Arc 1: Part 19

Mina stretched her right hand towards Kyle. The dark flame extended towards him and turned into a hand with claws. It tried to grab Kyle but missed since Kyle managed to dodge and ran towards her.

The dark flame hand disappeared, and another hand appeared again, which Mina used to sweep the arena. Kyle jumped over it and saw another hand coming at him. However, his strings immediately pulled him to the ground to avoid the hand.

"Seems like you got skill!" Mina praised Kyle while pulling back all her hands and rushing towards him. A sword covered her right hand, and she launched a quick thrust at him. Kyle dodged it and paid attention to an incoming claw, which forced him to dodge again.

"All you did was dodge and dodge. Why are you not blocking my attack or something?" Mina questioned while she had an expression of having fun.

"Something tells me it is dangerous to touch your flame," Kyle replied calmly.

"Oh? Indeed …. You got a good instinct there," Mina praised him again. If Kyle's guess was correct, then she had a fraction of the Stone of Darkness. He had so many questions about it. How did she get it? Did the Stone of Darkness break? Or was he imagining things? Unfortunately, he had to answer this later since Mina went for another assault.

But Kyle wouldn't let her do as she pleased. With a slight gesture, Mina suddenly stopped in her tracks and then got pulled down to the ground. She tried to move, but couldn't, leaving her with no choice. She tried to engulf herself with her dark flame, but suddenly electricity flowed toward her.

"Zap!" Kyle said with a grin, and Mina got electrocuted. Kyle had prepared for this. He had spread his strings around the training room before the fight began. He could, in fact, stop her the moment she began her attack, but it would be too fast. Besides that, there was no rule prohibiting them from cheating, and no one else was around them.

Mina knelt on the ground with her head down, with burned marks on her body thanks to Kyle's attack. She stayed still for a moment, which made Kyle wonder what she was up to. He knew Mina was still conscious as his attack was minimized by her magic coating. Thanks to that, she didn't lose consciousness.

"I was wrong," Mina mumbled, and Kyle sensed her mana was building up.

"You are not weak!" She looked up at Kyle with a grin. Her golden eyes became bright, and his strings suddenly got swallowed by the dark flame. It forced Kyle to cut off his strings.

"Phew …. To think that I fell for such a trick," she said while getting up. "I'll make sure I won't fall for that again." Her dark flame covered her entire arms and legs.

{'Did I dig my own grave?'} Kyle thought bitterly. He watched as Mina suddenly vanished and reappeared again near him with a claw coming from above him. Kyle retreated away but suddenly sensed another claw was waiting for him from behind. He forced himself to stop and saw the two claws coming at him. Before they crushed him, he jumped away and rolled to the ground.

Mina's attack didn't stop there. She was in midair above Kyle and had her dark flame on her leg shot towards Kyle, which was easily dodged, but it wasn't the end. Her dark flame pulled her down to the ground while she split her claws into several tendrils and sent them to Kyle.

Kyle dodged all the tendrils that were coming at him. He was amazed at the destruction that Mina could cause. Her attacks were versatile and destructive; she had no range, which made her even more dangerous.

{'But such a skill bounds to have strain.'} With his mana sensing, he could see her mana was draining out at high speed, and her body was building up stress at an alarming rate.

{'Come to think of it, I have been dodging a lot in this entire fight. Should I call myself the Dodging King?'} He joked inside before dodging another tendril attack that was shot like an arrow.

"Do you have nothing else aside from dodging?!" Mina shouted while sweating. She was exhausted. Her mana was drained while defending herself against Kyle's attack, and using this form of her attack, she drained a lot of her mana. If she couldn't finish this sooner, she would lose, and she didn't like that.

"If you can only dodge! Then here!" Mina expended all of her power. Her dark flame surrounded the arena and forcefully pushed Kyle towards her while she kept attacking him.

"Ah, this is too long. I know your strength now," Kyle mumbled softly. He looked at Mina and moved his fingers. His body moved fast towards her without touching the ground, which made him look like a missile that came towards her.

Mina gathered her dark flame and shot out a large spearhead towards him. She thought it was foolish of him to go straight at her when she could attack him anytime.

However, Kyle suddenly had his feet planted on the ground and slid on it. He leaned his body to do what only a flexible person could do and avoided the spearhead which flew above him.

"What?!" Mina was shocked at what she saw. This was getting ridiculous for her. He dodged all of her attacks, then he floated, and then slid onto the ground. She couldn't understand how he did it.

"Ah!" She realized something she had missed. The strings! She thought she had gotten rid of all of them, but it seemed that he used them to improve his movements as well.

In that case, Mina decided to burn everything away. Fire sprouted from the ground and rose up to the point Kyle was nowhere to be seen. However, a flicker of shadow went above. Mina looked up and saw Kyle descending toward her.

"You― kuh!" Mina felt a headache. She had realized her mana had been exhausted, and her body couldn't hold out any longer. It forced her to dismiss her dark flame and knelt on the ground.

Kyle landed in front of her and pointed his knife at her. She looked up and saw his smiling face.

"I won," he said as if it was an absolute fact.

"Damn it," Mina cursed while looking down. This was a huge embarrassment to her. She thought she could win because he didn't give her any dangerous feelings. And yet, she had been defeated, and in a manner she didn't like. She had lost in a war of endurance.

"Just as we promised, you shall work under me for a month, and I'll pay you," he told her.

"What? Why would you do that?" she questioned him. "You can just make me work without payment."

Kyle snorted. "What kind of boss am I if I can't take care of my underling? Anyway, can you stand?"

Mina tried to move her body, but it was useless. She didn't have the strength to move. "No," she replied honestly.

"Hm, I guess I have to carry you then," said Kyle. Mina had to process what he said before realizing what he meant. However, the moment she realized it, Kyle had carried her up in bridal style.

"H-hey! Put me down!" She shouted in embarrassment.

"No way, you are tired. Just get some rest while I carry you to your dorm," told Kyle while picking up both of their bags with his strings.

"No! This is embarrassing!" She wiggled around.

"Ugh, be still! Your embarrassment is not worth anything at the moment," Kyle scolded her. Honestly, he found her actions to be cute. Back then, she was a rude and arrogant girl, but the said girl had turned into an embarrassed girl, such a gap in her personality at the moment.

Kyle ignored Mina and carried her towards Class Seven's Dorm. While walking, Kyle went to ask her. "Hey, Mina, what is your flame actually? It looks unique."

Mina, who had calmed herself but was still embarrassed, looked at him. "My flame? Yeah, it has a dark color and I don't know why. As far as I know, it has been like that ever since I could use it. Why?"

"It is just unique, not like any normal magic."

"True, even if I were to use other elements, they would receive the dark color somehow. My teacher said my true element alignment is darkness, but the moment I tried to use darkness magic, it rebelled against me," she looked annoyed.

"That's interesting," Kyle muttered. Upon closer look, she truly indeed has a piece of the Stone of Darkness. The Stone of Darkness had been broken, and he didn't know how it happened. But either way, with that piece, Mina was set to be the master of the dark element, but she was rejected by said element. He couldn't help but pity her.

It appeared that the piece of the SoD, or Stone of Darkness, had become sentient, and while she was not skilled enough to fully wield the element, the said element melded with the other elements without her command.

"Have you heard of the challenge sent by Class Two?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, they will send three people, and so will we. Do you want to know who Class Seven will send?" She caught up quickly.

"Yeah, can I?"

"Sure, Vyn and I are sure options. As for the third one, we are still deciding it through a fight."

It seemed that many wanted to become the third fighter, and they decided it with the last man standing.

"Which one is stronger, you or Vyn?" His question irked Mina.

"As much as I want to say I'm stronger than him, I don't know. We haven't fought against each other, but I have to say, he is truly strong."

"Anyone else as strong as you guys?"

"Hm, yeah? Probably? Raw strength-wise, I don't think anyone else is as strong as me. But there are others with better and different kinds of strength with techniques and such."

They kept talking to each other until they arrived at Class Seven's Dorm. Coincidentally, someone was sweeping outside the dorm and noticed them.

"Mina! What happened?!" The girl who swept the stairs was running toward Mina with a worried expression.

"No need to worry, Carla, I just …." Mina tried to stand, but she still had no strength to do so. "Overexerting myself," she added at the end.

"Yeah, she trained too hard," Kyle told the worried girl. He and Mina agreed not to tell anyone that they had a spar. Not only would Mina's defeat be known, and Kyle would also attract attention. So it was better to say that Mina trained too hard and Kyle was just there to help.

"Ah, thank you for helping her. M-my name is Carla Forhaust," she introduced herself. Carla Forhaust was a girl with chestnut-colored hair, and her brown eyes were hidden behind glasses. Appearance-wise, she leaned towards cute with her petite and short body. Even when she received Mina, she seemed to struggle to lift her up without using magic.

Carla possessed neither an impressive amount of mana nor a high level of control. What made her so special to be in Class Seven? It made him wonder.

"Kyle Welton from Class Three," said Kyle while slightly bowing his body.

"Oh! You are from Class Three!" Carla immediately looked at Kyle with a warmer look. The alliance had taken effect.

"Ugh, enough already, Carla, take me to my room," told Mina with a grunt.

"Then, I'll take my leave," told Kyle before walking away.

"Yes! Take care!" Carla said. Her voice was truly energetic and full of concern.

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Author: Aida Hanabi

Proofreader: Lola

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