Thank you, everyone who is reading now. Thank you, the 19 people who are following, and the 4 that favorited the story. I myself believe that I don't deserve any one of these, yet, you guys have been kind to me, for that, I humbly thank all of you.

Now, to the real stuff.

I'll be frank.

This chapter was hard. I probably didn't do a good job on this. Because of that, I sincerely apologize. I would have probably disappointed many people because of the crappy quality, in addition to my crappy writing. I suppose it's unbearable for some.

This is honestly a chapter added on a whim. Again, I apologize for this.

Nonetheless, I hope you would enjoy this chapter that ended up as 2 parts because of no reason at all!

I'm serious. I should merge them together.

Actually. Let me do that.

Done. It's now in 1 chapter. Muahahahahaha!

Thank you for reading, and I hope that everyone would enjoy this. After this, the third year would officially start!

AAA’s battle tournament. Every three years, a tournament is held in AAA for the students. During the tournament, students compete against each other in duels or in groups to obtain the title of strongest adventurer/group. Usually, the students will also receive a free rank up, or two, or some progress to SSS, even if you don’t win, depending on your performance.

To join, we need to be at least a 4th year. There are 2 sections, a group battle section, where students form groups from 2 to 6, and a one on one section, where it is a pure 1 on 1 battle. After the initial selections, only 16 groups, and 64 individuals will compete in the final set, although there will be a few days of preliminaries to whittle down the numbers.

“But since we’re second years. We can’t join.” Nobody cut in lazily while Atler was announcing. Of course, he didn’t bother to stand, even to announce such an important thing.

Standing up is not worth the effort, he often says.

“Indeed. But if I can get away with not telling you brats, do you think I would have even bothered?” Atler snorted. “Well, you would naturally be interested in this tournament.”

“Why? Oh! Wait! I see!” He said, and his eyes suddenly gleamed. Ashley looked curiously at him, but I simply sighed. Being with him for so long, and after visiting a certain place, I could understand what he is thinking.

His thoughts are probably along the lines of ‘Clothes getting burnt/cut up’. Sadly, I’m sure that they will be using wooden weapons, given that it’s a tournament between students… but how about magic users? Isn’t it a little too biased towards mages like that?

“Since it seems that everyone else wouldn’t know, they will be fighting with real weapons, and non-insta kill spells. A specialist will be hired to draw a healing rune for this.” The moment he said healing rune though, most mages started whispering to each other.

But real weapons huh. It would be dangerous… I wonder if the specialist is good enough…Still, I suppose that Nobody’s dream could happen if it’s like that.

“Kuro-senpai would be joining, right?” Ashley suddenly asked, and I nodded. She told me multiple times that she plans to join, and win. She referred to the duels, of course. The group battles were hopeless, so hopeless that she probably won’t bother to join it.

She will win the duels easily, at least I think so, but the group battles are another matter. Kyle is quite okay, Rigel was good, but Albert was shit.

He would make a teammate trip from a puddle of water mid battle if he felt that it would be funny.

That person really is trash.

Even if the maid incident ended well, I still held a grudge from it.

“We can’t join though, so we will be watching them only.” I pointed out. “Teacher, when will the tournament start?”

“In about a week, or so. That will be all, you are all dismissed.” He said, and walked out of the room. With no classes, I decided to go to the domes, along with Nobody, to look for Senpai.

“Get some rest~” Rigel laughed while I was on the ground, panting. He walked over, pressing an ice pack over my burning leg. It didn’t matter if its winter now, it burns!

The tournament will start in 2 days, and I had been training non-stop these few days. Rigel would hang around whenever he doesn’t have class, and we would usually have lunch and dinner together. Occasionally, Clint would come to spar with me, but most of the time, it’s just Rigel and me.

“Haa… Ha… I’ve been getting weak. To think that I would mess up even once…” I muttered, and tried to push myself up, but I screamed in pain, and fell back down. The feedback from my skill failure was worse than I thought. Luckily, it will always wear off within half a day, less thanks to Rigel’s quick action.

“2 more days. Just calm down~ you’ll be fine~”

Although, while he said that, he sat down in a seiza, and lifted my head, resting it on his lap.

…

“EHHH???” I shouted as I tried to get off, but he simply stroked my hair. “Wait! What are you doing??”

He looked away, embarrassed, “Kuro.”

“What is it?” I asked, closing my eyes.

“If you win, I’ll give you… a nice bonus reward.”

“Reward?”

He laughed, while nodding, “You’ll find out if you win.” And we stayed like that for a while, with him stroking my hair. I got back up after my leg is fully healed, and raised my katana again. “Rigel?”

“Hm?”

“I’ll be waiting for the gift~”

“Of course you will.” He nodded, with a smile.

“That’s why…” I turned, and faced him with my katana.

“Kuro. Please don’t.” At this point, he realized what I was going to do, and he started crying crocodile tears.

“Spar with me!”

Throughout the night, the screams of a certain male was heard from the dome.

“When you name is called out, please enter the dome!” The announcer, a student from the communications club, shouted, and waved his hands. He was quite nice looking, having a look suitable for someone who would make a lot of girls sad. And whenever he spoke, girls will cheer for him “Remember, no killing! If you kill someone, either intentionally or unintentionally, you will have to take responsibility yourself! During the preparation phases, you can’t cast any spells or draw your weapons! That includes bows! Crossbows and Guns can start loaded and primed, but you can’t target your enemy until the battle starts!”

We were in the dome. The largest dome, and the ceiling had been removed to make it open aired, even though it was lightly snowing. Being the biggest dome, it has a total of 16 battlefields, each managed by a teacher acting as a referee. At the moment, using a levitation spell, the announcer was flying around the dome, winking at girls, causing some of them to faint.

“Damn. That guy is the enemy of all men!” Nobody shouted, and many others around him, all of them males, roared in agreement.

Of course, the announcer mistook it as eagerness for the tournament to start, and he gave everyone, again, a bright smile. “Thank you, but keeping on track, there are still more rules! You lose if you either get knocked out of the arena and land on the ground, float out of the arena bounds for a cumulative total of 10 seconds, is judged unable to fight by the referees! Is that all?”

“It is.” The principal said, as he watched from the special seats made for him. There was also Professor Gwen along with him, and a group of 3, a tall man with a robotic arm, with 2 girls, one of them looking barely 6 years old. All of them wore pure white masks, and everybody assumed that they were the principal’s friends.

They aren’t wrong, but they don’t know a crucial information. The tall man was my dad. The young woman was my mom, and the little girl was my sister.

They, especially dad, was wanted with a huge bounty, and yet, they are sitting within dangerous adventurers and bounty hunters like it’s nothing!

Actually, from what I’m told, Dad, a.k.a the specialist, appears in every single Adventurer vs Adventurer tournament hosted in AAA. He’s the person who would draw a magic healing circle that would heal anyone from near death to full health, up to multiple times in a short moment, but drains the target of almost all energy to sustain the mana in the circle.

It was perfect for a tournament. Actually, I bet that my dad made this FOR the tournaments. As long as the attack doesn’t cause an instant kill, everyone would be safe. In case an instant kill happens, the student dealing it will be expelled, while the person killed will be revived by the specialist. Sometimes.

“And so, the 6th Adventurer vs Adventurer tournament officially begins!” The playboy shouted, and everyone clapped their hands. Most students had a mechanical construct, called a spyglass, made and distributed by Nobody himself, and they pulled them out. It was cylindrical shaped, and has one spot to look with a single eye. It zooms in on wherever you are looking, and for students that are far away, it is one of the best things ever. The playboy called for names for the duels, and from the waiting rooms, students came out one after another, and the duels began.

Nobody, who sat beside me, got up and started selling extra spyglasses for people who didn’t have one yet. On a side note, Nobody himself had a better version of it, called a binoculars, hanging over his neck. Of course, since most people didn’t know what it is, no one asked him about it. Nobody gave me one, and I agree that it is friendlier to the user compared to the spyglass.

Ashley was on standby with the other healers, just in case the ‘rune’ or rather, magic circle, didn’t work. They’re wasting time, but I stopped myself from saying it.

Finally, Senpai’s name was called out. Soon, a girl with long black hair walked out of the waiting room. She wore her uniform, along with an army coat that was buttoned up due to the cold. She held a normal steel katana instead of her black katana, and she stepped onto a field, facing a female mage with a blue robe. Taking up my binoculars, I looked at the battle.

The referee, after confirming that both of them are ready, started the battle. Senpai instantly stomped when the battle started, and the enemy hastily threw up an ice barrier in front of her, but Senpai circled around it, and slashed the back of the mage, drawing blood. A single word of the rune of below them glowed, and the wound instantly closed, leaving a collapsed mage on the ground.

It ended the moment it started. The mage didn’t even last long enough to chant a second spell.

“She’s strong, as expected.” Rigel said suddenly. I didn’t even notice him coming! Like me, he had a pair of binoculars over his eyes. “But there are other stronger people.”

“Who exactly are you referring to?”

“Hm.” He thought a little. “You probably hadn’t heard of most of them, being the idiot you are. Well, the ones Kuro will face will be Flash Knife Wynn, and Ice Fortress Dean. Of course, with that you would get an idea of their ultimate techniques, or rather, main technique for Dean. Kruo’s up again.”

This time, Senpai’s enemy is an archer. He held his bow ready, strung and nocked, but undrawn. Kuro, on the other hand, took a low stance, holding her katana with both hands.

“Oh. Damn. The archer is going to taste one of her tricks soon.” Rigel whistled, and the battle started.

The archer drew and fired, following the attack with 2 more arrows. Senpai stood still until the first arrow had almost hit her, and she slashed rapidly, cutting the arrow, and the 2 other arrows, and then the archer dropped his bow, gripping his arm. Following that was a familiar flash, and the archer fell to the ground, exhausted.

“I shall explain.” Rigel said with a grin, “First, she cut the first arrow, splitting the arrow head from the rest of the arrow. Following that, her next swing sent the arrowhead flying towards the archer’s arm, cutting through the third arrow.” He nodded a few times, “It took her quite a while before she learnt that one. The next part is one of your tricks.”

“She cut off the second arrowhead, and used it to knock the third arrowhead into the archer?”

“Yep.” Rigel nodded, and a few students that were listening from the side had their jaws hanging open. Of course, from their point of view, that is something near impossible?

“Teacher! Why is everyone so shocked?”

“We were just talking about Senpai for a bit.” I explained, and Rigel continued nodding. “Senpai’s turn is coming up soon.”

Nobody, who had nowhere to sit because Rigel took his place shrugged, and left again. It seemed that he’s going to continue selling those spyglasses. Why does he need so much money anyways?

Senpai’s next turn came up around 10 minutes later though, even though I expected it to come soon. By this time, there are about 250 or so participants left. It will take at least 2 battles for everyone to cut it down to 64.

“Oh, why didn’t you join?” I suddenly asked Rigel. He seemed shocked by the question, and laughed, “I’m nowhere near as good as Senpai and the top students! There isn’t any point for me to join anyways!”

I remember him being plenty strong…. Hm… Oh well.

Anyways, Senpai was fighting again. This time… she was up against a girl with 2 knives.

“Flash Knives Wynn. Of course, the people setting the slots must not have realized that someone like Kuro was actually dangerous. They, of course, expected Wynn to win, and win the next round as well.”

That sounded… weird… wait…

“Tournament slots are preset to allow some people to reach the finals?”

“Of course. Nobody would want 2 Finals-grade adventurers to fight before the actual ‘Finals’, right? So of course, they have to set it so that they won’t meet until the finals. Of course, they have quite a list of actual strong people, and they had arranged it already.”

“So, when you said that Senpai will face the two…?”

“Yep! After looking at the participants, and everyone’s opponents in the first round, I could arrange the rest. Kuro was lucky to be arranged in the third bracket, else she would have to face Dean before the finals, as well as Howler Jack. Seriously, these nicknames are horrible. Who made them?”

“Howler Jack… the person that was shouting since the beginning?” I asked, looking at a certain battle where a 9th year roared at his poor enemy, sending her flying off the battlefield.

“Yep. Quite good, but he’ll lose to Dean.” Rigel said, but gestured to the battle, which had started some time ago.

When the battle started, Flash Knife Wynn instantly charged towards Senpai with both knives, but Senpai quickly blocked the attacks and countered. With her initial attack stopped, Wynn instantly went for the defensive, blocking attacks and only lunging when she can clearly hit the enemy.

That’s when Wynn suddenly slashed into Senpai, causing blood to flow freely as she fell back.

But the circle didn’t activate. Senpai fell, and her body broke into red shards.

The shards spun, rapidly cutting Wynn as she rapidly retreated. Wynn herself drew blood, as Senpai stood up from the middle of the storm. From what I can see, her wound didn’t even exist.

“” Rigel calmly said with a smile, “Following that, ”

The shards flew inwards, focusing around the katana. Some of the shards flew to her other hand, creating a red short blade. Wynn tried to attack her during this time, but the blood shards would fly around to attack her.

“. I need to get down.” Rigel calmly said, and I heard him standing and leaving.

Still, the battle. Wynn was gritting her teeth at this point, and Senpai charged at her. She had her front wide open, and Wynn tried to use it, but Senpai quickly turned, blocking the attack with her red katana while slashing with her short blade. Wynn dodged it by jumping back, but blood was still drawn. It dripped to the ground, and flew towards Senpai’s swords.

Wynn charged forwards, and the two girls, each with 2 weapons, fought each other head on, restlessly attacking each other. Even so, the one slowly getting battered away was Wynn. Senpai didn’t seem to slow down even after clashing for a whole 10 minutes, before Wynn was pushed back. She has a lot of wounds, but all of them were closing up, with the blood flowing towards Senpai.

After the brief stop though, she charged wildly again. But this time, Wynn spun both her knives, and a flash appeared from both her knives, as well as from the magic circle on the ground.

She reappeared behind Senpai, and both of them were still for a short moment.

And Wynn, the Flash Knife, fell onto the ground, unconscious.

I laughed, laughed madly as I won the battle. She had used her ultimate technique, the Flash Knife, and almost faster than I could perceive, she attacked, yet, it was far from enough. Blood was drawn from her last resort, not from me, but from her.

But I’m dissatisfied.

This isn’t enough. I need more. More. More!

Ah. I feel someone behind me. Some other person. Perfect. His blood is warm. So very warm.

I turned and slashed with both my weapons, but using a pair of white daggers, he blocked the attack. What the hell are thos- Argh!

I felt multiple mana weapons stabbing into me, but I ignored them and attacked again, laughing madly. I feinted with my left blade, while attacking with the blood red katana. Even so, he blocked the katana, and locked my blade, forcing it out of my hand, and it disappeared when it fell. Again, I felt more mana weapon stabbing into my back.

Ahahahaha! The pain, the pain is real! How interesting! This person!

With another scream, I leapt towards him, but he dodged the blade, and grabbed me.

No, he hugged me, and stabbed the white dagger into my heart from behind.

“Oh… Rigel…?”

“Good evening, Senpai. Feeling better?” He laughed, removing the light dagger as well as the mana arrows, leaving no wounds.

“Red, everywhere, including your face~” Rigel laughed, letting me off. Almost everyone from the whole dome was silently watching us, and I looked away in embarrassment.

, while it gives great power, as well as immunity to most forms of damage, it will slowly burn away the dancer’s mind, turning him or her into a blood seeking murderer. To activate it, I must receive a heavy wound, and I had used it without thinking.

“Winner, Kuro!” The referee finally announced, and a few people cheered for me. Of course, everyone had already finished, except for the last battle.

No, the last battle is over already. My supposed enemy surrendered. With that, I’m officially in the top 64.

“Come on, you’ve been fighting for almost a whole hour without rest.”

“Ugh… I feel so bad… was I laughing?”

Rigel laughed, while Clint and Ashley rushed over from different directions. “It was a beautiful laugh!”

“You… You…! Argh! Why are you so annoying!” I shouted, flailing my arms, but he simply hugged me and laughed.

It was almost 8 when I got up. Yesterday, I had almost lost myself to one of the few dangerous techniques… and because of that, I had a nightmare. It was…

What was it about again? I can’t remember. I better get myself ready for the battles today, since the first battle starts in 9. With those thoughts, I got off my bed, and cleaned myself, putting on the school uniform Rigel designed, along with the Army coat Rigel gave me due to the cold. I feel like I look like a certain character in a certain novel from my town…

With that done, I brought both katanas, and the steel longsword, and headed towards the dome, feeling excited for the battles that will be coming soon.

“Ahahahaha! Kuro was scary, wasn’t she?” Rigel was the only one laughing, while all our faces paled. I still remember the fight between Rigel and Kuro yesterday. It’s a wonder that both Senpai and Rigel survived. Senpai had almost 300 arrows on her back, but she ignored all of them. When Rigel stabbed her heart, all the arrows, as well as the white dagger he was using disappeared, and she turned normal.

I know her ‘dances’, but I’ve never seen one so horrible. It started beautiful… but midway through the fight, she started laughing and laughing.

I don’t want to face her when she’s laughing.

Rigel was still laughing. He really laughs too much. At least it isn’t horrifying like Senpai’s.

“Welcome, to the second day of the AvA tournament! As you all know, my name is Neil, and I was the announcer for yesterday as well! I’m glad to serve all of you again today, for the 1 on 1 tournament! Without further ado, may the best adventurer claim victory!”

He was flying around the dome with his thick coat, and girls all over where whooping loudly while most of the males threw out abuse.

“Now, all the participants, please enter the battlefield according to this list!” While saying that, a group of mages quickly created a magical screen that stated the list of combatants. Senpai will be facing a wind mage… hm… Unlike some people though, the wind mage didn’t have an extra nickname.

Senpai didn’t have one as well, but today, she is known as Kuro the Black Demon.

The only problem is that ‘Kuro’ means black. So it’s actually Black the Black Demon, but I suppose they didn’t know that.

“Field 5… second round…” With a total of 64 participants, the first 32 battles will be held in 2 groups of 16 battles. This is to ensure that there will be enough time for the semi-finals and finals.

Senpai, being in the ‘3rd bracket’ according to Rigel, will end up fighting Ice Fortress Dean. Of course, her semi-final enemy is hard as well, but according to Rigel, Senpai would be able to defeat him easily. Still, from the names, I have no idea who the person that will face Senpai is.

As the battles in the first group ended, the participants in the second group started getting called. As expected, Senpai was the 6th set to be called out, and both me and Rigel leaned forwards.

“Start!” The referee shouted. Of course, from this distance, we couldn’t hear a thing, but we could see the referee swing his hand down. The mage instantly threw up a wind barrier, throwing Senpai away from her charge. She staggered a little while getting up, but the mage had already finished changing, and a huge tornado appeared around her, trapping her in it.

It seemed bad, but Rigel was calmly humming beside me.

The mage summoned a wave of fire, throwing it into the tornado, which started to flare up. I have no idea how it works, does it burn mana? It is horribly dangerous to Senpai, but…

Still humming~

The spinning flames rapidly grew, and blocked Senpai from our view. Most of the students were watching her… no, they were watching the ice fortress beside her, because the flaming tornado is gone.

“. ”

The flaming tornado, after it was generated, was absorbed into Senpai’s black katana, which turned red, and while the mage was stunned, she jumped, and swung down. A flaming line appeared, and with a shine of the circle, the battle was over.

“Winner, Kuro!” The referee announced, and Senpai returned to the waiting room. Rigel quickly left too, to join up with Senpai.

After the first round, there will be an half an hour break before the last 32. Nobody was still selling spyglasses, and Ashley was with the healers.

Maybe I’ll go talk to Carla. She’s really excited with Senpai’s battles yesterday. With her not understanding the significance of blood, it seems that the red was very beautiful to her.

I need to keep an eye on her.

“An archer.” Rigel whistled. After listening to Carla going on and on about Senpai, the top 32 was going to start, and I returned to the seats. Moments before the battle started, Rigel returned as well, and we waited for the battles to start.

This time, it was split into sets of 4. Each set having 8 participants. Unlike the previous rounds, a set won’t start until the previous set had ended. This is to let the students to focus on the battles easier.

This time, Senpai was on the third set. On the first set, the most noticeable person is the one that creates a huge ice castle before starting to attack, he is known as Ice Fortress D… something. The next person is Howler… K…? Something as well. I’m not sure.

Finally, with the second set ending, the third set began, and as Rigel said, her enemy as an archer. He had a shortbow, but with 2 short swords as well.

The moment the battle started though, the archer did something unexpected. He jumped towards Senpai, pulling out a sword. Since she didn’t expect such an attack, she was quite late in blocking, giving the archer additional attack chances. He slashed a few times, while occasionally firing arrows at near point blank range. Occasionally, Senpai would slash once or twice with her katana, but with the enemy on her, she couldn’t do much except for blocking.

From the outside, Senpai seemed to be losing, but even up to now, she didn’t even get a scratch, while every one of her attacks were highly damaging. The archer kept on pressuring her, but in the end, he accumulated too much damage, and fell onto the ground, unconscious.

That was a short battle, I thought, and Rigel nodded in agreement. “It would have been better if he had wind magic, or used his bow more often.” He had added. Surprisingly, he was quite knowledgeable in this. But then, someone that can suppress Senpai wouldn’t be a joke, right? Well, with that, there is nothing left of interest in the top 32.

Since it was about 2 hours past noon, we decided to get both Nobody and Ashley, and have lunch with Senpai.

During the top 16, Senpai’s enemy was a water mage.

Due to her nature, though, Senpai crushed her without any problems. The battle started with a huge wave of water towards Senpai, but she simply jumped over it and ended the battle.

That was sad. For the mage. She was crying after the battle when she woke up.

“With that, we are finally at the Quarter finals! With only 8 adventurers left, who will claim absolute victory? Who will be the one at the top?” Neil shouted, and most people, even those who should be jealous, started cheering. “First up, on the left side we have…”

Suddenly, he stopped, and he looked at the principal.

“Do I really have to say this?” He asked with a pleading voice.

“Sorry.” Was the only reply the principal gave.

“Erm. Ok. So. Well… Let me see. Ok.” Neil nodded, his head calmed down. “On the left side, we have-“

“It is me! The beautiful core, protected by the indestructible walls of ice. Me, who would stand in the middle of a blizzard, gracefully dancing while the enemy cowers in fear and cold. It is me, Ice Fortress Dean!”

…

The whole dome was silent. Only a little girl in the front was clapping.

Carla, I’m disappointed.

Even Neil was mortified, getting cut off suddenly like that after he gathered his nerves. Poor guy. He nodded with his dead eyes, and continued the introduction, of the other person, “Yes. Yes. Thank you, Dean. Now, on the right, we have Elina, a spell sword. Referee?”

“Ok. Ready? Start!”

In the previous battles, Dean would hold back in the beginning, fishing with his ice spears before actually engaging, but this time, he simply laughed madly, as the ice formed beneath him, creating a fortress larger than ever. Since they had 4 battlefields to use, the huge fortress was created.

There were cannons, ballistas, and ice archers on the walls of the fort, and all of them were aiming Elina.

“I surrender.”

That’s how the first quarter finals battle ended.

As Rigel expected, Senpai won the quarter finals, and the semifinals. She fought a swordsman on her semifinals, but simply overwhelmed him, securing an easy victory. Now I see why Rigel said that she will surely get to the finals.

Even so, for the finals, she is facing against the Ice fortress Dean. The one that forced every one of his enemies up to now surrender. Did she have a chance?

I don’t know, but she is Kuro. Senpai. She won’t go down easily. Even Rigel had went down directly to the sidelines.

All we could do is watch.

“Hoooo! I didn’t expect this, actually. I expected Yamato to win, and fight me here, but it seems that someone actually beat Yamato?”

“Someone like him won’t be able to beat me. Same goes for you.” Senpai said. She crouched, her hand over the hilt of her katana, which was in its sheath. With her stance, she would be able to instantly draw it and sheathe it almost instantly.

But as the battle started, the ice fortress appeared, and Deal was once again laughing. But unlike his previous enemies, Senpai charged, dropping light blue petals around her. It was a dance, and Dean, who noticed it as well, stopped laughing. All his weapons started attacking, and he himself created a wave of ice spikes to attack.

Senpai dodged the attacks, her blue petals covering her when she couldn’t dodge. Finally, she stopped in front of the ice fortress, and slashed. It was instantaneous, she slashed, and kept her sword with a click.

A diagonal line appeared in the middle of the fortress, and it started to slide apart, but the ice refroze itself quickly. From the wall, multiple ice spikes shot out, but Senpai back flipped, landing on a blue shield, no, a large blue petal, and leapt up towards Dean.

Dean didn’t waste this chance. He removed the ice fortress, flying back down to the ground while absorbing most of the mana used in the fortress, and created multiple cannons and archers, shooting Senpai who was suspended in air. Again, the blue petals blocked the attacks as if they were nothing.

No, it wasn’t blocking. It was absorbing.

What were the blue petals? Is it…?

“[Ice Gladius]” Dean said, and a sword formed in his right hand, along with a shield on his other hand. With his melee weapons, he jumped towards Senpai and attacked.

But even if she is in midair, she could still block the initial attack. It was thanks to the blue petals, which is solid, and it gives her platforms to move around midair. Both of them landed, and Senpai held a few petals in her hands, charging towards Dean. They clashed with their melee weapons, blocking and trading hits. Senpai had an advantage though. Every time Dean tried to retreat, she would throw a blue petal towards Dean, tainting it red and removing the shard. If the shard misses, it would fly back and return to Senpai.

Can the ice be nullified by blood? Dean came to the same conclusion, and he quickly slashed himself with his ice sword lightly. It drew blood, but with a little magic, the wound had closed.

With the bloody ice sword, Senpai’s blue petals can no longer be used as shields. With that, Dean pressed on the offensive.

“” While Senpai twisted back, the ice shards turned bright, and surrounded Senpai, creating a ball of ice. The bloody sword didn’t even have any effect on the ball, but Dean quickly created an ice fortress, with the weapons aiming the ball of ice.

“You are too late.” Senpai said in a monotone, the ice barrier contracting and compressing into her sword. “!” With her sword raised, the ice flew upwards as she shouted the name of her skill

Hail formed instantly on top of Dean, and the ice fell on him, sticking to each other, and onto him, and within seconds, he was incased in a huge block of ice. The ground glowed, and all the ice was removed, leaving a panting Dean

“Winner: Kuro!”

“No. Not yet. Everyone shall die in this bitter cold.” Senpai said in a monotone, and the created a staff made out of ice. She swung horizontally, creating a barrier around her, and held her staff in front of her. “O Coffin of ice, sealing away anguish…”

“Stop it, Kuro!” The referee shouted, but she didn’t stop, and was still chanting, “invite death with thy bitter eulogy. [Frost Snowbell Blossom: Blizzard Shower].”

Rigel was running towards her, but he was too late. Ice started forming around her, and in the sky. The clouds rapidly multiplied, and hail started to fall.

A grey card flew from the side, piercing through the barrier, and stuck into her body.

And she froze.

The blizzard stopped forming, and the small hail continued for a bit. At that point, Rigel had already reached Senpai, breaking open the ice shell to reveal Senpai, before stabbing her in the heart, breaking the time lock and causing her to fall onto Rigel.

“Ah… I did it again?” Senpai asked. It wasn’t loud, but with the silence, everyone could hear it easily.

Rigel smiled, his voice also soft, “You did it again. Very well this time too.”

“Hahahaha… Sorry.”

“The champion of the 1 on 1 has been decided!” Eiden shouted, standing up. “Congratulations, Kuro!”

Everyone cheered happily. Even if in the end, she tried to kill all of them, nobody was actually hurt, so it was quickly forgiven. Everyone whooped when Rigel carried Senpai, who was waving, away.

Since I promised to let them do… I’m sure Senpai wouldn’t expect that, but I guess she would be happy overall.

One day. Maybe… No. Not yet. I won’t be able to face mom. We still need to wait many years before we do it.

With the 1 on 1’s over, perhaps I could assist Nobody in making spyglasses.

As for Senpai and Rigel… well. Maybe you guys can imagine yourselves.

Extra

“Oh. So he’s her key.” I nodded. Of course, due to my occasional travels to Nihon, I learnt about their fighters. Their strongest warrior, supported by his or her lover. It really is a reckless style, yet is so very beautiful.

“She’s so cool!” Carla said with glittering eyes. Gods, she’s so cute. I want to hug her, but I’m hugging Shiina now. Hm… I suppose my left hand is free…

“Stop thinking about these things.” Shiina pouted while pinching my cheek. As usual, she had a nice scent, although it isn’t as enticing as Mel claimed it to be. Mel isn’t attracted to Carla as well, since she didn’t have the ‘scent’.

“Papa! Papa!” Carla, who noticed what we were doing, jumped into me. Shiina backed off, and I softly grabbed her, carrying her up to my shoulders. “Yay!”

“You guys are having fun here.” Eiden sighed, while he leaned on his chair, tired. “On the other hand, I have to deal with the stupid government, stopping their flood of legal complaints! I know that I’m principal because I’m efficient, John, but this is too much!” He shouted to the air, and Gwen coughed, shutting him off.

“Huh. At least you don’t risk your life days travelling in unexplored areas, clearing dungeons, doing a hell lot of random tasks that makes no sense, fighting SSS to double L Ranked enemies every 5 minutes while taking a stroll.” Gwen coughed again, and I stopped my stream of complaints.

“And the person himself is missing. I shouldn’t have let you saved me then. I should have left John the moment he told me to consider!”

Shiina laughed, “Do you really think so?”

Eiden shook his head tiredly, “Not really. But this is too much. Training the newbies so that they will be indebted to us, while protecting them from the mastermind! Luckily most of them are orphans, else we would have to protect their families as well…”

“Simple, then? We just keep on doing what we are doing. He’s John. He’ll bring us the location of the Mastermind.” Gwen said, and both me and Rigel laughed.

“He’ll probably be a father for at least 3 children. He was 18 and pure when he left, no?”

“No doubt he will have done many girls! Wasn’t he like 18 and still a virgin when he disappeared?”

It seems that both of us knew him really well. Shiina was blushing at the vulgar talk, and Carla was utterly confused. Gwen sighed again, but had no way to retort us.

“Still… I hope he returns soon.” Eiden muttered, and all of us nodded solemnly.

End of Year Results

Name:ClintAge:10Year:2

SubjectMarksExtra comments

Combat1127As expected. Keep up the good work!Swordsmanship523You really could do better if you tried.Advanced engineering452Allowed to advance to Expert engineering.Tactics232Please focus more in class.Excellent