Everyone was on the edge of their seats. The dust cleared little by little, and from the dust, the result was obvious.

  Darius stood with no injuries while Omar was sitting on the ground with a hole in his arm.

  "You really were able to destroy and dodge the boulder?" Omar held his arm from the pain.

  "It was more like a meteor than it is a boulder," Darius crossed his arms. "But if I remember correctly, you called me an old man, didn't you?"

  Omar turned his head around. "I don't remember saying something like that."

  Darius smiled a little. "I will let it pass this time, but not again."

  The energy barrier began going down. "Your fighting style of close combat is good. Keep training that. All you need."

  Omar nodded.

  The energy barrier went down. "Omar Khalil: failed. Elise, come and heal him."

  "After all of that, he still failed!" Jax said.

  Elise, hearing that, went and began healing Omar. 'Looks like I will be the weak healer of the team,' she thought with a tear coming out of her eye. 'That isn't why I am here.'

  A couple of seconds went by with Elise healing Omar, then it became a minute.

  Darius looked from above. "What is taking this long?"

  "I don't know. Normally it won't take half a minute to completely heal this, but the wound doesn't look even half healed?" Elise began questioning herself. 'Did I lose my healing? Did I become as useless as Jax?'

  Even though Darius's expression didn't change, a single bead of sweat went down his face.

  "Oh, I didn't think that condition would carry to healing," Omar said with a slight laugh.

  "What condition?" Elise asked. "Your profile doesn't say anything about a 'condition,'" Darius added.

  "That's because doctors refuse to write it even though it is real."

  "And what exactly is the condition that makes my healing less effective?"

  "It's nothing, but from when I was little, my body refused many medicines, and the one that it accepted wasn't very effective. The doctors say that they can't find the reason, so they don't believe it is real."

  Both Darius and Elise looked at him, shocked, as he continued. "I just didn't think it would carry to make healing less effective too." Omar started laughing.

  Darius pinched the bridge of his nose, and Elise shook her head and went back to healing.

  After two more minutes, the healing was finally done.

  Elise tried to stand up but lost her balance, and Darius held her. "I've never healed for four minutes straight before. I am tired."

  "You are the reason she is like this, so take responsibility and walk her to her seat," Darius said, handing Elise to Omar.

  "I don't like the way you said that," Omar said uncomfortably.

  "Just leave."

  Omar walked out with Elise.

  "Okay, Valeria Stormend is next," Darius announced.

  Valeria stood up, went straight to the weapon carrier, and took a longsword and walked to the platform.

  "Are you ready?" The energy barrier went up.

  "I am."

  "Then let's begin."

  Valeria dashed forward, attacking Darius, who simply teleported away.

  Valeria dashed again toward him the moment he appeared, and he teleported away again.

  'I can't give him time to attack. If that dragon appears, failing would be certain.'

  She kept following Darius, jumping off the barrier to follow him while he kept going up, until they reached the end of the barrier.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "There is something wrong." Roy's comment made everyone look at him.

  Valeria dashed one more time to Darius, but this time he didn't teleport. He dodged the thrust by simply tilting his body.

  'He dodged!' Valeria didn't expect the dodge.

  "This isn't Valeria who fought me." As Roy finished, a thunderous sound made them look back at the fight.

  Darius punched her down.

  She began falling down, but fast she turned her legs toward the barrier and used it to jump back and forth between the barrier walls.

  In the middle of jumping, Darius appeared in her way and kicked her to the ground.

  Valeria hit the ground hard. She lost consciousness for less than a second.

  "Is she okay?" Marie asked, concerned.

  "I don't believe that's all she can do." Roy fixed his posture and focused on the fight.

  Once Valeria opened her eyes, she saw Darius floating above her, lightning coming out of him while he looked down at her.

  'What am I doing?' She put her hand on the ground and began supporting herself. "I will fail if the dragon appears? I need to finish this fast?"

  "I am Valeria Stormend. The fight ends when I decide to end it." Valeria stood up, red lightning coming out from her eyes and sword.

  Darius smiled. "Let's see which lightning is stronger."

  Darius drew the bow and aimed it at Valeria, who pointed her sword at him.

  The lightning from the arrow and the sword clashed with each other.

  Darius shot the arrow, and Valeria jumped directly at it and cut it with her sword, but before she reached Darius, he teleported away.

  But this time she didn't follow him. She let her red lightning go and attack all over the place until an arrow came, which she cut.

  "Are you going to just stay there?" Darius appeared above her again. This time both of them were floating in the air.

  "No." Their lightning clashed again before they entered a flow of dodging, blocking, and attacking.

  From the perspective of the others, it looked like two lightning storms were fighting each other.

  Roy put a hand on his mouth.

  'Faster. Stronger. Smoother.'

  The words echoed inside Valeria's mind as her speed increased.

  One arrow scratched her hand. She clenched her teeth.

  She landed on the ground and blocked and slashed all the arrows that came after her.

  She slashed the air upward with her sword, making a red lightning slash that took Darius by surprise.

  He blocked it with his own lightning.

  Darius teleported to Valeria and began a close fight with her, in which he teleported very small distances to dodge and attack from unexpected angles.

  Valeria, feeling that she couldn't land a hit, let her lightning go everywhere, which made Darius teleport away.

  Omar began hearing a small laugh coming from Roy. "That can't be good."

  'I don't know if this will work or not, but it is my final option.' Valeria jumped at Darius, her sword above and behind her head.

  'She is good, but it's time to finish this,' Darius thought as he decided to not teleport away but to dodge it and take the opportunity to finish the fight.

  When Darius looked at Valeria's sword, his body, for the first time in ages, got goosebumps.

  Omar, Marie, and everyone else, including the twins, looked up with fear.

  "Is that even possible?" Ren asked.

  "We are seeing it, but I can't believe it." Omar closed his hand so hard blood came out.

  From Valeria's sword came another sword made of her red lightning, big enough that even though she and Darius weren't halfway to the barrier's end, it reached it.

  But that wasn't all. It went above it.

  Valeria's lightning sword was cutting the barrier that took every attack until now with no damage.

  Omar looked at Roy, who even with the hand covering his mouth, it wasn't enough to hide his smile that went from ear to ear. "That can't be good." A small laugh came out of Omar.

  Valeria moved her sword, cutting the barrier with it.

  "Shit!" Darius didn't know what to do as he watched the lightning sword coming closer to him.

  In the last second, Darius put his bow in front of him and used it to block the attack in addition to his own lightning.

  Valeria kept pushing the sword until it went through the bow but without cutting it.

  The attack hit Darius.

  The moment the lightning sword touched Darius, it disappeared and took with it the iron sword Valeria was using and her consciousness.

  Valeria began falling down. Darius teleported and caught her and teleported to the ground.

  Darius let Valeria fall on the ground. It didn't take long before she woke up.

  The energy barrier was destroyed and went down on its own this time.

  Valeria opened her eyes to see Darius with his shirt burned and lightning patterns all over his body, with its center looking like a sword slash injury.

  Darius fixed his hair and looked at Valeria, then to the others.

  "Valeria Stormrend: passed."

  Roy began to clap, his smile turning from a scary one to a warmer one. Omar looked at him, and he also started clapping, and everyone followed after.

  Darius helped Valeria to stand. "You are the best until now. I have no comment except to keep up the good work."

  Valeria nodded and walked back to her seat.

  Darius sighed and then looked at Roy. "Roy Nasser, you will have to wait for the barrier to get fixed. Don't worry, it will take less than 20 minutes."

  "I can wait, but not for more than 30 minutes."

  They both looked at each other with predatory eyes.