"I had no doubts you would win," Darius who also won his bout says.
"You won yours too, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I did. But it was a really close call. Luckily my partner was a really strong warrior."
At first, I found it strange that a magic school training mages sometimes trained them in basic martial arts or made them fight with wooden swords, however I grew to see the efficiency in it. If they take on the warrior or fighters role, they can accurately and decisively pick the right spells to cast at the right situations as suitable support. It's a little rough, but it seems to be working.
"Whoaa!"
The crowd of students start cheering as they gather around the arena where the next match is happening.
"Oh that's right. Larien's match is up on now." Darius remarks, looking toward the arena.
We move closer to get a better view, and Larien's golden locks comes into view. His partner is a girl I don't know who takes the position of caster, while he takes warrior. From what I can see, he's carrying the pair all by himself, as he must have only paired up with this loser as a formality.
Her level is 16 and her magic tier is 1. She's among some of the less skilled nobles I've seen. She's too busy staring at Larien to cast any of her support spells right. Maybe that's why the crowd is so fired up. Because even with those trash spells, he managed to defeat his two opponents all on his own, whose levels are 24 and 27. And they seem to be quite popular by the looks of the crowd gathered.
"As expected of Prince Larien!"
"Was there ever any doubt?!"
"He took down Fashur and Hadwyn in the blink of an eye!"
"I heard he's already reached the third tier of magic!"
"And he's still that good even in the warrior's role?!"
Just as I thought. Larien is quite popular. I'm still yet to decide if having him on my team rather than facing him is the best strategy, but for now I'll work with what I have.
Larien smiles as he spots Darius and I in the crowd, and begins to walk up to us.
"I watched your match," Larien starts, fixing the tie he loosened before his match. "It ended quite swiftly."
"I was up against weaklings. I'm more impressed by your match, and the speed of your take down."
"Both of you did very well. I'm sure you'll be getting As." Darius adds.
Larien turns to glance at the quiet Eleric standing by the corner, leaning against a wall.
"So, how was Eleric?"
"He's very skilled and talented... but he's wasting it."
"Wasting it?" Larien and Darius ask in unison.
I nod as I turn to glance at him as well. "It seems he's afraid of something."
"Afraid? Of what?" Larien questions, with a bit of a puzzled look on his face.
"Whenever he had the chance to land a critical strike or the finishing blow, he purposefully never took it. Almost like he was scared something would happen if he did."
"Hm..." Larien hums in thinking. "Could it be...?"
"Do you have something in mind?" I ask, watching him rub his chin in thought.
"Oh... I'm not sure if this is the case but it seems the most likely," Larien starts. "When we were younger, Eleric and I were actually quite close in a way. Whenever his father came to see his majesty, Eleric and I would be left alone to play by ourselves. One day, and incident happened. Assassins broke into the castle aiming for my elder brother. One of them found us playing instead and wanted to take me hostage. Eleric fought to protect me. As expected of the son of a knight family, even at that young age he took down the assassin quite swiftly. But a gifted child is still a child I suppose. He hadn't been taught the act of killing yet or what it truly meant. The assassin had pretended to surrender, but when he let down his guard he attempted to throw knives at me, and Eleric quickly took action, landing a fatal blow, killing the assassin instantly. If he's afraid of dealing any critical strikes, then I guess he's not really over it yet."
"I see,"
That would explain why he avoids any chances to deal a finishing blow so vehemently, but this situation... is so lame. Is he kidding me with this 'I feel guilty bullshit'? So he developed a trauma after killing a guy who was trying to kill him, that part I understand, but from the effects, it's not that he's traumatized by the experience, but rather feels guilty for taking a life. Why does this scenario feel so fucking familiar? So he feels guilty for taking the life of a man who was trying to take his? So much so that he won't raise his sword at anyone anymore?
"Okay class. I believe you understand the essence of support in combat from these bouts. Now we'll move on to attack spells. For this, you will be facing against the person you paired up with. Please take your positions in the arena in the order you went before." The professor announces, giving us another exercise.
Alright then. I'll just have to make him understand, that in the midst of battle, when it comes down to it, the only two options are; either I take his life, or I hand mine over. Crap I'm pissed. I didn't think I'd meet another hopeless idiot like this in my life.
I exhale a bit of pent up air as I stare at the hopeless opponent before me. Eleric grabs a wooden sword from the weapons box and I do the same. I don't think I'll feel any better until I beat the crap out of him. It's your fault for reminding me of unpleasant things.
"Come at me with all you have from the beginning. I won't go easy on you," Eleric states, tightening his grip on his sword.
"Shut up. That's what I should be saying to you... April."