"Do you think you can give us orders?" Marcus laughed mockingly. They couldn’t even understand how this bastard had managed to last this long.
And yet, he now dared to give them orders too?
This time, Leonis looked directly into his eyes. His expression didn’t change at all.
"No."
He paused briefly.
"You can spend your time arguing with me, or we can finish this exam before the third bell. The choice is yours."
Marcus said nothing for a moment. Kaelen looked at the tower, then at the Fallen, and finally at Leonis.
He made his decision.
"Marcus, hold the western side."
Marcus looked at him in disbelief.
"Kaelen?!"
"What he said makes sense. If we cut off the energy source, this creature won’t be able to heal itself anymore."
"We can buy him twenty seconds," Kaelen said as he raised his sword.
"That’s enough." Leonis nodded.
The Fallen let out a harsh growl and charged toward Kaelen.
Instead of retreating, the silver-haired swordsman made a short movement to get out of the path of its claw and struck the creature’s injured knee.
Bang!
The creature lost its balance for a moment.
Kaelen immediately took another step and struck its shoulder from the right.
The Fallen was forced to move away from the tower to deal with him.
Marcus also joined the fight from the west. His spear struck the creature’s side and blocked its path back.
Leonis took advantage of the opportunity.
[ Lost Moon ]
The flow of Mana in his body changed, and with a short movement, he moved out of the creature’s field of view. However, unlike what Kaelen and Marcus expected, he didn’t attack the base of the tower directly.
He stopped a few meters away and focused his gaze on the source of the corruption. A metal structure could be seen beneath the stone pavement, dividing the flow of energy into several different paths.
The energy coming out of it looked evil and destructive, as if it could swallow and destroy anything.
This was the source of the corruption, something that could turn humans into low-level Fallens without minds or free will, who were forced to follow the orders of higher-level Fallens.
Of course, this was only an extremely weakened version used for testing purposes.
But that didn’t make it any less dangerous.
The energy pressure was also unstable.
Every few seconds, it produced more energy, and then part of that energy moved toward the Fallen.
He studied the flow for a few moments.
"If I hit it when the pressure is at its highest, all the stored energy might be released."
A short distance from the tower, one of the connection routes to the southern shelter was located. If the energy was released in the wrong way, the protective barrier in that area might be damaged.
If one of the shelters’ barriers was damaged because of his timing, he might lose points, and that wasn’t something he wanted to see.
So he had to wait.
Behind him, the sound of swords clashing against claws rang out.
Kaelen was forced to take a step back after a heavy strike, while Marcus attacked from the side and used his spear to stop the Fallen’s movement.
"How much longer?!" Kaelen shouted.
"A few seconds."
Leonis was still watching the node.
The energy increased, the strands of Mana grew brighter, and then the flow began to decrease.
Now.
His sword moved.
[ Silence of Stars ]
His basic understanding of this technique still wasn’t enough to shut down powerful structures, but he also had no intention of destroying the entire node with the skill.
He only wanted to disrupt the flow of the small protective barrier around the connection point for a fraction of a second.
The tip of his blade struck the Mana path. The barrier’s light flickered, and the flow stopped for a moment.
Before it could stabilize again, Leonis stepped forward.
[ Habsburg Swordsmanship ]
One short and precise slash.
Bang!
The blade struck the connection point, and the sound of breaking metal rang out from the base of the tower. The strands of black Mana lit up for a moment.
Then they went out one after another.
In the center of the square, the Fallen raised its head with a loud roar. The flow of energy feeding its body had been cut off.
Its wounds no longer healed.
Kaelen immediately noticed the opportunity.
"Marcus! Now!"
Marcus thrust his spear into the crack in the Fallen’s side armor from the left.
The Fallen turned toward him, but this movement exposed its injured shoulder to Kaelen.
The silver-haired swordsman brought his sword down with all the strength he had left.
Bang!
The bone armor broke, and the blade sank into the creature’s body. The Fallen staggered two steps before falling heavily to the ground.
Silence lasted for a few seconds.
Leonis stood beside the base of the tower. He lowered his sword and looked at the now inactive Mana paths.
It was over.
Or at least, the part they needed to deal with for now was over.
Marcus turned toward him, breathing heavily.
"Did you know from the beginning that we had to destroy that node?"
Leonis looked at him.
"No."
Marcus frowned.
"Then how..."
"When I realized killing that creature wouldn’t solve the problem, I looked for what actually needed to be destroyed."
Then he walked past them. He didn’t wait for praise or try to explain anything else.
Kaelen watched him leave for a few seconds. Then his gaze moved to the Fallen’s corpse and the inactive base of the tower.
Although he and Marcus had delivered the final blows, he fully understood who had created the chance for them to win.
And that truth... wasn’t pleasant for someone who had always been known as the best ordinary student. But he couldn’t deny it.
Dong!
The tower’s third bell rang. The blue light of the city’s formations spread across the sky, and Celine Ardent’s voice came through the speakers.
"The first stage of the exam has ended. All candidates must return to the exit area through the marked routes."
Leonis glanced at the tower, then put his sword back into its sheath.
The first stage was over. Of course, this had only been a basic exam.
In the observation room, Celine was reviewing the final images of the battle once again. One of the screens showed Kaelen and Marcus defeating the huge Fallen.
However, another image showed that Leonis had disabled the Mana transfer node before that.
She watched his movements for a few seconds.
The boy hadn’t killed the most Fallens, nor had he delivered the most powerful attack. But at the critical moment, he had found the real source of the problem and destroyed it while using very little energy.
More importantly, he had waited for the Mana pressure to decrease before acting. This meant that even in such a dangerous situation, he had considered the possible consequences of his strike.
"Level One... F-Rank Talent," Celine murmured quietly.
One of the exam officials standing beside her said,
"I didn’t expect the last Habsburg to get such a result."
She didn’t take her eyes off the screen.
"The fact that we didn’t expect it doesn’t make his performance any less valuable."
Then she opened the score records.
"Announce the results."
A few minutes later, all the students had gathered in the main area. The large screen above the central platform lit up.
The sound of conversations slowly faded away.
[ First Stage Results — Avalon Exorcist License Exam ]
[ First Place: Leonis Habsburg ]
[ Highest Score in Decision-Making and Crisis Management ]
[ Second Place: Kaelen Roth ]
[ Outstanding Performance in Combat and Leadership ]
[ Third Place: Marcus Vane ]
[ Outstanding Performance in Route Control and Tactics ]
Absolute silence lasted for a few seconds.
Then whispers began to spread.
"Leonis Habsburg?"
"The one with the F-Rank Talent?"
"Impossible! Both Kaelen and Marcus are stronger than him!"
"But they were there on the battlefield themselves. I heard he was the one who found the source of the corruption."
Among the spectators, Rhea stood up for a moment, her gaze fixed on the name in first place.
Leonis.
The same boy who, just a few days ago, had struggled to last more than a few exchanges when fighting her had now taken first place in the first stage of the exam.
An involuntary sense of pride rose in her heart, but it was soon replaced by a more complicated feeling.
She had argued with him last night, and the last thing she had told him was that she didn’t need his help.
She slowly sat back down and pressed her lips together.
"I really was an idiot..."
In the teachers’ seats, Evangeline looked at the screen with a small smile. Unlike most of the people present, she wasn’t very surprised by the result.
She knew better than anyone what her disciple had learned over the past few days. However, what made her happier than the result itself was how he had achieved it.
Leonis had done exactly what she had taught him: survive, observe, and choose the right moment to act.
"Well done, my little disciple," the woman murmured.
At the same time, Celine still hadn’t left the observation room. One of the screens beside her showed a brief fluctuation in the city’s Mana flow.
The woman enlarged the image.
At the exact moment the corruption source beneath the tower stopped working, a very weak flow of black Mana had moved in the opposite direction for a fraction of a second.
This didn’t match the city’s testing system.
She frowned slightly.
"What is this?"
The official beside her checked the data.
"It’s probably a remaining fluctuation caused by the source shutting down. The main barrier is completely intact."
Celine looked at the graph for a few seconds, then closed the file.
"Send the report for a full investigation."
"Should we stop the second stage of the exam?"
"We still have no evidence of any real danger, but until the source of the fluctuation is identified, the network must be monitored more carefully."
The official nodded.
Then she took one last look at the inactive tower and left the room. Two hours of rest had been scheduled between the two stages of the exam.
After receiving his result, Leonis planned to return to the waiting room and check how much Mana he had left.
Although he had deliberately avoided using a large part of his power during the exam, several real battles and the use of different skills had still consumed energy.
He had no intention of starting the second stage with an insufficient Mana reserve.