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Shortly after Vaan reached the library, he noticed the doors were locked. But even without a key, he easily unlocked the door with Earth Manipulation and entered.
At that moment, Dahlia had already retired to her back office.
However, she was neither asleep nor resting. As it was only slightly past dinner time, she was sitting at her desk reading a book on wind applications through her spectacles.
Nevertheless, her gaze suddenly sharpened with alarm when she heard the office door open. But when she recognized Vaan’s familiar face, she quickly expressed her joy with a brilliant smile.
“Vahn!”
Dahlia dropped her book, climbed onto the desk, and pounced toward his chest like a cat.
Then, with her arms stretched out, her fingers quickly interlocked behind his neck, and her body swung around, seemingly weightless.
“Aren’t you too excited to see me?” Vaan calmly smiled.
“I missed you!” Dahlia said.
“You already missed me? Even though it hasn’t been that long?”
“It was too long for me.”
It had only been a day since he was gone, yet Dahlia already missed him. Clearly, she had become heavily dependent on him as she was completely infatuated with him.
Although he didn’t share the same feelings and only got close to her for his own motives, she was still one of his women; one of his people.
As such, he owed her some responsibility—for as long as she remained one of his people and the cost of taking care of her didn’t affect his main goals..
“Your eyes have gone bad again. Let me give you some eye therapy,” Vaan said as he slowly took off her glasses and sat her down on the bed to start his massage. “Why didn’t you find someone else to perform the massage when I wasn’t around?”
“I’ve grown used to wearing glasses, so it’s fine with or without them,” Dahia replied before she added in a low mumbled, “Besides, I don’t want anyone touching me unless it’s you…”
“Then how do you want to be touched by me?” Vaan teased as his hands started to become naughty, reaching down for her supple peaks.
“Ah…” Dahlia softly gasped.
Vaan’s slight touch quickly excited her body as if it had just been switched on with a simple flick, putting her in the mood for some steamy sessions with him.
She gazed at him alluringly.
However, before they could proceed further after the eye massage, the main academy building shook.
Rumble…!
“What was that? It felt like the main building just got hit by something,” Dahlia uttered with surprise.
“It came from the headmaster’s office,” Vaan furrowed his brows before he said, “I will go and check.”
“I’m coming too,” Dahlia said with a solemn look.
She was no longer in the mood for dual practice—not when something serious might have happened in the academy.
Vaan faintly guessed something had happened between Headmaster Tabitha and Headmaster Astoria.
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The headmaster’s office wall blew apart as a figure flew out with flying rubbles and shattered glasses.
Shortly after Tabitha landed on the training field, she stared back at the damage blankly for a moment before anger filled her eyes.
At the same time, Astoria flew out of the hole in the headmaster’s office wall right after and landed in the training field with Tabitha.
When she saw Tabitha’s glare, she glanced back at the hole and said, “I’ll pay for it.”
“Hmph!” Tabitha snorted, feeling a little better. “Let’s make this quick. I don’t want too many people to watch us spar.”
“Why? You don’t want your precious students and instructors to see their esteemed headmaster get pummeled into a miserable state by me?” Astoria taunted with a smile.
“You might be among the top three strongest High Witches in the kingdom, but when it comes to Light Magic, I am stronger!” Tabitha shouted.
In that instant, she fired a scorching-hot Light Bullet made of condensed solar power at Astoria.
However, Astoria remained unflinching and took on the full brunt of the attack with her new black armor, enhanced by Light Solidification.
The black armor quickly lit up with a bright outline similar to the event horizon of a black hole.
Peng!
The Light Bullet struck her on the chest, and the force of an Early-stage High Witch pushed her backward.
But Astoria only retreated with a single strong step, which negated most of the force.
“Comparing offensive Light Magic to defensive Light Magic? Can you really say your Light Magic is stronger if you can’t even break my defense, Headmaster Tabitha?” Astoria casually criticized and asked, “And was that supposed to be an imitation of the Mana Bullet spell in the Book of Solomon Raphna?”
“You were much more respectful to me when you were receiving the book. Now that you have the book, it’s okay not to be respectful to me? Did the book make you arrogant? Do you think you can beat me now?” Astoria continued.
“I guess we will find out in a short while, won’t we, Headmaster Astoria?” Tabitha replied with a confident look, but she was slightly unnerved in her heart.
Astoria had endured her attack so effortlessly.
Nevertheless, a single block wasn’t enough to break her fighting spirit. After all, the Light Bullet wasn’t her strongest attack.
Shortly after, Tabitha fired another Light Bullet that spun at high speed, increasing its penetrative power.
Peng!
The attack was blocked again but by Astoria’s gauntlet this time.
She was forced back by another step before she took three steps forward.
Peng! Peng! Peng!
Tabitha fired her spells, one after the other with increasing quicker succession. Each time, the light-attribute spell was also stronger than the last.
However, Astoria blocked them all with her light-enhanced Rank 4 Black Armor.
“I gave you many chances to attack. Now, it’s my turn,” Astoria stated.
With a strong stomp, she dashed forward with a burst of speed, closing the distance between them.
Tabitha’s expression quickly changed as she retreated, not letting Astoria get closer to her.
At the same time, she no longer held back and decided to go all out to beat Astoria. Otherwise, given Astoria’s expression, she will end up beaten instead!
‘Small attacks won’t work. I have to use big and powerful ones,’ Tabitha concluded.
A towering pillar of light-attribute mana erupted from her body in the next moment before they condensed into a long light spear.
Lance of Longinus!
The spear of light contained the majority of her remaining light-attribute mana. It was super condensed and wasn’t inferior to a Rank 4 weapon.
Against a close-combat battle maniac like Astoria, it was her best move to use in their spar.
Minor spells only wasted her mana.
On the other hand, while most of her light-attribute mana was poured into the Lance of Longinus, it was a way to conserve her mana, maximize her combat potential, and prolong her battle.
Alas, all that meant nothing when Tabitha remotely controlled the Lance of Longinus to clash with Astoria’s Rank 4 Black Greatsword from a distance.
Not only did the Rank 4 Black Greatsword shatter her Lance of Longinus, but it also absorbed the compressed light-attribute mana contained within it.
“What!” Tabitha exclaimed with shock.
Nevertheless, she didn’t have time to think about how her spear of light shattered so easily against Astoria’s new greatsword.
She quickly retreated as she tried to recollect the scattered light-attribute mana fragments of her Lance of Longinus to conjure a defensive light spell against Astoria’s follow-up attack.
Headmaster Tabitha never stood a chance.
After Astoria closed the distance between them, she swung down on Tabitha’s Light Barrier.
Just like the instance with Tabitha’s Lance of Longinus, she quickly shattered the Light Barrier and absorbed some of its light-attribute mana.
Boom!
The Rank 4 Black Greatsword continued on its path and smacked Tabitha into the ground with its flat side.
Even so, the heavy impact broke Tabitha’s bones as she slammed against the ground, creating a small crater in the training field.
As Astoria’s heavy attack instantly immobilized her, what followed after was Tabitha’s tragic fate of getting pummeled.
Astoria tossed aside her Rank 4 Black Greatsword and hopped on top of Tabitha’s body before she bashed her face in with a relentless onslaught of punches.
“W-wait!”
Bam!
“I give—!”
Bam! Bam!
“You win, Headmaster—!”
Bam! Bam! Bam!
“I’m sorry—!” Tabitha cried as her face was beaten to a pulp, bloodied with broken teeth, nose, and black panda eyes.
She was beaten ruthlessly and looked very miserable.
Even so, they were still superficial wounds at best for light-attribute High Witches like her and Astoria.
They could quickly heal back without a scar.
Nevertheless, when Astoria heard Tabitha’s apology, she briefly paused her fist-pounding to ask, “What are you sorry for?”
“I shouldn’t have pried for information from you! Please forgive me, big sister!” Tabitha stated with a pitiful look.
However, Astoria didn’t fall for it and pounded her face another two times before she was satisfied.
“If you know that you shouldn’t, then why did you still pry if not to ask for a beaten?” Astoria snorted as she got off Tabitha.
“I didn’t think I would be beaten this badly… Who knew your equipment and weapon would be this outrageous?” Tabitha stifled her cry and healed herself with Light Magic.
“No one was telling me anything about the details on the punitive expedition, so I couldn’t help but be curious…”
“Furthermore, you came back and spent your time with Vahn Cadieux… Anyone with a bit of brain would find that strange,” Tabitha softly added.
At that moment, a crowd had already gathered in the vicinity as they came to watch the spar between the two headmasters, including Vaan and Dahlia.
Or rather, it was just a one-sided beating.