Purple vs Blue

"Turning left here? Bold choice," I said, following Levin through the hallways of the academy.

"I know this is the right way, so stop trolling me," he grumbled back.

"Trolling? What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

This guy says a lot of strange words. I wonder where he's from. He definitely doesn't seem like he's been here in the Imperial Capital for long.

For the record, he was indeed going the right way. His map, assuming that I was right about what he was doing, must be pretty accurate.

"So, why'd you enroll at this time of year?" I asked. "It must've been a real pain to get the headmaster to agree to something so abnormal. What was so important that you couldn't wait three months for the next semester to start?"

"There should be a student here named Saige Ortney. You know her?"

"Saige? Yeah, daughter of the prime minister and top student of the senior year, right? What about her?"

"I have something of dire importance that I need to discuss with her, and becoming a student seemed like the easiest way to get into contact."

"Pffft."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. His turned his head sharply towards me.

"What's so funny?"

"You do realize who you're talking about, right? The emperor himself dotes on Saige like she was his own daughter, and she's practically treated like a princess here on campus. A no-name, newly enrolled student like you isn't getting anywhere near her."

"... yeah."

He hung his head in disappointment. It was a bit pitiful seeing him like that, so I changed the topic.

"Since you only started today, you don't have a match lined up for practicals, do you?" I asked.

"Not that I'm aware of. What about you, are you sitting out too?"

I gave him a funny look.

"Huh? No, why would you think that?"

He appeared to bring out another one of his documents.

"Well, you're missing more than a third of your mana, aren't you?" he asked, staring at a particular spot. "Wouldn't you need that to, you know, fight?"

"Nah," I said. "My match will be easy. I'm the worst possible matchup for Hagen. His greatsword's not going to come close to touching me."

"You seem pretty confident about that. Let's see, you said his name was Hagen, right?"

He made some more gestures in the air. His eyes scanned something, then widened.

"Um, just out of curiosity, what's this guy's win record like?"

"He's at 11-3 right now. He's the third ranked in our year in combat."

"And you think you can wipe the floor with him even with a handicap?"

"Yep. By the way, since you forgot to ask, I'm second ranked in our year. No, actually, I think I'll be first after today's win since the current first is out sick today and will have to miss his match."

Levin gave me a look of newfound respect.

"Huh. That's rather surprising. With your attitude, I would've assumed you were second from the bottom rather than the top."

"Sounds like you're just bad at judging people."

He shrugged.

"Maybe so, but I still think you're also underestimating Hagen."

Man, I really wish I knew what he was seeing... wait. I have an idea.

We had just reached the edge of the training field. Levin moved to join the rest of our class, but I grabbed him by the collar.

"Oof—"

"Hold up a sec," I said. "You wanna make a bet?"

He raised an eyebrow at that.

"You mean on whether you'll beat Hagen?"

"Mm-hm. If I lose, I'll introduce you to Saige."

That got his attention.

"You're saying that you know her personally?" he asked.

"We're not close friends, but she knows my name. I was a straight-A student until this semester, after all."

"... all right, so what do you want if you win?"

I smiled.

"Simple. I want you to tell me all about that weird power of yours."

He pondered my offer for a moment, but I could tell from his expression that I had him hooked. Finally, he extended his hand for me to shake.

"Okay, it's a deal."

"And now for the final match of today's class, Tione Faulk vs Hagen Claus!" Instructor Telle called out in his booming voice. "Please step into the Arena."

We both entered, taking up positions on either end of the 50 meter wide circle of stone.

"I'll be taking that second place spot, Faulk," Hagen taunted. I didn't deign to give a response.

The instructor activated the enchantment on the Arena, and I felt a magical field wash over me as a barrier was established. The Arena was recording the current state of our bodies, and would perfectly restore us after the fight, although it wouldn't restore lost mana. Additionally, the dome-shaped barrier would prevent our spells from leaking out. This meant we could fight without holding back and without worrying about the spectators.

Of course, excessive brutality is still forbidden since it could lead to psychological damage.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spied Levin standing right up against the barrier. He was touching it with a somewhat awestruck expression.

Has he never seen one of these before? They're not that uncommon in big cities.

"Fighters! Prepare yourselves!"

Right, it's fighting time.

I reached my left hand down to my waist and drew my trusty dagger, and attuned some Darkness mana. Hagen, meanwhile, drew his greatswo—

Correction. He had pulled out a chain whip. A chain whip!?

From all the muttering coming from the other students watching, it seemed like everyone else was just as surprised by this change in equipment. Well, everyone except for a certain brown-eye with a smug smile on his face.

Okay, so he has a different weapon, so what? I can still beat him... right?

"And... begin!"

"Frigid Swamp!"

Right after the match started, Hagen invoked what could be called his signature spell. A wave of ice-cold water washed out from his feet, gradually enveloping the entire arena in an ankle-deep layer of water. Unlike regular water, it was thick and hard to move in for everyone other than the invoker, and the cold temperature saps his opponents' stamina. It was a powerful battlefield control spell, but—

"Deep Shadow."

Expending my prepared Darkness mana, I invoked a low-tier spell, and my shadow darkened into a solid, pitch black void filling the air between my body and the ground. Technically, that's all it did. It looked cool but didn't have any practical effects. It did, however, saturate the air and ground beneath me with my mana, with a higher density than what Hagen's spell has. And mana from two different people cannot occupy the same space.

The water reached me and splashed against my feet. Hagen ran towards me, swinging his weapon in an easy-to-read overhead arc.

I sidestepped it with ease, allowing it to harmlessly strike the stone floor, then charged towards him. The water touching my feet lost its magical grip, as my mana pushed out Hagen's, negating his spell in a small area beneath me. Granted, this didn't make the water any less cold, but I could handle it for the moment.

It's this understanding of the nature of mana that meant the difference between victory and defeat. The fact that Hagen didn't get that just proved that he didn't deserve his rank. Sighing mentally, I drove my dagger towards his chest.

"Glacial Skin!"

Rather than striking flesh, my dagger found itself embedded in a barrier of ice covering Hagen's left arm. He grinned deviously at me.

Ah, dammit.

Before I could remove my dagger, he brought his leg up and knocked me away with a powerful front kick, forcing me to release my weapon. I rolled onto my feet as I landed, wincing at the pain in my stomach, but he then began whirling his war whip at me in a bewildering pattern, completely unlike the amateurish attack from before. I had no choice but to backpedal as far away as I could.

A new weapon that suits the high dexterity of a blue-eye better, and a spell that I've never seen him use before. Where did all of this come from!?

"See, that's your weakness, Faulk," Hagen called out, triumph written on his face. "You have a bad habit of looking down on people, and the thought that I might be hiding some of my skill didn't even occur to you! I was going to save this for Veryl, but since Mr. First Place isn't here to watch, I might as well crush you with it now!"

"Maybe next you can reveal your hidden skill of shutting the hell up," I shot back, trying to act tough. I heard a couple stray snickers among the audience, and Hagen frowned.

"Fine, have it your way."

He pried my dagger out of his arm, tossed it behind him, then charged at me. I began attuning my mana to Air. The next spell I planned to use was a high-tier one, and it being an element other than Darkness meant it was going to be even more mana inefficient for me, so it was going to end up taking nearly all of what I had left.

The chain whip sliced through the air towards me.