Arthur vs Nicolas

Walking towards the classroom, Arthur recalls the day he spent with his mother yesterday. It renewed his determination; he should now follow his path even more firmly.

Opening the classroom door, Arthur sees Sophie and Jhon fighting together against Nicolas. They weren't using magic, and Nicolas easily dodged their attacks. As soon as he saw Arthur out of the corner of his eye, Nicolas defeated Sophie, making her stumble in her own movements, and took down Jhon with a sweep.

Arthur comments, "You decided to teach physical combat to Jhon and Sophie. I understand Jhon, but I'm not sure if Sophie really needs it right now."

Before Nicolas can respond, Sophie gets up from the ground, saying, "I lost easily to that woman. It made me realize that if someone gets close to me, it could be the end for me in a fight."

Arthur looked at her surprised; it seemed she wasn't just a mindless fool as he thought.

He then looks at Jhon, curious about his reason. Jhon gets up and looks at Arthur, "While training mana frequency, I realized I've been limiting my own abilities. I was too focused on attack power and brute strength, but that's not possible for me due to my low mana. I can't just release magic without thinking."

Jhon extends his arm, and roots sprout around him. These roots begin to change, becoming a vine, and soon thorns emerge from this vine, turning it into a thorn-covered vine.

Jhon says, "This is one of my new weapons now. These thorns suck the blood of those pierced by them, and the more blood they suck, the stronger they become, tightening around the target even more. They also have a numbing poison that prevents the target from thinking clearly, weakening their magic or rendering them unable to use it."

Arthur smiles. "Indeed impressive, Jhon. I knew you would find your way."

"It's nothing special, thank you for believing in me," Jhon says, scratching his nose with pride.

"I know, I know, I don't control my magic, I just unleash it non-stop, blah blah blah," she raises her hands in a surrendering gesture after saying this, rolling her eyes.

"For now, I plan to teach her hand-to-hand combat and have her incorporate fire as a booster in her attacks," Nicolas finishes his words.

"I understand. Sophie used something like that once, if I'm not mistaken," Arthur puts his hand on his chin, recalling these events. Arthur looks around and asks about the teacher.

"Jhon replies, "No sign of him."

A few moments later, the door opens, and everyone looks, thinking it might be the teacher, but it's Selene.

Unlike usual, where she goes to the corner and lies down, she stands still for a few seconds and speaks.

"The professor is busy. It seems the emperor has decided to expand the game between the princes to the entire academy, so we're not just competing against the other heirs, but also against the entire academy."

After saying this, she walks up to Arthur and says, "Thank you for the last time."

Before Arthur can respond, she goes to the corner to lie down.

At that moment, Sophie smiles and shouts, "Thank you, Selene! If it weren't for you, that despicable guy would have walked all over me."

Selene doesn't look at her or show any reaction, just placing a mattress on the floor and lying down on it.

Jhon laughs at Sophie for Selene not even looking at her.

Sophie goes after Jhon, and he runs away from her, dodging a giant fireball heading towards him.

Arthur thinks, 'Thank goodness the walls are sturdy.'

"Oh, Arthur, now that you're here, what do you think about us having a little fight? A physical combat without using magic."

Arthur smiles and says, "Sure, I was wanting to get some exercise anyway."

They both stand in front of each other.

Arthur observes Nicolas; indeed, he was skilled, showing no openings that Arthur could see.

The fight begins with Nicolas advancing with a punch, which Arthur defends by shocking his elbow against Nicolas's fist.

Just before his fist hits Arthur's elbow, Nicolas opens his hand, grabbing Arthur's elbow and preventing his fist from breaking.

He pushes Arthur's elbow, causing him to step back slightly, and advances with quick footwork. Arthur throws several punches, but Nicolas dodges them all, getting closer in the process and stopping just a few inches from Arthur. Nicolas then prepares to throw a powerful punch towards Arthur's side abdomen, utilizing body movement.

Arthur retaliates by simultaneously attacking with a knee to Nicolas's face.

Both of them feel the impact of the blows and step back a bit.

Nicolas adjusts his nose slightly and says, "Incredible. Your physical abilities are better than I thought."

Smiling slightly, Arthur responds, "I was raised not to have failures."

They engage again, Arthur throws a punch at Nicolas's face, but Nicolas doesn't flinch; he stands his ground. At the moment of contact, Nicolas spins, narrowly avoiding the punch. By the end of his spin, Nicolas is inside Arthur's guard.

There's nothing Arthur can do now; he didn't expect this. Nicolas already has a punch that would connect with his chin, knocking him out.

Inside Arthur's head, various thoughts raced. Would he lose? Even in a fight without magic, would he lose to someone? No, he couldn't. Even though Nicolas was clearly more skilled than him, his ability to dodge showed that even without his enhancement, Nicolas could predict Arthur's moves without any problems.

Arthur does the unthinkable for a noble; he opens his mouth, and Nicolas's punch hits his teeth. Arthur bites down on Nicolas's skin without hesitation at this moment of impact. The pain in his teeth is intense, but he doesn't let go.

Nicolas is taken aback and displays a slight expression of pain; this surprise was unexpected. In this moment of distraction for Nicolas, Arthur firmly grabs his arm with both hands and dislocates it. Afterward, he opens his mouth, releasing Nicolas's fist.

Nicolas steps back, astonished, looking at his dislocated arm. His fist is covered in saliva and skin torn from Arthur's bite. He is about to relocate his arm.

"Forgot we're still fighting?" Arthur speaks, approaching. In this instant, Nicolas dodges Arthur's punches and kicks with swift footwork, but he doesn't have many ways to counterattack with his dislocated arm. He strikes with his other arm, aiming a punch toward Arthur's face.

Arthur smiles, revealing his teeth. At this moment, Nicolas hesitates. Arthur delivers a kick toward Nicolas's face on the side where his arm is injured. Nicolas tries to move to dodge, but he can't. He's caught mid-attack, and his other arm doesn't help. The kick lands squarely, but Arthur notices something amiss: Nicolas spins more than the force of the kick should have caused him to, and he should have fallen from it. This means Nicolas managed to mitigate the damage upon impact.

Nicolas raises his good arm and says, "I surrender. My right arm is incapacitated, and besides, I couldn't fully mitigate the impact of the kick. If the fight continues, I'll lose."

Arthur nods and asks, "Is your arm okay?"

Nicolas fiddles with his right arm using his left for a while, then swiftly puts the bone back in place.

"Yes, I'm fine," Nicolas answered, moving his right arm. He then glanced at his bloodied and bite-marked fist.

Nicolas smiled slightly. "I didn't expect that move from you, Arthur."

"Sorry about that. I don't know what came over me," Arthur responded awkwardly.

"No problem, in a real fight, every move is fair game. Besides, your always-behaved demeanor can be a bit suffocating, so it's good to see other sides of you," Nicolas quickly adds.

"Wow!" an excited voice interrupts their conversation. Sophie's eyes were shining. "What an incredible fight! So that's how I'll fight once Nicolas teaches me everything. Cool!" She smiles and repeats these words.

Jhon, who was also watching, speaks up. "That gave me an idea. I'll camouflage small spikes on my skin and let the opponent punch me, poisoning them while they think they have the upper hand."

Arthur looks surprised at Jhon; he was starting to have dangerous ideas.

Sophie stops repeating the same words and asks, "Jhon, are you the most skilled person in physical combat at the academy, then?"

Jhon thinks for a moment and responds, "I'm not sure. I haven't fought everyone at the academy, but I can say that the woman from the second prince's team is better than me. In the few moves we exchanged, I realized she fights better than me and uses the same magic, but at a much higher level."

"If I fight her, I feel like I'll reach the next level," Nicolas finishes with an eager smile on his face.

Sophie turns to Arthur. "It seems like no matter the situation, Arthur, you never lose. Let's spar later; I'd like to become as strong as you." Sophie speaks with a happy smile on her face.

Arthur smiles back at her, but internally, he feels strange. The emerald eyes look at him deeply, urging him not to see Sophie as human, but as a piece. 'What the hell should I do?' This thought repeats constantly in his head as he looks at Sophie.

Externally, he says, "Of course, I'll help you become as strong as you want."