An Interesting Opponent

Max and Mark went back into the dorms after a while, Mark's mind was cleared and he felt better after watching the lights in the sky. They each got back to their room and began doing their own activities.

Mark began circulating the magic particles inside his bloodstream according to the basic breathing technique. This helped his body recover at a faster rate, he knew that his body was slightly injured and that it will bring his performance down.

Max on the other hand slept, he wasn't able to concentrate on other things such as meditating.

***

The sun rose back up into the sky and along with it both Mark and Max were getting ready for today's fight. After freshening up they went towards the training grounds before noon to train for some time.

"Quite a lot of people are here today," Max remarked. Ever since they got their free weeks they would come to the training grounds daily to face each other so they knew the people who would normally show up, but now it was almost full.

"I guess everyone got a taste of hardship during their matches?" Mark laughed awkwardly while saying while Max sneered, trying to contain his laughter.

They went towards an empty plot and took out their weapons. Max already advised Mark not to force himself today and just find his limits, which is what he did. They exchanged attacks for a while and neither of them backed down for even a second.

If someone was to look at them fighting then they would think that the two boys were on equal grounds but it wasn't true. Max looked at Mark that was clenching his teeth together. Mark's movements were a bit more sluggish than normal and he would often change the grip on his parang, and not because he needed to change the direction of the strike suddenly.

Max inevitably won the spar, Mark was laying on his behind while Max now had the bottom of his shield pointing between Mark's brows. "It couldn't heal in one night right?" Max asked a question he already knew the answer to.

"No, it didn't," Mark responded while raising his arm towards Max. The latter grabbed his arm and pulled him back up on his feet.

"This is quite serious but you might be able to pull through some matches before losing..." Max thought out loud. He was worried for Mark as he was his only friend inside the academy. He didn't bother getting acquainted with other people, much less to become friends with others.

"You don't have to worry about me, I'll get through how many fights I can. You should better focus on yourself." Mark didn't want Max to be too distracted by him.

"Do your best," Max told Mark as he placed his shield on his back. "Let's go, for now, the fights will begin soon" Max suggested for the two of them, they shouldn't be late to a fight as not showing up would mean surrender.

They reached their destination where the two supervisors were already there, surrounded by a bunch of students. They reached a bit too early so Max and Mark had to wait a while for the other students, but finally, after an hour or so the vice president Azel began speaking.

"Now that everyone is here, let's begin!" He announced before picking some of the students that won the other day.

A few battles were fought and it was Mark's turn. At the call of his name, he descended inside the arena waiting for his opponent.

'No tough opponent... no tough opponent' He chanted in his thoughts and the results seemed to be fruitful. His opponent was a male student wielding quite a number of daggers on him. He was a speed-type fighter and even though strength wasn't his best capability he was still indeed powerful, though he couldn't compare to Syrah, Mark's last opponent, whose strength affected him even if she was just defending herself.

Mark was able to finish the fight quite fast. His breathing technique made him able to keep up with his opponent's movement while he also surpassed the other in strength.

"The winner is Mark Howard" Phil's voice, the second division's supervisor, was heard announcing the winner of the battle.

"Phew! I got quite lucky this time" Mark told Max after he left the arena. Max nodded, new fighters were now called as all of the battles finished in the first division so he had to concentrate on hearing his supervisor out.

"Fourth arena, Max Edward versus..." Azel announced and as he said that Max began walking towards the fourth arena alongside Mark.

"Good luck Max" Mark wished for Max who was descending into the arena to also have an easy match for obvious reasons.

Max walked towards the center of the arena while looking at his opponent that was also marching in his direction. His opponent was a good-looking young man, he had brown, spiked hair with piercing hazel eyes while his attire was hidden by a white cloak with a red spiral sign on his left shoulder.

"Good luck to you Max." The boy said as he reached the middle of the arena

A bit surprised by his actions Max's brows rose. It was normal to know your opponent's name, after all, it was always announced at the beginning of the match, but not a lot of people cared about them so someone calling the name of their opponents was quite rare.

"Thanks... I guess..." Max said awkwardly, he didn't even bother to concentrate on hearing his opponent's name, but the latter called him by his first name.

After greeting, Max's opponent flicked his hand and a sword appeared out of thin air which left Max quite impressed.

'This will be quite the pain' Max thought while his grip on the shield strengthened. Dimensional relics were rare everywhere you would go and rare meant expensive. Depending on the size of the dimensional relic the price would be more expensive or not but one thing was always certain. It always cost a small fortune.

'Using so much money on a soon-to-be magician, they are either dumb or this person is quite important' Max thought while looking wide-eyed at the sword that was manifesting from thin air.

"My name is Felix, we shall have a splendid match against each other!" He declared to Max while swinging his sword a little. The sword had cracks once in a while that looked purposely created. The sword made Max feel a strange but familiar feeling coming from it.

'Max, I can feel magic fluctuations from that sword!' Matt hurriedly informed Max at which he hurriedly said.

"Never thought that I would find someone with a spirit weapon so soon, to be honest" Max declared to Felix, the spectators weren't able to hear anything spoken inside the arena so their conversation was safe.

"Neither did I, but it seems like the world is indeed quite small" With a smirk Felix said.

Right after, Azel's voice filled Max's mind telling him that the fight has started. Looking towards his opponent, he noticed that he already began marching towards him.