From left, right, above, and below, my sight was hindered by this obscuring resplendent wall of flames. Unlike mine, Arya's flames are bright and splendid to look at. Blue and bright flames devouring the entire ground into nothingness. There's no increase in the temperature despite it surrounding me.
"Let's fight bare fist," Arya said.
"You sure?"
"I, the princess can't get excited if the fight would end quickly. Moreover, I'm sure you would end up dead if I lose to the excitement Hehehe~ Fist would suffice my boiling passion, so be grateful. Fufufu~ "
"Sure... If you say so, then let's do it. But why the barrier?"
"To make sure you won't escape. I'm too intimidating. Hehe~"
'This dragon princess... Quite cocky?' "Aight, let's do this."
Taking a stride with my left arm on my chest and my right hand pressed against my cheekbone, keeping my stance tight. Arya also took a stride with her left foot and both of her hands are clutching on the ground beneath her. "Her unusual stance from last time." I mutteringly said to myself.
"1... 2... 3... Go!" Arya yelled.
In a blink of an eye, she disappears from my sight and reveals herself a few feet away from me. I throw my fist into her, but she intercepts it by coiling her arm around it and snapping it like a piece of stick. "*Crack* Ugh..." I respond with a twisted expression on my face, yet despite the agonizing pain—I didn't falter or scream. But, I can certainly still feel the pain.
'This bitch. I need to pop this shit back up.'
Arya was taken back by my initial reaction but was welcomed by my fist into her jaw. Sending her flying away. I flail my broken arm around. "This would eat a lot... of my quintessence. She snapped it like a wooden branch. She's absurdly strong."
"Wow! Do you not feel pain?" Arya yelled from the distance, adjusting her jaw in place. "That hurts! Hehehe! I deserve it. But still, don't humans have a rule of men being gentle to women?"
"Excluding you."
"Ehhhh!? That's harsh. Either way, those rules are for the weakling. This is why people from below are born mediocrity. Truly the land of the generic."
"The heck are you talking about? Stop talking to yourself and I'm done here. Fight your own self and keep those points to yourself. I don't want to get injured."
"What?! But we only started! It's not my fault if you're too slow!"
"What kind of logic is that?! Take a look at this!" I raise my broken arm. "In what world does this count as sparring!? Do you even know the meaning of it?!"
"Fight? What's wrong with it?! Fight is fight! Sparring has the word fight in it! I even held myself back for this! You don't understand my suffering with my classmates not wanting to spar against me! They're so evil! I've been itching for a fight! The professor can heal it like what he did to my other classmates!"
"I'm the scape-goat?!" 'Those bastards! How cruel. But I also did accept it... However, I didn't expect her to be this strong! I even fortified my entire arm earlier with quintessence, but she snap it like nothing!'
"Okay, I promise! I will not be violent!"
Reminiscing earlier, it's still clear in my mind how I felt when her arms coiled around my arm. There's a distinct sensation of her mana being different from others. It's more potent than Lily's that I even felt it's rivaling mine. Was it because dragons are close to transcendent creatures? It's one way to put it. Moreover, the punch I gave her... I saw it with my own eyes that her eyes are already on my fist when it was just about to move away from my body, so that means, she can easily dodge it.
"Instead of me, just go ask the Shin guy. He has the white dragon, so he should be enough for you."
"I already did~! But he's too weak! I want someone that can make my blood boil! At first, I thought he would be strong since he has the spirit of that disgrace of a dragon. But to my dismay, he's no fun."
"What about Lily?" 'Disgrace of a dragon? What does she mean by that?'
"She doesn't want to! Even the Adelle girl doesn't want to! On top of that, I put a handicap on myself on others, but it doesn't feel good at all! I want to fight with everything I can!"
"Thought so... Aight, take care!"
"Noo! I won't let you!"
In an instant, Arya was already in front of my face. I teleport away from her out of instinct because of the looming danger in her eyes. When I felt that I was at a safer place, Arya was already on my back and her fist inch away from my chest. So, I did it again, but I teleport myself out of her own barrier on the far back end of the stadium with the wall against my back. Yet again, she's already in my tail and about to launch an attack against me. "Huuuh?!" I said in confusion.
"If you don't want to fight me and run away then I'll bring myself into you!" She punches the wall behind me, as I jump from her shoulder.
"How are you doing this?!"
Every time I dodge her attacks by teleporting myself to a different place, she would also pop out in a few seconds! Does she also have skills related to space magic? Or is she that fast?! It's absurd! No matter how many times I attempt to lose her at this forest where we ended up, she's able to follow up. We're so far away from the S-Class training ground that I didn't take notice when I saw the trees around me.
"Wait a minute!"
"No! Fight me!"
"Don't follow me! I have something else to do!"
"Nooo!"
The situation had become dire, so in response, I summon a spear in my left hand and threw them to Arya whenever I would see her face. However, it's utterly useless against her because my spear would only break from just grazing her skin. And that also incited the joyous expression on Arya's face. "Are we going to go all out?! Yehey!"
In Arya's arm, a massive ax materializes; two blades on both sides and some obscure design on the handle, which she went for a swing to me with a smile. To block it, I summon two spears on my hands intercepting the blade of the ax.
-Clang!
I then cast my eyes down to her feet. Black chains wrap around Arya's thigh, holding her on the ground before casting my gaze on the tree behind her.
"Not enough!" Arya twists her entire body, destroying my chains, and opens her mouth to me. In split seconds, blazing flames shot off her mouth. Thankfully enough, I manage to dodge all of it without taking any damage. Yet again, she's already on me.
I stop and turn around to catch her arms with my chain which she broke with ease. I began doubting myself at that point.
'There's no way I can win against her strength.'
Since she started using fire against me, I retaliated by also using mine. We're exchanging fire magic to each other, incinerating the trees into dust. Then in a moment, out of nowhere, she finally decided to land an attack on my leg where I flung across to the tree. The world spun and flashed several colors such as blue, then green, then brown, and blue again until I hit the tree.
"Arkgh..."
Arya appears right in front of me. "Hahahaha, I'm having fun!"
"Fuck you!"
"Come on! I know you still have more in you! Don't give up! You have the essence of a transcendent being in you! Muster everything you have and showcase it to me!"
"No. I give up."
"Ehhh? I see... You're out of energy. Well, that's fine. I enjoyed it!"
"Really?!" A glimpse of hope descends from the sky.
"Yep!"
"Thank god..." 'Yeeeeeeees! I can't even refute since she's a person who I can't mess with ever.'
Everything felt unsteady and wobbly. I can't feel anything around me or my body. The aftereffect of overusing my teleporting finally took a toll on both my body and mind. Arya's absurd strength was overwhelming for me. "Tell me, how did Lily win against you?"
"Win? When?"
"Thought so... Why did even ask? What a fucking monster. How did you able to locate me so well? I'm teleporting myself kilometers away, but you still manage to appear in front of me."
"It's not too hard. You have a distinct smell on your body and I'm fast."
"You're making it sound like it's so easy. No normal person could do that. Haah... I wonder if this would count as trouble for the academy? Do you know the way back? Where are we even? Are we even still at the academy?" I scan my eyes around.
"Hahaha, Claude you're silly. We're still at the training ground. Fufufu~"
Looking at the distance, I can see the massive stone wall not far away from us. At the moment, I'm brooding over how I'm teleporting myself for how long now yet I'm nowhere near getting myself out. It's laughable to think of.
"Help me here... You broke my leg." I said in disdain.
To my surprise, Arya took me like a sack of rice over her shoulders. Realizing how humiliating it is, I could only hide my face on our way to her class. Regarding Arya, I already expected her to powerful, but not this powerful. I'm not even sure if I can win against her head-on with our life on the line. She just played around with me. Comparing her to Lily, she's not someone to mess with. Is this the reason why Lily doesn't want to involve me? Are all dragons this powerful? Especially the old ancient dragons...
I can't say that this is a bad experience since it was kind of eye-opening at how vast the world is. There were at times where I'm completely confident and took everything lightly, due to the fact of every fight I encountered are fairly easy other than the people close to me. Do I feel disappointed? No, I don't.
While she's carrying me, Arya said some encouraging words to me. "Perhaps you could defeat my little brother. He's still a child." Or not.
"Wow, thanks for those kind words. They're really helpful."
"Hehe, no problem~!"
"And, I will make sure to train you three! I will make you my retainers! Buwahahaha!" Arya had begun speaking in her own world, and I'm on her shoulder painfully listening to it.
Once we got there, I can sense the eyes looking at my ass. Two obvious screams of worry came right after. ""Claude!""
"Oh my, I'm going to get scolded now. I can manage here, Arya." Without hesitation, she just toss me on the ground like an object. "Pugh—At least bring me down with care!"
"Huuu, I'm too hungry, bye Claude~! I've sent the points to you, so take care~! Farewell, friend~!"
Adelle and Lily took both of my arms, supporting me in standing up. Arya just left us without any hesitation nor showed any remorse to me. What a cold-hearted woman. While on our way back, we stumble across Professor Eirumas, clapping his hands in celebration. "Bravo! Bravo! What a splendid fight, I witnessed." with a warm smile.
"If I may?" He approaches us and kneels in front of me, checking my injured leg. His bright face suddenly dims into a gloomy one.
Then he chuckles to himself. "Heh, seems like I can't do anything about your injury. Mana is like the blood running through the vein of our astral soul body, yet, in your case... It's non-existent, or should I say another mana? Now, I understand why the principal wants to keep you here. And, this is the only thing I can do. I can't do anything about the broken bones—" A monetarily pause occurred then Professor Eirumas snaps my dislocated knee back in place
"Mmgh?!" In response to the unexpected pain, I almost screamed out of my lungs. "That's not needed! It's not even dislocated in the first place!"
"Mr. Eirumas! How could you do that?! At least warn him first!" Lily voiced out her concern for me.
Inside my head, I thought he only made it worse. The regenerative process on my knees was abruptly interrupted. Because of that, it would take a time to start it again considering my quintessence was depleted from the fight earlier. I cursed my own luck. "Shit. Instead of doing it yourself, consider bringing me to the clinic first."
"Oh, it's not? My bad. You see, I'm a healer back in my days, so rest assured. I know what I'm doing. And from the graze on your face, you're one of the kind people who have regenerative abilities like the twins. Am I correct?"
Our eyes met each other. "Did I hit the mark? If you don't want to answer then so be it. I'll head back since I still need to watch over some troubled children. I wish you the best for the upcoming year, Mr. Claude Weiss. And, I also appreciate the sacrifice for handling the princess. Even, I, their supervisor can't do anything about the thick-headed princess." He smirks at me before standing up and leaving.
"I really made a fool out of myself, huh?"
"Consider yourself lucky, if we intervened... I'm not sure what kind of disaster she would cause us and everyone... She's a walking disaster that would erupt at any given moment. And—" Lily smacks my hand. "Why would you accept it, in the first place?!"
"I don't know! Most importantly, your professor was the one who talk me out into accepting it!"
"What's done has been done, and we can't undo it. Let him be, for now, Lily." Adelle said.
On our way back, at this distance, sparkles of mana could be seen above the training ground of S-class. And, below it, a massive gap on the wall from Arya's punch, sending a cold wind slithering down my spine. From what I recall, she barely lift her fist up, and yet, the damage it caused was more than what I can do.
In Lily's experience, Arya also played around with her ice magic by imprisoning herself inside of it then breaking them, so that the shards of ice would fly everywhere and that entertains Arya. From how Lily tells her depressing stories about Arya, which she just openly said just now... Horrifies me. Dragons are like gods among mankind. And imagine, fighting a pure-blooded royal dragon in a life or death situation.
Dragons are creatures that are known for their pride along with their, beyond god-like powers. They're also spiritless among the other great monster race of the world.
Arya once said to Lily, dragons are powerful enough to compete against these otherworldy powerful beings or spirits. She also mentioned about borrowing one's power is only for the weak, who can't live with their own strength. Lily got criticized so hard that until to this day, Lily still holds a grudge against Arya.
"The twins are also in your class?" I asked.
"Yes, they are. When I met them, I was surprised."
"Is that so...?" I recall our last meeting and their complicated mysterious conditions. Unusual loss of fat and pale skin, they're just one of the few things I observed from them—especially Albert who was this kind of muscular skinny guy then he transformed into a person that I barely recognize. And, if it wasn't for his distinguishable red hair, I wouldn't recognize him.
"What a coincidence."
After a few minutes, I'm able to walk without any help. We sat right on the stands, watching a fight transpiring in the middle. Shin was fighting Ami. Both have smiles on their faces, like their walking in a park kind of vibe.
Across from us, Ciel was watching the fight with his dark, glaring expression. The amount of bloodlust he exudes was incredibly disturbing.
We're the only people here watching the fight, as the others... are not here anymore, particularly, the two women from earlier.
"He's too daring to women," Lily said.
"Who?"
"The Shin guy. He's the most perverted person I've witnessed, taking advantage of touching someone's breast or falling 'accidentally'. Tsk, I hate people like that. He makes my blood boil. Poor Ami. At least, my Claude wouldn't act brazenly in public. People who act like that deserve some punishment if the girl doesn't like it, whether they're in a relationship. It's so humiliating. Ami doesn't even like it, yet he still does it."
I cast my eyes to the side. "Uh-huh, is that so?"
Adelle also did the same, but her eyes are darting to mine. Like, she's telling me. 'Acting brazenly in public, huh? I still remember those days, Claude. Also, Stephanie was your main victim.'
I cough to divert their attention "Ehem, anyway, looks like he's bad news, huh?"
After the fight, Shin and Ami are walking up towards us and their eyes stumble upon us, three. Shin raises an eyebrow when his eyes met mine, and looks at the two women beside me.
"Good evening. Uh... Take care." He said with a meager smile and bowing out. At the back of my head, I thought he would mention our last dispute, but he didn't. Ami who's next to him also bows out. I was left with confusing thoughts as I watch the back of Ami and Shin from the distance.
Soon after, Adelle and Lily went into their own thing, or back to their dorm as they're preparing for next week.