A bout of swords ensued between Lucian and Sofia, although only one of the two parties were willing participants of the fight. Sofia was relentless in her attacks, and she made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t pulling her punches. The full force of her 2.6 strength bared down on Lucian, and he could barely hold out.

To Lucian, it felt like he was facing a grizzly bear in terms of disparity between the power of the two of them. Each strike he parried with his own sword put intense strain on his arms, and he quickly felt his body becoming worn down. If it weren’t for his recent increase to 1.01 vitality, he had no doubt that he would have lost already — perhaps succumbing to injury even.

“Hrah!” Sofia swung her long silver sword at Lucian, bringing with it the heavy whooshing of the wind as it split apart the very air molecules that blocked her path. Lucian swept his rusty sword upwards in an effort to block it, and succeeded.

“You’re technique isn’t so bad! But it’s clear you have little to no experience in using it in a fight!” For the first time since the spar began, Sofia actually spoke to Lucian in a manner that wasn’t either a direct insult, or just entitled. It was clear that Lucian’s successive attempts to fight back against her had surprised her enough to gain a tiny, minuscule amount of respect for the boy.

However, the difference between 0.6 strength and 2.6 strength was not something that could be overcome with just the willingness to fight back. Lucian hadn’t been counting but he guessed around 5 minutes had passed since the fight started and he could feel his body was about to give out at any moment of time. This was something he wanted to avoid, as the threat of injury when he did eventually give in was not something he wanted.

Becoming injured would massively impede his plans for the next three weeks, and he might actually miss his goal of becoming an official Knight before the Mage selection began. If that happened, Lucian wouldn’t care for any further pretences — maintaining a grudge against Sofia until he got his revenge one way or another.

He was willing to be rather passive when it came to minor things like bullying or teasing, but when things crossed a line and directly impacted his goals… Lucian wouldn’t just let that go.

‘The most important thing for me right now is to maintain a healthy body. I need to find a way to stop this fight without becoming injured.’

With his mind settled, Lucian decided to take a bold action.

“Come at me!” He pronounced valiantly to Sofia, as if he were suddenly coming out of his shell and decided to put his all into this spar. This caught her attention, and she smiled as if praising his actions for the first time. She, just like Lucian, despised cowards — so seeing the infamous weak coward of the preparatory academy suddenly growing some balls amused her a little.

Obliging his wishes, she tightened her grip on her two handed shining silver sword and made a strikingly beautiful sprint towards him. If Lucian were any normal man, the sight of such an undoubtedly beautiful young woman running towards him like this would put him in a trance. But Lucian was no normal man, all he saw at the moment was the equivalent of a charging bull.

She reached him in mere moments, closing the gap to just barely a under two meters. The moment her sword came within range, she cleaved it through the air towards his abdomen. She knew this was where his armor offered the most protection, so she was doing him the mercy of not injuring him too badly. But she applied her own logic to this; she failed to realise that Lucian’s armor was no where near the quality of her own. Even if she struck his most protected point, it would still penetrate through.

Lucian arched his body backwards in a desperate attempt to dodge the incoming sword, but it was futile. His agility was no where near high enough to match Sofia’s, so the speed with which her sword came in was far faster than Lucian’s mismanaged attempt to dodge it.

With nothing left to lose, he could do the only thing that could possibly save him in this situation. He didn’t want to run the risk of injuring her, but that was the only choice he had now. Sofia called him inexperienced within a fight, but it was clear that she too wasn’t used to fighting in such a serious manner either.

Her right side was wide open thanks to her grip on her sword being so tight, and with the speed at which she swept it his way, she wouldn’t be able to suddenly switch her stance in time for what Lucian had prepared for her.

Claaaang!

A loud sound of metal meeting metal round out through the empty field, and Lucian bounced backwards onto the ground before rolling a few times, dirtying both him and his clothes in the process. However, he managed to catch a glimpse of Sofia digging her feet into the ground and being forced around three quarters of a metre backwards before she stopped moving.

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Her swing met the empty air thanks to the absence of Lucian, and she just barely managed to save herself from stumbling, but that didn’t stop the astonished look on her face from showing.

Sofia’s armor was made up of a chain mail-leather hybrid, so his rusty sword couldn’t even penetrate through it, let alone cause any harm of flesh wounds on her. The kinetic force behind his attack was the only thing that could possibly hurt her a little bit, but he doubted that would be the case since her vitality was so much higher than his, and his strength itself was so low.

“That’s it, I’m totally all out of steam! No more!” Lucian pleaded between heavy breaths, but Sofia’s expression didn’t budge one bit. He was unsure whether she heard him or not, so he repeated himself a second time after catching his breath a bit.

But yet again, nothing. She seemed to be in some sort of trance as she kept her eyes locked forwards, staring into the empty air. As far as Lucian could tell, she was completely out of it. All he could do was pick himself up off the ground after he felt he could stand on his own, and look at her, puzzled.

He waited and waited for an answer from her, but one never came. Instead, he decided to take his chance and slowly started walking in her direction, making sure to stay vigilant as he came closer to her. Until he walked right past her, and continued walking. He started moving towards the main area of the academy, and didn’t dare to look back.

‘She really seems to have been affected by that last move.’ Lucian curiously reflected on that final part of the fight. He knew that she probably wasn’t expecting for him to actually be able to match her in that final bout.

Lucian made his way to the main path after a few more seconds, but right as he turned the corner, a sense of deja vu came across him. He looked behind him, with the hairs on the back of his neck tingling, but found nothing. But when he turned his gaze back to the front, he met a familiar yet not so familiar face.

“Not bad, kid.” Sofia’s servant spoke in a soft tone to Lucian, casually giving him a complement. This was the first time Lucian was hearing the man speak, and he couldn’t help but notice the subtle hint of something… different about him. It was like his every word carried a hidden weight behind it. It was difficult to describe, as it was something that could only be felt.

Lucian wasn’t surprised that this man was watching his and Sofia’s spar, as it only made sense for her protector to be near to her at all times, especially in a moment like that one where it was just the two of them and a few daring onlookers a few dozen metres away.

If Lucian wanted to, or had the ability to, he could have seriously harmed her or injured her. This never crossed anyone’s mind though due to the impression Lucian had on everyone, and it was clear Sofia hadn’t considered this either, evident by her current state of surprise even as Lucian was approached by her servant.

For all anyone knew, he could have laced his rusty sword’s edge with some poison or something, and all it would take was a small nick on the most minor places of her body that she would usually overlook, and she could have been six feet under within minutes.

As a scientist, Lucian had no doubt that he could find enough chemicals and materials somewhere in the academy to make a poison that could achieve this — only he had no such need for a thing.

Lucian gave a curt nod to the mysterious servant before passing by him too, intending to make his way back towards his dorm. He was supposed to spend a little under the next 6 hours practising his sword techniques, but thanks to Sofia’s sudden request for a spar, he felt too tired to carry on. However, he felt like he had gained much more out of that short bout than he would have from practising sword techniques for a few hours, so it was worth it in the end.

He had the next three weeks ahead of him to put his all into training anyway, and he had already achieved so much in this one day. He felt he deserved a rest before he really busied himself in the coming weeks.

‘Now that I have felt the power of an Official Knight for the first time, I can only imagine what kind of power Grand Knights, or even Mages hold!’ Lucian pondered to himself with a bit of anticipation running through his veins.

Facing off against a powerful Official Knight like Sofia had given him many insights, not only into just how strong they were in comparison to the humans of Earth from his previous life, but also in comparison to his own strength. He was satisfied to find out that even with the severe gap in strength between him and an Official Knight like Sofia, he could still fare generally well.

This was with very little to no training as well, as he basically relied on pure instinct combined with the memories his AI had sent him of the sword techniques during the fight. A little bit of his footwork came into play as well, but it only had a minor role, thanks to how clumsy he felt whenever he tried to put it to work.

But in a real battle, he knew that his chances of survival when facing off against an Official Knight would be slim to none. They wouldn’t pull their punches or show mercy like Sofia did, and every attack would be a kill shot.

‘If an Official Knight is this powerful, I look forward to seeing the kind of power Mages hold. I have to do my utmost to make sure I am selected when the time comes!’

Above Official Knights, were Grand Knights, which was also the highest level a Knight could push their power. They were one level higher than Official Knights but the disparity between them was even higher than between Lucian and Sofia. From the knight training manual’s he had read, and the vague hints of memories he had from the previous Lucian, he knew that a Grand Knight was about the equivalent to a platoon of about 40 Official Knights! This was essentially a 1 man army!

Back on Earth, that would be the equivalent of a super soldier, which didn’t even exist yet without the use of something like a super advanced exoskeleton. Meanwhile, the Grand Knights over here could do this with just their bare bodies — completely naked if they really wanted to!

‘I wonder if Sofia’s servant is a Grand Knight…’ Lucian pondered, but he doubted it. He’d already scanned his stats, and while they were in the realm of impossibility for humans from Earth, it didn’t seem so much higher than Sofia’s that he could defeat 40 of her alone…

As for mages, Lucian had no idea how strong they were. He just knew that a Grand Knight stood very little chance against even an Apprentice Mage!