?”It’ll happen a lot. Those who can’t fight monsters better learn.” She smiled, staring back at him. “Each year, tens of students end up at deathbed, but none has died or received lasting injuries.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Arad said with a passive face, lowering his hand.

Gojo approached him and whispered. “You don’t want to fight?”

“I’m afraid Mira would get hurt. She’s even pregnant. I understand that she needs to fight. But not get injured.” Arad replied.

“I’m sure they received the notice about her and Aella being pregnant. They won’t put them in a dangerous fight. Calm down,”

****

With the students sitting in their seats, the fights started. Random students were chosen to fight random monsters ranging from slimes to tigers and horned wolves. This was supposed to simulate the randomness of monster attacks in the wild while still keeping it under control.

The first one to be sent to a fight was Gojo, and his opponent was a medium-blue slime. The poor creature had stats in the single digits and could barely roll into the arena.

Upon seeing Gojo, the slime instantly knew what he was facing and started trying to run away. “You look soft,” Gojo hopped after the slime with a smile, “I’ll catch you!” And chased it for a minute.

“You must subjugate it.” The teacher said. Gojo was already giving the smile names, “Puff? Puddle? No, blue ball sounds nice.” He turned toward her, “Catching monsters should be harder than killing them. You did the same to bring them here,”

“You got a point.” She smiled, “You can get back to your seat, throw the slime back in its cage, and we can use it again.”

Gojo walked to his seat with the slime, ignoring the teacher. She decided to let him have it. A mere slime, what could go wrong?

Jack faced a large brown bear. He took it easily with a wire trap and a few bolts to the chest. The fight only lasted a minute.

Lydia faced a dire Lion. She stood in her place, wedging her sword into the ground in front of her and challenging the monster to charge. “Come!”

The lion hesitated to attack her for five minutes, cautiously approaching her. As he got within three meters, he finally gathered the courage to attack and lunged at her.

Lydia ducked beneath the leap and swung an uppercut at the lion’s chest, knocking him out cold with a single hit.

The students looked at her, terrified. “Paladins, they are powerful.”

Aella was next. As she walked into the arena, she saw a massive snake emerge from the monster cage, slithering toward her at high speed. “A black viper, to send such a monster against students.” She pulled her bow, firing an arrow at the monster’s head.

The sneak dodged and lunged at her with a bite.

She took a step back and fired another arrow, piercing the snake’s head from the inside of his mouth.

“This monster’s poison is deadly,” She stared at the teacher, “You know that.”

The teacher pulled a small potion, “We have several tens of antidots for it. No one would die from a bite,”

Since they were all holding back, Eris walked into the arena only carrying a steel spear. “What is it for me?” She looked at the monster’s cage with a smile.

MOOOOO! A large, three-horned bull rushed toward her as fast as he could. “I’m lucky,” She pointed a finger at him, firing a Firebolt

The small explosion blocked the monster’s vision as he charged forward. Eris planted her spear in the ground and pointed forward, and the monster ended up stabbing his throat, dying from blood loss.

After that came Selica’s turn. She walked into the arena, wrapping her wrists in bandages. “So, what is it for me?” She stared at the cage, her eyes glowing red.

“No weapon at all? Is she a monk?” The students started mumbling when a giant, two-headed bulldog emerged out of the cage, and everyone went silent.

“A lesser cerberus. Where did they get that thing?” They cried.

Selica stared at the monster, smelling a familiar scent on it. She looked back at the students, seeing Sena waving at her with a smile. “You really love messing with me.”

Clenching her fist, she walked toward the monster. “Come, I’ll relieve you as fast as I could.”

The teacher called the other teachers, “Did we catch that thing? I don’t remember it.”

“The monsters were supposed to be random… We too don’t remember that thing.”

The lesser cerberus rushed forward lunging at Selica with a bite.

She jumped to the side and lifted her arm, blocking the coming claw strike. “B-rank monster,” The claws barely scratched her tough skin. “You need a sharp blade, not those dull claws of yours.”

^Looking at it, I’m sure Sena made it from a wolf-type monster. It’ll never reach its true strength without eating and recovering, which means it’s severely weak and starving now.^ Selica turned around and started running around the arena and forced the monster to chase her around.

After about a quarter-hour, the cerberus fell down unable to move from exhaustion, panting his life away. Selica approached him with a smile, sweating buckets from running everywhere. “Humans are persistent hunters. I can sweat and recover stamina and I had a decent meal, you can’t beat me here.” CRACK! She broke the monster’s neck, killing it.

The next student to fight was Mira. She walked to the arena wearing a set of chainmail and holding her massive modified sledgehammer with the lighting magic stone backpack strapped to her back.

“What’s that, an artificer?” The students start mumbling. It didn’t take them long to notice the leather bag on her side. “A storage bag? What is she hiding in there?”

The monster cage opened and a massive tiger walked out, drolling as it roared, sending shivers through everyone who watched.

“A dire tiger?! That’s a B-rank monster.”

Mira took a deep breath, holding her hammer forward and focusing on the tiger’s head. “A big cat,” She started sweating, ^Can I hit it, those things are agile.^

SWOSH! She quickly lowered her hammer to the side and a nail shot from the head toward the tiger with a gun-like burst. The tiger dodged the nail with a jolt, lunging to the side and running toward Mira.

Mira rushed toward the tiger, keeping the hammer low. BANG! BANG! She fired two more nails midrunning, and the tinger dodged by jumping into the air, opening his jaw as he dropped for her head.

Mira shifted her stance in the blink of an eye, holding her hammer with one hand while extending her other hand upward. ^Who do you think my husband is?^ Her eyes flashed with a faint purple light.

Reduce Weight A 0-tier spell that slightly reduces the weight of objects for a temporary time. It’s a gravity-type utility spell.

For a massive creature like the tiger, having its weight reduced even a midjump has allowed it to leap further, missing Mira by a meter. She turned around, and a burst of fire exploded from the back of her hammer to accelerate it further as she swung where the tiger should land.

BANG! Mira hit the tiger’s back leg with the sledgehammer, nailing it to the ground with a lightning discharge from the magic stones on her back.

“Even I can fight!” She growled.