Extra To Protagonist

Chaos erupted.

A ring of fire flared instantly to Merlin's left, Ethan, his green eyes burning as his blade swept wide, flames carving through the sand.

A dozen students reeled back, some countering with jets of water, others hurling chunks of stone ripped from the ground.

To his right, Seraphina's ice blossomed across the dunes, jagged walls erupting in perfect, crystalline arcs. Students skidded across slick surfaces, daggers and blades clashing, frost crawling up their boots.

Shadows darted between them, Dorian, his pale hair flashing as his twin daggers cut through confusion. His movements were precise, ruthless, like a predator weaving through prey.

Nathan's laughter carried over the din, sharp and reckless. "Come on, then!" He blurred in lightning, daggers sparking as he clashed with a cluster of students who'd decided strength in numbers was their only hope.

Adrian bellowed, swinging his battle axe in arcs wide enough to carve trenches in the sand. Liliana moved near him, her water forming spears that lanced through fire and stone alike.

All around, affinities clashed, water against fire, stone against lightning, ice against darkness.

Sand exploded upward in geysers, light bent and cracked, the air itself screamed with power.

Merlin stood at the center of it, golden eyes cutting across the battlefield.

For a long moment, he didn't move.

He watched. He measured. He waited.

'They're giving everything already. Burning themselves out in the first clash.' His jaw tightened. 'If I step in now… it'll end too fast.'

He shifted his stance slightly, letting the heat of the desert settle into his skin. Lightning flickered faintly across his shoulders, wind stirring at his boots, water coiling in whispers at his fingertips. His aura pressed outward, faint but undeniable.

And students noticed.

Heads turned. Whispers broke even amid chaos.

"Merlin's not moving."

"He's just—watching."

"Doesn't he need to fight?"

Fear crept into their voices.

–––

A spear of stone shattered near his feet.

Merlin glanced up.

A tall boy with cropped brown hair glared at him from across the sand, his palm pressed against the ground. His voice shook but carried. "Don't just stand there, Everhart! You think you're above us?!"

Merlin's eyes narrowed faintly. He said nothing.

The boy grit his teeth and slammed his palms down. A wave of jagged stone spears erupted in a line, tearing across the sand toward Merlin.

Merlin exhaled once.

Lightning cracked across his body. His figure blurred, vanishing from sight. The next instant, he stood behind the boy, golden eyes gleaming faintly.

The boy froze, his breath catching.

Merlin's voice was quiet, almost gentle. "You shouldn't have drawn me in."

A flick of wind burst outward, sending the boy sprawling across the sand unconscious before he even realized what happened.

Silence rippled outward.

Then whispers.

"He—"

"Did you see—"

"He didn't even—"

Merlin turned back toward the battlefield. His expression was calm. Almost cold.

The chaos roared on, affinities tearing through sand and sky. But already, the students' attention had shifted. Already, eyes darted toward him, fear sparking in every glance.

Merlin stepped forward at last, the sand crunching beneath his boots. His golden eyes locked on the storm of combat before him.

'If they want me in this, then I'll show them what the gap really looks like.'

—

The desert churned with chaos. Firestorms twisted into walls of ice, lightning carved trenches across the dunes, and water hissed into vapor under the sun's merciless blaze. Dozens of students fought in shifting clusters, their affinities crackling in wild clashes.

And through it all, Merlin walked forward.

Every step was deliberate, sand shifting beneath his boots as though the ground itself bent to his weight. He didn't rush, didn't flare his power recklessly. Yet students noticed. Heads turned even mid-battle, eyes snagging on the golden glow at his back.

Elara watched him from across the dunes, her violet eyes sharp beneath the curtain of her silver hair. She didn't move, didn't call out, but her grip tightened around her twin blades.

Nathan broke from a group, sparks dancing across his daggers, laughter still riding his lips. But even he faltered when Merlin's gaze brushed over him.

The free-for-all had begun only minutes ago, and already the battlefield shifted. Alliances frayed, fights stalled, because one figure had finally decided to move.

Merlin stopped at the crest of a dune. He looked out across the chaos, golden eyes calm.

'They're burning themselves fast. Three-star bodies straining under affinities that eat through stamina like flame to oil. They think this is a sprint.'

A ripple of mana coiled around his hand. Wind. Lightning. Water. They answered him in quiet threads, waiting.

He lowered his arm slightly. His voice, though soft, carried across the sand.

"Come, then."

–––

The challenge lit sparks.

Three students nearest broke away instantly, rage and fear tangled in their faces. One, a broad-shouldered boy with flame affinity, hurled a torrent of fire across the dune.

The second, a girl with long braids and earth affinity, drove her hands into the sand, pillars of stone shot upward, racing to trap him. The third, a wiry boy with water affinity, swept his arm wide, a blade of liquid cutting sharp as glass.

The storm of attacks converged.

Merlin exhaled once. Lightning coiled across his skin, wind snapping around him. His figure blurred.

The firestorm collapsed into empty sand. Stone pillars slammed into each other, spraying rubble. The water blade carved air.

Gasps broke out.

Merlin stood behind them. Not a single grain of sand clung to his boots. His hand rested on the broad-shouldered boy's shoulder.

The boy froze, terror crawling across his features.

Merlin's golden eyes gleamed. "…Too slow."

A flicker of wind burst outward. All three were hurled sprawling into the dunes, knocked unconscious before they understood how.

—-

"—What?!" a voice cracked.

"He dropped them like—like nothing!" another cried.

All around, students faltered. Dozens of pairs of eyes locked on Merlin.

And then fear turned to frenzy.

"Take him down first!" someone shouted.

The words spread like wildfire.

Within moments, seven, no, nine students converged on him. A tide of flame, ice, stone, and lightning crashed forward, affinities braided together in sheer desperation.

Merlin's jaw tightened. 'So they've chosen me as the enemy.'

The air thickened. Lightning cracked around his shoulders, golden arcs dancing across his frame. Wind howled at his boots, the sand whipping into miniature storms. Water shimmered faintly at his fingertips, coiling like serpents.

The storm hit.

Flames roared. Stone spears screamed. Ice blades sliced through air. Lightning cracked in jagged arcs.

Merlin's figure vanished into the barrage.

For a heartbeat, students cheered.

Then the storm imploded.

A wave of wind tore outward, scattering fire into embers, stone into rubble, ice into glittering shards. A single burst of lightning split the sky, blinding white, and when it cleared Merlin stood at the center, untouched.

Gasps choked the air.

"…Impossible," someone whispered.

He moved.

In less than a breath, he blurred through the nine. His strikes were precise, efficient—wind snapping into knees, lightning jolting through blades, water slamming into stomachs. One by one they dropped, unconscious before their bodies hit sand.

Merlin stopped at the far side, golden eyes calm. His breathing hadn't changed. Not once.

–––

The battlefield shifted again.

Students who moments ago had been locked in duels broke apart, instinctively pulling back. Whispers cut jagged through the heat.

"He's not even—he's not even sweating."

"That's not human."

"Six stars… it has to be."

Dorian Graves crouched on a dune, daggers glinting in his pale hands, crimson eyes narrowing. He said nothing, but the set of his jaw hardened.

Seraphina's silver eyes locked on Merlin too, her ice affinity blooming faintly at her fingertips. Calculating.

Nathan barked out a laugh, spinning his daggers. "Now this is more like it!" Sparks licked across his frame, his grin feral. "Don't hold back on me, Everhart!"

Merlin glanced at him. His gaze didn't linger, but it was enough. Nathan's grin twitched.

—

From across the dunes, Morgana's violet hair caught the sun. She hadn't moved since the start, her arms folded, her gaze fixed only on him. Her lips curved in a faint smile.

"He's not even pressing past a fraction of it," she murmured.

No one heard her.

–––

The desert roared on. Dozens of students still fought, desperate to prove themselves, desperate not to vanish into insignificance beside him.

But more and more, the center of gravity tilted.

Toward Merlin.

He stood at the heart of it, golden eyes steady, waiting for the next wave.

'This is only the beginning,' he thought, the wind stirring sharper around him. 'If I release even half… they won't last minutes.'

—

The desert battlefield burned.

Smoke curled from shattered dunes, shards of ice glinted like teeth across the sand, and the sun's heat shimmered against distorted air. Already a dozen students lay unconscious, their bodies scattered like discarded dolls. The instructors monitoring through the pods marked their names quietly, removing them from the rankings.

And at the heart of the chaos stood Merlin.

Golden arcs crawled lazily across his frame, wind tugged at his clothes, and faint traces of water trailed his fingertips before evaporating into the heat. His chest rose and fell steady, unhurried, like someone strolling through a garden, not surviving a free-for-all with sixty opponents.

Around him, silence gathered.

Not complete, there were still skirmishes on the edges, still grunts and shouts and the crackle of affinities tearing through sand. But in the center, within the invisible ring that had formed around him, no one dared move.

They'd seen what happened to the nine who tried.

Merlin's golden eyes scanned the circle. His lips curved, faint, humorless.

'They've decided to wait me out. Or… no.' His gaze flicked, catching Seraphina's silver eyes, Nathan's sparks in the corner of his vision, Dorian's crimson glare like knives. Elara's violet gaze, unflinching. Liliana's nervous blue. Ethan's narrowed green. Adrian, already twirling his massive axe in one hand as if it weighed nothing.

'They're planning.'

The tension cracked when Nathan stepped forward.

"Alright!" His voice cut across the field, sharp and bold. Sparks leapt with his words, tracing down his daggers. "Enough gawking, yeah? We all saw it, Everhart's a damn monster. Stronger than all of us, sure. But if we don't take him now, none of us stand a chance of ranking!"

Murmurs rippled. Some students nodded fiercely. Others looked uncertain, glancing nervously between Merlin and their supposed allies.

Seraphina's voice slid cold across the dunes. "He's right. This isn't about pride. It's survival. We take him down together."

Dorian scoffed, crimson eyes flashing. "Together? Hmph. Call it what you like. I'll carve him open with or without you." His daggers shimmered, frost curling along their edges.

Liliana clenched her fists, blue eyes bright but nervous. "If we're doing this… then fine. But I'm not letting anyone die."

Ethan just yawned, green eyes half-lidded. "Tch. All of you are exhausting. But fine, if I don't do something, it'll be boring." Flames hissed across his longsword as he dragged it through the sand.

Adrian lifted his axe to rest across his shoulders, golden hair shining under the simulated sun. His grin was wide, confident. "Heh. If we're swinging at giants, I'd rather swing hard. Let's go."

The circle closed.

Elara said nothing. She hadn't moved since the free-for-all began, violet eyes fixed on Merlin alone. When the others finally began stepping forward, she followed—not behind, not ahead, but beside them, blades gleaming faintly at her hips.

Merlin's jaw tightened. "…So this is it."

The ground trembled as affinities surged at once. Firestorms licked the dunes, ice cracked into jagged walls, lightning slashed the sky, water shimmered in coiling waves. Sandstorms howled to life under Adrian's axe swings, each one splitting the ground.

The strongest of the first years, all converging.

On him.