“It’s okay, you did good.” Glenda Grimes patted on Aimee’s shoulder when she walked to the sidelines: “He’s wearing a full suit of armor made from some kind of monster hide - it borders on cheating. The rules of student duel have some very strict and detailed restrictions on what kind of weapons students can use, but there’s not much on what kind of armor they could wear. Without that armor, you’d have won.”

Aimee sighed and shook her head: “Didn’t change the fact that I lost - there’s no fair fight.”

“And what a great gift you have in learning martial arts.” Caroline hugged Aimee gently and looked her in the eye: “You did good.”

Now, with four face-offs, the side of Jason, Caroline, Thomas and Aimee had one draw, one win and one loss. The final face-off would be between Caroline and Caleb Hoffman.

After announcing the results, Professor Barnes walked to the side and said to Aimee and Thomas: “You two did good, and as headmaster of the Hellbruck House, I now announce that our training facilities would be open to you. And if you would like, I can offer you some training courses from our house.”

“Thank you Professor Barnes, we would need to think about it, and discuss with Ms. Grimes.” Thomas exchanged looks with Aimee, then turned to Professor Barnes and replied.

“No problem, take your time.” Professor Barnes laughed and went back to the center of the duel ring: “That was a wonderful fight! And just to remind everyone, who might, or might not be keeping scores. We have one win for the challenger, one draw, and one win for the challenged. Now we have our final face-off, please welcome Ms. Caroline Baker and Mr. Caleb Hoffman!”

Caroline walked into the ring, holding the training axe and shield borrowed from the school’s armory. And Caleb Hoffman simply hopped onto the ring, with a long single edged sword shaped like a katana.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Caleb Hoffman gently bowed towards Caroline, then took out his long sword and displayed it on his hands: “My name’s Caleb Hoffman, this was my sword before I came to the academy. My current sword does not fit the requirement of the student duel, therefore I bring this with me. I practice my family martial art - Sword of Hail and Snow, and my power elementals are wind and ice.”

“Nice… nice to meet you.” Caroline was confused for a brief moment, then she also gently bowed and said: “My name’s Caroline Baker, I practice a martial art named Skill and Form of Flow and True Self, and the cultivation method of Scripture of Jade and Amber. My power is fire. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

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

“Alright! You two have met! Start on my mark!” Professor Barnes nodded at Caleb Hoffman in approval: “Three…. two … one!”

Caleb Hoffman moved, leaving a trail of fog and mist behind. The speed of his movement was so fast, that even when prepared, Caroline still could not catch up to him in time.

“Clank!” the edge of Caleb Hoffman’s sword clashed with Caroline’s shield, but when Caroline swung her axe at the sword attempting to knock the sword out of Caleb Hoffman’s hand, he already backed away and sidestepped with the sword drawn and ready to deliver another attack.

When the long sword cut through the air, it made a kind of pleasant sound. And when it reached the end of its trajectory, a thin ice blade shot through the air, aiming right at Caroline’s leg.

Caroline lowered her shield just in time, with fiery energy coated on the surface of the shield, making the shield extra sturdy and resilient. With a loud cracking sound, the ice blade was completely fractured when it connected with the fiery shield, turning into thin pieces of ice everywhere. Caroline’s arm shook lightly, and thus the impact from the ice blade was no more.

Caleb Hoffman narrowed his eyes - he expected that his ice blade attack would not have much effect, but he did not expect that Caroline would be able to handle the attack with such ease.

After only a brief moment of hesitation, Caleb Hoffman ran across parts of the duel ring swinging his long sword. A flurry of Ice blades and wind blades started shooting at Caroline from different angles.

Caroline held her shield before her, with her Xuanli fully activated. A much bigger fiery shadow of her shield emerged from the shield, and none of the wind and ice blades were able to break through or disturb her stance.

Seeing that his flurry attacks were not able to do much, Caleb Hoffman lunged at Caroline with the long sword held up high, and with a full force downward swing, he unleashed one much bigger and sharper wind blade, with hundreds of smaller and thin sharp ice shards embedded within.

“Boom!” the wind blade exploded on impact with the fiery shield, Caroline’s stance was finally shaken, forcing her to take a few steps backwards. But when Caleb Hoffman was about to take another swing, Caroline bashed her axe on the shield, unleashing a huge fiery shockwave in his general direction.

Fiery shockwave left quite a mark on the student duel ground, but it did not affect Caleb Hoffman, because he already leapt to the side using his superior speed. Almost right at the exact moment Caroline pulled her weapons back into positions, Caleb Hoffman took a swift and sudden stab aiming at Caroline’s left shoulder, which happened to be exposed due to Caroline’s prior movements.

Caroline lowered her body and raised her shield to deflect the stabbing attack. Then she felt that her shield took a heavy strike on the corner, and though she was able to deflect the stab and pushed the long sword a short distance up, a big chunk of the shield cracked and flew off behind her.

Caroline’s axe swung semi-horizontally from low to high aiming at Caleb Hoffman’s wrist. Caleb Hoffman reacted in time and switched the position of the long sword - with its edge facing Caroline’s axe head on.

After a deafening sound of metal cutting and breaking, the blade of Caroline’s axe was cut in half, with its upper half directly flying off to the edge of the duel ring. Even though Caleb Hoffman was able to destroy Caroline’s axe with this strike, his sword-holding arm still absorbed a lot of the impact from Caroline’s swing. This caused his arm to be thrown to the side, and the sword almost flew off from his grasp.

Seizing the opportunity, Caroline let go off the broken axe and shield. Both her hands turned to fists and struck forward at Caleb Hoffman’s chest in unison.

“Boom!” Caroline was thrown back into the air by some kind of sudden explosion, while Caleb Hoffman’s whole body was enclosed inside of a protective bubble, which floated in midair and sent him off to the outside of the duel ring.