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…It wasn’t a complete loss, though.

At least I had gotten a clue as to how to learn Fighting Spirit.

The problem was,

[You idiot! If you die, I die too!]

“…Calm down. I won’t die.”

Samuel and I were both destined to be directly hit by Ares’s attack.

Of course, there was a way to deal with this.

The first was to use Position Exchange, using other students as shields to escape.

But if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to avoid last place in this martial arts exam.

So, I had to use the other method.

‘…It’s time to use Black Rose.’

I smirked.

Actually, even if I couldn’t learn how to use Fighting Spirit, this was a good opportunity to gauge the true power of Black Rose.

I shouldn’t have boasted about being able to learn Fighting Spirit without even making such a basic calculation.

And besides, I said I thought I could use Fighting Spirit, not that I could use it right now.

As I was pushing my mana control to its limits,

“You-!”

Ares suddenly leaped towards me and swung his sword.

His speed was incredible, so I had to react quickly.

I whipped up a storm of mana in my hand, solidifying it with the Darkness attribute.

A storm perfectly controlled by my enhanced mana control and telekinesis.

The pain felt like it would shatter my wrist, but I wouldn\'t actually get hurt that badly.

The penalty was minimized because I could control the storm.

It would probably just be a scratch.

Then.

*Clang! Craaaash!*

The black storm I had created collided with Ares’s sword, imbued with Fighting Spirit.

However, unlike me, who had just recently learned this new technique, Ares’s swordsmanship was solid.

His blade, slowly cutting through my condensed storm, began to dig in.

*Whizz-*

And I saw how the distortion of space contained in his blade was trying to scatter my storm.

Ares clearly had the upper hand in terms of power.

Looking down at me, Ares spoke,

“You can’t stop Fighting Spirit with just that.”

*Thud-*

The moment he finished his sentence, his blade pierced through my palm, and at the same time…

*Bloom-*

The black storm dispersed, and the bud of the Black Rose blossomed.

“…!”

Ares’s eyes widened at the sight.

Black petals began to fiercely lash out, striking Ares’s skin.

But.

“…Not bad, but still not enough.”

*Swipe-*

I couldn’t deflect Ares’s sword completely and had to allow it to graze my neck.

Even this was only possible because Ares was going easy on me.

If he had truly intended to kill me, he could have taken my head off in one swift motion.

As the fluttering black petals eventually disappeared, Ares opened his mouth and asked,

“Do you admit defeat?”

“Well, I have no choice but to.”

I nodded and stood up.

When I first completed Black Rose, I thought it was about the same level as Siscella’s arrow.

But then again, Siscella’s arrow was shot from a distance of at least 5 kilometers.

Naturally, its power would have been diminished.

Still.

It wasn’t bad.

‘I haven’t even reached the next stage of magic like Samuel yet, and it already has this much power…’

I couldn’t even imagine how powerful it would be at that stage.

It would probably be twice as strong as it was now.

As I was organizing my thoughts from the spar,

“I’ll give you full marks anyway. I never dreamed you’d reach this level already. To think you’d force me to use my full power.”

Ares nodded in satisfaction.

Although I couldn’t defeat him, I had shown drastic growth since the midterm exams.

That’s why he was going to give me full marks.

However,

“There’s no need for that.”

I said, brushing off the blood dripping from my palm.

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. You can give me the lowest score, I don’t mind.”

“…”

Ares blinked, momentarily unable to comprehend the situation.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m perfectly sane.”

I nodded at his bewildered question.

There were two reasons why I asked for the lowest score.

The first was that I was confident I could get a perfect score even if I retook the exam.

With Black Rose, even if the standards were raised for a retake, they’d have no choice but to give me full marks.

Moreover,

‘I can spar one more time.’

Unlike Baltan, who posed a risk, there was no danger of getting hurt with Ares.

With that thought, I formed a smirk and said,

“Let’s have a rematch tonight, with me having mastered Fighting Spirit.”

A smile filled with strange exhilaration and conviction.

“Huh.”

Ares let out a scoff, flabbergasted.

It was understandable.

I had just said I thought I could use Fighting Spirit, but I couldn’t unleash it.

The reason Ares didn’t rebuke me was that Fighting Spirit couldn’t be learned just by observing it.

Even Adel himself couldn’t do that.

And yet, there was a reason why I was so confident that I could use Fighting Spirit.

Originally, Fighting Spirit was about embodying the determination to destroy something.

Materializing this and applying it to a weapon was the concept of Fighting Spirit.

As I said before, I could act out the motions, but it wasn’t easy for me to genuinely harbor such feelings.

And materializing it was even more difficult.

However,

‘…Don’t I already have it?’

The ‘will’ to kill someone like Fighting Spirit, and the ability to ‘realize’ it in reality.

With a smile on my face, I brought up my Status Window.

And I looked down at the Trait that I had only been using to set the mood until now.

: 【Killing Intent Ⅳ】

I was going to use this to ‘imitate’ Fighting Spirit.

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