The quiet around the large room persisted until Adjudicator Swan spoke again. "Max Cunningham, do you require a break or any time to rest or repair equipment before your next match?"

"No, I'm ready now," he replied.

"So be it. We will prepare for the senior division match. Lim Jezzen, please enter the ring."

Max watched as Lim left the Mystic Spear group corner. His eyes narrowed as the other man hopped into the air, clearing most of the distance in a single bound. Max was still confident that he could win, but he was aware that this was no ordinary opponent. It was one thing to be confident, quite another to be overconfident. The memory of his entire body being disintegrated by a single strike from this man replayed through his head. They regarded each other over the distance of the ring, both of them standing just inside the line of the boundary where the dome would be.

"When you are ready to begin, please indicate so," said Swan.

Just like last time, a window popped up in Max's vision. It asked if he was ready for his duel. He pushed, “Yes,” and the fight was officially on. The grey dome went up again, creating a sort of illusion that Max and Lim were the last two people left in the world, and now they had to kill each other.

This time, Max, sword in hand, stayed wary and didn't rush. Instead, he began circling to the right, staying near the boundary. With a thought, he instructed his sword to generate a cool blue magic shield in his offhand. The shield was similar to a buckler but larger.

Max watched Lim with curiosity, unsure what the other man would do. He felt he had a pretty good idea of how Mystic Spear warriors fought now, but knew he could still be surprised. He could remember Lim destroying his entire body in the Mystic Spear Academy before, but didn’t know what technique that had been. This man was dangerous and probably had plenty of tricks.

He continued to cautiously watch Lim, wondering what the other man was going to do when suddenly Lim reared back and threw his spear. Unlike when Territ Mond had thrown his spear, which had traveled like a cannon shot, Lim's spear drifted high in a graceful arc before coming down and splitting into three spears. Then the three split into nine. All the spears split again and again, until the entire sky seemed dark with copies upon copies of spears.

Max manifested Blackmist Incident’s shield on his free arm, but realized it wasn't going to be enough, especially since each spear seemed to truly be a copy of the original, carrying some sort of mystic, destructive ability channeled into it. Meeting the attack head on would not be wise. Max jumped straight up until he reached the ceiling of the grey dome. Without time for hesitation, he kicked off the grey shell surrounding the battlefield, sailing as close to the top of the dome as he could, barely clearing all the spears. Then with a thought, his armor transformed into the glider form that he had used before to great effect.

He was tempted to throw beads at his opponent but resisted the urge. Max was confident that he could win this fight without revealing his third Path or the presence of the remnants spirits he bonded with. But he was also left without Trill's full set of abilities and synergies, since she was constantly shielding Max from prying eyes. This fight was definitely shaping up to be difficult.

Lim glowered at Max. The original spear he'd thrown returned to his hand. It seemed to function differently than Momo’s throwing knives, but the result was the same; Lim could throw his spear and retrieve it almost instantly. However, Max noticed that the original thrown spear had hit the ground before Lim retrieved it. When Lim didn't throw another salvo at Max, it suggested that the attack had the limitation of a time requirement or Lim being without a weapon until the throw landed. This suggested at least one disadvantage, which was good. The hail of thrown spears earlier had been one of the most terrifying attacks that Max had seen since his death on Albion.

Before he completely closed with the waiting Lim, Max terminated the hang glider form of Lavinia’s spirits and returned them to armor around his body. He planned to touch down a decent distance away; close enough to close, but far enough to react to any more strange attacks…hopefully.

Max stayed wary, ready for anything–when Lim suddenly shoved his spear straight down at the ground and the tip exploded from the area that Max was about to land, he was able to react in time. He quickly turned his arm armor into large sails and scooped the air as Slick reduced his friction with the air in front of him. As a result, he shot forward about ten feet right before landing, easily clearing the point of Lim's spear.

But the moment he landed, the other man thrust his spear into the ground again, this time at an angle. Max barely managed to lift one armored shin in time to deflect the spear to one side, pushing his body away from the impact. The impromptu wings he'd created returned to his forearms, and Max narrowed his eyes. He pumped his muscles full of mana and shot forward.

This would definitely have to be a close-quarters fight. Lim had too many long-range options, and Max had none unless he wanted to give away the full extent of his abilities in this battle.

A spear suddenly shot out of the ground directly in front of Max at an angle for his stomach, but he was able to easily pivot to one side, doing a complete spin in the air before coming back down and gracefully resuming his run. Now that he knew what to look for, Lim's stabbing the ground was a tell that he was about to deliver a ground-based attack. When the man suddenly jabbed his spear to one side, Max intuited what that would mean before the weapon suddenly appeared out of thin air directly in front of his face. He managed to slide under the attack relatively easily, using Slick's power again, and hopped up to deliver a savage strike at his opponent.

Lim dodged the attack and immediately responded with a glowing spear thrust that Max recognized, the attack that killed him before in the Mystic Spear Path Academy. Max remembered the explosive nature of the attack. With Slick's help, skated to one side over the ground, protecting one side of his body as best he could with Blackmist Incident’s shield before Lim’s spear tip detonated in a cone of mystic destruction. Max was in an awkward angle to bring his sword to bear, so as he flashed past, he kicked Lim with all the strength he could muster.

There was a satisfying crunch as something broke.

New inertia from his attack almost made him fall, but Max turned the tumble into a flip back to his feet at the same time that Lim recovered.

The two of them stared at each other, neither showing much expression. This was a truly dangerous opponent. Lim eyes were vacant as he focused on everything and nothing, the same as Max. Then the two of them sprang towards each other.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Suddenly, Max was in an incredibly intense, high-speed series of parries and strikes as he stamped back and forth with his enemy. The rapid blows left zero margin for error. Lim’s spear was incredibly agile and always seemed to be aimed for his vitals. But Max never stayed still. And despite his opponent's surprising physicality, Max had more skill and experience.

Despite being a three star mana body, Max was shocked. The moment he'd first clashed properly with Lim like this, he'd realized that the other man was significantly physically stronger than him. Max could adapt.

Still, the fact that Lim could actually outperform him physically was worthy of respect, especially for someone who had presumably been studying his Path for less than seven years. Max felt grudging respect for his opponent. As somebody who'd once been called a genius among geniuses, Max wasn't sure that he had reached this level of power within the same timeframe during his first life.

The fight turned into an increasing test of speed and skill, with both Max and Lim barely turning aside strikes that were as savage as they were precise. Lim darted back and forth, showing great footwork as he tried to keep Max in the ideal range to blow into pieces with his charged spear attack. Max didn’t let him, instead electing for close quarters clashes that resulted in flashing blades and gravity-defying leaps to avoid strikes.

Whenever their weapons collided, the air vibrated.

At some point, Max realized that he was actually having fun. He hadn't expected this fight to be quite so difficult, even without using his full power. If he needed to, he planned on pulling out all the stops. The fact this thought even ran through his mind was exciting. He still didn’t think he’d need to, but if so, he was going to have to work a lot harder to earn his victory.

Gales of razor-sharp power buffeted his body, but his armor protected him, and his three-star mana body resisted damage. When he did get small cuts, they healed very quickly, practically before they had a chance to bleed more than a drop. On top of that, Max's mana-bathed body didn't tire in the slightest. Lim was performing solidly too, but Max could still remember life-and-death fights on Albion where the deciding factor between who won and who died was noticing the smallest of changes.

He stayed vigilant and calm.

As Max continued to bat aside deadly blows and flip his sword in complicated, dazzling strikes, he realized that if he was only a three star mana body Blade Sorcerer, he would probably not be able to win this fight. For the first time since Max had come to the Quartet, he got to truly feel how much of a force multiplier his different Paths were. The fight with Territ Mond had utilized all three of his Paths, but Territ had been too far from his current power level. He’d needed to fight a true peer.

Lim was undoubtedly a genius. What's more, Max didn't feel any personal enmity from him or against him. Even though the man had been the one to kill him in the Spear Academy, it didn't feel like any of his lethal attacks aimed at Max were personal; he'd likely just done what he felt he needed to do, and Max respected that as well.

Fighting a truly skilled opponent who was worthy of respect–one could not ask for more.

The two combatants flashed around the ring, and Max felt glad that he'd chosen Blackmist Incident. The added buckler on his other hand had proven invaluable multiple times now. Lin's ability to stab the ground and try hitting Max from one of his blind spots was proving extremely tricky and had almost gotten him twice now. Both times the buckler had saved the day. Max was tempted to infuse it with the idea of disruption courtesy of Dura, but he restrained himself. He had no doubt that word of this match would get out to his future competitors, regardless of whether Adjudicator Swan had made everyone swear to secrecy or not. There were always ways.

Max bounded straight up in the air, avoiding a particularly nasty explosive thrust from Lin. As the other man glanced up to track him, Max threw his buckler down with all his strength. The conjured shield wouldn't last long in the material world without Max’s physical contact, but it wouldn't need to. With a wet thud, it hit Lin directly in the face, breaking his nose and cutting him above one eyebrow. Lin was too skilled to let that break his concentration, and he sprang backward with his spear held in front of him in a guard. But Max took advantage of the change in the man's rhythm to dart to one side, then come slashing in with a truly merciless, mana-charged attack. Lin barely managed to block the blow with his spear, but the energy of it still knocked him backward.

Then, Lin used a technique that Max hadn't seen yet, perhaps out of desperation. If Max had never seen the move before, it might have caught him unawares, but it was one of the techniques that Tarrit Mond had used before to great effect.

Lin seemed to vanish, leaving nothing but an afterimage. Max couldn't see the man, so he didn't try. Instead, he crouched and pivoted, blocking with his sword behind him and his buckler before him. He got lucky, and Lin's wide swing rebounded off Max's sword. He turned, swinging his freshly conjured buckler and hit Lin in the elbow. Bones shattered. Even though Max hadn’t directly used Saliron’s power yet, the dark spirit giggled and whispered with excitement from the exchange.

Before the other man could recover, Max snapped his shield arm out and willed his ectoplasmic armor into a whip that extended from his fists. Centrifugal force helped a line wrap around Lin's raised arm before Max yerked his enemy back. His sword glittered in a tight semicircle slash.

A heartbeat later, Max was past his opponent with one of Lin's arms hanging from his conjured whip. Lin had his spear in his good hand, but the man seemed to know the loss of his arm was the beginning of the end. Max discarded the arm to one side, never taking his eyes off of Lim. He stayed wary. Their next few lightning-quick exchanges slowed by a hair each time, until Max was able to get inside the other man's guard and hack almost all the way through one knee.

He had no desire to treat Lin as anything less than an honored opponent. After all, when the man had killed Max before, he'd had good reason to do so and had ended it quickly. Max's blade flipped out, taking Lin's head. And just like that, the match was over.

As Max stood panting lightly, he thought about how far he'd come since he'd first stepped foot in the Quartet. Before when had hadn’t even been a single-star mana body, he probably would not have even been able to follow Lin's movements. Even as a two-star mana body, he would have been hopelessly outclassed. It was only as a three-star mana body that he had the speed, strength, endurance, and toughness to handle a fight like this, much less win, without taking any serious wounds himself.

The dome around the ring disappeared.

There were no celebrations around the entire room. Most of the expressions Max could see were of disbelief or astonishment, except for a smug expression on Mong Hao’s face. The headmaster nodded at him.

After a flash of light, Lin reappeared on the resurrection platform with a complicated expression on his face. He held out a hand and his spear zipped across the space from the arena, smacking into his palm. Administrator Swan witnessed this before slowly turning to announce Max’s win with a stunned expression. It seemed to be a cue that broke the spell over the onlookers.

There was zero fanfare.

With surprising speed. all four groups that had entered the underground training area began to leave. Mong Hao Han gestured Max over to their group, and Max complied, hurrying over and wondering if he was expected to walk all the way back to the dorms with messed-up, blood-covered clothing.

It turned out he didn’t. Professor Grave Call gave him a pristine white over robe to put over his soiled clothing. Dressed in this way, in silence, Max marched back to the Summoner academy with his group. Once they were in the Academy proper, past the road, the headmaster nodded at Max. "Good job, Max Cunningham, you have done our academy proud. Everyone, dismissed."

All at once, Max was suddenly bone tired. He hadn’t had a life or death fight quite like he’d just experienced in a long time. His friends seemed to sense his fatigue and left him alone. They had to have a million questions, so he appreciated their restraint.

Some of the other Summoner students in the group tried to talk to Max, but he left without engaging with any of them.

On his way back to his dorm, Max reminded himself not to be arrogant, but it did feel good to know that if he had fought Lim with his full strength, the other man would not have stood a chance.