A few days passed since they went out for their quests but they all resumed their academy life in Loogam as if nothing happened.

"I can’t move anymore..." Rachel complained exhaustedly.

She and a few other classmates of hers sat on the ground of the training space and leaned their backs on the walls. They were done with their sparring sessions for today’s lesson, however, it seemed like not everyone was physically done.

"Lily, do you care for a short spar?" Belian asked calmly.

"Hm? Sure." Lily replied nonchalantly.

Their conversation piqued the interest of the rest of the class as it was rare for them to go at each other. Even Ophelia, who was standing beside the exhausted students, was slightly surprised.

"..."

Without saying anything, Belian and Lily headed to the center and took some distance from each other.

"?!"

Ophelia widened her eyes frantically and took some steps towards them when she saw both of them summoning their relics.

"Hey! Don’t use your relics for sparr-"

"Just leave them be, Ms. Ross." Harik interrupted her.

She turned around to Harik and the other relaxed-looking students.

"Our graduation is coming up soon. I think the two are conscious about that, too, and want to use the remaining time to fight each other as there won’t be many opportunities for that anymore." Rachel explained.

"We should just trust them. I mean, they know that this is just sparring and not a fight to the death." Lisa elaborated with a small chuckle.

Harik, Rachel and Lisa were no match for Belian just like they were no match for Lily anymore. But those two students were obviously not trying to get too complacent. They, too, wanted to get stronger.

And one way to get stronger was to fight someone on one’s own level or above.

"Those damn kids... It’s not that I’m worried about them..." Ophelia sighed as she came closer to the two fire students.

Internally, she was worried that they would cause massive damage to the training space.

"I will watch over your fight. But remember, it’s just a spar, okay?" Ophelia announced, standing between them now.

Lily and Belian nodded as they took up their fighting stances. And when Ophelia gave the signal with her hand, the sparring match between the two fire mages of the white class began.

Belian was the first one to move as he quickly dashed forward with his sword retracted.

He tried to cut Lily but she summoned a fire creature just in time between him and herself. It was a low-ranked summon and instantly dispersed when Belian slashed it down.

And when it dispersed, Lily was not where she was supposed to be.

Belian lifted his head and saw Lily in the air, riding a firebird.

On that bird, Lily had the chance to calmly select the creatures she wanted to summon in her head before she would actually make them appear in the space.

For the start, she summoned about thirty creatures who were both middle and high-ranked summons.

"..."

Belian was unfazed by the sight of fire creatures taking space in the air and on the ground. After all, he was confident he could cut, or rather melt them away. Despite those creatures consisting of fire, his relic could still cut them down as it literally had the ability to melt everything it touched even if the things were not supposed to melt.

He gripped his sword tightly and slashed down the creatures on the ground first after they tried to ambush him.

From above, the flying fire creatures shot off fireballs at Belian but he used his other hand to counter those attacks with his own fire.

"Heh, they really mean it this time." Rachel huffed.

"None of them managed to land a clean hit on the other..." Lisa muttered, analyzing the match.

As of now, Lily had the upper hand as she spammed attacks from every possible angle thanks to her creatures. If Belian would let his guard and concentration down for a single moment, then he would be in trouble.

"Charge."

Lily and her bird headed down at high speed, aiming to crash into Belian.

"..."

Belian noticed that and looked at them while taking down the last creatures on the ground.

However, Lily jumped off the bird and fired off some fire arrows while falling. In addition, the other summons in the air also launched attacks from above.

"Tch." Belian clicked his tongue silently.

He managed to parry the projectiles but the falling bird came closer. Belian prepared to cut it down but at that moment, Lily snapped her fingers.

"!"

The bird exploded before Belian could even react.

Then, the other summons above also flew down and exploded one after another on Lily’s signal.

"Can you see him...?" Lisa asked tensely.

The other students looked closely when a lot of dusk was kicked into the air. But that dusk dispersed when Belian cut through it.

"..."

Before anyone could catch a glimpse of him, Belian rushed out from his spot and closed the distance between him and Lily.

Injured and covered in burn marks, Belian swung his sword with the non-lethal side facing Lily.

Lily tried to jump to the back but the blade hit her legs when she jumped, making her fall on her back.

She used that momentum to roll back.

"..."

Lily looked grimmer now as she realized that her legs would have been gone if Belian had cut her with the lethal side of his sword.

When she got on her feet again, she pointed her wand at him.

"H-hey..."

"Is she for real...?"

"Maybe we should stop them now...?"

The whole training space was taken over by the one hundred high-ranking creatures Lily just summoned.

It was her sign of telling that she would take it more seriously now.

But Belian showed the same intention as he flipped his sword with the lethal side now targeting Lily.

And when the creatures and Belian were about to move, Ophelia appeared in their sights.

"That’s enough now. Let’s end this with a draw before any one of you gets injured seriously." she declared sternly. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Belian relaxed his body whereas Lily stored her summons away.

"Sorry, I got carried away." Lily stated.

"Me, too." Belian said to Ophelia.

"As long as you understand." Ophelia sighed.

"Now, hurry up. The next class wants to use the space." she added, already walking towards the exit.

The two followed after her.

"..."

Belian glanced at Lily.

"Why didn’t you go all out?" he asked.

"It was just a spar. There’s no need to go so far." Lily replied calmly.

Belian sighed.

"I wonder if there will be an opportunity to fight seriously against you."

"Are some screws loose inside your head? Why would you hope for that?"

Harik, Rachel and Lisa joined them, interrupting their conversation.

The group exited the space together and headed to their dorm whereas Ophelia had some business to attend to.

On the way to their dorm, they sensed people following them.

"What’s up, guys?" a girl shouted from the back.

The white class turned around.

Waving her hand energetically was Sara Tiam.

And beside her were Ophelia, Olivia and the captain of the Grand Order, Elsa.

"It’s been a while since we saw each other." Elsa remarked.

Her short hair was now down instead of slicked back.

"I knew that you were coming but what’s the actual reason?" Lily asked.

"I was nearby when I was on a mission so I thought about visiting you once I was done."

"And what about them...?"

Slightly confused, Lily looked over to Olivia and Sara.

"Oh, them? I happened to come across them when I was on my way here."

Olivia tapped Elsa on her shoulder.

"We had some time to spare so we also decided to visit you guys." Olivia explained with a soft smirk.

"Don’t touch me or else you’ll infect me with your stupidity." Elsa said coldly, slapping Olivia’s hand away.

"Hey, is that the way to talk to your former superior?" Olivia stated with an intense glare.

"Why should I show respect to someone who ran from her responsibilities?"

A vein was about to burst on Olivia’s forehead.

"Now, you’ve done it, you damn bitch...!"

"Resorting to violence already, huh? Just what I would have expected from a barbarian like you...!"

The two clenched their fists and were about to throw hands.

"Don’t mind them... They will stay here for a few days and act as guest teachers." Ophelia explained, trying to ignore the catfight in the background.

"Guest teachers?"

"They’re actually here just to visit like they said but in order to enter Loogam, they needed a special reason so I told the academy that they would act as guest teachers who will train you."

Olivia, Elsa and Sara were affiliated with Grat and Rostanta, the two nations who were not on really good terms with Lucio.

"They will teach us...?" Lisa wondered, taken aback.

The white class looked at Olivia and Elsa fighting while Sara cheered them on.

"Yes..." Ophelia said, embarrassed about her own sister.