The instant the referee's hand dropped, the stage literally exploded from both ends.

BAAAAMMMMM—!

Sword crashed against Alice's scythe as Alice and Ethan collided head-on.

"Heh." Both face up closely, as they couldn't help but to grin at each other.

None of them wants to lose. From the very first when they saw each other they wanted to test out exactly how strong one is compared to them.

The impact loud enough to rattle the arena walls. Sparks burst outward, scattering like shattered glass as both of them were thrown backward from the force.

Consider it ego or whatever else it doesn't matter to them any longer, they just want to see the outcome of how far the other can go when they put in their all.

"Haah!!"

Alice twisted in mid-air, her body rotating sideways as she kicked off the ground beneath her feet, using raw momentum to redirect herself back into the fight. Her scythe spun with her, and the curved blade flashing silvery as she swung it upward from below with the help of moment she generated.

Ethan met it in the air.

CLANG—!!

Their weapons locked in place, but they were not on the ground, but several feet above it.

"Wow… is this for real?"

Beatrix's eyes widened as she stared up at the stage, her mouth slightly open. Just moments ago, both of them had been standing calmly on the floor. Now, the duel had completely left the ground behind.

She glanced sideways.

Leon was watching them too.

But unlike everyone else, he wasn't tense. He wasn't surprised but instead he was smiling.

He looked… delighted.

Genuinely so.

Almost as if he were watching something beautiful unfold.

The duel unfolded almost entirely in the air.

Alice launched herself forward again, her scythe spinning as she nudged its shaft against her thigh mid-motion, subtly altering its trajectory at the last second.

The blade curved inward unexpectedly, forcing Ethan to twist his wrist and barely redirect the strike with the flat of his sword.

"Tch, that nearly got me." He commented.

"I call it a skill issue, this is nothing for a rank one student aren't I right?" Alice said grinning as they kept on swinging at each other jumping in the air and creating trajectories with unexceptional speed.

"Hoohooo, what's this?Sweating already?"

"This girl…" Ethan was finding her annoying the more she talked.

To the onlookers, their movements were completely out of the ordinary, it looked like a simple clash, but at the same time wasn't.

They weren't simply swinging. They were throwing themselves, twisting their bodies at extreme momentum, using inertia, mana reinforcement, and raw technique to stay airborne longer than should have been possible.

Beatrix clenched her hands against her chest.

She couldn't look away from them.

"Insane…"

Alice moved beautifully.

Her body flowed naturally with every swing, her muscles engaging and releasing seamlessly.

There was no wasted movement at all. The way she shifted her weight, the way her legs guided her weapon, the way she used her thighs and hips to adjust mid-air angles, it all looked effortless.

Beatrix swallowed. 'So this is what he's watching…'

Her mind drifted back to Alice's words earlier.

'He likes older women.'

Beatrix's gaze dropped, almost unconsciously, to herself.

She wasn't tall. She barely reached Leon's shoulder. Her hands were small, and her frame light too. People had always said the same thing since she was a child.

"Aww~ Beatrix dear, you're so cute."

"You look like a little doll."

"So adorable!"

She had never made those comments up.

If Alice meant older as in maturity… as in presence… as in someone who looked refined and powerful like this then—

Beatrix glanced back up at Alice.

Her legs were toned, and looked super strong. Her stance was confident even in mid-air, as if she owned the sky around her.

'Then I really don't stand a chance…'

"Haah… why do the gods play favorites…" Beatrix muttered quietly.

Leon's head tilted slightly.

"Hm?" he asked, glancing down at her. "Did you say something?"

Beatrix flinched.

"O–oh! No, no!" she waved her hands quickly. "I was just… um… admiring Alice's bod— I mean her moves!" she corrected desperately. "They're so fluid!"

Leon hummed thoughtfully.

"Hm. I agree," he said. "She trained from a very young age. That's why her body's more developed than most people her age."

"…"

Beatrix froze.

Slowly, she looked back up at Alice.

"…Is that so…" she murmured.

Her eyes drifted downward again.

"…developed, huh…"

She sighed quietly, shoulders slumping just a bit as she patted her waist.

"…Unfair."

Five minutes had already passed, yet their duel was still ongoing.

No matter what strike Ethan tried to land, Alice somehow avoided it.

And the same went for Ethan as well.

What made it even more surprising was that neither of them were using any skills. This was a pure, raw display of weapon mastery.

Leon glanced toward Sir Tyler on the stage. The man was staring upward with an unusually serious expression.

As someone close to Raizen, Tyler was well aware of Alice's circumstances. He had never seen her fight with his own eyes before, only heard Raizen endlessly boast about how impressive his granddaughter was.

Leon felt satisfied and shifted his full attention back to the duel.

DASH!

Ethan's body slammed into the ground as he barely managed to block Alice's strike.

"Cough! Cough! Haaah… hahaha."

He stood up almost instantly, wiping the blood from his lips. "You sure have quite the stamina."

Despite the insanely structured exchanges, both of them had only suffered one or two shallow cuts. Nothing more.

Alice landed not too far from him.

Her red eyes locked onto Ethan, unmistakably provocative.

Ethan felt a chill run down his spine. Alice was clearly bothered now, yet she was not even sweating after everything they had exchanged.

She stared at him as if saying, Look how weak you are.

He swallowed hard.

Alice walked toward him, dragging her scythe along the ground.

"Is that all?" she asked.

"…"

For a brief moment, they stared at each other, as if clashing mentally.

Then, at the same time, both of them shifted their stance and began channeling mana into their weapons.

Leon's expression tightened.

"Ah… fuck."

They charged.

As they ran toward each other, afterimages trailed behind them.

Leon had to activate his specs just to properly follow their movements.

With the help of Mana Sense, he immediately understood what they were doing.

They were forcing mana into the formula imprint of their training weapons, pushing them into an extremely unstable state.

That meant the next collision would be decisive.

Whichever weapon carried the less refined mana would explode.

And considering how much mana both of them were channeling, the resulting blast would be violent and deadly.

This was not a flaw of the training weapons, but a built-in safety measure. A mechanism designed to prevent the use of extreme spells during duels.

Both of them tightened their grip as they ran across the shattered concrete, slowly raising their weapons.

They had decided to end it.

Even though Ethan ranked lower than Alice in weapon mastery, he was matching her pace. He blocked her strikes cleanly and returned blows with precision.

To the spectators, they looked perfectly evenly matched.

"Let's see how much longer you can keep that stamina," Ethan said.

Their blades closed the final distance.

Just a hand's breadth apart, both weapons vibrated violently. White cracks spread across the metal, warning signs that they were seconds away from shattering and sending shards flying everywhere.

Then, just before Alice's weapon could collide with Ethan's, she vanished.

[Zero Point]

"…?!"

Ethan felt something behind him.

He sensed it instantly, but his body had no time to respond.

'Ah… no…'

His neck felt burned, as hot metal slowly made contact with his skin's outer layer.

It was Alice's scythe, which she kept moving even after she teleported behind him.

"…?"

Ethan would've had his head fly off if he didn't block.

His mind spiraled, but his physical strength gave way.

But then, everything settled down.

As the heat stopped.

"Huh?"

Alice's eyes widened when she noticed her blade forcefully stopping by some kind of golden force field cast around Ethan's neck.

Her mind snapped back, but before she could reflect on her action, an extreme aura surged through her mind.

"GHAA…?!!!!!"

An invisible kick radiated from that golden force field.

It was golden in color, with drifting golden particles floating her way.

It looked eternal.

The tiny particles pushed her backward, as if some barrier cracked against her body.

In a matter of milliseconds, when Alice's blade touched his neck, this strange phenomenon occurred.

BAAAAMMMMMM—!!!!

Alice's body got kicked with absurd force toward the walls.

"GUaahh–!!"

She coughed up blood after she hit the wall.

"What…" Ethan noticed it happen.

But the thing was…

He didn't do it.

"That was light affinity…" Ethan muttered.

— — —

Leon looked at it happening.

He didn't intervene when Alice did that.

He didn't need to.

After all, that bastard Ethan had Everbright looking after him.

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