Mille flapped her frosted wings which caused the area to descend into coldness. Suddenly ice element pinnacles were shot around Mina.

Almost simultaneously, everyone found themselves in the center of an ice storm which could only be seen in the Arctic.

"Retreat...It's Ice Age Mille. Get out of here." Several students shouted as they started running around for dear life.

About thirty students who had not heard of Mille stopped closing in on Mina and turned around in joining the fleeing students after being affected by the chilling ice cones.

A dozen of the weaker students didn't have enough time in getting out of the attack range and was frozen by the ice. Even the expressions of those students were frozen. A few of the stronger ones were "brilliant" enough to have broken their badge before getting hit by the ice and then they were gone immediately. There was one student who had cast some sorcery and in the next split second his body lengthened as he then jumped high into the sky. Afterwards he continued flying without turning around.

As the ice storm continued raging, the air suddenly distorted. Kyrie had carried Bionna up onto the top of an ice column, along with Roga and Nina whose faces had turned white.

Yates on the farther side was also covered by ice. He tried to break the ice by drawing on the dark elements but found that the element power was being neutralized by the ice. His body shivered with cold as he held onto the badge.

On the ground, Sam shattered the ice wrapping around him with a burst of magical wave. He was the Immortal Sam! He then flew to the sky as if the near-death experience was not real. When he caught sight of the grim-eyed student riding the Ice Phoenix, he hesitated no more and regrouped with the team.

Mina coughed and rose up gradually. She flew to Mille while enduring the great pain and stood beside her. She glared at the students on top of the column but said nothing. It was her sister who had deterred them, so the proud Mina would not take advantage and threaten them.

She might have realized that as the students were gaining knowledge by the day, the gift she possessed could not maintain her absolute advantage any longer.

Mille threw a look at Mina and shook her head. She was well aware of the fact that Mina had been spoiled by their father, but seeing her little sister so bullied by the students she could not help but shift her gaze toward them. Her eyes finally locked onto Sam.

"Are you the Immortal Sam that Mina mentioned? It's truly an amazing sorcery. Sadly, my Ice Age sorcery belongs to Energy Conservation (Ice) enclosement."

Sam's body shook, but it went unnoticed. He flapped his wings and hovered around the team.

After wiping away the blood on the corner of her mouth Mina murmured, "Watch out for the mouse-carrying guy. I noticed him pulling out a creature from the Void Space."

Mina and Mille were from a family of advanced sorcerers, and for this reason their knowledge was more extensive. That was partially why they were stronger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bionna's face had lost all color. She didn't act presumptuous as the ices columns rained down, and she almost broke the badge because she might die if struck. At the crucial moment Kyrie carried her up and flew into the sky. Even at this moment she was still trembling at the sight of Mille. She was weaker in comparison to Kyrie, Sam and Roga in terms of sorceries and her gift seemed to pale compared to Mille. Thus, she appeared unable to defend herself against Mille by herself at all.

She had a reason to be feared.

Ice Age Mille's sorcery was based on ice and it was in general an advanced variant of water-related sorceries despite the fact that water properties could not be replaced by ice. The water and ice based sorceries coexisted, with ice being stronger in battles. It was akin to the fact that the Demon-Hunters and Ougi sorcerers ran parallel but the former was dominant in numbers.

Hence, water sorcery (Bionna) would mostly be crushed by ice sorcery (Mille). But it was possible that Bionna's Golden Eye could cause damage to Mille.

"Are they siblings? They look so alike." Bionna asked in a trembling voice.

Roga let out a breath in an effort to calm down. "She might be one of the two best students in the recent 100 years of all schools in section 12. She's even stronger than any of the top three students of our school."

Nina was standing behind the team. The cold wind made her tremble a little. She watched the flying Ice Phoenix in desperation. "Is this a sorcery cast by a mere student?"

Kyrie grimaced. "She can change elements into a creature with form. It would completely restrain the void creature that I pulled out from the Void Space."

Sam added. "Only students who have practiced earth, ice or life sorceries stand a chance of winning against her. I can't deal with her." There was noticeable fear in Sam's voice. He even had the mind to give up.

Roga observed, "Bionna and I are both restrained by her sorcery. We'd better not engage her. We'd have no chance to defeat them if the two cooperate. But if we do engage, Kyrie you'll be keeping Nina safe and I'll take her on by not completely relying on water sorceries."

"Got it." Kyrie replied.

With the plan set, Roga called out to Mille. "Respectable Ice Age Mille, we didn't know Mina was close with you. But we'll compensate for what has been done."

All Roga got was a laugh.

"Wow, It's Roga. I believe you've been elbowed out of Black Isotta's Top Ten. How dare you speak with me?"

"You're..." Roga's bamboo-thin body shook with anger. Magical force simmered within his body.

Mille's words opened the gate of his pain.

How could he have been kicked out of the Top Ten if it was not for the fact that he had attacked Lafite in the Black Isotta?

When Roga had sneaked an attack at Lafite, the school's guardians were summoned up for the impending section war; he thought he would not be punished because of this. But he ended up being caught by the Enforcement team and received severe punishment. His power suffered a great weakening and he was then kicked out of the Top Ten. Now his power had recovered but it wasn't enough to gain him a place on the list again.

Roga felt so ashamed that he was avoiding seeing anyone, because for some students being the on Top Ten list was the greatest glory.

Mille didn't share this kind of feeling, but her smile grew restrained upon seeing Roga's embarrassment. "Give up your chain marks and then you can stay alive."

Mille's eyes sparkled and the Ice Phoenix let loose a prolonged, piercing cry. Flakes of ice fell down subsequently.

The ten-meter long, element activity phoenix was already a behemoth for the students and it produced a huge amount of magical waves.

At the same time, Mille stretched out her hand and launched a chilling icicle towards the team. Afterwards, she fetched the ice fan from her back and swung it with great force.

Roga yelled immediately. "Get ready." He quickly flew to the ground and created a large sheet of mire. Soon tentacles came out of the mire and came at Mille like the octopus' tentacles that almost destroyed the ship that had carried Glenn and the other students. At the same time, Roga shouted and his body began to slowly transform into a mollusk.

Sam, Kyrie, Bionna and Nina also joined the battle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Half an hour later, the Ice Phoenix was chasing Kyrie and Nina who were continuously changing direction to avoid being attacked. For several times already Bionna had been pushed to the limit of her strength by Mille, but was saved by Sam and Roga every time.

The mire had shrunk to one fifth of its original size with the water continually being frozen. Over ten tentacles had become solid ice, and columns of water and slurry were frozen in intersections. The remaining three tentacles were still moving to fight but Roga appeared to have become desperate after seeing that Mille was barely hurt.

"If I was not helped by Sam and Nina, I couldn't have survived till now."

One of Roga's arms was apparently hit by an ice column and was covered with a black aura to heal, and his large blue sword had diminished to the size of a dagger because of the overconsumption of energy.

All of the students now harbored the thought of giving up.

"Is this the power of a legendary student of section 12?" said Sam. "Although it's partly because her sorcery element restrains ours, she's way more powerful than us."

Mille suddenly turned her eyes to Sam and said. "Are you not going to quit? How much power do you have now? I'll definitely not hesitate even though the cost of casting ice sorcery is high."

Just then, the sounds of applause could be heard from a stone column in the distance.

Everyone on site turned their head in shock. None of them had noticed that a student in black had been sitting there for a long time.

The student seemed very relaxed as if enjoying a play.

Mille grimaced and threw a look at him. The hole in his chest and the ringer hung in it astonished her. She then noticed the chain mark on his forehead. "A student from section 15?"

Mille once had the idea of traveling to other sections' stone forests but she had abandoned the idea because she thought that the collection of chain marks had to be big enough to earn her the prize of her section first.

But the student on the column...

"Finally I found someone interesting from section 12." The student licked his tongue and assumed the look that a sophisticated student would have while examining a novice student.