The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Planet Eleron)

(Elite Student Housing Complex- Mansion 456 Y)

"Move over babe… let me get a spot," Cleo gently spoke as she bent down and kissed Sophie's lips.

Sophie immediately shifted her body slightly to the right and made room for her girlfriend to lie down on the couch with her.

Night had fallen and a cool breeze blew through a partially open window.

The living room was dimly lit and both girls fell into a comfortable silence.

"So, the first round of the battle ranking exam is over," Sophie quietly whispered as she played with Cleo's curly hair.

"Hmm… yeah…" Cleo lazily replied as she closed her eyes.

Sophie saw that her girlfriend was feeling a bit tired and thoughtfully begun to massage her temples.

Cleo hummed in satisfaction as Sophie's soft fingers lovingly pressed against the sides of her head and rubbed in a circular motion.

The princess had used quite a bit of mental force during her group stage fight, so she was currently suffering from a mild headache.

Unfortunately, even with the temporal reversal formation, mech students were not allowed to use their mechs so they were forced to rely on psychic techniques.

To be fair they were still quite powerful, but it definitely took a toll having to fight waves of students in a short period of time.

Sophie stroked her girlfriend's soft cheeks and could not resist tilting her head and nibbling on her ears.

"Stop it… stop it… I… I won't be able to fight if you get in the mood…" Cleo complained reluctantly as she pushed Sophie's head away.

The hybrid girl let out a sigh of disappointment and the pinkish mist that was beginning to spread across her golden eyes receded.

Cleo felt a wave of exhaustion hit her body and gradually her breathing became steadier and more peaceful.

Sophie looked down with a warm smile when she saw that her girlfriend had fallen into a deep slumber.

She picked up Cleo in her arms and brought her up the stairs to the bedroom in a princess carry.

Sophie opened the bedroom door and carefully placed the sleeping girl on the mattress while taking care not to wake her up.

She reached for the blanket at the bottom of the mattress and covered Cleo's body.

Sophie pressed her lips against Cleo's forehead and turned around to leave the room.

"Good night, babe," Sophie whispered softly as she closed the door behind her. Sophie headed for the kitchen and opened the freezer to grab a drink.

She unscrewed the top of a bottle and drank the pleasant-smelling fruit wine that was inside the glass.

It was a real shame that her Arachnais physiology instantly broke down all toxins that entered her body, so it was impossible for her to get drunk.

Sophie enjoyed the taste of the purplish liquid and stared out of the window at the other mansions in the housing complex.

She was clearly not the only one awake in the early night since lights were on in most of the houses across the street.

Sophie's golden eyes darkened, and she could make out vague figures moving around behind the curtains.

It was just a casual glance since Sophie had no interest in spying on her neighbours.

Honestly, she had not interacted with any of them since moving into Mansion 456 Y in the first semester.

Sophie's wrist communicator buzzed twice, and she opened it to see a few notifications pop up on the screen from the University's open forum.

Out of curiosity, Sophie clicked the link and was brought to the main page of the forum where dozens of videos and threads were currently going viral.

[Shocking news! The mysterious dark horse among the freshmen!]

[The brutality of this year's battle ranking exam! Is this a loss of morality and ethics?!]

[Freshmen: The hottest babes and sexiest guys tier list!]

That last headline had the highest number of comments below it and Sophie saw that it included pictures of most of her classmates.

"What?! I'm outside the top three hundred?!" Sophie exclaimed in mock anger as she browsed the thread.

Apparently, her hybrid looks were a turn off to the creator of the unofficial tier list, so she was not included.

Sophie chuckled lightly but still gave the post a thumbs up since it ranked Cleo as one of the prettiest girls in the college.

That was a fact that Sophie could agree with!

The hybrid girl began to browse the other threads and saw that most were talking about the first round of the exam that had occurred earlier today.

It was not a surprise that this was such a hot topic since quite a few students had managed to stand out from the rest.

Sophie Peterlor the daughter of the famous Duke Peterlor was perhaps the brightest, but others were not far behind.

Outside of her immediate friends, Sophie opened up the footage of a few students who had caught her attention.

One of them was a boy from the combat beast class who controlled an enormous fiery bird that resembled a phoenix.

Another was a human girl with cybernetic prosthetic limbs who used her deadly appendages in a unique combat style.

There was even a Quafes student who used charm techniques and shifted between genders to confuse and tempted the students in his group.

Although his technique may seem weak… Sophie's eyes narrowed when she saw its effects on the students in his group.

The Quafes boy managed to turn his enemies into allies and despite it being an exam, the students under the control of his charm desperately tried to defend and protect him.

"Impressive…." Sophie solemnly whispered as she made a mental note in the back of her mind.

Bleep! Bleep!

Her communicator suddenly rang twice, and Sophie saw an incoming message arrive in her inbox.

It was from Principal Malik, and the contents of the message was about the next round of the exam.

Sophie hurriedly opened up the message but as she read the lines of text her brows slowly began to furrow, and a frown appeared on her face.

[Congratulations to all students who passed the first round! The next stage of the exam will begin tomorrow.]

[The next stage will involve live combat with an unknown enemy in a hostile environment. More details will be revealed when the round starts.]

[Please select your chosen arena from the list of options below. If no selection is made, then an arena will be randomly assigned.]

[Time Remaining For Selection: 10 hours 59 minutes… 10 hours 58 minutes…]

[Forest] [Desert] [Grasslands] [Swamp] [River/Lake] [Island] [Tundra]

A list of options?

Sophie hovered her finger over the different arenas as a few thoughts ran through her mind.

She finally decided to tap the [Desert] option since it reminded her of her experiences in the Unovan Syndicate.

Honestly it didn't matter which she picked since Sophie was confident in her ability to handle any challenge that lay ahead.

In fact, just knowing that the next stage tomorrow involved mysterious and powerful enemies made the bloodlust in her body surge.