[OP: ]

Before the start of their battle, Carla and her opponent had a brief conversation about how they should fight.

Should they use their usual ways, should they just do the basic one-on-one combat, should they fight with their normal weapons, or should they use common weapons?

Should they use one weapon or more than one like they usually do?

How much strength they should use and if they should use skills or not?

It was a brief conversation but, Eon just shook his head and requested her to do whatever she wanted.

This was their first fight in the academy after all, and she didn't know much about him, about Lucifer, the vice-captain of [Wisdom phoenix].

He wasn't the little brother that she had caught almost every day before coming here, he was a stranger she was fighting for the first time.

She did not know how he would fight, she didn't know what methods or weapons he would use, but she didn't know practically anything.

He was an opponent she was fighting for the first time so she had to show it that way.

And though this had slipped her mind, when he pointed it out, she remembered this fact, calmed herself.. and decided to go all out, starting with a moderate speed and intensifying it as if testing how much the opponent can handle.

That was her plan and her opponent had an obligation to give her an 'honest' fight.

Yes, he would hide most of his strength, and he also couldn't use magic, Aura, or skills like [Energy burst] or [Talisman paper dummies] anyway.

What he could do would be, use his archery and swords if needed but even among the swords, bows, and arrows, he couldn't use the enchanted things or the higher-grade artifacts.

So, he had decided to use his one of the normal bows and a lot of arrows while she decided to use the normal swords and blades in her armory filled with nearly countless ones of them.. which of course also housed all of her treasured swords that she had gathered during all her time as a swordsman.

The gifted swords from her amazing little brother were the most amazing among those countless blades. But this was no place or proper time to use her treasured swords.

So.. she decided to do the same as she would with any new, fun, strong opponent and their match started when she took out a sword with wind elemental properties and cut off three arrows coming at her from the front in half.

-Clank! Clank! Clank!

And their fight started as she went in for the attack, avoiding the arrows with her [Wild instinct]. And he shot arrows just the way he would in their usual fights, just that he limited himself to three arrows.

He was an amazing archer, one of a kind that even their grandpa couldn't help but praise highly.

He had even expressed a wish for him to meet with the heavenly archer, the third seat of the House of Prism, and not just learn more from him, but teach him his unique ways too.

And that was the biggest component any archer could ever receive from a grand knight such as him.

He was good with his bows, those arrows, and his eyes that could see not just the entire area before him but genuinely everything in a vast land. He could fire as many as twelve arrows at once while being still and even aim at individual targets many times away from the normal archery range.

He could shoot six arrows at once in a fast fight like theirs, and he could almost fire three consecutive arrows in a single moment.

He could bend arrows at his will, move them as he wants without using any kind of magic or skill, he can accurately hit targets absurdly far away from their location, could shoot multiple moving targets in a vast area while being in the center, and he could also move so fast and shoot at the same time that even after seeing all that, one couldn't ever fathom how the hall that was even possible.

He was that amazing, and these were just the basic things he could do with his pure archery. Just the basic ones.

He wasn't a pure archer to be limited to these things that any other dedicated archer can achieve in a few centuries, he was a magic archer, someone that integrates magic with archery. And he knew very well how to do that.

Actually, he knew it so well that he had almost defeated their knight captain Sir Mel.. but that was a special occurrence, and they had to count that entire match invalid at the end.

But it was a fine match, and they all had fun watching the two of them.

Anyway, their duel was going pretty well until the first few seconds, so Carla decided to increase the intensity and started her barrage of blades, countering his barrage of arrows and attacking at the same time.

And this was the point where the students, the spectators lost them.

-Clank! Clank! Clank!

Carla continued using the wind element enchanted sword as her main weapon and continued throwing or using the ones in her other hand to get an advantage over the opponent that used arrows, shooting them at the same time while dodging all her attacks, moving through the big space of their arena to avoid her attacks and predict her movement patterns to have a better location advantage.

But even with all those powers he showed, she was faster and had more strength, explosive strength, and agility to stand against them.

Her physical skills, [All body reinforcement] and [Wild instincts] were more than enough to stand against six arrows at a time when she had the experience to stand against twelve. And her passive skill [Battle wisdom] helped her stand against this 'new' opponent that she was facing for the first time.

It wasn't as difficult as it used to be and midway through their fight, she thought she can win this, if she increased the intensity of their fight just a little, she can win.. but that was a mistake.

-Swish! Clank! Swish!

Something strange happened out of nowhere. Her opponent took the dagger she threw right in his chest, created an opening, disappeared from his place, reappeared right before her, and stole the sword from her hand, stopping her momentum abruptly and, pushing her down.. pointing her own sword at her.

This came out of nowhere and he was bleeding right now, something she wasn't expecting he would do in a mere duel. But, his blue eyes had seriousness in them, telling her something he had already mentioned during many of their spars where she lost because of silly mistakes like these.

'Rule 6: expect the unexpected, don't think of winning but defeating the opponent, and don't lose sight of your target, his actions, his eyes, and his breathing.'

"I surrender.."

It was her mistake. She made a silly mistake again. She could have died if this was a real battle and not a spar. She knew all that and she also knew that she wouldn't have given the opponent this kind of opening if this was a real battle with their life on the line.

She got flustered when the dagger hit him and she saw him bleeding, something she had hardly ever seen.

Her attention was disrupted and for that moment, she forgot the opponent before her isn't her brother but the house captain that she was fighting for the first time.

If she hadn't forgotten that then, she could have blocked him as soon as he took the dagger, or when he passed through the other short sword flying towards him, or when he got just before her, or when he took her sword from her hands, or when he was about to point that sword at her.

There were many chances that she could have used and turned the tables but, now she was on the ground with a sword before her eyes.. pathetic.

"Next time-"

"There might have been no next time, Miss Carla."

He interrupted her and extended his hand with a serious look that was shouting at her that she was dumb.

"Yes.." The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0/v3l-B1n.

And she was also angry at herself but she maintained her calm. That was also one of the things she learned from this bastard and her grandpa.

Keeping the head cool in all situations as when the head is cool, everything else is too.

[Announcing the end of the duel in arena 6. Winner: Lucifer.]

[Scanning for the damage..]

[Ground damage: 12%. Primary shield damage: 15.3%. Secondary shield damage: None. Tertiary shield damage: 0.03%.]

[Assessing damage to the participants.]

After a green light came out of the ground and scanned the sword-covered floor, the first shield covering the arena that had arrows struck in it, the other shield just outside of it, and the one around the area where the students were standing all glowed in green, and after that, that same green light scanned the two of them.

[Damage to one participant found.]

[Damage to the skin, skin tissues, and muscles. Damage level: Non-fatal injuries.]

[Advising the wounded participant to slowly take out the sharp weapon and use the potions provided.]

A unique magic machine resembling a short robot flew into the arena and with its unique expressions, shouted at Eon to sit down.

This was part of this training ground's administration feature, something highly advanced and something that has existed here for as long as this place was standing.

It was normal here just like the ancient tree's network and star IDs so he didn't mind the angry reaction of the helper, sat down, and focused his eyes on the other side of their arena where Rein's fight was still going on as the little helper gently took out a dagger, healed the wound with a potion and sealed the wound like it was never there.

Their fight was over, he had won, she had lost, but the fight on the other side was yet to conclude so the two watched them...

Right, the spectators were dead silent.