The Anomaly's Path

Sylvia von Celestial stood on the high, frozen balcony of a ruined palace, her arms folded across her chest as the freezing wind whipped her dark coat. Her Master Low presence was hidden, a quiet shield keeping the freezing air away from her skin.

From her high spot, her sharp eyes were not watching the monsters in the fog. They were locked on the small yard below, where Team Arthur was moving with smooth skill.

She watched Amelia guide a ring of water magic to freeze an oncoming frost beast, while Arthur stepped forward with a flash of light mana, cutting the beast down before it could even make a sound. They moved like two parts of one whole, trusting each other without a single word.

Watching them from a distance, a bitter ache settled deep in Sylvia’s chest.

It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t hatred. It was just a heavy, hollow recognition of what could have been.

Sylvia had known Amelia and Arthur since they were kids. They used to play together with Leo when they were young, long before the heavy rules of the noble houses fell on them, long before everything broke.

She still remembered Amelia as the bright girl who laughed too loud and dragged Leo into trouble, and Arthur as the quiet, serious boy with sad eyes.

She had been there when Leo was engaged to Amelia. She had seen how happy her little brother was back then, how hopeful he looked, before the engagement broke and the light completely left his eyes.

Leo had not been perfect. Sylvia knew that better than anyone. His jealousy, his drinking, his sudden self-destruction — all of it had been his own doing.

But she also knew he was broken long before Amelia left him.

As his older sister, she didn’t want the family glory or the perfect noble status for him. She didn’t care about his core or his reckless choices. Beneath her cold, strict mask, she just wanted Leo to be happy. She wanted him to smile like he used to.

And looking down at Arthur and Amelia now, she couldn’t help but wonder if things would have been different if someone had just stayed by his side.

Arthur and Amelia were close now. Sylvia saw the way Arthur looked at Amelia, how Amelia leaned into his space, how they fit together in a way Leo never quite could. But she didn’t blame them. Amelia wasn’t wrong to choose Arthur, and Leo wasn’t wrong to fall apart.

It was just life — messy, unfair, and full of choices that could never be undone.

Sylvia buried the bitter feelings deep down, her face staying blank. She was a watcher. She could not step in. She could only carry the quiet weight of knowing too much and being able to change nothing.

_

Down in the yard, Arthur put his sword away, his breath forming a thick white cloud in the air.

”That is the last of the first wave,” Arthur said, turning to his team. ”It has been an hour since we got here. The monsters are moving toward the center faster than normal.”

”The air is getting heavier,” Amelia agreed, wiping frost off her staff. She looked toward the tall cathedral spires in the distance, a faint look of guilt crossing her face before she looked away. ”We need to move faster if we want to clear the area before the big group wakes up.”

”Dame, Lucia, check the west path,” Arthur ordered calmly. ”We move toward the middle.”

The team formed their diamond shape and stepped out of the yard, their boots crunching on the blue ice. But they did not even make it past the next broken stone arch before a burst of fire arrows flew through the thick fog, exploding on the frozen ground at Arthur’s feet.

Boom!

”Hold it right there, Chosen One!” a loud, arrogant voice echoed through the mist.

A five-man team from the high noble factions stepped out from behind the pillars, their weapons drawn and their eyes locked greedily on the high-grade cores strapped to Arthur’s belt.

The leader, a fire-affinity swordsman, sneered. ”We don’t care about your Hero title. Drop the cores you’ve collected so far, or we’ll knock your whole team out of the tournament right here.”

Arthur didn’t even blink. He didn’t look angry or insulted; he just looked tired. ”We don’t have time for this.”

”We’ll make time!” the noble leader roared, lunging forward with a flame-coated blade.

Arthur didn’t wait for his team to back him up. He took a single step forward, his feet skidding across the ice. His sword left its sheath in a blur of white light.

Clang!

He parried the fire strike to the side with a single flick of his wrist, ignoring the heat completely. Before the noble could recover, Arthur slammed the heavy handle of his sword into the guy’s chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him crashing backward into his own team.

”Nyra, clear the sides,” Arthur ordered smoothly, his sword glowing with steady light.

Nyra did not say a word. Her wolf ears flattened as she moved with blinding speed. She vanished, appearing behind the enemy archer. With a fast sweep of her leg, she knocked him off his feet, while Dame and Lucia quickly locked down the other three, disarming them in seconds.

The whole fight lasted less than a minute. The noble team was left on the ice, their weapons scattered.

Arthur did not even take their points. He just turned and kept walking toward the center, his team following without a scratch.

_

Meanwhile, on the northern plaza, Team Roan was handling things in a much louder way.

”If my toes fall off from the cold, I am blaming the headmaster,” Roan grumbled, blowing warm breath into his hands. He shivered, his long elf ears twitching as the freezing wind whipped through a broken stone arch.

”Really. Of all the places to land, we get the one that feels like a freezer.”

”Stop complaining, Captain,” Sera Vex said. The half-elf did not even look at him. She stood still on a frosted ledge, her fingers lightly on her bow. Her breathing was slow and steady, not bothered by the cold. ”You are the one who rushed us through the portal first.”

Roan grinned, his lazy, playful mood coming back. He leaned on his spear, treating the deadly weapon like a walking stick. ”Well, yeah. Because if we waited, Arthur would have taken the best path, and Alice would have cleared the map before we even drew our weapons. And more importantly...”

His eyes narrowed, a dark spark of excitement in his gaze. ”...That white-haired bastard is already somewhere ahead. He went in the same time I did, and knowing him, he’s probably already knee-deep in blood somewhere.”

Roan did not care about the school points or the praise of the teachers. He had only one real goal in this whole test: he wanted to fight Leo.

Ever since Leo had shown up with that crazy powers and affinities. Roan had been interested. They were friends, sure, but to Roan, the best way to show friendship was to fight until one of them could not stand.

Leo was an anomaly, a wall to climb, and Roan’s love for battle refused to let Arthur or Alice get to him first.

”You only care about finding a good fight,” Damon said from behind a big tower shield. The quiet human was sitting on a chunk of broken stone, his eyes scanning the dark, foggy street below. ”You are going to get us killed.”

Roan laughed, slapping Damon on his armored shoulder. ”That is exactly why I picked you guys!”

When the school told Roan he had to build a five-man team, he had not looked at the highest scores or the biggest noble names. He had picked people to cover his own weak spots. He needed Damon because the guy was a wall — quiet, stubborn, and fully defensive.

He needed Sera because her half-elf eyes could spot a target through a blizzard, and her arrows never missed. He chose Garret, a loud, aggressive dwarf who loved a good fight, and Lena, a human healer whose calm magic could fix a broken arm mid-fight without her even blinking.

They were the perfect anchor for a captain who liked to jump into danger headfirst.

Crack!

The sound of breaking ice came from the shadows of a big gothic building at the end of the street. From the frozen mist, four big shapes appeared. They looked like twisted, broken humanoids made of pale blue ice, their chests glowing with a sick purple light. Expert-rank frost ghouls.

The temperature dropped, the air turning so sharp it hurt to breathe.

Behind Team Roan, the tall, unnamed second-year watcher stepped closer to a broken pillar. He kept his hands on his big sword, his face hidden under his helmet, watching quietly. He would not lift a finger unless someone was about to die.

”Finally,” Garret roared, his thick fingers gripping his heavy battleaxe. ”My arms were getting stiff!”

”Garret, wait—” Damon started, but the dwarf was already running.

Garret lunged forward with brute strength, his heavy boots smashing through the frost. He swung his axe sideways, the steel cutting through the air. The blade hit the side of the leading ice ghoul, shattering its frozen ribs into pieces.

But the monster did not feel pain. It swung a big, jagged ice claw down at Garret’s head.

”SHIIIIELD!”

Damon appeared in front of the dwarf, his feet sliding on the ice as he planted his tower shield firmly in the ground. The ghoul’s claw hit the metal barrier with a loud Clang!

Damon’s teeth ground together, his shoulders tensing under the weight of the hit, but the shield did not move an inch.

A single arrow covered in wind magic flew past Damon’s ear. It hit the ghoul right in its glowing purple core. The energy burst, and the monster fell into a pile of broken ice.

”Nice shot, Sera!” Roan shouted, his lazy demeanor vanishing in a fraction of a second.

The other three ghouls screeched, rushing the line. Roan stepped forward. He did not use his Time power — he did not need to waste the energy on small enemies. He gripped his spear with both hands, his body dropping into a low, ready stance.

The first ghoul lunged, snapping its frozen jaws. Roan ducked under the strike, his spear spinning like a blur. With a clean, strong thrust, the tip of his spear went through the monster’s throat. He twisted the shaft, using the force to lift the beast and slam it into the second ghoul.

The third monster swung at his side. Roan did not even look. He turned on his back foot, dragging the blunt end of his spear up to smash the creature’s jaw, then brought the blade down in a hard hit that split the monster’s chest open.

His movements were terrifyingly precise, a perfect show of pure spear technique without using affinity. Within less than a minute, the street fell dead silent again. The ghouls were gone, leaving nothing but cracked ice and small, glowing mana cores on the dark stone.

Roan stood among the wreckage, his breathing a little heavy, a wild grin on his face. He did not even bother wiping the frost off his coat. He just turned his head, looking past the dark spires of the cathedral toward the tall castle at the very center of the Gate.

”Good warmup,” Roan laughed, his eyes burning with excitement. ”Come on, let us move faster. If we do not hurry, Leo is going to take all the fun for himself.”