Mana Duel (Part 5)

“Fight.”

The word echoed across the arena. Unlike the previous match, Belle wasn’t flaunting her skills or acting relaxed. She stood guarded, eyes sharp, posture tight.

My stomach tightened.

This was my first time doing this.

Sure, I’d thrown a few practice punches in my room this morning, but this? This was my first real fight. With a mana blade. With an opponent who actually wanted to win.

What if muscle memory wasn't enough? What if I froze? What if—

No. There was no point thinking about that.

I let my body relax, forcing the tension out of my shoulders, out of my grip, out of my breathing. Then

I reached inward.

Toward my core.

I sensed boundless strength within it, but I knew my body wasn’t ready for all of it. If I tried, I’d snap like a broken doll. I didn’t need everything, just a fraction.

I let it flow.

Cold rushed through me.

The sensation spread fast, draining warmth from my limbs, my chest, my breath. My exhale turned misty in the air. But just as the pressure grew heavier, just as it became too much to control, something caught it.

Something wrapped around my core, gripping it tightly, preventing it from overflowing.

I could feel it now, threads of foreign mana, not mine, woven tight around my core like chains.

Without it, the power would tear me apart from the inside.

It was a seal.

Aria’s father’s seal.

The one that allowed me to use mana without dying.

I opened my eyes.

A controlled, definite strength filled my body.

‘Let’s go.’

I took a few steps forward and swung my mana blade. Belle’s eyes contracted to needles as she barely managed to raise her guard, I was too fast.

But her surprise wasn’t over.

The moment our blades clashed, she was flung sideways, spit flying from her mouth as she skidded across the arena floor.

She was still clutching her sword when she stopped and rose with a few scratches, a grim expression on her face, her crimson hair streaked with dust.

Then she stepped forward.

And I met her head-on.

Unlike our previous exchange, this time I was the one being pushed back. That first strike had been a surprise, something that caught her off guard, but now she wasn’t meeting my strength directly. She was deflecting it, redirecting it, turning my own force back against me.

It was clear that in raw strength and agility, there was a gap between us. But she was compensating for it with superior swordsmanship.

I struck at her from the left, but she snapped her blade up in a way that left me stunned. In the same motion, her sword came for my stomach.

My body moved on its own.

There was no strength behind it. Just instinct.

I barely dodged, stumbling to the side, but like her, my hand never let go of the sword.

That’s Aria’s body for you.

For the first time since the duel began, Belle spoke. “There’s something weird about you.”

I froze for half a second.

“Your stance is off,” she continued, circling slowly. “Your grip keeps shifting. Sometimes there’s no intent behind your attacks, and sometimes it feels like you’ve forgotten what you’re doing… then you perform perfect defense, purely on instinct. Something doesn’t add up.”

Was she always that sharp?

I don’t remember giving her that setting.

But I didn’t reply. I just stood back up, tightened my grip on the blade, and rushed at her again.

I tried to follow my body’s instincts. A step here. A swing there. Belle responded with a sweep of her own, and it was hard to keep up with such a high-speed exchange toe-to-toe. I barely managed to block her strike as it came close to my head, the edge whistling past my ear.

That put me on the defensive. Then came a relentless assault.

Each strike forced me back farther and farther, my boots scraping against the arena floor, my arms burning with every block. With a feint I didn’t realize in time and a sharp reversal, she sent me to the ground again.

I stood up back up just then.

Belle rolled her neck and said, “Let’s kick this up a notch.”

I felt it before I fully saw it. A shift in the atmosphere. A blue mana coating formed around her body, not tightly packed like Adrian’s, but more sluggish, like candlelight flickering in a draft.

She was using Mana Reinforcement.

The moment it activated, she vanished from where she stood.

I barely tracked the movement. My body twisted on instinct, raising my blade just in time to catch her strike. The impact rattled through my arms, stronger than before, faster than before.

There was no hesitation, no breaks, as she pressed the attack immediately.

We rushed each other, exchanging more than ten blows in a few seconds. Each clash sent vibrations through my bones, numbing my fingers, shaking my wrists. The advantages I had in strength and agility were being completely nullified by her mana reinforcement.

I was getting bruised more and more by her, but thanks to my instinctive reactions, there weren’t any major injuries.

The mana reinforcement had leveled the playing field entirely.

No.

It had tipped it in her favor.

Because while I was relying on instinct and luck, she had skill. Her every movement was deliberate, every feint calculated, every strike placed where it would hurt the most, where it would drain me the fastest.

I was getting bruised more and more by her, but thanks to my instinctive reactions, there weren’t any major injuries.

Not yet, anyway.

…

…

…

My chest rose and fell as I struggled to steady my breathing. I didn’t know how much time had passed, only that my body couldn’t hold out much longer.

Every muscle screamed. My vision blurred at the edges. The mana blade felt heavier with each second, dragged down by the injuries tearing through my arms, by the strain burning through my shoulders.

Red scars lined my left leg and right arm, painful injuries from being brushed by her mana blade. A dull ache spread through the rest of me, the accumulated weight of every hit I’d taken, settling deep into my bones.

How much longer could I keep this up?

I lifted my eyes to Belle.

She didn’t look much better, but in a different way.

I was injured.

She was exhausted.

Her mana coating, once like a living flame, now flickered weakly, on the verge of being snuffed out.

Not because she was out of mana.

Because she was out of stamina.

She had the second-highest mana in the entire class, after all.

I tightened my grip on the sword.

I need to win this.

Not just for pride. Not just to shut Belle up.

For Luna. For the threats waiting in the future, far worse than Belle, who only wanted to climb the

rankings.

Somewhere in that future, around chapter forty, was the disaster I couldn’t solve. Maybe this was my punishment for writing it, that I now had to live through it. The only way through it was to become strong. Strong enough to handle it.

If I can't handle Belle now, if I can't even control this body, this power, then what hope do I have when the real threats arrive?

I need to make Aria's power mine.

I need to become strong enough to survive what's coming.

I need to become a mana monster.

Focusing on my core, I let the seal break just a tiny bit. The consequence that followed weren’t small

I couldn’t even feel myself anymore, like I was watching from somewhere above, disconnected from

my own flesh, my own heartbeat, my own pain.

I should just break the whole seal, shouldn’t I?

The thought slipped in, quiet and seductive.

I shoved it aside. First, I should deal with Belle.

I turned and rushed at her.

The distance closed in an instant. Belle raised her sword, but her movements were sluggish, predictable. I could see every adjustment, every flicker of hesitation, every delay in her reactions.

Panic flashed in her eyes a second before impact.

The mana around her crackled, like something about to burst. Sparks formed around her body, it was her power, to destroy everything.

But before all of it could happen, I felt it. The sudden drain of mana from the surroundings.

The professors. They were intervening.

My strike landed anyway, weakened but still carrying enough force.

Belle was struck square in the face and flew backward, hitting the ground hard.

A few seconds passed. She didn't get up.

"...I won, I guess."

My vision swam. The arena tilted sideways, the world slipping out of focus.

Then everything went black.