Head-to-Head Combat 3
Word of my sparring match with Miel spread quickly, and even Professor Blackwin seemed more interested than I expected, because he arranged it without delay.
Maybe that was only natural. After all, it was a match between a high-ranking cadet and a special admission student, so people were bound to pay attention.
Those who had been looking for their own opponents began gathering in little clusters, and before long the stands were packed.
The bout would be held on a small stage at one side of the gym. It was called small, but it was actually a generous size, more like a lecture hall podium than anything else.
Hmm....
A sparring match didn’t begin until both sides had finished their preparations.
And I was currently agonizing over just one of mine.
What should I fight with...
I’d been staring at the various weapons laid out before me for a while now.
I hadn’t brought anything specifically for the spar, so I’d had time to spare, and I used that time to choose what weapon to take with me.
My bouts with Professor Seres had definitely helped me. They’d given me a chance to understand how each weapon should be approached, how it could be broken through, and what I would do if I were the one on offense or defense. In those brief moments, I had managed to build up some familiarity with several weapons, but since I didn’t have a main weapon of my own, and since I had always been indecisive, I couldn’t settle on one no matter how hard I thought about it.
Sword?
It was the most basic and foundational weapon, and not a bad one to handle. But whether I could last against Miel, who used a sword as his main weapon, was another matter entirely.
Spear?
Fast, agile, versatile. But could I really gain even a single advantage in speed over Miel, whose whole weapon style was built around quick attacks?
Gauntlets...
No, let’s not. I was already terrified of people as it was. A weapon built for that kind of close-quarters combat simply wasn’t for me.
Then...
- thud
I finally wrapped both hands around the weapon I could use.
An axe, with a huge, heavy blade mounted on one side.
I didn’t really have a special reason for choosing it... other than the fact that, aside from the gauntlets, it was the most recently used weapon I knew, and more than anything, I liked the weight of it. That heavy, solid feel suited me.
From the start, this was a spar between opponents of unequal levels, so I had to fight with the resolve to take something from it, even if only a little.
"Cadet Lim Paran, I’m ready."
After choosing my weapon, I pressed the button on the panel and signaled that I was prepared.
- Vwoooom
Some mechanism must have been installed, because the background in front of me shifted, and in an instant the sparring arena replaced it. Not a hologram, but a warp.
Fortunately, I had temporarily stopped the mana absorption, so I managed to avoid fainting.
- step, step, step
Then I heard footsteps approaching from the front.
"Paran! You ready? Huh, your face looks better than I expected."
Standing there was Miel Norison, my sparring partner.
He wasn’t in his usual white T-shirt, but a sleeveless outfit that left his shoulders bare, and his thick muscles stood out clearly, making him look very different from usual.
His sandy, barren-looking hair fluttered in the mana, and the neat hum of power around him made it obvious that he really was one of the academy’s top cadets.
"Is Riae okay...? I mean, after this spar, she’s not going to beat me to death, right?"
"Ha ha ha..."
Compared to the confident expression he’d had just moments ago, he now looked pitifully dejected, like a dog soaked through by rain. In a way, that made me feel sorry for him.
If you did anything weird to Paran, I’ll kill you for real...???
If I had seen the murderous mana he’d been pouring out while grinding his teeth just in front of me, the fear that usually had no effect on Han Riae might have risen up again.
"I-I think... it should be fine..."
"That... means I’m good, right???"
The skill gap was clearly in Miel’s favor, but the tension on his face was obvious. I suspected Han Riae, sending murderous pressure from the stands, had something to do with that.
"Enough chatter."
Professor Blackwin, having confirmed that both Miel and I were on stage, spoke up.
He tapped the hologram that appeared from his bracelet a few times, and once the setup was complete, the arena itself began to change with a heavy rumble.
The mana buried beneath the ground stirred, and in an instant a massive spherical barrier of mana waves formed around the perimeter.
It was the same protective magic I’d seen at Miel and Han Riae’s friendly match before, the one Han Riae had shattered with a single blow.
The difference this time was that several more layers had been piled on top of it. Apparently, that incident had caused quite a commotion.
"The foundation of sparring is knowing the rules well. However, I imagine I’ve taught those rules dozens of times already in class, so I won’t bother with a lecture here. If any problem comes up, or if I need to intervene urgently, I, as the supervising professor, will stop the match."
The buzzing sound from the axe strapped to my back tickled my ears.
The small mana stone set into it was reacting to the mana in the arena, acclimating itself to my own mana.
I took the axe in hand with a familiar motion.
"An axe? That’s a surprise."
Miel was equipped with a sparring sword, wrapped in blue mana and vibrating faintly in his grip.
Maybe it was hard for him to get used to someone as small as me carrying a heavy-looking axe.
Both the axe and the sword were clearly practice weapons, since the edges that should have been sharp were blunt and rounded off instead.
"All right! Then let us begin the spar with a bow to your opponent."
Professor Blackwin’s booming voice hit me like a hammer.
"Combat major Miel Norison. I pay my respects to my opponent!"
"Special admission student Lim Paran. I pay my respects to my opponent."
After Miel and I introduced ourselves at the same time, we followed with our bows.
Miel Norison didn’t seem bothered in the least. He wore a faint smile, set his sword down into a familiar stance, and took position.
As he suppressed his excitement and steadied himself with a deep breath, the bright look in his eyes fixed on me made a strong impression.
They were sparkling, but they also carried a clear resolve not to go easy on me. Even from this distance, I could feel it plainly.
One hand rested behind his back while the other pointed his sword at me. It might have looked like a sloppy stance, but that wasn’t what I felt from Miel at all. What I saw was something solid, balanced, and ready.
I etched Miel’s form firmly into my mind and settled myself into my own stance.
With careful hands, I gripped the blunted handle, far too hefty for my small fingers, and let out a breath.
In.
And out.
This wasn’t like my spar with Professor Seres, where no one else was watching and I could focus on learning alone.
Miel Norison was definitely far above me, but he was still a cadet, just like me, a student learning at Sielm Academy.
If I didn’t move at all here, all I’d do was waste Miel’s time.
Even setting that aside, if I was crushed completely by his skill here, then I wouldn’t gain anything from this at all.
I tried to relax my body, but the trembling kept coming back.
Yet this wasn’t the kind of shaking that came from pain. It felt more like a pulse mixed with anticipation.
When you spar with me, cut out the useless thoughts and focus only on me.
I forced down my nerves and pushed the many unhappy scenarios to the corner of my mind.
The only person standing on this stage, the only one I had to face with my weapon, was Miel Norison.
I focused all my attention on him.
Maybe I couldn’t win. But little challenges like this were what stacked up into a solid wall in the end.
I would not retreat.
"All cadets, prepare yourselves!"
That was...
"Begin the spar!"
my resolve.
- CLANG!
The instant the professor’s thunderous voice faded, I kicked off the ground and charged. The weapon in my hands was a heavy axe.
So then, even if I was weaker than Miel, maybe I could still put us on something approaching even ground? Thinking that, I swung the axe in a broad circular arc.
- KRRRANG!
But the strike that had taken so much effort didn’t land nearly the way I had hoped.
Miel Norison, who had been holding his sword in one hand, looked more startled than I expected, then grabbed the weapon with both hands and blocked it.
"Hah! That’s sharper than I thought!"
He looked genuinely surprised that someone who seemed so dazed and sluggish could unleash such a heavy attack in one go.
Miel flashed a grin, then his eyes sharpened at once and he swung his sword at me.
He aimed for my vital points one by one, and I moved my feet to keep up with the quick assaults while swinging my axe to intercept them.
- CLANG! CLANG! KRRANG! CLANG!
Sword and axe, mismatched in size and weight, clashed together with sharp bursts of sound as they tangled back and forth.
The surging waves of mana were easy for me to feel, and as someone with mana erosion, I could clearly sense the tremors rippling through the air.
For now, we were holding roughly even...
- GRRRK!
But even though he was only using one hand to wield his sword, I was the one getting pushed back far more heavily in terms of raw strength.
I’d known from the start that I was at a disadvantage physically, but feeling it slam through my whole body like this was even more exhausting than I’d expected.
Even in terms of speed, I was only barely dodging his attacks, and the sword’s edge kept brushing past my body by a hair’s breadth. Even his simplest attacks made the gap between us plain.
I was slower. Weaker. Inferior.
There wasn’t a single area where I held the advantage.
The difference in our basic skill was simply too large.
- CLANG! KRRRANG! CHING!
Despite this being a simple spar, my stance was falling apart so badly that it was almost embarrassing to say I was still holding on at all, while Miel’s body remained firmly planted on the ground as he hammered me with relentless follow-up strikes.
Professor Seres, by contrast, had used textbook swordsmanship to show me what “flow” was, helping me understand the current beneath the movements. Miel’s attacks weren’t as polished, but they were clearly balanced, and he was sending them at me with a natural ease.
I didn’t have room to think. Right now, just blocking his attacks was already hard enough.
I couldn’t even force myself to say it was manageable.
The gap in our levels was brutally obvious.
He was attacking with one hand behind his back, and it was obvious at a glance that he was holding back, but even so he was blocking my attacks with a firm defense.
It didn’t make sense.
That an upper-ranking cadet and a guy who had only just woken up were sparring each other.
So I worried, and worried, and worried some more. How could I narrow that gap, even a little?
- Vwooom
"Huh?!"
One of the things I’d decided might have a chance.
"Haaah!"
- BOOOOM!
Mana circulation was, in principle, a form of mana application that drove mana through the whole body several times faster, boosting the user’s physical ability.
You could also concentrate it into a single part of the body, but that carried serious risk.
Once mana had been heated up like that, it couldn’t be transferred to another part.
And the Melitton family’s mana circulation was what made that possible.
If the secret of that technique was flexible mana, then maybe this body, already eroded by pure mana itself, wouldn’t suffer too much from circulating mana in the first place?
I hadn’t practiced it. I’d only watched Yoon Hwayeon and Han Riae fight last time and forced the pattern into my body as best I could.
"Gah!?!"
In an instant, I concentrated mana into my arm and swung the axe with everything I had, and Miel’s seemingly sturdy defense was split open in one blow.
Just as I had seen before, I spread the mana that had gathered in my arm throughout my whole body.
And then I struck.
- KRRKRK! CLANG! GRRRK!
"Hahaha! What are you?!"
My gamble seemed to have worked. The calm look Miel had been maintaining until just now was gone, and with his eyes bright with excitement, he did everything he could to block my attacks.
And the way to take advantage of an excited Miel was...
- whoosh
"?"
I used the difference in our builds. More than ten centimeters of height difference actually made the sparring environment easier for me to move around in, and I used that to lure him into lowering his guard.
A blue shimmer from his sword skimmed past my shoulder by a hair.
- CRACK!
I lifted the axe upward in a wide arc and drove it at Miel.
As if he’d never expected it, he pulled back and stared at me, and that look on his face was crystal clear.
His bright eyes, shining with interest as he exhaled sharply, reflected me back.
"Hah, hahaha! This is great! Lim Paran! Show me more of your limits!"
Miel let out an excited breath and thrust his sword at me.
And the situation I had been waiting for was right here, right now.
- Vwooom!
I gathered mana into my legs, and the moment his sword came in, I turned my body and moved my feet quickly.
- WHUMP!
"Urk?!"
Before I could waste time worrying whether I might hurt him, I landed a clean hit in his side.
But in delivering that single blow, my center of gravity shifted, and my stance broke.
- TAP!
"Ghh!"
Not about to let that opening pass, Miel struck fast at my collapsed position.
Once he had recovered from the pain, he kicked my fallen axe far away and pointed his sword at my throat.
"Haaah... haaah..."
One hand held the sword aimed at me, while the other clutched the side he’d taken a hit to just moments ago.
"In the end... I guess it’s my win... but..."
After swallowing the bitter taste of it, Miel went on.
"In another sense... I lost. Hahaha."
Unlike his excited expression from earlier, his face was dark, as though a shadow had fallen over it, and he let out an awkward laugh.
And that made sense.
A cadet who had only just begun to learn was able to land a real hit on an upper-ranking student.
Even if I had lost the spar, something that couldn’t be measured by victory or defeat rose up from somewhere deep in my chest.
For me, it was a loss that meant far more than I’d expected, and it was experience, too.