The Battle Club.

Its full name is the Aislen Academy Magic Combat Discussion Club.

It might be called a club, but after years of growth, the now-famous Battle Club has become a massive organization with a full thousand members.

A few academy Mentors often lead the group, with the sixth- and seventh-year upperclassmen as its main fighting force, taking the third- and fourth-year Witches to the front lines to scavenge.

That’s right. Scavenge.

Witch warfare is very different from human warfare—but that’s a story for another time.

In any case, after years of growth, the Battle Club has become a super-club on par with the four major auxiliary clubs.

“The medical facilities here are top-notch. Even if you accidentally kill another Witch, they’ve got healers who can pull your soul back.”

At the mention of the Battle Club, Blondie’s whole face lit up. She eagerly explained the club’s extensive safety measures to Jiang Cha—even though she and He Qin both felt that being able to accidentally kill someone was already pretty unsafe.

“What if they don’t get there in time?”

“The club president will bring people to blast open the gates of Hell and fish them out of the River Styx.”

Lina answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, completely oblivious to how much that casual remark had stunned the girl.

‘Okay, doubting how miraculous Witches can be was my mistake.’

Witches could even pin Fate in place and seal off the River of Time. At this point, nothing they did could surprise Jiang Cha.

The Battle Club covered an enormous area. From the outside, it looked like a full-sized Roman Colosseum, and the complex magical information filling the air sent Jiang Cha’s brain into overdrive.

She could even faintly make out the afterimages contained in that magical information: Witch battles, one after another. The dazzling, thrilling traces of all kinds of magic almost made her eyes swim.

The surging battle lust and bloodthirsty killing intent within it even stirred her usually ice-calm mind into a fever pitch. It took her a few seconds to barely suppress the urge to pick a fight with someone.

“Cha Bao, what’s your Mentalism rating, anyway? Most Witches aren’t nearly this calm the first time they come to the Battle Club.”

Seeing the girl act as if nothing were wrong, Lina cried out in amazement.

“I don’t think it has much to do with my Mentalism rating.”

Jiang Cha shrugged. “It’s my innate magic.”

“Oh~ Then I won’t ask. Hahahaha~ I’m getting more and more excited to fight you!”

“Cut it out.”

He Qin frowned and patted Lina on her little head.

The overwhelming battle lust and lingering bloodthirsty killing intent here made her very uncomfortable. Unlike Jiang Cha, she didn’t have a convenient kind of magic to suppress the urge; she had to rely on sheer willpower.

It was much like the corruption caused by Witch knowledge. A weaker species would probably lose its mind and go berserk on the spot.

Lina, however, just stuck out her tongue sheepishly as if nothing were wrong. After all, she came here all the time, so a little thing like the atmosphere didn’t affect her anymore.

“Little Lina, bringing classmates here to spar again?”

“Hahahaha~ They don’t look like Combat Witches. Don’t bully your classmates, okay?”

“I wouldn’t do that!”

The blonde loli was still as popular as ever in the Battle Club. Upperclassmen kept greeting her along the way, and she pretended to get huffy as she answered the ones teasing her.

They walked all the way to the Battle Club’s entrance, where a tall Witch stood waiting. She wore a short top and shorts that left plenty of pale skin exposed, gleaming in the sunlight.

“Yo~ Little Lina, who are these two?”

“This is my dormmate, Senior Casey. I brought some new recruits for our Battle Club. Cha Bao~ Fill this out.”

Lina replied casually, then handed the girl a form so simple it was surprising.

It only had a few lines for basic information like name and year. It didn’t even ask about her innate magic.

After a moment’s hesitation, Jiang Cha wrote “hand-to-hand combat” under fighting style, then handed the form back to Senior Casey. “That’s all I need to do?”

“It’s not that easy. The Battle Club’s evaluation is pretty strict...”

Casey looked around. Wherever her gaze landed, the Witches who’d gathered curiously to watch all took a synchronized step back. Her eyes returned to Lina. “Whatever. You’ll do. Go have a match with your dormmate and let me see what she can do.”

“Ehh—! But I’m a newbie! Is that really okay?”

Lina cried out on the spot. Newcomer evaluations were a huge hassle.

“Enough whining. If I tell you to go, then go.”

Casey kicked her in the little butt and sent her flying from the platform, more than twenty meters up, straight onto the combat stage. Then she turned to Jiang Cha. “What, do you want me to help you too?”

“No, no need.”

Jiang Cha didn’t want to get kicked more than twenty meters through the air and land flat on her face, so she nimbly hopped onto the combat stage.

The combat stage wasn’t all that large—about the size of a soccer field. It definitely wouldn’t be enough for the upper-year students, but for two first-year Little Witches who hadn’t learned many spells yet, it would do.

“Ooh! Nice and nimble! I knew Cha Bao was a natural at combat!”

“See? I told you I wasn’t wrong about her.”

“But I’ve barely learned any spells.”

The girl shrugged helplessly.

“A few” was putting it generously. After cramming last night, she’d only memorized four spell models from the textbook—and two of them, Cleaning and Fortification, had no combat use at all.

“It’s fine~ I don’t know many spells either...”

Lina had barely started speaking when Casey impatiently rang the bell to start the match. Jiang Cha reacted with astonishing speed, raising her hand and firing a Lightning Bolt.

The two were only a few dozen meters apart. The Lightning Bolt reached Lina in a fraction of a second.

That split-second speed was one of the benefits of Jiang Cha’s innate magic.

She could construct spell models at an unbelievable speed, and her reflexes were nearly at the limits of her body.

But the sneak attack was still too obvious. A Witch could react fast enough to dodge a Lightning Bolt.

“Whoa! That was close!”

Lina shouted as she tilted her head aside, dodging the Lightning Bolt. It slammed into the ground, leaving a scorched mark as electricity crackled in every direction.

“My turn! Watch out, Cha Bao! This is my innate magic.”

Before she’d even finished speaking, four Fireballs appeared in Lina’s hands and shot toward Jiang Cha, moving even faster than the Lightning Bolt. And that wasn’t all: in that fraction of a second, the four Fireballs each shifted course, sealing off every route the girl could take to dodge. At the same time, another four Fireballs appeared in Lina’s hands.

Fourth-circle spell: Rapid-fire Fireball.

With Lina’s Grand Witch Tier mana reserves and the naturally high efficiency of her innate magic, she could practically be a rocket launcher with infinite ammo, bombarding her opponent without pause.

‘Just as I thought. It won’t be that easy.’

Faced with such a dangerous attack, the girl still had time to pout.

The moment the Fireballs were about to hit her face, their scorching plasma flames nearly singed the strands of hair protected by her magic.

Jiang Cha instantly bent backward, narrowly skimming the ground as she dodged the four Fireballs hovering in midair. Four Lightning Bolts appeared one after another beside her and shot forward in rapid succession.

A first-circle spell naturally couldn’t match the power of a fourth-circle spell. But if you could cast fast enough, firing off low-tier spells in quick succession wasn’t hard.

“This kid’s got some moves.”

Casey whistled leisurely, looking a little surprised.

Lina had brought Jiang Cha here, so Casey knew the evaluation wouldn’t be a problem for her. Still, she hadn’t expected a transfer student to trade a few blows with Lina, who’d been training at the Battle Club for a month.

The blonde loli might look a little ditzy, but when it came to fighting, she was a genius.

“Are all the new kids monsters these days? Hey, could you do that when you first enrolled? Fire Lightning Bolts in rapid succession?”

“Of course I could!”

“But probably not that smoothly, right?”

“Oh, shut up. If you’ve got so much to say, why don’t we fight?”

The two upperclassmen watching the match started arguing, and before long, they looked ready to throw hands.

He Qin, meanwhile, remained tense. The evaluation didn’t matter. As long as Jiang Cha didn’t get hurt, that was all that mattered.

“Cha Bao, you’re actually this strong!?”

Even Lina was surprised as she darted around the stage, trading spells with Jiang Cha.

“It’s a benefit of my innate magic. I’m dual-casting right now.”

The girl’s voice sounded... cold? Detached? Neither was quite right. More accurately, it sounded mechanical—devoid of emotion, without the slightest fluctuation.

The indigo glow around her also showed that she wasn’t bluffing.

“Being able to dual-cast already makes you a monster!”

Lina complained. Was this girl showing off!? Dual-casting meant running two spell models at once, and she could still cast instantly and keep casting without pause.

What kind of monstrous control was that!?

She hadn’t even been at the academy for twenty-four hours!

Still, Lina had the upper hand. A fourth-circle spell was a fourth-circle spell. Never mind the power—each Fireball contained several times as much mana as Jiang Cha’s Lightning Bolt.

Their spells weren’t even in the same league when it came to durability. Lina’s Fireballs could smash straight through the Lightning Bolts and keep flying.

The only reason Jiang Cha could hold her own was the incredible calculating power her innate magic gave her. With clever firing angles, she made her Lightning Bolts strike the Fireballs from the side and knock them off course. She kept moving to dodge the explosions, barely managing to protect herself.

“Hey, Jiang... Lina’s dormmate.”

Just then, Casey called out from the raised platform, looking thoroughly entertained.

“The principle behind Empowered Casting is simple. Just pump more mana into the spell model. As long as the model doesn’t collapse, you can keep adding more. How much you can put in before it collapses depends on your control.”

Lina’s instincts immediately told her something was wrong. She couldn’t quite believe any Witch could learn Empowered Casting on the spot, but...

“Damn it! Cha Bao, you can actually do that!?”

The Lightning Bolt paused for an instant in the girl’s palm, then changed from bright blue to purple. Lina couldn’t help swearing out loud.

“Next, there’s multi-casting. All you have to—”

“Senior Casey!!”

Lina shouted in exasperation. The Fireball in her hand instantly swelled, then crashed into the empowered Lightning Bolt and triggered a violent explosion.

She’d reacted a beat too slowly, and it cost her. Even the hem of her magical robe caught fire in a few places.

“All right, all right~”

Casey shrugged and looked at Jiang Cha with an expression that said there was nothing she could do.

“I think I get it.”

The girl’s voice remained utterly mechanical.

But the Lightning Bolts behind her... suddenly split, turning from one into four!