Lavinia moved gracefully as she dodged, parried, and countered Jessica’s swift sword strikes.
Her performance made Professor Darius and Professor Ravena nod in approval.
Even though Jessica was stronger than Lavinia when it came to stats, the Catkin had more battle experience than her opponent.
Unlike Jessica who came from a traditional knight family, Lavinia had always fought against stronger opponents than her.
Her life and death battle against the Mutant Spider, as well as the expedition in the Dungeon of Beginnings, had allowed her to make a breakthrough, not only in her sword skills, but also in her mentality.
Jessica couldn’t help but grit her teeth in frustration because her junior soon proved to be faster and more agile than her.
’If only she knew that Lavinia is already fighting with a handicap,’ Alex mused as he saw Jessica grimace in frustration and concentration.
"Hah!" Jessica decided to go all out. She unleashed her magical prowess, coating her wooden sword with a blue light.
Lavinia didn’t hold back and did the same, her sword shining bright.
A loud crack that sounded like a thunder clap reverberated through the training grounds.
The two wooden swords snapped in half and fell uselessly on the ground, signaling the end of the battle.
"A draw?" Lavinia asked, looking at her broken wooden sword.
"No, you win," Jessica conceded with a sigh. "It seems that I still need to train a lot."
Her sword lay on the ground, cleanly broken into two.
Jessica and Lavinia had done their best and resorted to their strongest attacks, resulting in the destruction of their wooden swords.
"First match goes to the First Year!" Professor Ravena shouted, making the First Years cheer.
"Hah, you took that loss very gracefully," Professor Darius noted with a laugh.
"A loss is a loss," Professor Ravena replied easily. "I don’t mind giving your class a victory of two or three. After all, three wins out of fifty is still pitiful, no?"
Darius almost choked on his laughter after realizing that what his close friend said was right.
Three wins out of fifty fights was truly pitiful.
"We’ll see about that," Darius scoffed. "Alex, it’s your turn! Beat the crap out of that siscon, Cassian!"
Cassian looked at his Professor from last year and cursed him in his heart.
"Professor, have you forgotten that I made you proud last year?" Cassian asked.
"Last year is last year," Professor Darius answered. "You’re one of my enemies now. You traitor, hmph!"
Professor Ravena giggled because she knew that this was Darius’ silly attempt at guilt-tripping her student.
Had Cassian been matched against any other student, he might have gone easy on them as a favor to his former instructor. Unfortunately, he held a bitter grudge against Alex, so he had no intention to compromise.
"Oh?" Cassian smirked. "Very well then. I guess I’ll make sure to cripple your favorite student this year."
Alex blinked before looking worriedly at Professor Ravena, hoping that she would interfere and remind her student that this wasn’t supposed to be that serious.
"Don’t worry!" Professor Ravena winked at Alex. "There are healers standing by. Even if he cripples you, you’ll be just fine!"
The corner of Alex’s lips twitched before asking a question.
"Can I fight with Dim Dim?" Alex asked while pointing to the top of his head.
The Dim Sum God held a brittle vial in its hands, already raring to rumble.
""No,"" Professor Darius and Professor Ravena answered at the same time.
"External help is not allowed in this spar," Professor Darius explained.
Dim Dim reluctantly returned its brittle vial to its dimensional storage before jumping to Charles’ head.
"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim raised its small hand to cheer Alex on, eliciting smiles from many students, including some Second Years who couldn’t resist its cuteness.
Alex took a wooden sword and a wooden shield from the weapons rack and headed to the center of the training ground to face off against Cassian.
"I’m telling you this in advance, I will not hold back," Cassian declared. "So, if you don’t want to die, fight me seriously."
"Professor, he wants to kill me," Alex complained to Professor Darius.
"Don’t worry, you won’t die." Professor Darius shrugged. "Probably."
Knowing that he was about to face someone who wanted nothing more than to beat the ever-loving hell out of him, Alex decided to focus solely on defense.
However, he doubted that a wooden shield would last long against the merciless attack of a Sword Saint.
Professor Darius raised his hand and signaled the start of the fight.
As soon as those words were spoken, Alex immediately took a defensive stance and braced himself for battle.
"Any last words?" Cassian taunted while making a few practice swings with his wooden sword, as if testing it to see if it could deliver the beating he intended for Alex.
Alex was very tempted to say "Your Sister!" but he knew that if he did that, Cassian would skewer him without a second thought.
So, he decided to propose something.
"Give me a handicap," Alex answered. "Don’t use Aura or Magic in this spar."
"Fine." Cassian sneered before taking a step forward.
This was one of his signature abilities, Flash Step. It allowed him to close the gap between him and his enemy in a heartbeat.
But, Alex was already expecting this.
Although he was weaker than Cassian by nearly five hundred stat points, he had plenty of experience fighting one-on-one battles in PVP matches.
After all, his rank in the Global Rankings was 69, so he had already faced many powerful opponents that were strong enough to make the current Cassian look cute in comparison.
"Shield Charge!" Alex didn’t hesitate to unleash his skill as soon as Cassian vanished from his sight.
A second later, his shield clashed with a wooden sword, taking the Second Year by surprise.
"Balance Breaker!" Alex swung his sword, but his opponent blocked it successfully.
Cassian then unleashed a counter-attack, but the young man managed to deflect it with his shield.
"Shield Bash!" Alex used his shield to bash the sword in Cassian’s hand, hoping that he would be able to break it.
But his opponent merely stepped aside and dodged Alex’s desperate attack.
At least, that was what Cassian thought.
A moment later, he was forced to raise his sword to block a magical shield that suddenly slammed itself toward his face at point-blank range.
"You’re full of tricks," Cassian remarked as he kicked the side of Alex’s body. Alex barely managed to block it, and still skidded a few meters due to the force behind that attack. "But in the face of absolute strength, all tricks are meaningless."
Alex might look like he was at a great disadvantage, but he was very calm inside.
He knew that Cassian was just toying with him. The siscon wanted to prolong the fight to drag out Alex’s suffering.
But what the Sword Saint didn’t know was that Alex was simply looking for an opportunity to strike.
Cassian might be fast and strong, but Alex’s Master, Cairo, was still faster.
As long as an opportunity presented itself, Alex was confident that he would be able to give the arrogant siscon a devastating blow.
"Are you just going to hide behind that shield of yours?" Cassian taunted. "I guess I’ll just have to break it, no?"
"Do it if you can," Alex replied.
"Gladly." Cassian once again vanished from where he stood, only to reappear before Alex with the intention of breaking his shield.
However, the young man only smiled as he crouched down to thrust his sword into the ground.
A radiant light erupted around him, which he believed was enough to make Cassian feel a world of pain from his surprise attack.