This was unprecedented, to say the least.
It was the least amount of information he'd gotten from someone who wasn't of a Higher racial rank or magic level. What exactly was Melchomar?
The demon noticed his strange stares and faced his feet, probably thinking that Amari was disappointed in him or something along those lines. If anything, it couldn't be farther from the truth.
'What the hell?! I thought I was the main character. Why are there so many monsters in this school!' he screamed inwardly as he triple-checked Mel's stats to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
Amari quickly realized something before they could start sparring. The only advantage he had was a similar-sized mana pool and the luck of multiple more spells. And even then, he was sure Melchomar would barge his way through those advantages using his mana pool.
He stared at the large demon, then at the stats, and decided to just go through with it.
"Come on, let's go," he said, entering his vague mimicry of a fighting stance.
The other demon cocked his head to the side and a look of confusion appeared on his face but he didn't say anything just yet, merely nodding and entering a similar stance.
It wasn't like anything Amari had seen from martial arts back on Earth. At first glance, he would liken Mel to a large immovable boulder from how he stood.
His hands remained close to his chest and both feet remained planted in a way that wouldn't warrant any accidental slips.
Amari noticed this and dropped his stance, choosing to charge up a bit of mana instead. He'd quickly realized that competing with his opponent on the basis of physical strength would not be possible.
'I need to maintain my distance. This should be a good learning opportunity for me. I need to familiarize myself with long-ranged combat since sword fighting isn't feasible for the moment.'
He just stood there staring at the large demon who just stared dumbly back. It was like he would never attack no matter what was done to him. This was a theory Amari did not feel like testing.
Charging up the mana in his fingers, he began to slowly visualize the shape of an orb of shadows, much similar in size to the one Nichols conjured, but as soon as he did that, he noticed a visible drain on his mana points.
'Shit, too big!'
He reduced the size to less than a tenth of what it originally was and in the next second a small sphere of shadows formed at the tip of his fingers, swirling with obvious darkness..
Without stalling any further, he blasted the sphere up and it approached Mel quickly but the other boy didn't move.
BOOM!
Amari couldn't help but wince as the sphere crashed into Melchomar, engulfing the demon in the sea of shadows.
It wasn't a lot of hope but something in Amari just hoped that the boy was a little hurt from the attack but it didn't look like luck was on his side today.
The shadows cleared to reveal Mel's imposing silhouette. He stood in the same stance he had when he first started, not even moving an inch.
Amari couldn't help but feel this fight would be terribly one-sided. He dispelled the mana from his hands and got out of the fighting stance, walking towards the sidelines where Ken stood.
"I suddenly feel that this fight won't be half as fun as I expected. Let's spar again some other time, Mel. Right Now I'm too weak,"
It was a lame excuse, but that was all he could come up with at that moment. It wasn't as if they were in some sort of life-and-death situation against each other, he would not fight the boy if he could help against it.
"Oh," Melchomar revealed a disappointed expression, and Amari couldn't help but feel worried.
"Ah don't be like that. We'll spar again some other time. Right now I just don't think it will be very fun if I can't get you to attack at all."
Again some lies mixed with truths.
Amari definitely felt that way, and he would want to fight Melchomar again under different conditions. Right now wasn't very appropriate, though.
He met Ken's dumbfounded eyes and glared at the demon to shut up.
"So," he started, quickly racking his brain for a quick topic "What do you guys have in mind for your spell creation assignment?"
Luckily, his question seemed to do the trick. Both other demons fell into deep thought before answering.
"I'm thinking of making a simple movement spell. Ordinary movement martial techniques are efficient but they are far too limited in their use. Spells are the way to go," Ken started, jumping into a motionless charging stance.
Amari nodded in understanding meanwhile his thoughts echoed something else.
'It looks like they also abandoned the use of martial arts in this world as well, but they might be making a mistake by doing that. Ordinary martial arts back on Earth were enough to allow masters to defy biology. How would they be in a world where mana exists?'
He shook the thought to the back of his mind where the remaining thousand thoughts lay. He hoped it would not come up any time soon.
Melchomar flexed his muscles and answered honestly, "Physical attack. I'm just looking for a way to use my strength well. If that makes sense?"
Both other demons nodded quickly and Amari shuddered afterward.
How powerful would Mel be if he capitalized on his strength by attacking? Most students below the third year would not be able to understand what happened before they even died.
Melchomar's deep but soft voice interrupted his thoughts.
"What about you, Raion? What kind of spell are you going to make?"
Amari paused momentarily. He had never thought of that but now was no better time.
Thinking through all the spells he saw in the Dream element catalogue, he finally remembered something easy and simple he was very interested in.
"A two-second nightmare that lasts twenty days."