Chapter 157 - Rank 1 Retained

"Oh no you don't."

Esna Flicked her fingers and the beam that was about to collide with his sword, changed direction and went around his sword.

The beam hit his defenseless chest and despite being small, the force behind it was enough to send him flying once again.

**CCRACK!!!

A loud cracking sound rang out, making the spectators realize that Esna had broken one of Juan's sacrificial artifacts.

"Ah! How many artifacts was it again?"

Esna asked herself as she checked the amount of sacrificial artifacts she had on her, completely ignoring her opponent who was getting to his feet and strengthening himself with magic.

"Three huh? Therefore, he has two more. Good."

While she was doing this, Juan was charging towards her, sword in one hand, and the other hand was outstretched in her direction.

"Flame Lance Barrage."

Multiple spears of condensed flames manifested in the air and shot forward in Esna's direction. She looked up and counted the number of spears before pouring magic power into her legs and leaping backwards.

Not intending to let her escape, Juan jumped forward, intending to catch up to her.

"Trap Magic: Bind Vines."

As she spoke, a magic circle appeared on the spot where Juan's foot landed, causing vines to spring up from the ground and entangle his foot.

The sudden eruption of vines from the ground caused him to lose his balance and almost fall, however he regained it almost immediately and attempted to continue his chase.

He looked up to see Esna slam both her palms on the ground and cry out in a loud voice.

"Surging Waves!"

The ground in front of her cracked open and a flood of water surged forward and crashed into the flame lances that Juan had released, causing them to dissipate instantly.

The flood of water then went on to crash into Juan, however he was prepared this time. He disabled his body strengthening magic and switched to aura. He then coated his body with aura, using a technique that could be called the aura version of Esna's 'Mana Skin'.

His flame attributed sword changed into an aura blade and he fearlessly charged into the surging flood of water.

This action caused Esna to be slightly surprised and delayed her reaction long enough for him to kick off the ground with enough force to reach her instantly.

"Tch..."

"Aura Slash."

The same time Esna clicked her tongue, Juan swung his word downwards with so much force that it looked like he wanted to split her in two.

He did this while releasing an aura slash filled with his hot fiery aura.

'I have to take the risk!'

Esna resolved herself and shifted her body to the right, causing his sword to miss her head narrowly and land on her left shoulder.

However this was a sword slash that had enough force to cleave her body in two, there was no way she was going to come out unscathed.

**CCRACK!!!

She heard the sound of her sacrificial artifact breaking but paid it no mind as she clenched her right fist and filled it with a large amount of magic.

Surrounding her fist with even more mana, she punched towards Juan's head while shouting out loud.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

"Guh?!"

Due to their close proximity, Juan's ears received the full brunt of her shout, which was actually a sound magic that disoriented those who heard it.

Receiving the full brunt of this caused him to loosen his grip on his sword in an instinctive reaction to cover his ears with his hands but he held on to it with force of will and poured more aura into the blade, intending to release another aura skill.

However, Esna's fist met his face before he could do so.

**BAM!!!

The enormous amount of magic surrounding her fist exploded in his face, and the force of her punch sent him flying in the air.

**CCRACK!!!

His second sacrificial artifact shattered as he flew a few dozen meters before landing on the uneven ground.

Luckily, he did not receive much in the way of secondary damage as his body was protected by his aura coat.

However, the coat of aura around his head was destroyed by the explosion of magic that occurred the moment Esna's fist met his face.

"Medicine Magic: Basic Checkup."

Meanwhile, Esna was checking the damage she received and realized that she had fractured her left clavicle (collarbone). The bones in her left leg also had multiple cracks running through them, causing her to feel pain just by standing in place.

There was also a small crater on the ground and her mana skin was nullified too.

'Gotta end this quick, my magic is running low but he still has aura left.'

With those thoughts, Esna applied first aid magic to herself and rose her right hand to cast a two spells.

"Water ball."

"Triplet Magic: Chain Lightning."

The barely conscious Juan who was on the ground, was unable to defend against the water ball that manifested above his head and dropped on him.

And if he could not block the water ball, then there was definitely nothing he could do against the lightning that came afterwards.

Triplet Magic enabled one to create three of the same object from a spell without needing to cast the spell again.

This meant that there was neither one nor two, but three chain lightning spells heading straight for Juan.

A net of lightning instantly covered dozens of meters with speed that a fully conscious Juan would have been unable to dodge. 

Just the power of one stream of lightning was enough to fry a person. Juan's only way of defending was to coat his body with aura, however even that aura coat was deactivated, as he was not conscious enough to maintain it.

As such, he was hit with the full effects of the chain lightning, and as his body was still wet due to the water ball from earlier, the effects were amplified.

**CCRACK!!

The second his last sacrificial artifact shattered, the instructor standing by flexed his fingers and Esna's magic was forcefully deactivated.

"That's the end! Winner; Esna Wood!"

He shouted out loud, causing the stunned spectators to burst out in cheers. Majority of those watching did not really care who won, they just came to see a fight.

Their cheers overshadowed the cursing and angry shouts of those who wished for Juan to defeat Esna.

Esna on the other hand, sighed in relief and dropped to the ground. She then felt a warm sensation as green colored mana enveloped her body.

She cranked her head up and saw the instructor standing in the middle of the arena with both hands outstretched towards her and Juan.

In less than a minute, her physical injuries and exhaustion were all healed but her magic was not recovered.

'So this is the healing power of a transcendent who has stepped onto the path of comprehending the law of life.'

She thought this as she remembered the bio of the instructor that Arthur gave her to read just days after she had been admitted into the academy.

"I've healed both of you so...hmm?"

The instructor was about to give them instructions but noticed that Juan was now fully unconscious and sighed before turning to Esna.

"You can handle yourself right? I'd take him to the infirmary."

He walked over to Juan and picked him up before turning to Esna and continuing.

"Congratulations."

He then activated teleportation magic as a 5 ringed magic circle appeared underneath his feet. A bright light wrapped around him and in the next moment, he was gone.

Esna got up to her feet and looked around at the arena where some of the spectators were still cheering for her.

She smiled at them and was about to wave before hearing a familiar voice coming from behind her.

"Told you she would not disappoint."

She hurriedly turned around and saw the same silver haired boy who was the reason she was in the academy, walking over with three people beside him.

One was a dark haired girl with indigo purple eyes that looked like they were sparkling, beside her was another girl with long dark hair and almond shaped green eyes.

The third person with him was a boy with long brown hair that was tied into a ponytail and blue eyes.

Esna searched her memory palace for their identities and instantly recalled who they were. The shouts of some of the spectators that noticed them too confirmed her thoughts.

"Hey! Those are the top ranked third years!"

"First through fourth in the entire third year!"

"Is that Lord Castillo?!!"

"Lady Eryrth is there too!!!!"

"Your highness, look at me!!!!"

She face palmed hearing some of the weirder exclamations and spoke up to Arthur who was waving at his fans who were calling out to him.

"What brings you here Arthur? Came to look at the result of your handiwork?"

Her causal addressing of Arthur caused Edward who was blowing kisses to some of his female admirers in the audience to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"Huh? You two know each other?"