Right now, the instructor was teaching.
He was a retired soldier from the army, and he had real skill.
He first demonstrated several close-quarters combat techniques.
"In the military, the most basic self-defense moves are mainly these few. Practice them diligently and you'll be fine. But when you fight someone, remember this—your fists will never beat blades."
When strength levels were similar, no matter how refined someone's unarmed fighting was, they still wouldn't be a match for someone who could even use a weapon a little.
So in today's Demacia, cold steel was still the mainstream.
"Next is free training time. I suggest pairing up in twos and sparring with each other. If there's anything you don't understand, come ask me."
After speaking, the instructor let the students form their own pairs.
Even though the weather was scorching today, you could still feel the atmosphere was clearly different.
With Tianna watching from a distance, every student who had found a partner was throwing everything they had into it, eager to perform well in front of the High Marshal.
The sound of energetic clashes echoed across the entire field.
Luke didn't understand why they were going so hard, so fired up. But his partner had been decided from the start.
He and Lady Crownguard blended into the middle of the crowd, holding wooden weapons, lazily trading "attacks" with each other.
Calling it attacking was generous. In reality, they each lifted their weapon, tapped it against the other's, then separated again.
In other words: slacking off.
After a lunch nap, they didn't have much strength to begin with.
If they went all-out in the afternoon too, wouldn't that just be stupid?
Not far away, Tianna narrowed her eyes as she watched the two idiots in the crowd who thought they wouldn't be noticed.
If you wanted to put it nicely, you could say they got along well.
If you wanted to put it bluntly… they were two peas in the same rotten pod.
Thinking that, Tianna stood up and walked toward the students.
Seeing her move, everyone couldn't help stopping what they were doing.
Luke and Lux instantly went on high alert, silently praying they wouldn't get singled out.
"Since I'm rarely able to sit in on a lesson, let's do something a little more interesting for everyone," Tianna said with a smile. "Next, I'll pick one student and spar with them."
The moment she finished, the people present couldn't help getting excited.
Standing before them was the High Marshal of the nation—Tianna, famous for many years already.
Even though most of the students here were noble-born, an opportunity to spar with Tianna was still unbelievably precious to them.
Hearing that, Luke immediately felt a bad premonition.
He shrank his neck, hunching himself lower than even Lux beside him, and sped up his praying in his head.
Please don't pick me, please don't pick me!
Tianna lifted her hand and "looked" through the crowd for a long time—then her finger landed with perfect accuracy on Luke, who was hiding behind Lux.
"You. It's you."
Luke: "…"
The surrounding students voluntarily parted, opening a path and completely exposing Luke within Tianna's line of sight.
"I suspect this is rigged," Luke couldn't help saying.
The moment Tianna said she was going to do something "new," he'd felt something was off.
This was picking one student?
You might as well have just said, "Luke, get over here."
"Rigged or not—so what?" Tianna smiled.
She was basically admitting it outright. Yes, this was aimed at you.
Luke had nothing to say.
"Come on. Let me see what you've got," Tianna beckoned. She did have a decent understanding of Luke.
From Xin Zhao's mouth, she'd also learned that this kid actually had something to him.
"Isn't this just bullying?" Luke sighed and stepped forward.
It was true—he had a clear idea of his own level.
And the woman standing in front of him was one of Demacia's strongest figures. Back in the day, it was raw strength that had earned her the position she had now.
Forget sparring—Tianna could beat Luke senseless with one hand.
"Fair point. That really would be a bit unfair to you," Tianna said thoughtfully, then changed the rules. "In that case, let's do it differently. Being watched by me all day—are you sick of it?"
Luke, of course, couldn't answer that.
"So I'll give you a chance," Tianna continued. "In the next exchange, you can do whatever you want. I won't strike back. If you can touch me even once, then from now on, I won't watch you every day."
She stated the rules and the condition.
It was an extremely tempting deal.
Freedom—what a beautiful word to Luke.
"Just touch you once?" Luke confirmed again.
Tianna nodded. "Just once."
Luke finally found a bit of motivation. He glanced at the wooden longsword in his hand. "Alright. Then let's do it!"
Lux shot him an encouraging look and quietly stepped back a distance.
The other students also spread out, forming a large circle—like an arena.
And Tianna and Luke stood at opposite ends.
"If you're ready, you can attack at any time," Tianna said casually, looking completely relaxed.
That line felt familiar.
Luke remembered that not long ago, when he'd met a certain duelist, it had been the same.
Perfect. He could use this to test how Wind-Command Swordsmanship felt after reaching LV5.
At this point, gathering wind intent was effortless for Luke—something he could do at any moment.
Wind intent swirled around him in layers. The speed at which it gathered had increased dramatically. Luke's gaze sharpened, and without another word, he launched his attack—Sweeping Blade into a forward slash.
A blade-light carved through the air, viciously sharp.
Faced with that strike, Tianna only curved her lips slightly, then tilted her body a fraction to the side and avoided it.
She wouldn't strike back, so the "fight" that followed was simply one-sided dodging.
Luke slashed several times in quick succession. Even the watching students could tell that the prince's sword style seemed… different.
Tianna kept dodging. It looked easy, but only she could truly feel the pressure within Luke's offensives.
Her eyes flickered, a trace of surprise surfacing.
This sword style was genuinely novel. The offense was exceptionally sharp, and the transitions between moves could branch in many directions—this was absolutely not ordinary swordsmanship.
And woven into it was spiritual energy.
So the kid had mastered even that?
Xin Zhao had mentioned teaching him techniques for spiritual energy, but how long had it been?
And yet Luke already had this level of proficiency.
In just a few exchanges, Tianna had already sensed Luke's unusual talent.
Meanwhile, Luke's attacks kept accelerating. He swung out a Steel Tempest—only for Tianna to dodge it again.
He fully realized the gap between them.
Mindlessly charging like this wasn't going to work. He had to change his approach.
Otherwise, at this rate, he'd exhaust himself to death and still wouldn't touch Tianna even once.
As he thought, Luke immediately compressed the wind intent throughout his body even tighter. Then, on his next attack, he concentrated all of it onto the blade's edge.
Sweeping Blade—and at the same time, Steel Tempest.
On the blazing-hot field, a gust of wind rose out of nowhere.
The watching students only felt a cool breeze wash over their faces.
But in the center, Tianna hadn't cared at first. She was just about to sidestep again when she suddenly felt something was wrong.
The sense of danger—coming from behind?
She spun around at once, unconsciously turning serious, and dodged the strike from her rear.
At that moment, Luke's sword came down.
Tianna reflexively lifted her hand and caught the wooden longsword between two fingers.
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