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[I can't believe that I made such a crucial mistake, to neglect the merging of swordsmanship and magic! I should have been studying that for months, yet I've neglected it so! And here I am, out of time! I mean, perhaps I will get some time on the field to practice, I should certainly practice this. Oh, even thinking of how broad an idea… wind to assist with movement, earth to aid my footwork while suppressing my enemy's, spells intermingled with attacks and conducted by my blade to add an extra layer of assault. Not to mention combat between two swordsmen at the level of flight! Yet, such are not things I can easily test in a combat scenario, I must train them!]

Still, my next targets are normal swordsmen and Reinhart, I don't need to worry for the moment. Noting that Belfrost and Reinhart are still engaged in battle, I turn to attacking the normal enemy swordsmen around me. Well, attack may be a bit too strong a word. They are unable to utilize mana, so there is no way for them to avoid my attacks. By utilizing wind to fling them forcefully into the air and away from the battlefield, I remove them from battle without much risk of permanent damage.

Three additional times, magic swordsmen come to challenge me, and each time they are defeated, though never so violently as the first. Though none are so foolish as to cast dispel magic, a spell that I can't cast in any case, their defeat comes easily through magic duels supplemented by flying sword attacks.

On the last of the three, I decide to experiment a bit with working magic into my swordsmanship. I use wind to increase my speed, both of movement and of my blows, as well as infusing some fire mana into my attacks. Anything more complicated, and I would fear the risk of injury. However, the methods are certainly not free from complications. Though my movement enhancements with wind go rather smoothly due to my flying experience, my first attempt to increase my swing speed almost rips my arms off. As for the imbuement of my sword with mana that shoots out in combat, the biggest issue is in finding an opportunity to imbue it without taking attention from the battlefield.

Of course, in this battle I could surely find the opportunity; after all, it takes less than a second with my elemental manipulation level. However, against an on-level opponent also capable of magic and swordsmanship, it would be much more difficult. The same goes for other cast spells, which seem to almost necessitate putting some distance between me and the enemy. Though it is certainly the case that all of my issues could simply be from this being my first attempt at really doing this, exempting my fight with the scorpions of course.

Whatever the case, my opponent falls rather quickly. My pressure is too excessive for him to find an opportunity to cast many spells, and as someone who has practice flying against someone who does not, my utilization of wind to obtain greater mobility is far superior to his own. Add that to my superior swordsmanship abilities, and my opponent is defeated in short order. A deep gash across his abdomen, he stumbles away from the field as I watch him leave.

Once my battle with the three is finished, I finish off the surrounding swordsmen. Determining that I have contributed an acceptable amount, I withdraw from the front lines, intent to watch over Reinhart and Belfrost's duel. However, such is unnecessary; as soon as I turn to leave the front lines, I see Belfrost stumbling away from Reinhart, holding his severed arm in his remaining hand.

[It seems Reinhart didn't go very easy on him this time. Alright, my turn!]

I make the short flight to Reinhart, who is ravaging our Western swordsmen the same way I had wiped out their Eastern swordsmen.

"Now, now, Commander Reinhart, we wouldn't want to bully the weak, now would we?" I jokingly ask.

"Hardly appropriate for the one who just defeated an entire group of our soldiers alongside our best non-commander spellsword to say, eh?"

"Oh, was he really so powerful? Why, he couldn't even fly."

"And be grateful for it. Had you fought a flying spellsword he would have been a commander and your death would be certain. Luckily for you, all your magic swordsmen commanders have occupied our own, exempting the one foolish enough to challenge me. Now, enough talk; let's fight, and here determine the better warrior!"

[Well, considering my rate of growth, I'm sure to tower over you in the near future. But sure, fighting is what I'm here for.] With that thought, I charge in towards Reinhart. I don't use any wind or earth spells to assist my approach; while unlikely that he would disperse them from his location, it seems like cheating to do so. And there is no point in winning against Reinhart through use of magic; not only would such a victory come with minimal respect from others and little boost to my ego, it would undoubtedly sour my relationship with Reinhart, he who so despises the interference of magic in a competition of swords.

So, then, our swords clash for what is likely to be the last time during our time at this complex, the last part of my very mundane training arc!

We initially fight rather brazenly, aiming for a quick victory. However, when our vicious and prolonged exchanges quickly leave us tired, we each become far more cautious in our methodology, dancing around one another with short exchanges of blows. After we have been fighting for close to five minutes, at which point no sword has even yet made conflict with flesh, a handful of soldiers from Reinhart's side charge towards me, thus interfering with our duel.

I move to blast them away with a wind spell without thinking it over. After I have unleashed the spell, I realize that Reinhart may well just disperse it. However, somewhat to my surprise, he allows it to land, resulting in his troops being blasted away from the field at high speeds. [Huh. I guess his hatred of interfering in duels is even greater than his dislike of magic?]

We return to circling one another, occasionally exchanging lightning-fast blows that regularly fail to leave even a mark. Jabs, alongside occasional slashes, are blocked and parried. The occasional feints we each slip in are rather obvious to us after so long fighting, and so fail to properly trip us up.

Action and reaction, over and over, occasionally interspersed with an up close and personal fight of much greater intensity. As opposed to our usual battles, in which I must go for a quick victory due to tiring faster because of my lower level and lower strength level, here I actually have an advantage on the endurance side of things.

Lector has been allowing me to keep any potions I brew, and that includes my endurance potions. While not nearly on the level of his, I keep many of them on me at all times. Before beginning this duel, I drank one that was about eighty percent as powerful as his own, the most powerful potion I had produced to date.

Combine my drinking of an endurance potion right before the duel with Reinhart already being worn down by his duel with Belfrost, and I have a rather large advantage in a drawn out fight. Such is likely why he started off the battle much more intensely than usual, looking for a quick victory, with perhaps the side bonus of surprising me through an unorthodox manner of fighting.

By now, our duel looks similar to many of our duels of late, long periods of probing for weaknesses, no greater than a few blows per exchange, with far more intense periods interspersed within. But, as mentioned, I have a great lead over myself in normal duels due to my higher energy than Reinhart.

In fact, Reinhart is already showing signs of tiredness. Beyond the sweating and lower-than-usual steadiness from him, his movements have slowed to a minute degree, though said degree grows by the passing minute.

But still, he does not make a mistake great enough for me to so much as draw blood. I notice that much of the fighting around us has come to a halt, whether because the people around us are paying us undue attention or because they have simply moved to a more open area, I am unsure; to look around for even an instant would spell my failure, after all.

After close to an hour of fighting, Reinhart seems to throw everything into one last, desperate attempt to win. Pushing in towards me, our swords flash like lightning as we dance across the field, each demonstrating our mastery of footwork and skill with the sword. I expect him to withdraw after a minute, as is standard practice; however, he presses the attack with no end in sight.

Three minutes, four, five, ten… all with no end in sight. Even as I begin to tire, his attack does not relent one tiny degree; if anything, it actually increases in intensity. [Did I misread things? Did he only pretend to be tired to lure me into a false sense of security? Does he have some way of negating his own exhaustion to push on in battle? No, that last one can't be; otherwise, why would he not always fight with full intensity? But the issue remains: he still shows no signs of tiring.]

Several more minutes pass, minutes in which I begin to lose hope in victory. While I have more endurance potions on me, there is absolutely no hope of pulling them out to drink during battle; and even if I could, drinking them seems like it would be cheating.

[Heh. If only life were so easy as a videogame, having the option to roll away and drink a healing potion or whatever before returning to battle as good as new. Although even that is a bit silly; at so high a level as Reinhart and I, if one is to the point of suffering notable injury, they are likely too tired to continue. After all, this battle will come to its close shortly, likely in my defeat, and yet not a single blow of not has landed yet.]

Just as I think this, Reinhart lands two consecutive hits on me, one on my forearm and one on my calf. However, both wounds are very shallow, and continuing on after receiving them isn't particularly difficult.

And so, our duel continues at full intensity for a few minutes more, each of us fighting near perfectly… until the final moment. Reinhart makes preparations to jab at my side, to which I slightly adjust my position. However, he immediately alters his attack into an upwards slash, which I just barely block. I misread the amount of force involved and my sword is pushed up in the process, allowing him a clean jab of his blade into my stomach.