?”She got him!” Aella shouted as the tiger roared.

“Careful!” Arad shouted at Mira as the tiger swung his tail at her. She lifted her hammer and blocked the strike with the shaft.

The impact sent her rolling as the tiger pulled his leg from the ground, regenerating in the blink of an eye.

Mira lifted her head, glancing forward, and saw the tiger charging at her with a bone-chilling roar.

“That hurt!” She growled, lifting her hammer and extending her hand forward, Fire Bolt KA-BOM! A flash of fire rushed toward the tiger’s face, but it charged through unfazed. ^So it won’t work? How about this?^ She jumped to the side Reduce Weight hitting the tiger with the spell, causing it to slide further as it tried to turn after her.

Since the change wasn’t constant, the tiger couldn’t adjust its move accordingly. An intelligent humanoid would’ve already figured it out, but a monster wouldn’t.

The tiger stumbled, trying to get its balance back, but Mira rushed toward him with a hammer swing, “Take another,”

The tiger extended its claws, standing on its hind legs, and dodged Mira’s swing. And then with a roar, it swung a paw at her.

“Healers!” The teacher shouted. Swinging her hand as she flew into the arena. Considering Mira’s speed and durability, the paw strike would drop her down, and the tiger would start mauling her. She pulled a wand, pointing forward.

Till this point, she moved as she has done each year, but something seemed off. A sense of dread washed over her as her eyes opened wide, seeing Arad standing between Mira and the tiger. CLANG! The tiger’s claws smacked into Arad’s forearm and shattered.

^How did he get there?^

The tiger immediately followed with a bite, trying to bite Arad’s arm off but he couldn’t, stuck on it like a kitten doing its best.

“Ar..on?!” Mira gasped, “Sorry, but you might’ve gotten hurt. You can’t regenerate like the others.” He waved his hand, throwing the tiger away.

“Wait?! Did he just shake the tiger away like it’s nothing?” The students gasped, and even the teacher stopped mid-flight.

“AH! No…Is his arm even hurt?” The students started mumbling in shock, unable to believe what they were seeing.

Arad stared at the tiger, “A vicious predator. Your low stance is annoying.” His muscles started expanding, and the vest of his suit ripped open from the back. His pants could barely contain the muscles on his legs as he glared at the tiger.

“Wait… he isn’t about…” The students gasped and the teacher growled, “That idiot.”

BAM! Arad and the tiger charged at each other. One swung its paws and the other his fists, a braw between two monsters.

Like two big cats brawling, the two smacked and rolled everywhere, raising a massive cloud of dust filled with roars, sending terror across the whole colosseum.

CRACK! A second cage appeared in the corner and the teacher gasped, “Damn it, Toro! Stop the shift spell!”

“We can’t!” He shouted back and the cage opened, releasing a massive four-horned red bear into the arena. The shift spell was designed to automatically summon a cage containing a monster into the arena when a new student enters, and now that Arad came in, it brought a monster for him to fight.

“Two at the same time?!” The students gasped.

Arad’s eyes looked back, seeing the bear approaching Mira.

BAM! Arad kicked the tiger away and rushed toward Mira, “Sit still and don’t move!” He shouted.

Mira sat in place and held her sledgehammer close, “Arad, use the hammer,”

“It’ll get in the way,” He replied as he stood over her, cracking his neck.

Mira looked up as she sat right before his legs, “You sure?”

“Yeah,” He looked at the sealing ring in his hand. It limits him to be near a human’s power, but such limitation won’t be able to stop him. He grabbed his vest with two hands and ripped it to shreds, “This is better,”

The students cried, seeing Arad strip his upper half like it was nothing. Some of the girls even hid their faces, crawling down.

“I’ll fall,” Aisha growled as she was sitting on his shoulder this whole time. He grabbed and put her with Mira, cracking his knuckles as he looked at the two monsters, prowling toward him and Mira.

Arad extended a hand toward the monsters, “Come! I dare you lay a hand on my wife.”

“His wife? He’s married!?” The students and teachers gasped. “Was he talking about her earlier?” The teacher remembered Arad’s threat.

The two monsters charged forward, and the bear swung its massive paw at Arad while the tiger tried to hit Mira.

Without moving an inch, Arad blocked the bear’s attack with his arm and pinned the tiger’s head to the ground with his foot. The monsters pulled back to attack again, but Arad swiftly struck their claws down.

“He’s dancing over her.” The students gasped, seeing Mira almost getting stomped by Arad’s legs each second, but barely not getting hit. Even with how fast and how sudden and violent his moves looked, he always moved around Mira, making sure to block and deflect the monsters’ attacks while protecting her.

“This absurd physical might…” the teacher gasped, recognizing those moves.

CLAP! CRACK! Arad slapped the tiger and punched the bear, sending them rolling to the edge of the arena.

“I must be imagining things.” She gasped.

The bear roared, his chest expanding as flame gushed out from his jaw. The tiger managed to stand with lightning crackling from its body, those two were powerful monsters, and physical assault wasn’t their only trick.

“So that’s why my hammer didn’t paralyze him.” Mira gasped, the tiger was resistant to lightning.

Arad took a deep breath, “Don’t move, and close your ears.” He said and Mira immediately closed her eyes.

He took a stance, his arms behind his head as if he carried a sword and the teacher could feel her spine shudder.

^Shoot it, I dare you.^ Alcott said with a smile, standing ahead of her, holding a blade in his hand.

^The healers would fix you, brat,^ She pointed her wand at him, unleashing a massive fireball.

Washed by the red light of the fire, Alcott lifted his sword behind his head.

The teacher blinked, seeing Alcott in Arad’s form, “Don’t tell me!”

“Action Surge: Dragon’s Fire Slasher,” Arad growled with Alcott’s adamantine sword appearing in his palms as the bear breathed a massive blast of fire toward him and Mira.

In the blink of an eye, Arad swung the sword down, parting the flames in one strike.

“Alcott’s moves,” She growled, the wind blast from Arad’s swing pushing her back.

CRACK! The ground beneath Arad’s feet shattered as he lunged forward, his blade burning red from the flames.

ROAR! The tiger roared, cutting Arad’s way and swinging a lightning claw at him. The monster was as fast as lightning, but Arad already expected him. CLAP! The sword sliced straight through the tiger’s neck like a hot knife through butter, burning the wound to prevent regeneration and killing the beast.

CRACK! Arad switched his stance mid-swing, and the ground beneath his foot cracked from the sheer weight of his body accelerating. This was an action surge, not any move.

Arad lunged toward the raging bear, dodged a claw swing, and sliced the monster’s arm with one move.

The bear growled, swinging his second claw as he charged another breath in his lungs, causing his chest to flash bright red.

“Can’t regenerate?” CLANG! Arad dodged the bear’s claw and slicked him across the chest, cutting the lungs open and causing the monster to explode in a massive burst of fire that reached the upper stages.

As the bear’s body exploded, his arm flew across the arena spinning directly toward Mira. She ducked down, covering her head.

CLAP! Arad fell down, stomping the claw to the ground, “Was it a last attempt? No matter how many of you gather, you won’t reach her.”

Mira lifted her head, looking at Arad’s back.

“A…Aron,” She could still remember to use his fake name, “Thank you for saving me, but…they might fail me now.” She stood and Arad turned toward her, confused. “Wait? Really?”

“Yeah…I doubt interfering in other’s matches is allowed, they might even fail you with me.” She looked up as the teacher slowly landed behind Arad.

“She’s right, you shouldn’t have jumped in,” The teacher said, slowly approaching Arad.

“I see,” Arad turned toward her, his eyes glowing purple as he lifted his arm. Gravity magic

In the blink of an eye, he pulled her toward him and lifted her by the neck, “You snails were already jumping in, how do you call yourself a teacher if I reached her before you?”

The teacher struggled, unable to breathe.

“Student Aron, please calm down.” Another teacher flew down, “We only received the notice,” He pulled out a letter.

Arad let the teacher go, and she fell down panting for air. The other teacher approached and showed her the letter. It explains how Mira is pregnant and that she should exempted from any dangerous activity such as fighting monsters. The woman’s husband was Aron, the man standing ahead of them with an angry face.

“Wait! Why did I get this earlier?!” The teacher growled.

“The messenger got stuck on the road. It just arrived,” The other one apologized.

Hearing them argue about it, Arad sighed, staring down at them shirtless with veins bulging on his body. “Next time you put her in harm’s way, I’ll eat you whole,” He glared down at the teacher.

CLACK! Mira smashed Arad’s on the back of his head, “Aron, calm down.” She pulled him by the arm, “Leave her alone for now, let’s talk somewhere else.” She didn’t want him to accidentally reveal his true identity. Threatening to eat someone, only dragons utter such a line.

The teacher remained in place, shivering. She misunderstood Arad’s threat and she could barely hold her body from shaking, “I won’t put her in danger,” She mumbled, fear slowly seeped into her bones as she imagined her fate if Mira was to get hurt.