The other students one by one arrived at the scene. Anakin gritted his teeth, realizing there was no point in rus.h.i.+ng to Claire when almost all of the examinees were just on the same level now as them. And that's because they stalled on the fire element, Ignis. Anakin took a deep breath. He shouldn't get fl.u.s.tered. After all, . . .

He didn't need to defeat Ignis.

The fire monster then began to throw multiple b.a.l.l.s of fire at random. Students who weren't able to dodge screamed in pain until a magical circle appeared below them, transporting them back to the academy. The fires were THAT strong to make their mana deplete just in a matter of seconds.

"Some are already failing!"

"No! Get away! Fire ball! Augue!" 

Anakin's eyes widened. Did an examinee just use a fire spell to a fire element? 

The fire spell conjured by the student flared and had hit directly onto the monster's face. The fire spell enveloped the monster itself as it began to devour the conjured flames. 

Faustina—trailing behind—barely seen this spectacle from the distance. Although quite a bit far away, she could see the large flame monster, Ignis, devouring a lighter-color ardor. A magical hex slowly spread towards Ignis' body, like a nerve of light reaching to the ends of his fingertips. The fire began to grow more rampant in Ignis' body. 

It roared with a howl ridden with vigor, spreading fire along its paths. Soon the dim, gloomy horizon was yet tinged again with a red flame. The examinees began to conjure water spells, and it seemed to be working.

"Heh, thanks for that!" Anakin Disfiegro snorted, advancing to the race as he escaped from Ignis.

"What?! He's using us!" 

"He's going forward while we're satiating Ignis!"

Faustina thinned her lips. Of course; that was the most logical thing to do. There was no need to engage in battle. 

Claire gritted her teeth as she conjured water magic and began to continuously cast it into Ignis. The water magic touching Ignis' flaming body imposed steam. The smoke and the fog from the steam lowered the visibility of the paths, evoking throes from the examinees.

The spell Lumos would do nothing to the steam. Faustina ambled forward, seeing only silhouettes of the examinees as she pa.s.sed by.

And then . . .

"Urrghhhh . . ."

Faustina stopped shortly as she heard that sound. What was that? 'Urgh'? The voice sounded low, but it sent s.h.i.+vers down her spine. And then that's when Faustina remembered that the 'ghosts' have been unleashed. 

Before Faustina could even take another step, the steam in front of her dispersed, revealing a woman wearing a white dress, semi-transparent and pale. The woman's appearance was disturbing; she had long, dark hair covering her whole face and she was floating mid-air. Faustina's heartbeat sped up in response to the woman's sudden appearance. 

'Black hair?' Faustina thought.

"GYAAA!"

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"AHHH!!!"

Magical hexes began to appear one after another. Faustina cowered in fear as she began to take several steps away from the floating woman, who wasn't taking chances at all. The woman began to advance towards Faustina, sending her running in the opposite direction.

Faustina tightened the grip around her staff. She turned to the ghost, but before she could even cast a spell, Claire's blinding Lumos made the ghost disappear as it unleashed an ominous, lurid shriek.

Claire met Faustina's eyes, but only for a brief instant before she disappeared.

"Claire's moving forward!"

"Is Ignis dead?!"

"I don't know, but we have to go!"

Faustina trailed behind the other examinees, running to the course of the race. She stared at her staff. Right now, she couldn't rely on magic. The last time she used it, it went out of control. There are still more tests. At this moment, all Faustina could do is to run until she gets into the finish line. There's no time limit, and there's no limit on the slots. All they had to do is to cross that finish line to pa.s.s.

Meaning the biggest concern would be . . .

"The student's durability." Says Professor Mariam as her eyes darted to the grey-haired girl behind everyone else.

"That one isn't using her magic." Professor Ramsha asks timidly. "Is it because it went out of control earlier?"

Professor Mariam simply narrowed her gaze to Faustina.

"Well~ the race requires you to use your power, whether you like it or not." Professor Yusha addressed. "But then what are the odds? If she could go without using it by drowning herself with the ma.s.ses, it could work."

"IF there are what you can call the ma.s.ses." A dwarf professor said whilst caressing his beard. His eyebrows were covering his eyes, which makes it imperceptible what projection he was looking at. Nonetheless, he was still mult.i.tasking; watching the examinees and grading them at his journal at the same time. 

"The point of this race is to scatter the students and individually a.s.sess their capabilities. That is the job of the ghosts. The elemental monsters are meant to divide their teams or break them up. In that way, we can see who is that mage that can outs.h.i.+ne the others. That way, we can grade them to determine which Ianua suits them best."

Faustina heaved as the last examinee she was seeing advanced forward, leaving her behind everybody else.

"For instance, that girl." The dwarf professor a.s.serted, pointing at the projection of Faustina who was alone and was way behind every examinee. "She's not going to pa.s.s with what kind of performance she's givin'. What was her name? I'm already giving her zero points."

"Me too. Zero points."

"Zero."

"Nil."

"Zippo~ tee-hee. This one would either fail or go to Ianua VI~"

"What about you, Mariam?" Asks Professor Ramsha, who was beside Mariam, the Dark Arts Professor. "What points are you giving her?"

Professor Mariam gave no response, her gaze fixated to Faustina. 

"We'll see."