Seeing Zeke look at her in that way got her hackles to rise in a way that should've been unnatural. Her senses as a fighter and a Draconian could sniff out Zeke's intentions like they were plain as day.

He wanted to fight her. He wanted to prove something to her. He probably wanted to show off something cool to her. And she was more than willing to oblige.

Just like Zeke, Mikella went through her skill choosing and found a rather interesting skill that seemed perfect for her current Class as she read it.

Class Skill: Steel Resolve A warrior never backs down, so an Iron Dragon Warrior keeps going and keeps swinging. Allows you to shrug off any persistent and lethal debilitation debuffs, and once recovered, instantly heal back the damage accrued by the effect through the use of mana and stamina. Increases the recovery rate of more complex debilitation effects according to the level of the skill and the current Vitality and Endurance stats.

The other one allowed her to keep her stance regardless of any attacks, but that was to be expected of a Class focusing on defense. Unfortunately it was the opposite of her fighting style, preferring to move out of the way and adjust to the battlefield as required.

So Steel Resolve was better as it allowed her to keep doing what she is doing, and put down any nasty debuffs that her enemies might throw at her. Complex debuffs are outside Zeke's specialty, and while he can try to circumvent that, it was better for Mikella to have her own way of dealing with nasty things like that.

But she knew that this was pointless to use against a spar with Zeke as everyone gathered around the two near the housing. Once they were told that the two were about to spar, they all stopped what they were doing and waited to watch with eagerness in their eyes.

She didn't know why all of them wanted to watch for a moment before realizing that they were the Journeymen that basically took them in and taught them everything they knew. Being the only otherworlders strong enough to live in this world, they had the sort of idol-like aura around them, which if she was honest, she wasn't against reveling in the feeling.

Sure, some of them whined and bitched about them being in charge, but that was natural to understand. Eventually after a while, all of them ceased when Zeke and Mikella were serious about taking care of them and not just forcing them to do training like common soldiers.

But despite the stares coming from them, including from Clara, Tigger, Mark, Elly, Lyle, Janet, Cloud, Val, and even Ceru, Mikella could only focus on one person–Zeke himself.

He stretched his arms wide and gave his back a decent crack loud enough for everyone to listen. Mikella did her own stretches, though unlike Zeke, she was always nimble and flexible.

"So, how do you wanna do this?" Mikella asked. She could already tell that a barrier surrounded the two, ensuring that everyone outside was protected. They tend to go a bit far during their sparring matches. "First to draw blood, or a five minute session?"

"Five minutes," Zeke added. "And magic is allowed."

Mikella scoffed. "Of course it is. You're too scared to face me and my Tempest Dance Mastery without magic."

Zeke rolled his eyes, and Mikella flashed a cocky grin. She loved it when he squirmed whenever she brought up a fact he can't deny.

Then she remembered the cute puppy in the corner of her vision. She was worried that Tir would get in the way, but somehow despite having him in the corner, he didn't get in the way of her vision at all.

In fact, it felt like her senses became sharper somehow, like all the filler between her senses and her mind was washed away. Was this what it's like to have Parallel Thought? No, it was something more. It was just having Tir guide her thoughts better than she could on her own. She was glad that Zeke also had Tir, because she would definitely feel like she was cheating. She was already so much better than him in fighting. It would be too cruel.

Once their warmup was done, the two faced each other to make a proper dueling stance. It wasn't totally necessary, but it was better to draw the line for when fun time is over.

She pulled out her longsword from her pack, and Zeke summoned his gauntlets around his hands and arms. She could hear Cloud and Val gasp at the sight of the gauntlets, something that they haven't seen him use before. She forgot that they got some new gear they hadn't seen before, but they were about to be shocked a whole bunch more after this.

She let her mind flow within the confines of the barrier, focusing her entire being on Zeke and the field at hand. She prepped her sword, feeling her Mastery skill guiding her every move to her will and intention.

"Tir will start the timer."

Zeke said, and suddenly a number 10 flashed in her mind. It wasn't invasive, but it did surprise her a little as the 10 started counting down from 9, to 8, and so on.

Her grin rose as the numbers counted down. When it eventually landed on zero, an explosion of pure sound echoed around them.

The barrier stood solid as the shockwave of the two combatants clashing against each other ensued. Were it not there, the shockwave alone could kill the apprentices around them.

Mikella grinned harder when her sword met with Zeke's gauntlets, energy already coiling around it like a shield protecting his arm.

Zeke grinned back before the two separated to begin their assault.

Mikella already prepped Draconic Fury, an active Class Skill buff that increased her power with Dragon Eyes fully ready. Thanks to Zeke's improvements, the chance of looking at his weakpoints decreased.

But to her surprise, her eyes felt clearer and sharper as the sense of weakness she saw improved rather than faded. If she was careful, she could go at them and end the fight as quickly as possible.

So to go all out, she went for it. Her movement skills, Dragon Descent, activated along with all the passive skills working in her favor; Acrobatics, Aerial Advantage, Clashing Energies, and the new Enlightenment thanks to Tir's sharing ability. Her wings flared, her excitement at a fever pitch as she had them hidden for so long, yet it felt like loosening a tight belt over a long day.

She flew over, her Dexterity used to its maximum, before she was stopped by a barrier that encompassed around Zeke.

A second later, Zeke's punches flowed out from him, but Mikella pivoted and changed direction, using her wings and swordplay to get away from the empowered strikes of his punches.

Waves of pressure and booming sounds traveled around her as the two shared an exchange of blows the other had experienced many times over the last year or so.

In her experience, their blows would last a few solid seconds before Zeke would try to cheat with some magic, so she did it first. Lightning flowed through her arms as she sliced the air, leaving traces of electrified energy and turning them into crescent waves that chased after him. The waves exploded near him, causing energy to destabilize to disrupt Zeke's stance while enhancing her own as she went for the kill.

But rune patterns appeared around her, and to her shock, they were activated without any hint of a pen flying about. The rune patterns glowed before transforming into fireballs, all happening in a single breath before her sight became consumed in flames.

In that torrent of flames and burning air, Mikella flew out of the fire, her Elemental Maw coming in clutch as the flames dispersed and got absorbed into a phantasmal version of a dragon's mouth near her. As it did, mana filled her channels, and a rather surprising amount as well.

Landing before him, Mikella glared at the mage who stood defiantly against her, his arms raised in the air with that stupid cocky grin on that stupid handsome face.

"Like it?" Zeke shouted. "I got some more where that came from!"

"What's that about?" She shouted back. "That was way too fast!"

"It's my new skill," Zeke grinned. He looked so damn happy as he flexed his fingers. "Rune Printer. Saves me the time by skipping the process and letting me call up spells from my Runic Library."

"Seriously?" Mikella's eyes widened.

"Yep!" Zeke flashed a cruel smile, his voice turning deeper. "Let me show you by example."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As though showing off to her and her alone, Zeke raised a single hand up to her and snapped his fingers. The snap clanged against her ears like a gong as several–no, dozens and dozens of rune patterns shaped like magic circles appeared everywhere around them.

Behind him, around them, behind her–they were everywhere. Mikella only now recalled that throughout the year, Zeke had been experimenting with a lot of runic spells during their bouts, just to get an advantage against a fighter like Mikella.

The only reason why it doesn't work out half the time is because Mikella would often take him out before he gets to draw the spell fast enough to use it. But now with Rune Printer…

"Uhh, this might be a little too much even for me."

Mikella said lamely before each and every magic circle activated their runic spell, devouring everything around her and herself in a torrent of spells.

…..

Inside of the barrier, it was a sparring match that might as well be a casual match between two people. But for the outside, slacked jaws and widened eyes surrounded it as everyone watched with mesmerized faces, though some had fearful expressions from the intense bout. That was all of the otherworlders, however.

The Journeymen and above were different. Cloud watched with clear interest. As a mage with Runecraft himself, he practically became glued at the intricacies of each of the rune patterns drawn without issue. It was a level that a regular Runist would take years to draw on his own, let alone make several at once.

Val had her hands pressed together, trepidation in her eyes as she watched Mikella's movements with a sharp gaze. She knew Mikella had fused her skills to create an unbelievable Mythic Grade skill, but there was also a sense of grace only she could pull off. If she was honest, she might not be able to be a match for her if she doesn't bring her A-game out to her.

Lyle and Janet had already watched their sparring a few times when they met, but this was on another level. Now with Zeke's spells shooting out like a machine gun, he was no longer a weird Runist with a knack for punching people–he became a real terror on the battlefield.

But even then, despite all the magic spells thrown at Mikella–hot fireballs, shivering ice spikes, hundreds of wind slashes, and even several dozen more types of magic ranging from poison and acidic to even dark and light magic, using every different aspect Zeke could think of.

Yet, all of them–every single one–were absorbed straight into Mikella's phantasmal dragon maw, becoming bigger and bigger with each spell. While that was impressive in its own right, Mikella was clearly struggling.

Her eyes bulged from the excess mana, hints of Mana Burnout showing on her skin as it started to burn in places from the magical energy suffusing her very being. So rather than keep them all in, she roared, her yellow eyes practically shooting out lightning sparks as she became electricity itself and dashed straight towards Zeke, who was already at full blast with his fighting stance and magic spells at the ready.

It was a battle that was more fantastical as seconds went by. Spells were flying everywhere, but they were practically background noise as Zeke and Mikella fought it out, her blade crashing against his forearms and his punches swinging after her body.

In the midst of all this, Ceru watched with interest. Despite the two fighting being a stage below her, there was something fascinating about watching them fight. Something within her stirred, as though connecting to the realm they situated themselves with.

Or rather, she felt something within her connecting with them somehow. A feeling that was harder to perceive than a shadow in darkness. She recognized this feeling, something that was hard to pick out.

"Well, well," She whispered. "I think I'm starting to get the picture of how immense it is."

…..

"Mikky, if you want, I can handle the weapons for you."

Tir mentioned in the corner of Mikella's eyes, which were currently being blinded by the dozens of spells thrown her way. She wasn't sure how she managed to swallow them all up with Elemental Maw, considering that the skill should be going through its cooldown right now, but she was sucking them all up as much as she could while dispersing it into lightning.

Her body was practically flying in autopilot, her sword swinging and dancing against Zeke's form, which in turn swished and dashed to attack back in his convoluted ways. It was frustrating, yet there was that hunger in her that refused to be abated no matter how often she landed a blow on him again and again.

"What?!" She shouted, though she only did so in her mind. Her mouth was busy screaming bloody murder, practically devolving into a rampaging monster with no intelligent thought.

"I said I can control your weapons for you and handle Zeke's spells," Tir said casually, not really showing any hint of danger despite the mayhem of spells and swords flashing across them. "And you can just stay busy attacking Zeke."

"Okay!"

She shouted again, mostly just leaving herself with just one-word responses in her own mind as she kept screaming and roaring. She wasn't angry or upset–she was just really, really amped up.

"Alrighty! A maelstrom of weapons of destruction coming right up!"

Tir said happily as she felt a chunk of her mana vanish in a heartbeat. That almost messed her up, but when she panicked after thinking her Elemental Maw disappeared and would let her get pelted with spells, she was pleasantly surprised at how everything stopped flashing in front of her eyes.

Instead, what flashed instead were the weapons she had stored away in her storage pack. She felt her mind racing as though she controlled every one with absolute focus. Yet, she knew she wasn't.

Was this how Tir made Zeke's mind work? Rather than Tir doing it himself, she was controlling the weapons from beginning to end, but the going-ons beneath all of that were taken care of by Tir. It was so surreal, and she finally understood why Zeke felt so unsure of whether it was his own work or Tir's.

One thing was certain–She was happy to find Zeke so flustered when he found his spells smashed by the flying electrified weapons with the aid of not only her Tempest Dance Mastery, but also her class skill Heavenly Strike, using their defense-ignoring ability to destroy any barrier Zeke tried, and failed, to protect his spells with.

Before he could pick up the slack, Mikella roared triumphantly as she crashed against Zeke with her sword, pouring in her available kinetic and magical energy into the blow.

Zeke grunted and gritted his teeth. He pulled up his arms to defend himself along with a barrier for good measure only to find the barrier smashed and his arms creaking dangerously from defending against the sharp blades. Blood trickled and flew about in the torrent of wild energy shaping itself around the two like a veil as the two danced the dance of conquest with their mastery skills.

Mikella knew his skill wasn't nowhere near enough to handle her Mythic Grade skill, but he made it up for it by using all matters of barrier trickery–he conjured several barriers to hamper her movements, using extremely weak but disruptive walls of magic to either stop her arms from swinging completely, or using several barriers to be broken by her charging feet, slowing down the movement to cause a delay.

It was so miniscule and precise, but it also messed up her movements as only Zeke ever could. All the while, he ramped up his buffs by lowering the amount of spells he was using and kept attacking her with severe sweeps and hooks.

Powerful quakes of air flowed, and the sounds of beating against metal clanged from the two's bout, only furthering Mikella's desire to keep going and going forever.

But as her mind became swept up by the fight, Zeke managed to land a double-palm strike at her abdomen, taking her off balance and forcing her into the air. Out of habit, which was a surreal thing for her, her wings flew out to stop her mid-flight, fixing herself upright.

Only to find herself surrounded by multiple magic circles ready to bombard her.

"Mikky! I don't have enough weapons to stop them all!" Tir shouted in her mind, prompting her to make up a whip-lash effort to make up a plan.

"Go for broke! Take over for Warp Jump!"

She shouted in her mind, but it was as though Tir read the entirety of her mind to understand what she meant. He looked surprised at the corner of her vision, but there was that glint of excitement in his eyes as she felt both her mana and stamina draining for her to do the impossible.

She warped to one magic circle and slashed it apart, dispersing the rune patterns and the spell entirely. Then she did it to another, and another, and another.

All at once.

Zeke's eyes bulged out of his skull when Mikella literally warped to several places at once, splitting herself to the point where even she was shocked to find several of herselves copying her action. Her mind also split apart, feeling as though she had walls within her mind and trapping her to one specific target. The only thing she could think of was slicing the target.

In another solid second, the many magic circles were slashed apart, leaving her back to her original position, her mind returned to normal with a bit of dizziness.

She was not going to bother asking Tir just how the hell he managed to split herself up. All she did was grin at the bastard mage that put her through that and charged right after him.

Zeke looked ready to panic, not expecting Mikella to do such a thing. He was probably filled with dozens of questions just like her, but like the man of action he was, he put himself at the front and blocked her strike.

Her sword, however, tripped him up during their flashes of combat a few seconds later, her body too excited despite the constant drain on her resources.

Just as her blade was ready to deliver the final blow to finish the fight, something changed.

Her sight landed on Zeke–or rather, on Zeke's form. Right in the middle of a guarded stance, his arms solid straight to protect her blow and only just missed Mikella's incoming strike; his body shifted stances and forced the blade to direct away from his torso, and instead straight down his gauntleted arm.

That process felt strange to her senses. She knew he used mana to help direct the flow of her sword, but she also felt something non-magical affecting her. His buffs were too strong for her blade to truly take down his stance, forcing her off-kilter and bringing her back to the fight again.

Apparently Zeke did something unexpected himself.

Her heart ramped up as her weapons were slowly losing against the spell onslaught surrounding her. She would've stopped a long time ago had it not been for the Enlightenment skill she shared with Zeke.

All the while, Zeke looked like he was near ready to break. His face crumpled when Mikella spun about to kick him in the neck, only to swing wide and slash across his thigh. He already healed it up with his Restoration before entering into a stance and swiped at her with a blade-like hand form. Mikella jumped up, missing the strike and spun on top of his shoulders, all the while swinging her weapon. Zeke countered by swinging one leg over to block the attack with a barrier-enforced kick, forcing the two to separate from the lack of balance.

When she looked at him one final time, her heart ached and her mind turned blank. He smiled back, showing exhaustion beyond belief, but he had such a goofy smile that it made Mikella laugh and cheer while roaring in defiance.

God, she needed this.

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