Ais narrowed her eyes... gold meeting purple.
The tension snapped.
The ground beneath them exploded.
In a flash of golden light, Ais vanished from sight, her speed ripping through the air with a sonic boom.
Judas raised his arms just in time... magic circles flaring to life along his forearms as Járnglófar absorbed the impact.
CLANG!
The sheer force sent cracks spiderwebbing through the earth, dust whipping around them like a storm.
"She's fast... faster than I expected."
Judas muttered under his breath, his boots sliding backward through the dirt.
He flicked his wrist.
A magic circle burst to life beneath Ais' feet.
『Bind』
Golden light erupted, forming chains that snaked toward her.
But Ais pivoted, slicing through them in a flash... her scabbard singing as wind pressure shattered the bindings mid-air.
『Permeation』
Judas blurred... his body phasing through the dust and debris like a ghost.
His purple eyes glimmered faintly... then, within them, intricate magic circles began to shift and turn like gears of light.
Each one rotated at a different pace, interlocking patterns flickering with violet luminescence.
The air around him seemed to hum in response, rippling with invisible energy as those circles spun faster, syncing with his heartbeat.
It was as if his very gaze had become a magical construct... processing, analyzing, and predicting.
In that moment, Judas wasn't just seeing Ais.
He was reading her.
By augmenting his senses and perception, Judas began to see the world in fragments of slowed motion... every twitch, every breath, every shift of weight.
He could read the tiniest tells in Ais's posture, the faint tightening of her calves before a dash, the subtle shift in her grip before a strike.
It was the same method he once used against Alise in their duel... deciphering her minute bodily movements to predict her next attacks.
A truly skilled martial artist could weaponize such insight, turning awareness into instinct, and instinct into power.
He was doing exactly that now.
After surviving Alfia's brutal training, Judas had honed this ability even further.
Her merciless regimen had forced him to notice everything... the rhythm of a heartbeat, the hesitation in a breath, the faintest spark of killing intent.
To him, battle was no longer chaos.
It was a rhythm... and right now, he was starting to hear Ais's.
'The tension in your muscles... your line of sight... I can read you like a book, Ais Wallenstein.'
In an instant, he reappeared behind her, gauntlets crackling with magic power.
BOOM!
His fist met her scabbard in a shockwave that tore through the training ground, sending nearby onlookers staggering backward.
"Unbelievable... he's matching her speed!"
Lefiya shouted over the roaring wind.
Riveria's eyes narrowed.
"No... he's predicting her movement."
Judas ducked low, palm pressing into the ground.
『Air Burst』
The magic circle ignited.
A blast of wind and light launched him upward, spinning in midair as golden light coursed through his veins.
He raised his hand, gathering energy into his palm.
『Nova』
A compressed sphere of light descended like a miniature meteor.
Ais leapt upward to intercept, slicing through it with a single, flawless arc... her scabbard blazing with condensed wind.
The resulting explosion turned the entire courtyard into a maelstrom of light and dust.
When the haze cleared—
The two figures stood locked in the center.
Judas' gauntlets steamed from the heat of their clash.
Ais' hair whipped behind her, her scabbard humming with energy.
Neither spoke.
Neither moved.
Just two forces of nature... colliding again and again in bursts of sound and fury.
BANG! CLASH! BOOM!
Each strike sent tremors through the ground.
Each parry cracked the air like thunder.
"I don't know about Judas, but even though Ais is holding back... the pressure alone feels like a duel between top-class adventurers."
Tiona watched with an excited expression.
The others stayed silent, keeping their focus on the battle.
They didn't want to miss even a single second.
Even Bete had to acknowledge that Judas was holding his own pretty well against an adventurer of Ais' caliber.
'Tsk... this pisses me off. He's just a level 2 weakling, but he's actually making me take this seriously.'
He clicked his tongue and tapped his foot impatiently.
Ais and Judas moved swiftly... their figures were little more than blurs to those below Level 4.
"Unbelievable, my eyes can barely keep up with this."
"A Level 2 can be this strong? Holy crap! I've never seen something like this."
"Raul, what about you? Can you see their movements clearly?"
The second-string members who were Level 3 and below turned to Raul, their supposed leader.
"Just barely."
Raul said humbly, scratching the back of his head before shifting his gaze back to the battle.
He strained his eyes, his pupils darting left, right, up, and down... but the moment he thought he caught their rhythm, it changed again.
It was the same for the other Level 4s like Anakitty, Alicia, and the others.
At first, they had expected Ais to completely dominate.
But now, the concept of levels seemed meaningless as they watched in awe... stunned by the raw display of power before them.
"Do you see that?"
Alicia muttered, eyes narrowing.
"The flow between his hand-to-hand and spellcasting... he's improving little by little."
Anakitty nodded, her tail flicking with focus.
"Yeah... he's learning as the fight goes on."
Little by little, realization spread among them.
They weren't just watching a spar... they were watching someone grow in real time.
For adventurers who'd spent years grinding through the Dungeon's depths, they had long since mastered their own crafts.
That's why they could see it... the subtle refinements in Judas' movements, the adjustments in his timing, his rhythm, his form.
It was humbling.
And inspiring.
'I don't want to lose.'
They could feel it... that spark of drive rekindling inside them, pushing them to train harder, aim higher, and not fall behind.
Even Lefiya, who normally focused on magic theory, found herself quietly studying the way Judas moved, even if her eyes could barely keep up with his movements.
"This... this is what it means to fight like an elite."
She murmured softly, trembling with excitement.
...
Judas exhaled, magic power swirling tighter around him.
He vanished again.
『Acceleration』
Ais' pupils dilated... her instincts screamed.
But Judas was already there, his fist grazing her cheek before she parried at the last second.
The impact sent her skidding back, boots carving trenches through the dirt.
"...You're strong."
A faint smile ghosted across her lips.
'Strong, huh?'
Judas rolled his shoulders, cracking his knuckles one by one.
'She says that... but she still hasn't used her Ariel.'
He adjusted his footing, shifting smoothly into a new stance.
"Ais..."
His voice was calm, but it carried weight, reverberating through the air.
Then the world lit up.
Hundreds of magic circles ignited around them... layered, overlapping, moving in complex geometric patterns that shimmered like constellations.
Even Ais' expression faltered for a split second, her grip tightening on her scabbard.
The ground trembled beneath their feet as the circles expanded, their light reflecting in her golden eyes.
"Let's take this up a notch."
---
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