Neither demon moved.
Ellen's hand rose slowly, and her fingers curled around the hilt of the rapier at her hip.
The blade left its scabbard without a sound.
It was a slender thing, almost delicate in appearance, the kind of weapon that looked decorative until the person holding it decided otherwise.
No mana pulsed visibly along its edge or elemental affinity crackled at its tip.
It simply existed in her hand, perfectly still, perfectly level, the way a needle was still before it passed through something.
"Time's up."
The first demon moved.
He crossed thirty meters in a fraction of a second, demonic mana erupting from his frame in a dense, suffocating wave as his fist came down in an overhead strike that would have leveled a section of the academy's outer wall.
CLANG!
Ellen's rapier was already there.
