Part 1

As the doors leading to the school's roof opened, I couldn't help but stop in my tracks and suck in a deep, nostalgia-filled breath. Only to nearly get knocked over for my trouble.

"Sorry, coming through!" Angie called out well after she bumped into me, followed by her boyfriend. He was, once again, designated as the group's mule and was carrying a whole bunch of lunch boxes, all of which came from the cafeteria. In any case, once out in the open, the Celestial girl looked at the sunny sky and exclaimed a delighted, "Nice!"

She was probably referring to the weather, and she wasn't wrong. We had an unseasonal hot spell at the moment, bringing the temperature up to… well, maybe not 'balmy' per se, but at least 'reasonably pleasant'.

"This brings back memories," my dear assistant whispered by my side, and before I could respond, my other girlfriend poked her head between us.

"Good ones or bad ones?"

"Mostly good," Judy responded after a short delay, and Elly nodded along with a grin.

"Same here."

"Brother! You're in the way!" Penny complained in the back, and so we stepped aside to let my sisters and the class rep through. The former were about as energetic as expected, considering that this was Penny's first rooftop lunch with the rest of us, while the latter was… well, Ammy looked a bit out of it, but I figured it probably had to do with her officially joining the homunculus project during the weekend. She must've been tired.

We soon followed after them, and once again, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the significance of this place. The doorway was where I had my first major (if silly) encounter with the princess. The roof itself was where I met Judy for the first time. The spot over to our right was where the protracted chase with the first Chimera ended with us falling off the roof… though it was in a Purple Zone, so maybe it didn't count. As for our left, there was the bench where we had a talk with Elly when I failed to 'let her down gently'.

I would've probably continued to ruminate for a while, but I was jolted out of my thoughts when I noticed a pair of familiar faces already occupying that very same bench.

"Ah! Hello!"

The enthusiastic greeting came from the red-headed arch-mage sitting there, with a huge hamburger in his hands. His companion, the ornery Lord Ambrose, only scoffed at first, but when Lord Gulliver gave him a sideways look, he let out a low groan and nodded in my general direction. There was a whole pile of fast foods between the two of them, so I figured they also took advantage of the weather to have an outdoor lunch.

However, before I could properly respond, I was pulled along by my girlfriends, and they led me to the corner of the roof, where Josh and Angie were already setting up our usual spot. I had to say, the wind was a bit chilly, but so long as we were in the sun, and I had the girls to warm me, I imagined everything would be just fine.

"This one is yours, and this is yours, I think," the Celestial girl muttered as she handed out one lunch box after another. My sisters graciously accepted them, and while they weren't as fancy as the ones my girlfriends usually brought to school, they were still high-quality, so I didn't mind trying one out for a change. Meanwhile, Ammy accepted her lunch, and Angie turned to us with a beaming smile. "And last, but not least, these are yours!"

With those words, she handed a big, multi-layered box over to us.

"It's a red-letter day," I declared with unnecessary gravitas as I accepted the pack. "For the first time since time immemorial, we are the ones mooching off Josh instead of the other way around! We've come so far!"

"Bite me," the target of my jab hit me back, eliciting a giggle from his girlfriend.

I wasn't lying though. It was the very first time that Josh, contrary to his usual MO, treated us to a cafeteria lunch. It naturally had to do with him finally receiving his Draconian tournament prize money. Even then, he had to be volunteered by Angie, but I wasn't going to complain. I appreciated the novelty.

In any case, once everyone got their food, we sat down on the usual benches in the corner, hitting me with another wave of strange nostalgia. But then, the banter started.

"So? How did your Valentine's go?" Angie asked with expectant eyes aimed at my girlfriends.

"The Chief was really proactive," Judy responded and rested her head on my shoulder.

"I don't think that's what she was asking about, Dormouse," I whispered, but she continued to nuzzle up to me, so I dropped the issue.

"I was more curious about the chocolate," Angie continued, and when we didn't respond, she narrowed her eyes into suspicious squints. "You gave Leo Valentine's chocolate, right?"

"We didn't," Elly admitted a touch sheepishly, focused on unpacking our lunchbox so that she didn't have to look up.

"Seriously?" Josh chimed in, and this time, my other girlfriend shook her head, even while still attached to my shoulder.

"The Chief made us promise that we wouldn't."

"What? Why?" Angie pressed on, so I had to step in and explain things.

"It was to get ahead of any novel ideas Judy would come up with."

By that, I meant trying to invoke one of the sillier (and lewder) tropes associated with the occasion. Namely, the one where the girl would wait for her love interest (in this case, me) in the bedroom, with only her private parts covered in molten chocolate. Yes, that was a trope, and a messy and potentially unhygienic one that I shut down the moment I got a wind of Judy looking into the matter. Of course, the others didn't need to know the granular details, yet as always, my dear assistant read my mind and turned to me with a frown.

"I told you; I was only looking it up for research purposes."

"Then what about the order of five kilograms of low-melting-point chocolate?"

"Also research."

"And the special plastic bedsheet covers?"

"Also also research," she insisted, and let out a long sigh. "To think our relationship had fallen so low you automatically presume I was up to something eccentric just because of such circumstantial evidence. What happened to trust?"

"Says the girl who's been hellbent on giving me a maid fetish."

Judy narrowed her eyes a bit, and flatly stated, "Don't be silly, Chief. I can't give you something you already have."

Our small argument came to a close when Elly placed our individual lunches into our laps. Meanwhile, the confounded Celestial decided to ignore us and moved on.

"I gave Josh a big chocolate heart!" Angie declared with a toothy grin.

"It wasn't just big, it was enormous," her boyfriend followed her up with a shake of his head. "Where did you even get something like that? No, scratch that. How did you even bring it into the house?"

"I asked Mister Jaakobah, and he got it for me," she answered off-handedly before focusing her attention on my sisters, blissfully snacking on the next bench over and pretending they weren't part of the conversation. Apparently, she would have none of that. "What about you two? Did you give chocolates to anyone?"

Momentarily stumped, it was Snowy who recovered first, and she answered in a soft voice.

"I'm not very familiar with the custom, so I used my allowance to buy a lot of small chocolate truffles and gave one to everyone." She paused for a second, and then added, "One for Leo, one each for Uncle Brang and the Fauns, and then I gave one to each of the Knights, and—"

"I also gave some homemade chocolate to Snowy in return," Penny cut in with a grin. Then, as if only realizing how that sounded, she hastily backpedalled. "A-Awawa! Wait that sounds wrong! I meant I gave her appreciation chocolate! It's a thing, I looked it up! There's nothing weird about it, so don't read anything into it!"

"You're the only one who does that, kiddo," I commented on the side, much to my fuming sister's chagrin.

Meanwhile, Angie moved on, and she focused on the class rep sitting next to my sisters. She was completely quiet until this point, trying to stay out of it, but when she caught Angie's eye, she had no choice but to put her fork down for the moment.

"I tried casting homemade chocolate for Mike." She spoke in a low voice, followed by a sigh. "It didn't turn out how I wanted, but he was really happy about it, so I think it was a success. Maybe. I have to try harder next year."

"You see, Chief?" Judy poked me in the side and pointed at Ammy. "That's how a good boyfriend should act; just accept any chocolate given without a fuss."

"Does that apply to fiancées?" Elly chimed in, and my other girlfriend nodded with a determined look.

"Doubly so."

"Speaking of which," Josh interjected, much to my appreciation, and pointed at the princess's hand. "Did anyone else notice the rings?"

"I did, but they're against the dress code of the school, so I didn't want to bring attention to them," the class rep commented with a hand on her glasses, yet it somehow lacked the usual menace.

"Oops?" Josh responded nonchalantly and repeated the question. "So, since the cat's out of the bag, you might as well explain what they're about."

"It was our special gift from Leo," the princess said and extended her hand to show off her ring.

"One of our gifts," Judy corrected her, but at the same time, she was also showing her own ring to the childhood friend couple.

"Wow!" Angie exclaimed with stars in her eyes. "I wonder when I'll get one of these?"

As per the unwritten laws of comedic timing dictated, she said that just as Josh was taking a swig from a can of soda he bought on the way to the roof, and he nearly made a spit-take. How very stereotypical of him.

"Ack! That's… too soon," he said in a strained voice, trying to keep himself from coughing, and her girlfriend rolled her eyes.

"I didn't mean it like that, silly." She patted him on the back, and once Josh was no longer wheezing, she exhaled a sigh. "But still, I didn't think an engagement ring would make such a huge difference."

"Difference in what?" Snowy inquired on the side once she finally managed to calm down my other sister. In response, Angie vaguely gestured in Judy's direction.

"You know? That." Seeing that none of us understood her, she waved her hand even harder. "I mean, it's like Judy's completely different now! Almost like she's glowing or something."

"Chief?"

"No, the enchantment doesn't make you glow," I explained before she could get the wrong idea. "She must mean your makeover."

"Right. She did get prettier," Josh noted absently, only to get for his childhood friend to hit his back like it was a drum. "Ow! Hey, I'm just telling the truth!"

"It's still not something you should say in the open, especially when your girlfriend's sitting right next to you," Angie pouted, and soon the two of them descended into one of their customary, bickering back-and-forths.

In the meantime, the class rep seemed unusually interested in my lovely assistant.

"Did you change your hairstyle?" she asked, and Judy responded with a nod and a soft 'Mm.' "It's a subtle difference, but it looks good. It gives you a different atmosphere."

"I said the same thing this morning!" Penny interjected, and even Snowy agreed with the assessment.

"Actually…" Elly flashed a smug smirk, as if she was proud of some achievement. "I've overheard some boys talking about Judy after science class. They also noticed!"

"You hear that, Dormouse?" I put an arm around her waist and flashed a cheeky grin. "You've been officially recognized as a heroine. Even the placeholders spotted it."

MY whispers were rewarded with an eminently flat 'Yay', but then she rested her head on my shoulder again, so maybe she was just embarrassed by the attention. Elly must've come to the same conclusion, as she let out a soft giggle, and since the childhood friends also concluded their argument with a kiss, we were on the fast track to finish the customary bantering phase and enter the 'actually eat your lunch' phase, if not for the sudden and unannounced arrival of a new face.

"Ah, Leonard! Here you are!" Sahi called out to me from the rooftop access doors and quickly marched over to our side. "I have, like, big news!"

"Big news?" I repeated after her with a curiously raised brow, and her lips parted into a huge grin.

"I talked to Endy, and he, like, totally approved to let me take all my research and resources over to your place! It should speed up the job by, like, a million percent!"

I figured she must've been talking about the homunculus project. It was going along nicely, and if she truly managed to convince Lord Grandpa to let her move her already existing research materials from the School to the base, it would certainly serve as a boost. Not to mention, it would hopefully alleviate some of the financial strain it was putting on my wallet. Who would have thought that rushing a special project that would've normally taken about a year to be finished in a few weeks would be costly, am I right?

Self-deprecation aside, my bucket list was finally getting a bit less crowded. The dates were a big drain on my time and mental resources (or rather, setting them up, arranging the venues, and making the rings were), so now that I could finally strike them off the list, I had some much-needed breathing room. With the secret project proceeding smoothly, and the security around the School and our neighbourhood solidifying, those also required less of my attention, so I could finally focus on other issues I'd been putting off till now.

Such as dealing with Percival, retiring Bel, and dismantling the Directorate… though not necessarily in that order. In other words, I was still going to be busy. Story of my life, really.

In any case, since she was here already, I was just about to be polite and ask Sahi if she wanted to join us for lunch, but I was beaten to the punch by an indignant harrumph.

"That's 'Lord Endymonion' to you, at the very least, young lady!" Lord Ambrose fumed as he walked over to us after overhearing what she just said.

"Oh, please!" Lord Gulliver followed on his heels, leaving the rest of their food behind on the bench. "Don't be a grouch. Cut the girl some slack."

"Who are you calling a grouch, you fool!" the older arch-mage thundered at him, and then pointed at the brown girl by our side. "And what do you mean by 'cut her some slack'?! Do you want her to end up like you?"

"Sure, sure." The lanky man only grinned at his colleague and turned to Sahi. "Seriously though, what was that thing about moving away from the School?"

"I'm… Uh… Like, I'm trying to complete grandma's research?" Sahi responded a touch timidly. Whether that was an act, or she really was taken aback by being approached by these two, I couldn't tell.

"Ah, yes. The late Saahira," Gulliver spoke with a wistful sigh. "She was a strong woman of integrity taken from us too soon."

"And you say you want to finish her research?" Ambrose butted in with a skeptical look in his eyes. "Big shoes to fill, isn't it?"

"I'm sure she's up to the task," Gulliver followed him up with a good-natured smile. "I mean, look at her. She's the spitting image of her grandmother at this age, and shares her talent too."

"She's sounding more and more like her with every passing day as well," the other arch-mage continued to grumble, and Gulliver let out a soft chuckle.

"It must run in the family!" He paused and then levelled a pair of questioning eyes at me. "But why are you leaving the School again? I don't think you answered that?"

I had no idea why he was focused on me. Maybe looking for my reaction? Anyhow, after a long beat, Sahi gathered her wits and told them, "It's because Leonard, like, has a lot of cool enchantments that are indispensable for my research."

"Ah, yes. The enchantments," Lord Ambrose muttered as he also turned to me, with one hand patting his beard. The gesture reminded me of Percival, but I tried not to let my distaste show on my face. "I've heard a lot about those. They say you're both a genius enchanter and illusionist." He remained silent for a beat and then shook his head. "A talent wasted on hollow schools."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I blurted out, and Lord Gulliver quickly stepped up to clarify.

"Oh, don't mind him. He just has very strong opinions about the different schools of magic. A bit of a pet peeve of his, really."

"Silence, lout! It's nothing like a 'pet peeve'! My distaste for the aetheric branches is founded entirely on decades of expertise, hard evidence, and common sense."

"Oh dear. Here we go again…" Gulliver noted with an exaggerated slumping of his shoulders.

"What are the 'aetheric branches'?"

To my surprise, the question came from Judy, who sneakily picked up her phone and started taking notes. Since the two acting arch-mages were still squabbling, it fell on the shoulders of the incognito one to answer her inquiry.

"It's, like, an unofficial way to divide the schools of magic. It's totally not accepted by the Assembly, but, like, some people just like to use them, I guess?" Sahi shrugged, and seeing that Judy was still looking at her attentively, she soon continued. "It's dividing the school depending on, like, whether they interact with the material world directly, or indirectly. Like, the material branch has Invocation, Alternation, and Restoration, while the aetheric branch is stuff, like, Mysticism and Conjuration and Illusion."

"Mysticism?" I interjected, genuinely curious.

"It's, like, magic that creates magic. Like, you know? Enchanting and stuff." She concluded that with another shrug. "It's a totally lame and arbitrary division, if you ask me."

"There is nothing arbitrary about it!" Lord Ambrose rejoined the conversation, apparently completely forgetting about why he started it in the first place. "The aetheric schools are just cheap parlor tricks compared to the concrete reality-altering power of the material schools!"

"Let me guess," I spoke up, trying to sound neutral. "You practice the latter."

"Naturally," he declared with a huff.

"He's the head of the Tower of Invocation, the department of the Assembly that oversees all Schools of Invocation across the globe," the lanky arch-mage explained, though nobody was asking. "Lord Amadeus used to be the head of the Tower of Conjuration until he moved to Critias, by the way."

That was another thing nobody asked about, but just the mere mention of it made the bearded arch-mage let out a loud scoff.

"Conjuration is nothing but a fool's errand! A school of flash but no substance, wasting the power of the ley-lines on creating false phenomena to affect the world instead of doing it the Invocation way and acting upon the material world directly!"

That made me raise a brow. Did that mean that the Magi had a way to directly change the surface layer of the Simulacrum? How was that different from what enchantments or any other type of magical malarkey was doing? I would've been lying if I said I wasn't curious.

"Can you give me a demonstration?" I asked, and the old man's eyes suddenly snapped to me. At the same time, Gulliver looked startled, and then immediately buried his forehead in his palm.

"I'm not here to perform for you, young man! … But since you asked, come find me after school hours! If you dare!"

With that, the old man turned on his heel and marched back to his bench. Meanwhile, the red-headed man let out a long sigh and said, "Now you did it, Leonard. Ever since he heard you dueled Amadeus, he's been itching to get a piece of you, and you just gave him the excuse."

"That wasn't what I meant to do, but…" I paused and glanced at Lord Ambrose, already sitting and impatiently waiting for his lunch companion to return to his side. "I'm also a little curious about the differences in magical approach, so it works out for both of us."

"If you say so." Gulliver finished with a shrug and bid us goodbye.

"Chief? Did you just set up a magical duel with another arch-mage?"

"Seems like it," I answered with a smile that was supposed to reassure her. It didn't work.

"I can distinctly remember you promising not to do any unnecessarily dangerous stunts anymore."

"I can remember too," Elly backed her up, much to my surprise.

"Don't worry, girls. It's for research, and I have two magical weapons now. I managed to hold my own against Lord Grandpa with just Cal, so what's the worst thing that could happen?"

"That's—!"/"You're jinx—!"

I hastily raised my palm and cut both of them off.

"Yes, yes. I realized by the time I said it. Let's just eat, and forget about it." For emphasis, I picked up my fork and stabbed it into my side dishes. "Not much we can do about it at this point. Maybe if we ignore it, it will go away."

Of course, knowing how the Simulacrum operated, there was no way it wouldn't give me grief over this, but it was a bed I made myself, so I'd just have to lie in it and get it over with.

Part 2

The rest of the school day went without a hitch. We had another intense basketball duel with Josh during PE (our teams tied), and during homeroom, Mrs. Applebottom reminded everyone to study hard for the rest of the semester, and there was a vague mention of some kind of sports festival. That last one was news to me, but I figured I'd ask Josh about it later.

More importantly, there were a few small but noticeable changes. First and foremost, Judy's makeover, slight as it might've been, had a noticeable effect. Just as Elly told me, the other boys in the class were suddenly paying attention to her, and I could overhear a couple of eminently clichéd lines, such as 'Is it just me, or does she look cuter than usual?' or 'I can't believe I didn't notice her sooner.'

I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about these comments. On the one hand, it annoyed me that it took them until now to realize she was cute, but on the other hand, I was annoyed that they were talking about my girlfriend like that. Wait. Doesn't that mean I knew exactly how I felt about them?

Putting semantics aside, I had to wonder what changed their perception. After all, I sincerely doubted that it was literally just the small change in hairstyle and a touch of makeup. If that was all it took, her idol getup during the cultural festival should've done the trick already. Was it because I insisted on her being a 'heroine', or was it the subtle change in her demeanour and facial expressions? Or maybe the latter was related to the former in a way? I had no idea.

But speaking of things I didn't quite understand, the class rep remained strangely passive during the day. She was sticking to us, as usual, and she was paying attention, but I couldn't help but feel that there was something off about her behaviour. After some thinking, I figured it might have been Mike's absence. Since I had entrusted him with helping Moose, he was busy in the last couple of days. Considering that, it made sense that she might have been missing him, and it put her in a sour mood.

Yet, that didn't seem like it either. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the look in her eyes was somehow familiar, but I was unable to figure out why. It bothered me to the point I was seriously considering pulling her over and just asking, but she beat me to the punch.

"Leo?"

Ah. It's been a while since the last time Ammy pulled off her old ninja-routine and appeared in my blind spot like that, so it took me a second to gather my wits and turn to her. By the looks of it, Elly and Josh also shared my sentiment and looked rather confounded by her suddenly calling out to me from the blue.

"Yes? I'm not in trouble with you again, am I?"

"No, not this time," she said, and I had a hard time telling if it was a subtle dig at me or just her natural response. "Can I have some of your time?"

"Of course. Is it urgent?"

"I wouldn't call it that, but…"

When her words trailed off, Elly leaned back in her seat, so that her ringlets spread out on my desk, and she looked at me.

"Leo? Don't forget you have a duel!"

"Oh, right. That's a thing," I muttered and then levelled a doubtful gaze at my girlfriend. "Why do you sound excited?"

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Because I missed the last time! I want to watch you beat up an arch-mage with my own eyes!" she told me with a sweet smile.

Her words and her angelic expression provided quite a contrast, but before I could call her out on counting her chickens before they hatched (not that I was worried or anything), the class rep let out a thoughtful hum.

"Right, you have a prior arrangement." She readjusted her glasses, and added, "In that case, can we talk later?"

I pondered for a moment, and proposed, "I'll drop by in the base in the afternoon. How does that sound?"

"I wasn't planning to visit today, but I'll make the time." I wanted to tell her that if she didn't want to, we didn't need to meet there, but she apparently considered the conversation concluded and bowed out of it with a curt, "See you later."

"I wonder what's on her mind," Josh noted absently behind me, and it made me raise a brow.

"You noticed too?"

"Of course. She's been quiet all day, and after PE, she pulled Angie into the girl's restroom, and she doesn't tell me what they talked about," the guy grumbled while packing his bag.

I was getting more curious by the minute, but when I glanced back, I saw that my draconic girlfriend was still looking at me expectantly, her head practically touching my desk at this point. On a whim, I leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead, and then gently pushed her away, making sure she wouldn't fall over with her chair in tow, or something equally clumsy. It was in her character, after all.

"So? Are we going?"

"We?" I echoed Josh as I turned to face him again, and he gave me a look that said I was being silly.

"Of course. We're going to watch you duel the old man, right?"

"We sure are!" Elly backed him up before I could get a word in and sprung to her feet, picking up her bag in the process. "It's not every day you can see an arch-mage of the Assembly in action, and this time, I'm not going to miss it."

"Oh? Are we going?" a new voice entered the fray, and when I turned to her, I found a strangely hyped-up Angie strangely approaching my desk in the company of a strangely apathetic Judy. It was strange is what I'm saying. "Let's go! I wanna see it!"

"Aren't you all at least a little bit worried for my safety?" I grumbled, and my lovely assistant raised a hand.

"I am, but you already jinxed it, so we can't do anything about it."

"Oh, don't be like that!" Angie suddenly put an arm around her shoulder and gave me a thumbs up. "Leo will be all right!"

"Yeah, of course he will," Josh nodded along like it was self-evident. "You already dueled Ammy's grandpa, right? I bet you won't even have any trouble."

"Jinxes. Jinxes everywhere." Judy sighed and directed a serious gaze at me. "Chief. I have a bad feeling about this. Be careful."

"Don't worry Dormouse. It's not like I'm a week away from retirement or anything."

I flashed a grin at her, which caused Judy's brows to perceptibly descend into a frown.

"Angeline, please let me go. I have to kick the Chief."

Before she had the chance though, someone loudly knocked on the sliding door at the back of the classroom and then pulled it open before anyone could respond.

"Ah, here you are!" Lord Gulliver exclaimed with a happy-go-lucky grin the moment he poked his head into the room.

"Where else would we be?" I pointed out by, fittingly, pointing at the clock on the wall. "Classes just ended."

"True," the lanky arch-mage granted me as he walked in. "I guess Ambrose is just a bit impatient, so he asked me to fetch you."

"Did he?" Josh spoke the words on my mind with a skeptically raised brow in tow, and Gulliver immediately let out a chuckle.

"Heh. Well, maybe not directly, but I can read between the lines." He paused, as if waiting for a non-existent laugh track to finish, and then turned back to me. "So? Can we get going?"

"Yes! Let's go!" Angie answered in my stead and pointed a finger forward, like a general ordering her troops to charge.

"Oh? Are you kids coming too?" the redheaded man inquired with a finger on his chin. "I knew I should've bought more popcorn. At this rate, we won't have enough for everyone."

"Brother?" All of a sudden, a different redhead poked her noggin into the room, and let out a relieved breath when she noticed we were still inside. "Snowy! This way! We didn't miss them!"

"Hm. Yes. Hm." Gulliver mused aloud and folded his arms. "We're definitely going to be short on popcorn."

Ignoring the man and his impish smile, I grudgingly stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder.

"Fine. Let's get this over with."

Without further ado, our little group was led to the ground floor. Yet, contrary to my expectations, Lord Gulliver ushered us towards the track field instead of the basement entrance leading to the underground complex of the School.

"Aren't we going to the Nexus Room?" I inquired, and the arch-mage shook his head.

"No way. Only the head of the local School can access that, and we didn't get approved by Amadeus." He paused for a beat, and then coyly added, "Not that we even asked, but you know?"

I couldn't quite understand what he meant by that, but it soon became irrelevant as we finally reached the sports grounds behind the main building, where an impatient Lord Ambrose was already waiting for us. He looked exactly the same as he did during lunch break, save for the walking cane he was gripping in his hand. It was one of those fancy ones, with a shiny, lacquered black shank topped by a round crystal head. Judging by the subtle, pulsing magical light of invisible colours around it, it was obviously more than met the eye.

"What took you so long?" He let out a harrumph the moment we got within earshot, and his colleague flashed a toothy smile. "Don't just grin at me, you lout! Hurry up and get over here!"

"Now, now. There's no reason to rush," Gulliver told him amicably, refusing the hasten his pace. "Our popcorn isn't here yet, so we can't start anyway."

"Like, did someone say 'popcorn'?" another cheerful voice joined the fray, and when I glanced over, I was met with the sight of an enthusiastic girl and a considerably more collected boy making their way over to us, carrying four striped paper bags you would often see in movie theatres.

"The Lord did not approve any of this," Armband Guy complained in a flat voice, and Sahi rolled her eyes in response.

"Come on, Paz! Don't be lame! It's just, like, a little duel. Endy is, like, totally busy and doesn't need to concern himself with something like this."

"Ae a've heard it richt! Thare pure is a duel afoot 'ere!"

"Form up, everyone! We must secure the perimeter!"

Oh, did I forget to mention they were followed by Duncan, Armour Guy, half the Praetorian Guard, and a gaggle of Squires? Because they were. Much to my annoyance.

"Seriously? Are you guys serious?" I hissed while holding my forehead, but nobody paid much attention to my gripes. In particular, Lord Ambrose let out a provocative huff, and theatrically raised his cane high, holding it by the head, before slamming it against the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the entire campus was covered in a familiar yet no less disorienting flash of inverted colours. Another blink of an eye passed, and we were all standing at the same spots, except inside a purple-tinted world, with thin cracks on every surface, though their glow was hidden by the equally purple light of the sun overhead.

"Won't people notice that all of us disappeared at once?" Josh muttered as he glanced around, and before I could answer him, Snowy came to the rescue.

"The Restricted Space includes a mild observation obstruction charm," she explained in a low voice. "Even if a student was directly looking at us, they would immediately forget what happened."

"Well, that's convenient," he responded with a genuinely impressed hum.

"It sure is," I followed him up, and then glanced at the impromptu audience gathered at the side of the sports grounds, and then exhaled a lung-rattling groan. "I guess this turned out to be a much bigger deal than expected."

"Stop muttering and follow me! We don't have all day!"

After calling out to me, Lord Ambrose turned on his heel and gestured ahead of himself. He headed to the middle of the track field with dignified steps, rhythmically tapping the butt of her cane against the ground. It was how it was supposed to be used, but the way he did it kind of reminded me of a community theatre actor trying to portray a posh Victorian-era gentleman with altogether too much gusto.

"Sir? Should we set up a barrier, sir?" Armour Guy asked me first.

"I do not think I can cover so many people at once," Pascal responded as if it was aimed at him.

"Don't wrack your heads over something silly like that," Lord Gulliver scoffed playfully even as he accepted a bag of popcorn from Sahi. "I'm here."

With that, he raised his free hand and made a few small gestures while reciting a long, faux-Latin chant full of words with way too many syllables. The air around the group became oppressive, but it only lasted for a second, as the influx of mana congealed into a multi-layered, semi-transparent dome around them. It was made of interlocking hexagonal plates, and while I knew that hexagons were the bestagons, I found them to be a bit overused in magical barriers around these parts.

"There, that should do it," the lanky arch-mage declared and threw a piece of popcorn into his mouth. "Unless Ambrose pulls out the big guns, this should be enough."

"And what if he does?" Josh blurted out the question, but Gulliver remained silent. "No, seriously. What if he does?"

"Maybe we should set up another barrier, just in case," Armband Guy stated, and the Praetorian Guards were on the same page.

"Go, get him, Leo!" The princess, completely ignoring the buzzing by her side, clenched her fists with a daring grin, as if she was the one heading into battle.

"Break a leg," Judy added, causing the smile on my other girlfriend's face to be replaced by a stumped expression.

"Judy. That's not a very nice thing to say."

"It's for good luck," she explained and glanced at me. "Also, I'm trying to counteract the jinxes."

"Thanks, I guess." After saying that, I took a deep breath and followed after the bearded arch-mage.

In the few seconds till I reached the grassy middle of the track field, I considered my options. When I sparred with Lord Grandpa, we were in the Nexus Room deep under the School complex, where he had an infinite mana cheat, while I didn't have my gear, and only had Cal with me. In contrast, this time I had my Leoformer, a much wider area to work with, and also two magical relic weapons. Oh, speaking of which, I poked my storage enchantments, stored in the same belt buckle as the Leoformer's arrays, and with a small flash of colourless light only I could see, I immediately had a pair of swords in my hands.

"{Ah! Young knight! I told you, you can't just—!}" Cal's voice came to an abrupt halt as they realized we were in a Purple Zone, and they immediately turned serious. "{We're in a Restricted Space? Who are we fighting?}"

"{Statement: Interface:Teeny is entering combat mode.}"

"{Is that an arch-mage? Are we duelling another worthy foe, young knight? Marvelous!}"

"{Request: Interface:Cal, please focus on combat operations.}"

"{Right! On it! Maybe this time, our young knight will finally develop his beam attack!}"

Ignoring the chatty swords' words, I flourished them and came to a halt a couple of steps away from the old man. He was apparently waiting for me to do this, as he had his back turned, and only at this point did he dramatically turn around to face me.

"Shall I give you a handicap, I wonder?" he asked with an eager smile, and I shook my head.

"Nah. That would make this whole ordeal even more pointless than it already is," I jabbed back, and it visibly got under his skin.

"Pointless, you say? We'll see about that, once you experienced the full brunt of the School of Invocation on your very skin!"

I was planning to give him a snappy comeback, but before the first syllable left my mouth, my danger sense suddenly blared at me. As in, genuinely warned me that if I didn't move right this instant, I was going lose an arm or a leg. It's been so long since I've got a warning of that magnitude that I momentarily froze up, but even so, my body moved in time and I stepped and leaned to the left at the same time.

As I did, a sudden flash of red light flashed by me. I instinctively tried to counter it with my phantom limb, yet to my utter shock and horror, my ethereal appendage passed through the strange beam without any apparent effect. The attack gouged a straight, smouldering line into the ground between the arch-mage and where I stood, sweeping upwards until it hit the edge of the barrier dome behind me, refracted off one of its hexagonal plates, and carved another burning line into the side of the library building.

"Oh dear," I heard, even as my body and mind reeled. "He brought out the big guns."

"The heck was that!?" I exclaimed in perfectly understandable outrage, and the old man let out an elated guffaw.

"Why so surprised, young man? Could it be that this is the first time you've ever faced off against a master of the Material Schools?"

I couldn't see it the first time, because I was preoccupied by my sixth sense's warning, but this time Lord Ambrose clearly demonstrated his spell. Only uttering a few words, he held out his gem-topped cane like a sceptre, and from its head, he launched another attack. It wasn't aimed at me, and instead, the bright crimson beam drew another red-hot mark onto the ground, forming a cross with the still smouldering line left behind by the first strike.

It was only at this point that it dawned on me: he was glowing with magical light. So was his cane. Yet, the beam wasn't. Which meant…

"This is no mere parlor trick. Oh no. This is Invocation, young man! I'm not one of those fools from the School of Conjuration, who would create blazing phoenixes and balls of fire to burn my foes, wasting time and mana on frivolous appearances. When heat is required, one must simply apply heat in the most effective way possible."

"… Did you just fire a bloody laser beam at me?" I blurted out, and after some thinking, the old man shrugged.

"A heat ray, a laser beam, call it whatever you want. It's the result that matters."

Saying so, he swung his cane vertically, and as if opening a tear in the fabric of the world itself, he drew a shimmering arc in the air. It remained for a split second, and then it snapped with a deafening boom and launched a blast of air my way, kicking up the dust and grass in the way. This time, my danger sense didn't warn me to get out of the way, but I still had to brace myself so that I wouldn't be blown back.

Once again, my phantom limbs had no effect on this attack, which solidified my initial realization: unlike Lord Grandpa, who used mana to create magical constructs to attack me, which could be disrupted mid-strike by a well-placed swing of my ethereal appendages, Lord Ambrose was instead using magic to induce physical phenomenon, and since the effect itself was natural, I couldn't easily disrupt it. Which meant…

"Okay," I said as I levelled a glare at the arch-mage. Of course, he couldn't see that, since I activated my Leoformer and donned my Lion Knight armour replica, including the helmet, to better withstand the wind blast. I waited for the gale to subside before straightening my back, and added, in a low voice, "The kid gloves are officially off."

Part 3

Okay. Deep breath. Let's look at the situation objectively and—

"Boo! That's the wrong look!"

I was momentarily taken aback by the complaints coming from the dome, and when I glanced over, I found Angie being held back by her boyfriend. However, before I could even properly comprehend what was going on over there, my danger sense blared at me again, and I instinctively revved up the output of the physical enhancements on the armour.

A split-second later, another ruby-red beam of light cut through the space where I was standing just a moment ago. With my enchantments working at full capacity, dodging the sweeping heat rays was considerably easier than the first time. I had no idea why the old man was using them like this instead of just aiming directly at me, but I wasn't going to complain about it.

"{Status Report: Arrays fully connected. Mana circulation is stable.}"

That was nice to hear but kind of unnecessary, as I could already feel that in my muscles and bones. Following the guidance of my sixth sense, I planted my feet hard and came to a stop to avoid a vertically sweeping ray of light. One thing was for sure; Lord Ambrose was just as irresponsible with his attacks as Endymonion. When I sparred with the latter, he nearly took my arm off with a wind-blade right off the bat, and the former wasn't much better with his laser show either.

But speaking of which, now that I could take a closer look, I found that he wasn't actively casting spells at me. Instead, he was rapidly chanting, and every few seconds, he produced a small, dense ball of colourless light that proceeded to float over his head and—

"{Look out, young knight!}"

"I see it," I barked back and swiftly manoeuvred between two beams coming at me from odd angles. By this point, Ambrose was in the process of creating a third one, with two glowy balls circling over his head.

"Great," I groaned as I adjusted my grip on Cal. "He has magical attack drones with lasers."

"{Drone? Are you referring to the way the arch-mage chants?}"

"{Affirmation: Obviously.}"

Cal let out a soft huff.

"{Oh, really? If it's so obvious, then what is a 'lae-sa'?}"

"{Conjecture: It must refer to the way they are lasing.}"

"{Lasing?}"

"{Further Conjecture: Most likely a reference to their accurate targeting, and Polemos is comparing it to the precision of lace-work.}"

"{That… actually makes a lot of sense.}"

"No, it doesn't, and hush, you two," I growled as I was staring down three beam-spewing magic drone things at the same time.

Luckily, their firing patterns weren't synchronized, and since they were always attacking by drawing a straight line with their beam attack, once I got used to the pattern, they weren't that hard to avoid. Of course, that didn't mean it couldn't have been just a ploy to get me complacent, only to change up their pattern at the last moment, so I remained vigilant.

"You really are slippery, aren't you?" Ambrose called out to me, with an impatient frown on his face. By the looks of it, he didn't expect that I would be able to dodge in time, which made me question what he was thinking firing those things at me without any consideration. I mean, those frickin' laser beams were powerful enough to gouge visible, smouldering scars into the ground!

…

Though again, considering that all the supernatural folks had some kind of magical defence, from barriers to wards, maybe they weren't as dangerous as they looked. I wasn't going to test the idea though, and I slipped through the crossfire of the three beams one more time and only answered after I came to a stop.

"And this spell of yours is kind of bullshit."

"Why, thank you!" Ambrose responded with a wolfish grin and then started muttering under his breath again.

I immediately braced myself, just in time for him to point at the ground with his cane. With the impact at the epicenter, a wave of light roiled across the field, and when it reached me, I reflexively switched Teeny into spear mode and leapt into the air, using them kind of like a vaulting pole. My danger sense gave me no warning though, and to my sincerest shock, the entire field let out a sound reminiscent of a dozen trucks speeding by. Even more staggering was the fact that the grassy ground under me suddenly lurched about half a meter in the direction of the old man, as if it was a giant carpet yanked on by an invisible giant.

Since I had Teeny planted in said ground, I was also yanked along, but by a small miracle, I still managed to land on my feet. Speaking of feet, the only spot that remained stationary was a circle around the old man, and just as I landed, he pointed his cane at me again. This time, the three magical laser drones were synchronized and fired at me at once. They were too late though; by the time the sweeping beams came at me, I already regained my balance and ducked under the first one, swerved to avoid the second, while the third was completely off-target, probably trying to catch me flat-footed if I dodged that way.

"Hah!" Ambrose let out a satisfied laugh and tapped his feet. "I thought you would be using one of your famous illusions by now. I didn't think you would get caught up in my applied transverse terrain translation spell!"

I really wanted to tell him that his naming scheme sucked, but I had more important things to care about. Such as closing the distance with him and putting an end to this farce. As always, Phasing right next to him was an option, but I wanted to keep that card hidden in my sleeve as long as possible. For now, I considered a more straightforward alternative, and returned Teeny to their sword form.

"Cal, Teeny? Do you think you can deflect those beams?" My weapons remained suspiciously silent, so I gripped them hard and added. "Just take one for the team."

Following those words, I lowered my center of gravity and lunged forward. By my count, there was about a five-second delay between each firing cycle of the magical drones, so I had to move while they were on cooldown. Unfortunately, there was a catch to that: because they were attacking me in sweeps, it meant the closer I got, the smaller the arcs became, and the harder to dodge them. As such, my plan was simple: while the laser beams couldn't be dispelled by my phantom limbs, I doubted the same applied to the drones themselves, so as long as I was able to get in range to swat them down, I could get out of the old mage's pace and force him into my own.

Of course, doing so required me to act fast. I reallocated the physical enhancements to focus on speed, and diverted some extra juice to the wards embedded in the Leoformer's systems, just to be safe. I covered the distance between the two of us in just the blink of an eye, and when Ambrose saw what I was doing, he started casting another spell. Still, I was faster, and I was sure I would get there before he could finish or the three drones could fire again. That is, if there were only three drones.

The blood froze in my veins for a moment when I noticed yet another magical sphere floating up from behind the old man's back, and it immediately opened fire on me. I only had a fraction of a second to decide what to do, but I was already committed to the assault, so I swerved hard to the right and then jumped over the beam. My momentum caused me to slide for a second, so with a split-second judgment, I triggered one of the kinetic wards on my back.

It was the same kind I put on all of the gang's Magiformers way back when, as an anti-grapple countermeasure, and by forcefully triggering it, the small blast pushed me forward and allowed me to resume my rush without tumbling.

"Holy shit! Leo has rocket boosters!" a distant voice exclaimed, and it was followed by a still dissatisfied 'Boo! He doesn't need those, he has wings!' from a certain Celestial girl.

Putting the childhood friend couple's commentary aside, I closed in on the arch-mage fast. Dangerously fast, even. Yet, it wasn't good enough, and the small delay the surprise drone caused gave enough time for the others to recharge, and their intensifying glow said they were ready to fire. At this point, it was sink-or-swim, so I brandished my swords, ignored my sixth sense's warning, and instead of dodging, I focused on parrying. At least as much as such a concept could be applied to heat rays.

The first beam fired almost horizontally, so I swept Cal in the way, and by keeping the flat of its blade between me and the drone, I somehow managed to block the beam.

"{H-Hey! Young knight! You're going to ruin my tempering!}"

While Cal complained, the second beam was also coming, and this time, I only partially managed to block it with Teeny, and my shoulder plate was singed in the process. It didn't hurt, so I figured the wards kept me safe.

"{Report: Superficial damage detected. Engaging repair protocols.}"

Ignoring how much my short sword sounded like an AI from a mecha anime, I focused my attention on the third drone ball. This time, I wasn't on the defensive though. I was already in phantom limb range, so before it even had a chance to fire, I lashed out and pierced right through its core with one of my ethereal tendrils. To my surprise, the small ball contained an enormous amount of mana, and once I cracked it, the whole thing exploded.

Of course, it wasn't a 'real' explosion, just all that mana getting released at once, so the onlookers probably didn't even notice it. For me though, it was like I was staring into a welding arc, and it made me momentarily stumble. Luckily for me, the sudden failure of one of his drones made Ambrose freeze up with an expression of shocked disbelief. Unluckily for me, it only lasted for a blink of an eye, and then he finished casting his spell.

With another roaring noise, the terrain under my feet started moving again. However, this time it was like a pair of enormous, invisible fingers pinched the spot between us, and pulled it up like a tablecloth, forming an odd, lumpy wall made of the grass and the top layer of the soil under our feet. Then, while I was still getting my bearings, the middle of this fold in the landscape flashed with the faint image of a complex magical circle, and a roughly half-meter-wide cylinder exploded out of it like an enormous shotgun slug.

In a split-second, about half a dozen ideas rushed through my head, going down the list from dodging and dropping prone to cutting and disintegrating the loose projectile by various means, but in the end, my impatience won over, and I planted my feet before leaping up. The moment my foot left the ground, and just as the soil bullet was about to hit me, I Phased up so that I would land directly on the other side of the earthen rampart.

It should've been the end of the match, with me appearing right on top of Lord Ambrose… except he was nowhere to be found. He wasn't the only thing missing: the round patch of undisturbed grass where he stood was also gone, and when I finally found him, my jaw nearly hit the ground.

"You cheeky bastard!" I yelled after him, and the old man crossed his arms with a haughty smirk. While rapidly moving backwards on top of the missing piece of the turf.

It looked like he was firmly anchored to the patch of grass, and as he shifted his posture, he moved in a circle around me, as if casually surfing. And then, the stupid lasers started firing again.

"Oh, for the love of…!"

I groaned and gave chase, weaving between the incoming beams. While I was getting frustrated, the old man was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning and soon began to cast another spell.

It was only at this point that it finally dawned on me that he was showing off, and it made me determined to take him down a peg. As soon as I could get closer to him, which was easier said than done when he was slipping and sliding around on the field. In fact, his movements kind of reminded me of some of those modern mechas that, instead of walking or flying, would move around by skating on the ground. Why did this magic duel keep reminding me of mecha tropes, I wondered as I deflected another beam with Cal's flat.

"I didn't plan to use this, but there's no better opportunity to test it out!" Ambrose yelled out to me, and with a wave of his cane, he yanked a basketball-sized piece of soil out of the ground.

I stalled for a moment, expecting that he would throw it at me, but instead, he began weaving a complex spell around it. Normally this would've been the perfect opportunity to get closer to him, but it wasn't so simple. Because he was in constant motion, and the drones followed after him, it meant their sweeping beam trajectories were also in motion, making them much harder to predict and avoid. As such, despite my best efforts, I only managed to narrow the distance, but couldn't quite catch up to him in time.

"Behold! My applied material condenser and accelerator Invocation!" he exclaimed and presented the ball of soil… except now it had a weird, glowing magical apparatus around in, kind of like a wireframe scaffolding with a pair of long, flat, parallel pieced jutting forward, kind of like a—

Before I could finish that thought, my danger sense yelled at me again, and I instinctively lashed out with Teeny. There was an impact on my hand, the shock travelling all the way up to my shoulder, and only after that did my brain acknowledge the metallic bang accompanying it.

"Marvelous reflexes!" Ambrose… praised me, I think. Either that, or his sarcasm was so ascended it was impossible to differentiate it from the genuine article. "What do you think? I specifically invented this Invocation for the sole purpose of countering Chimeras and other mystic creatures resistant to mana. What say you?"

"It's a freaking gun!" I yelled back, gripping Teeny even harder in my numb left hand. "You made a bloody overcomplicated railgun, you melon! At this point, just buy a hunting rifle!"

"Bah! What use is there in comparing my invention to such mundane weapons? Can a hunting rifle do this?"

Before I could even ask what he meant by that, the magical wireframe construct began glowing, and this time, I could catch a glimpse of its mechanism. First, it shaved off a piece of dirt from the ball, then a series of arrays formed and compressed it into a round bullet before feeding it into the elongated bits that flung it in my direction. Except this time, it wasn't firing just one.

"For fuck's sake…" I exhaled and gave up on the pretences, Phasing out of the way as a hail of bullets followed after me.

"Hahah! Can a rifle do this?"

"Yes!" I yelled back between short teleports. "It's called a machinegun, you muppet!"

He yelled something back, but I didn't pay his words any heed and focused on closing the distance. I was using my fake 'flash step' move, meaning I had to mime the motions and pretend that I was only moving really-really fast instead of teleporting. While I originally invented it just to serve as a cover in case I ever needed to phase in an emergency, I diligently practised it with Brang during Domination training, so I was getting pretty good at it if I say so myself.

More importantly, since the old man was still surfing on a patch of grass (note to self: tell Judy to add this to the list of rare sentences I never thought I would have to say), and we were both moving erratically, his magical bullet-hose was about as accurate as a survey on social media. Of course, the beamers were still a pain in the neck, but this time I decided to do something about them.

First, I kept up the back-and-forth for a solid minute, phasing out of the way and occasionally deflecting a bullet or two while observing the old man's movement pattern. It didn't take long to realize that he was limited in his range, as he stayed within the rumpled zone created by that terrain layering or whatever spell of his. Realizing this, I made sure to kite him around, pretending that I couldn't get closer to him, and I waited for him to get close to the edge of the zone.

As expected, he swerved around, and it gave me the opportunity to act. Once more, I assumed the 'flash step' pose, but this time, instead of zig-zagging around to avoid the incoming fire, I Phased right in the direction where he was heading. He wasn't expecting that to happen and was desperately trying to change his trajectory, but I didn't let him, and after a well-timed beat, I Phased right behind him.

Now, here's where the theatrics come into the picture. In particular, I was trying to invoke a classic trope called 'single-stroke battle'. In this case, the name wasn't entirely appropriate, but let's ignore that; the point was that it involved two combatants rushing towards each other, passing the other the moment their weapons were drawn, and then after a dramatic beat, one of them fell. It usually involved samurai, giant robots, or giant robot samurai, but I digress.

So, the plan was simple: I mime the trope by Phasing right behind the man, while using my Phantom limbs to disrupt all of his spells, and…

"Ack!"

Presto! With his magical soil surfboard disabled, Lord Ambrose stumbled forward. Simultaneously, three of my phantom limbs pierced out at the same time, skewering the laser drones, while two others roughly dismantled the magical scaffolding around the lump of soil floating in the air. Without its support, the ball of dirt wobbled and then landed right next to Ambrose, just when he finally got back to his feet and faced me again.

"What did you do?" he asked, sounding more intrigued than shocked by this development.

"I cut your magic, faster than the eye could see," I told him not-at-all smugly and flourished by blades for added effect. My rather befuddled blades, if I may add.

"{What are you talking about, young knight? You didn't even swing us!}"

"{Affirmation: There was no acceleration or impact detected. Interface:Teeny requests Archon Polemos to clarify his previous statement.}"

I did no such thing, but I faced the arch-mage instead and waited to see what he would do next.

"So, you really could cut mystical phenomena! I thought Amadeus was only trying to save face!" the bearded man exclaimed, sounding unusually jovial.

Yet, in a moment, his demeanour took an abrupt turn and he suddenly raised his cane. I was expecting a last-ditch effort, and was ready to take him down… but I wasn't expecting to be flash-banged in the face.

The crystal ball at the end of the cane let out a blinding flash of light, followed by a boom so loud it made my teeth rattle. By the time I reoriented myself, Ambrose took a couple of steps back and raised his magical focus over his head.

"I'm not done yet! Did you think I was only joyriding around all this time? Ha!"

Still a tad disoriented, I thought my vision was still clouded by his last trick, but as I regained focus, I realized it wasn't the case. Not only was the whole field glowing under our feet, resembling an enormous magic circle, but over the crystal head of the arch-mage's cane, hovering in the air, was a great vortex, with an oppressive red light in its center growing brighter with passing every second.

"Witness the pinnacle of Invocation! The power of the sun itself, about to ignite into atomic fusion of—!"

"No," I stated maybe just a wee bit too flatly, considering the dramatic circumstances, but I swear I was seriously freaked out for a moment, and I swung Cal with every fibre of my being.

Following my strike, there was an odd sense of tension in the air, and then it suddenly snapped, like a wire stressed to its very limit, and with a low boom and something of a shock-wave, the vortex overhead dissipated in a matter of seconds. Then, as per the rules of dramatic timing, the crystal head of the cane slowly slid apart, as if it was diagonally bisected.

"Well…" Lord Ambrose spoke morosely as he let his hands down and stared at his ruined staff. "Let's call this a draw."

Breathing a sigh of mixed relief and exasperation, I let my weapons down and undid my Leoformer.

"I have to say, you were the biggest pain in the ass I ever had the misfortune to fight."

"You weren't half shabby yourself," the usually grumpy old man noted with a grin that looked wholly alien on his face. "You could have at least let me finish casting."

"I'm not a fan of gamma radiation and mushroom clouds," I told him in a deadpan voice, and he shrugged.

"But I was curious how you would deal with it. You didn't use all your tricks even at the very end."

"Did you?"

"Of course not!" Ambrose scoffed, but the smile remained on his face. "I have to keep some surprises for the rematch, right?"

"The what?" I blurted out, but before I could press him, I was nearly tackled off my feet.

"Brother! You were amazing!" Looking down, I found Penny clinging to me, her face flushed and her eyes open as wide as saucers. "How did you move so fast at the end? You avoided everything so easily! Can you teach me?"

"He would've had an easier time if he flew," Angie grumbled in the background, pouting and looking annoyed even as Josh was casually patting her head to keep her in check.

Meanwhile, Lord Gulliver also arrived, along with the rest of the audience, and he slowly shook his head.

"I told you not to overdo it, but you never listen."

"Silence, lout! I do whatever I want!" Ambrose responded to him in his usual tone, as if a switch was flipped.

In the meantime, the rest of the gang also clustered around me, with my girlfriends in the forefront, and even as I graciously accepted their praise and congratulations, I couldn't help but glance down at the sword in my hand.

During the last strike, I was planning to use my phantom limb to disrupt the spell before it could take full effect, with the swing only existing as a cover-up. Yet, the crystal was cut, even though I was absolutely certain I didn't make contact. Then, as if to punctuate my turbulent thoughts, there was a loud, rumbling sound, and as we glanced up, the upper-left corner of the main school building's flat roof began to slide down, following a straight, diagonal line.

The Praetorian Guards moved first, forming a thin, translucent barrier to keep the dust and debris away from us, but even as everyone backed away, I couldn't help but stare at the missing corner of the building, and mutter, "Do I… actually have a beam attack?"