Spar [2]

*Bam!*

"Ugh!"

My feet slid across the floor after I barely managed to block the horizontal sweep with my dagger, proving just how much physically stronger Samantha currently was.

But I didn't care. All I cared about was that I didn't fall.

Once again, I raised my dagger and focused my eyes on my opponent.

*Bam! Bam! Bam!*

Over and over, her staff came at me without mercy, and over and over, I barely managed to block her attacks. Or at least, I blocked most of them.

It was inevitable due to our physical differences that some of her attacks managed to get through my defenses, but they were also strikes that I consciously decided to take head-on, knowing that they wouldn't be able to bring me down.

"Huff...huff..."

My whole body was hurting and there was no doubt that it was now filled with bruises from her attacks.

I had no idea for how long we had sparred, but to me, it felt like an eternity. It turns out that dodging a long staff was a lot harder than I thought, as she was now only piling up sweeps and slices on me after I had dodged her first attack.

This only served to prove the fact that she was a lot more experienced in fighting than me, as she didn't hesitate to use what she felt was working while discarding what didn't.

What was fortunate about this whole situation was that I didn't have to 'win' the spar, I just needed to endure it.

Again, the staff flew toward me, aimed right at my chest.

*Bam!*

However, yet again I was able to see it, and although I wasn't that fast, the dagger was mobile enough to allow me to block the attack in time. An attack that somehow felt a lot weaker than the ones before, and it didn't take long until I realized why that was.

Instead of taking a moment to regain her posture, Samantha was already preparing another attack, making her staff rise into the air before falling toward my head.

'Shit...!'

I needed to move, but I instinctually knew that the only way for me to dodge it would be to throw myself to the side. And I couldn't do that.

Instead, I closed my eyes and grit my teeth.

*BAM!*

"Grrngh!"

My whole head felt like it was cracking open due to the force of the staff that came crashing down upon me but I kept mustering every single fraction of conviction inside of me to stay on my feet.

As soon as I felt the staff leaving my head, I opened my eyes. But instead of my sight being blurry, as I had expected it to be, everything was now red, including the woman in front of me.

Strangely enough, she didn't move, despite me raising my dagger again.

'What is she doing?'

My mind was still focused enough that I wasn't about to let down my guard and lose my chance at gaining a new skill, but I slowly started to get a feeling that something was up.

Unable to stop myself, my eyes quickly swept the room.

'Why are they all looking at me?'

All of my classmates had paused their own spars just to look at me, and before I knew it, our teacher's voice rang out, but it sounded almost as if he was speaking underwater.

"-Class is over! Everyone, please exit the classroom!"

*Thud!*

Behind the redness, I was finally able to see Samantha's pale face as she dropped her staff.

"-Alex?! Are you..."

"-It's fine, Samantha. Please go with your classmates."

A moment later, my vision was covered by our large teacher standing in front of me as he put his hand on my shoulder.

"-Can you hear me, Alex?"

Just like before, his voice was muddled, but it was not to the point where I couldn't make out what he was saying. But I also didn't care about what he was saying. In my head, there was only one thing that was important right now.

Because the mission panel was still hovering at my side.

"Is... the lesson over?"

Looking up at Mr. Froid's face, I had a hard time determining his expression, but I could at least tell that he wasn't acting as he did normally, emphasized by the fact that I could feel his hand grip my shoulder a bit tighter.

"Yes, Alex. Class is over."

In sync with his words, the mission panel finally disappeared and I could feel my body heat up in response to my new skill getting integrated into my soul.

"Then, I will sleep for a bit."

"You will...? Alex?"

I finally allowed my body to fall, and with that, my vision also turned black.

****

[Samantha's Pov]

I wasn't the only one who had chosen to wait in the hallway outside of the classroom. It wasn't that surprising that Julia and Suzan had decided to wait here with me, but I was surprised to see that Lya, George, and Thomas were also here.

However, unlike me, they didn't have a reason to.

'Why did he do that...'

From the start, I had a hard time understanding the man known as Alex Winter, which was the reason why I had planned on getting closer to him. Because even in Stellar Academy bad things could still happen, and therefore I wanted to make sure I knew what kinds of people I had around me.

But he was always acting in contrast to my expectations.

From the start where it didn't appear as if he conformed to social expectations, to then suddenly make it awfully clear that he had decided to view me not as a classmate, but as the princess of the Estaria.

Which in itself was frustrating, but it was somewhat understandable, even if it was contradictory. But then there were his other actions. How he had struggled until he passed out during the physical education course, and now...

'He could have dodged it...'

I knew for a fact that he was somehow able to see my attacks clearly, even if his body wasn't quite able to keep up. But there was no doubt that he was able to dodge that last attack, and yet, he chose not to. And the result had been a lot of blood painting his face red.

'Who is he...'

A genius, a moron, brave but still a coward. All of these words rang true in my head when I thought of him, but never at the same time. Almost as if he was consciously choosing what kind of person he was, while at the same time never looking at the same world as the rest of us.

As he had done so many times before, he had looked at something... else. Something that no one else could see. As if the world around him wasn't important enough to care about.

He was just so...

"He is pretty weird, isn't he? But I do like his guts! Hahaha!"

The one to speak my thoughts out loud was the large man known as Thomas Stout, someone who I hadn't found a good opportunity to talk to yet.

"I'm not sure if that's correct..."

"George?"

"Ah, don't mind it Lya. It was nothing."

'Does he know something about Alex?'

George Bright and Lya Lavigne. I wasn't sure as to how it happened, but they had for some reason gotten a lot closer to each other after the weekend after both being what I would call outcasts.

As the princess, it would be impossible for me not to know at least a bit about Lya, but I had no idea who George was, other than the fact that he had supposedly been very impressive during the entrance exam.

"Hey, Samantha... Shouldn't it be fine to just let Mr. Froid take care of him? Do you really have to wait for him?"

The short, green-haired Suzan didn't seem all too comfortable with this weird situation, unsurprising as the group that had decided to wait were all more or less strangers, even if we were classmates.

"I'm sorry, Suzan, but I need to make sure that he is alright. It was me who injured him, after all."

"...I understand. But why are you guys here?"

Unlike me who had intentionally refrained from asking that exact question, Suzan didn't carry that hesitation as she looked at Thomas, Lya, and George.

"Oh! I am not waiting for Alex if that's what you're thinking. I had asked Mr. Froid for a favor before this, so I don't have a choice but to wait! Hahaha!"

Thomas had a very straightforward answer to her question, very in line with his outward persona. Most likely it was something along the lines of receiving guidance, asking for our teacher to train him or something.

*Click*

But before George and Lya were able to answer, the door opened up. From it, our teacher walked out, his black uniform sullied with blood coming from the young man he was carrying in his arms.

"What are you guys doing here? Stop dawdling your time away and go do something productive!"

And a moment later, he was already well on his way, most likely carrying Alex to the infirmary without giving me a chance to ask if Alex was alright.

Before I knew it, Thomas, Lya, and George had also left the hallway, as there was nothing else for them to do here, leaving me with a lot of unanswered questions. Most of which were related to two specific individuals.

'George and Alex...'