Otis's voice rises as he speaks, "Alright, you know the rules, the winner is whoever gives up or gets thrown out of the arena. Hahaha, are you ready?"

With a determined look, Lucios raises his wooden sword. "I'm ready," he declares, echoing the words he uttered in Lilian's previous challenges. Already positioned in the arena, Lilian says nothing. She initiates the attack as Lucios's words reverberate through the space.

Lilian is the first to act, moving with a grace and speed that only come with much practice. She delivers three quick and precise strikes. Despite his inexperience with the sword, Lucios manages to block. The force of the impact makes him step back, but he stands firm.

Realizing that Lilian was about to attack again, Lucios tries to respond with a light blow to break her posture. However, Lilian takes a small step to the side and easily avoids the strike, continuing to press Lucios with two more quick but connected strikes at a tricky angle that almost causes the sword to slip from Lucios's hand.

Lilian, realizing she didn't disarm her opponent, follows through with a wide vertical strike, causing Lucios to comically dodge with a half-roll that looks more like a stumble.

Barely having time to rise, Lucios is pressed again by Lilian with some quick strikes. This is her fighting style: several weak blows connected at nearly impossible angles to dodge. She is the first person Lucios has met with such a peculiar fighting style.

During his years in Kapurina, Lucios had some fencing teachers, all excellent knights with vast experience. Many used similar fencing techniques, but there were still some different styles. But there was one thing that never changed, the frequency of his teachers' strikes was always low, mainly using heavy blows that made Lucios's arms numb, followed by one or two quick strikes to feint or test the posture.

Lucios is awakened from his brief lapse of attention by two more diagonal strikes that push him a few more steps back, bringing him to the edge of the arena.

Feeling cornered and with nowhere else to retreat, with Lilian rapidly advancing to close the distance between them, Lucios finally decides not to hold back anymore. He allows the energy of the path, stored in his heart, to begin flowing through his veins, rising until it reaches his eyes.

The transformation is remarkable. The world around Lucios seems to have slowed down, every movement of Lilian's is now clear and distinct. He can see the wooden blade of his sword cutting through the air, can feel the change in air pressure as it approaches. He can even see the drops of sweat trickling down Lilian's face, each one shining like a tiny jewel in the sunlight.

Now, in his line of sight, Lilian, who once seemed extremely fast, begins to slow down. When she finally approaches him, her strikes, which were once extremely difficult to keep up with, become slow and entirely predictable, as if by magic.

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When Lilian finally reaches the necessary range to unleash her strikes, Lucios acts first, raising his sword to meet Lilian's before her strike is complete. Seeing her blow interrupted, Lilian tries again with another quick strike, which is also intercepted by Lucios before it even gains speed.

Realizing she's losing the initiative, Lilian decides to double down and make a riskier move, getting even closer as she thrusts with her sword. However, Lucios doesn't block the attack, nor does he make a counter-attack to buy time. For the first time since the beginning of the fight, Lucios dodges her strike while grabbing her arm holding the sword.

The change in the fight's dynamics is palpable. Lucios, who had been on the defensive until then, now takes control. Not only does he dodge Lilian's strike, but he also manages to grab her arm, interrupting the flow of her attacks. The expression on Lilian's face changes from confidence to surprise.

Lilian, with her arm caught, struggles to break free. However, Lucios, despite being two years younger, is stronger than her and doesn't let go. When Lucios is about to say something, he stops, realizing Lilian hasn't given up yet. A punch comes towards his face, which he narrowly avoids by turning his head to the side.

Angry, Lucios turns Lilian around and grabs her other arm. Due to her resistance, both end up kneeling on the ground. Then, Lucios finally speaks as Lilian squirms trying to escape. "Give up, you can't win this fight anymore. Victory is mine again," he declares.

However, in an unexpected development for Lucios, Lilian suddenly throws her head back, headbutting Lucios in the face. This causes a burning pain, making him loosen his grip, allowing Lilian to break free.

Finally free, Lilian quickly turns around and, seeing that Lucios, with his hand on his face in pain, wouldn't be able to react, prepares to attack. However, she realizes that at some point while being restrained, she lost her sword. Knowing she doesn't have much time, she doesn't even get up from the ground. Instead, she grabs one of Lucios's arms and puts one of her feet on his stomach to serve as leverage, then throws him away.

Lucios, with his hand on his face, can barely react as he's thrown to the ground. However, he quickly gets up. When he looks at the hand he had on his face, it's covered in blood. It was then that he realized the scar on his lip must have opened from the impact of the headbutt, causing so much pain.

When he looks ahead, he sees only Lilian looking at him with a smile on her face. Finally piecing together the events, Lucios begins to grow very angry. Following his will, the energy of the path in his heart, which was previously only flowing to his eyes, begins to flow throughout his body through his veins, resulting in a huge expenditure of energy.

Lucios still didn't have full control over his energy in the metamorphosis stage and most of his energy, once it started flowing through his body, would be dispersed and wasted before even enhancing his abilities. However, he would endure long enough to teach that girl a lesson.

However, he only needed to take one step before his illusions were interrupted by a bearded man who stepped in front of him. The man was Otis, who spoke with a deep voice: "You lost, kid." It was only then that Lucios noticed that when he was thrown away after the headbutt, he fell out of the arena.

While listening to Lilian's celebratory remarks and still being stared at by her sharp-eyed uncle, Lucios finally begins to calm down. His energy returns confined to his heart while his face continues to bleed. Otis then comments, "Ignore my niece, she's only this happy because she's been so frustrated losing to you so many times these past two weeks. Here, take this and put it on your face." He then hands Lucios a piece of cloth and says, "Come with me, I'll take you to the castle's alchemist, he must have something good for that cut," hesitating a bit Lucios puts the cloth on his face covering the cut and follows Otis out of the castle training grounds.