The break time passed quickly, and it was time for Steve and Starla to battle. They were surrounded by a white light and transported onto the battlefield. Steve summoned out Icy. Starla summoned out her own monster, Zack, a Pandorpion. The Pandorpion was a monster that was kind of like a centaur, except that instead of a human and horse, its upper body was that of a panda and lower body was that of a scorpion.
Starla smiled at Steve, then asked, "I know this is impolite of me, but I would like to ask, what race is your monster? Of course, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"There's no need for me to not answer question. Of course, it depends on if Icy wants to tell you or not," said Steve. He looked at Icy. "Icy, what do you say?"
"There is nothing to hide," said Icy. "I am of the Ice Scorpion race."
Hearing that, Steve was surprised. Although Icy said that she had nothing to hide, she did, in fact, hide the fact she was an Ice Emperor Scorpion, not an Ice Scorpion. However, it made sense that Icy would hide her true race. Although there was only one word difference between Ice Emperor Scorpion and Ice Scorpion, they are almost totally different. A monster with "emperor" or "king" in their race shows that they are far stronger and more powerful than the others of their own race, and had become an almost different race. Ironically, they really would be a king or emperor of their race. Steve understood that Icy was trying to help him keep his strength a secret. His appreciation of her was raised up another level.
"Ice scorpion?" asked Starla, looking at Icy's body and moving her head. "You don't seem like it." However, before she could say anything else, the preparation time was up.
"Well, let's leave it after the battle is over," said Steve.
"Yeah, let's," said Starla, agreeing.
Icy stood there and looked at Zack. She opened her mouth and said, "You may have the first move."
Zack nodded and charged towards Icy with his right hand in front of his chest as if he was preparing to punch. He moved with a pretty fast speed, but in Icy's eyes, it was as if Zack was intentionally slowing down and letting her see his every move. However, Icy did not dodge or tried to take the attack head-on. Instead, about 2 seconds before Zack's punch hit her, she punched the floor, and ice magically came out from the ground. It rapidly formed a wall of ice in front of her. Zack was unable to stop his punch in time and hit the ice wall.
Amazingly, Zack's punched, which was strong enough to punch a hole in a wall, could not even manage to make a single crack in the ice wall. Instead, he had injured his own hand and blood was coming out of it. He looked at Starla, pointed at the ice wall, and shook his head. Starla immediately understood what he was trying to say.
"Steve, my Zack is unable to deal with your monster's ice wall, so I undoubtedly lost," said Starla. "However, I wonder what the difference between the toxicity of the poison of our monsters. Would you like to find out?"
"I am fine with that," said Steve. "Icy, what do you think?"
"Your wish is my command," said Icy. Her attitude couldn't be clearer. She was willing to do it, as long as Steve wished to. She would do whatever Steve told her to do.
"Well, since Icy has no problem with it, then I guess we can do what you suggested," said Steve.
"Thank you," said Starla. She then raised her hand and yelled, "I forfeit!"
"You didn't really have to do that," said Steve.
"I know," said Starla. "But just to be safe. Go, Zack."
Steve looked at Icy and told her to melt the ice wall. Icy obeyed, and she walked towards Zack and held her right hand out in front of her. Zack stabbed her hand with his stinger and injected venom into Icy. Icy just stayed there, letting Zack take his time to inject his venom. After about 3 seconds, Zack withdrew his stinger and moved back. He waited for something to happen to Icy, but after about a minute, Icy showed no signs of being affected by any poison.
Starla was amazed. She knew the strength of Zack's venom, enough to paralyze even silver quality monsters. Yet, Icy was there, looking she had not even been injected with poison. Steve was not too surprised with the outcome. Icy was immune to poison, after all. He only agreed because he wanted to see how effective Icy's poison was against a low quality monster and if the poison could kill a low quality monster immediately or not.
Starla sighed. "Well, I guess it is your turn now." She then told Zack to hold out his hand. Zack obeyed and held out his left hand in front of him.
Icy's scorpion-like tail appeared out of nowhere. She stabbed Zack with her stinger and injected extreme frost poison. She quickly pulled her tail back and it seemed to disappear into thin air. The poison took effect immediately, and unlike the time with the Three-horned Serpent, Zack did not get paralyzed. Instead, when he was injected with the poison, he immediately stopped breathing and fell down, dead.
Starla looked at Zack, who was now dead, shocked. "He- he..."
"I'm sorry," said Steve, apologizing even though the monster wouldn't really be dead. "I didn't know it would be like this."
"No, it's fine," said Starla, shaking her head. "I was just surprised since he had poison resistance. Yet it did not seem to do anything against your monster's venom. Also, he isn't really dead. He'll be alive again after I summon him out again." She returned Zack to his monster card.
Steve returned Icy back to her monster card. A white light surrounded both of them and they were transported out of the battlefield. When they were back outside, their classmates looked at them with curious and questioning gazes. Most of the gazes were directed at Steve.
"What is it?" Steve asked, unable to stand the gazes of his classmates any longer.
"What's up with your monster's poison!?" a student asked. "How is it so strong that it killed a bronze quality monster in an instant!?"
"Yeah! And what the heck is up with her proficiency in ice!? And how come the ice that she created was so strong!?" another student asked.
"Uh, she is of the Ice Scorpion race," said Steve. He decided to just reveal the race that Icy said she was. After all, the Ice Scorpion race was extremely powerful and it would make sense that Icy was powerful as well.
"So that's why!" exclaimed one of the students. The other students all nodded and had a look of understanding on their faces. Judging from their name, the Ice Scorpion race didn't seem to be particularly strong. However, one would be dead wrong if that's what they thought. The Ice Scorpion race was one of the strongest race of monsters out there, with astonishing proficiency over the ice element and the venom that they used was the one of the deadliest poison in this world. If there was a list of the top 10 strongest monster races, the Ice Scorpion race would certainly be on the list. The students then all left Steve alone and talked among themselves.
Then, Mr. Blackwood clapped his hands and gathered the attention of all the students. He gave the reward credits to the first place, second place, and third place students. After that, he told the students that things were not quite finished yet. For today, the students can rest and do what they want. However, tomorrow they would be required to participate in 2 vs 2 team battle. The rewards would be the same, but it would be split between the winning team. Even so, the students were excited. Those were, after all, free school credits, and no one would let such a chance go.
Mr. Blackwood then told the students that they could choose their own teams. Their opponents would be chosen randomly through a raffle, just like in solo battles. He then dismissed the class and told the students to get out of the VRBS. However, none of the students did so. He then asked the students what the problem was.
"Mr. Blackwood," said a student. "You never told us how to get out."
"Oh, that's right," said Mr. Blackwood. He then explained to the students how to get out of the VRBS, and all of the students disappeared in an instant. They were out of the VRBS. In his own capsule, Steve opened his eyes and took off the headset. He got out of his capsule and went to find Charlotte and Charlene. After (forcefully) giving them both a hundred school credits, he then left and went to his dormitory room.