Cæ simply gazed at Vloria in silence before turning to Professor Mercile.

"I accepted your offer because I thought I would be learning from you," Cæ informed him with a raised eyebrow. "If it's just sparring with her, then there's less of a point in coming to this little informal class, is there not?"

Professor Mercile shook his head.

"There is merit in training with others. Simply sparring with a master like me will not be good for your development."

Cæ heaved a deep breath, turning to Vloria with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not going to be easy with a physicality gap, you know?" Cæ remarked, staring right at her.

"Huh?" Her eyes flared with fierce anger. "You think you can beat me just because you're bigger? I will beat you black and blue!"

Professor Mercile pulled out a ring from his pocket.

Cæ could instantly sense that it had magical energy within it.

"Wear this." Professor Mercile tossed it to him.

CLASP

Cæ caught the ring, studying it closely.

It resembled a fusion between steel and bronze in color, while several runes and intricate magic circles were inscribed across its surface.

"What is this?" Cæ raised an eyebrow.

"It's an artifact that will inhibit your physicality a little to reduce the gap between yourself and her," Professor Mercile remarked gruffly. "You will be able to fight her fairly this way."

"…So there exist artifacts capable of this as well, hm?" Cæ raised an eyebrow as he put his ring on.

His eyes lit up with a hint of interest as he experienced a wave of weakness sweeping across his body.

His body felt a little heavier, while his movements felt a bit more sluggish.

He felt his nerves grow a bit more sensitive, as if to increase the amount of pain he felt.

"Fascinating…"

"Enough with the trinket," Professor Mercile grumbled. "Forget about it and focus on the fight."

Cæ's attention returned towards Vloria.

He found himself staring at her fist as it surged towards his face.

POW!

Cæ reflexively rolled with the punch, minimizing the impact.

Yet, Vloria didn't give him even the slightest bit of leeway as she surged towards him with a furious gait, threatening to smack him with a barrage of blows.

POW POW POW!

Cæ sharpened his stormy gray eyes as he endured the onslaught of blows that Vloria landed on him after catching him off-guard. Each blow hurt it more than he would have expected it to given the difference in their weight class. He could feel his skin and flesh hurting significantly while his bones ached dully.

It was hardly anything of note, nonetheless.

WHOOSH

Vloria's eyes widened as Cæ cleanly ducked to evade a hook to his chin, his right fist already surging for her gut.

POW

A clean hit to the diaphragm.

Vloria's expression hardened as her breathing grew labored from the shock to her diaphragm. Cæ's eyes sharpened as he surged in for a swift straight hook to the jaw.

BANG

Vloria guarded against the strike, launching a swift hook kick to his crotch.

"Woah…" chills crawled across his skin as he leaped away, narrowly evading a kick to his gonads.

He couldn't even imagine how much it would hurt if they got kicked while the ring artifact enhanced his pain sensitivity.

A devilishly sadistic smile emerged on Vloria's face as she clearly had the same thought on the matter as well, rushing in towards him aggressively.

"Tsk." A hint of irritation appeared on Cæ's face as he became more careful of her kicks. He had to be more cautious about his positioning relative to her.

He didn't care if healing magic could fix any damage done to his gonads; he had absolutely no idea of letting it get that far in the first place.

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Fortunately for him, there was a way that he could use her own aggression against her.

She surged forth, throwing a heavy blow, coiling her entire body to launch a devastating blow towards the abdomen.

THWACK

Cæ shifted as he parried the blow with the flesh of his forearm, launching a swift jab to her chin with his other arm.

BANG

Both her arms flew up, guarding against the attack before shooting forward in a swift one-two combo.

WHOOSH WHOOSH

Cæ leaned away, evading both attacks, before launching a low kick to her ankles, trying to knock her off-balance. Much to his surprise, however, she jumped to evade the attack, launching a flying knee kick to his chest.

BANG!

The heavy blow against his guard hurt him much, leaving him imbalanced with the force that she inflicted on him.

Her eyes sharpened as she surged in for the kick to his crotch with a furiously heavy straight kick.

BANG!

Her shin landed right into Cæ's folded knee.

"Argh!" she gritted her teeth as she fell to the ground, cradling her bruised shin with a gasp for air.

The shin was sensitive to impact, while a folded knee was like a bolstered rock.

Cæ had anticipated that she would try to pull off a cheap shot to his family jewels; he had simply been waiting for the exact moment to time his simple counter.

The pain was intense, leaving her on the ground.

STEP

Cæ brushed his bruised arm, gazing at her with an unimpressed expression. "You're adept, but you're intentions are transparent. It is easy to predict you and use it against you."

"Shut the fuck up!" she snarled, trying to get up as she cradled her leg.

"Hahaha!" Professor Mercile laughed heartily. "He's right. If you make it that obvious that you're targeting a man's cojones, then he's naturally going to do something about it. Hahaha!"

"Tsk! Help me with some healing magic already!"

"Say please."

"…Please," she managed to squeeze out.

"Please what?"

"…Please, professor," she growled.

"Hmph, you need to fix that attitude of yours, brat. Or I'll beat you up myself next time," Professor Mercile grumbled as magic circles emerged before him, allowing him to heal the bruise and get rid of the pain.

STEP

She got up with a kip-up, landing on her feet in the blink of an eye as she raised her healed leg, shaking it a little, before returning a fierce gaze back to Cæ.

"Again!"

Cæ heaved a sigh before taking another stance.

WHOOSH

She charged before him with a low center of gravity, her hands poised to surge forth like viper strikes.

POW POW!

Cæ defended the blows with a simple guard, leaping further back to avoid the roundhouse kick.

WHOOSH

He rushed back in as her leg passed him, throwing a powerful blow straight to her jaw.

WHOOSH

She smoothly evaded the blow as she surged towards him, threatening to smack him where he stood.

BANG BANG BANG!

Cæ steadily blocked her attacks, standing where he was while he absorbed the impacts harmlessly. Even if the ring had reduced his physical strength to match hers, his body type was less suited for maneuvering than hers and was more equipped to deal with the defense.

If he ignored the pain, his toughness with a male physique made him suited to tank her blows and tire out.

POW POW POW POW POW!

Vloria went on a striking spree, banging his body with a barrage of blows as Cæ shifted and tilted to defend them.

Her expression grew ugly as she too realized that he could easily deal with her normal blows. She hadn't expected that he would be such a good fighter, able to defend against her blows to such an extent, despite being weakened by the artifact. It appeared that Professor Mercile had chosen to pair them against each other in sparring combat for a good reason.

He had anticipated that the two of them would be a good match for each other.

He studied the young man and woman sparring against each other as Vloria aggressively pushed and pushed with a never-ending onslaught of blows. Cæ was content remaining on the defensive, allowing her to tire herself out.

He was confident that he could tank all her blows with a solid defense and simply go on the offensive when she was on her back foot.

Unfortunately for him, he had underestimated her.

BANG!

The back of her foot landed into his jaw cleanly, rattling his skull.

Her leg had flexed more than ninety degrees backwards, in a high back kick, causing him to mistime his defense due to her incredible flexibility.

THUD

He collapsed, feeling dizzy.

"Hahaha!" Professor Mercile burst out laughing. "You underestimated her range. Her flexibility is much greater than yours. She has greater mobility and thus attack diversity than you do."

Cæ's hand pressed against the side of his head as he waited for the world to stop turning. "Ugh… what the hell was that kick?"

"Hah, how stiff must your body be if you can't even do that?" she folded her arms with a triumphant expression.

Cæ shook his head, slowly getting up with a fierce expression.

"Let's go again."

The two of them continued their sparring for the rest of the session.

They each managed to beat each other every alternative round, yet despite being remarkably even, they were not symmetrical by any means.

Cæ had better judgment and foresight, while Vloria had better flow and reflexes. The advantages and disadvantages canceled each other out on both sides, making them roughly even in terms of skill when physicality was equalized.

By the end of the session, forty-five minutes later, the two of them were exhausted, lying flat in the combat arena.

"Good fighting," Professor Mercile nodded with a satisfied expression. "You two make good sparring partners. Once the two of you learn martial magic, you will be able to train each other with that as well. Let's see… whichever one of you ends up being stronger than the other will gain a very special gift."

Cæ shifted his attention towards Professor Mercile with a knowing gaze even as he panted for air.

He was trying to fuel a competitive spirit to get them to grow even faster.

"What gift?" Cæ raised an eyebrow, getting up from the ground.

"…An aptitude-enhancing potion, of course," Professor Mercile grinned. "Pretty good, huh?"

Cæ's eyes widened with shock. "… Aptitude-enhancing potion?"

"Of course," Professor Mercile replied gruffly. "Why do you think half of all students in the Elendir Institute of Magic are affluent, even though the affluent class comprises zero-point-one percent of the population? It's because all of them have been fed with rare and expensive aptitude-enhancing potions as they grew up, helping them improve their magic aptitude."

"You're giving us that…?" his tone was stunned. "That must be precious."

"Of course it is," he scoffed. "I have one on my hands, and whichever one of you ends up being the strongest will get it and have their magic grow even stronger."

Cæ's fists clenched as he thought about enhancing his already powerful magic with the potion.

It was an attractive proposition.

"Deal."

He exchanged a competitive glance with Vloria, who also seemed to understand the value of what he was offering.

"Hehehe, good to hear. Now then… have the two of you made your decision?"

Cæ raised an eyebrow.

"Decision?"

"What martial magic do you want to learn?" Professor Mercile reminded him of the choice he had yet to make. "It's been ten days since your martial magic classes started with me after school. I have shown you some of the most prominent hand-to-hand combat styles that I can teach you, and now it's time for you to make a decision."

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