Trouble Brews [2]

My main consciousness was flung back into my room, sitting in a cross-legged position on my bed as a result of my clone having been busy meditating.

Unfortunately, I couldn't summon my clone again as I was almost completely out of mana.

As stated before, the main drawback to my Manual was the immense mana cost of using the skills. Just using [Swap] had cost me, what felt like, half of my current mana. [Double Trouble] cost even more than that.

Not that it really mattered all that much to me right now. I was already content with the progress I had made today. Something I was less pleased with was the fact that my hard-earned buzz was now completely gone as I had switched bodies.

So instead of using the night fully, I made my mind up. I went to bed.

****

[Sophie's Pov]

'I will fuck you up...'

Rage was surging through me with the three brats in front of me being the reason. Not wanting to hear another word coming out of their mouths, I took a step forward.

"Are you guys done? I thought we were at a restaurant, and I am pretty sure that most of them don't allow animals."

Their laughter disappeared as they needed a couple of seconds to understand what I had said. Finally, Mike opened his mouth, uttering even more profanities, "You bitch! What the fuck did you call us?! Who even are you?!"

His last question was a valid one. Hell, even I didn't know who I was in this world. What I did know, though, was that I was someone who wouldn't tolerate them talking shit about Arthur.

"You will know that tomorrow. Now please leave before I talk to the manager of this restaurant and make him throw you out."

The three of them flinched, surprised that I chose to threaten them with something reasonable instead of continuing to lower myself to throw insults at them.

"Fuck... Fine! We will leave! Be happy Arthur! Now you finally have someone that can protect your sorry ass!"

As they turned around to walk away, I tried to contain my anger but it was futile. "Hey! If you so desperately want to fight, let's fight! A 2v2 duel! Right now!"

"Sophie... Are you sure that's a good idea...?"

Looking at the pitiful man at my side, I couldn't help but question the affection that I had for him.

'I guess I'll have to whip him into a real man...'

It wasn't enough for me to give up on him, especially when I knew that he would become the most powerful out of all of us in the future.

"It's fine, Arthur. You aren't weak. Even if you are, you can't just let them step on you like this. Show some spine! You are the one who always talks about becoming strong and that's not going to happen if you continue to act all weak!"

As Arthur opened his mouth to respond to my pep talk, his eyes now burning with resolve, Mike interjected with a sinister smile.

"Sure! Let's do it! Follow me and we will go to the grounds. Bella, go get a teacher so they can be the judge of our duel."

"Sure!"

Following Mike and John, we quickly made our way to the training grounds, stepping into a familiar white circle like the one me and Arthur had been using during our spars.

As we were all, strangely enough, wearing training wear, there was no need to go and get changed before our duel.

While we were having a staredown with our enemies, with Arthur clearly not getting the memo, the blonde slut returned with an unenthusiastic teacher in tow.

"So... You guys want to duel even before classes start...? Fine. What are the stakes of the duel?"

This wasn't something that I had thought about at all, mostly because I didn't know that duels had stakes. Before I could find a reasonable demand, Mike stated theirs.

"If we win we want both of them to withdraw from the academy!"

It was an incredibly harsh stake, bizarre even. Now what I had been thinking of felt pretty lame in comparison, though when I reminded myself that they were just hot-headed douchebags, I didn't feel so bad anymore.

"We accept. In return we want them to stay away from Arthur during our years at the academy!"

"Wait, Sophie!"

An exasperated Arthur tugged at my hoodie, desperately trying to make me change my mind.

"It's all right, Arthur. We will win!"

Maybe it was because of the confidence my voice carried, but with those words, he collected himself and his face was painted with determination.

"Haaa... Okay. I trust you."

"Do you accept their demand?"

Mike took a step forward to show his motivation, "We accept!"

"Haaa... Okay, now that the stakes are settled I am forced to tell you the rules. You win if you manage to make both members of the other team either forfeit or unable to continue fighting. If I see that a lethal attack is going to connect, I will physically stop the attack and declare the one who would get killed as unable to continue fighting."

The rules were pretty brutal. Not a single word about fighting fair or avoiding sensitive spots.

'They probably have some really good healers here.'

Dismissing the small wave of anxiety, I made myself ready to fight the brats in front of me by transforming my hands.

"Fight!"

Without hesitation, I quickly activated [Draconic Enhancement] to empower myself and dashed to the, now, staff-wielding pair, with my focus being on Mike.

Arthur followed suit but, noticing where I was looking, instead locking onto John.

Surprised by the speed of my approach, Mike didn't even have the time to enact a spell before I swung my hand towards his neck.

*Bam!*

"Argh!", Somehow, he managed to react in time, raising his staff to block but because of the force behind my attack, he was blown away into the ground. Not giving him time to fix his position, I dashed to him once again.

"Fireball!"

A red circle had appeared in front of him and, while still lying on the ground, a ball of fire was sent out at me. Once again, my instincts took over.

Instead of dodging, I swept the fireball with both of my scaly paws, disintegrating it in the air. 'What kind of dragon would be afraid of fire?'

The next second, I was on top of the little shit and I let my right hand fly towards his throat. Before it could connect, I felt a hand on my arm, keeping it back.

"The red hair is out because of a lethal attack."

The teacher had stopped me before I took his life, something I didn't even think about as I launched my attack. I was too focused on bringing my enemy down.

Getting to my feet, I turned my head to see how my darling was faring.

Arthur had a much more exciting fight than me, with John pretty skillfully manipulating winds to keep him at bay by shooting blades of air at him while at the same time repositioning using, what I assumed to be, some kind of skill.

Looking at the golden boy now, his weak and pitiful appearance was completely gone. Instead, it had been replaced by a handsome and resolute man who knew what he had to do. Although I can't say that I enjoyed seeing his handsome face bleeding from getting scratched by one of John's spells...

'No! Don't interrupt! This is Arthur's fight! If he loses, I will still be able to clean it up after!'

Once again, Arthur tried to approach the green-haired man, skillfully dodging the barrage of compressed air that flew toward him.

Suddenly, the barrage just stopped.

"Fuck! I'm out of mana!"

John's words were the signal that this fight was over, with Arthur quickly dashing to him and slicing horizontally towards his midriff.

Just as what happened to me, the teacher somehow made it there in time to stop the attack.

"The green hair is out because of a lethal attack. The amazon and the fuckboy wins."

"What did you say?! What do you mean?!"

The teacher just gave me a lazy look as if telling me 'I don't give a fuck, you know?'. Luckily, Arthur quickly made his way to me and managed to calm me down with his boyish excitement at our win.

"We did it, Sophie! We won over nobles who have gotten the best resources to get stronger from the moment they were born!"

"Argh!"

In the distance, I could hear a pained grunt from Mike as he realized what Arthur had just innocently stated.

Letting my face warp into a warm smile, I just let him bask in the afterglow with his sweaty, sexy... I mean let him celebrate.

With this duel concluded, there was only one thing left for me to do before going to bed.

'James, you fuck! Just wait until I get my hands on you!'

****

"Achoo!"

Rubbing my nose after my sudden sneeze, I couldn't help but feel anxious for some reason.

I had been trying to sleep for a long time now, but it just didn't come to me.

Checking the time, which wasn't even 11 PM yet, I decided that maybe some tea would help me soothe my restless mind.

*Knock, knock, knock!

Just as I was about to start the electric kettle, a familiar sound emerged from my door. accompanied by imaginary boss music.

'Fuck...'