"Oh, so you just tap it against here?"
A distinct beep played, followed by the sound of a lock shifting.
"Well, that's a bit embarrassing. Sorry to bother you like that."
I honestly didn't expect I'd have to show someone how to use an electronic key 157 years into the future. Like, even we had this tech. Whoever this guy was, he had to have lived under a rock.
"Anyways, crazy coincidence, huh? We didn't get to talk much at the practicals, but now we can bond as much as we want."
Please, anything but that. While my social battery wasn't the greatest, this guy absolutely excelled at tanking it. And I had to deal with it for an entire year.
Looks like I'm not spending much time in my dorm room from now on.
"Uh, but you know, I'm a little exhausted today, so-"
"You know what would be a great idea? Why don't the two of us go tour the campus a bit? Familiarize ourselves with the Lionhearts' den, right?"
No, not 'right', I wanted to protest, but he was already dragging me around by the wrist. He was as strong as he looked, and he treated me like I was the size of a kid.
"I can walk by myself," I said.
He lowered his head apologetically as he let go. "Sorry, sorry. I'm a little too used to doing that with my little siblings."
So he actually was treating me like a kid!?
I sighed. Whatever, I guess. I'd rather do something productive than avoid this guy by pretending to sleep the whole day. Even if I came off as a little cold, his brazen and pure character probably wouldn't even give it a second thought.
As I followed him down the stairs and out of Argent Hall, I began to feel more and more like his chaperone. He had such love for life that literally anything drew his attention. I had to pull him away from a set of fancy vending machines that were outside the dorm's stairwell while some other first-years looked at us in confusion. It was a little embarrassing, to be honest. That interaction only cemented my belief that he was living under a rock all this time.
While straying away from the dorms, I pulled out a small pamphlet containing a map of the campus from my pocket. I didn't have any destinations in mind, but I wanted to at least know where we were if Callen was going to drag me around everywhere.
The entirety of the campus was in the shape of a square, with four corners surrounding a circular area in the center. Those four corners corresponded to a different sub-school, with the area in the center acting as a hub for student activity and alumni-run businesses such as cafes or stores. The southwest corner, the Lionheart sub-school, was south of the Archon sub-school and east of the Confessor sub-school, which represented the arcane research and medical schools respectively. In the northeast corner was the magical engineering sub-school, Maestro.
The center area is called the Mosaic. It's explicitly stated in Nineheart's rules that students cannot leave campus without written permission, which is why the Mosaic is often populated. With that being said, many of the businesses there are pretty expensive, mostly due to the fact that they're run by alumni trying to fund their research.
Given the size of the campus, I had no interest in exploring beyond Lionheart's corner, and fortunately, Callen was too lost in his own world to think about any of that. He spent much of the walk just gawking at the different buildings, most of which we hardly even understood the use for. He'd occasionally ask what I thought they were for, and I had no choice but to humor him. Otherwise, he'd just keep coming up with weird theories and ask me about them.
"Woah, what's that big field down there?"
I turned my gaze to a large, open field off to my left. Surrounded by several rows of seats on all sides, the center had a number of square enclosures with magic barriers surrounding them. The seats were mostly empty, and there were a few pairs fighting inside different enclosures.
"Looks like an amphitheater for mock battles or something. Could even be a venue for tournaments, who knows?"
"Let's check it out!"
"What?"
Before I knew it, he was already racing down the slope, disregarding the stairs that led down to the seats. Afraid that he would cause trouble, I hastily followed suit. I don't care about him, but I was paranoid that whatever he did would somehow bring me problems even if I wasn't involved.
When I finally caught up with him, he was staring into an empty enclosure.
I'm getting a bad feeling about this.
There was a wide grin on his face that made me dread his next words.
"Since we're here, why don't we go for a round?"
I knew it.
"How do we unlock it? Oh, it just needs our room key. That's convenient, huh?"
I immediately regretted teaching him how to use that. He tapped it against a black pedestal outside the enclosure, which made a small opening in the barrier.
"No offense, but I don't really have a reason to do all that."
There was a bit of mischievousness in his smile that seemed oddly uncharacteristic of him.
"How about we make a wager, then?" he said, stepping into the enclosure. "If you win, I'll stop bothering you."
I scowled at him. "So you knew?"
He let out a big laugh. "My family often tells me I'm a bit overbearing for the average person. With that glare you've had going all day, how could I not tell?"
"Then why're you still acting like that?"
"Well, we're gonna be roommates for the next year, you know? Would be a shame if it was so dull around here. Plus, I'm sure I can become your friend with enough time and dedication.
"Yeah, see, this is the complete opposite of how you should be going about it."
He replied with another laugh, totally disregarding my statement.
"So? How about it?"
"...What happens if you win?"
Callen shrugged. "I'll just do whatever I want. I'm rather confident in my skills, you see, so I'd feel bad asking for something from you."
I'm not exactly proud of my skills, but I still feel a bit annoyed by his condescending attitude.
"Fine. Any rules?"
"Nothing lethal, and we end when one of us surrenders."
I stepped inside the enclosure. Callen tapped around a bit on a pedestal similar to the one outside, causing the barrier to close shut. Was he just pretending to not know anything to get on my nerves?
He gave me a knowing look. "We have one of these at home. I spar with my dad a lot, so I'm familiar with the technology."
I'm still a bit suspicious, but whatever. As long as I win, I won't have to deal with him anymore.
"Wait. I don't have a sword."
I was too preoccupied with my thoughts to realize that simple fact.
"Oh, you're a swordsman? Just a second."
Callen went back over to the pedestal, inputting a few commands into the screen. A moment later, a small tray slid out, holding multiple rectangular devices that were small enough to fit in my hand.
"Is a regular sword fine?"
I nodded.
He tossed me one of the devices, which I caught with my right hand. Looking at it closer, it looked similar to the handle of a sword, besides its shape and the gaps between its white segments. On one side, there was a small trigger. Curious, I pulled on it, causing a blade of mana to form.
It was just a practice device, but holding a mana blade myself was exciting. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie... which is funny to think about, considering I'm literally living in the future. These eject low-frequency mana blades, which basically means that they're blunt. However, they could still cause injury if you held the blade against skin for too long.
Callen situated himself on the side of the room opposite to me. He's not armed, so I assume he's a martial artist. Well, I could tell that even before, given that his body looks like it was trained to fight mountains.
I slid the practice device into my pocket. If I wanted to win, I'd definitely need to use 'Hela's Authority', and to do that, I have to get in close with 'Blade of Chivalry' first. I entered a fighting stance, which still felt unfamiliar to me.
Callen looked at me strangely, a confused expression clearly showing on his face. "Are you not using your sword? And... what's with that stance?"
"I've got my circumstances. Beat me, and I'll tell you all about them."
The taunt left my lips before I realized it. In response, Callen's mouth curled into a smile as he entered his own stance.
"Is that so? We can talk all about it in the mess hall. I'm feeling a bit hungry."
I was about to make another retort, but a sudden chill down my spine interrupted me. I took a careful look at Callen's stance. It's familiar.
Extremely familiar.
Oh man.
That's the Blade of Chivalry alright. I'm no professional, but his form looks hell of a lot better than mine.
The thing with 'Blade of Chivalry' is that its users know how to protect their own spirit veins while targeting their opponent's. With that said, the majority of those who practice it belong to the hal-Byrne family, so I didn't think it was going to be an issue. If Callen knows how to use it better than I do, it's going to be hell trying to channel my arts into his body.
There's also the fact that the Blade of Chivalry is not just a skill, but a martial art that focuses on slow and methodical strikes for the purpose of amplifying arcane arts. For me, it's pretty much just a means of using magic, so a lot of the weight and attack power behind it are lacking.
However, as long as I can do that, I can win. My swordsmanship has come along pretty nicely, but without knowing his weaknesses, it'll be difficult to succeed. Especially if my opponent is someone who's spent his time at home honing his body and martial arts.
I took a deep breath. I can do this.
"Then, let's start," he spoke.
Without hesitation, I closed the gap between us. Considering the core principles of the Blade of Chivalry, it was best to not give him time to build up momentum against me. 'Blade of Chivalry' aside, I wasn't sure how many direct hits I could take from his herculean fists. That meant I had no choice but to get the edge on him by taking advantage of my speed. My dexterity stat is at 6.1, while the average Nineheart first-year has around three stats that average 5.5. I don't know what kind of training Callen has gone through, but I doubt that he's faster than me with that all that mass.
Right now, it doesn't matter where I land my blows. My plan is to make contact with his spirit veins as many times as possible in hopes that he'll be a moment too late to reinforce his spirit veins. Because of the amount of mana and effort it takes to do so, he'll only protect them before I land my attacks. I'll just have to be faster than that.
I began to swing at him, but he managed to evade a few of my strikes and deflect the rest. As I expected, his attacks were noticeably slower but significantly stronger than mine. Unlike Callen, I knew my punches weren't going to do any damage, but that wasn't the point. All I needed was a strike with the bare minimum power to activate 'Hela's Authority' inside of his spirit veins, but he didn't know that.
Unfortunately for me, he was still almost fast enough to keep up with my speed. I couldn't tell if it was because of his physical enhancement arts or if his body was just that ridiculous. While the difference is within my error of margin, it's small enough that it'll quickly become negligible if the fight gets drawn out for too long. I'm confident that his stamina is much higher than mine.
I forced him to block one of my strikes so that he'd focus his spirit vein defense there while I quickly followed up with another punch to his stomach.
And all of a sudden, everything's in slow motion.
My right fist is currently against his forearms. My left is slowly heading for his stomach. In an instant, I realize where I went wrong.
As I felt his spirit veins with my right hand, I sensed that the flow was stable, but fortified. Reinforced just barely enough to prevent me from messing with it. And from there, I can tell that the rest of the spirit veins in his body are just as protected.
I severely underestimated him. Not only did he figure out what I was planning, he accurately gauged the minimum amount of mana he'd need to protect his spirit veins from me. Even if it was inefficient, it didn't matter so long as I ran out of stamina before he did.
Or so I thought.
When my left fist made contact with his stomach, his spirit veins were vulnerable. I didn't stop to think about it; I immediately activated 'Hela's Authority'. From his stomach, pale flames burst outwards and enveloped him whole.
Callen dashed away from me to make space, panicked because of the flames that had suddenly overwhelmed him. It wasn't long before he realized that the flames weren't burning him, and instead were dying out.
'Hela's Authority' is an interesting skill. It's in a weakened state, but it has no quantifiable level. However, its strength is not based off some arbitrary number like its level or my arcane stat, it's based off of my understanding of the art. Besides stat increases, there was one more thing I gained from the fight with the haginn.
[The pale flames of 'Hela's Authority (Weakened)' have taken effect. Four weaknesses have been identified.]
[Weakness: The target's left side coordination is considerably lacking.]
[Weakness: The target has little experience in fighting nimble opponents.]
I'm not sure how it figured those things out, but it's a skill given by a divine, so whatever. I was hoping for a little more, but that's asking for too much. 'Hela's Authority' only shows weaknesses that are worth exploiting or that I can take advantage of with my current skills. In other words, this was all I had to work with.
"Oh, so that's what you were trying to do this whole time? I got curious, but I was a little scared that that backfired on me."
"...You let me do that?"
"Well, yeah. With form like that, you were never going to penetrate my spirit veins. Plus, I wanted to see what you were hiding. What is that, anyway?"
I pulled the practice device out of my pocket and pulled on the trigger.
"Win and I'll tell you."
"Ha!"
This time, Callen was the one to close the gap. However, I was already one step ahead, evading his strike while moving to his left. I swung upwards to strike, but he pushed aside my blade with his right hand.
If it weren't for 'Hela's Authority', I wouldn't have noticed that he has a left side weakness. The fact that he was more confident in defending with his right hand than his left was proof of that.
I was still recovering my balance from being pushed away, but he was also in an awkward position. Before he could act first, I made my next move, swinging at him from his right. It was a classic feint, but one that helped me take advantage of his weaknesses. With my speed, I was able to successfully redirect my attack and strike his left abdomen.
Callen winced in pain, but he didn't let that stop him. He poised himself to counter my next strike... so I let him. I jabbed at his chest with a wide, open motion, baiting him into side-stepping to my left while leading a punch with his right hand.
I spun under his arm on the tip of my toes, dancing around him like an acrobat. Back on his left side, I went for another blow to his abdomen.
I tried to, at least.
The mana blade of a practice device is blunt, but it can still harm you if you tightly grasp it for whatever reason due to the vibrations caused by the mana's frequency waves.
So what kind of lunatic grabs the damn blade?
The next coherent thought I had was, Why am I lying on the ground?
Callen stood over me, an amused smile on his face. He waved at me with the same hand he used to grab the mana blade, which was completely unharmed.
Then it hit me. His skillful control of his spirit veins could be used to counteract the blade's vibrations by tuning and releasing his own mana's frequency, negating them in a way that physical enhancement arts can't.
"You doing alright?"
I gave him a sharp glare.
"Haha, seems like you're doing alright. I'll be taking this as my win, unless you want me to hit you until you surrender."
I sighed. To be honest, I didn't think I was going to lose that badly. Not only did he let me trigger my arcane art on purpose, he was capable of neutralizing my weapon whenever he pleased. While I could make the excuse that having a mana blade was a poor match-up, it didn't change the fact that he surpassed me in basically every other category.
"I admit defeat."
"Great! Now you have to be my friend, huh?"
I raised my eyebrow at him as I pulled myself to my feet, nearly tumbling over in the process.
"That wasn't the deal, though? You said you were just going to 'do whatever you want', no?"
He frowned, remembering the terms of our match. His carefree smile quickly returned.
"Well, guess I've just gotta spend the time to make you my friend. Let's get along, yeah?"
I groaned, eliciting a laugh from him.
"Oh, but didn't you say you'd also tell me about your 'circumstances' if I won?"
Ugh. I did, didn't I?
I can't believe I taunted him like that. It was strange, having someone get the better of my emotions. I... wasn't particularly fond of it, to be honest. There was an uncomfortable instability in my mind that accompanied losing my apathy.
"Whatever, sure."
He clapped loudly, apparently overjoyed by my response. As I opened the barrier to leave, my heart froze.
An all-too-familiar intense gaze. Ginger hair like autumn leaves and golden eyes like the sun. A girl clad in a uniform not too different from mine. And a smile that wasn't particularly friendly.
"Ascalon, was it? Shall we have a talk?"
I'm screwed.