Miren Vs James [1]

[Lindsey's Pov]

The arena was placed on the outskirts of the academy ground, a strategic placement as it took up a lot of space. Like a modern version of the Colosseum, made to make sure a lot of people could spectate important or interesting matches.

Today, Miren would be the one to step inside the ring, with James as his opponent.

Me and my uncle were currently wading through the hoards of people who wanted to see the fight between the official number one freshman, and the unofficial one.

I didn't know if Miren was aware of the scale of things, just how many people would want to see James battle it out with the principal's disciple. To be fair, it could just as well be that he didn't care.

The tiny guy hadn't appeared to be even a tiny bit stressed out about the fact that he was about to duel the heir of the Luminary family, once famous for their overwhelming combat prowess. More importantly, James was a monster with stats and progress that were unheard of.

After a couple more minutes of walking, we had made out way into a restricted passage, meant for only the teaching staff. At the end of the small pathway, we arrived at the actual arena, now fully visible to us.

The place we were going to occupy was a balcony above the main bleachers, with its, a bit more luxurious, seats structured the same way, like a staircase where the front row seats were the lowest and the back row seats were the highest.

There were already a number of teachers present, but I only the face of a few, and the names of even fewer.

In the end, we found some open seats and sat down, me waiting anxiously for Miren to come out from his waiting room.

"Calm down, Lindsey. Just enjoy yourself."

Mu uncle spoke with a serene tone as he noticed my angst. He had always been able to read me, ever since I was little, something I wasn't even sure applied to my parents.

Our relationship was weird in a lot of ways. He was the dark horse of the family, and I was the one who would most likely become the heiress to the household. Yet I felt like I had more in common with him than many of the Borrs around me, as well as the in-laws or hired hunters in the guild.

Our family was incredibly strict, but in the end, as long as you wielded a sword and were strong, it didn't matter. In terms of power, my uncle was more than powerful, he was comparable to my father the current head of the family.

Unfortunately, he didn't wield the sword. Or rather, he wielded all kinds of weapons but mostly he used his fists.

The family and the connected guild had found this to be a sacrilegious act, an act of betraying the foundations of the Borr tradition and in the end, he had been banished. Although hidden underneath this official truth, Mike had been wanting to get away from the family and my brother didn't want to force him to stay.

They still stayed in touch, thereby the reason he had known me since I was little, and they sometimes even went out to the pub for a couple of beers.

But that's a story for another time.

Turning my head toward my teacher, I couldn't help but feel a bit angry at his words, "How can I relax when my friend is going to fight with James?"

"Your friend?!"

Mike's face turned excited, hearing about me having found my first friend, but I just got embarrassed.

"Please stop teacher. But yes, I do consider Miren a friend."

Grumbling a bit, he tried to contain his excitement, "But... We should celebrate... And why do you keep calling me teacher on the weekend..."

Not minding the silly man, I turned my head back to the arena. "Lindsey, who do you think will win?"

A very casual question, well suited to be asked in this context, but it was a bit painful. Painful because of what my answer was.

"Sadly, I believe that Miren does not stand a chance against James. Even if you teachers did regard him as the number one student after the ranking matches, he didn't get enough time to polish his combat prowess."

These were my honest thoughts. Admittedly, I had a hard time comprehending just how powerful Miren was. I had seen him confidently slay another man, dominating him in a matter of seconds, but I had also seen him get thrown into a wall by James, unable to do anything about it.

In the end, I relied on the logic that Miren hadn't been trained the way James had, nor did he seem to carry as much experience, thus he would unfortunately lose.

"Is that so? Well, I'm not so sure."

Mike's face was carrying a slight smirk as he spoke some ambiguous words, igniting a curiosity inside of me, "Why do you say that?"

"Because, as you know, I have been sparring with Miren for three days now."

"And?"

He looked at me for a bit, maybe a bit upset by my blunt way of speaking. It was my way of coping with the stressful situation, so unfortunately I couldn't help it.

"And you may regard James as a wonderchild, a prodigy. I do too, to be honest. I don't think I have ever seen anyone as talented as the young Luminary, someone with such an amount of potential."

'Didn't he have something to say that might change my mind to believe that Miren might stand a chance? Isn't he just praising James now?'

Now wanting to interrupt him, I kept my thoughts to myself, hoping he would soon say something to give me hope.

"However, Miren is something else. He isn't a genius, no, far from it. But he is improving faster than a prodigy ever could. Hell, I didn't even teach him a single footwork technique, yet he still managed to teach himself well enough to exchange blows with me just by sparring for a couple of days."

"Then, isn't Miren also a prodigy? Maybe even a bigger one than James?"

I was confused. That did sound like Miren was absolutely a genius, a tremendous one at that. But Mike had gone through the effort of actively rejecting that conclusion, so there had to be more to it.

"He is most certainly not. Although his mind is quite fast at picking up concepts and making judgments, his body does not bear an instinctual feel for combat like James's does. Instead, he has another tool, something that has nothing to do with being a genius."

Taking a second to collect his breath, he finally explained what my friend had that no one else has, something that not even James had.

"Miren never stops, no matter what kind of pain he has to go through or even risking his own life. He would painfully continue to spar with me, and every time he got punched, kneed, or pushed, he would learn something. Miren has never gotten any official training, but his footwork is on par with yours, Lindsey, just because he was teaching himself one step at a time while fighting."

Before I could collect my thoughts, the announcer started speaking and Mike ended our conversation, "If James is a prodigy, then Miren is a monster."

****

[James's Pov]

'This is it. The chance to make everything right, once and for all."

Currently sitting in the waiting room, the duel was just about to happen. Outside, the announcer had already started to speak about what would happen, trying to hype up the audience before the fight.

My hand was tracing the bracelet on my wrist, thinking about what had happened the last time Miren dueled anyone when it didn't activate. I had already been through a lot, even taking down a 5-star demon, but something was stirring inside of me.

I was afraid. I was frightened by the fact that I was about to fight with the one I thought of as my first real friend, even more so as I knew that he would never hesitate to take my life. That small boy was the scariest enemy I would face so far.

*James Lumari!* *WOOO!!!*

Before I knew it, my alias was shouted out by the announcer, followed by the cheers of hundreds of students.

Getting up to my feet, I exited the room and was welcomed by the sights of a massive amount of students, all clad in their uniforms, looking down at me and cheering from all around. Keeping my gait up, I quickly arrived at the center of the arena just next to the black-suited announcer.

As the crowd settled down a bit, the announcer carried on and shouted the name of my opponent.

*Miren Porter!*

There wasn't a single student cheering now, making the entrance of the tiny man even eerier. I could see him coming out from a door on the other side of the arena, hands in his pocket as if he was taking a casual stroll, not minding the fact that no one cheered for him.

As the boy came closer, I could finally clearly see his face.

He was smiling.