"Ready, Mordred?"

Felix asked as he nocked a practice arrow in his bow.

I nodded and crossed my daggers in front of me.

We are currently on the fourth floor of Necropolis where Felix had booked a sparring court for us after a treadmill tried to kill me in the gym.

The fourth floor is divided into several huge rooms used as sparring courts. The special runes engraved into the walls can morph the room into any battlefield or terrain.

Currently, there is no specific setting so we're in a huge empty room with bright overhead light panels and pearly white walls.

I took a deep breath and began to circulate ardor in my body, enhancing it. I then activated Haema and began to accelerate my blood.

"Let's do this."

No sooner had the words escaped my lips when my instincts honed by years on the battlefield as a knight screamed one word at me.

"DUCK!"

My body immediately responded to my instincts and I ducked low just as a powerful wind grazed my back.

I quickly turned around and my eyes widened at the three arrows embedded deep into the wall behind me.

"What the fu-"

My instincts screamed again and I jumped to the left as another volley of arrows rocketed past me.

I looked at my sparring partner, "What the hell, Felix? You trying to kill me before the daemons?"

He smiled mischievously, "Wouldn't be fun without a challenge. Try to close the distance."

His green eyes glowed as he nocked three arrows and pulled back the string. The air shifted around him as he slowly released his aura.

I gritted my teeth. Felix is a B-rank warlock, way stronger than the daemons I faced. Currently, he is the strongest opponent I am facing.

A beginner E rank facing a possible intermediate B rank. The power gap is just crazy.

Plus, Felix never told me his strand. It appears that he wants me to figure it out myself.

This is going to be tricky.

Channeling ardor into my legs and initiating my special breathing technique, I broke into a dash toward Felix just as he released the bowstring.

One second has passed.

I activated transcendence and the arrows became visible as blurs. I quickly shifted to the right, narrowly missing one of them.

Three seconds have passed. I deactivated transcendence and immediately my instincts screamed at me.

I abruptly stopped just as five arrows suddenly sprouted from the floor. I looked ahead and couldn't believe my eyes.

Felix, who was just in front of me had vanished.

"What in the actual fu-"

I twisted around just in time to see him launching another volley of arrows. I activated transcendence and scrambled around to avoid the arrows.

A few of them grazed me and they stung like crazy.

Even in my enhanced perception, the arrows were a blur. They were faster than the arrows launched by the daemons.

I stared into the calm eyes of Felix.

Just what is his strand? His movements and attacks are quick. It looks like there isn't any strand involved.

But I know in my gut that is not the case.

I am going to need more information. Unfortunately, that means being Felix's moving archery target.

I gritted my teeth and dashed forward, making irregular changes in direction to confuse his aim.

Felix was unfazed as he knocked five arrows and unleashed them upon me. I braced myself to dodge them but strangely, they passed by me.

I frowned. That's odd. Dodging them was quite easy.

I activated transcendence and yelped as five new arrows appeared before me. I crossed my daggers to block them but the force of the impact launched me into the air and I landed hard on my butt.

Ouch! My poor arse!

I got up and rubbed my throbbing bottom.

"You done?", Felix asked with an amused smile.

"No way.", I frowned and readied my stance.

"Round two."

This time I did something different. I ran to the side while keeping my eyes on Felix.

I need to figure out his strand.

Still keeping his amused smile, Felix fired arrows at me. This time I activated transcendence and continued to maintain it.

I stopped blood acceleration and barely dodged the ardor-enhanced arrows. I carefully observed his actions, trying to see a hint of his strand.

But I got nothing.

"Think man. Think!", I muttered and jumped away just as another volley descended from above.

How did he even do that?

Stolen story; please report.

Just what is his strand?

There are many candidates.

The first and the most obvious one is Aeris. I noticed the air shift around Felix at the beginning of the spar. That led me to think that his strand is Aeris. It could also explain his suddenly appearing behind me.

But a warlock's aura is capable of causing certain changes around them and I didn't see the characteristic light cyan glow of the strand.

Okay. So not Aeris.

Fulgur? He could use lightning to speed up the arrows and boost his speed.

An arrow grazed my arm.

Blithering idiot! If he used Fulgur, it would be obvious. He will be enveloped by lightning. That will be the case with Ignis, Aqua, and Terra.

Could it be Lux? Light is extremely quick and the blurring arrows in my transcendence state could be caused by it.

Wait. Arrows?

A small idea sprouted in my head. Felix is using a lot of arrows, where is he getting them?

Unless he has an infinite supply of practice arrows that are useless in actual battle, he must be getting some refill.

I dashed toward him and he let loose another volley of arrows at me. I tried to dodge but a few of them grazed me and blood flowed from the cuts.

One even hit me in the thigh. Fortunately, it wasn't pointed so it didn't pierce the flesh but it still hurt like crazy.

I activated Haema and enveloped one of my daggers with my blood. Before Felix could launch another arrow, I threw my blood-soaked dagger at him.

His smile flickered and he deftly parried the dagger with his bow. I willed my blood to control the dagger. It quickly turned around and flew at him again.

As Felix engaged in parrying with my dagger, I quickly turned around to look behind me.

The blank wall of the sparring court stared back at me. A small smile appeared on my lips.

"Just as I thought."

Instead of arrows sprouting out of it, the wall is blank and there are no traces of the arrows fired by Felix anywhere in the sparring court.

So where did the arrows go?

Simple. Felix retrieved them during the spar and two strands can enable him to do that.

Chronos and Locus.

With Locus, he can create a separate storage space for lots of arrows or warp the space around the used arrows to teleport them into his quiver.

He could also teleport the arrows I dodged and place them before me. That also explains his quick attacks.

But I should've noticed him using it. According to scientists, Locus has a distinct silver hue while Chronos has a golden hue.

Another arrow came at me. In my transcendent state, I dodged it, keeping my eyes on it.

Hold up.

I thought back.

In the battle, I constantly keep an eye on Felix except when he fires an arrow at me. My attention will go to the arrow I'm trying to avoid.

That would be his window. Manipulating space in such a small amount of time is hard.

But he is a B ranker, so it is possible for him.

Then there is Chronos. It is a powerful strand capable of manipulating the flow of time but it requires extremely high ardor control and is limited by the power of the warlock.

A Chronos user can manipulate the time in a specific area around them, similar to controlling the ardor of an area around them.

However, due to the high demand for Chronos, its area of influence is way smaller than the warlock's area of ardor control.

Plus it is the hardest strand to master and is quite rare.

But Felix is a special case. Even though he is a B ranker, his control of ardor is phenomenal, and is capable of cleverly hiding his strand.

His area of influence could stretch over the entire sparring court. In this domain, he could stop time and retrieve the arrows or even launch them in my face while I would be none the wiser.

But as I mentioned before, manipulating time requires immense ardor control and is physically taxing.

The guy I am currently facing is not even breaking a sweat.

What the heck man?

But the thing I can infer from this is that he is reusing the arrows. Since I am weak, I am unable to sense his minute ardor controls.

So time to deplete his supply.

I willed my blood-soaked dagger to return to me. I expanded the blood and covered my second dagger with it.

Now I have two daggers floating on both sides of my person, ready for defense and offense.

I channeled ardor into my legs and dashed forward.

Immediately, Felix unleashed his arrows at me.

This time I kept my gaze on him and let my strand do the rest.

One minute left for my transcendent state. One minute until I collapse on the floor.

So I went crazy with my strand.

The daggers shredded arrows along with a thin blood tentacle I was able to manifest.

Felix was surprised at this but he quickly recovered and jumped back to increase the distance between us.

He quickly aimed and fired arrows upon arrows at me. I damaged most of them with my strand. My eyes were still fixed on him.

He won't be able to use his strand without revealing it to me.

His eyes widened as I approached him but he didn't panic. He calmly knocked a single arrow and fired it at me.

A shockwave rippled when he fired it and in less than a second, an arrowhead filled my vision.

I gritted my teeth and used my dagger to deflect. But just as the green edge was about to touch the arrow, the high-speed projectile vanished in front of my eyes.

Huh?

My instincts screamed at me. I quickly rolled forward just as the arrow flew from behind.

But I expected him to do something like that. I quickly got to my feet and threw my dagger at the arrow.

The white dagger sliced the arrow like a split banana.

Damn. My aim is so good!

Felix got distracted by my move and I took that opportunity.

Ten seconds left.

I leaped from my place with an ardor shockwave, grabbed my other dagger from the air, and swung it at his neck.

Felix's shocked face turned into an amused smile.

"Wonderful, Mordred!", with those words he vanished right in front of my eyes with a pop.

My time is up.

I crashed into the padded floor and my blood splattered around me.

"Ouch.", I muttered, feeling drained. I slowly turned my body to face the ceiling.

I heard the sound of clapping coming near me.

"That was impressive, Mordred!", Felix's grinning face appeared in my vision, "Are you really an F rank? Perhaps we should have Minerva re-evaluate you."

I gave him a tired smile, "Maybe I am capable of quick growth?"

He laughed, "That's possible."

"Anyway.", he looked at me with curiosity, "It appears that you figured out my strand?"

I nodded, "I guess."

"Amazing. You figured it out in a matter of minutes! You're a bloody genius man!"

Has it only been minutes? Wow. My genius is quite frightening.

"So? Which is it? My strand?", Felix asked with a mischievous smile.

"It's either Chronos or Locus.", I answered and looked at him, "Am I close?"

He nodded, "Yep. You got it."

Felix snapped his fingers and a hole opened in the air above me. It looked similar to the Tear but instead of swirling darkness, the space beyond the hole was reminiscent of a night sky filled with stars.

Out of the hole fell some arrows that struck the ground around me.

I chuckled, "Heh. Locus. I was right."