27 Maybe this is fate as well...

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Narrators POV

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Step! Step!

Steps resounded throughout the dojo as feet impacted the hard wooden flooring.

Pak!

Two swords meet with great strength.

"Haaaaa!"

The one on the right raised her sword above her head and struck down.

Tak!

Splinters of bamboo flew away in very small parts as the swords contacted with obvious great strength put into each strike.

A man with a wrinkled face and long saffron hair was watching their bout attentively observing every detail, finding out flaws in the background with hawk like sharpness of the eyes.

Two people in black sparring equipment clashed their bamboo swords together. Their skill seemed to match if a non-swordsman were to watch them. It was clearly wrong.

The one on the right struck down with all her physical might without mana. The one the left responded by stepping her right foot forward and duck.

She then raised her arms upwards making the blade go diagonal resulting for the one in the right's sword to slide downwards.

Slick.

She abruptly stood up, making the sword knock on the opponent's wrist, resulting to the one on the right to lose grip on the swords handle and drop it, effectively rendering her opponent weapon less.

The one on the left quickly swiped her sword down aiming for the neck, as it was already in a diagonal striking position. Only stopping right beside at her opponent's neck.

Centimetres away from striking the side of her opponent's neck that would result with a knockout if the strike went on and hit.

*Sigh*

She sighed with exhaustion and refreshment of victory. She withdraws her bamboo sword back to her side and speak in a winning tone.

"You lost. According to the forfeit, you get a flick on the head." The one on the left took off her helmet in revelation of dark hair with strands of white.

She readied her finger into a flicking motion. Her voice was familiar. Someone I might just know.

The one on the right took off her helmet and it revealed blonde hair. She also sighed and said "Fine..." in a dejected tone.

It was just a flick in a head, so it was fine. Plus, they both agreed on the idea that the loser gets flicked in the head.

"Alrighty!" The one on the left happily skipped across the dojo towards the other to flick her head. She raised her hand and readied a flick sneaking a tiny amount of her mana to the flick.

Small enough to not be noticed by even SS-ranks at the point of power almost breaking towards the realm of SSS-ranks. AKA, National Rank Hunters.

[A/n: Yeah, I'll be changing things a bit. Adding new ranks, tweaking with the planets size, new characters (hopefully), and many more!]

Flick!

"Ouch...!" The blonde said, not exaggerating. The flick hurt. Even if it was just an amount barely detectable, it would require a national level hunter to at least detect it, not even locate.

And that mana was from a being whose power far surpasses that of the monarchs and rulers combined.

Her mana was so chaotic, dense and pure, even an amount like that would let a S-rank hunter feel pain from a single finger flick.

If one were to sense it and describe it. It would be like the sun's energy. Raging chaotically aflame, devouring, and destroying anything near it. But it was also warm, pure, and gave off a "Holy" feeling.

"That hurt..." the blonde said, complaining about the pain the simple flick gave. "It isn't my fault; you keep losing to me." The noirette shrugged her shoulders and sat down and faced the saffron haired man.

She pouted and looked at her fellow disciple under one master. "Did you put mana in that strike? I clearly felt something…" her eyes narrowed.

The noirette flinched and awkwardly laughed. "N-no! No, of course not. (Shit! I forgot that she's an SS-rank bordering SSS, just falling 6 numbers short till minimum SSS!)" She inwardly cursed herself.

She looked away pretending that nothing was wrong when cold sweat was running down her back.

"So, master. Do you have any talks about how to improve my swordsmanship or any flaws with my performance?" The noirette asked seriously trying to evade the question.

"Hey!" The blonde shouted in complain of the unfairness and unclearness of the situation. They didn't say anything about mana powered flicks, and she just felt something!

"Quiet, Hae In." The master interfered.

"Ye Jin. Firstly, you seem to be waiting for the enemy to attack first then counterattack. You shouldn't let your opponent get the first strike since if they could, they would not give you any chance to attack later. Secondly, be more active with attacking, don't just rely on your counter attacking skills and power since that could also bite you in the back in the future." The saffron haired man looked towards his other student.

That master was Song Chi-Yul. One of the surviving members of the double dungeon event.

"And you, you should always come up with an attack after you strike and defend yourself immediately after you attack if you don't want to get swiped by an opponent again like that." He scolded. The blonde flinched.

"Bad habits and flaws within the way of the sword are like ripped cloth and old wine skins. If not replaced with new ones and better ones, it will keep degrading your ability. You should always improve upon your ways of the sword. Removing flawed parts and replace with ones of great quality. Constantly sharpening your 'sword'." He advised.

The blonde smiled and said, "Your as skilled as ever, master." Still rubbing her forehead. "Ah… shush, what are you saying? This old body will become useless if I don't train and sharpen properly. And you never did fight seriously. Was it pity? So that I could see and analyse any problems?" He asked.

"Were you slowing down your strikes out of consideration and so I could see your fight?" He asked again. "That wasn't even slowing it down... If you still had both your arms..." The noirette answered.

he quickly replied with "Stop... You're still talking about it even if it has been a few months now –" but was quickly interrupted by a ring.

"Emergency calls… low-rank hunters keep getting these kinds of annoying calls. We'll have to stop here for today." He spoke.

The blonde put her hand on her thigh and asked, "Master, are you really planning to postpone your retirement?"

"Retirement?" The old man looked back and spoke. "Even if I live, how long will I? With my remaining days, I want to stay useful to the world." He stood by the dojo's window and watched whatever he could see from there.

"But this is surprising, an S-rank is being taught the way of the sword by me." He looked back to see his blonde student.

Hmph!

The noirette harrumphed and looked away, asking. "What about me? Master." The old man chuckled. "You're one of the best students I had. No – you might have even surpassed them with the sword with your absurd talent with it. You even beat Hae In, a couple of times with just skill."

*Ring*

"Huh?" The noirette was confused as to who would call her at this time, as she told her siblings she wouldn't be available at these hours, neither would the landlord since it was already paid.

"Master, excuse me." She picked up the call and stood up walking away. She had a surprised look for a split second and turned back towards her master and spoke,

"Master, where were you called to?" The noirette asked. "At ***** *******. Why do you ask?"

The noirette smirked in response. "Master. It seems that we have been called to the same dungeon. Let's go together master."

"Oh, really? You were called there too?" Song Chi-Yul asked. "Yes, and I'm sure that my brother amd the others would be there too! A reunion."

"Haha. Is that so? Then let us go together –" Song Chi-Yul looked back towards his student and said,

"Ye Jin."

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How was your day? I hope you had a good one.