Anya bent forward a little in Roclus’s direction, holding onto her sword with only her right hand she raised it in the air. She then started channeling manna throughout her body and sword; the golden-colored light on her blade shone more brightly.
She was pretty average in handling mana though since she had learned to do so only after coming to the academy; before then all the battles she fought relied on raw strength. Due to this, she took a bit more time than usual to get her body ready.
It would’ve taken only a few seconds longer than usual but Roclus was already out of patience. With a scream he dashed toward Anya, holding his sword above his right shoulder with both his arms.
-Boom!
-Clank!
A second later Roclus was standing frozen to his feet in the middle of the arena, his hands were in front of him in a pose as if holding a sword, but they were holding nothing but the air.
His sword was lying on the ground at a distance and behind him stood the figure of Anya.
“W-Wait! What?” Roclus murmured; he wasn’t able to comprehend what the heck just happened.
A moment ago the sword was in his hands and he was charging at Anya, but in that split second when he blinked, he heard a loud sound—like a small explosion, then felt something heavy clashing against his sword.
The next thing he knew was that his hands were empty; the sword was released from his grip and flew backward and dropped to the ground.
He turned back and there he saw Anya who had disabled her magiken and was now putting her sword back in its sheath. Along with Roclus, the spectators were also in awe with the sudden change of eyes.
Only those with high status were able to actually see what happened. Those who didn’t, just saw Anya disappearing from her location for a while and then reappearing behind Roclus.
Anya’s sword fighting style was based on speed and mostly all of her attacks were fast-paced. After learning the basics of sword arts from Ron she started developing her own set of moves.
The one she performed right now was one of them. This was a move she’d recently created and to practice this here in the arena, she channeled all her mana throughout her body and used her agility status to its max.
𝘧r𝗲𝑒𝔀𝘦𝙗𝓃oν𝑒l.𝐜𝗼m
The magiken had already enhanced her speed to an extent and when combined with this technique, it made Anya able to perform a high-speed attack that won’t be visible to people who had equal or low status to her.
Roclus’s rank was E; the same as Anya’s. Hence he was only able to see a blurred image of hers and nothing more.
***
Anya’s attack was amazing. It was a high-speed single-strike attack; perfectly her type. Fortunately, I was able to see her moving since my rank was higher than her but some people weren’t—it was clear from their awe-based reactions.
With this, the referee soon announced Anya’s victory. As for how this was decided? Well, hurting or killing each other was, of course, wasn’t allowed here in this training session.
So to determine how the students will win, the academy had set a unique set of rules. If one student managed to release the sword of the other student from their grip, then as soon as the sword will hit the ground, the student whose sword it was will lose.
The match went as it was written in loli_pop’s novel, but I’d have to say that it wasn’t the same. The overall outcome—Anya’s win—was the same but things that happened in between were different.
Like how Roclus moved and this attack that Anya performed was new, and surprisingly, Roclus wasn’t just a plot device; a student who appeared out of nowhere and fought Anya in an emotionless fight.
I was watching him closely and his expressions were changing as the fight went on. He also had a personality and existed even before this fight—I had seen him multiple times in class.
This gave me a breath of relief. I was not inside a fucking novel, after all.
This match had ended. Anya went back and Roclus too—after crying about he can’t lose and she cheated and all.
There will be a few minutes break before the next match, hence I got up from my seat and went to buy something to eat. There were shops outside the stadium so maybe I’ll get to get a thing or two.
***
While Zero left his seat and went outside to buy some snacks, Anya was returning back to the room where the weapons were provided to return the sword she got for this match.
She went inside the room where a lot of swords were hung on the walls—all of the different sorts. She returned her sword to a staff member who was present there and then left the room.
After that, she was walking through a corridor that led to the place where the rest of the class B students were—the place from where they were watching the fights.
Though on her way, she stopped and stood in a corner. Then she uttered something which sounded like the word “Status”.
The next moment a holographic blue screen appeared in front of her that displayed a number of different values.
She stared at the screen as she read through the words written on it.
====STATUS====
Name: Anya Blanks
Rank: E
Mana: E
Agility: D
Stamina: E
Skills: None
==============
Her status has gone up and she had leveled up. Before her rank was E along with her other attributes as agility and stamina, and her mana attributes were G.
But now her agility had leveled up to D.
She got the notification of this right after she performed that high-speed attack against Roclus but that time she ignored it and was checking it now just to confirm. When she was done, she closed the holographic screen and went on in the corridor.
