In a situation where you have to fight someone on equal footing as yourself, how do you surpass them?

  Attempt to outlast them? Try to focus on your strengths and target their weakpoints?

  In the first place, how would you be able to overpower someone on your exact skill level without relying on mistakes or chance?

  Flap!

  I clenched my fist, letting Mundane open and fly out beside me.

  "What an interesting grimoire you have there!", Professor They's smile widened eerily.

  Her vibrant green hair were tied into two large braids, running down her shoulders. A staff with a black orb floating on top was clutched in her hand.

  I repeated the two spells I'd learned these past few days in my head and readied my stance.

  "Shall we start?", she swung her staff, "I won't wait for you~"

  At her word, 2 arrows of mana formed and shot towards me.

  "Ugh!", gritting my teeth, I dodged to the side and narrowly avoided them, preparing my own mana arrow in the air.

  The professor made the grip on her staff slightly more unsteady.

  One thing the professor has to do is match my skill level. That first attack was likely just to gauge me.

  Shiu! The mana arrow I prepared flew with a curved arc to her head, and I ran towards her.

  My magic prowess is still not developed. Thus, I must turn this into a physical fight.

  Of course, the method of killing won't matter. Whether I strangle or pierce her with mana is up to me.

  Tilting her head and dodging my mana arrow effortlessly, she waved her staff to form 3 more mana arrows.

  Sacrificing speed for quantity, the mana arrows flew slower but in coordinated unison as they targeted my vital points.

  However, just as they were about to close in, I used Mundane's [Incomplete Mana Recycling] to speed up forming a ball of mana in front of me.

  Boom!

  Detonating it, it swept up all of Professor They's mana arrows along with it. The explosion covering her vision, Professor They quickly casted several more mana arrows, only to find me gone.

  "!", her eyes widened, her mana arrows went to waste as they crashed into the ground.

  Without missing a beat, I slid behind her and aimed one hand for her staff and another to her neck.

  Bang!

  However, just before I could grab either her neck or staff, an excruciating force suddenly exploded between me and her, sending me flying backwards.

  STShhhh!

  Just barely being able to fall on my feet with the momentum sliding me back, Professor They also crashed on the ground and slowly stood up, her robe disheveled and her hand burnt.

  "So, this is how you want to fight?", Professor They dusted off her bottom.

  Did she...? An agonizing pain took over my face and hands.

  She had casted a mana burst between the both of us, damaging herself but also creating distance.

  I evaluated my body for injuries. Still, I'm not doing as bad as I thought I would.

  But when I composed myself, another mana arrow was already headed my way. I clutched my somewhat burned hand. Looks like she won't let me catch a break, beginner or not. I narrowed my eyes.

  I wonder if all professors have to go through this 'rite of passage'? Dying, that is.

  However, as my will resolved and pinpointed Professor They as a target, a strange feeling attempted taking over my subconscious, bubbling and bursting in my heart.

  This is.. Quickly identifying the feeling, I ducked to avoid her spell.

  Finally. Did it have to take this much effort to activate? A slight smile creeped up my face.

  Casting another mana arrow and charging towards her again, I spent the next few mintues fighting to gain my footing in combat, given that this was my very first combat experience.

  In this test, by putting demons against someone equal, the academy was looking for something very particular. It wasn't brute force, not endurance or preserverence. By asking demons to overcome their equals, it was simple.

  This first section was filtering for intelligence and adaptability.

  A demon paying close attention to the word choice of the supervisor would notice that she said 'the instructor would match the capability shown by the demon'.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  And that one word, 'shown', was the key.

  Thud!

  "Ugh.", grunting as a mana arrow grazed past my neck, Professor They tilted her head in observation before coalescing mana to piece the ripped parts of her robe together.

  At this point, the bubbling feeling from before plagued my consciousness for attention.

  Thoughts and an obsessive feeling to kill distorted my vision, dyeing it red. [Visualization] spontaneously activated to show me the grassy field stained with blood and replicated the squelching feeling of tearing a beating heart out of a body.

  My heart pulsated with the desire to mutilate Professor They, intrusive thoughts invading my mind.

  Kill her, Kill her, Kill her, Kill her, K-K-#@L%(#@)KI)K#)$*#@@@@@@- Haiz, is it that it's a passive ability that I can't control it well? So noisy.

  I held my head, a headache appearing. But I'll need to learn how to control it someday. Practice will make it perfect.

  This was [Killer's Instinct]. Cael's one advantage he would have over the protagonist in the future. It was what I planned to use from the start to help me pass this section.

  The type of intelligence that this was designed to test was specifically, cunning and deception. Demons with keen cognition skills would realize quickly that the instructor was not truly mimicking their abilities, but instead only the skills that they appear to have.

  Why the word, 'shown', is the key is because demons in this section were expected to exploit this one caveat. As such, to realize in the middle of battle that the only way to win was to either have a unique and unpredictable style of fighting, have an unreplicable skill, or to hide what they were capable of.

  I fulfilled the last two.

  Preparing a mana burst spell, I focused on places her body was injured.

  Hands, back, knees, stomach...

  However, my analysis didn't seem to stop, [Killer's Instinct] shoving an unusual amount of detail and forcing my focus to condense.

  Head, heart, shoulder, and a mana burst...now.

  Bang! I dodged to the side and managed to completely avoid Professor They's own mana burst.

  My vision warped unnaturally, colors began appearing and saturating, but at the same time, it was as if I could read her like an open book. Openings became blaringly obvious, areas of unstable footing I could exploit, muscle contractions that indicated what action she was going to take next.

  ...Drip. I paused to find blood dripping from my nose, and onto my hand.

  Seems like the amount of information is too much to keep track of all at once. My mind cooled as I immersed myself into [Killer's Instinct].

  Although I was having trouble keeping my sane line of thinking intact, now that it's activated, I should probably end this fight soon.

  "Improving in the middle of a fight...excellent.", Professor They mumbled under her breath.

  As I regained my stance, I faked a limp, turning my head down to hide my gaze slightly. She noticed. I have to hide this a little more, I need to wait for the right moment.

  Professor They conjured up 3 more mana arrows to shoot at me. But unlike before, I didn't move.

  Casting mana burst to destroy 2 of the arrows, I grabbed the last one and felt mana residue on my hand as I threw it back at Professor They.

  Sss... A burning smell entered my nose, but I ignored my nearly disabled hand by this point.

  Immersion converged my line of thinking into one. I can create a trap with this.

  Getting an idea from feeling the mana residue burn my hand, I shot several more mana arrows at her, watching her sidestep and dodge them with minimal movement as if she were dancing. Not a single one managed to touch her hair.

  However, unknowingly, as we were exchanging mana arrows, Professor They looked down. A ring of mana arrows had formed on the ground surrounding her, all stuck in the ground.

  She was unfazed, "Did you think you could reuse the mana from spells you already casted?"

  "Oh, yeah. Actually, that's what I was thinking.", I tilted my head.

  [Incomplete Mana Recycling]

  Reshaping the mana arrows on the ground into smaller balls of mana, I detonated them and manipulated the mana that had leaked from the incomplete recycling process onto my hand.

  Bang!

  "!", eyes slightly widening, Professor They's vision was once more covered in the smoke of an explosion.

  Knowing what was about to happen, Professor They turned around and ran to get out of the smoke.

  Except, what she was thinking was not at all what I was planning.

  I ran into the smoke to chase after her, but even if I was unable to see where I was going, a crisp, clear sound knocked on my ears.

  Tap tap tap tap!

  The footsteps of Professor They resounded in my head, and an image of her location formed in my mind.

  At that moment, a feeling of euphoria and excitement erupted in me.

  I can hear you. My smile widened subconsciously.

  The power of [Killer's Instinct]. Now was the right moment.

  Just as Professor They made it out of the smoke, she heard my equally loud footsteps and had prepared a mana burst in advance, planning to use it again to create more distance just like before.

  She turned around mid-step and waved her staff, forming a ball of mana between us rapidly.

  But right before she detonated it, my hand exited the smoke with the ball of mana on my hand that was gathered from the remaining mana of [Incompete Mana Recycling].

  Without hesitation, I grabbed and shoved the two spells closer to her, extending my arm as far as it could.

  Crackle- crackle!

  Her mana burst detonating, it inadvertently reacted with my own spell and merged together, the explosion emerging looking like it would be at least twice as large as before.

  At the last moment, when my body exited the smoke, I saw her expression, and I could instantly tell what she was thinking.

  My eyes widened, but narrowed the next second, a silent laugh coating my voice.

  "Ah, why does the explosion look...bigger than before..?"

  -is what you're thinking.

  A thundering sound erupted.

  BOOM!

  Thump, thump, thump!

  Smoke flying everywhere, I was sent flying back, hitting the ground several times before coming to a stop.

  "Kugh!", coughing, I stood up slowly, and without checking myself, I made my way over to where Professor They had flew.

  Gradually, smoke and flying dirt cleared to the sight of Professor They's body blown and torn in half, her pupils shaking in clear, agonizing pain. Her heart was half-exposed.

  Pausing, I looked down at my own body. One of my arms was gone. But perhaps it's because of the adrenaline, I didn't feel any pain.

  Professor They's eyes widened as she realized she was unable to move.

  "To go to this extent..."

  Hm, has she not experienced pain like this before? Or is this test also a way to train new professors..?, but I didn't hesitate for another second and conjured a mana arrow, piercing her heart.

  Splat! Blood splattered on the surrounding dirt.

  I was now alone, here, on this bloody, torn grass field.

  "...", I recalled the euphoria and overwhelming delight I felt just before the explosion.

  ...It's happened twice now. Back then, when I escaped from assassins at the cemetery, and here, fighting an instructor.

  Foo... The spring breeze whistled quietly.

  I stared, mindlessly, at everything. Did I write Cael like this..?

  This is not me.

  When that thought completed, a soothing feeling took over the unease in my heart, and I suddenly felt a dull ache all around my body, with a sharp pain slowly increasing in intensity at my shoulder where my arm was severed.

  But before the pain could register and crash down at full intensity, I blinked, and found myself back in the stadium again. My body and mind seemingly returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.

  This time, as my gaze shifted, only half of the demons were left.

  The supervisor on the stage shouted, "The first test has concluded!"

  "Any and all demons, remaining in this stadium, have passed!"