Duel (1)

Tear's eyes flashed coldly. She kept her gaze fixed on me for a few seconds before moving her gaze away.

"Very well, if nobody has a question, then follow me." Tear then turned around and left the classroom.

The students looked at each other confused before following after her. I also followed after them, with Daisy beside me.

Tear took us to the sports ground. It was an open field filled with green grass and surrounded by grandstands where the students could spectate the people in the field.

Actually, although I called it sports ground, it was more like a small dueling arena. There were other sports in the empire besides magic and sword duels, but very few people were interested in them.

When we reached the sports field, Tear observed each student carefully and nodded.

"Today I'll evaluate your combat ability. I know that many of you received combat training in your homes, but I need to evaluate how well you will fare in real combat. Now, I'll call two names and the students I called will fight against each other. Carlos, Melody."

Two students hesitated slightly before taking a step forward. Tear then brought them to the middle of the field while the other students sat on the grandstands.

The combat was a bit boring, after all, both of them were at the beginner third layer. Tear stood near them to make sure that they were not injured and once the winner was decided, she stopped the fight.

After that, she called another pair. After a while, I realized that she was pairing the students according to their cultivation, beginning from the weaker ones.

It did not take long for Daisy to be called. She was paired with a commoner girl that also had third layer strength. The fight was pretty long, with Daisy getting a narrow victory after almost ten minutes.

I had been guiding Daisy on her cultivation lately, but I taught her little about real combat. I was planning to wait until she advances to the fifth layer before putting her through real combat.

Finally, when most of the class had been called, it was my turn.

However, the identity of the person I was fighting made me smile wryly.

"Claus and Rose, it's your turn."

I forced myself to not show a bitter smile.

There are few fourth-layer students in our class, but Rose and I were not the only ones. However, Tear just paired us two against each other.

Normally, you would think of it as a coincidence, however, I knew better.

In fact, I was pretty sure that it was the world trying to create a conflict between us.

I grabbed a wooden training sword and stood before Rose. Coincidentally, Rose was also wielding a wooden sword. She stared at me and for a moment, an angry light flashed through her eyes.

I wrinkled my brows. It looks like things are bad. This girl is already showing animosity to me. If I did not know she was a hero, this fight probably would have become in the spark that starts our conflict.

But now that I know her identity, things are different.

I nodded towards Rose and smiled politely. "Nice to meet you. I'm Claus Quintin."

Rose frowned, but she probably thought it was impolite to not reply, so she introduced herself too.

"I'm Rose, only Rose."

"I know. I heard about you before. I must admit that I'm impressed that a commoner girl like you was able to advance to the fourth layer without the support of anyone."

"… I worked hard." She said.

"Haha, yeah, I can see it. I'm even feeling a bit ashamed. After all, I'm also at the fourth layer despite being a prince and having an advantage over you." I put on a bitter smile and shook my head. "However, I'm not planning to lose."

Rose looked at me for a while before nodding. "Me neither."

Tear then looked at us and took a step back. "Are you ready? Then start!"

An instant after Tear finished speaking, Rose moved.

She pressed her right foot on the ground and thrust her sword forward. Her body flashed and disappeared from my sight

The next instant, she appeared before me.

I was slightly surprised. Such speed was not something a normal fourth-layer practitioner could show.

However, I already expected something like that. After all, heroes are that kind of being, able to show strength beyond expected.

Before her sword could touch my chest, I leaned my body aside and thrust my sword towards her sword-wielding arm.

Rose showed a slightly surprised expression. She hurriedly retracted her sword to parry my attack, but my sword circled through her defenses and continued towards her neck.

An expression of astonishment appeared on Rose's face. Even though her movements were faster than mine, for some reason she felt as though the fight was completely in my control.

Seeing my sword approaching her chest, Rose did not have more options but take a step back. However, once she stepped back once, she became unable to take back the initiative.

My wooden sword flashed sharply. Tens of thrusts pierced towards her body from different directions and left multiple afterimages in the air, as a wave of sword attacks that was crashing towards her.

Rose felt overwhelmed. She tried to block each one of the attacks, but my sword was too elusive.

In less than five seconds, a strong feeling of danger filled her mind.

Trusting her instincts, Rose leaped backward. The next instant, my sword cut through her previous position, cutting a few strands of her hair.

But before she could sigh in relief, she saw a shadow out of the corner of her sight.

Startled, Rose put her sword in front of her chest to defend against the attack. Then, my kick hit her sword.

"Ugh!" Rose grunted in pain. She felt a heavy weight crushing her body and forcing her to take more than five steps back helplessly.

I stopped my attacks and stared at Rose. As expected of a hero, even after I used fourth-layer strength without holding back, I'm having trouble defeating her.

You must remember that I used the same strength to overwhelm Louise, who was a sixth-layer mage. Meanwhile, Rose is still in the fourth layer, but she endured more than twenty sword blows.

Of course, I did not use [Reality Render], but I have the feeling that she still has some cards that she has not shown.

Rose panted heavily and looked at me with a grave expression. Afterward, She took a deep breath and held her sword vertically.

"… You are very strong." She said.

I smiled softly. "You too. Not many fourth-layer practitioners can endure twenty of my attacks without losing."

Rose was startled, but in the next second, she smiled. "I see. However, I'm not planning to lose."

"Is it so?" My smile became wider. "Then show me what you can do!"

The next second, our battle intensified again.