The Greatest Sinner

<What is this place? And why are there so many magicians here?> Evan thought to himself as he looked at the spectator seats.

When the barrier cleared, Arabella looked over each of the fourteen students who had successfully passed the exam. That was how many of the hundreds of applicants were able to become "Inner students".

She stood up and slowly said: "Hi, everybody... well, I'm in charge here, someone else will explain the rest to you."

After this inexpressive and strange speech, she sat back in her chair as if she were incredibly tired from saying these few words.

The students` first impressions of "The Last Moon"` chapter were mixed. Each of them, including Evan, knew how great the head of this academy was, but there was no sense of power in Arabella's words or in her appearance.

Arabella looked as if she hadn't slept in days. There were large bags under her eyes and it looked as if she had no strength even to speak.

Evan looked at the girl in the black mantle and thought to himself: <So, this is the head of "The Last Moon"? An unusual character to say the least, but I doubt her reputation came from thin air.>

Everyone can have their quirks, and Evan was well aware of that. Moreover, he had seen Arabella for the first time, it was impossible to form an opinion about a person just from a first impression.

When Arabella finished her "magnificent speech," Draven began to speak. He looked at each of the fourteen students and said quietly:

"I think each of you understand that you were brought here for a definite reason. There is one more test for the "Inner students". It's to take another look at your abilities in a different environment than a simple 1 on 1 battle."

Draven sighed and continued: "Later on, each of you will receive a thousand "Moon Coins", and the winner has the right to ask the head of "The Last Moon" for whatever they want."

The students rejoiced at this incredible opportunity. The head of "The Last Moon" was an incredibly powerful person, the mere fact that you could ask such a person for something was already very meaningful.

"What!? What do you mean "ask for whatever they want"? I don't agree. Let the winner say his request, but I'll decide if it's worth it."

Suddenly Arabella's indignant voice sounded.

Draven slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand, shook his head and said: "You said ten minutes ago yourself about such a reward .... This person drives me crazy..."

<What's going on here anyway?>

Evan, like the others, didn't understand what was going on. Arabella seemed to be stranger and stranger by the every second.

While the students were perplexed by the situation, Draven said: "Okay, we'll deal with that later. Now I'll explain what your test is all about."

After these words, Draven pointed to the center of the room and slowly said: "Soon, various monsters caught by the academy students will appear in this place. There will be three rounds in all, and each round the monsters will get stronger. At the end you will have to fight a particularly strong opponent, the one who kills him will be the winner."

"But, of course, that's not all. There are five different magical circles superimposed on this area. Each of them will be activated in random order, they will completely change the entire location. From blocks of ice and a tone of snow, to burning lands and volcanoes. There are five elements in total - water, ice, fire, earth and wind. That's it, does anyone have any questions?"

Whoosh.

Suddenly one young man raised his hand up and said: "I have. What happens if none of us can defeat the monster at the end?"

"А? Of course, that would mean you all lost and no one would be awarded the grand prize. Anything else?"

"We don't have to work as a team, do we?" The speaker was a tall blonde with two long ponytails.

Draven nodded: "Of course, it's up to you. But, don't forget that besides winning the grand prize, your main goal is to show us your abilities."

Hearing Draven's answer, Evan thought to himself: <Hmm, I think everyone will be going up against each other. Sure, you could form a temporary alliance with someone, but who would dare take that risk?>

When people get together in teams they become stronger than others and can do things that they couldn't do alone. But Evan didn't think it was worth relying on anyone but himself in this challenge.

For one thing, since there can only be one winner, team members would have to fight against each other anyway. Also you could be easily framed during the test itself, and not only Evan understood that.

After what Draven had said, no one dared to form an alliance with anyone. All fourteen of them would fight alone.

<I wonder how aggressive others will be?>

Evan was well aware that some of the contestants would try not to fight the monsters, but to beat their opponents out of the ordeal. Evan thought about that too, but until he saw how strong the monsters would be, he decided not to act. Moreover, Evan wanted to see how the trial area would change.

"Since there are no more questions, then it's time to get started."

Calmly Draven said and at the same moment, the ground shook and strange changes began to happen to it.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

The huge blocks of ice appeared out of the ground, filling the entire area.

<Snow?> Evan thought to himself as he watched a few snowflakes falling on his hand and immediately melting.

A few minutes later, the wasteland turned into frozen ground covered with a thick layer of snow.

"Well, here are the main guests..." Slowly Evan muttered as he watched parts of the walls come into motion and some passageways opened.

Fifty identical monsters slowly emerged from them. They looked like snow wolves. They had many sharp ice spikes on their backs that gave them excellent protection.

<Fifty monsters for fourteen people, I don't think the first wave should be difficult.>

Evan thought to himself and quickly ran towards one of the tallest blocks of ice. He wasn't going to fight these wolves, in his opinion it was foolish to waste his strength on the first opponents.

Two men did exactly the same as Evan, but the rest went off to fight the monsters.

Evan watched carefully as the other members of the group acted. As he expected, the monsters of the first wave were very weak.

Enni had already killed three in a minute, but some members had more difficult situation. It was easy for Enni to fight one-on-one because she was an Amplifier. But, that didn't mean she would kill the most monsters.

Boom.

Lars cast his spell. He threw a red-hot cube at the monsters then had a deafening explosion. He killed four of them with one spell.

Step. Step. Step.

Evan heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see a blonde with two long ponytails.

Evan looked at her puzzled and said: "What do you want?"

The girl smiled and simply replied: "Do you want to unite?"