Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 29: Hero vs Cheater

As the two opponents walked out to the center of the arena, Richard wore a confident yet kind expression as he faced Christina, who was full of determination in front of him. And as Koko watched the two face off, she couldn't help but wonder what the fight between them would be, given how they'd destroyed their targets more efficiently than she'd destroyed hers. However, Richards harem was slightly ruining the mood as they cheered him on from the sidelines.

"I always hoped that we'd get to spare sooner or later." Richard laughed slightly when Christina finally moved into the proper position on the arena floor.

"I feel the same." Christina actually spoke to him, making Koko slightly jealous as she'd never spoken to her once after their initial 'hands off my stuff' moment. "I've been looking forward to testing myself against someone with more than twenty thousand MP."

"Then let's have a good match then." Richard laughed, though as soon as their introductions were finished, a feeling of tension suddenly filled the air as both Christina and Richard both drew their long swords and took their stances for the upcoming battle.

"Begin!" Austin yelled, and Richard suddenly seemed to disappear while Christina's entire body shined with a blue light. That blue light almost instantly transformed into a golden sphere that surrounded her body, and it appeared to be a shield of some kind as Richard reappeared on top of it, striking at the barrier with his sword while sparks of electricity started raining down in the immediate area.

With a shout of exertion, Christina suddenly expanded her shield, seeming to make it almost detonate as Richard was sent flying backwards. Though, his flying body disappeared with a small cloud of smoke in the air before he suddenly reappeared completely unharmed behind Christina. After noticing him, she spun around and the two locked blades with Christina glaring into Richard's excited eyes before they quickly pulled their swords apart and started exchanging blows so fast that Koko could hardly keep up with them. And if she could barely do it, she guessed that the other people in her class wouldn't stand a chance.

"Whoa! I can't even see them!" One of them remarked, and Koko sighed as she called it again before Richard suddenly disengaged from the exchange of blows. Jumping backwards, he appeared to be preparing to cast some kind of spell with this free hand before Christina beat him to the punch. Raising her own hand, several golden swords appeared behind Christina, floating in the air until all of the blades flashed and shot a beam of light across the arena before it finally hit Richard where they split apart against the barrier he covered himself with. On the other side of the arena, the brick walls cracked and shattered underneath the force of the beam, though everyone was to focused on the fight to even think that they might be in danger if the beams were ever aimed towards them. Though Koko was just as bad as they were as she was far too excited to see the two battle to notice the danger. They were probably just as strong as her, maybe even stronger if they had reserve skills like her Dragon's Fury that were stable and that they could use more often.

"That's it! Stop the match before you kill someone!" Austin yelled as a stray beam swept over the area in front of the observing students, however the combatants didn't seem to either hear him or care about what he said as Richard created five massive fireballs in an instant and sent them all towards Christina, who blocked all of them with another barrier. The immediate area was suddenly covered in smoke from the attack with the explosions making the ground shake slightly, though all of the smoke was instantly blown away as Christina expanded her barrier again before releasing two bolts of light that shot at incredibly fast speeds towards Richard, who deflected both of them by creating a small shield over his left hand and easily slapping them away. However, while one of the bolts that he'd slapped was heading harmlessly into the sky, the other was heading straight for the observing students.

Upon seeing Austin grit his teeth as he moved to intercept the oncoming attack so that it wouldn't hit the students behind him, Koko was shocked to see him withdraw a dagger for a weapon, and she suddenly knew that he was a rogue and would most likely be seriously injured if the light where anything close to how destructive the fireballs had been. And so, Koko moved in front of him at the last second.

"Get back!" Austin yelled at her, though Koko ignored him before she held both of her hands out in front of her and twisted them around in the air as if she were attempting to make a whirlpool in water. The light from Christina's attack hit her hands then, though to everyone's amazement, it simply disappeared into thin air while the other bolt of light finally detonated in the sky above them, creating a loud bang as it blew away over half of a cloud.

"As expected of the Angel of Swords! She managed to somehow dispel an attack when it had already left her sword!" On of the students behind Koko exclaimed.

"Huh?" Koko asked out loud, wondering just when she was going to get credit for something she achieved before Austin reached down and grabbed her by the shirt collar and glared into her eyes.

"Do you have a death wish? Do you have any idea what would have happened if she hadn't managed to dispel that attack just now?!" Austin yelled.

"You're welcome for saving your life!" Koko yelled back in anger.

"You didn't save me from anything! Rather, you put everyone else at risk by interfering!" Austin responded. "If you have the energy to reply, then go run ten laps around the academy as punishment. And the two of you over there can join her! Hopefully it'll make you think to listen the next time when I call a sparring match to be over with!"

"'Most talented instructor in the academy my foot..." Koko scoffed as she turned around to start running.

"Make that twenty laps for you." Austin added on to her punishment.

Christina's P.O.V

"As expected of the Angel of Swords! She managed to somehow dispel an attack when it had already left her sword!" On of the students that had been observing the sparring match exclaimed, though Christina looked on with wide eyes as she knew she hadn't done anything of the sort at all. Somehow, the girl with the weakest magical ability in the entire academy had managed to erase her attack completely, and it left Christina completely clueless as to how she'd managed to do it. And it wasn't just that either. In the first sparring match, even under Magic Domination, she'd managed to evade every attack that their classmate threw at her while not retaliating in any way. To anyone who knew what they were doing, it was obvious that she was using him to train herself to resist such things, which seemed to indicate that she was going to get stronger soon...

Looking in front of her, Christina sheathed her sword, thinking her roommate wasn't the only strange one at the academy. Richard Cowell, a commoner that had somehow managed to shatter his Magical Ability Scanner upon registration, was the most diverse person she'd ever met. While she used nothing but light magic and infusion, Richard had just shown that he could not only use fire magic, body enhancement and infusion himself, but he also had skills that a rogue would have while also being able to create barriers, which was no easy feat. His swordsmanship wasn't anything to skip over either, and Christina wondered just what kind of training he'd gone through in order to learn it before he started walking up to her.

"That was a good match. We should do it again sometime." Richard offered in a friendly tone.

Turning and beginning to walk away, Christina ignored him completely though she secretly wanted to battle him again as well. After all, he was a stepping stone, a simple checkpoint in what she had to overcome in order to achieve everything that she needed to in her lifetime. Richard Cowell and Koko Cryner... these two wouldn't stand in her way!