Stella (2)

The pair stood in the middle of the arena with a crowd gathered all around them. It seemed that many were curious on the outcome of the fight.

Even the teacher in charge of their group, Nicia, was present and wanted to see just how good each of the students were.

'The girl is one of the best students in the academy currently while the boy is a member of the legendary Guri clan.

Even if he is an outer member, the fact that he has the inborn talent with purple rank ki means that he must have gotten plenty of training from the clan.

I'm truly curious about just how long he will last against our little Ifrit.'

Nicia's thoughts were pretty much the same amongst all the senior members of the Imperial Academy who were present.

Many knew about the legendary Guri clan but they knew the clan would not allow their inner or true members to join any academy besides the Zallu Academy.

Each of their members practices a dangerous form of martial arts that was hard to battle against and was well versed with their close combat magic spells.

But even though this was true, none of them expected him to win. He was only an outer member of the clan and not a true member while Stella was the pride of their Academy.

Many of the older students also felt that Stella was going to win but most did not know about Nathan's background. They just assumed that because he was a newly recruited student, he was overestimating himself and challenging the best person he could find.

The only ones who believed in Nathan were some of the first years. Many did not know of Stella's reputation and thought that she was one of the girls who got popular with their looks alone and lacked skills.

Nathan looked at everyone around them who was watching before facing Stella who already looked to be ready for combat.

"It seems that we have drawn quite the crowd. What happens when they see their champion lose?"

Stella did not reply with words but made the hand gesture of 'come hither' to indicate her opinion on the outcome.

His words did cause many of the senior students to look down on him and believe that he was someone who was overestimating his abilities.

"Trash that does not know his place."

"Newborn calf that does not fear the tiger."

"Lady Stella will surely put him in his place to the point where he might even drop out."

Nathan ignored their words as he unsheathed the sword on his back and pointed it toward Stella.

When everyone saw what it was, they let out gasps of surprise because of its design with good reason to.

The sword he pulled out seemed like a normal long sword at first but it had a dull, flat tip to it. One could also see that the sword had the same amount of thickness throughout the whole blade.

This was no normal sword. Instead, it was the sword of an executioner.

These blades were typically only used for executions and were never made for combat. They were ceremonial and to kill nobles with honor, unlike the executioner's ax.

These blades were the opposite of the estoc. Estocs were swords made with the sole intention of stabbing and lacked sharpness along their edges.

The executioner's sword was a blade that was meant to tear through flesh and bone in one clean swing but was not meant for stabbing at all.

This was a sword truly made for killing and had no noble air about it at all like other swords.

A chill went over the necks of the students and even some of the senior teachers felt off-put by this weapon.

Stella and Nicia looked at the sword with pure interest. Anyone who would use that sword in combat was either a pure fool or a master.

Neither thought that Nathan was the former.

"Nice sword you got there. You sure you know how to swing it?"

Nathan swung the sword around a few times with a single hand and created strong gusts of wind around his body that could be seen with the naked eye.

Anyone could tell how much strength was put into those swings by the amount of wind that they generated and felt another chill go up their spines.

'This guy is strong!' was the general consensus about Nathan. Even if they could not tell how skilled he was, they were at least able to tell how physically powerful his body was even without using internal ki.

Nathan aimed the sword at the ground with a single hand as if he was struggling to lift it but anyone who saw his previous display knew that he could wield the sword with ease.

'A low guard with an executioner's sword? This boy is weird. But it seems like he might really give out little prodigy some issues today.'

Nicia let a small smile appear on her face. She was looking forward to the fight even more than she was before.

Stella was also ready for the fight and made the first move. She began gathering mana and got ready to use the first spell.

'Guess that means we are starting.'

Nathan rushed forward while silently assessing the first spell Stella may use as the battle between the two had officially begun.