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The swordsmanship student opened his eyes.
Martin's blackened arm had completely stopped the sword.
It felt like hitting an iron pillar.
"It's not a good habit to close your eyes while wielding a weapon, friend."
"Th, that's...!"
The swordsman couldn't finish the sentence, 'because your body might be cut in half.'
Martin's body quickly slid in, creating distance in an instant.
"Tch!"
The swordsman hurriedly retrieved his sword and blocked Martin's fist with the thick side of the blade.
Clang!
The fist collided with the side of the sword, and the sound of metal against metal rang out.
Bonita, who was watching this scene from outside the arena, opened her mouth.
"He's amazing, isn't he? His name was Martin, right? To close the distance to match his reach against a swordsman wielding a two-handed longsword without a weapon."
Bellum replied.
"Yeah. Martin. Ace of the Comprehensive Martial Arts Department. I heard his skills have improved tremendously in the past year, but I didn't know it would be to this extent. Blocking a sword with his forearm? He's like Nubes."
Nubes raised his heavy forearm and scratched the back of his head.
"Uh, I can't even block a sword imbued with aura with my forearm."
"You haven't tried it, have you?"
"Huh? I haven't tried it. Who would do something like that and risk losing an arm?"
"Try it sometime. It might work."
"Are you crazy? No way. Not doing that."
Bellum playfully poked Nubes' forearm with his finger.
"Why? It seems like it would work."
"Martial arts students use a technique to cover parts of their body with aura. I don't know how to do that."
The fourth match of the quarterfinals continues for a day in the grand auditorium.
All second-year students are required to watch all four matches of the quarterfinals.
While proving one's skills through sparring is important, watching the sparring of other students who have reached the quarterfinals or higher is also a great learning experience.
While Martin was pushing the swordsmanship student.
Latia and Karin began to unleash indiscriminate magic at the magic and swordsmanship students from the left and right.
The mage was struggling to block the magic attacks with an ice barrier.
The archer managed to occasionally find a gap and fire an arrow.
However, his arrows had no effect on either Latia or Karin.
The two of them casually shook their palms and erected thick ice barriers without any special preparation.
This was the skill of a magical genius girl and a royal secret weapon.
"Eek!"
The mage, hit by Latia's heavy whirlwind, was thrown backward.
Due to the nature of mages having ordinary physical bodies, it would be difficult for them to get up again after such an impact.
The archer, who looked up and saw Karin's fireball soaring high into the sky before plummeting towards him, cried out urgently.
"Surrender! Surrender!"
Pshhh.
As Karin withdrew her mana, the fiercely flying fireball dispersed into a small flame on the spot.
"Gasp!"
Gasps could be heard from various places in the audience.
Controlling a fireball of that power so freely is difficult, but cutting off the mana transfer in an instant and disintegrating it in mid-air is even more difficult.
Most people can't cut off the mana all at once and can't withdraw the magic in such an instant.
"Karin Obelia is really amazing."
"It feels like she's not far behind Latia Meridian."
"Karin Obelia's control is actually a level above, isn't it?"
"What are you talking about? Latia Meridian has the best magic control."
While the students watching the sparring were arguing over whether Latia or Karin was superior.
"I, I lost."
The last remaining swordsman dropped his sword and raised both hands.
Martin's fist was just about to land squarely in his abdomen.
As he signaled his surrender, Martin's fist stopped abruptly.
"It was an honor to mix your sword with my fist."
Evening time after all four quarterfinal matches were over.
The student cafeteria.
"So, in the end, the team with Latia and Karin will end up facing the team with Davian, Nubes, and Luna in the finals, right?"
Latia, who was twirling pasta noodles, shook her head.
"We don't know yet."
Liber, who had asked the question, looked at Latia with a surprised expression.
"Oh, our magical genius girl Latia. Where'd you get this unexpected humility?"
"It's the semifinals now. They've already won three times and made it this far with randomly formed teams. We can't guarantee the result yet."
"Come on, but you have Latia and Karin on the same team? That Martin guy seems really strong too."
Bonita nodded.
"That Martin guy. He's really strong. Honestly, I was a bit surprised."
Bellum asked.
"Is he that good? Enough for you to acknowledge him like that?"
Bonita nodded.
"It's not easy to fight a swordsman empty-handed. If you face off without a weapon, there's no way you can win."
"True. It's like that if you fight without a weapon. But in sparring, you fight with weapons, right?"
Bonita slowly shook her head.
"While watching Martin's sparring, I thought about how I would fight in that situation... Martin hasn't shown us everything yet."
"Really? You're saying he's hiding his real skills?"
"Rather than that, there's something he obviously has to try when facing an opponent with a weapon that he hasn't done even once yet."
"What is it?"
Davian answered instead.
"Taking the weapon."
"What?"
Davian turned to look at Nubes.
"If we happen to face them in the finals, be especially careful, Nubes."
Nubes, who was stuffing a large piece of meat into his mouth with a fork, asked.
"Huh? About what?"
"Be careful of Martin. If you lose your sword and shield, it'll be hard for even you to handle him."
It wasn't just about his toughness.
Nubes was also confident in his strength.
Nubes swallowed the meat without chewing it much and laughed heartily.
"Hahaha. Don't worry. I'll keep my hands gripping tight. Then no one can take the weapon I'm holding."
The most basic of sword skills is to relax the hands and wrists.
That's how you can swing the sword quickly and flexibly.
If you're afraid of dropping the sword and grip it too tightly, the movement of the sword will inevitably become slow, dull, and narrow.
This is common sense for anyone who has learned swordsmanship.
But none of his friends told Nubes that.
Bonita, who had opened her mouth to say something to Nubes, picked up the food on her plate with a fork and put it in her mouth.
'Since his movements are already slow, it's probably too late to tell him to relax now. It won't make much of a difference anyway. Nubes has his own swordsmanship.'
The next day.
The semifinals were held in the grand auditorium where the sparring stage was set up.
The first match was between Team 22, which included Latia and Karin, and Team 11.
The sparring ended in Team 22's victory in less than five minutes.
Latia and Karin used a new tactic that they hadn't shown until now.
Launching an overwhelming magic attack together right from the start.
The opposing team couldn't properly block even one attack.
They eventually surrendered when Latia and Karin were preparing their third attack.
The second match was between Davian's Team 62 and Team 45.
Since teams are determined by drawing numbered balls at random, the chances of friends being on the same team are very low.
However, besides Davian's group, there was one more team that succeeded in achieving that probability.
It was Team 45.
Rex Flumen and his gang of three overcame the low probability of less than 2 percent to become one team.
Before the sparring began, Rex reminded his other teammates once again.
"Don't forget what I told you, okay?"
"Yeah."
"Of course."
"Of course, we'll inevitably lose because of that monster Davian. But at the very least, we'll completely crush that Nubes guy who's always sticking to Davian and acting high and mighty."
"Yeah, I didn't like him either. Just because he's big and doesn't know how to do anything, he's Davian's roommate and walks around with his shoulders straight."
Of course.
It wasn't that Nubes was the type to walk around with his shoulders straight and act high and mighty at all.
...Of course, his broad shoulders were always held straight.
Rex Flumen.
The young master of a marquis family who enjoyed using his family background to make allies and form groups.
His mana affinity was also quite good.
On the first day of the entrance ceremony, he harassed Nubes for a ridiculous reason and was beaten up by Davian.
During the first-year Sword Edge Circle class, he tried to suppress Davian's swordsmanship before it could grow further, but instead suffered a major defeat.
When he entered the academy, he had secured the second-place position in the swordsmanship department after Bonita.
But that position was taken away by Billy, a commoner, before long.
With Davian's rise, he has now been pushed out of the third-place position as well.
Rex Flumen looked at Davian's group, who were preparing for the sparring on the opposite side of the arena.
'I'll make you a cripple. Nubes Arbo. It's all because of you that I got beat up by Davian on the first day of the entrance ceremony.'
Rex Flumen could never forget the humiliation he suffered on the first day of enrollment.
It was only because Davian's group was so strong that he couldn't dare to pick a fight.
He was still acting as the leader among his gang and was exerting quite a bit of influence among the other classmates.
To Davian Naone, who had become so transcendent that no one could dare to challenge him.
To Latia Meridian, the eldest daughter of a duke's family who was the only one among her classmates who couldn't use the name of the marquis family.
However.
The longer the period of having to lower his tail became.
Rex Flumen's anger only grew deeper and more intense.
'I'm going to make Nubes a cripple no matter what. And if possible, I'll make Davian a cripple too and end the sparring.'
He knew very well that he couldn't win in a sparring match against a team that included Davian.
So.
He succeeded in having his attendant smuggle something really hard to find into the academy.
Rex Flumen looked back at his gang and whispered.
"You know you absolutely can't let the blade touch your body, right?"
The gang members, with tense expressions, nodded.
Rex Flumen turned his head again and glared at the opposite side of the sparring arena.
"I'm going to make sure you can't function as human beings... Nubes Arbo. Davian Naone."
―Semifinal match 2 participants, please come to the sparring arena.
With the announcer's comment.
Semifinal match 2 began.
Nubes, who had drawn his large sword and shield, said.
"This time, all three of them are in the swordsmanship department."
Shling.
Davian also drew his sword.
"Shall we go with a 3-on-2 swordsmanship battle? We have the reliable Luna behind us."
"Sounds good!"
"I, I'll do my best too! But don't get hurt too much, guys!"
Nubes turned around and smiled brightly.
"Davian will be busy moving around to attack, so Luna, you stick close to me! Got it?"
"Yeah!"
In fact, it wouldn't make sense for Luna to stick behind Davian and follow his movements.
But if it was Nubes, she could manage to follow him somehow.
Rex, who was at the forefront of Team 45 on the opposite side, also looked back.
"Just do as we prepared. Can you do it?"
"Yeah."
"Nubes is nothing."
"Good. This time, we'll finally flatten the noses of those annoying guys from the Gray Bear Expedition or whatever. Oh, and making them cripples is a bonus."
Shling.
Rex's eyes, who had drawn his sword, slowly scanned the blade from bottom to top.
'Davian Naone, Nubes Arbo... I'll make you regret messing with Rex Flumen.'
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