For a moment, the entire room felt frozen in time.

Everyone had heard it, the sharp, explosive crack of a powerful lightning spell. The air itself trembled as the echo faded.

The ranked students hadn't yet stepped into the portal. Only they and the transfer students remained at the tail end of the group.

Heads snapped around toward the sound, eyes wide. All they could see was Raze's back as he calmly extended his hand forward.

A faint shimmer of dispersed mana floated in the air above them.

What was that just now? Am I seeing this right? Panla thought, her heart skipping a beat.

She had already been on high alert ever since the earlier incident, watching more carefully than usual. But even so, she hadn't expected an actual attack, not this sudden, not from someone like him.

Panla was too far away to intervene, but she wasn't the only one reacting. One person had managed to respond in time.

Somehow, the transfer student, Raze, had not only sensed the attack coming but had also reacted before anyone else could move.

And yet, that still wasn't the most shocking part.

What stunned them all was how effortlessly he had stopped it.

Raze had reached out with his bare hand and blocked it.

A thunder strike, one of the fastest forms of elemental magic, had been reduced to nothing more than a wisp of dissipated mana. It wasn't just that he had blocked it… it looked as if he had crushed the spell entirely with his palm.

Did he use some kind of hidden spell to counter it? Panla wondered. Even if he did… Bronto is a Six-Star Mage. To stop his lightning like that, with nothing more than a flick of the wrist,

Her train of thought was interrupted by something more urgent:

What was Raze going to do now?

"What… did you just try to do?" Raze asked calmly, though his tone carried the weight of a storm.

Bronto, still frozen in place with his hand extended, couldn't even deny it. The guilt was all over his face. He had launched the attack, and now, he was caught.

"Wait… did that guy just try to attack Safa?" Chiba blurted, his voice laced with disbelief.

"Quiet," Yolden whispered, eyes darting nervously. "You've seen his temper already. Calling him 'that guy' is just asking for trouble."

"Everyone stay alert," Piba added, glancing between the teachers and the guild members. "I honestly don't know what's about to happen, but if he loses it… not even the staff might be able to stop him."

"Haha! It was just a little test," Bronto said with forced laughter. "Like I told you all before, you have to be ready for attacks from any direction. Looks like you're alert, good job. You'll need that inside the dimension."

"Hey! What the heck, did that guy just try to attack Safa?!" Liam shouted, running over to her side. He was surprised to see that she was completely unharmed, not a single burn or scratch. Raze had blocked everything.

"Calm down," one of the guild members said, stepping in. "No one else is hurt, and you students need to stop acting like you can do something here. Just go into the portal and enjoy your outing. That's all you're supposed to do."

"If you keep escalating this, then we'll be forced to act."

Bronto looked like he was about to speak again, but there was a reason he hesitated.

Raze's stare.

It hadn't left him once.

And it was fiercer now than ever, sharp enough to cut through steel.

Bronto could feel it pressing on him, and it shut his throat before he could make a sound.

"I'm waiting," Raze said, his voice deadly calm. "Waiting for an answer that doesn't make me rip your whole body apart, limb from limb."

The room went still.

Even the ranked students, who had held their ground until now, shifted nervously. No one expected Raze to respond like that.

"Hey," Chiba whispered. "Maybe we should, you know… just head into the portal now?"

"I get where Raze is coming from," another student replied. "He didn't start this. But you gotta know when to win… and when to walk away."

Among the ranked students, one still hadn't stepped into the portal: Londo.

He stared at Raze in silence.

Is he seriously about to act here? If he uses that type of magic… he'll expose himself. And if he thinks I'm going to help him, he's completely wrong.

Then,

"Wait!" Panla shouted, stepping forward and placing herself between the students and the two powerful figures.

"Bronto, you've gone too far this time," she said, trying to steady her voice. "These are students we're talking about, and there's no reason for this situation to get any worse than it already has. Let's leave it at that, enter the portal, and move on, please."

Bronto finally lowered his hand and let out an exaggerated shrug.

"Miss, I think you've got it wrong," he said. "I have no intention of fighting anyone. The one you should be calming down is him."

Panla didn't want to turn around. She didn't need to. Even without facing him, she could feel it.

Raze's mana was swirling, dense and volatile like a storm waiting to break free.

And there was something else.

Another pressure, an unfamiliar energy, pressing against her back like an invisible force. Something not even she could identify.

"Raze… I'll make it up to you," Panla said quietly. "Let's just leave it at this."

Words she never thought she'd say, especially not to a student.

Especially not one who hadn't even been the target.

But she could feel the truth: Raze wasn't someone she wanted to test.

And then, another figure stepped up beside him.

It was Dame.

With a small smile and calm defiance, he said:

"If you want to burn this whole place to the ground… I've got your back."

****

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