With swords drawn, both parties shot towards each other, shortly afterwards loud clangs could be heard as their swords clashed and both pressed down on the other with all their might. This gave them both a first impression of how much their opponent could withstand.

Sir Nolan was the first to give in, took a step back and swung his sword, which Cale blocked several times in succession. With powerful blows Sir Nolan tried to bring Cale down, without his own reinforcement Cale would have had no chance to withstand the pressure. Again and again their swords clashed and the mage repeatedly tried to find a gap in Sir Nolan's defence.

All at once, Cale lifted off the ground and shot the tip of his sword towards Sir Nolan's head, who narrowly dodged it and in the next moment, with his free hand, pushed Cale's sword to the ground and then held it on the ground with his golden shining sword. But Cale would not be restrained, and in the same leap made a turn and slammed his leg against Sir Nolan's face, who lost his footing and was flung a few feet to one side.

The older man spat on the ground, having briefly tasted blood, before touching the bruise on his face with his hand and grinning. From the look on his face, he seemed to take the attack personally. In the next instant, he sprinted towards Cale, pushing him back with swift and powerful attacks. Cale, on the other hand, let his sword move to his right hand and skillfully blocked the attacks or dodged them backwards until he landed with a backflip on a small rock and jumped off again in the same moment. Loud bangs could be heard as Sir Nolan hit the rock with his sword, disintegrating it into its component parts. Rocks flew in Cale's direction, but he did not avert his gaze. He could see Sir Nolan looking up at him as he flew weightless in the sky.

Cale slipped mana into his feet as he had learned from his master and shot towards Sir Nolan, who could only block his attack in surprise. But the pressure was so great that the ground beneath Sir Nolan gave way and dug a hollow. Sir Nolan countered with force and flung Cale back a little before picking up speed again and running towards Cale. Over and over again the clashing metal of their swords could be heard, but Cale could clearly feel Nolen increasing his pace. In a moment, therefore, he could no longer keep up and let Sir Nolen's attack past his blockade, taking the swordsman by surprise. Cale released a large amount of mana and, with the help of the wind, deflected the tip of his sword just past his neck, causing Sir Nolan's eyes to widen abruptly before he let go of Cale to dodge his blow.

With a few feet between them, both parties came to a halt. The spectators fell silent in amazement as Cale caught his breath and took a quick look at his surroundings. Cale had definitely been pushed back and was by now uncomfortably close to the spectators. The surrounding meadow had suffered badly, earth and stones could be seen everywhere, which had been stirred up during the fight.

The mage's dark eyes fixed on Sir Nolan, who held his sword in front of him and let mana flow into it before stroking the blade with his finger, before his sword suddenly caught fire.

With his mouth half open, Cale stood frozen in front of the man, before a wide smile formed on his face. The man before him, truly was a swordmaster, if he could wield mana into his blade. Cale had indeed not expected that, but he did the same to the man. He let mana fly into his blade and built up a protective wall of wind around himself and his weapons before he motioned Sir Nolan to attack with a wave of his hand. The latter did not need to be told twice and shot his burning blade towards Cale. Cale, however, uses the wind around his blade to deflect the attack to the side, at the same moment a wave of fire shot past his head and disappeared into the sky.

Cale dodged backwards, blocked Sir Nolan's attacks one by one and then put some distance between himself and the man with another jump. The latter gave him no time to rest and shot at Cale from above like a glowing bullet. Gritting his teeth, Cale lowered his sword and released a lot of his wind magic. Jerkily, it hit Sir Nolan, who was struck by it and held his hand protectively in front of his face. For a few seconds, Cale prevented the man from approaching him, but he could not keep the peace for long. Sir Nolan managed to roll to the side and hurled a wall of fire at Cale, which he instinctively blocked with his wind magic.

But the resulting thrust pushed the grass aside and reached the people, who looked up in fright, clutching their belongings. Fire built up in front of Cale's wall, preventing Sir Nolan and Cale from seeing each other. For a moment, Cale took a deep breath, sharpened his blade and dropped his wall. Immediately the flames surrounded him, but Cale used the moment to his advantage, preventing his mana from escaping and literally disappearing in a sea of flame.

Surprised shouts could be heard and Cale's group had also jumped up when they saw Cale being engulfed by the fire. Sir Nolen, on the other hand, seemed to have realised what Cale was about to do, for he jerkily moved into a defensive stance. Cale's bright sword was the first thing to be seen from the sea of flames, so Sir Nolen's gaze fixed on the weapon.

But Cale was not there.

He had thrown his sword forward and emerged himself much higher up to act under cover of darkness. Skillfully, Sir Nolan flicked the weapon aside and looked around nervously before noticing the inconspicuous shadow above him. He did not have the chance to react appropriately, so Cale's foot hit him full force on the head.

A loud rumble was heard, followed by Sir Nolan's groan as he hit the ground face-first, sending everything around him flying. But Sir Nolan didn't leave it at that, clutching Cale's foot and trying to yank it to the ground as well. Cale had to give way and followed the movement before he could break free and was deliberately flung a few feet to the side. In flight, he was able to reach for his weapon before landing safely on the ground and grinning. Sir Nolan also straightened up before reaching for his sword and building up distance. A second later he made a spin on his own axis, sword and all, and let loose a wave of fire at Cale. With his sword, Cale split one wave of fire after another into two as he slowly moved closer.

By now Cale had detected a pattern in Sir Nolan's attacks, closed his eyes, listened to the sounds and let a large amount of mana slide into his legs. Parrying another attack, he charged forward in an instant. Sir Nolan's horror was hard to miss as he tried to block Cale's attack, but he was too slow. The kick caught him full-force on the chest and hurled him several dozen feet across the ground. Sir Nolan didn't get to stand up because Cale appeared over him seconds later, aiming his sword at Sir Nolan's head.

Earth, stones and dust were tossed up as Cale hit the ground. For a moment there was dead silence, wide-eyed spectators waiting for the curtain to clear. Astonished exclamations were heard as they saw Cale come to a halt over Sir Nolan.

His sword was stuck in the rock a few inches to the right of Sir Nolan's head. The man had dropped his sword and raised both hands to surrender. His body and clothes were badly battered, besides the laceration on his head he had numerous small wounds on his hands and face, not to mention all the dirt. He coughed up as he tried to stay calm and waited for Cale's reaction. The latter sighed audibly, pulled the sword out of the ground and cleaned it with the help of his shirt before letting it disappear into its sheath.

"Aletta!", he called for the healer a few moments later, before crouching down beside Sir Nolan and looking at the man. He couldn't move an inch, but began to laugh and lowered his hands. His mana was almost completely extinguished and that alone had been his death sentence. He was far too wasteful with his mana and always tried to make big attacks instead of trying quick, smaller ones. By doing so, he had unconsciously put himself in a disadvantaged situation and after some time realised himself that he could not win the fight. Because Cale was kind of using his own attacks against him. "You could have given up earlier, I hope you realise that."

Carefully, he helped Sir Nolan to sit up and began to carefully wipe the dirt from his face and clothes. Aletta came running up, followed by the three students, but Cale gestured for the boys to stay away.

"That would have kept me b...busy for all eternity", Sir Nolan brought out in pain. When Aletta had come to a halt beside him, Cale placed himself between her and the spectators to shield her from prying eyes. With her bright eyes, Aletta carefully scrutinised the man before she sat down beside him and began to heal his wounds. Somewhat surprised, he watched the girl for a while before turning his attention back to Cale. "You had been holding back, hadn't you?"

"Of course", Cale threw back confidently, which made Aletta wince. With a sigh, Sir Nolan also made his disbelief clear, but did not elaborate. She had healed his great wound and now held his face as she cast mana. Her icy eyes were serious, which made Sir Nolan feel embarrassed. Only when she had ensured that all the wounds had healed did she help Sir Nolan to stand and nodded silently at Cale. With slow steps, the three of them walked towards the students, who waited for their teacher with some distance between them. "Why exactly did you wanted to fight me? Do we know each other?"

The question had been burning on Cale's mind since the beginning. He must have been pretty sure that Cale was strong, otherwise he wouldn't have wasted his time on it. But he didn't exactly give the impression that he recognised William or Ben, and he probably wouldn't put that much trust in the testimony of strangers either. So what was it that had aroused his curiosity?

"Because of An", the man replied, which made Cale stop instantly. All at once he remembered the face of a boy his own age whom he had kept bumping into several years ago. Now it came back to him. The reason why Yuma Nolan looked so familiar to him. "I wanted to know how strong the swordmaster who won against An Perendan really is."