43 Layla’s duel

"Okay, that's it for today's drills, now to begin individual spars."

The voice of the teacher rang out as most of the students dropped on the floor in exhaustion. They had just finished a few training drills that consisted of running over twenty laps around their class hall among other things

Although they were devils and members of other races that had more strength than regular people or humans, the hall was created with that in mind.

"The distance is way too much, why do we even do these training drills in the first place."

Edward, the last son of a galactic ruler and one of Arthur's new friends asked. He was a boy with long brown hair and blue eyes. He was also one of the boys in the top five of the secret polls held by the girls to determine the most handsome first-year boys.

He had a toned body, evidence that he was one who kept fit always, and although he seemed to be complaining, besides Arthur and Layla, he was the one who took the fourth shortest time to complete the drill.

He was also the rank 5 in the freshman year and had kept his position ever since the beginning despite the challenges he had received.

"How the hell am I supposed to know? Honestly, it feels pointless to me, it's supposed to be stamina training but it does not really do anything for me. I mean I completed it in ten minutes and got bored watching you all."

Edward laughed at Arthur's reply and to a seat beside him, he looked over to where most of the girls were and smiled, causing a few screams to rise from there.

Arthur on the other hand looked at him like one would a fool.

"You're gonna get stabbed one day you know?"

"I already did, by my brother's ex-girlfriend. Was not a pleasant experience."

"What the? Why'd she do that? Did you steal her from your brother or something?"

Edward looked offended at Arthur's question and did not want to reply, however, a few other boys who were within earshot also came over to hear his reply, seeing them silently urging him with their eyes, and he decided to answer.

"Okay so she was dating my brother, and then she fell for me, I don't know why or how, I mean, I only talked to her a few times.

My brother found out and broke up with her, also, it turned out she was dating him for his position not because she liked him or anything.

He didn't know this and only broke up with her cus he found out she fell for me, she on the other hand, said it was my fault she could not marry into power and attacked me.

The whole situation was just absurd, I didn't understand what she was going on about till she pulled a dagger and stabbed me with it."

"Oh shit! That had gotta hurt right?"

"Of course it did, it was an artifact you know, one that caused a bleeding effect, took a while for the wound to heal."

"What happened to her?" Arthur asked, trying to hold in his laughter. Edward noticed this and glared at him before replying.

"She attacked the son of a galactic ruler, of course,\ she was executed."

And then Arthur burst out Laughing, Edward was initially confused why until he felt a presence behind him, he turned around to see the combat lesson instructor smiling at him.

"Nice story young prince Edward, it would have been better if you were in Literature class, however you are in combat class and I recall saying it was time for individual spars."

Edward gave a forced smile and silently scooted over, attempting to escape but he was restrained by the teacher's magic, along with the other boys who were listening.

As for Arthur, he used one of his defensive artifacts to escape, it was one that guarded against restraining-type magic.

The teacher looked at him and sighed, Arthur just laughed and said.

"Don't blame me teach, I had it, so I used it, I could still escape without it though."

"Oh really, well why don't we have a fair fight and see if you can escape from me."

"How old are you? How old am I? You should be a few hundred, right? A man who's hundreds of years older than me wants to have a fair fight with a youngster like me? If you aren't embarrassed then I should be embarrassed for you."

The teacher's face flushed red, he was very embarrassed at Arthur's words. Arthur was still gloating until Layla came over and knocked him on the head again.

"Ouch! How the hell do you keep getting behind me without me knowing?"

"It's called a stealth artifact Arthur, you're not the only one who uses artifacts."

She then walked over to the teacher and spoke.

"Leave these idiots alone, teacher, they're not worth your time. Also, can I request a spar, I actually want to test something new out and need someone to point out the flaws in it, you're the most suitable for that?"

The teacher considered Layla's request and nodded, he released the restraining magic on the captured students and walked away.

"That's our class rep, coming to the rescue every time."

"I don't recall becoming class representative to deal with you guys' bullshit, at least wait till the class is over okay?"

After saying that she walked over to the centre of the hall with the teacher, ignoring Edward and his crew who ran over to get revenge on Arthur.

Other students came over to see the spar, not many had seen Layla get serious, even during the exams, she only showed the bare minimum and was able to overwhelm the instructor and make them consider admitting defeat.

During the challenges for her position, she defeated all her opponents with a single magic attack, without using any of her prized guns. The sight of the second-ranked student battling against an instructor was a rare sight to see.

This was because it was expected for Layla to go all out or at least display more of her ability in this spar, so many wanted to see it. Also, looking at the sword bayonet in her arms, it seemed she was going to be using one of her prized guns.

It was no small secret that Layla was borderline obsessed with the weapons called guns, some ladies who were jealous of her called it barbaric and tried to put her down for it but they were the ones put in their place instead.

According to Arthur; "It was noting a quick beat down couldn't solve, doesn't have to be a physical or magical beat down, you could use something else, preferably something the opponent is confident in.".

"Are you ready?"

"Yep"

Layla replied to the instructor's words and readied her gun. Arthur who had somehow escaped the wrath of the boys, ran over and arbitrarily declared himself the referee.

"Begin!!"

First, she fired a few shots from her bayonet, these were magically enhanced bullets that changed attributes depending on the user's magic, Layla imbued them with fire magic.

At the same time, she charged at him with the bayonet in hand.

'It would be foolish to try to engage in a long-distance battle with a transcendent realm mage.

If I have any chance of beating him, it's by shortening the distance between us and forcing a close-combat battle.

The only question is whether I can avoid his magic until then.'

Those were Layla's thoughts as she charged towards the instructor before her bullets even reached him.

The bullets crashed into his outstretched hand. She had assumed he would cancel it out with magic or avoid it, so her eyes widened in surprise when she saw him casually block them.

'Tch...He's giving me a head start as a handicap.'

Without even blocking or dodging her attacks. They flashed into his palm—a direct hit.

But a moment later, he shakes out his hand as if nothing was ever there.

There's not a scratch on him.

That was expected, he was a transcendent in both body and soul, Layla was just a master realm, her normal attacks could not harm him.

'It was only a feint, but still, I'm annoyed that he was able to take a direct hit from my gun with almost no damage at all. Not even a scratch.'

She clicked her tongue as the distance between them became zero. Even if her magic bullets won't work, if her sword attached to the bayonet could reach, she could have a chance!

"Hiyah!"

She swung down her sword with a shout, slicing through nothing but air.

He was gone.

He literally transported away in an instant.

Space Magic is supposed to take a long time to use, but you'd never know from how quickly he moved.

That was the power of a transcendent very close to achieving a basic rank authority in the law of space.

'If he can get away from me with teleportation, then distance won't make a bit of difference.'

He could easily teleport far enough away that she couldn't reach him, then shoot magic at her from a long distance.

'And even if I manage to cover that distance, he can just teleport away again. I never had a chance to begin with. That's expected, he's a transcendent after all, and my aim was not to win but to test this new weapon out.'

She then sensed a presence behind her.

'He couldn't possibly be behind me, right?'