The Sun and the Summoner's Sparring
Above the well-maintained training grounds, the sun and the summoner faced each other. Having lightly warmed up, I looked across at Luna. She was humming a tune, clearly in high spirits at the prospect of a real fight after so long, and I couldn't help but smile.
"What was our win rate again?"
"Out of ten bouts, I won seven."
"Yeah, you've always been ridiculously strong."
"Honestly, you never watch your words around a lady, do you?"
"Should I start by clearing the aura from your sword first?"
At my words, Luna grinned playfully and intensified the aura coating her blade. I hadn't expected her to actually dispel it, so I focused on finishing my own preparations. With a light gesture—shrrk—the young Nepentula uniform wrapped around my body vanished, replaced by the one Rohan had given me. A naval-style coat in silver-white, gradient-shifting from pale sky blue to deep navy. Over the draped coat, patterns formed from Elide's essence droplets and crystal spider shards writhed and gleamed.
When my armor changed, faint gasps of admiration rose from the spectator seats, but I ignored them. Right now, simply keeping my eyes on the formidable opponent before me was demanding enough.
Luna stared at my new attire in open admiration. "Whoa. Your clothes changed in an instant?"
"Just a simple trick."
I'd used the inventory function to swap outfits like in a game. I'd practiced it as a countermeasure for prolonged fights or ambushes, never imagining I'd use it like this. Still, being able to fight at my absolute best made it worthwhile.
"Signal?"
"Not needed."
"Rules?"
"Northern rules, obviously."
"I like the sound of that."
I bared my teeth in a savage grin at her reply. I'd worried that a year at the Academy might have softened her, but she was still the sun—warm from afar, yet mercilessly scorching up close. Like Icarus, I had challenged that sun again and again, and today I challenged her once more.
"This time will be different. I've grown tremendously in the North."
"All the better. A fiercer fight means I can grow stronger too."
As our conversation continued, fighting spirit poured from both our bodies. The atmosphere in the vast training grounds grew heavy in an instant, the two warriors' auras filling the space. By the time the students watching from the stands began to tremble under the pressure of such ferocious presences—
BOOOOOOM!
The ground beneath our feet warped, and powerful auras collided at the center of the arena. The moment our swords met, a shockwave erupted, cracking the solid training ground floor and unleashing a deafening explosion, yet neither Luna nor I so much as blinked as we stared each other down.
"You've gotten incredibly strong."
"And you're still as strong as ever."
The exchange didn't last long. After trading over a dozen blows in the center of the grounds and leaping back, I brushed my cheek. Blood stained my fingers.
"As expected, closing the distance is difficult."
Clicking my tongue briefly, I snapped my fingers. With a crisp sound, summoning circles appeared in the air, and all the summons I had contracted so far materialized. Fifteen Ikelos and four Rune Golems. They appeared with imposing presence. They obeyed their summoner's commands faithfully; even if they died, they would simply return to their own dimension. That was why they could charge into deadly situations without hesitation.
But if I had to name the most lethal summon among them all, I would choose without hesitation the one I was summoning for the first time today.
"Umbra."
Shrrrk.
The summon that emerged from my shadow drew a blade of shadow from its waist. Born from shadow, Umbra flashed its blue-gleaming eyes and dropped to one knee. I roughly pulled the loyal creature—acting like a knight greeting its liege—to its feet and turned my gaze back to Luna. She had waited patiently while all my summons appeared and readied themselves for battle. Once my preparations were complete, she flashed a bright smile.
"All set? Then let's begin again."
"Thanks for waiting. Though it wasn't the best choice..."
BOOM!
Before I could finish, Luna lowered her stance and closed the distance in a flash, severing the necks of two Ikelos. The clean horizontal slash she executed while spinning 180 degrees was so perfect that "beautiful" felt inadequate. However, swords were not effective weapons against Ikelos.
"Grrrng!"
"Kehng!"
"Oh my?"
As the severed heads reattached and the Ikelos bared their fangs, Luna's eyes widened in surprise. She channeled aura into her fist. Landing lightly, she shattered one Ikelos's head with an uppercut, then destroyed another's with a spinning back kick before laughing.
"Ahaha! What is this? Don't tell me each fragment forming the wolf shape is a core?"
"You noticed right away?"
"It'd be strange if I didn't! The flow of each individual fragment is so obvious!"
Even Grid, whom I'd sparred with before, hadn't realized this and had only vaguely exploited the weakness. Luna had grasped it instantly and laughed with genuine delight.
"You've really grown strong! Tremendously strong!"
The fighting spirit radiating from Luna surged rapidly. A somewhat refined beastly aura spread in all directions, bursting the heads of the charging Ikelos one after another. When the Rune Golems swung their fists, she flowed around the attacks like water and struck precisely at their cores. When Gravity Field activated, she surrendered her body to it and used the reversed gravity to her advantage. Her skill was absurd. It was truly talent that shone like the sun.
There had been a time when I'd struggled desperately to surpass that talent, but in the end I'd given up. Overtaking the shining protagonists that were the siblings was, coldly speaking, impossible. Yet I smiled.
"But things are different now."
The situation had changed greatly from before. Unlike the past, when I'd possessed only the talent of a prodigy and a bit of affinity, I now had a Mystery dwelling within me. Abilities imbued with the power of Argo Saga from my previous life's memories. On top of that, I'd absorbed through real combat the experiences of fighting monsters that crossed through gates. Casually spinning my sword, I walked forward slowly.
"It'll be different from before. Feel free to look forward to it."
"Bring it on!"
The headless Ikelos around the excited Luna began to move. The bodies of the Ikelos whose heads had been destroyed twitched, and wolf faces regenerated from their ruined necks. Though smaller because the destroyed parts hadn't returned, they remained threatening summons. Just as Luna judged that this would turn into a prolonged battle—
"Can your fists destroy even a storm?"
The forms of the Ikelos scattered and merged into one. Thousands, tens of thousands of fragments gathered and spun, forming a storm of fragments capable of grinding everything to dust. Seeing the storm that could pulverize fragile flesh in an instant, Luna stared with her mouth agape before her body began to tremble.
"This is it! This is what I wanted! Not some Academy kids' game bound by those soft, flimsy rules!"
She must have found Academy life incredibly stifling. While there were certainly things to learn, the siblings steeped in the romance of Northern life would have felt constrained trying to fit into Central's rules. The warrior's instincts that had lain dormant awakened within Luna. She laughed brightly and leapt straight into the fragment storm. Occasional screams echoed from the stands at the sight, but the Northerners remained unfazed. After all, this was—
A perfectly normal sparring match.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The storm surged forward, grinding the training ground floor beneath it. Watching the storm that would grind everything in its path without distinction, I chuckled and adjusted my grip on my sword.
"So even this much won't bring you down, huh?"
Flashes of light occasionally burst within the storm. What began as faint flickers grew steadily brighter until they blazed with a golden radiance visible even from the spectator seats. The moment that golden light the storm could no longer contain spilled outward—
The interior exploded, scattering the fragment storm. At the center of the dispersed storm stood Luna, her entire body covered in wounds yet her golden eyes blazing fiercely.
"Ahaha! Is that all you've got?"
"Hardly. The fight's only just beginning."
Kicking off the ground lightly, I charged toward Luna. Umbra followed behind me, lowering its body as it approached. The instant we reached the center where the storm had raged, I dropped into an extreme low stance and aimed for Luna's knees. As the chillingly sharp aura targeted her legs, Luna blocked with her own radiant golden aura. Using her as a stepping stone, Umbra leapt into the air and brought its sword down. The shadow blade, likewise wreathed in aura, aimed for Luna's neck. Twisting her body to evade, Luna spun and drove her knee into Umbra's face. The dynamic strike burst Umbra's head, but the creature was a being of shadow. In terms of tenacity, it surpassed even Ikelos. Having inherited its summoner's capabilities, it grabbed her knee with its arm. From the ground, I shot upward like an arrow and thrust my sword toward Luna's abdomen as she floated in midair. The strike carried enough power to pierce straight through, yet Luna's expression remained calm. Scattering blood through the air, she twisted her captured knee with a sickening crack of joints and evaded. Not content with merely dodging, she contorted her body further and drove an aura-infused fist straight at my face. I crossed my arms in a desperate block, but the impact felt like a bomb detonating in my arms as I was sent flying. Landing in a sliding skid at the very edge of the arena, I checked the arm that had taken the punch. Even though the crystal spider's shards had absorbed the blow in place of flesh, the bones had broken—likely incorporating the principles of vibration strike. Letting my dangling left arm hang, I gripped my sword with one hand.
"Still as sharp as ever."
"And you're still as lethal."
Grinning at each other, we began walking slowly toward one another.
"Shall we decide the winner with the next attack?"
"Good idea."
I dismissed Umbra back into the shadows. This was now a one-on-one duel between Luna and me. With mutual consent, we prepared our final strikes and approached each other with increasing speed. Just as only a few steps remained between us—
"Professor, over here! Please stop them right away!"
"What is the meaning of this?!"
Following a terrified female student into the training grounds, the professor leapt into the arena in an instant and blocked both our attacks with his hands.
SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!
"That's enough! The spar ends here! At this rate, it wouldn't be strange if someone died!"
""Huh?""
At the professor's words, we both stared at him with deflated expressions. This was the most exciting moment.