Rufus did his best to avoid getting hurt from the hanging woods. However, his best wasn't enough as his master seemed to change the patterns every time he's about to grasp the timing.

It's not a pleasant feeling but this only urged him to work harder.

​​

'You need to have a good grasp with your center of balance and your footwork... Your reflex will naturally improve if you continuously do this. You don't have to be impatient.'

'Yes, Master...'

Rufus gritted his teeth as he persevered. It is not easy to parry the pieces of wood that were supposedly quite basic as per his master...

After continuing this for a while, he finally realized that he has terrible spatial awareness. It was difficult for him to grasp the distance between himself and the incoming piece of wood or perhaps a bark.

'This is a bit more of a challenge than I expected.' Reiji muttered after they discovered Rufus's weakness.

Apparently, his previous dagger Arcana has an Arcane Magic called Active Shift that would allow him to have an almost instantaneous movement within his three meters.

This is what made him a powerful trainee during his early years within the tower.

With the existence of this Magic, he heavily relied on it to defeat most of his opponents. So even though he has a lot of combat experience, it can be said that his battle was mostly one-sided before.

As long as he could avoid the enemy's effective range and sneak into him, it would be an easy win.

Nevertheless, Rufus still worked harder... After all, he knows that if he worked harder, he'll be able to do anything... It was just like his talent with crafting. It was only discovered after his Arcana was destroyed.

Pah!

He was hit on his head again after parrying a couple of wood.

'Alright, that's enough. I already know your foundational skill. We'll work with your stance and sword techniques tomorrow so you won't just be swinging all around the place...'

'Yes, Master...'

Rufus held his head as quickly looked for his bag to have some ointment or perhaps a weak healing potion to ease his pain.

'Haa~ I wonder how long it would take for me to master this...'

The young man thought as he couldn't see himself perfecting this training.

He recalled what his master has told him.

His master Reiji said that his previous students also had a hard time with this part of the training and it also took them quite some time to become untouchable.

That's right, untouchable.

Right now, he couldn't imagine that he'll also become untouchable after experiencing the training with his body... In truth, he even had a thought that it was impossible for a person to truly avoid every single wood hanged on the pole.

It was not until his master used his Take Over and completed the training without being touched... He didn't even bother using a sword to parry and decided to only dodge.

He did this after hitting all the pieces of woods to gain momentum and swiftly walked at the center of the pole as he started dodging like a ghost...

During that time, Rufus can feel that his master wasn't cheating and only using his footwork and speed to avoid all of them...

This made him realized that he should be able to accomplish this if he trained long enough under Reiji's guidance.

'Right, have you ever thought of summoning another Arcana?' Reiji asked out of nowhere.

'Master?' Rufus was surprised by the sudden question.

He pondered for a moment before he answered to his master.

'I've never thought of it, Master. It is extremely difficult to summon another Arcana... Especially if we will be doing it for the second time... They said that only Second-Class Arcanists have a chance in doing this and the probability wouldn't even reach 20 or 30 percent.'

'Is that so? How will you know whether you can summon another one if you haven't tried yet?'

'Mhmm… It's because of our Spiritual Energy, Master Reiji. I heard that the Second-Class Arcanists were practitioners that could control an evolved form of that Energy… We were told that unless we reached the second-class, we should never think of summoning a second-Arcana even if we have chance….

'Evolved form of Spiritual Energy? Is it the Mystical Energy?' Reiji mused after hearing his student's answer.

He still has an Ancient Arcane Stone with him and he have only used this once...

[ Ancient Arcane Stone – Imperfect ]

[ Usage Limit: 1/30 ]

Aside from Stella Fenette, Reiji didn't have a chance to use it again.

He was actually planning to have his Slaves use it before but when he learned that they can easily die just because of a certain distance, he decided to just save it for his students.

Nevertheless, Rufus appears to have limited knowledge about the topic so he planned to investigate it on his own and ask some others about it.

***

They were about to return to Rufus's room when Reiji heard a woman's voice in his mind.

'Odette?'

'Yes… Why is it getting difficult to connect with you?'

'Heh~ That's not important… Anyway, what's going on?'

'It's like this…' The Wand Arcana then explained their plan to start their operation once the Knights who will challenge the Tower arrived…

'When will that be?'

'Four days from now…'

'I understand… I'll just wait for your signal then… Anyway, which Knights Order is coming?' Reiji inquired. It can be said that he knows someone in both Chaos Knights and Sun Fire Knights so he was quite curious.

'It will be the Sun Fire Knights…' Odette replied as she also informed him about Yui reminders to him.

***

Two days had quickly passed as Diether's team acquired all the information about the top 10 Young Arcanists of the Tower.

Of course, they were not aware of the three Arcanists that would fight against them.

What they can guarantee is that Nika Daime, the Revolver User, is included in the three. After all, that is their main request for this challenge…

"It says here that Nika can fire those almost invisible bullets consecutively for 6 times… Just how fast can it be?" Calliope was curious as she imagines the Revolver as a cute version of a crossbow.

"I think that we should be wary of the bullet's explosive power instead." Diether gave his thoughts about it.

Among the Arcanists listed by their informants, Nika stands out the most with her unique Arcana…

Although Lexi and Rufus were also quite good, their weapons skills seemed to be bearable…

After all, they have Diether and Calliope who both have unique sword styles and Terrence who has clawed gauntlets as his Arcana…

They were confident with their close combat skills.

"Mhmm… Lexi has an Eastern Lunar Axe Style while Rufus has an unknown sword art… There's also Chrisome with his unique Magic Weapons and Mirror Arcana… However, I think that it will be easier for us if the assassin-like Ned would participate instead."

"I don't think that they'll choose him with our Hazy Flash Steps…"

If Chaos Knights has an Arcane Magic called Chaos Heart, the Sun Fire Knights have signature magic called Hazy Flash Steps that will be a bane for Ned…

"I think that it would be safe to assume that Nika's teammate would be Chrisome, Rufus, or Lexi…"

"Mhmm… But they are all 14 to 16 years old…"

"That's fine, it's not a huge age gap. They are also not focused on training their combat skills… So we still have an advantage…"

During their training at Saalstein, they were trained to kill Wild Beast and even Evil Beast at some times…

They are unlike these sheltered Arcanists who only know how to live comfortably within the protection of the Tower so have some confidence backing them.

"Very well, then… let's create a plan based on their abilities listed here…"

***

On the next day, Sir Kael called Nika, Rufus, Lexi, Chrisome, and Ned to his office…

Reiji had an idea about this sudden call but he didn't mention it to Rufus, so the latter appears to be confused.

"Nika was requested to fight against the young representatives of the Sun Fire Knights, she needed to be accompanied by two more Arcanists… Who wants to join her?" Kael didn't beat around the bush and asked straightforwardly… He knows that these young ones would like that as well.

Their discussion lasted for only less than five minutes as it was decided that Rufus and Lexi will join her.

Apparently, Chrisome had achieved a breakthrough in his research of the Carriage Wheel as he would be able to improve it even more... Due to this, he has to spent his time with his project instead of practicing his combat skills.

On the other hand, after Ned heard that it will be the Sun Fire Knights… He decided to just step back…

After all, his Arcana and Magic Weapons were more powerful if it's being used during the night or dark areas… The Sun Fire Knights were terrible opponents for him.

He may be able to fight equally if he pushed himself to the limits, but it wasn't worth the risk since he can't kill these representatives anyway…

After this was decided, Kael gave some basic information about the young knights or squires that they will be fighting with…

'Hooo~'

Reiji noticed their names and couldn't help but smile, in his mind.