The day passed pretty normally. Well, other then Chase getting scolded by his Social Society's teacher.
He had been giving quite a long lecture, on how showing up late to class would show that he was unprepared for the real world.
Not that Chase listened to most of it, nor did he care.
Now, he was sitting on the top row of the combat room bleachers, alongside Gabriel, Michael, Gemini, and Equan.
Michael had a large cut on his forehead and several bruises that had been scattered across his body, in his duel against Neo of House Cobra (He lost terribly).
Gabriel and Equan had asked Professor Barren if they could have a rematch, which out of curiosity, accepted and the two had fought second to last.
Surprisingly Equan had held his own quite well this time, and lasted twice as long as before, still resulting in a devastating defeat though.
The boy was not nearly as injured as he had been in their previous duel, but he was certainly banged up; however, what was most surprising was that Gabriel had gotten hit with some decent attacks as well, and looked quite pale.
Gemini had forfeited immediately after hearing his opponent was Hans of House Gaia, which was no surprise considering the half-dwarf did not like violence one bit.
Several other students had fought as well, leaving just two left unscathed, with their mock swords at the ready.
Chase nervously kept his head down, avoiding everyone's gazes throughout the classroom.
The past month he had been constantly pushing both mind and body to the upmost extreme.
He would swing the sword in unfamiliar styles until nightfall, and read countless pages until his mind could not take it anymore, and he would pass out leaving him only a few hours of sleep before the next day.
He scratched the rune on his shoulder, underneath his leather tunic, which was engraved with the sigil of the Phoenix.
The point of today's mock battle, was for Barren to be able to observe the student's combat styles in action.
Barren's eyes narrowed, standing leisurely against the wooden beam in the far corner of the room.
Chase had noticed that unlike last time, the professor was now watching each fight extremely closely, and even stopped them a couple of times, in order to point very obvious flaws out to the students.
Although he would not admit it, his body had grown quite strong since his first duel. Chase had noticed small tears forming on his slim stomach, and lumps were starting to take shape on the tips of his shoulders, as well as the upper section of his arms.
He had changed a lot. His hair was still a muddy brown, yet his face seemed to have grown distant and his hair had went from messy and long: to a more fluffy and shaggy style.
Barren called out.
"Our last fight... Chase, The Nameless, versus Poppy, of House Aries."
He said, leaking out a slight hint of amusement in his tone.
Without saying anything Poppy stood from the other corner of the bleachers, and parted with her friends, slowly making her way over to her side of the platform.
Her white hair seemed to flow with an impossible breeze, and her walk annoyingly graceful, which made sense considering she was a child of The Queen of Vallmora.
Chase did not speak either, instead he forced everything meaningless out of his mind, including the aetherball game that was going to take place in only three or four hours.
His friends said words of encouragement, but he did not listen. They would not buff his strength or vitalize his dexterity.
He walked down the bleacher steps with a sense of purpose, parallel to that of The Ivory Princess.
Chase did not own a vox, so he had no way of seeing his true growth; however, he did have a rival. Someone he had fought against and lost horribly to before.
This was his way of seeing his growth.
He remembered earlier that day, when Chase had visited Barren, and asked specifically to be put against The Ivory Princess once more.
Barren had looked at him like he was a crazed madman; however he never said that he wouldn't arrange the match like that.
And now chase was swinging his mock sword carelessly at his side. The blade did not once cut him, nor scratch the railings that surrounded him.
He stepped down, onto the platform and made his way to his end, and waited patently. He felt a strange passionate fire that had begun to spark within his soul.
This... This was his chance to see just how far he had pushed himself, and how much farther he had to go.
Time flew by as if minutes were seconds, and Barren raised his hand into the air.
"Start!"
Chase pressed off the ground, and sent himself flying toward Poppy at a truly incredible speed.
Their eyes met for a brief second, and he could have sword that she had raised one of her silver eyebrows in confusion.
However this was The Ivory Princess he was fighting.
Before he could even react, he felt the wind around him shift, and the urge to throw himself aside pounded at his instincts.
Poppy was now gone, and out of sight.
Chase immediately twisted his upper body a full one-hundred and eighty degrees, lifting his blade up, deflecting the strike with what looked like little to no effort.
That was clearly wrong though, as before the match Chase had taped the both of his hands, acting as a sort of guard, in order to protect him from the harsh impacts.
His hands were already in agony...
Poppy quickly sidestepped, throwing the tip of her blade at him horizontally.
This was Chase's chance to use the number one rule he had given to himself after his first day at the academy.
With a grin, he bent backwards, letting the dull blade miss his neck by a couple of inches.
He watched the blade pass right over his face, as behind it was the tall ceiling of the academy.
'No Aspect of a style is truly yours. So steal everything, from everyone!'
He dropped his knee to the ground, avoiding her powerful redirected attack, that had turned into a downward slash.
Letting the blade ring against the side of his own sword, he threw his other leg out in an attempt to trip the girl by sweeping her legs.
She jumped back, putting a pause in the fight.
Chase could hair faint gasping coming from the bleachers, over the sound of his own rapid heartbeat.
Poppy gave him an irritating tilt of the head, and frowned.
"What did you do? I thought you were in a hospital bed for most of the first few weeks."
Chase frowned back.
"It wasn't that long..."
In all honesty, it had been a couple of days he had spent in the healer's ward. But that did not even stop him from pushing himself. When Anna would take off for the night, once Chase was able to even barely move his limbs again, he had trained in the large open space in front of the far-back window.
The same window he had gazed out of, after an unwanted part of his memories had returned...
Poppy tilted her head, and a slight smirk appeared on the corner of her lips. Her bright crimson eyes seemed to show a strange emotion that looked quite unfamiliar on the girl.
'Why is she looking at me like that?!'
Chase could feel sweat forming on his forehead.
The girl seemed to have shown a slight hint of amusement in her glowing ruby eyes.
She tightened her grip on the longsword she had chosen from the rack of random mock weapons.
It was clear, that she was finally going to put forth effort into this fight.
Chase assumed the stance he had formed in the courtyard of the academy.
And before anyone could even blink, their dull blades met once more.
Now held within a powerful diagonal clash, their eyes locked. He was ever so slowly losing the leverage on his blade.
The girl was definitely a lot stronger then she looked, especially when you realized that she was nearly as skinny as Chase, and maybe just a little taller.
"Were you holding back before?"
She whispered just loud enough for only Chase to hear, as he clenched his teeth, trying to push her blade back.
'I have an idea!'
Chase was not sure if this would work on someone with as much battle training as The Ivory Princess, but this wasn't a real fight, and he most likely wouldn't lose his head if he messed up.
'Hopefully...'
He let go of his blade, and rolled to her non-dominant side.
He felt a woosh go past his head, and could have sworn that strands of hair had flown in all different directions, but she now her back exposed to him, and had been caught by surprise.
With a loud clang, his mock sword hit the ground in front of her.
She took an awkward stumble forward, but had caught herself and had begun to turn around.
Chase spoke a simple word in response to her private question, as he shoved her to the ground.
"Nah."