Elysia in Another World

Ch4 The Royal Academy, P8

Chapter 4: The Royal Academy (8)
~4.8~
*****

Elizabeth opened with a simple bolt of lightning that Kye blocked. The attack was a feint, and Kye knew it. She twisted around and blocked Elizabeth's follow-up. A wave of gold and orange mana blasted out from the clash. Elizabeth sent out a stream of electricity through her blade to incapacitate Kye through her weapon, but that electricity didn't go any further than Elizabeth's weapon. It reached Kye's weapon and stopped. Unsure what was wrong, Elizabeth continued with a physical assault. Kye blocked every attack. After a short exchange, Elizabeth jumped back.

"Not bad," she said. "Your ability to channel mana is quite impressive."

Kye nodded. Elizabeth raised her left hand to the air and orange sparks began crackling around her. Dark clouds formed in the sky above the academy. "<<Dragon Lightning>>!" A large orange bolt of lightning descended from the cloud. It reached the ground in under a second, traveling no slower than natural lightning. Kye had already raised a hand to block it and merely redirected it to another area of the sky.

"What?" Elizabeth mumbled under her breath. "No matter." Her aura of orange mana began crackling with lightning as she started mixing dragon mana and lightning mana. "<<Convert: Iaitō>>." Elizabeth vanished, leaving behind sparks in her wake. Kye transformed her weapon as well. Elizabeth's output had increased, but her speed became the real focus. Elizabeth's next attack seemingly came from out of nowhere. She appeared to Kye's left and attacked with a lightning-imbued strike.

"What are you trying to do?" Kye asked as she held up her left index finger and blocked the attack. "The goal of this is to gauge combat capabilities for class. This is not a duel."

Elizabeth was focused on the finger that held her blade at bay. "How are you blocking this attack with just a finger?"

"The mana flowing through my finger is greater than the amount flowing through your sword."

"You are so smug! Will you not fight earnestly?"

Kye glanced over at Doran and then the instructor. Doran gave her an apologetic smile and the instructor was sighing at the exchange.

"So be it. I don't understand why you seem to have a problem with me, but there is no point in this. I'd much rather talk it out, but for now..." She knocked Elizabeth off balance and quickly formed a double-layered magic circle beneath her feet. "<<True Binding>>. <<Gravity Well>>. <<Rune of Exhaustion>>." Chains of golden mana appeared from the magic circle and wrapped themselves around Elizabeth's arms, legs, and waist. Gravity Well increased the gravity on them tremendously, and between that and the chains, Elizabeth couldn't move. The second layer of the magic circle activated next. The Rune of Exhaustion drained her mana at an incredible rate. Soon, Elizabeth collapsed, unable to maintain her mana output. Kye canceled the spells and rejoined Liliana, Aliana, and Alethea.

"The hell just happened?" asked one of the students. The archnobles and royals were equally shocked, aside from Kye's group.

"My apologies, Instructor Line. Do you have sufficient data from that exchange or shall I-"

"No, no, Lady Kye, I have more than enough data," Line said. "That match was enough to give me a better picture of your abilities in all three areas. Though it was entirely unnecessary, I can still use all of it."

"Would you mind if I took Doran's place and sparred against Alethea? I feel I was not able to properly demonstrate my physical combat abilities."

Line glanced over to Doran who only shrugged in response as he was picking his blonde sister up off the ground. She glanced at Alethea next and received a nod. "Very well." Kye and Alethea soon began sparring using only a minimum amount of mana and focusing on their swordplay.