I watched as Odeta and Matthias stood a distance away from each other, their wooden swords held by their side.
Matthias swung his sword in an arc with a smile on his face, “Heh, just so that we are clear on this, the loser will listen to a request from the winner without complaint, correct?”
“Yeah! When I win, I want you to stay away from sister Aster!”
“Ahaha! Fine! Then when I win, you’re not going to prevent me from getting close to anyone else ever again!”
I don’t know… These terms seem a bit skewered in his favour don’t you think?
What does he even get by coming close to me? I don’t think he knows which family I’m from, right?
Oh well, it’s not like he’ll win anyway.
The instructor doesn’t even look remotely concerned that this was going on and I’m not sure if it was because he’s gone senile with age or something.
Or… He probably just sees it as kids playing around and wasn’t worried about it. We were using basic wooden swords after all, so the worst injuries we’ll get should just be welts and bruises, something a simple healing spell would be able to fix.
Even if it was a broken bone, that would also be an easy fix too.
I guess that’s why most people have so little sense of self preservation around here since most injuries can be healed easily.
Which probably means that there’s a lot of reckless people out there in this World as well. I’m willing to bet that there’s way more instances of ‘hold my beer’ amongst this World’s denizens than there were in the other World.
It’s quite evident when Instructor Henry didn’t even bother asking the other students to stop what they were doing and just let everyone continue with the lesson.
Nevertheless, there were a number of students who stopped what they were doing just to watch the duel.
Instead of telling them off however, our Instructor merely told them to watch the fight carefully and to take note of what mistakes they might make.
“Alright… Those who want to witness the duel… Gather around here… Who can tell me about the two duelists here?” Instructor Henry asked casually.
One of the boys who had been accompanying Matthias crossed his arms thoughtfully, “Matthias is a veteran swordsman with several years of experience and he’s also trained in the Royal Duelist Sword Style which has a high focus on one on one combat. Junior Odeta on the other hand relies on raw strength with unrefined techniques for her fights.”
I can’t tell if this guy knows all this because he is actually quite knowledgeable or that he’s just obsessed with both of them.
The Instructor nodded his head sagely, “Very astute observations… So who do you think will win?”
The boy didn’t even hesitate, “Matthias would win for sure. In front of superior techniques, junior Odeta’s strength could be easily used against her.”
Instructor Henry showed no signs of agreeing or disagreeing with him but instead, turned to me, “What about you, Aster? For someone who has real combat experience, you should also have an opinion on this fight, right?”
Ok… I guess that’s a veteran for you, he could already tell from just a single look.
Just like the boy earlier, I had no hesitation before giving my own answer, “Odeta will win, no question about it.”
That actually got the old instructor to smile slightly but I don’t think anyone else noticed.
“Not going to give a reason for your choice?” The old man asked.
I shrugged, “Odeta is just better than him. Like, way better.”
I mean, if their stats were even just a bit more closer then maybe I might even say that it might go either way. But both of them were tier two in their sword proficiencies and Odeta just has way better stats than he does.
She wouldn’t get to tier two proficiency with just relying on swinging her sword randomly.
“Interesting… Are the two of you ready?”
Odeta and Matthias nodded their heads and settled into their stance.
“Alright… Begin,” He announced with a casual air.
Odeta kicked the ground hard enough to leave an imprint of her foot on the ground, appearing right in front of Matthias with her sword swinging towards his side.
He managed to react by lifting his sword up in an attempt to block it by holding his sword parallel to his body.
Odeta’s sword collided with his and… The boy was blown away like a ragdoll.
I watched him roll on the ground away from Odeta while his sword was flung out from his hand, landing a short distance in front of me.
The boy himself only stopped rolling after reaching near the edge of the field.
I was a little worried that Odeta might have killed him seeing he got hit by an Amrap with a strength that was greater than an infant dragon. I was even more surprised that their swords remained intact but I guess they must be enchanted.
Matthias managed to push himself up on unsteady feet and instead of admitting defeat, he pointed a finger at Odeta, “You… You cheated! How dare you?!”
Odeta tilted her head at him, “Ha?! What the hell are you talking about?! I won fair and square!”
“Don’t lie!!” He screamed, limping his way back to Odeta. “These practice swords have an enchantment that would lower the strength of your attacks by ninety percent! How did you even hit me like that?! You must have cheated with the sword!”
Err… ten percent of Odeta’s strength was still greater than a bear’s so I’d say that this checks out actually… If the Amrap had not used this sword, I think Matthias would just be a bunch of meat paste right now.
Odeta pointed the sword at him, “You’re just weak! You want to go for real, huh?!”
No, no, please don’t Odeta… I don’t want you to kill someone right now…
“In… Invalidated! This duel is invalidated because you cheated!” He screeched.
Wow… He’s really acting like a spoiled brat… And he’s older than us…
“Incorrect…” The old man spoke up. “Student Odeta has not cheated in any way. Although if you believe it might be a matter of the swords, you are free to switch and have another round.”
Matthias smirked, “Alright! Let’s go then! Come on! I’ll show you!”
Odeta was not amused by his words, “Why should we accommodate this guy, huh?! What about me?!”
“Ha! Looks like you’re scared! See, I knew it! You were cheating!”
“Grrr! Fine! Have it your way, but I wanna double the odds! You’ll need to listen to two requests from me when I win!”
“Ha! Looks like you’re already so confident you’ll win? What a joke! Fine! I accept!”
Instructor Henry gave a large vial which should contain a Lesser healing potion to Matthias who drank it quickly, restoring him back to health.
The fact that our instructor seemed to have these potions prepared on hand kind of suggested what he expected to happen during these classes.
Odeta and Matthias went back to their starting positions and lowered themselves into their stance again, Matthias aiming the tip of his blade at Odeta.
“Come at me!” He shouted out while defending himself.
That served as the signal for the duel to start and Odeta’s figure immediately appeared in front of Matthias once more.
She slashed out her sword, this time attacking him from the other side as compared to their first round.
Matthias once again brought up his sword to block the blow and… Surprise, surprise, he got sent flying away, this time with even more force than before. It looks like Odeta was already holding back on the previous duel and this time she didn’t at all.
We were thus treated to the sight of Matthias being sent airborne before crashing back down to earth and rolling a few feet for good measure.
I think the crack sound I heard was his arm being broken, that’s got to hurt…
The boy then started wailing out in pain while clutching his arm, it was quite a spectacle to see him cry like that.
“Hmm… Student Odeta is the winner. Could his friends bring Matthias to the infirmary please… I do not have an Intermediate potion with me…” Instructor Henry announced noncommittally as though a student with a broken arm was an everyday occurrence.
The two goons quickly went to the wailing boy and carried him off towards the school building, their heads ducked down to hide their shame.
Our Instructor then turned to us, “Mmm… Quick review I suppose… Student Aster is right about Odeta being a better fighter than Matthias was, can anyone explain why?”
“Because she’s an Amrap, obviously…” Some boy muttered from amongst the crowd.
“Hmm… While it’s true that their race is generally stronger than Mahuns, that’s not the reason why Matthias lost. Try again.”
“Experience?” A girl suggested.
The Instructor nodded, “That’s one of the reasons. Since our Matthias had no real combat experience, he wasn’t able to tell the difference in strength between himself and Odeta. If he could, he wouldn’t get himself in that position in the first place… That is why… Next week we shall be doing a trip outside the city for some experience. Be ready…”
Oh wow, already a field trip so early into the school year?! Count me in!