The class gathered at the training grounds that Kaze and Noel had been to the day before. Everyone else, including them, had changed out of their school attire into their training ones.
It was basically the same concept as Czech did when they had training classes, but the outfit had a few variations to it. Since the outfit was designed to fit several races, specific modifications needed to be made to fit everyone's size and body feature. For example, there was magic fabric sewn into the back of the dragonkin's shirt so there was space for their wings to protrude through. The same magic fabric was used in their pants, which had specific holes made and magically produced according to each dragonkin's type. There was no equal dragonkin with equal wings or tails, hence why magic fabric was used for the convenience of the dragonkins and other wearers.
For Kaze and Noel, who were both the only humans present at the training grounds, the outfit posed no inconvenience at all. They were able to use the strap for their swords perfectly, thanks to the design of the pants that enabled them to hook the scabbard of their sword as they pleased. Even if they didn't want to hook it, they could always strap it round their body or simply hold it in hand like some of the others were doing. Those with spears or bulky weapons couldn't rely on straps, which was why their only choice was to hold it by hand.
Lune-sensei, dressed in light armour along with clothing that made moving about easy, stood in front of the class with a clipboard in hand.
"Noel, Kaze, please come to the front," Lune-sensei called them up to the front of the class. "Luniel-hime, would you like to join them or be with your fellow classmates?"
"I think they need some company," Luniel hopped along to Kaze and Noel's side. "I will be fine with demonstrating too."
"Hmm, we shall proceed then," Lune-sensei nodded and continued to address the rest of her class. "Everyone, now we will be conducting our physical training class. The first thing we will do is have our fellow guests do a short demonstration of their sword techniques before everyone here has a turn."
"Eh? We're going first?" Kaze blinked, not expecting that they would have to demonstrate in front of everyone.
"Of course. It's not fun if we don't hype up our students to show their best too," Lune-sensei grinned at him. "Well? Who wants to go first?"
"I will," Luniel volunteered. "How are we going to demonstrate our abilities?"
"We will have a normal standardized test."
As Lune-sensei said so, she raised her hand and casted magic over at an empty area next to the group. Immediately, multiple flying projectiles shot up from the ground in the form of dirt balls that varied in sizes and hovered in the air. Kaze and Noel didn't feel surprised or shocked by what they saw, because this was almost the same way magic tests would be conducted back in Czech. The only difference was now the projectiles were in various sizes and moved at different speed.
Luniel stepped up first, walking towards the area where the projectiles were zooming about without fear. Since she didn't have a weapon in hand, it was assumed that she would use magic to attack. Most of the magic casters either had a staff or casted without any catalyst, which was rare but applied for those who were advanced enough in their craft to not rely on the use of magic conductors.
Taking a few seconds to analyse the movements of the projectiles, Luniel quickly decided what sort of method she should use to demonstrate her strength.
The surrounding temperature dropped instantly, causing mist to gather around her in a swirling manner. Out of thin air, icicles no wider than the size of an orange with the length of her arm span appeared in multiples of 4 around Luniel. Kaze and Noel both shivered at this, knowing how hard it was to create and maintain icicles of that size with such confidence. The fact that Luniel made them appear within seconds with such precision and delicacy from the design of each individual icicle showed that her talent in magic perception was supreme. It wasn't just them; even the other dragonkins who were watching the display of magic felt awe at Luniel.
As if what she had done wasn't impressive enough already, Luniel aimed the icicles at each individual projectile and fired all the icicles at the same time. With such precision and calculated trajectory, the icicles took out all the projectiles at once. What this meant was that Luniel was able to guide each one of her icicles, which numbered in the dozens, and penetrate the projectiles that moved at varied speed without a single one missing. This was equivalent to a supercomputer accurately predicting all the possible angle and position the projectiles would be at in an instant with multiple variables.
"Impressive," Lune-sensei applauded with a light smile. "How did you manage that, Luniel-hime?"
"It's easy if you could detect every single flow of mana that had been used to make the projectiles float about," Luniel explained as she walked back to rejoin Kaze and Noel. "Since there were about 24 projectiles, I just needed to send the icicles in the direction where I predict the projectiles would be based on how much mana is used to balance and direct each projectile. I would praise you instead, Lune-sensei, for being able to manipulate 24 individual projectiles of different weight and speed all at the same time."
"You give me too much credit," Lune-sensei humbly accepted the praise from Luniel. "Who wants to go next?"
"Ladies first?" Kaze nervously asked Noel, who rolled her eyes at his words.
"Together, okay?" Noel proposed with a bored tone. "I have a feeling you need someone to help bring out your potential too."
"Alright then," Kaze accepted it, feeling much more confident than before. "At least I have someone to help me."
"Oh? Is this going to be a practice spar between the two of you?" Lune-sensei asked after noticing their arrangement. "Should I make a limited area for you two or any rules at all?"
"No need for that, Lune-sensei. We shall fight with the space provided already," Noel rejected Lune-sensei's offer kindly. "The rule would be the same as any duel: no lethal force, no injury beyond a scratch or bruise, the winner is decided by forfeit of the opponent or when the opponent is unable to continue."
With Lune-sensei approving their duel, Kaze and Noel walked to where the projectiles were earlier to have their spar. The two were using their real weapons as part of making the whole fight seem realistic, which was definitely scary to think about the consequence if either one of them screwed up on accident. Either way, it didn't seem like the dragonkin class was too bothered on whether they were using real swords, but rather on the outcome of the fight. No one except Luniel had seen how Kaze and Noel performed in a real duel, so this was definitely an exciting opportunity to learn more about their new human friends.
Kaze and Noel both unsheathed their swords from the respective scabbards and placed them aside so their fight would go undisturbed without any distractions. The rest of the students stood around them in a safe distance to ensure that they wouldn't disrupt or get injured midway through the fight, respecting the proper duelling safety rules. Lune-sensei was also there to judge and intervene when she deemed a fight had gone out of hand, as she usually would if required by any duel.
Noel had two of her trustworthy swords in each hand, striking a starting pose to show that she was ready. In response, Kaze took a deep breath and gripped the end of Felta tightly. After training for a few days, he had gotten used to wielding Felta. Granted, he wasn't fully comfortable with it yet, but just enough to hold his own in a proper duel. Lunatea definitely helped him in that aspect by going hard mode on him two days ago. At least he felt more confident that he could use Felta without worrying about the stares he received by others.
"I know I don't have to say this, but…" Noel told Kaze with a vicious smile. "Don't hold back, because I won't."
"I sure hope not," Kaze struck his own stance and nodded back at her. "I need to confirm the level I'm at after all."
Kaze was half a second late when it came to the first move. They both moved at about the same time in an attempt to get an advantage in attacking. Kaze and Noel's style of fighting mainly depended on their aggressive attacking compared to having a hard defence.
For Noel, who had trained with her father as the Knight Commander in Czech, she specialized in speed-attacking. This was mainly because of her trait of dual wielding, which mostly abandoned the aspect of having a defensive stance and went all-out on utilizing one's dexterity. It was no secret that in order to use two swords at the same time, one had to learn to be agile and adapt to the weight of two swords while fighting with them.
While being agile was definitely a critical requirement for a swordsman, one also had to have a strong based in swinging a single sword before learning to swing two. What this meant was that one shouldn't simply rely on having two swords to overpower another, instead needing to learn what it truly meant to 'hold' and 'swing' before using two. Since a sword was already heavy as it is, swinging two was actually a much harder job than one would expect. Even for Kaze, who was using only a single sword, he had to swing it with two hands holding the hilt first.
Since the first time they fought each other, Noel had improved herself bit by bit. She accepted her loss with Kaze the moment he chipped her sword when she tried one of her sword skills on him. To this day, she still felt surprised that he could react to her flashing speed that left one dumbfounded if she suddenly disappeared before their eyes. After the centipede and devil attack, Noel felt that Kaze was truly someone who was worthy of being one of her rivals. This was also why she trained: to overcome the odds and beat him.
The first move was a classic sword exchange. Each strike from Noel heavily resounded on Kaze's blade, creating the familiar high-pitch sound that metals made when striking each other. With a swift repositioning right after her sword bounced back, Noel aimed for a deadly strike from above by throwing both of her swords down in a huge arching strike from behind her towards her front, right where Kaze was standing.
There was no hesitance in Kaze's move when he evaded the heavy strike that came with Noel's attack. He had learnt a thing or two when it came to dodging, and that was thanks to Lunatea. It was always fearsome facing her seriously since most of her attacks were too fast to block properly. In the process of always dodging her sword attacks, Kaze also learnt that sometimes it was worth dodging instead of blocking. For instance, it could prove lethal if his opponent made him block on purpose so they could create a window of opportunity for a sneak attack. Defending at an improper time could stun him too, meaning that blocking a heavy attack could either destroy his sword due to the incoming force or have his arms incapacitated.
Dodging this time gave Kaze a chance to reposition Felta into an attacking stance. Since he needn't use up his energy needlessly to block Noel's second strike, it helped him to conserve it for attacking instead. He made a sideway dodge that enabled him to grab Noel's left arm, pulling her close to him before he made contact.
"E-Ehh???" Noel cried out in confusion when she felt her body getting forcefully dragged over.
Kaze ignored Noel's cries and fully dragged her backwards. With his sword in the right hand, he swung it down right where her neck was while ensuring that he would stop if she didn't manage to react in time. The reason Noel acted so surprised was because she never once thought that Kaze would try to use his hands or legs during their fight since Kaze was never the sort of person to mix up his attack patterns. She would be right, if not for his spar with Lunatea.
Still, Noel managed to block his attack at the last second with one of her swords. She gritted her teeth in annoyance the moment her eyes caught Kaze's slightly smug smile, a sign that he knew she must be surprised at the sudden change in his attack style. It must have felt like he played dirty using his hands to directly attack her.
Then again, all was fair in love and war. Noel knew she didn't have the right to complain when she had a thing or two up her sleeve. She forcefully repelled his attack with a rough grunt, pushing away his sword and jumping back to gain some distance. Her hand trembled a little out of fear that she might have lost from the get-go if she wasn't fast enough in reacting, though it was purely out of luck that she snapped to her senses and stopped him.
Kaze, too, took a step back and readied his sword again. It was within his expectation that Noel was able to block that. In his mind, he was envisioning what a fight with Lunatea would turn out based on his real-time actions with Noel. It wasn't like he was disrespecting or underestimating Noel by mirroring an image of Lunatea attacking him over her, but it was more so because he wanted to take her on seriously that he forced his mind to consciously overlap Lunatea with Noel. Kaze acknowledged all his friends as skilful people in their own way, making each one of them an obstacle he wanted to overcome.
Noel charged ahead first when Kaze didn't make a move. Keeping in mind what she had just experienced, Noel decided to use her sword skill right off the bat to test the waters with Kaze, who had obviously grown from their last match.
A faint whistle sliced through the air as Noel swung her left sword forward. Kaze's eyes sharpened the moment he heard the whistle, for it was something he missed the first time round. Noel's body disappeared the moment she was about to strike Kaze, as if vanishing into thin air without them knowing. Kaze immediately spun on spot and collided his sword with Noel's, who had reappeared behind him.
"I figured you would have blocked that," Noel responded. "Really takes you back to our first duel, huh?"
"Something like that," Kaze agreed with her. "I had to take into account that you were using two swords to attack."
What Kaze meant was that her first attack was mostly a feint. The attack that came from the back was the real attack, coming from the sword in her right hand. Catching only the right sword wasn't enough; he had to ensure that he blocked the incoming left sword that initially acted as a feint to fully counter Noel's technique. It was tricky for one who hadn't experienced an attack like that before, but with Kaze's experience he was able to strike right at the centre where her two swords overlapped, forcing her to defensively guard instead.
Kaze didn't stop his counter there. The fact that Noel had both her swords now pressured meant he could continue pressing her. That was exactly what he did: lifting his sword and immediately bringing it back down. It wasn't like he was just trying to overwhelm her with pure strength because that was a dumb move. No way would a single strike of his be able to break through a double sword cross due to it not having enough pressure.
He repeated the downwards strike several times before sneaking in a jab with his left fist. Noel quickly caught on to it and tilted her head to the left to avoid getting punched in the face. She had accepted that this was going to continue if she didn't try and pressure him immediately. After all, her arms could not take the toll of repeatedly blocking Kaze's strike multiple times since the double-edged blade of being a dual swordsman meant that she had lower endurance despite having a good temporary defence. She might be able to block Kaze's attacks now, but the toll of it would build up if she kept blocking. Kaze must have been able to see that simply pressuring the muscles in her arms would make her tolerance lower, hence ending the fight faster.
Noel was definitely aware of this weakness of hers, for her next move was a play on her sword skill. The fifth strike that came from Kaze cut through her afterimage, nearly striking the ground if not for Kaze stopping just in time. He whipped his head around to find Noel jumping into the air and swinging both her swords forward at the same time, effectively blocking him from an easy dodge left or right.
Taking a natural step backwards to avoid getting attacked, Kaze grunted when Noel twisted her wrists upwards and allowed the momentum of her initial attack to get carried forward into a dangerous upper slash motion. Kaze used Felta to stop her attack, causing him to stumble back a little from the sheer force of her attack. This helped to propel Noel into an attack combination of her own since Kaze was not able to properly guard her attacks, launching a full-scale barrage of swings on him from all directions.
From the sidelines, Lune-sensei and the others absorbed what they saw bit by bit with great care. The level of skill shown by Kaze and Noel definitely far exceeded the average swordsman for different reasons. Noel, being able to wield two swords so well in terms of attacking, defending, and balancing her pace, earned enough praises on its own. Kaze countered and planned his next move cautiously while mixing in some physical attacks from his fist and legs, proving his resourcefulness in not skimping out in a fight. What's more, the two fought with such focus that it no longer felt like a dual where it didn't matter who lost since it was just a demonstration of strength, but with such will to defeat the opponent with everything they got.
"Heh~ isn't this interesting?" Luniel grinned to herself. "I never knew that Noel fought this way."
"What makes you say that, Luniel-hime?" Lune-sensei asked the princess. "Have you seen Kaze fight before?"
"Back when the whole family left to celebrate the Moon Festival in Tristania, there was an event where students were selected to duel it out for entertainment purposes. I already saw how Kaze fought back then so it was no surprise what sort of approach he would be taking in this battle," Luniel explained casually. "But I haven't seen Noel fight properly before due to various circumstances. At the same time, Kaze is performing leagues better than he was when I first saw him."
"I got to ask, what's up with his aura?" Lune-sensei peered at Kaze carefully. "It feels like he isn't utilizing magic."
"That's… confidential," Luniel immediately knew what Lune-sensei was talking about and ended the topic there. "Let's just say you may or may not see why that is the case, if the fight progresses the way it could."
Each of Noel's basic swing and attack had magic incorporated in it. It was common knowledge to induce one's weapon with a certain level of magic to both enhance the power of attack as well as enchant it with magic skills. What this meant was depending on the type of magic used, certain magic attacks could be gained while fighting with the weapon. For example, a sword could be coated in fire when imbued with fire magic. For Noel, who prioritized speed and accuracy over most things, she had her swords imbued with magic strengthening that fell under the 'Singularity' category of magic. The magic used enabled her attacks to become faster and stronger as she fought, creating an immense pressure that built up the longer she chained her attacks without stopping like a Berserker.
Kaze gasped each time he received Noel's attacks by the sword, his fingers turning numb from the sheer force that Noel had built up over time. It was scary knowing that this was Noel's self-developed skill, meaning she had considered the possibilities of her fighting style when building the level of skill displayed. How she managed herself all this while only showed her determination to get stronger and her resounding dedication to mastering her sword style.
Brilliant flashes of white and yellow flew through the air, forming trails of her sword whenever she swung them around. Her footwork coupled with the way she conducted her arms felt so natural, allowing her to keep up the attacking motion she had for a couple of minutes straight. If it wasn't for the training she had to go through that enabled her to last this long using this technique, involving multiple fractures and broken swords in the process, she wouldn't have been able to apply this much pressure on Kaze.
However, the reason she wasn't beating Kaze was precisely because of his unique ability to absorb magic.
Since each of her swing essentially had magic in them, all Kaze had to do was shave off some of her magic by taking it for himself with Phantom Rush. The process was slow and brutal since he wasn't taking much each time she struck with her sword, but it definitely gathered overtime as evident by how Felta was also glowing a mix of white and yellow the longer he fought with Noel.
Noel herself noticed the change in Kaze's defence along with his sword glowing, something that alarmed her because she never thought that even a 'Singularity' magic in the form of enchantment could be usurped by Kaze's technique. If her concern was over stealing the magic needed to maintain her sword skill, then that wasn't it because she could just cancel the magic enchantment over her swords and continue with the basic attacks. What she was worried was the effects of her magic being converted to Kaze's advantage.
With a mighty strike, Noel pushed Kaze back and ended the streak of clashes. She ignored the pain that rang through her body from maintaining such a rough technique in preparation for her finale. If she wanted to continue the fight, she would, since she had a few more techniques to show, but ultimately there was no point if all Kaze was going to do was block her. It might produce a more desirable result as well as show off the peak of her skill through the best of what she could offer right now.
"The mana surrounding Noel is wavering," Luniel muttered softly. "Is she planning to use a mixture of magic and physical attack to end the round?"
Luniel's question was answered when a magic circle appeared below Noel's feet. The circle shattered upon activation, casting a few layers of magic on Noel's swords and body. In return, Noel suddenly gained a great amount of power growing in her. Kaze could feel the vast contrast between her previously and now, which terrified him at the thought that Noel had a final skill that enabled her to further strengthen herself beyond her physical limits.
With her blonde hair fluttering behind her, Noel held one sword vertically in front of her and the other right by her side, performing what looked like a knight's stance. Once she felt the activation of the skill hitting the right timing, she raised the sword held vertically overhead and swung it down.