Eric glared at the noble students, while the commoner students whispered among themselves, glancing at Eric. One of the male noble students mustered the courage to step forward, though he was trembling slightly. "Er-Eric! Wo-would you please take Leon on a sparring match...?" Eric snapped at him, "Dumbass, you want me to clean up your own mess? Don't joke with me!" The boy flinched, wanting to say something, but the muscle-bound professor intervened.
"We don't have much time! Eric, fight him!" Leon remained calm but serious as he heard the professor's order. Eric clenched his fists, as much as he wanted to refuse the professor's instruction, he didn't want to add to his already bad record at the Academy. "Who knows what that woman will definitely do if I cause a ruckus again..." he bit his lip, remembering a certain elf woman.
The noble students made way for Eric to pass, and Eric, in turn, glared menacingly at every one of them. The atmosphere, which had been quite lively due to the commotion, suddenly fell silent. Eric stood far from Leon. The dashing, handsome boy silently unsheathed his sword. Anna, on the commoner students' side, looked at Leon with a worried expression. The muscle-bound professor gave the signal: "Begin!"
Leon closed the distance as fast as lightning. Eric had anticipated that this boy was fast, but not this fast. Fire spells began to gather in Eric's hands, but Leon had already arrived first, swinging his sword. Eric stepped back and fired a barrage of small flames like bullets, but Leon easily parried them. Next, Eric stretched out both his hands, attempting to engulf his opponent in flame.
A fairly large fireball formed in his hand, and he hurled it at Leon. The young man initially tried to dodge the fireball but sensed something strange. His hunch was right, a split second later, the fireball exploded and split into countless fiery clusters. Leon was forced to slow down, occasionally dodging and slashing at the wisps of flame—and that was the moment Eric was waiting for.
At the same time, Eric launched spears made of fire. Leon's instincts screamed, and he dodged to the side. Eric's eyes widened. "That's fucking insane! It was a blind spot attack! How could he sense it and dodge that…!?" Realizing his attack hadn't landed even once on Leon, this time Eric took the sparring a bit more seriously. Taking a deep breath, he decided to use Devil's Footprints.
"He's just a kid. No need to use my other eyes." He promised himself not to use that other power. Eric called out to Leon, "Feeling like taking this seriously? I see you haven't used your magic at all." Leon finished extinguishing the last flaming wisp, maintaining his stance calmly. "You haven't used that strange spell you have either." Eric scoffed and replied, "You'll see soon."
Leon was stunned when he saw Eric take off his shoes and sparks of fire begin to appear on his feet. Leon responded to Eric's seriousness by closing his eyes for a moment then opening them quickly, his sword shining brilliantly, a sign that Leon was also taking Eric seriously. The students watching their battle gasped and expressed awe repeatedly.
"Leon! He's getting serious!"
"His famous swordsmanship, Bladelight! D-does this mean Leon thinks Eric is his equal!?"
"U-unbelievable... that good-for-nothing bastard has managed to hold out this long..."
"Ugh... I want to support Eric, but at the same time, I don't want to..."
The noble students were torn between supporting Eric or not, because they didn't want to acknowledge him, yet at the same time, he was their representative. The commoner students gulped in awe, not a single word was exchanged throughout their battle, a stark contrast to the previous fight, which had been filled with insults hurled by the noble students.
Back to the fight, Eric initiated the next move after their brief standoff, instantly propelling himself through the training hall. This time, Leon was startled to see Eric flying at full speed toward him, but he calmly tried to anticipate Eric's attack. Leon noticed for a split second that Eric shifted his right foot, he assumed Eric would strike with his right foot, so he launched a preemptive strike.
But Eric smiled fiercely, his right foot stopped emitting fire, but his left foot instead unleashed a burst of flames, propelling him to quickly dodge Leon's sword swing. The young man was startled because the previous movement was a feint. Before he could regain his balance, Eric quickly ignited his right foot with fire and launched a devastating fire kick.
Leon successfully parried the kick with his sword, the clash of fire and light emitted a glow bright enough to blind the eyes. Leon's stance crumbled, and Eric took advantage of it. He attacked Leon relentlessly with punches or fire kicks, sometimes mixing the two. Although Leon managed to parry them all, they weren't perfect parries. At times, the heat from Eric's fire blazed through his hands holding the sword. The two continued to exchange attacks. Occasionally, Eric also parried Leon's slashes, albeit poorly.
All the students watching were stunned, no one cheered or called out to the two of them because the sparring was so intense. The final moment arrived, Eric felt his Mana depleting rapidly from repeatedly using Devil's Footprints. Leon sensed the intensity of Eric's attacks dropping, and this time he used his light spell to end the fight.
They were separated by a short distance. Leon immediately closed the gap with his light sword. Eric furrowed his brow at Leon's sword shimmering white, and Leon delivered an insanely fast stab toward Eric. He prepared to parry and counterattack, but unexpectedly, Leon's stab was so fast it created afterimages, as if Leon's stab had split into two parts.
"Where will his stab land? Up or down!?" Eric was confused and puzzled, and in that critical moment, he accidentally activated his other eyes. Leon saw Eric lower his body, intending to tackle him with his fiery sweep. Of course, Leon launched his attack downward.
The students present were confused as to why Leon swung his attack downward, while the real Eric was actually launching an attack from above. Leon realized this quickly, but it was too late.
"H-how! Ugh-!" Eric's fiery kick from above knocked Leon's sword out of his hand and sent him crashing to the ground. Eric landed on the ground, and the muscle-bound professor announced the winner. "Ahem! The winner is Eric Ostheno!"
A moment of silence fell over the training hall, followed by a small round of applause from the noble students.
"O-oh! He really won!"
"Unexpected! H-he actually beat that commoner!"
Meanwhile, the commoner students wore sour yet shocked expressions, especially Anna, who was worried that Eric's kick had hit Leon. The noble students were pleased with the outcome, they looked at the commoner students with sneers, but were startled by something.
"God! Fucking! Dammit!" Eric yelled and cursed in frustration, making everyone flinch. Everyone there was confused by him. He should have been happy for winning, but Eric was actually angry, his face flushed red. The muscle-bound professor was about to question him but stopped when Eric did something. He walked over to Leon, who was still sitting on the ground, and extended his hand.
"Next time, I'm gonna win. Good fight, brat."
"Uhh? O-okay, I guess?" Leon was puzzled by Eric's words, since he was the one who had won. However, Leon shook his head and looked at Eric's outstretched hand. He hesitated at first, but seeing that Eric was completely serious, he finally accepted the hand, and Eric pulled Leon to his feet. The noble and commoner students gaped at what they saw, Eric had just casually chatted with and helped a commoner.
The muscle-bound professor was also surprised but composed himself. "V-very well. Let's end today's lesson."
The physical training lesson for Class D ended peacefully. But that day's lesson concluded with an unexpected fight between Leon, the Light Swordsman, and Eric, the Academy's disgrace.
***
The next day, during lunch break in a park near the second-year library, Leon and his friends were chatting amiably until Ellen brought up a topic. "I heard you sparred with that Eric guy, right?"
Leon and Anna shifted, looked at each other, and nodded. "Dats ruight." Anna laughed as she offered Leon a drink, "Leon, chew your food first, then swallow slowly. Here, drink this." Leon thanked her and gulped down the water quickly. Then he turned back to Ellen, "You're right! It's just a friendly spar, but I lost! Hahaha!" Leon laughed as he scratched his head.
Cecilia sighed, holding her cheek, worry on her face. "Are you okay~? I heard from some other students that your fight was pretty intense." Chelsey nodded her head so fast, "Maybe he used dirty tricks to deceive you, nyaa!"
Leon shook his head confidently, "I'm fine, just a minor scratch. More importantly, I'm sure he didn't use any artifacts or other dirty tricks when facing me, I didn't feel anything strange either." He clenched his fist, "He really gave it his all, even going so far as to cast his strange movement spell." His friends understood what Leon meant by the strange spell.
"Indeed, those spells are really bizarre and unheard of," Cecilia said, crossing her arms to support her massive chest. Chelsey shivered, her tail swaying uneasily. "I-I don't want to be near him when he casts those spells!" Anna smiled awkwardly. "Th-that might be true, but all's well that ends well."
Ellen propped her chin up, deep in thought. "I also heard that he helped you stand up? What other dirty tricks is he going to pull..." This time Cecilia chimed in, "I think he's really changed, Ellen. I mean, I've run into him several times and he hasn't ogled me again." Chelsey spoke up too, in a soft voice. "Uuu… I-I think so too, nyaa~ He hasn't yelled at me at all during days before the last Final Exam, nyaa…"
"It's unbelievable, but he did help me once against those nobles…" Anna murmured softly. Leon agreed with his friends, "I thought so! He really intended to help me stand up back then, and he also praised our fight!" He paused for a moment then muttered something, "But… that last attack… I'm absolutely certain Eric would've attacked from below…"
"Leon?" Anna's call snapped him out of his thoughts. "Are you thinking about something?" Leon shook his head, "It's nothing. I think my defeat was because I was caught off guard by Eric's final attack, so I'll strive to get stronger and faster!"
Seeing the burning determination in Leon's words, Anna and the others smiled gently. Just like that, Leon and his friends' usual day passed peacefully.