"Now that we're on this topic, isn't it the perfect occasion for a spar?" Claire asked this more to herself than to Seraphina, her dark-purple eyes flashing with what seemed to be a hint excitement.
"There's only so much words can convey and, what better way to show you my progress than a practical demonstration?" she declared, getting up from her seat.
Claire pressed a hand over her amber colored skirt, and smoothed out the wrinkles from sitting too comfortably, before extending a hand towards Seraphina.
"Let's have a friendly match, Sera!" Claire cheerfully invited her with an open hand. Her entire body language was overflowing with enthusiasm, which reminded Seraphina of a certain someone who had broken his leg.
"Claire, do you know where we are right now," Seraphina paused to make sure she had processed correctly what Claire had just proposed.
"...My 'Bedroom'. You want to have a fight inside my Bedroom?" Seraphina asked as she looked at Claire dead in the eyes.
"Your Bedroom is quite large." said Claire as her gaze wandered around the room.
"I don't see any problem with having a 'Bedroom battle' here, there isn't even any furnitures to damage in the first place." she said while winking at her for some strange reasons.
"Sigh...we cannot fight Claire, the three of us are supposed to discuss something important." Seraphina said with sagging shoulders, she brought up Claire's father, hoping it could extinguish whatever fire had lit up inside the noble girl.
"Well, if you don't want to, we can always go back to-"
"Fine, fine, let's have a spar." Seraphina interrupted Claire before she could finish her thought. She snatched up the hand Claire had offered and got up, ready to have a fight.
...
In the end, Seraphina had been forced to take part in Claire's spar, otherwise, the purple-haired girl would have gone back to talking about her marriage.
As Seraphina's room was large and its style very minimalist, The Third Daughter of the Arests and The High Priestess of The Church of Fosantrophisme had plenty of space to fight without the need to worry about damaging anything.
They had agreed upon a few rules for their spar as it would not have been interesting otherwise. Seraphina was not to use spells as the magic from the Light-elemental spell-tree was too destructive unlike the softer Water spells. She was also not allowed to use any of her mana, as she was objectively stronger and that was an undeniable fact.
From her Stars, Seraphina's body was already naturally imbued with mana that greatly amplified her strength. If she on top of it, coated her body with her light-elemental mana, Claire would definitely not stand a chance with only her two Stars.
'It is too unfair' is what even the genius amongst geniuses, the prodigy amongst this generation of noble children, thought about a fight between a Condensation Stage 2-Star and Radiant Stage 3-Star at full power.
And this was with her thinking Seraphina was still at her third Star, if she knew that the silver-haired girl had already formed her fourth Star, she would surely think of something along the lines of 'fairness being the liquor inside her empty pint' or even 'unfairness being the 1 in her 6, always present to bless her' as she was really unlucky with a dice.
The rules only applied to Seraphina, so Claire was free to do whatever she wished to, as long as she did not cause too much damage.
"Well, are you ready?" Claire asked as her water-elemental mana started coating her body like some kind of armor.
Seraphina could not see the blue-colored mana around Claire as she was not allowed to gather her mana inside her eyes however, she could distinctly feel its presence as Claire's water-elemental mana interacted faintly with the mana inside her body.
"Ready when you are!" Seraphina answered louder than usual as the two had gone to the extremities of the large room as the starting position of their friendly spar.
"If you say so." Claire said as she gathered her water-elemental mana to cast a spell, officially announcing the start of their battle. Her delicate brows furrowed in concentration as casting a spell was not something easy.
"O Aqua, thou who art mother of all life, heed my call and let thy clarity wash away my foes' impurity." Claire quickly recited the incantation for the Radiant 2-Star spell, "Sea Waves!"
Immediately after finishing her incantation, a large quantity of pure water-elemental mana converged before Claire, forming into four large waves she could control at will.
Normally, the spell [Sea Waves] could only form two waves however, Claire was not normal!
The purple-haired girl's hair turned slightly blue when she got ahold of the waves. [Sea Waves] was a famous Radiant 2-Star spell that Claire had practiced on numerous occasions, which made her well-accustomed to the piloting of those four waves.
In the next moment, she commanded those sea-blue waves to come hurling towards the silver-haired girl who, was still walking towards her opponent leisurely.
Claire's spell was only a third-rate spell in terms of offensive capabilities, and even the girl herself did not think it would cause any damage to Seraphina or even hit her at all!
It was merely the opening move, not meant to end the fight. The true motive behind this spell was to force Seraphina in a bad position where she would be vulnerable to her other more powerful magic.
The four waves rapidly closed in on Seraphina, with a wave coming from each cardinal direction. The water from the waves rendered the ground wet and the room humid which would require Seraphina to clean up afterwards.
To Seraphina, the supposedly 'rapid' 2-Star waves were awfully slow and moved more like a turtle and that, even without coating her body in a layer of mana which would have enhanced her capabilities even further.
A 2-Star truly stood no chance against a 4-Star at full power, not even if their strength were to be multiplied by sixty-four. But that was if and only if the 4-Star was at full power.
Since, Seraphina's main win conditions had been removed from her, she had no choice but to close in and fight hand-to-hand with Claire.
As the sea-blue waves were only a few feet away from her, Seraphina finally made her move. She took two steps forward and easily evaded Claire's [Sea Waves] without even a single droplet of water hitting her pristine robe.
Then, as Seraphina's only win condition, the silver-haired girl rushed towards Claire with what was a truly 'rapid' pace.