As we crossed the threshold of the central ruins, the lush green of the forest vanished, replaced by jagged obsidian pillars and a sky that had curdled into a bruised, sickly violet. The air was thick enough to chew, saturated with a high-frequency mana that made my teeth ache. On my wrist, the timer was a bleeding red digital countdown, mocking us with every pulse.
[00:30:42]
"We're cutting it close," Kael muttered, his hand hovering inches above the cracked earth as he mapped the vibrations. "The density of the mana here... it's like walking through a Tier-9 domain."
"It's not just mana," Ria added, her dual fans snapping open with a sharp metallic clack. She looked around, her eyes darting nervously. "My Guess Skill is screaming. There's something here that doesn't belong in an entrance exam."
I didn't answer. My eyes were fixed on the center of the clearing, where a lone figure sat atop the crumbled statue of a forgotten god. He had deep black hair with brownish fades at the sides, and spiral black tattoos wound around his hands like serpents. He wore a dark-blue ninja jacket, the high collar framing a face of bored indifference, paired with short combat pants and black, sandal-like socks.
It was Kageno'nenji.
He wasn't fighting. He wasn't scouting. He was just sitting there, perched on the ruins as if he were waiting for a late dinner guest. He looked up, his gaze meeting ours.
"You're late," Kageno said without moving. His voice was smooth, cool, and carried a biting edge of coldness. "I've been waiting here for the past ten minutes. Try to keep up, certainly don't enjoy waiting."
"Kageno'nenji," I said, stepping forward. "I assume you're the one who cleared the Tier-seven patrols on the way in?"
'So this guy was secretly strong enough to handle high-rankers solo', I thought, my respect for him shifting.
Kageno gave off an unreadable vibe, his dark-blue collar perfectly straight, without a single speck of dust on his uniform. "I didn't do it for you Veyron. They were making too much noise. It was distracting. I simply silenced the noise. If that benefited you, consider it a lucky side-effect of my desire for a peaceful afternoon. And you look like you've been through a meat grinder."
"We've been busy," I replied, a small grin tugging at my lips.
"Clearly," Kageno sighed, hopping down from the statue with the fluid grace of a cat. "But your timing is actually perfect. I was about to leave, but the gatekeeper just woke up. And frankly, killing it alone would be... messy. It's not something I can take down on my own."
As if on cue, the ground began to groan. The obsidian pillars didn't just vibrate—they shattered. From the shadows of the central spire, a creature emerged that made the Iron-Hide Behemoths look like house pets.
It was an Abyssal Star-Eater. A Tier-8 Calamity-class demon.
It stood twenty feet tall, its body a nightmare of shifting shadows and armored plates that looked like hardened starlight. Instead of eyes, it had a single, swirling vortex of violet energy in the center of its chest.
[SYSTEM ALERT: CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED.]
[TARGET: ABYSSAL STAR-EATER (TIER-8)]
[PROBABILITY OF SURVIVAL: 12.4%]
"Luka," I hissed, the realization hitting me like a physical blow. "He manually spawned this thing. He's trying to wipe us all out before the timer hits zero."
"A Tier-8 demon?" Kael's face went pale. "In an entry exam? That's attempted murder!"
"It's only murder if we die," Kageno said, finally drawing two black, serrated short-swords. His selfish, cold attitude vanished, replaced by a razor-sharp focus. "Veyron, let's team up. Vinsord, you have the magnetism. Lisbon, you got the steel ability. Sinata, you have the swordsmanship. I have the lethality. If we play solo, we're holograms in thirty seconds. If we team up... I might actually save my ass."
"What's the plan, Oliver?" Ria asked, her fans glowing with a fierce metallic light.
I looked at the Star-Eater as it let out a roar that rippled the very space around it. "We don't aim for the armor. We aim for the Vortex Core. Kael, pin its limbs. Ria, use the Standing Wave logic. Don't hit the plates, hit the joints. Kageno, Sinata, and I will deliver the openings."
"GO!" I roared.
They immediately sprung into separate directions. Kael slammed both palms into the earth. "Magnetic Grave: Absolute Zero!"
Massive magnetic pillars erupted around the Star-Eater's legs. The creature tried to stomp, but the magnetic force acted like a thousand invisible chains, pinning its obsidian hooves to the ground. The demon roared, its vortex chest beginning to glow—it was charging a beam of annihilation.
"Ria, now!" Kael screamed, sweat pouring down his face from the strain.
Ria didn't just throw her fans, she danced. She blurred toward the creature's side, her fans spinning like saws. She breathed in and out . "Standing wave, Harmonic Fracture!"
She timed her strikes so the vibrations of her fans perfectly matched the resonant frequency of the demon's obsidian joints. CRACK.
One of the creature's massive arms buckled, the indestructible plate shattering from the internal vibration.
The demon shrieked, the violet vortex in its chest firing a beam of pure destruction toward Ria.
"Too slow," a voice whispered.
Kageno appeared in front of Ria, his black blades crossing. "Shadow Veil, refraction." He didn't block the beam, he tilted his blades at a precise angle, letting the light slide off the dark mana on his steel. The beam was deflected into a nearby pillar, leveling it instantly.
The Abyssal Star-Eater's beam of annihilation slammed into the obsidian pillar behind them, the explosion sending a shockwave of heat through the clearing. Kageno stood perfectly still, his black blades still crossed in the refraction stance, his dark-blue collar not even fluttering.
Ria let out a breath she'd been holding, her fans snapping shut and then open again in a nervous twitch. She looked at the scorched earth just inches from her boots and then up at Kageno's stoic back.
"Check your nails, Kageno! You almost missed!" Ria teased, though her heart was pounding.
"I never miss, Lisbon" Kageno whispered, his voice like cracking ice. "That beam was calculated to miss by exactly three centimeters. If I had moved any further, I would have wasted two calories of energy and potentially creased my sleeve."
He gave his blades a sharp flick, vibrating the lingering violet mana off the steel.
"Next time, instead of worrying about my manicure, worry about your own positioning. You were standing in my wind-up path. If you do it again, I won't deflect the beam I'll just let it pass through you so I don't have to listen to your commentary." Kageno retorted, already vanishing.
"So cold." She muttered inwardly.
Kageno body blurred as he sprinted towards the creature. He lunged again, jumping to deliver a killing blow. The Star-eater raised it's left large arm attempting to slam him into paste, but Kageno gave a taunting smiled.
"Exchange." He whispered.
In a flicker of shadow, Sinata swapped places with him mid-air. She delivered three precise strikes from different angles, shearing off the demon's left arm and carving a deep wound across its chest before retreating.
I seized the opening. I ran up the side of a falling obsidian pillar, launched myself into the sky, and spun. My boots glowed with the raw mana from the Nebula core. I immediately swung my heels downward hitting the creature's Vortex Core with a drop-kick that carried the full momentum of my Mach-speed flight.
BOOM.
The shockwave cleared the fog for a mile. The Star-eater stumbled, its core flickering and exposed.
"It's open!" I shouted. "Kageno! Now!"
Kageno appeared above the demon, his twin blades glowing with a dark, oily purple light. He looked down at the beast with cold eyes. "Twin fang, soul erasure."
He didn't just cut, he became a whirlwind. A thousand slashes in a single second. The dark mana ate through the demon's remaining armor like acid, reaching the core I had cracked open. The Abyssal Star-Eater let out one final, world-shaking wail before imploding into a sphere of violet light.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: CALAMITY DEFEATED.]
[POINTS AWARDED: 50,000 Ps.]
The silence that followed was deafening. I landed on the ground, my lungs burning, the monster veins slowly receding. Kael collapsed to his knees, gasping. Ria leaned on her fans, her hair a mess but a triumphant grin on her face, while Sinata used her sword to support herself.
Kageno'nenji was the only one standing perfectly. He sheathed his blades and glanced back over his shoulder.
"That was... adequate," Kageno said, though his chest was heaving. "I suppose your teamwork didn't completely offend me."
I checked my wrist.
[00:00:10]
The leaderboard flickered and solidified.
1ST PLACE: Oliver Veyron: 54,500 Ps
2ND PLACE: Kageno'nenji: 32,050 Ps
3RD PLACE: Sinata Leesburg: 12,000 Ps
4TH PLACE: Ria Lisbon: 10,999 Ps
5TH PLACE: Kael Vinsord: 10,200 Ps
"We did it," Ria whispered, her eyes wide as the timer hit zero. "Look at the board... we're the top five."