Nadia felt that the incoming laser was somewhat different but found nothing odd about it at all. Still the danger signals rang in her mind and she didn't try to let it hit her shield. Instead she dodged well clear of its path so as to avoid the intense danger that she was sensing from it.
She let out a sigh of relief as she hopped out of the way and looked at Rebecca with a triumphant look. So far she had been able to dodge every one of Rebecca's attacks with ease except the first that had taken her by surprise.
Rebecca didn't even bother to look at her while Nadia was busy feeling good about her evasive actions. Instead all of the focus of Rebecca had been at the laser that had barely gotten past Nadia as she dodged out of the way well ahead of time of impact.
She tried to feel the laser through the trace amount of mana that she had left on it. She felt a solid entity through that mark as if it was a part of her and was willing to listen to every one of her demands no matter how against the natural order they were.
Rebecca coaxed it into changing its direction slightly in order to make Nadia the target once again. As a result the laser that had rushed past Nadia harmlessly started to turn towards left which was the exact location of Nadia at the moment.
The barrier that Nadia had made in front of her had been rendered ineffective as the laser that she had just dodged had attacked her from the side and there had been no barrier to offset the momentum of the black destructive ray at all.
Nadia had definitely not expected such an attack at all. Rebecca had never used such a trick at all either in the previous match with her sister or with her before. Nadia let out a painful scream as the laser that had gotten past her defenses pierced right through her left arm and her shoulder in turn before exiting out her back.
Nadia fell just like that. After all the impact that the little girl had suffered from was nothing less than that of a bullet from Zavier's previous bullet. She had gotten a hole in her body that would have been impossible to perfectly heal in Zavier's previous world. But thankfully, this world had healing magic and potions that would help her get through it painlessly.
Calista felt that it was a pity that Nadia had been unable to drain a little more of her mana. As soon as Rebecca had evolved, Calista had already foreseen Nadia's defeat. She knew that the girl was nowhere close enough to handle a C rank mage all on her own. Therefore she had asked her to play defensive so that she could drain her mana somewhat. Otherwise, Shiranui might have some trouble beating her too.
As a result she was not too surprised by the outcome and calmly declared her loss on Nadia's behalf who was lying on the ground in a half conscious state. At her direction, a medical team came forward with a stretcher and cast float on her to lift her on to the stretcher in order to move her out of the field due to the injuries that she had suffered.
Although Calista could have kept her on the field a little while longer since she had still been conscious, she had not done so. The reason was that she knew how strong their opponent had become and what she had become capable of doing. Therefore, Calista was worried that if she kept Nadia on the field a little while longer, she would suffer even more terrible injuries than she had previously.
Calista didn't bother checking with the paramedics about the condition that Nadia had been in. As soon as she was taken away by them, Calista had to find the answer to the next question. She was being very indecisive because she didn't know what the true choice really was. Calista wanted the next person to be the one who would put an end to the fight by themselves. At the same time she had to take care of the feelings of those involved. Shiranui was too sensitive when it came to the comparison of strength. If at this time, Calista being her own teacher refused to send her out to fight, if even she didn't trust her enough to win a fight against Rebecca then Shiranui might lose her confidence. To Calista, Zavier was the best bet because she had seen his true strength. She was sure that Zavier would mow down any enemy in the competition but she was afraid of what Shiranui might do if her switch got flipped because of that.
According to Calista's judgement, Shiranui at that moment was not even close to the level that was required to beat the current Rebecca. Whether it was the comparison of strength, defensive ability or the mana capacity, Rebecca was above her in every aspect. She couldn't knowingly send Shiranui off to fight against her while knowing that it was possible that Shiranui would suffer a crushing defeat against her.
If it had been anyone else, Calista might have sent them without a second thought but the fact that it was a choice between Shiranui and Zavier, was the problem. Although Zavier was the solution to the current deadlock, she couldn't send him because she knew that she would be dealing a huge blow to Shiranui's self esteem and possibly her psyche.
This was obviously a difficult decision for her and she was hesitant in announcing the next participant from their side. Shiranui seemed to have read her troubles and took the initiative to grab her wrist and pleaded with Calista to let fight against Rebecca in the next round.
Calista cursed herself for hesitating to pick Zavier at this time. Now that Shiranui had asked her before she had made her decision, there was absolutely nothing that she could do. She had to go along with her decision anyway. But when Calista looked up from her hands and looked into her eyes, she found a steely determination that hadn't been there before. She wondered what kind of a mental battle Shiranui had gone through to get that fanatic look in her eyes.
Calista was sure that even if she decided to send Zavier out at this time, Shiranui would have still found a way to do what she wanted. Therefore, she didn't hesitate any longer. She announced the name of the next participant from their team to the referee who noted it down on a paper that he had been carrying with him. Calista had finally decided to send her to steal the whiskers off of the lion in the field.
As soon as the name of the next participant was announced, a small smile appeared on the face of the emotionless Shiranui but vanished as soon as it came. It appeared that she was happy because her teacher had listened to her request but even that happiness hadn't lasted very long.
She began to move towards the match field with calculated steps but halted midway. She turned around and whispered to her teacher so that Zavier and the others were unable to hear what she had said.
"Teacher, let me fight till the end. Unless I give up, do not decide to concede the match. Please wait for me till I ask you to take me out."
Calista nodded towards her with a troubled look. She didn't want to promise her something like that because she knew that Shiranui would rather die before conceding defeat to her enemies. She was practically asking Calista to let her do a battle till death. It was unacceptable for Calista but looking at her student who was making the request, she was unable to deny her wishes. The girl had already suffered a lot and Calista didn't want to hurt her anymore than she already was.
Shiranui was satisfied with her teacher's response and her trust in her. She turned around and continued moving towards the field where Rebecca awaited her with a smug expression and an annoying smile on her face.
The crowd shouted and screamed at her arrival. It seemed that Shiranui had gathered quite a fan following in the previous rounds. To some she was the cool one among the Merion high girls who flaunted her beauty without a care for the world and to the others she was the strongest of the participants from the Merion high team, while only a few among them praised her for her ruthlessness. Of course most of her fans comprised of the idiots who ogled at her because of her revealing clothes.
Shiranui didn't care about these people at all. She was looking straight towards her next opponent. This was someone that she wanted to beat no matter what.
Amidst the stands, Rachel became interested in the battle too. She had been looking forwards to this match up as well. Fortunately, the Merion High instructor had helped her achieve her wish.
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