The air around us intensified with each passing moment as our battle continued. A discernable glint shone in Miss Amber's narrowed eyes as she seemed to notice a change in the ambiance that I gave off. With a determined look on her face, we both propelled ourselves forward, hurtling toward each other.

Before we collided, Professor Amber disappeared, her nimble moves and swift footwork carried her behind me in an instant, leaving only a fleeting silhouette in my peripheral vision. At this speed, my eyes had a hard time keeping track of her movement.

However, my heightened sensitivity to mana allowed me to perceive the intricate particles of energy around us. Professor Amber's every move was laid bare before me, emanating a distinct pattern of mana, spilling with the intent of battle. I hardly had to do any tracking, it was as if the mana itself warned me about the incoming danger by the waves it gave off.

Gripping my sword tightly in my hands, I began to move my body. I turned around and swung up, catching her blade before Miss Amber even followed through with her attack. With the strength behind my attack, her arms with the blade in hand flew up into the air.

She seemed to be taken aback for a brief moment, but quickly recovered her composure. She took a couple of steps back in order to regain her footing. However, I wasn't going to let that happen. I followed close behind her and swung my blade in a diagonal arc. Miss Amber shifted her priority and lowered her blade in order to block the blow, causing her to tumble down to the floor.

She rolled a small distance away before hopping up to her feet. As she did I pressed on, sprinting toward her with my blade ready to deliver another attack. Before I reached her, she disappeared and my slash ended up slicing through the air.

Again, a blurry silhouette darted across my vision but the mana around me emitted rapid pulsing waves, letting me know her exact position and giving me an idea on the route she took to get there. In the next moment, I lowered my body to duck underneath Miss Amber's attack.

Gripping the hilt of my blade tightly, I immediately spun around and swung my blade, only to end up slicing through the air once again. She's constantly on the move, I realized, sidestepping another blow.

With that, I fell into a repetitive cycle of dodging and slicing at nothing. I was getting nowhere. I needed to launch an attack fast enough to catch her off guard and powerful enough to stunt her movements... Heh, wonder what that attack would be?

After dodging one of Miss Amber's attacks, I let out a breath and surged forward, my body traveling a small distance away. That small distance was enough to buy time for me to charge up my mana.

I had already accepted the fact that sooner or later my abilities would come to light for everyone to see. I never planned to keep them a secret but I knew if I burst out using lightning and gravity magic, I would draw too much attention.

People would find it hard to believe that I am simply a special-born child and they would start to ask questions. Just like Theodore proposed a while back, I'll start small and begin by revealing my lightning magic first.

I lowered myself into a battle-ready stance and stared ahead. I saw Miss Amber giving me a questioning look for a brief moment before she charged toward me. I didn't need my eyes to know where she was. Once the cluster of mana that resided within her, radiating threatening waves, got close enough, lightning began to pop out of thin air, filling the air with a crackling noise.

In a quick motion, I lowered myself down to the ground, placed one of my hands against the cool floor, and released all that pent-up energy, causing lightning to explode out in all directions. Again, the gasps of the few spectators in the crowd reached my ears.

To my surprise, Miss Amber didn't follow through with any attack, she merely came close and immediately backed away. She knew I was up to something and planned accordingly to that premonition. Unlike Leon, that idiot, who has fallen for the same trick several times.

"So..." Miss Amber spoke, the corner of her lip curving up into a smirk. "The rumors are true, you are special-born." Following her words, fire began to ignite at her knuckles, its calm swaying creating intricate patterns as it moved up her forearm and up her sword. "Gotta take it a step higher as well."

She conjured fire to enhance her body's defense and strengthen her attacks. And what was that she said about the 'rumors are true'... oh, right, Director Stanton probably told her about me. He's one of the few who knows about my abilities. How much did he tell her...

My train of thought was interrupted as Miss Amber charged forward disappearing in a haze of black smoke. Readying myself, I noted that she was coming up from my right side. I lowered myself to dodge the blow as it was the quickest move I could make. Miss Amber seemed to know I would make that move and quickly changed the direction of her blade down to me.

I wasn't in a position to be able to block in time so I channeled mana to my leg and as her blade neared I kicked the hilt of her sword, causing her blade to twist. At that moment, I quickly threw a swing of my own, aimed straight at her neck but she pulled her head back in time, evading the attack. Due to my lightning-coated sword, electricity flew racing toward the sky.

Miss Amber pulled back, gathering herself and taking a moment to change her approach. I took advantage of that short moment and raised my blade with its tip pointing forward, straight toward my opponent. I gathered my mana and poured it into one devastating attack. Out of the tip of my blade, I unleashed an electrical discharge.

Like a lightning bolt coming down from the sky, this one tore through the air with enough strength to even damage me, hence why I used my blade as the focus point. Ahead of me, Miss Amber immediately reacted, the last thing I saw was her eyes widening slightly before she moved to dodge the attack.

With a thunderous crash, my attack cracked the wall of the small arena slightly. My attention was taken by Miss Amber who stood motionless, her left hand twitching slightly. My attack barely grazed her, and this was only by maximizing the blue lightning, any more and the tendrils would have turned a light purple.

Forcing her left arm to grip her blade, she dashed forward, her figure becoming a blurry shape that darted across my field of view. This time, she didn't rush in to attack me, she only circled around me. My head turned, my eyes trying to follow her movements. That's when I sensed a shift in the mana in the air. She's coming.

We had gone through the same drill over and over again that at this point I didn't take time to wonder what would be different. I only spun around, ready to evade or counter her attack. However, once my eyes were able to take in her figure, my eyes widened as, right then and there, I took notice of a crucial detail.

Where is her sword? She rushed in without a weapon in hand. No... something's off... as that thought rang through my head, I sensed faint traces of mana coming from behind me. Did she... no way... she tossed her sword and, at the same time, circled around on the opposing side and rushed in.

Okay, calm down, it's simple. I can trace where her sword is so I just need to guard against Miss Amber and then evade the trajectory of the blade. I got this.

Without a weapon, Miss Amber had to resort to hand-to-hand combat. I wasn't a pro at fighting hand-to-hand but I knew enough to get around and deal some hard blows.

In front of me, Miss Amber planted her foot on the ground and raised her dominant leg, which was the most efficient move she could make. Due to the speed she was moving at, her leg raced in a wide arc through the air and toward my head. In turn, I lowered my stance and raised both my arms, ready to catch her leg and throw her off balance.

However, something unexpected caught my eye. I had taken notice before of the thin dark, see-through fabric that covered her legs. Here and now, below her skirt, it was plain for me to see something I wasn't supposed to... White...

Dazed by the contents that resided below her skirt. Her kick ended up slamming against my raised arms. At the same time, her blade zipped past my leg, cutting through the cloth of my pants and creating a shallow cut near the back of my knee, causing me to drop down to one leg.

Miss Amber wasted no time and grabbed both my hands and slammed me down on the ground. Sitting atop me, she held both my hands in place at the top of my head.

I thought I felt my face heat up as I stared up at her but I immediately came back to my senses as the professor seemed to be somewhat angry. "Do you surrender?" she said, her voice low yet firm.

I couldn't move. She had me pinned. I took a moment before uttering, "Uh? Y-Yes." As soon as those words left my mouth she let go of me and stood up.

"I have to say I'm disappointed," she said, her tone unchanging. Without even taking a glance my way, she faced away. "Go to the nurse if you're hurt, while you're at it get them to sew your uniform back together." With that, she began walking away, and as she did I noticed her left arm still twitching. She's the one who needs a nurse.

Letting out a breath, I stood up and began making my way out of the small arena. A small wound like this I can easily heal, but she's right about my clothes, I better get them mended. I'll trust Ari to look after Flare until I get back.

Thinking back to the events that had occurred, I recalled the image of what I saw beneath her skirt as well as when she pinned me down. The images were too clear in my mind that it made my face heat up.

Ugh, I feel weird. I haven't felt like this since I was a teen back in my old world.

However, I immediately sobered up, once the image of Professor Amber's distinct angry expression crossed my mind. She was in such a good mood at the beginning of class. What had gotten her so upset? Was it something I did? Oh, no, is it because she knows that I accidentally took a peek? Dammit! I just know it's going to be awkward the next time I see her.