'The only difference between the knockout exams and the awakening test is that most students have advanced to the champion realm which means more abilities, also we allowed to use our weapons…' A grin appeared on his face.

[You forgot about the point about the awakening test being grander.] The system said as all the battles were signaled to start.

​​

"If you intend on fighting me like that you might as well save both our time and surrender..." Luciano said to the trembling auburn-haired girl who was meant to be his opponent.

After waiting for a minute and the auburn-haired girl didn't surrender, Luciano ran out of patience and released a wave of scorching golden flames.

"I surrender!" The auburn-haired girl screamed in fear.

'As expected…' Luciano mind smirked as he walked out of the battleground and returned to Blake's side.

"Seems your psychological tactics are finally paying off." Blake chuckled.

"At first she didn't want to quit but with a little push she gave up..." Luciano said with a smile.

"Well, I guess the first round is to weed out the lower part of the rankings. From the second round upwards the real competition would begin." Luciano nodded to his words.

Just like Blake had said, the first round was very easy especially for those at the top half of the rankings. Castiel and Brian had easily won their matches without Castiel even showing the darkness element.

The number of points one was to gain was dependent on when they were eliminated. That was why those who knew they would lose their match tried as much as possible to last as long as they could.

…

"Not many commoners in the elite class made it into the 2nd round." Principal Lovren said to the image of prince Bryon that appeared above the translucent orb.

"It isn't much, but the numbers are within our range of expectation. Let's see how they fare in the other stages of the competition." Prince Bryon said with an optimistic expression.

"Not all commoners have weapons as good as those used by nobles, so I don't think you should be too optimistic." Principal Lovren replied.

"Don't you think those without good weapons wouldn't have trained for those with…" Prince Bryon chuckled.

"There might have trained for such situations but in reality, there is a very high chance they would still be beaten." Principal Lovren made an unarguable point.

Everyone had their trump cards but what mattered was when and how they used them. Even if we assume that both their trump cards were equal, weapons would undoubtedly give the nobles an edge over the commoners and this put the odds against the commoners.

"We can only see how it goes then." Both Prince Bryon and Principal Lovren turned back to the screens displaying everything happening in the training grounds.

…

To show how easy the first round was, 20 minutes after the start of the exam the first rounds were already up and the students were given a break before the second round began.

Unlike the first round, Blake wasn't lucky to be left out. The numbers were still odd and the person selected to be left out was chosen at random. This time it was Camilla who Blake hadn't talked to in a while.

In the second round, Blake was assigned to battleground No. 14 and his opponent was his former teammate, Esmeralda.

'Seriously! What kind of rotten luck do I have to face the rank 1 on the second round?!' Esmeralda cursed her bad luck.

"We meet again…" Blake said with a smile when he saw the look on her face.

"Don't worry I will make it quick and painless..." Blake said with a grin which sent chills down her spine. He wanted to end it quickly because a lot of eyes were on his battleground

No one had seen Blake in a 1v1 fight against any student, but from what they had seen from the recordings of the survival exercise they knew Blake was a beast.

To make matters worse Blake was the perfect counter for her. She awakened the plant and water elements which were naturally weak against fire and lightning elements respectively.

"Begin!" The professor in charge of the match announced.

Blake wasn't in a rush so he took his time as he brought out Reaper from his dimensional space. Taking off the sheathe, Blake flexed the katana in the air before looking at his opponent.

'Esme Don't get scared, his trying to play mind games. Take a deep breath and calm down…' Esmeralda tried to psyche herself, but it all proved to be useless.

It would have worked if he was against anyone else, but she had seen Blake perform magic with the katana and his skills had been etched into the back of her mind.

"Let's go!" Blake said as he activated lightning reinforcer before dashing towards her.

'Shit!' Esmeralda cursed Blake's speed as thick thorny vines erupted from below and crept around each other forming a sturdy thorny plant wall before she prepared offensive water spells to flank the sides in case he decided to circle the plant wall.

'Hehe…' Blake chuckled as he waved at the plant wall with the lightning infuse Reaper in his hands.

Swish!

The plant wall was immediately turned to shreds as arcs of electricity made their way through the plant wall and to the other side of the wall attacking the shocked Esmeralda.

'So much power!' Although she was shocked by Blake's display of power, as the rank 9 she quickly composed herself and conjured plant vines a water wall that intercepted the arcs of lightning.

Although the water element was naturally weak against the lightning element because it was a conductor, it wasn't that weak as long as the user didn't come in contact with the electrified water.

[End this quickly, you have to conserve energy for the next match.] The system sent Blake a reminder.

"Time to get serious." With the boost from the lightning reinforcement, Blake dashed to the side and launched himself forward with a mini flame burst while charging a flame burst in his left hand.

When he got within range, instead of continuing with the predictable which was to charge on, Blake released two mini flame bursts propelling himself upwards before launching the full charged flame burst at Esmeralda.

"Fuck!" Esmeralda had no idea of why he did that but that was not her greatest concern at the moment because she sensed that the flame hurling towards her packed a punch.

Not holding back anymore, Esmeralda began triple casting as thorny plant vines erupted from below forming a wall and two water barriers appeared in front of her. Unfortunately for her, this was Blake's plan all along.

Boom!

The flame burst crashed into the barriers taking down both the plant wall and one of the water barriers while leaving a cloud of smoke behind which Blake who was in midair took the opportunity of.

Seeing his plan had gone smoothly and the stage for the final strike had been set, Blake released 2 mini flame bursts, and with the help of gravity, he was propelled towards Esmeralda with the speed of a bullet.

"Shit!" Esmeralda cursed when she sensed what was coming, but it was already too late.

When he was meters away from Esmeralda, Blake pumped in more mana to Reaper and pierced through the last water barrier like a hot knife through butter, before making its way through Esmeralda's chest.

Ding!

Before Reaper could come in contact with Esmeralda's top, a golden barrier that prevented the Katan from moving any further covered her.

"Ahhhh!" Esmeralda's scream rang around the battleground as she fell on the ground and started to spasm.

'Strange… I expected the barrier but with the amount of force I use, shouldn't she have been sent flying.' Blake asked as he watched Esmeralda continuously twitch from the effects of the Raiju breathing technique.

[The schools badge has an array that prevents that. What do you think will happen when a strength type beast lands a blow on the student and he/she dies because they collided with an immovable object?] The system explained.

'Hmm… I wonder if I would be able to break it with the space element.' Blake thought as he walked out the battle ground.

"Didn't both of them just triple cast?!"

"Seems we had no chance at all."

Those who were defeated at the first round could only shake their head when they saw the level of powers shown by the rank 1 and 9.