Locked and wounded. (A Hololive fanfic)

Chapter 6: An exhausting test.

(Arato's POV.)

Fuck here we go... It's the time for that damn test in magic class, the part where we have to duel someone never failed to make me lose sleep every night before the day it happens. It's not that I always lost every test, it's that I'm just not very good at fighting to begin with. I really should've taken a few extra classes so I could skip it... The real gut punch is that Sora and AZKi are exempt from it since they can't fight. Fuuuck I'm jealous, whatever can't chicken out now.
We were sitting down having lunch in the cafeteria when my thoughts were interrupted by Sora calling out to me. "Hello? Arato-kun? Are you there...?" She says, snapping me out of my trance.
"Huh? Uh... Yeah? What is it?" I then said, shaking my head to clear my thoughts.
"You've been spacing out for a while now..." AZKi-san then chimed in, leaning her face closer to mine, maybe a bit too close. As I turned my head around, I saw Vincent and his group sitting nearby as always, glancing at us. Notably Fena isn't paying attention to us for once this time, neat. Vincent though remains a person who likes to gawk at either me or Sora.

I let out a sigh as I remembered what's gonna happen today, gonna duel someone in magic class even though I don't use any offensive magic... Boy I'm gonna get my butt whooped. What's worse is that the person I'll be fighting today was just announced: Fenacity La Guierre, had to be someone I have beef with, of course it did, and that's what sets me off even more since I saw how this dude fights. Guy is pretty terrifying to fight against, aside from those Blastium potions that he uses, he also utilizes quite a bit of fire magic, nothing too fancy but still leagues ahead of me. The only magic I know of that might be useful in combat is just my ability to heal myself, problem is that it uses a lot of energy the longer it's active, and being exhausted isn't exactly something you'd wanna experience in combat. I'm so cooked...
As we finished eating, Fena suddenly stood up and approached us, walking past AZKi and towards me. Unexpected considering I thought he was gonna bother her again, he might bother me about her but at least he's leaving her alone for once.

"Oi, you're my opponent during magic class." He tells me, his tone was serious but somehow there wasn't any heat to his words, at least not the kind I was used to hearing from him.
"You better give me a good fight later, don't disappoint me, or Sora, or AZKi." He says, for once he isn't pestering AZKi to hang out with him or anything like that, he's asking me to do better in the duel. Of course I can't really do anything except nod in agreement, knowing full well that I probably can't fight him as well as he'd like or expected. "I'll try my best, even though you'll prob kick my damn ass later." I then responded, skepticism obvious in my tone. "Then make sure that I don't, Sora probably wouldn't wanna see that. I ain't trying to tick you off here, just trying to tell you to do better." Fena then told me, while he wasn't trying to stir trouble this time around his words are still getting on my damn nerves. The thought of Sora watching while I get my ass handed to me makes me shudder. Damn, this guy knows how to motivate people...

"Yeah I won't, I'll do my best." Was my response, whether it's because of his words or something else, I was determined to at least put up a fight against him. Oh boy... I wonder how this'll go.

After a while, lunch finally ended and it was time to get to class, magic class to be more precise, oh boy here we go... The time for pain starts now.
For the test, everyone went outside into the school yard, built specifically for these occasions was a stone circle arena about 10 meters in diameter, almost all physical and emotional turmoil I've went through at this school happened within the confines of this arena because I hated combat that much, I didn't even bother to remember how I passed the previous tests here. And yes, you have to beat your opponent to pass the test.
After the students gathered around the arena and sat down in the grass, it was time for the first matchup of the day. It was Shiranui Flare against Nakiri Ayame, as cool as it is to watch other students duke it out and show off their combat prowess, I still hate being put into this. Atleast Yagoo-sensei isn't up our necks about it, that one helps.