucian shouted.

Morgana laughed, elegant and wicked, as blood tendrils spiraled up from the ground and tried to bind his arms.

"I do," she whispered and immediately continued using her magic.

[ Blood Bind – Crimson Marionette ]

Lucian's limbs jerked mid-swing, held by the blood she'd splattered on him earlier. He gritted his teeth, muscles bulging as he fought the control. With him under her control for that short moment, she quickly lunged three blood daggers at him.

The first hit him dead on in the stomach, causing a noticeable gash, the second in the knee, but before the third could connect, Lucian's eyes flared with rage.

[ Mana Compression – Pulse Break ]

A wave of pure force exploded from his body, shattering the tendrils. His eyes glowing as he locked in, reappearing behind Morgana with a blade glowing,

She turned just in time, her body slipping into shadow. Lucian's blade cleaved the space where she'd been, leaving behind maniacal laughter as the two of them clashed once more.

Meanwhile, Albedo was still in a deadlock with Miranda. He moved through Fold Steps, weaving and blinking, but every time he pulled the trigger, his pullets would fizzle out.

Miranda's control of time was absurd. She didn't dodge, she just undid. She casted

[ Temporal Reversal ] on space itself, rewinding his shots to the moment before they were fired, causing the bullets to vanish from existence.

While it would cost her alot of Mana, it was night time, and she draw more and more mana from the stars.

This was also why Miranda was titled 'Goddess of the Night' in the Novel, during night-time, even Lucian couldn't handle her, she'd just outlast everyone using her limitless mana pool and various skills.

"You can't beat me with brute force, Albedo," she said, her voice calm and distant, like an echo across centuries.

"I know," he replied, eyes flashing as he unleashed a crescent arc of fire.

The arc was not aimed at her, but at the air behind her.

"You're always just there after your next fold."

Miranda's eyes widened, shocked that he read her spatial pattern so early into their battle. The arc of crimson apocalypse flames seared towards her, and whilst she twisted the moment she sensed it, she was still clipped, a deep burn mark appearing on her skin.

Miranda's foot tapped the earth, activating a pre-cast spell.

[ Chrono Detain ]

Time slowed in a field around Albedo. But he countered instantly. Wrapping himself in Crimson Apocalypse Flames. This fire could burn even concepts, and they were more than enough to protect him from the effects of her time based spells.

Simultaneously, he shifted Ruin into Mana-Drain Mode, firing a siphon round into the sky. The blast pulled from the ambient mana, collapsing her field's effect.

Miranda disappeared again, blinking upward to avoid the next flame attack Her eyes narrowed.

"Impressive."

Across the battlefield, while all of this was happening, William was standing relatively untouched.

All around him, destruction reigned, gravity spells clashing with Zeus' raw punches, Morgana painting crimson across trees, Miranda twisting time and space, but William hadn't lifted a finger yet.

He was simply watching, calculating and waiting.

But now, seeing the appropriate angle, he moved.

[ Absolute Zero – Frost Tyranny ]

The ground around him exploded into permafrost. Spires of jagged ice erupted from the earth, freezing even the ambient mana. The temperature plummeted. Everyone paused as their breath crystallized.

Albedo turned and stared at him as William had stepped into the center of the battlefield.

In a single motion, he raised one hand and released a wave of azure cold that erased a fifty-meter stretch of jungle in a blink.

"Enough," William said. His mana pressure surged and he looked directly at Albedo.

William looked directly at him.

"You've danced enough," he said.

"You gonna fight or give another speech?" Albedo answered, using his Mirage Body to dodge another of Miranda's attacks while stepping towards William.

William raised his hand.

[ Winter's Dominion – Entombment Flash ]

An arctic nova blasted outward, but Albedo leapt onto Ember, who teleported him away with a flaming warp-step.

He reappeared above William, and unleashed ten shots of Infernal bullets from Havoc and Ruin.

But William met each one with a flicker of his hand.

[ Ice Mirror – Reflect ]

The projectiles were absorbed, redirected, and split into beams that exploded around Albedo's position, or rather the position he was previously at, as Albedo had already shifted to a different spot and continued his charge, taking William off guard.

Despite being ready, he was still shocked at how quickly Albedo was able to constantly shift his position and reign fire on him, putting him on the defensive.

At the same time, Zeus charged William then, fists ablaze, screaming, "HIT HARDER, FROSTBITE!"

But William caught the punch. The ground shattered. The shockwave blew away trees. Yet Zeus grinned, happily.

"I needed someone who could take it," he growled.

Their battle shook the clearing with raw force, breaking the earth like it was paper.

Back with the others,

Lira, Veronica, and Elara were struggling.

Kaden had recovered and was using a fortress-like defense, holding them back while all the other nobles of William's group cast wave after wave of support spells.

"Lira, we need to break their line!" Veronica shouted.

"I have an idea," Lira said, climbing atop her Thunder Lion. "Cover me!"

[ Beast Empress – Roaring Cascade ]

Her lion howled, and all of Lira's mana surged into it. A thunderstorm formed above them in an instant. Bolts rained down in a circle, forcing the enemies to scatter.

Veronica used the opening masterfully, creating a sphere of crushing gravity that rolled into the group, collapsing their coordination, which allowed the Thunder Lion's attacks to take them down when paired with Elara's wind blades.

With that group temporarily defeated, they surged forward to rejoin the others, spotting the apocalyptic battlefield.

Trees fallen. Terrain warped. Mana tearing open gashes in the sky. And still, the strongest stood.

Albedo looked relatively unscathed, as he took on Miranda and William. He kept Ruin in Mana-Drain Mode the entire time and made sure not to overdo it, as he needed most of his power for the Abyss attack.

With him present, he had no doubt the Abyss would go overboard with their attack, so he needed to be as ready as possible.

He couldn't just say the Abyss was attacking after all, with no evidence, everyone would look at him like he was crazy since the Monster Scape was said to be secure.

Lucian, Zeus and Morgana were all battling each-other while Veronica, Lira, Dorian and Elara flanked behind.

Veronica, Lira, Dorian, and Elara flanked from behind.

They all knew.

This wasn't the end.

It was just the eye of the storm.