Encore

[At this rate you will lose.]

"Thanks for stating the obvious…"

A minute already passed since the battle began.

Whereas Mika took quite some damage, Ophelia was perfectly fine.

"Do you want to give up?" Ophelia asked.

"…"

Mika gritted his teeth as he took his stance and pointed his sword at her.

"Hmph." she huffed satisfied.

"Here I com- Hrngh!"

Taking another hit from out of nowhere, he staggered a little bit.

Even though blood was spilling from his mouth, Mika seemed confident.

"Why are you grinning like an idiot?"

"Hehe…" he giggled barely audible.

Then, he carefully guided his sword to his cheek where he was hit multiple times.

"Hey… Are you out of your mind?"

Even Ophelia got worried when she saw him holding the sharp blade against his own cheek.

Mika twisted the hilt so that the flat side of the sword faced his face.

And to finish it off, he gently touched his cheek with his sword.

Failing to comprehend his intentions, Ophelia tilted her head slightly. Furthermore, she unconsciously dropped her guard which Mika sensed.

Thus, he took this chance and leaped to her swinging his sword diagonally.

"!"

Ophelia was able to evade this swing, too. But only barely as she jumped to the side.

"Impossible… The recoil should have kicked in already!"

Her eyes were wide open as she was confronted with something unexpected.

Mika walked over to her casually after she created a great distance between them.

"In the beginning, you deducted that my sword could negate magic attacks, didn't you? Well, you're certainly correct, however, that's not the whole truth."

"What do you mean?" Ophelia asked tensed up.

"It's not just magic."

He directed his sword at her.

"It can also negate any kind of effects coming from relics."

"W-what…?!"

"If I had to guess, then I'd say that every hit I receive from you with your gloves will repeat after a certain time."

Ophelia sighed.

"I see…"

Despite standing near her, he could not read her facial expression due to her head hanging low.

"Your relic won't work on me!" he stated firmly.

Ophelia clapped her hands as if she was applauding him.

"That's correct. You're certainly right. The name of my relic is Encore. And just like you said, any attack you receive with those gloves will recur every 10 seconds."

She sighed again as she shrugged her shoulders.

"But don't you dare think that you got the upper hand now."

She lifted her head showing her unshaken smirk.

Shortly after that, she closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye.

"!"

She started a barrage of punches which Mika tried to block off with the flat side of his sword.

However, with the speed of her punches, it was impossible to block everything.

Each time a punch connected, Mika let out a muffled groan. He could not find an opening to counterattack, therefore he had to endure it for a bit longer.

He did not see an end to her rampage, but surprisingly she jumped to the back on her own.

Was she exhausted? Unsure of her intentions, Mika was pondering with his guard still up.

She looked fine to him. No signs of exhaustion or anything else.

[Two minutes and a half are over.]

"Wait what?"

Mika was taken by surprise by the system's announcement.

"Good luck."

Not noticing the change in Mika's expression, she provoked him a little.

But Mika did not understand what she meant.

And then, it started pouring on him.

A storm of pain was all over his body.

Mika's agony echoed in the entire space and did not seem to stop any time soon.

[How interesting…]

Contrary to his belief, she got more clean hits on him than he initially thought.

[She hit you for ten seconds straight meaning that she trapped you with her relic. After the first hit gets repeated, the second one will get repeated and after the last one recurs, it will start with the first one again.]

The system elaborated Ophelia's tactic, but Mika could not care less at that moment as he was going through constant pain.

"Admit your loss and I will lift the effect, okay?" Ophelia suggested after she got bored from watching him suffer.

"N-not yet…"

Mika mustered up all his strength just to erase the effect of Encore by himself.

Despite receiving recoils every second, he fought against it and touched the spots with his sword.

Meanwhile, Ophelia just observed him struggle. Naturally, she could use that moment to strike him, but she thought that it would be cold-hearted of her. After all, he was still a student.

Finally, Mika managed to stand up straight again.

He was exhausted as he breathed at an irregular pace. His body was covered in injuries and in some spots, it was swollen. Blood covered the area around his mouth completely.

And yet, his eyes were fierce.

"Heh… That's the spirit!" Ophelia complimented his efforts.

[Two minutes and 45 seconds passed.]

"Alright…"

Mika took a deep breath.

"Ophelia, give everything you've got for the next ten seconds!" Mika yelled vigorously.

In reaction to that, she silently took up her stance.

[10.]

And for the first time in this match, Mika used his lightning magic to amplify his physical abilities.

"?"

Ophelia was surprised by the sight of Mika's body being enveloped by his own lightning magic. She was sure that his magic was initially assigned an E rank, but the way he used it now and the potency of it seemed more like a C or even a B rank.

[9.]

She shook his head.

She had to maintain her focus.

However, she already lost sight of him.

"!"

A presence appeared behind her.

[8.]

As she quickly turned around, she saw Mika who had a stance as if he wanted to stab with the sword as he cocked back his right arm with the sword in the hand.

Luckily for her, she noticed just in time. Without hesitation, he tried to pierce her, but she was able to avoid critical injury.

It may be a small cut to the side, still, it was the first injury he inflicted on her.

It did not stop there.

As if he was going berserk, he mindlessly and at the same time accurately swung his sword at her.

[7.]

Unable to dodge them, Ophelia attempted to block them somehow with her armored gloves.

[6.]

For both, those mere short seconds seemed like an eternity to them as they traded hits with each other.

[5.]

Mika took punches that would knock out most people.

[4.]

Ophelia's body was covered in multiple slashes. Some were shallow and some were deep.

[3.]

"Arrgghh!!!"

With a sword piercing through her left shoulder, Ophelia screamed in agony. However, she could not allow herself to give in now.

[2.]

While the sword was still stuck in her shoulder, she collected all her strength in her right fist and launched a punch at his face.

As it connected, Mika also let out an aching scream.

[1.]

It all came down to their last attacks.

With Ophelia cocking her right arm back and Mika pulling out his sword, the two wanted to end it now.

"HAAA!!!" they yelled their hearts out as she threw her fist while he swung his sword which was glowing even brighter than usual.

[0.]

The two stopped before their respective attacks could hit.

Ophelia's fist was just a finger away from touching him whereas Mika's sword was in contact with her neck.

"Shit…" Mika muttered in frustration.

Only one second more and he would have won. But his time ran up and his sword turned back to its rusty and broken version. In that form, it could not cut anything nor could it even injure someone.

"It's my loss." the two admitted at the same time.

"Huh?"

"Hm?"

They stared at each other dumbfounded.