After completing Hector's first deadly mission, Mariel began to evaluate herself and aim to improve her swordsmanship skills. Each day, Mariel would often practice with her Senior students and other friends in the Swordsman Club but lately, many people have become more and more distant from Mariel to the point where they can no longer be sparring partners. Along with Mariel being more ambitious than before, many times she had to choose to practice swordsmanship with the 2nd or 3rd year seniors instead, even though Senior Jack offered to do so. He's often been a training partner, but still hasn't been able to fully satisfy her. She had a smile on her face, thanking him for being her sparring partner but behind the scenes, she felt that it still didn't meet the point what her demanding. Therefore, the only way was for Mariel to wait her turn to use the Covenant room because it felt like fighting her own clone helped her improve skills more than others.
"Tonight, it is our turn to train from the covenant room. After waiting for a week," Mania said.
"So, you've gotten better, right?" Beatrix asked Mariel.
"I'm fine now. I'm very excited to be able to practice in the Covenant Room again because I feel like it helped me improve my skills more than training with other people." Mariel said.
"That's right. Lately, I've thought about it that way too, especially when casting magic to compete with others. I was always ahead of the others, so sometimes I couldn't help but think that the first-year level wasn't suitable for me." Beatrix said.
"I also learned the skill of casting healing spells to heal faster and more accurately. The more I practice with Beatrix, the more my skills improve too." Mania said.
The three girls went about their daily routines smoothly, whether it was studying, practicing subjects, researching new knowledge. Sometimes they would go outside of school to learn about the ways of life of people in the capital to make reports for Professors as well because studying the way of life of others in each society is also important for them in the future. When you go to different cities, you will know how to avoid it. Be aware of people who will come with good or bad habits. Who is good or bad intentions towards them too.
Until 11:00 p.m., which will be the time to use Beatrix and Mania's covenant room first. As for Mariel, she had to wait again at 1 a.m. but she chose to drop off her two friends and didn't forget to pick up a textbook that she borrowed from the library to read while waiting in front of the covenant room.
Not long after Mariel was sitting outside the Covenant Room while reading a book, Beatrix and Mania suddenly came out of the door with surprised expressions on their faces.
"What happened? Why did you come out so quickly?" Mariel asked curiously.
"Well...we were training for a while when suddenly...something happened in front of us." Beatrix said with a scared expression on her face and when she made eye contact with Mariel, she immediately averted her eyes.
"what's happened? Can you tell me?" Mariel felt impatient and asked again.
"Well… another clone of Mariel suddenly appeared in front of us while we were dealing with the demons. And... we were defeated by your clone in a short period of time." Mania said in a trembling voice.
"And she also ordered us to come out and tell you all to enter the covenant room together, but I think it's too dangerous. Because that another one of you looked very scary." Beatrix said with fear.
Mariel didn't listen anymore, but she immediately walked ahead into the covenant room until the other two friends couldn't stop her in time.
As Mariel walked inside, she saw another clone of Mariel standing in the center of the room, holding a Dragon Slayer Sword and then she made a terrifying stare at Mariel.
"Why did you do this? My friend had nothing to do with it. If you want to fight, why don't you wait for our turn in a next hour?" Mariel asked in a dissatisfied tone.
"Good teamwork. If you don't practice together, it's useless!" The clone of Mariel shouted.
"What did you say?" Mariel replied.
"Both of your friends are determined to train themselves to be good. To be able to team up with you in the future but if you just practice separately like this, it's a waste of time. If you are still arrogant like this, you start going out outside of the city, you'll fail miserably." the clone of Mariel scolded, looking at other two friends with disdain in her eyes.
"Stop staring at my friend like that. If we're going to argue with each other...don't say I didn't warn you." Mariel said in an angry tone as she summoned the Dragon Slayer Sword and held it ready to fight.
"Even you can't defeat me. It's better to be like this, stop wasting my time! All 3 of you can come and gang up on me. Then you'll see what's the weak points of your team. Lol." The clone of Mariel said with a sneering smile.
"You guys ready?" Mariel turned to the other two friends and asked.
"I'm ready!" Beatrix said, preparing to cast magic skills to support.
"I'm ready too!" Mania said, preparing as well.
Mariel, knowing that her friend was ready, activated her fire magic power to the Dragon Slayer Sword and immediately rushed forward to slash at the clone of Mariel.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of swords clashing loudly never stops. Along with the speed of Mariel and the clone of Mariel movements, it was almost impossible to see them, and it made Mania start to lose target to heal on her friend.
Mariel received multiple wounds on her body, like her clone. Blood gushed out all over the floor, but it couldn't reduce the intensity of the fight. The fight became more intense than before, combined with the verbal insults that made Mariel not care about anything anymore because she believed that her friend would heal her good in time.
However, the clone of Mariel said came true because of Mania, who initially healed Mariel, made the mistake of healing to the clone of Mariel instead.
"Thank you, darling. For healing me, love you." the cloned Mariel said with a teasing smile.
"Just missed a few times. Stop insulting us!" Mariel shouted out in anger and rushed to the max, slamming the opponent with a fire magic sword.
"Ultimate Ice Armor!" The cloned Mariel said as she used her body to face this attack without fear.
Beatrix uses her magic staff to shoot fire magic and the ice magic pounded hard on the cloned Mariel but it's surprising that the opponent was able to withstand all her attacks without any fear.
"How is that possible? Received both mine and Mariel's attacks at the same time without even the slightest bit of panic." Beatrix said in shock as she continued to attack.
"That made me sick!" Mariel said as she slammed into cloned of Mariel's chest with such force that blood spurted out.
The cloned of Mariel's hand squeezing Mariel's throat so tightly that she could hardly breathe.
*Ouch! * Mariel's cry of pain and her hands trying to force the opponent to release herself.
Scorching, scorching, scorching!
Beatrix's magic fired at the cloned of Mariel without stopping but it could not harm any to her.
"Why can't my magic hurt you?" Beatrix asked.
The sound of a mysterious object suddenly stabbing Beatrix and Mania's backs, causing both girls to spit out blood without stopping.
"In the worldwide, there are many tricks and strategies for fighting. Just fighting like this is useless!" The cloned Mariel said as she threw Mariel far enough to knock the other two friends over.
"Hurry up and heal yourself. I will distract her." Mariel said, charging into the fight while Mania shoots magic to destroy all the things that stabbed herself and Beatrix in the back and then uses healing power to heal them both immediately.
"Yes, show me more of your anger. I really like you." The cloned Mariel said, teasing the other.
"If you really like me, you won't bother me like this!" Mariel shouted back, continuously attacking the opponent but it still couldn't do any harm on the cloned.
Beatrix shot a huge ice magic bullet from behind of Mariel. When the cloned Mariel realized this, she hurriedly tried to dodge the radius of this attack.
The cloned Mariel was unable to dodge in time but received this attack until the body was thrown far and was seriously injured.
Beatrix felt very tired because of this attack, she had used all her power. Mania was starting to run out of her magic energy as well because this battle had taken so long that her energy was running out too.
Mariel continues to fight the clone. Even though she was beginning to run out of energy, her willpower continued to fight. The wounds on the body had more until Mania had a bad feeling so she healed her friend, but this time she missed again because she healed the cloned and she recovered again.
"Is it as I say?" said the cloned Mariel, slashing into Mariel's chest, causing a serious wound and blood gushes out without stopping.
"Ahh!" Mariel cried out in pain. The cloned charged towards her and punched to Mariel's face, causing her to stumble further.
Mariel lay exhausted with wounds all over her body and blood flowing from her body without stopping. As for Beatrix and Mania, their wounds weren't that much but they also used all their energy.
The cloned Mariel looked at the three girls with a disappointed look on her face. She picked up her sword and walked to kneel in front of Mariel who was still lying on the floor.
"See? I don't want to aggravate you because what I'm doing is for yourselves. Think about it, how many days have passed? What's about your teamwork? Where's the understanding each other? Where is the unity? What I see here is still sketchy. Don't act like good on your own but be good together as a team. Otherwise, your fate will be no different from what it is now." The cloned Mariel explained the various consequences.
Mariel seemed to regain consciousness as she listened to all these words. In the past, she prided herself on being more skilled and ahead of others but when it comes to fighting in the teamwork, it completely failed. And if this continues, everything she's practiced will be wasted.
"Don't you remember? When your father and mother fought against Dekiran, how accurate were they in attacking and defending on the fight." the cloned Mariel recalled.
Mariel thought back to that time as she and Segal hid in the house and watched Deric and Claudia fight against Dekiran and the demons. The shots where Deric shoots magic at the opposing team almost always hits the target. As for Claudia, she used spells to strengthen and heal Deric with precision every time, without a single mistake. These memories immediately opened her mind to the fact that the most important thing right now is teamwork, not fighting and being good on her own without teaming up with other friends.
"Thank you for reminding me. From now on, we will try to practice together more. Next time, we'll come and revenge you." Mariel said with determination in her eyes.
"I'll wait for it." the cloned Mariel said with a smile. Then a kind of magic was cast that made everyone to be normal, returning to full strength and power again. The wound completely healed too. The cloned Mariel disappeared in front of everyone after this.
Mania sat down and shed tears because this time she made many mistakes, especially in healing her team, which is a basic thing for healers that shouldn't miss something like this.
Beatrix and Mariel had to be close and calm her down.
"It's ok. From now on, all of us will practice together more." Mariel said encouragingly.
"We'll have to schedule some more practice plan." Beatrix said.
The three girls gave each other encouragement and then left the covenant room to return to their room and slept. When the door to the room closed, a stone platform with an old book appeared in the middle of the room but suddenly, a figure emerged from the darkness so slowly that it was impossible to discern who it was.
"Practicing more before it's too late." a mysterious voice said before that figure slowly disappeared.