This was the first time since the battle started that Cecil looked genuinely flustered and everyone in the stadium quickly caught onto that, but even though he seemed flustered, he looked way more excited than ever.

Sword Aura was something that the martial artists in his family would learn after they trained extensively, but this was supposed to only be a stage in their martial arts training. There was never anything substantial you could actually gain from it except for a better understanding of the sword. At least, that was how it was like back on Earth.

Here on Alterna, attaining mastery at the level of Sword Aura actually had actual and practical evidence of it. That being the unique aura that would appear on your weapon when you used. Cecil had already obtained that level of mastery a long time ago back when he was on Earth. He had already started displaying the practical parts of Sword Aura not long after he and Lucia started their journey.

The Mana Blade that he first created was this practical form of Sword Aura and he only realized it after he had obtained a mithril-made sword that had a better magic conductivity than his Ursa blades.

The first time he actually started using a tangible Sword Aura was during their long escort quest and he was greatly surprised by it. Naturally, Lucia wanted to learn it as well, so he taught her, but she couldn't grasp the principles of it right away and, up until now, could never manifest her own Sword Aura.

However, seeing the stable red aura and mana storm that was firmly wrapped around her katana, Cecil couldn't believe that she had managed to obtain enlightenment through battle. She had only started training in his family's martial arts half a year ago, and here she was already mastering the Sword Aura level. It was truly incredible and he really wanted to just go over to her and congratulate her.

Unfortunately, they were still locked in battle and that was just impossible at the moment. He had to quickly dodge away because if he were to nonchalantly take this attack from her, he would seriously get injured.

What more, the attack Lucia sent looked just like his Mana Wave skill, but if he used it with his sword. Lucia slashed at him from afar and launched a dark, crimson red sword wave at him.

'Dammit, she could even use that now?!'

The crimson aura flew forwards and Cecil barely managed to dodge away. Even though he dodged, he kept his sword in front of him and blocked the remnant mana storm that raged around the area the sword wave had passed through. Lucia didn't let up and sent a few more sword waves at him from where she was standing and this caused Cecil to really panic this time around.

'I-Is she out of her mind?'

He quickly began blocking and dodging the flurry of sword waves coming at him as he cried out, "Lulu, stop! You're burning through your mana like thi–"

"Shut up!"

"!"

More sword waves came at him and Cecil continued to block them. At this point, he could only try to close the distance between him and Lucia and fight her at close range. Even though he warned her not to just recklessly use this attack, she didn't want to listen to him and kept on using it anyway.

Cecil was afraid that Lucia might suffer from the Zero Mana State if she kept this up, but after taking a look at her with his Mana Eyes, he noticed that she was still in a semi-state of enlightenment and was using her aura as a beacon to pull in the surrounding fire mana in the air into her sword. There was a ton of fire mana in the air because Lucia had kept on using fire elemental spells since earlier. Thanks to that, she didn't have to use her own mana to launch sword wave after sword wave at him.

It was already hard for him to move in the air and when he used his Mana Explosion, the technique he had used twice to defend himself from Lucia's attacks, it caused a short, momentary lapse where his mana couldn't be roused. That momentary lapse was all it took for Lucia to land a square hit on Cecil.

Lucia had sent two consecutive sword waves at him and he only managed to block one of them while the other struck him square in the chest, knocking him into the protective barrier and causing an explosion.

"NICE! GOOD ONE, LUCIA!" Eli shouted out in high spirits as she stood up while pumping her fists in the air. It was SO satisfying to see Cecil finally take a solid hit from her.

"...aren't you being a little too cruel, princess?" Ainz asked in exasperation. Even if she was still spiteful from the previous loss, Cecil was still their friend.

"HAAHHH, that felt sooo good!" Eli sat back down and let out a refreshing breath.

"..." Fina was observing the fight intently, but even after taking that attack from Lucia, she didn't see Cecil's body falling to the ground or move from the epicenter of the explosion.

Even though he had been hit, Lucia didn't think for a second that this was her win. She began charging up for a finishing strike, but suddenly faltered and fell on one knee as she began gasping for air.

"A-Agh, hah, hah...even though I didn't use my own mana...I guess using aura like that takes a toll on my stamina..."

Her consecutive use of sword aura waves had almost completely drained her stamina. She noticed that without her stamina, it became extremely hard for her to even focus her mana, so she had to deactivate her Elemental Burst. After taking a moment to catch her breath, she noticed that her mana was quickly being drained for some reason and saw that she still had her sword aura activated.

'D-Damn, it uses so much mana!'

Now that she was completely out of her enlightened state, Lucia had stopped using the mana in the air to power her aura and was now using her own mana. The mana required to use the technique was absurd, so she quickly stopped using the technique and dispelled the aura around her katana. She had never used Sword Aura before so she was extremely surprised at how much mana it used just to keep it active. She wondered just how Cecil was able to always keep it active during some battles without letting himself get completely drained of mana.

Lucia was extremely spent and she hoped that her last attack would have at least knocked Cecil out, but she knew that it was only wishful thinking since she only saw him taking her attack and not falling down from the sky.

"*gasp*... guh... *gasp* he's still not down... *gasp*"

Indeed. Once the smoke from the explosion cleared, Cecil was still floating up there in the sky. He was faintly smiling down at the girl who was now gasping in exhaustion and still looked unruffled even after taking the attack. Seeing him like this, Lucia let out a helpless smile and stood back up again and reactivated her Elemental Burst and Sword Aura, wrapping both her body and katana once again in a crimson red aura.

'Jeez, my mana is being drained like crazy...it looks like I only have one final shot...'

Although she knew that it was hopeless for her to win, Lucia didn't want to just admit defeat without fighting until she couldn't fight anymore. As long as she could still point her sword at her opponent she wouldn't admit defeat.

Cecil gently landed back down on the ground and raised his sword at his opponent, Lucia. The audience had let out a few gasps of shock and exclamations earlier, but they were now all silent. From the looks of things, this might just be the last deciding exchange between the two, so they waited with bated breath for them to start again.

Although they couldn't believe with their eyes that Cecil had somehow taken that devastating attack and come out unharmed, they couldn't say anything when they saw the determined fox girl point her blade at the boy who was unruffled from her previous all-out attack.

"Huuuu... here I come." Lucia breathed out and lightly said, her eyes flashing with a determined light.

"Mhm."

Lucia kicked off from the ground and engaged Cecil in a melee.

CLANG CLANG WOOSH CLANG

The two on the stage only fought with their swords and refrained from using any spells. Lucia couldn't afford it anymore since that would only drain her mana even faster. Their exchange continued for a few minutes and not long after, Lucia faltered and the red aura that was wrapping around her body vanished. She had finally used the last drop of mana in her and could no longer rely on the physical enhancements of her two techniques.

However, instead of collapsing on the ground and giving up, she continued fighting. She hadn't fully zeroed out her mana so she could continue moving. Her techniques only turned off because the mana needed to activate them was no longer sufficient.

CLANG CLANG

Lucia didn't let up and continued fighting. Her swordplay was just as strong as when the battle started. It was precise, sharp, and to some people, quite elegant. Even without Elemental Burst, the audience could still only see flashes of light from her swordplay as her movements was still pretty fast. The only time they would see her katana was when she had to block a strike from Cecil or had her attack blocked and parried.

Cecil himself didn't let up and continued using only his swordsmanship to fight against Lucia. He even deactivated Mana Burst so that Lucia could keep up with him. The two's swordsmanship had awed the crowd and they could only spectate in silence at the two who were performing a sword dance in the arena. No, it wasn't a sword dance–it was a deadly storm of swords.

Eventually, Lucia made a mistake since she was exhausted and Cecil flicked her weapon out of her hands. Despite having her weapon knocked away, she still didn't stop and instead pushed her way forward and sent a sharp jab to his stomach. The strike was unexpected since Cecil thought that she would most likely give up after being disarmed.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

He didn't have Mana Burst active so it was painful since it was a full powered punch coming from Lucia. Before he was knocked away from the impact and Lucia used the chance to grab onto the hand that was holding his weapon and twisted it.

CLANG

The twist caused Cecil to let go of his sword and Lucia followed it up with a shoulder throw.

'Seriously?!'

BANG

"Ugh!"

*gasp* *gasp* *gasp*

"I... I win..."

"Haha, yeah. Good job, Lulu," Cecil said with a smile while looking up at the girl that had knocked him down. Even though he could easily break away from her if he tried, Cecil thought that it was fine to just take this loss.

"Yaaaayyy~" Lucia exhaustingly cheered before collapsing on top of him in exhaustion.

"Phew," Cecil sighed helplessly and scratched his head. He raised his body and picked up the unconscious Lucia and started to walk down from the ring.

Before Cecil walked down, he extended his hand behind him while cradling Lucia in one arm. He channeled his mana, and then Lucia's katana and his sword flew into his hand.

"Instructor! I give up! Lucia won this fight," Cecil plainly said before he sauntered off towards the stadium's infirmary.

The dumbfounded Instructor who hadn't even said a word after the introductions could only nod his head in a daze. He hadn't even given the signal to start, but the two fighters had already begun fighting and after a relatively quick bout, the fight was already over.

Instructor Jin could only dazedly stand there and say dispiritedly, "I didn't even start the match yet."

--------------------------------------------

When Lucia woke up she found Cecil sitting by her bedside meditating silently. She felt lethargic, but even then she still tried to sit up. Cecil was roused from his meditation at Lucia's movements. He opened his eyes and saw the stubborn girl trying to get up from her bed. He quickly got up and helped her.

"Hey, how are you feeling, Lulu?"

"Uhm... drained, I guess..." Lucia said sluggishly.

"You did use up almost all your mana..."

Lucia groaned feeling the headache coming. She held her head with a grimace. Cecil saw this and felt pained seeing her pitiful expression.

You should have just released one of your cores, Lulu..."

"Huh? No way, not after how you told me off yesterday! Ouch, owwie~" She protested, but soon held her head again in pain when a piercing pain assaulted her head.

"..."

Cecil had no retort for that. He was now slightly regretting telling Lucia to hide a partial amount of her powers after seeing the pitiful state that she was in. She was like this because she upheld her promise to him.

After the pain subsided, Lucia quietly and hesitantly asked, "Well... not like it matters anyway... now that I look at it Cel... wasn't our battle... a little too... eye-catching?"

"...I'm not gonna lie, our battle was indeed a little too conspicuous. Everyone now knows of our abilities. I told you that we're far ahead of them, but we could have done that in moderation..."

"It's your fault for saying you're going all out at the start! Ouch..."

Cecil covered his hands in mana and began massaging Lucia's head to help her relieve the pain. After a brief moment, Lucia's pained expression quickly faded away like a lie and was replaced with a blissful one.

"Thanks Cel~"

"...don't yell so much."

After resting for another 30 minutes, Cecil gave Lucia a piggyback ride out of the infirmary. Even though he wanted her to rest a bit more, Lucia kept complaining that it was stuffy inside of there. She wanted to head back to her dorm to rest so without any other choice, Cecil was forced to carry her out of the infirmary.

When they got out of the infirmary, Lucia had unwittingly fallen asleep on his back.

'Don't force yourself awake if you can't keep your eyes open, Lulu..."

Cecil had the urge to just throw her back onto the infirmary's bed when he saw this. It was only an urge though, since if he actually did it, the sleeping tigress would most likely chew him out later when she woke up again. He was walking down the corridor with Lucia sleeping on his back when they bumped into a group of upperclassmen. He bowed and stepped to the side to keep walking forward, only to be stopped by one of the upperclassmen who moved in his way.

"...do you need something, senior?" Cecil asked with his usual deadpanned face.

The person who blocked him was a male foxkin upperclassman, Cecil wasn't able to determine what year he was in, but the foxkin didn't respond to his question and only turned towards the person that Cecil almost bumped into. That person was an orange haired foxkin who had an air of flamboyance. Not only was the air around him flamboyant, so was his attire.

"You're the 2nd ranked Cecil aren't you? And I take it that the person you're carrying is the 1st ranked Lucia?"

"Yes."

"Good, come with me."

After saying so, he continued walking forward.

"No."

That short reply was enough to make the flamboyant foxkin to stop. He turned around with irritation dyeing his voice and asked, "What did you say?"

"I'm taking Lucia back to her dorm. So please excuse me since I can't follow you, senior."

After saying his piece, Cecil politely bowed and walked past the foxkin who had first blocked his way. He was too stunned to try and block Cecil again since this was the first time that he heard someone reject his boss's invitation.

"HALT!"

Cecil paused in his steps and asked, "Is there still something, senior?"

"You... did you just not hear what I said?"

"Yes, senior, I did. But it's unfortunate since I can't go with you right now."

"Well, I'm not ASKING! I'm ORDERING you to come with me!"

Immediately after the gaudy senior said his piece, his underlings bypassed Cecil and blocked his way forward.

"Kid, it's best if you listen to our boss. You don't want to cross us and our boss, Friedrich."

"..."

Cecil remained unmoved and his expression was still blank as usual.

'So THIS is what those young masters act like! Oh gosh, I'm actually in a scenario straight out of a novel! COOL!'

Thinking as such caused Cecil to smile a little, but this small change in his expression was seen as a mocking smile to the flamboyant senior. Seeing Cecil's smile that seemed mocking, Friedrich's temper immediately flared. He was about to shout to his underlings to capture and detain the ignorant junior, but was forced to swallow his words.

FWIP

That was all he heard. When he looked around in the corridor, the target of his rage was nowhere to be found.

"W-Where did that brat go?!" He screamed at his underlings.

They were similarly confused since they too saw that one second Cecil was still standing there in the corridor surrounded by them, then in the next second it was like he blinked out of existence.

"FIND HIM YOU FOOLS! How–HOW DARE HE MOCK ME!" Friedrich yelled in rage.

Cecil heard his scream just as he turned at the corridor's intersection, he could finally see the exit and calmly walked out of the stadium.

'Yikes, didn't think it'd be like in the novels, haha~'

"Man, that was mean of you, Lulu~"

"What're you talking about, Cel~?"

"Pfft, no need to act coy, Lulu, that illusion magic was too funny."

"I don't know what you're talking about~ I only got rid of a bunch of flies ruining my beauty sleep."

"Sleep? I'm not your bed y'know..."

"You are now! Muhnyah~" Lucia snuggled closer to Cecil and dozed off.

"..." Cecil shrugged and walked towards the girls' dormitory.

Earlier when they bumped into Friedrich and his gang, Lucia was startled awake when Friedrich had begun yelling at Cecil. She was naturally pissed off at the bug who disturbed her sleep and dared to yell at her Cecil, so she silently casted an illusion magic array on the corridor and told Cecil to keep on walking. He complied and was surprised to see the senior classmen and his gang just stand there staring blankly into space, he immediately caught on and figured that Lucia had casted an illusion magic on them.

"WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

Cecil was startled from his thoughts and turned back to look at the stadium. Even from outside he could clearly hear the excited cheers of the people inside.

"What's up? Wasn't our match the last one?" Cecil mumbled in question. He shrugged and continued on his way to Lucia's dorm.

"Ah, I hope I bump into Ainz and Fina... they were supposed to get lunch for us–"

"Cecil?!"

'Speak of the devil.'

Fina, who was a distance away, had recognized Cecil immediately and called out to him. He stopped and waited for the girl, as well as Ainz who was with her, to come up to him.

"Hey! Shouldn't you be by Lucia's–oh, there she is," Ainz said with a strange look.

"I'm heading back to her dorm, let's go."

"Okay–wait!"

"Yeah, Fina?"

"Lucia should be resting!"

"She is resting."

"Sleeping on your back doesn't count!" she yelled back in protest.

"Well, it's not what I want... Lucia was the one who insisted. She said that the infirmary was too stuffy so she wanted to go rest in her room."

"...fine, let's go then, but let's hurry, mana depletion may not be anything serious but it's still not good if she doesn't quickly get her rest!"

"Hehe, thanks for worrying Fina, like you said, let's hurry!"

Cecil started jogging towards the girls' dorm, but he made sure to keep his strides and posture steady so that he wouldn't disturb the sleeping fox on his back.

*YAWN*

"Crap, now I'm tired too..."