“Good luck, Kai,” Luna says.

I nod and then focus on Hiro.

“How do ya wanna do this? One strike each?”

“Until there’s a clear winner,” I say. That way, he can’t cry that I got lucky after winning.

“Works for me. Get ready!” Hiro exclaims and rushes forward.

Now that I know how he fights, this won’t take long at all. I could stand here and repeat Sitos’s strategy, but I want to do my own thing. I prefer offense. Reminiscent of that first time when I witnessed someone overwhelm their opponent with two blades. I charge forward.

“Yahhh!” Hiro exclaims the moment before his first attack again if it wasn’t already telegraphed. He swings from the same angle, right to left on shoulder level.

I shift my weight backward to slide under his attack and then swing both of my weapons toward his legs. My swords sweep through his front leg and then back leg with almost no resistance.

“Gah!” Hiro interjects as he falls forward.

A thump resounds behind me. I stand up and turn around.

“Wow!” Luna exclaims with a grin and claps.

It wasn’t that big of a deal… It makes me happy, regardless. I say, “You lost.”

“Damn it…” Hiro mutters while standing up. “I haven’t lost yet!”

I was afraid this might happen. That’s why I didn’t want to do the one-hit rule. No matter how many times he stands back up, I won’t lose against someone with such sloppy swordsmanship.

He runs toward me with his weapon above his head. An overhead vertical slash next, huh. What does he think that I think he will do from that position?

I hold my swords over my head in a cross as if I plan on blocking his attack. As he swings down, I release my guard and sidestep out of the way. Now, with his weight shifted forward and the recoil from his swing, he can’t do anything else.

I strike him in two places from above; one on his hand and the other over his arms.

“Ow!” Hiro interjects, grimacing and dropping his weapon. He drops to his knees and grasps the hurt hand with the other.

I kick his sword away from him, so he doesn’t have any ideas of continuing a pointless fight. The winner is pretty clear now.

“You did well. Nice job,” Sitos says.

Sitos complimented me?! That’s the nicest thing he’s ever said to me!

“I don’t understand that well, but you must’ve done really good if Sitos complimented you!” Luna exclaims.

I giggle. We had the same reaction.

“What do you mean by that?” Sitos asks.

“I mean…you rarely say nice things to people.”

Sitos crosses his arms. “I say nice things from time to time. If you are saying nice things all the time, the value of your praise decreases.”

“So, you’re saying that you’re super proud of Kai?”

Sitos turns the other way and says, “Do not make me say it twice.”

Luna grins. “I’m really impressed too. I can’t believe you’ve never beaten anyone else before.”

“Well, that’s because I’ve only ever fought Sitos,” I explain.

“That is right,” Sitos says with a smirk and puffed out chest. “We have dueled 159 times, and he has not landed a single hit on me.”

And now he decides to divulge the full truth. On top of that, he’s kept count of how many times we’ve fought… How embarrassing.

“Wow! I guess the training you received before the Academy put you ahead of everyone else,” Luna says.

“You alright, Hiroster?” Drugo asks.

“I’m good, thanks,” Hiro says, Drugo helping him up.

“It was…a good try,” Marin says.

Hiro’s been oddly quiet. He points at me and says, “Lemme make one thin’ clear. I admitcha beat me, but that doesn’t mean you’re better than me!”

I curl one side of my lips upward and ask, “How’s that?”

“I know the real reason why I lost today. It’s ‘cause Sitos and ya are Dispatchers. Ya must have an advantage over Crushers.”

“A loss is a loss. Are you making excuses?” Sitos asks.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“No, I’m just sayin’! You’re usin’ two swords when I only got one, and they’re lighter than mine!”

“You can borrow Sitos’ weapons if you wanna try fighting me again.”

“Nah, I wantcha ta use the same weapon as mine.”

“Fine,” I answer. The result is going to be the same either way with that lousy form of yours.

“Yeah! That’s what I wanna hear,” Hiro says.

Marin grabs Hiro’s shirt, stopping him in place. “Don’t fight…again.”

“Are ya worried about me? Don’t worry, these scratches at nothin’!”

“You’ll lose…again.”

“Huh?” Hiro interjects and forces his way out of Marin’s grip. “What’d ya say?”

Marin’s face flushes red. “I mean…it’s because you’re a Crusher.”

“Yeh, so I’m gonna change weapons, so it’s a fair fight.”

“It’s not…about the weapons…I still think…you’re…the best Crusher…”

Hiro grins, “Glad ya know it.”

“But…the training focus…is different…that’s why you…can’t win.”

“Ohhh!” Hiro exclaims. “Didja hear what Marin said? It’s ‘cause ya guys got specific trainin’ ta beat Crushers!”

“No, we didn’t,” I reply. It’s surprising to hear Marin talk so much and defending Hiro at that. That aside, what she said makes sense. At least for Dispatchers, our first year was focused around building the core muscles and footwork for fast movement and dodging. I suppose Crushers had a slightly different curriculum. Same with the others. Luna and Marin haven’t trained in stamina as much as the other roles.

“Yeh, ya did.”

“No, we didn’t,” I answer again. “So we’re not fighting again, because you’re gonna lose and you admit your loss, right?”

“No, we’re gonna fight again, but not in a physical fight! There’s still the Mana Manipulation test. That’s more important,” Hiro says.

“Of course, that is a given. Otherwise, it is not fair to Luna or Marin,” Sitos says.

“Yeh. That’s why Kai, you’re still gonna be number six, least talented Academy student of all time!” Hiro exclaims.

What he says doesn’t bother me because it’ll all be clarified soon. I shrug and respond, “We’ll see.”

“Drugo, do you want to have a go against each of us?” Sitos asks.

“No, I’m good. I’m not that great. Hiroster could beat me easily,” Drugo says.

“So, the ranking between the four of us in terms of close weapon combat is me, Kai, Hiro, and Drugo.”

“Whatever! I’m not gonna be worse than Kai in Mana Manipulation!” Hiro exclaims. “Let’s get that settled right now.”

“Fine by me. Luna, start us off,” Sitos says.

“If this is about the ranking, Marin and I don’t care. You can put us at the bottom,” Luna says.

“No. That will not do. The ranking is important. It shows how much extra effort lower-ranked members are expected to put in. It creates a hierarchy that keeps idiots like Hiro in check, so he does not overstep his bounds.”

“No, you’re an idiot!”

“Luna, it’s just a little friendly competition,” I add.

“Fine, since you boys care so much about this. I’ll show you my presentation project,” Luna says and moves to one of the edges of the room.

Oh, this is convenient for me. I’ll be able to determine how good mine should be to reverse everyone’s opinion of me. People consider her to be one of the most talented, so if I have a presentation better than hers, it’s sure to impress.

Everyone observes silently, despite that Luna hasn’t done anything since moving to the far end of the room.

Finally, a wall of Scrap Mana appears in front of her. She takes several steps to the right with three fingers on her hand extended toward us. A line of Scrap Mana shoots out from each of them that move in a circular and wavy pattern in the air, with each one a different length. They slowly move toward us.

“Ohhh,” several people interject.

It doesn’t seem that impressive to me, so I stay quiet.

Luna continues taking steps to the right. Now, she holds out her index finger and arm diagonally in front of her toward the ground. She raises her arm in a straight motion, releasing a stationary line of Scrap Mana. Now, another stroke diagonally to the left. She walks to the left and continues creating these lines. It becomes apparent that she’s writing text in the air—the word “NAME” forms.

She takes several steps forward, slightly to the left of the word she spelled. Suddenly, the wall of Scrap Mana she created starts to break apart in threads, moving straight ahead. Luna again uses her index finger to write text in front of her, but slower this time.

The Scrap Mana from the wall creates more text. And the three wavy lines shapes into a word on the left.

The “NAME” word shifts forward, aligning itself with the other words. Everything falls into place simultaneously, and the final sentence reads, “MY NAME IS LUNA”.

“Wow!” everyone cheers and claps.

Was it really that good? It was okay. I clap too, so I’m not the only one not giving applause. She only used Scrap Mana for everything. I could probably do everything she did with my Mana. The timing of it all seems like the most challenging part. She must’ve practiced a lot.

“As expected of our number one. You are indeed the most talented,” Sitos says.

“I’m not that talented…” Luna says, rejoining us.

“You’re too humble. That was very impressive,” Drugo says. “I don’t think I’ll participate in the optional presentation. My Mana Manipulation skills are not that great.”

“That is fine, Drugo. Luna is certain to gather us many extra points for the competition by herself. It could be enough to win us first place if everyone scores high on the practical test,” Sitos says.

“We only have one person ta worry ‘bout…” Hiro says and then stares at me. Everyone turns their attention to me too. “Kai, ya better not drag us down. I admit, your physical abilities are good, but that must mean ya aren’t practicin’ your Mana Manipulation skills much.”

A logical deduction, given what they know about me. Here it comes. Everyone’s going to be worried about my magical ability.

“True. He puts more practice in training his sword skills than me,” Sitos adds. “Do not disappoint us, Kai.”

“Don’t pressure him too much,” Luna says. “It’s okay if you don’t score that high, Kai. We understand you have a minimal amount of Scrap Mana to utilize.”

“That’s right, Kaister. Just score enough to pass, so we don’t fail as a group,” Drugo says.

Hiro sighs and then says, “If Kai fails…I vote we kick ‘im outta the group.”

“No!” Luna exclaims. “No one’s kicking anyone out! We’re a team!”

“Yes, it is as she says. We have to make the best out of what we have,” Sitos says. “Just hope that the test is easy enough for him to pass. I would prefer we win, though.”

“You guys are overreacting,” I say and smile. “I’ll score a lot higher than you think.”

“Really? Let’s see it,” Hiro says.

“Shouldn’t you be the one to show your skills first?” I ask. “You were gonna prove that you were better than me, right?”

“Oh…umm… You’ll see tomorrow.”

“Alright. If we’re done here, I’m gonna go sleep some more,” I say and put away the wooden swords.

“Why don’t we do a quick review for the test while we’re all here?” Hiro asks.

“What’s the point?” I ask. “The written test should be pretty easy. All the concepts we learned have been straightforward.”

“Yes, I agree. Only a cretin would have trouble with it,” Sitos says.

“That’s one way to put it,” I say and then chuckle. It should be simple, even for Hiro.

“Hiro, do you have anything you’re confused about?” Drugo asks.

“No, of course not! Haha. I was just makin’ sure y’all were good. Ya good too, Marin?”

Marin nods. “Luna?”

“I’m good! Okay. Have a nice nap, Kai. I’m gonna polish my presentation. I’ll see everyone at lunch,” Luna says.

We all split and do our own thing. I head back to my room, locking the door behind me.