Steady, steady.

Alice reminded herself as she stared into the scope, on a balcony overlooking an impossibly long alleyway. Shooting moving targets was one thing, not hitting allies was another. A lesson she had learned the hard way as the lowered ‘surviving members’ bonus reminded her after every completed phase. The 3 remaining members of her group were currently desperately trying to hold back a pack of viper like monsters which Alice recognised but couldn’t quite remember the names of. Their tails ended in talon-like stingers likely filled with venom.

Thankfully their assigned healer was some sort of apothecary specialised in using and curing poisons or other toxic substances. According to her other team members, his other healing abilities were not bad at all either which made Alice realise her references when it came to healing magic were a bit skewed. Healing magic was relatively rare in the first place so she had never witnessed it first hand in her youth and Minet’s ‘Cure every ailment with the wave of a hand and a shy smile’ was not apparently the standard for second or even most third tiers.

Steady, steady.

Alice repeated to herself. Her target was not among the regular vipers but their leader. A third tier monster skulking at the edge of the combat and quite unfortunately, also directly between Alice and her teammates. If she were to miss, it would likely result in another friendly fire casualty and if she were to first fire at the other monsters it would lose her the opportunity to finish the biggest threat in one shot. And so she waited.

Step by step, her allies were pushed back, losing their ground. The vipers were not decreasing in numbers as they carefully chipped away at the group, one lunge and retreat at a time. It would not take long for death of thousand cuts to arrive, perhaps it already would have had it not been for the healer desperately fighting the venoms and even tapping into blood magic just to keep the group alive. They were on their wit’s end, about to crumble. Alice could clearly see that all the way from her position and that meant the monster could too.

Steady, steady… fire!

The monster lunged forth and Alice saw it coming before even its movement properly began. Her eyes could see the movement of the muscles, and her mind could feel the shift in magic that allowed it to move at extreme speeds. And so she fired exactly into the spot where the monster would be. With all her effort and magic woven into the bullet, it arrived in no more than an instant. Under other circumstances, the large viper might have been able to avoid fatal damage by trying to dodge or by slowing the bullet down through an instinctive burst of the raw magic dwelling inside its body. But when the magical projectile arrived close enough to be sensed, the beast was already in the air mid-lunge and focused on its attack.

Through space magic Alice minimalized friction and through time magic she accelerated the bullet. She herself was not exactly sure why but hastening the passage of time inside an object seemed to be infinitely easier while it was moving at extreme speed and even accelerated the object further. Unobstructed, the bullet pierced into the viper’s head and exploded. Supercharged by magic, the enchanted lead could no longer bear the strain of both the magic inside and the potent blood engulfing it. Despite that there were very few signs of an explosion as the mostly intact corpse flew barely past Alice’s allies, its untimely death stopping it from finishing its attack. Although its brain was turned to paste, the scales withstood the shrapnel.

Before anyone even had the time to be startled about the flying corpse, the sound of Alice’s shot finally arrived and surprised them instead. Even at the distance, it was still a high calibre rifle and the sudden sound shook the already anxious fighters while the monsters also hesitated as they sensed the unknown danger. However, by then it was too late for the monsters as another one received a bullet into the head. Its scales were not quite as durable as the third tiers, so a significant portion of the viper-like monster was actually shredded into bloody smithereens by the overcharged lead.

The booming sound arrived much faster after the second bullet as Alice rapidly loaded the third. She had not bothered with time magic for that extra bit of speed. Using time magic in the second tier was extraordinarily difficult even for her despite the small scale. She could prepare it when waiting for the right moment to strike but not while shooting as fast as possible. By the time her third bullet hit, both her team members and the vipers managed to regain their composure and resume fighting but with Alice’s support, the monsters no longer stood a chance.

[Section 4/5 complete]

The announcement appeared and Alice quickly put the rifle on her shoulder. This particular phase allowed them brief respite between each section so she could go meet with her team and listen to their plan. With a wave of her hand, a tear through space began to manifest in front of her. Instantaneous jumps were still a bit too costly to use in situations where a tear would suffice, so Alice did not mind waiting for a few seconds while she contemplated the strangeness of the space within that realm.

At first, she had thought that the magic of the realm was surprisingly thin. No ambient mana nor the usual background noise caused by the presence of living beings. It was as though the entire place was utterly desolate and lifeless but she didn’t complain as that made her magic in particular easier to use. But as the stage numbers increased, Alice noticed that something wasn’t quite right about her original observation. The intensity of ambient magic just kept increasing and soon enough Alice began to feel the source: A magical being or item of colossal power, far away in the distance. Even though they were transported all around the place during the phases, Alice was certain that they were being brought closer and closer each time. There had to be something incredible in the centre.

Either way, there was no point in thinking too much about it. If her hypothesis was right, she was going to see it with her own eyes soon enough. The tear finally stabilised and Alice stepped through, appearing right in front of her sorry-looking companions. There were holes in their clothes and bloody scars from the stingers beneath them. It was only thanks to their healer that their wounds were no longer profusely bleeding.

“What took you so long to start shooting, girl?!” it was a red-headed woman who shouted at her and Alice had to suppress a surge of anger as she looked at the grunt's face. That girl was the main reason why Alice was so passive and didn’t even try to join the planning or leadership: Alice did not believe that she would be capable of not snapping at the girl with fury if they ended in a dialogue with her. That much hatred was of course not caused just by that arrogance and short temper but instead by her identity.

“Lady Beatrice,” the apothecary politely tried to defuse the situation and pointed at the corpse of the third tier serpent “Look over there. She had been likely trying to pick off that thing first.”

“She didn’t have to wait for me to get hurt!” Beatrice exclaimed and looked over her wounds, as furious as always.

“Shut up, bitch,” the last party member cursed, sitting on his humongous tower shield. His face was hidden beneath the helmet of his ebony plate mail, though even the metal armour had various holes left behind by the viper attacks. The man was rather brutish but Alice had to admit he was very capable, not relenting no matter how many blows he took. Though she definitely didn’t need to see him devour raw monster flesh on multiple occasions. His helmet even had a removable guard just for his mouth!

“You dare?!” once again, Beatrice’s outrage sparked as she chugged a ball of flames at their party member. The thing flew right past his head but the man did not even flinch, in fact, he was no longer even looking at Beatrice but appeared to be eyeing one of the few vipers that were not torn to shreds by Alice’s bullets, “I am the noble daughter of Marquess Bearhide!” she kept shouting as her spell made a slight explosion in the distance.

Alice’s eyes flickered when she was once again reminded of that noble house’s name. The house she had vowed to take revenge on for the merciless massacre of her home village. The very house that made her accept Irwyn’s offer and ended up also being the reason she killed a man in a fit of rage. And a daughter of that very house was standing right in front of her, acting all mighty and arrogant.

With a deep breath, Alice fixed her expression and recovered her calm of mind. When she came to realise who Beatrice was, her first idea was to strangle the scion with her own intestines. But some of Irwyn’s calculative pragmatism must have rubbed off on to Alice as she took control of that rage before it flared into a murder. She realised that killing Beatrice here would achieve nothing, not even her death. It would only alert the Bearhide mansion that there is an unknown enemy somewhere out there.

Instead, she would do everything she could to help Beatrice pass the examination. Because the moment Beatrice stepped into the Academy, Irwyn would be able in the position to somehow ensnare her. That was the term of his deal with Alice after all. Loyalty for revenge. And Alice firmly believed that there was no escape from within Irwyn’s grasp, be it ally or foe.

“Ouch,” Alice suddenly felt a pinch at her heel. She looked down and her eyes widened in horror. There was a thin and seemingly unremarkable green snake biting down on her feet. There should have been a grace period between segments and Alice had dropped her guard, allowing the thing to get close enough and attack unnoticed.

Alice was utterly dumbfounded for a moment, not understanding how the thing could have appeared there but then it clicked: The ball of flame sent by Beatrice must have triggered the next stage. She wanted to shout out, only to realise her mouth refused to move. Her mind was already slowing down, affected by the venom, but she clearly understood that she needed quick help from the apothecary, therefore she need to alert her team members. She attempted to use her magic only to realise with horror the poison was not mainly suppressing her muscles but her mana. Her years of training and experience seemingly disappeared in a few moments as no matter how hard she called, her magic would not answer. So her next best idea was to collapse to the ground by using the last few muscles that were not paralyzed stiff by the venom.

“SSSSSSS” Perhaps it would have worked were it not for the somehow almost deafening hiss coming from the opposite direction. It perfectly diverted everyone’s attention away from Alice and even muffled the thud of her fall to the ground.

“Shit, get r..dy!” the brute jumped up and shouted, as Alice’s vision began to blur. A burst of debilitating pain began to surge from the sting as the rest of her party shouted something, though Alice could no longer perceive the words. It was ironic, to be dying of toxins with a specialist in treating them right by her side. To be ambushed when she herself often relied on ambushes. She once again tried to scream, this time from the numbingly potent pain but her lungs refused. Her vision blurred until everything merged into a shapeless blue and grey mess while her brain found it harder and harder to operate. Her vision turned dark and the pain slowly faded as her body was too damaged to even perceive it, until finally, she stopped feeling anything at all and her mind returned to that ebony nothingness between stages.

[You have died during stage 60; calculating]

[Overall scores: Completion: 4012/4012; Surviving members: 3477/4012; Bonus objectives 3530/4012; Contribution 2312/4012; Final score: 13331/16048]

For a brief moment, the clarity of her mind returned as she could almost hear Irwyn lecture. Of how they should never drop their guard when someone else is not holding it for them. Of how they should expect the unexpectable. Of how they should not allow hubris to be their bane.

Then her mind faded completely.

[Proceeding to the solo stage of the trial]