"One participant has been eliminated!" the announcement came as Ace released his breath.
"It hurts," he thought, clutching the bite mark on his neck. "Too bad I don't have the time to worry about that."
From the distance, a silhouette approached Ace.
"Hi," Ace greeted. "I still need a little more time to find 'it', but I guess I've got no choice."
Arnold appeared before him. The tension in the air was unlike any other, and though people were still shocked from what they had just witnessed, Isidor suck it up, and announced the encounter with enthusiasm.
In the meantime, Emilia, back in her normal state, appeared in the losers' waiting room. Though she was standing, it was almost as if she was unconscious, and beside her, Mira and Frank were calling out to her.
As her eyes blinked, "Emi!" screamed out Mira. "Thank goodness you're awake! Seriously, how can Ace just torture you like that!? It's just cruel!"
"Huh? Uh, yeah," Emilia said, still in a bit of a daze.
The surreal things that she experienced before her transformation, the welling sensation of power, and her fight with Ace, all made her body tremble with uncontrollable fear.
"What… what happened to me?" her mind was a mess, to the point that Mira who had been calling out to her, shook her up to get a response.
"Emi! Are you sure you're ok?" asked Mira, her worry reaching the roof.
"I think it'd be better for you to go to the infirmary," said Frank. "Try to rest up."
"Uh, yeah. You're right. Sorry to worry you guys," said Emilia with a forced smile.
"I'll come with you," proposed Mira before being turned down by Emilia.
"Sorry, but I'd like to be alone for a while."
"O-okay."
"That Ace… How dare he do that to my dear Emi!? Just he wait until the competition ends, I'll beat him up all black and blue!" said Mira, boiling down with rage after Emilia left the scene.
"True that," replied Frank. "Might as well go see how he gets beaten up by Prince Arnold, right?"
"Yeah! I hope he suffers a grueling defeat!"
"And I thought he was just an awkward guy," thought Frank as they went to see how Ace was going to fare against Arnold. "I certainly didn't expect him to be so ruthless."
"But I wonder, should I report what happened to Nikolaus?" scratching his head in confusion, he looked at the screen where Ace and Arnold were standing face-to-face. "No. I guess that can wait for the moment. I first need to deal with Ace before anything else. I don't think he's just a simple Special Admission student."
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"I've been waiting a long time to meet you, Ace Blakelord," respectfully said Arnold with anticipation.
"And to what honor does a lowly person such as myself owe the interest of Your Highness... Prince Arnold von Riese Enfilia?" said Ace with a hidden uninterested and condescending tone.
Arnold only smirked. With a single step back, he fixed his posture and put up his guard. In response, Ace created some distance between him and Arnold, pulling out his Magic Gun and threw the knife he had to the ground, replacing it by a sword he pulled out from his shadow.
They exchanged no words. It only took for the rain that had been pouring down to stop with the last drops for them to engage.
Ace immediately released three shots that Arnold blocked before appearing behind him, sword in hand and aimed at his throat.
Evading the strike by a hair's breadth, Arnold only got a graze before igniting his sword and unleashing his technique.
Arnold slashed upwards which was followed by a rising arc of white flames that Ace evaded at the last moment before countering with his own attack.
He released a powerful attack that Arnold redirected even while being pushed back.
And at the moment he lost sight of Ace for a single instant…
Ace came charging at him with a lightning-fast thrust that he blocked in his armpits, taking slight cut on his abdomen which made him laugh.
"You truly are one interesting opponent, Ace Blakelord!" said Arnold with a grinning expression.
"Thanks," said Ace, pointing his gun straight at Arnold with a shot that was evaded at the last second.
They then abandoned their locked position, creating distance between them. But as Ace landed, he wasted no minute going back on the offensive.
Arnold was surprised as he saw the blade coming straight at him, barely managing to redirect the attack that shattered the ground.
Arnold then leaped backwards, still grinning excitedly as he steadied his breath.
"Without a doubt, out of all the opponents I've faced today, he's the strongest," thought Arnold, his form not showing any openings. "My dear sister definitely did a number on me, but his skills are definitely the real deal."
Meanwhile, Ace was also evaluating his options.
"He definitely isn't an easy opponent," Ace thought. "Ryuken, an attack that focuses energy throughout the blade and then releases it in the form of a slash attack. Raikiri, a quick draw technique that focuses on striking the opponent before he can react, and then Raiko, a thrusting technique which focuses the energy into a single point for maximum impact. But... I'm pretty sure he's figured that out already. This is going to be a long fight."
During that time, the battle between Ace and Arnold had taken started to be bathed in the setting sun, the skies slowly giving way to the night.
Ace had perfectly understood that Arnold's mastery of the sword combined with his magic made him a foe not to be underestimated.
With a single flinch that turned into a rapidly executed technique...
Arnold unleashed an attack that barely Ace managed to evade by leaping to the side.
"Impressive," Ace witnessed the damage done on the ground which made him anxious. "He's a real beast. Unlike Chris or Deker, he hasn't reached a monstrous realm of high-level magic and swordsmanship, but if I'm not careful, I'll lose."
Ace then started shooting at Arnold while dashing around him as he then used a technique that covered his blade in shadows before releasing and launching them at him in the form of a black cross with blades on four sides.
"If that's the best you've got a long way before you can hope to defeat me!" stated Arnold as he unleashed a sword thrust which obliterated Ace's attack, hitting him directly in the process.
As Ace crashed on the ground, he was covered by a black sphere which protected him, but unfortunately, he still lost his arm that held the gun.
"Yep, that really hurts. No way I can beat him by normal means. His attacks are precise and sharp while his magic has high output and is destructive," internally monologued Ace as he thought on the situation while struggling to get up. "In both the sword and magic, he surpasses me in every aspect."
"Pathetic," thought Ace, sitting on the ground exhausted with a smirk on his face while Arnold walks slowly towards him.
"Why did I even try to fight him head on? It was just foolish," he continued as Arnold stood before him.
"It was short, but I enjoyed our duel," said Arnold, raising his sword.
"Before giving me the fatal blow, do me a favor and answer my question," he said looking intently at Arnold with an expressionless face. "Why did you want to fight me?"
Ace's question made him pause for a moment with surprise.
"I stand atop the Academy as its Strongest, but at some point, it was boring," Arnold explained. "The burden of being strong is that there's no one to push you past your limits when you've reached the peak. Especially in my age group."
"Crazy," muttered Ace, his head held down. "Fighting is just a means of survival. Nothing more, nothing else. What's so fun about it?"
"I just find it meaningless," said Ace, surprising Arnold who pondered on his statements. "The strong survive while the weak die. Winning means living, losing means dying."
"I don't think battle must always be a matter of life and death," Arnold said, exuding a certain royal aura. "Some fight to protect people. Others do it to defend their convictions. Humans aren't such black-and-white beings after all."
"I see," Ace absorbed those words. "In that case, maybe what I'm feeling… this frustration… maybe it's because I want to win."
Arnold wasted no time before swinging down his sword, leaving only a few centimeters before the strike hit Ace.
And at that moment, a holographic system window popped out of nowhere causing the world's time to freeze in place.
"What the…?" muttered Ace, unable to comprehend what was happening.
[Notice: Next scenario has been triggered.]
[System Standby Mode deactivated.]