The rocks that had broken away from the massive boulder were raining down from above at speeds similar to those of the stone projectiles Agratà had been firing until just moments ago, though they were still somewhat slower. But despite their lower speed, their enormous size meant they caused vastly greater damage than the previous stream of stones. Every rock that struck the arena's sturdy ground created a clearly visible and fairly deep crater. The shower of rocks covered practically the entire arena floor, gradually turning it into something resembling Swiss cheese.
And already, one of those meteorite-like rocks was falling straight toward Aurola.
Obviously, this meteor shower posed a serious problem for the Minister of Education. Since the rocks were descending directly from the sky, she was unable to use Leaf Sweeper to deflect them. That left her with only three viable options:
Use her spell Titanium Armor: Full and simply endure the impacts.
Destroy every meteorite about to strike her with a titanium-coated fist.
Or dodge them using her exceptional reflexes.
In less than a millisecond, Aurola decided which of those three options she would use…
With a swift movement, she dodged the incoming meteorite and immediately moved far enough away to avoid the shockwave generated when it crashed into the arena floor.
Aurola had chosen the third option and ruled out the other two, mainly for reasons involving both her magical and physical stamina.
She, too, had been forced—both during the initial stalemate and throughout their subsequent exchange of counterattacks—to keep her Physical Enhancement spell active at nearly its maximum output. This was necessary not only to ensure she could instantly use all the strength required to attack or counterattack her student, but also to keep her senses at their absolute peak so that not even the slightest movement from Agratà would escape her notice.
That alone had already forced her to expend a considerable amount of mana. Then, her recent prolonged use of the Leaf Sweeper technique had drained even more mana—since she'd been forced to continuously channel a significant amount of magical energy into her arms—but, above all, it had taken a heavy toll on her physical stamina.
The beads of sweat now forming across her forehead were unmistakable proof of that.
Of course, the fatigue she had accumulated so far wouldn't have been much of a problem in a match against a normal opponent. It wasn't nearly enough to significantly diminish her concentration or prevent her from finishing a fight against most people.
But the problem was that her current opponent was Agratà.
A genius practitioner of Aurola's own martial arts style.
Her personal student. Someone who knew her fighting style extremely well and possessed reflexes comparable to her own.
Against an opponent like that, even the slightest lapse in concentration could become truly dangerous.
The first option—using Titanium Armor: Full—although undoubtedly the safest in terms of resisting potential damage while conserving physical stamina, was immediately ruled out by the Minister of Education because of the considerable amount of mana required to keep the spell active continuously.
The second option—shattering every incoming rock with her fists—was instead ruled out because of the sheer amount of physical energy she would need to expend to pulverize every single meteorite threatening to strike her.
So the only remaining option was to dodge.
Although it was undoubtedly the most difficult choice and required the greatest amount of concentration, it was still the most efficient option in terms of preserving both her physical stamina and her remaining mana.
The meteors continued raining from the sky, and Aurola dodged them one after another with remarkable grace—although very often, almost always, she escaped their paths by only a hair's breadth.
Another full minute had now passed since Agratà had cast the spell.
The arena floor was completely riddled with craters; by now, it looked even worse than the surface of the moon. Yet the master of the Leaf Falling from the Tree style had managed to dodge every single meteorite without allowing even one of them to come remotely close to touching her.
And the spell finally seemed to be approaching its end.
The enormous boulder floating high above the arena, which had initially continued regenerating itself whenever pieces broke away from it, had stopped doing so. Now, every time another rock separated from its enormous mass and plummeted toward the arena, the boulder visibly decreased in size.
Throughout all of this, Agratà had remained completely stationary in the same spot from which she had originally cast the spell. But Aurola, constantly occupied with dodging the relentless rain of meteorites, had been unable to close the distance between them.
One of the final meteorites was now falling directly toward the Minister of Education.
Aurola was already preparing to dodge this one as well, simply by shifting slightly toward the right. And the meteorite, which had now been averted, was about to hit the arena floor…
"Rock Armor: Maximum Hand!!!"
But suddenly, the meteorite was pulverized into dust!
Aurola's eyes widened in surprise.
Agratà was no longer standing where she had cast the spell!
From within the cloud of dust created by the rock that had just been pulverized, a massive fist of stone—four times the size of an adult's head—suddenly emerged!
That fist obviously belonged to Agratà, and with enough force to shatter a mountain, it was about to strike her teacher squarely in the face. Its sheer speed surpassed that of most of Fortore's attacks. That single blow contained an enormous amount of mana, along with practically all the physical strength the Minister of Agriculture had at her disposal.
This was the culmination of the plan Agratà had begun putting into action immediately after their initial exchange of counterattacks.
Both Double Cannon Rock: Stones Stream and Meteor Shower had served primarily to wear down her teacher. However, Meteor Shower had also served two other extremely important purposes: first, to ensure that her master remained too focused on dodging the falling meteors to notice Agratà moving away from the spot where she had initially cast the spell; and second, to provide the perfect cover for the moment she launched her final attack—which, if it connected properly, would undoubtedly knock her master unconscious.
Technically, there was also a risk that her master could die from such a devastating blow, but Agratà trusted her completely. Even if Aurola didn't have enough time to use the Falling Leaf technique, Agratà was certain she would still have enough time to activate her Titanium Armor over at least the point of impact, thus reducing the potentially fatal blow to one powerful enough only to knock her unconscious.
All of this preparation, simply to ensure that a single punch landed…
Many people would surely consider such an elaborate strategy ridiculous.
But her opponent was Aurola—the master of the Falling-Leaf Style, one of the strongest people Agratà knew, and without a doubt the person with the greatest reflexes she had ever encountered!
And that was precisely why what happened next left Agratà both completely stunned and not at all surprised…
First, she felt the arm she was about to use to strike her master suddenly get caught by something.
Then, she felt both of her feet leave the ground.
And a split second later, her entire body slammed violently into the arena floor.
"Falling Autumn Leaf…"
"I'm sorry, Agratà, but I can't let you win… I haven't done enough yet…" Aurola said, her voice stern, yet tinged with unmistakable melancholy.
As Agratà's Rock Armor crumbled into dust and her entire body was driven deep into the arena floor, excruciating pain surged through every part of her body alongside the sound of her master's voice.
After only a moment, Agratà understood exactly what had just happened.
Even after all the preparations she had made, her master had still managed to counter her final attack.
And considering that practically every bone in Agratà's body had been broken—and considering the name of the technique her master had just used—it must have been a different, far more powerful version of Falling Leaf created by Aurola herself. One that made full use of her incredible reflexes, overwhelming physical strength, and the extreme speed at which she could move her arms.
A speed that, probably only for that single instant in which the technique had been executed, had surpassed even the maximum speed of Fortore, the strongest knight in the Kingdom of Yggdora. That It was said that when he truly pushed herself to the absolute limit, his body could reach a speed only slightly slower than the speed of light.
"…This match is over, and I have won," added the Minister of Education in a stern voice, although tears had begun to gather in her eyes before slowly trickling down over the dark circles beneath them.
She then began walking toward Pinusal, but suddenly stopped when an intense headache struck her without warning.
Aurola winced and remained still for a moment.
Then, immediately after recovering, she decided not to approach the referee any farther and instead contented herself with casting him a simple glance.
Pinusal immediately understood Aurola's intentions. Having personally witnessed the overwhelming power of the technique she had just used, the ancient referee agreed with her conclusion. And so, he began to officially announce the winner of the match.
"The winner of this match is the Minister of Education—"
But before he could finish the announcement, the Pinusal was forced to stop.
"As usual, you're truly amazing, Master Aurola…! You've managed to create a technique similar to—yet even superior to—the one upon which our entire martial arts school's style is based. So you absolutely don't need to worry anymore; you've undoubtedly done more than enough. I'm sure that's exactly what every single student in our dojo thinks as well. And that's precisely why all of us believe that now, at last, you can finally rest and focus solely on what you truly love, Master…" Agratà said with immense conviction, turning toward her master with a beautiful, radiant smile still spread across her face.
Even so, it was painfully obvious that she was struggling immensely just to speak, as her voice repeatedly cracked between words.
Agratà had somehow managed to emerge from the crater created when her own body slammed into the ground. Even more miraculously, she now found herself standing directly in front of it, despite the fact that most of the bones throughout her body were undoubtedly broken.
"But you, Master Aurola, still don't seem convinced of that. So I have no choice but to defeat you myself and take your title from you. Therefore, I'm sorry, Mr. Pinusal, but could you please wait just a little longer before declaring my master the winner?" asked the Minister of Agriculture.
Meanwhile, a clearly visible pool of blood had already begun spreading beneath her feet.
Agratà's fans desperately wanted to look away from the terribly battered and bloodied body of their beloved idol.
But they knew they couldn't.
After all, even though she was in such a terrible state that she could barely remain standing, the radiant smile on Agratà's face still hadn't disappeared. That could only mean that her determination was also still far from wavering. And if Agratà herself refused to give up, then they couldn't possibly allow their own determination to support her to falter before that of the very person they were cheering for—especially now that it had become clear that their idol was doing all of this solely because she wanted to help her beloved master!
And so, another avalanche of cheers erupted from the stands, even louder and more passionate than before.
"AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!! AGRATÀ!!!!!!!"
Pinusal carefully examined Agratà's condition and, after letting out a sigh that did little to conceal his growing concern, reluctantly nodded.
The match wasn't over yet.
"AGRATÀ!!!!!!!! Why are you pushing yourself this far just for me?!! I've already told you that I'm not ready to step down as the master of the 'Leaf Falling from the Tree' style! There's no need for you to worry about me—I'm perfectly capable of handling both of these roles at the same time! So please, give up and let yourself be taken to the infirmary immediately! You're in far too terrible a condition to continue fighting, Agratà!" Aurola shouted, now crying uncontrollably.
"Master, do you seriously think we, your students, are stupid? We know you've been trying to hide them with makeup, but we've all noticed. Ever since you started serving as a minister as well, there hasn't been a single day when you haven't had dark circles beneath your eyes. Then there are those rare but sudden headaches you keep suffering from. It's obvious that you're pushing yourself to your absolute limit because you're trying to do your very best in both of these roles," Agratà replied.
Although her voice remained weak and strained, there was now an unmistakable hint of anger mixed into it.
She then continued, "But even more importantly than any of that… you've never actually liked practicing martial arts, have you, Master?"
Aurola's eyes immediately widened.
For an instant, her entire body seemed to tremble, and she quickly looked away from her bloodied student.
"Even if what you're saying were true… that still wouldn't be a good enough reason for me to quit. I haven't done enough yet…" the Minister of Education replied in a trembling voice.
"I'm sorry to ask you this, Master, but you're leaving me with no other choice…" Agratà said.
Then, for the first time since the match began, the radiant smile that had remained stubbornly fixed upon her face completely disappeared.
In its place came an extremely stern expression.
"For whom haven't you done enough, Master?" Agratà asked. "For yourself? For your students? Or perhaps…"
She deliberately paused for a moment.
Then she uttered the words that would undoubtedly shake her teacher to her very core.
"…for your father and your brother?"
The effect was immediate.
Those few words dragged Aurola's mind back nearly two hundred years, to a time when she had still lived alongside her father and brother in their dojo near the borders of the Kingdom of Yggdora…