"The match will end when a contestant gives up or is unable to fight!"

Prota grabbed her staff as she stared at the knight in front of her. Their visor was down, and their sword was raised. The other knights stood back at the edge of the field for fear of getting caught by a stray spell.

"Begin!"

The knight charged in, and that was their first mistake: assuming Prota was a traditional caster.

She immediately cast mana recovery and began running, her speed noticeably faster than it had been three years ago. Her mana core had grown, her body had developed a bit more, and her mana reinforcement was on another level.

Simply put, she was exponentially better than she'd been the last time she was here.

"What the-"

To the knight's credit, they recovered well. They put up their aura just in time to defend a barrage of icicles, then immediately swung their sword to clear some space.

"Hmph. Not bad."

Prota didn't speak. She just kept pushing on, her barrage relentless. There was no more hiding. No more holding back. Soul Steal? Chantless casting? She didn't need to hide those things anymore. Sofya had been her teacher, and it would be a stain on her name to hide the skills she'd learned.

"Blossom of Ice."

The spell that had once been considered her ultimate was now something she could form in seconds. She threw it forward, not wasting any time in continuing her movement, swiftly stepping in and out of range.

The knight was good, of course. Prota had to constantly stay on her toes, her mind always alert. She brushed against death numerous times, often avoiding serious injury by mere hairs, but that was the fighting style she'd developed.

"Frozen Flame."

The spell could no longer deflect a Final Stand, but it was still powerful in its own right. The knight was constantly forced to defend, giving Prota more and more opportunities to attack.

It was a fascinating fight to watch. The knight had very good defence, but was constantly being pushed back. On the other hand, Prota had an overwhelming pressure to her, but at the same time, a single hit would spell her demise.

The knights watching had gone silent. They'd never seen a caster fight like this before. A battle mage was something they'd witnessed once, but a battle mage didn't fight like this.

If that was the case, then just what was this style?

Prota felt herself getting a little tired. She could keep this up for much longer, but was there really a need to?

She felt her senses enhance to the max as time slowed down around her. The mana gathered in front of her fingertips, a vortex of wind gathering as ice magic compressed itself over and over.

"Frozen Bullet."

Time snapped back to normal as the spell fired off, the wind blowing her hair back as the icicle knocked the sword out of the knight's hand.

Truth be told, Prota had utilized the fact that the knight wasn't prepared for her spells. The entire fight, there had been a slight delay between the formation of her spells and their activation. However, her training had brought her to the point that spells could activate instantaneously in her slowed-down world.

Additionally, the speed of her Frozen Bullet had increased drastically as the quality of her magic increased. Finally, the fight with Sofya had given her a new perspective on magic. Utilizing [Infinity] to fight had been somewhat addictive, but it'd also opened a whole new world she hadn't even imagined.

So, when the knights went wild around her, she didn't feel much. Winning against an opponent such as this shouldn't have been an accomplishment. Her heart was beating hard in her chest, sweat dripping down her face as she let the feeling of victory spread.

"...I apologize," the knight with the mustache said, stepping forward. "My name is Kamus Randuin. I am the captain of the knights. On all our honour, we recognize you as a true warrior."

Prota nodded, a bit of satisfaction welling in her heart. Well, maybe it wasn't so bad to be recognized once in a while.

She'd grown. But now that she'd reached the peak of one mountain, she now saw that there were greater mountains to climb.

And even when she reached the highest summit, there was still the sky and stars above.

Her journey for growth would be a never-ending battle.

Unfortunately, that growth wouldn't be immediate. She felt her legs give out a little, but she couldn't afford to look weak here.

Her pride wouldn't allow it.

~~~

The wind blew, Haze's dress swaying in the wind. The ground underneath was cold and hard, and the rattling of branches filled the air.

"You're not cold?" John called out.

"Quit stalling. You know very well I am perfectly fine."

"Hey, I'm just saying, you don't have a coat."

"Neither do you."

"I, uh… I have this scarf?"

"Again, attack. There is no point in playing games."

John sighed, shaking his head. He liked to fight, but he'd never understand these people who fought for the sake of fighting. This had to be bad for their health. What was the point?

"Seriously, I-"

His words were cut short as Haze dashed in, her fist rapidly approaching his gut. With a yelp of panic, he leapt to the side, his leg instinctively coming out in an attempt to knock her off balance.

Of course, she was far too experienced for such a trick to work. However, being forced to react to an attack like that meant she'd constantly need to be moving, paying attention, and that meant more opportunities for mistakes.

Everybody messed up eventually. Professionals merely messed up far less than others. However, if enough attacks could be thrown out, one would eventually work.

"You're still as bold as ever," Haze noted as she went in for another barrage of attacks.

John grimaced as he dodged left, right, left again, each blow barely missing. He blocked once, grunting as the weight of the attack pierced through his guard, knocking him back anyway.

"How am I supposed to win?" John complained. "What the hell?"

"You won last time. You can do it again."

John groaned. At this point, he may as well just use [Infinity]. He hated to use the same technique twice, but at this point, there was no point in trying to win as a regular human. His left eye began to glow.

[Infinity: x100]

He had a bit of an idea for what he'd do this time around. He'd already explained part of this ability to Destiny; he may as well use it against his mother. Besides, she looked like the kind of person who knew how to keep a secret.

And if she didn't, well… he might have to kill her.

John was hoping he wouldn't have to do that.

He moved forward, his steps a bit swifter than before. John saw Haze's eyes flick back and forth, measuring the new speed at which he was moving, and he knew she was ready.

That was what he was hoping for.

The fight began anew, the two exchanging attacks in a rhythmic dance. Punch. Block. Kick. Dodge. An attempt at a grab, a sidestep, an uppercut, a jab, a feint, back and forth, back and forth.

Sweat began to drip down John's cheek. It felt cold. The outside air was no longer comfortable, but that was good. It was cooling John's overheating body, even if he himself did not feel discomfort. He felt his body move exactly the way he wanted, every bit of him under perfect control.

The two continued to dance, the hard dirt underneath scraping and crumbling beneath their feet. All John could hear was the sound of their laboured breaths, the crunch of the dirt, and the rattling of the branches. Occasionally, a bird would call out, but he was far too focused to pay attention to such things.

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John had been switching up his multiplier, but as he'd expected, Haze was prepared. She always reacted accordingly, always gave herself just a bit of room to prepare for a change in tempo. She was good. Really good. He had to admit that much.

But the solution he'd come up with last time came to mind. If trickery wasn't possible…

Brute force was always an answer.

"Having trouble, are you?" Haze said with a small smile as she stepped back.

"Yeah," John gasped out. "No shit I'm having trouble. If the king's bodyguard wasn't giving some random kid trouble, I'd be worried for this kingdom's future."

"A compliment. I didn't know you could give those."

"I'm just stating the facts. That shouldn't be a compliment."

"You're still tricky with your words, I see."

With that, John charged in. A multiplier of one hundred was the most he'd ever used this fight. He'd been alternating from anywhere between twenty and a hundred, and that was good.

Haze was used to it now.

That was exactly what he needed.

He started moving at max speed, then switched to a multiplier of fifty. Haze was used to his pattern now. He'd switch back to a multiplier of a hundred. That was what he'd done the past five times he'd tried this trick.

So when his multiplier jumped up to a whopping one thousand, she wasn't ready.

John felt a faint sense of satisfaction as he saw her flinch, his fist rapidly moving in. To her credit, she did manage to raise her arms in time, but that, too, had been accounted for.

"Well played," John gasped as his fist faintly tapped Haze's neck.

At the very last second, he'd switched his multiplier back to one, anticipating that Haze would block the attack and try to counterattack. She'd done exactly that, but that left her wide open. John had been a mere hair from making contact when he'd switched speeds, and while she definitely would have done more damage than he, that didn't matter.

One blow. It was all he needed, and it was what he'd done. Again, not incredibly practical for real combat, but for this…

"It's truly my loss this time," Haze said, bowing her head. "I was prepared for your tricks, and you still managed to outmaneuver me."

"Please," John groaned. "We both know the next time we fight, you'll be ready for that, too. You're scary. I can't believe you adapted in just one fight. We had that fight three years ago, you know."

"No," Haze said, shaking her head. "I must admit that you are highly skilled. I suppose training could help you, but… well, it feels as if this is how you should be. I get the sense that you've done all you can to improve. It's interesting to say, but…"

She trailed off, pursing her lips.

"You may already be a master of your craft."

John shook his head, but inwardly, he couldn't help but nod. She was right. He'd known this. There was very little to improve. Everything he did, everything he would do, it would all be determined by whether or not he could devise a proper strategy. He couldn't go on some hundred-year training arc and return with a new technique.

He didn't know if that was good or bad.

"Well, as promised, I will grant you a favour."

"I don't have a favour I want!" John exclaimed. "I don't need anything right now! That's why I didn't want to fight!"

A small smile crept onto Haze's mouth. "Then I suppose you may save it for later. A Windwalker's favour isn't cheap, you know. Use it well."

John just sighed as he fell back, sitting on the cold ground as Haze walked away. As her figure disappeared, he let loose a sigh.

"Seriously, that woman is way too scary… I need to stop coming back here."

~~~

John and Prota collapsed onto their beds without exchanging a word. They just lay there like that, trying to recover from the events they'd experienced that day.

"...you too, huh?" John finally said, sitting up with a grunt.

Prota didn't even bother to sit up. She just nodded.

"Seriously, if that lady challenges me to a fight ever again, I… ah, what am I saying. I don't have an option," John grumbled, running his hands through his hair. "What did you have to do?"

"Knights," Prota mumbled, hair getting into her mouth. "Weak."

"Wha- weak? Really?"

"Nn."

"So you're that much stronger… did Hart put you up to it?"

Prota was surprised, but she was too exhausted to show it. She just nodded again.

"You have a healing charm, you know," John pointed out. "You could just… you know. Heal yourself."

"Already did," Prota muttered.

It wasn't the physical fatigue that was getting to her. It was the emotional fatigue of having been challenged by every other knight after winning her first battle. She still wasn't good with people, and especially not crowds of strangers approaching her out of nowhere.

"Is this what the next arc is?" John muttered to himself. "Just a bunch of fighting?"

His guess was about to be proven wrong.

"John? Prota?" a voice called out from the door. "Are you guys in there?"

"Destiny?" John called back, a frown forming on his face. "What's up?"

He got off his bed and let the [Protagonist] in, but one more being came in, uninvited.

"Kit!" John exclaimed as the familiar pink fox hopped onto Prota's bed.

With a puff of smoke, the fox turned into the form John and Prota were so familiar with.

"Did you miss me?" Kit grinned.

"...now that you ask that, no," John mumbled.

Prota, on the other hand, sat up, her eyes shining. She didn't quite smile, but she did seem incredibly pleased to see the fox Mystic again. Well, that made sense. She didn't know where her first mentor had gone, and she'd lost another precious teacher just recently.

At least Kit was still alive and well.

"Good to see you're still the same as ever," the fox grinned. "We missed you, you know. You should've seen Des and the princess at the lake, they-"

"Kit!" Destiny exclaimed, rushing to cover her mouth. "Shut up!"

"Oh, is our little hero embarrassed?" Kit laughed, fighting him off. "Embarrassed that he got kissed?"

"You got kissed?" John said, eyes widening.

"I don't wanna talk about it!"

"Dude, you're, like, twenty something. Get over it," John frowned.

"Mm, is someone jealous?" Kit said, a smirk forming on her face. "So you are interested in girls after all!"

"Wha- no!" John exclaimed. "You still remember that?"

"It seems you do, too, so it wasn't that forgettable. Or did you remember it for… other reasons?"

"You- oh, my god," John sighed, clenching his teeth.

He'd been about to figure something out, something important. That kiss meant something, but Kit was too distracting for him to figure it out. Oh, well.

"So, how much have you two improved since I last saw you?" Kit said, getting off the bed and crossing her arms. "Des said I should see it for myself."

"...you know me," John shrugged.

Kit's jaw dropped. "You're telling me you didn't bother to learn a single thing at Scholaris? What is wrong with you?"

"Kit, give him some slack," Destiny sighed. "He did well. John isn't the most reliable, but he gets the job done when it matters."

"Then how about a little spar, me and you?" Kit said, a sly grin on her lips. "If you can really fight, then-"

She stopped talking as she noticed Destiny shaking his head.

"...you're joking, right?" she frowned.

"I shouldn't have told you about my powers," John said with a short laugh. "Seriously, there was no point."

"I mean, it's good to know you can do something," Destiny pointed out. "But… well, I don't blame you, I guess. I just wish you'd trusted me a little more."

"About my powers?" John thought for a moment. "Well, fair enough, I guess."

"You have some explaining to do," Kit said, staring at Destiny.

Her frown immediately faded as she turned to Prota.

"But you! How about you? I heard some really impressive stuff happened at Scholaris with you!"

Prota reluctantly got off her bed. She was still a little tired, but she did want to show Kit what she'd learned.

"Well, like our hero said, it's better to show you than it is to tell you," John grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Come on, you guys know a secret place to practice, right?"

~~~

The four of them wound up in a sort of clearing in the forest near the castle. This was the same forest Destiny had taken his test in, as well as the same forest Celestia had been kidnapped in.

Even while knowing that, to John, it looked like any other forest.

"Brings back memories," he muttered as he looked around.

If you had told him he was in the Town of Beginnings, he wouldn't have had a reason to disagree. It really was just a forest full of trees.

"Alright, Prota," Destiny nodded as he took a step back. "Go for it."

Prota nodded, her eyes lighting up as mana swelled within her body. Casting mana recovery a few times, she prepared her body to cast the various spells she'd learned over the course of the past three years.

She'd realized a couple of things in the past few weeks.

The first was that her body could not handle casting more than one of her more powerful spells at a time. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she was relying on mana recovery too much, or maybe it just had to do with Soul Steal or her condition. Regardless, mana recovery was now a must.

The other thing was that her core had increased in size. If she remembered correctly, this put her around an S-rank core.

While her core was bigger, it wasn't enough to cast two large spells. She was still stuck cycling Soul Steal over and over. If this had been the version of her from a few years ago, that would've been an issue, but now, she was more than comfortable with her ability.

That scene she'd seen in her hallucination had opened up so many more possibilities to her. Things she hadn't even dreamed of.

But she was getting distracted. For now, she would show off what she could.

Closing her eyes, she immediately prepared a domain. The air dropped in temperature as the ambient mana changed to a more icy element, preparing the stage for Prota's spells.

In the blink of an eye, half a dozen Blossoms formed, exploding into a fury of petals. Two Frozen Flames formed in the midst of the vortex, exploding and smashing the ice to bits. A block of ice was quickly formed, and a Frozen Bullet smashed through it, the ice scattering everywhere.

It was here that Prota was really picking up her stride. Time slowed down as mana flowed to her mind, and the domain was quickly switched to one of flame. A plasma disk formed, catching all the stray ice, vaporizing it immediately. The domain switched back to ice as Absolute Zero nullified the flames, freezing the very zone it was in.

At that point, she could no longer maintain her enhanced perception, but she wasn't done. A dragon of ice began to swirl around her body, snaking as the spell grew larger and larger.

She couldn't summon both dragons. Not yet. That was something she'd only been able to accomplish with the help of [Infinity].

But someday. Someday.

The dragon shot out, but before it could get anywhere, Prota had slowed down time once more, preparing a Frozen Cannon, smashing the spell. Cancelling the domain, she began to fold mana over itself, mixing in fire and ice attributes.

This wasn't the Tenth Seda, though. She wouldn't use that again for a while. However, she had a spell that worked just fine as a finale.

The mana gathered overhead as it continued to compress. Then, all at once, it exploded, a hail of arrows raining down, smashing through the ground in a combination of fire and ice. The surrounding trees had been absolutely obliterated, and the dirt was so ruined it was as if a natural disaster had flown through the area.

"...hey," Kit said quietly as the show ended. "Are you sure she's not a Mystic?"

They looked at Prota, who was panting heavily. She wobbled on her feet, and John rushed to catch her. There was a soft green light as she used a healing orb for the second time, recovering her stamina, but it was worth it.

Seeing Kit's look of amazement was quite the reward.

"She got taught by the headmaster," John explained. "Sofya something? Pretty good teacher."

"That growth, though! Where did she learn all that? And that mana control! That efficiency! Using mana on her nervous system to slow down her perception, folding and exponentially growing mana, domains - that's all stuff even Mystics take a year to learn! How?!"

"She's a special girl," John grinned.

"You two are insane," Kit said, shaking her head.

Suddenly, something slipped out of John's pocket. A piece of paper. He bent down to grab it, thinking nothing of it.

The paper was the note Sofya had received, the one from some unnamed visitor. He'd been meaning to ask Kit about it, but this wasn't something important. Lupin had said there were traces of a Mystic on it, but John didn't really expect much.

However, as he looked back up, the fox's expression was frozen on her face.

"Hey," she said quietly. "Where did you get that?"

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