Chương 40: “Bark to Class (2)”

Arthur and Serena traded blows across the platform in short, violent bursts. Arthur would close the distance with that unnatural blink, swing once or twice, and then vanish before Serena could punish him for staying in range. Serena, for her part, took all the hits with her skill. Eventually, the hourglass was running low and the sand had thinned to a narrow stream. Serena lowered her sword slightly. She was breathing hard, but the grin from the start of the match hadn't faded.

"Oi," she called from across the platform.

"This is going to end because of that stupid hourglass, isn't it?" Arthur wiped sweat from his brow with his forearm. Blood from the graze on his temple had dried in a line down the side of his face. He didn't answer immediately as his chest was heaving, clearly exhausted.

"You want to end the fight like this? Come on, one last trade," Serena said. She planted her feet and held her sword forward with one hand, pointing the tip at Arthur.

"No running this time." Arthur looked at her, then at the hourglass. The sand was nearly gone. He adjusted his grip on the wooden sword with both hands and squared his shoulders, and with a raspy voice, "Fine." They moved toward each other. The class at this point had gone quiet as students in the spectator seats leaned forward. Even the ones who had been fidgeting with their injuries were excited at the wonderful fight before them. Now, they were both within slashing range.

Arthur moved first; his wooden sword swept forward, and this time the blade carried something with it. A bright, white-gold light surged along the edge of the wood, cutting through the air with a sound that didn't belong to a practice weapon. Holy element. His first skill, the one he used against the demon.

Serena's eyes saw the glow and she quickly made her decision; she had tanked every one of his strikes because of her skill, which allowed her body to materialize into her element, fire, allowing her to dodge attacks. So, she ignored her guard entirely. Aura flooded into her own wooden sword, a dense, visible blue color appeared on the blade. She swung downward with everything she had. Both swords slashed at each other. However, Arthur's blade reached Serena first.

The white-gold edge struck her shoulder, and this time, it did not pass through. The holy light penetrated through whatever her skill did to phase through physical strikes, and the wooden sword connected solidly with her body. The impact jolted through her frame and her eyes went wide. Serena's swing came a fraction later. The aura-heavy blade fell downward toward Arthur's neck— And stopped. A hand had closed around the wooden blade, gripping it from above.

Another hand had stopped Arthur's sword at the same moment, not allowing it to budge even an inch further into Serena. Cassia stood between them, one hand on each weapon, holding both fighters frozen in place.

"Oops," she said, and her tone was light, very playful.

"Can't have you both killing each other here." There was a brief pause, and then Arthur exhaled. A grin spread across his face, wide and unguarded, showing that he knew he'd won. After all, his blade had connected first. His legs buckled a second later. The exhaustion hit him all at once and he dropped to the ground, faceplanting the hard floor. Cassia released both weapons and glanced down at the boy who was out cold. She looked at her assistant and jerked her chin toward Arthur.

"Get him to the medic hall." The assistant hurried onto the platform, hooked Arthur's arm over his shoulder, and carried him off as Arthur's feet dragged limply against the stone. Serena stood where she was. Her sword arm was still raised, frozen in the position Cassia had caught it in. Then she lowered her arm slowly and looked at the mark on her shoulder where his blade had connected. Touching it, there was a searing pain.

She knew she had lost, and if it weren't for her older sister, she would've had to spend the better part of a month in the medic hall. Whatever his element was, it had bypassed her skill entirely. Even though the Flamesys did not make excuses, she still couldn't help but feel frustrated. Cassia looked down at her sister, and with a wide grin, she said, "Aren't you glad you came here? Isn't the world bigger than you expected?" Serena's expression changed at that.

Her lips pressed together and a pout formed, she said nothing as she walked back to her seat, arms crossed and stomping on the ground like a child. After Cassia watched her assistant carry Arthur off the platform and through the exit, she turned back to the rows of students. Most of them were still talking about the fight. She clapped her hands once.

"Right. Since my assistant is busy hauling your classmate to the medic hall, we've got some time." She rested the clipboard against her hip and scanned the seats again.

"Good opportunity to talk about something. Most of you probably already know this, but I'd rather get it out of the way now." She raised her right hand, palm facing outward, and held it up for the class to see. A glow appeared that quickly deepened into a vivid blue that outlined her hand and fingers.

"This," Cassia said, "is Aura." She let the glow hold for a moment, turning her hand slowly so the students in the higher seats could see it clearly.

"Aura is life. That's the simplest way scholars have described it. Every living thing has Aura, but not everyone can use it, but… there are two ways to awaken it." She held up one finger.

"First, talent. Some people are born with the ability to access their aura naturally." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. She held up a second finger.

"Second, through effort, which is where the lot of you are grouped in. This is one of the reasons why the Tower is highly sought by many; the Tower's trials can force an awakening in people who would never have managed it on their own." She let the glow fade from her hand and crossed her arms.

"There are stages to using aura. The first stage is body strengthening, once you've awakened your aura, it will automatically reinforce your muscles, your bones, and your organs. At the same time, you can push more of it into your body on command for a temporary boost. Most of those who have awakened aura are somewhere in this stage." She held up two fingers again.

"The second stage is imbuing aura into weapons. This is the bare minimum required to become an Aura Knight, a force that can change the tide in battlefields." She paused for a moment.

"And this," she said, her voice dropping slightly, "is where most people stop. Regular talented people spend decades trying to reach this stage and barely reach it. It's the wall that separates soldiers from heroes." Three fingers went up.

"And lastly, the third stage. Elemental imbuement. You use your elemental disposition and layer it with your aura. At this point, your body and weapon carries the properties of that element." A hand went up near the middle rows. A boy with his arm in a sling.

"Professor. That guy, uh, Arthur… he used the third stage, didn't he?" Cassia looked at him. Then she raised a finger and wagged it back and forth slowly." Tut-tut-tut." Her tone was light.

"That's a student's personal information, and I won't be discussing it. What someone can or cannot do with their aura is their own business." She lowered her hand.

"And frankly, that's a lesson you should all learn right now. In the Tower, the less people know about what you can do, the better. You hide your cards and your limits to yourself." She started pacing along the edge of the platform again, boots thudding against stone.

"This is also why encountering climbers who have titles is so dangerous." Another hand went up. A girl near the back.

"Why is that so?" Cassia stopped pacing and looked at her.

"Because a climber who has earned a title from the Tower has no need to hide their cards." She said it plainly.

"They're given a title because they have done something so far beyond what others can do that any acts of concealment is moot." Almost on cue, the side door opened and her assistant walked back in, slightly out of breath. Cassia turned toward the sound.

"Good. He's back." She raised up the clipboard again and flipped to the next page.

"Now then, enough lecturing. Let's get the next two up here." She read the next pair of names off the list. * Arthur's fight with Serena had played out exactly as the source material described. The rivalry was established, the seed of Serena's competitive fixation had been planted, and Arthur had demonstrated enough to catch the attention of the class. Everything Cassia had lectured about afterward, aura stages, elemental imbuement, the danger of titled climbers, was information Celestia already knew.

There was nothing left here worth staying for. She stood from her seat. A quiet exit while the professor was busy would draw no attention.

"Now then, enough lecturing. Let's get the next two up here." Cassia's voice rang across the hall as she read off the clipboard.

"Beatrice Hill and Celestia von Reingarde." Celestia stopped mid-step. She was already standing and there was no way to leave now without it being an obvious, deliberate refusal. Walking out before her name was called was one thing. Walking out after it had been announced, in full view of the class, while a professor waited, was a direct insult to a member of Summit's faculty.

'Of course.' She sighed through her nose and descended the steps toward the platform. The assistant professor held out a rack of practice weapons as she approached. Celestia bypassed the swords entirely and pulled two long wooden spears from the rack, testing the weight of each. She stepped onto the platform and looked across to the other end. Her opponent was already there, and the moment Celestia saw her, the name clicked. Beatrice Hill. The girl from… where was it?

Celestia couldn't pin down the exact occasion, but she remembered the face and especially the ostentatious drill-hair. And more specifically, she remembered the glare the girl gave her. * Beatrice Hill's hands were shaking. She stood at her end of the platform, fingers wrapped around a training staff with a low-tier conduit etched into the wood. The engravings were shallow and mass-produced, it was their version of a wooden sword, so to speak.

Across the platform, Celestia von Reingarde was testing the weight of two wooden spears. Beatrice's grip tightened on the staff. The image forced itself back into her mind before she could stop it; the academy grounds during the demon attack, Celestia thrusting her spear into empty air and an invisible demon materializing around the blade, impaled clean through the chest.

Then the second thrust, the one that punched a hole through the demon's upper body and sprayed dark blood across the ground, showing that Celestia was a skill-holder even before entering the tower. Beatrice swallowed hard.

'But,' she told herself, adjusting her footing and pulling the staff closer to her chest,'I'm a mage.' The platform was wide, and Celestia would have to cross the full length of it to reach her. At this distance, Beatrice could fire off two, maybe three spells before a melee fighter closed the gap.

'Yes. That's right.' Beatrice lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. The familiar confidence came back as her posture straightened and the trembling in her fingers slowed.

'This is actually the perfect matchup for me.' She glanced at Celestia, who was waiting across the platform.

'I, Beatrice Hill, will use this opportunity to show everyone here that I am the superior one. Hohoho! Yes!' She could already picture it: Celestia on the floor, defeated, and the entire class watching in stunned silence as Beatrice stands victorious.

'The look on her face alone will be worth it!' Professor Cassia flipped the hourglass.

"Begin." Beatrice planted her back foot and raised the staff. Mana gathered at the conduit's tip as she began the first syllable of an incantation— A spear was heading towards her, crossing the platform very quickly.

"Eek!" Beatrice abandoned the incantation. Her mouth snapped shut and her hands moved on instinct, slamming the staff forward as she forced mana into the conduit without any of the proper form. A translucent barrier flickered into existence in front of her. The spear hit the shield dead center and the impact traveled through the barrier as cracks splintered across the surface of the shield before shattering, and the spear clattered to the stone floor, its momentum gone.

Beatrice staggered back a step as she took a deep breath. Relief surged through her since she managed to block it, and then she realized she wasn't looking at Celestia anymore. Beatrice snapped her head up and saw that Celestia had already closed the distance during those few seconds, and was now only a few paces away, a spear posed to thrust at her. Celestia's crimson eyes were fixed on Beatrice with the composed expression she wore for everything. Every thought in Beatrice's head emptied at once.

There was no time for anything except the single, overwhelming realization that Celestia von Reingarde was about to punch a hole through her like that demon.

"I-I give up!!!" Beatrice dropped the staff, threw both hands up in front of her face, and squeezed her eyes shut.