Chapter 16: The Midnight Spar
The winter air out on the open sparring grounds was sharp enough to physically cut glass.
I stood near the freezing edge of the largest sand pit, my breath pluming in thick, white clouds.
The moon hung bloated and silver above the Academy's towering obsidian walls, casting long, distorted, and eerie shadows across the dunes.
Twenty paces away, Kaelith stood perfectly still.
The freezing temperature did not seem to bother her in the slightest.
She wore her standard dark grey canvas combat tunic, holding her heavy practice claymore lazily in her right hand, the blunt tip resting casually in the sand.
"You are freezing your ass off, Grik," Kaelith called out.
Her voice was flat but laced with clear, undeniable annoyance.
"Your lips are literally turning blue. Can we wrap this up? I need actual sleep, not whatever this is."
"Just humor me," I called back, rolling my tight shoulders to ward off the biting chill.
"I just need to see exactly how fast you actually are off the mark. No Professor Hilde, and absolutely no holding back."
Kaelith let out a sharp, irritated sigh, her warm breath misting in the dark.
"If I do not hold back, I am going to completely break your ribs. Go to bed."
"Less talking," I said, raising my short, weighted wooden gladius and deliberately dropping into a loose, open stance.
"Just swing. Pretend I am Gorgug."
Her silver eyes narrowed.
The mild irritation vanished, replaced instantly by the cold, lethal, and predatory focus of a true Shadow Knight.
"Fine. Try not to die."
She did not sprint. She simply vanished from her starting position.
FWOOSH.
It was a pure kinetic blur.
Even with my [Sharp Eye] fully active, her movement was absolutely terrifying.
I saw the sand aggressively explode where her heavy boots had been a microsecond after she was already halfway across the pit.
The heavy wooden claymore swept directly toward my ribs in a brutal, horizontal arc.
It carried enough physical force to cleanly snap a tree trunk in half.
I did not even try to block. I immediately triggered [Serpentine Shift].
My joints completely relaxed, dropping my center of gravity in a liquid, unnatural motion.
The heavy wooden blade sheared violently through the empty air a mere inch above my head.
The raw wind pressure from the swing stung my scalp.
SWISH.
I rolled rapidly out of the way, coming up in a low crouch, my lungs already burning from the frozen air.
"Too slow!" Kaelith barked. She was already pivoting flawlessly on her heel, her momentum completely unbroken. "Stop guessing where I am going to be!"
She came at me again, this time unleashing a blinding, relentless flurry of strikes.
Thrust, overhead cleave, diagonal slash.
THWACK.
CLACK.
I was entirely on the defensive, using my passive vision to barely weave past the blunt wooden edges.
My canvas tunic tore loudly at the shoulder.
My weak goblin muscles screamed in absolute protest under the strain.
"You are pulling your punches," I gasped, barely dodging a thrust that would have caved in my sternum.
"I am trying not to put you in the infirmary!" she snapped back, clearly pissed off that I was treating a lethal spar like a casual game.
"Stop treating me like fragile glass!" I yelled over the clash of wood. "Hit me!"
CLANG.
That did it. Kaelith's jaw clenched tightly.
She gripped the heavy claymore with both hands, stepping deeply into the loose sand to firmly anchor her footing.
She was going to use a true, unrestricted Aura strike.
Now.
As she lunged, a massive, sweeping overhead strike meant to absolutely crush my guard, I did not dodge.
The Sovereign's Conduit roared to life.
I inhaled sharply, violently dragging the freezing night air and the ambient mana of the courtyard deep into my burning lungs.
The F-Grade core in my chest spun up like a massive industrial turbine.
In a fraction of a second, I forcefully pushed the chaotic energy down into my physical muscles, aggressively shifting its frequency.
Aura.
The shift was completely intoxicating.
A heavy, incredibly dense silver light pulsed brightly through the veins in my arms and neck.
Even though the golden badge on my coat read Rank 10, my raw physical stats had always been absolute trash.
Until now.
The agonizing, pathetic weakness of my base goblin biology vanished, completely replaced by a massive surge of raw, explosive, physical violence.
I raised my short wooden gladius and stepped directly into the lethal path of her claymore.
KRA-KOOM!
The collision sounded exactly like a thunderclap.
The shockwave blew the sand violently away from our boots in a perfect, expanding circle.
The cheap wood of my gladius groaned terribly under the immense, crushing pressure, but because I was actively coating it in my new silver Aura, it did not snap.
I stood my ground.
I did not buckle.
I did not fall.
I held the Dark Elf's full-power, two-handed strike in a deadlocked, grinding bind.
Kaelith's silver eyes widened to an impossible degree.
The flawless, icy mask of the Shadow Knight completely shattered.
She stared in pure shock at my glowing arms, her breath hitching violently in her throat, her rigid mind violently rejecting what she was physically seeing.
"What the hell..." she breathed. The wooden sword was visibly trembling in her grip as it met solid, unyielding resistance.
"That is... that is Aura. How are you doing that?"
"Grik!"
The panicked shout echoed loudly from the stone archway leading into the open courtyard.
I glanced past Kaelith's tense shoulder.
Nyssa was standing there, bundled tightly in her heavy fur cloak, her chest heaving as if she had sprinted all the way from the Arcane Spire.
One of her delicate green hands was clutching the silver locket at her throat, the locket that was currently glowing with a frantic, blinding purple light.
She had accurately tracked the sudden, massive spike in my mana signature.
The trap was sprung perfectly.
I instantly cut the conduit.
I exhaled sharply, completely dumping the Aura out of my system.
The bright silver glow vanished entirely from my veins, and the crushing, unprotected weight of Kaelith's sustained forward momentum slammed brutally into my fragile goblin arms.
I let my knees buckle, forcing a sharp, agonizing gasp from my lungs, and collapsed heavily forward directly into the sand.
THUD.
"Grik!" Kaelith gasped.
Her fierce warrior instinct immediately overrode her profound shock.
She dropped her heavy practice claymore, the weapon thudding harmlessly into the sand beside us, and lunged forward to catch me before I hit the ground.
She hooked her strong arms securely under my armpits, effortlessly hauling my dead weight up.
I slumped heavily against her, letting my head loll sideways until it rested perfectly directly on her shoulder, my face buried intimately in the warm crook of her neck.
She smelled strongly of winter mint and raw exertion.
[Dynamic Action Recognized: The Shoulder Rest. Base Reward: +50 LP.]
"Hey! Get away from him!"
Nyssa was sprinting wildly across the sand now, her boots slipping and sliding in the uneven dunes.
Her usual pristine, aristocratic composure was entirely gone, replaced by a frantic, blinding panic.
Seeing the Dark Elf holding me securely, my face pressed intimately against her bare skin, had sent the Hobgoblin's 70% Favorability into a massive, possessive overdrive.
"What did you do to him?!" Nyssa yelled. Reaching us, she actually shoved Kaelith's shoulder with surprising physical force. "Let him go!"
Kaelith instantly felt the hostility.
The Dark Elf's own deeply fractured emotions surged, turning incredibly defensive and highly territorial.
Instead of pushing me away, her grip around my waist tightened significantly.
"I am keeping his face out of the dirt, Nyssa," Kaelith snarled.
Her twilight-colored skin flushed a deep, angry blue as she glared fiercely over my head at the spellcaster.
"Back off."
"His core is completely erratic! You pushed him way too hard!" Nyssa shot back, her glowing emerald eyes blazing with pure fury as she tried aggressively to reach for my arm.
"Give him to me!"
"He is going into physical shock," Kaelith countered, shifting her athletic stance to physically block the Hobgoblin from touching me.
"He needs the infirmary, not you screaming at him."
[System Alert: Dual Target Mode Engaged. Jealousy matrices overlapping.]
[Multiplier Applied (1.5x). Reward: +75 LP. Current Balance: 120 LP.]
I kept my eyes closed tight, ensuring my breathing remained ragged and shallow as I flawlessly played the part of the broken, exhausted tactician.
I let my right arm drape heavily and dependently around Kaelith's waist, clinging to her for "support," while Nyssa hovered frantically on my other side, desperately wanting to touch me but firmly blocked by the protective Dark Elf.
The first true test of The Sovereign's Conduit was a terrifying, absolute success.
And as the two most incredibly dangerous women in the first year argued fiercely over who got the privilege to carry me to the medics,
I expertly masked the cold, calculating smile spreading across my lips against Kaelith's shoulder.