The sword in my hands felt weightless and yet simultaneously heavy as a mountain as I slowly raised it over my head. My fingers tensed, and the breath trapped in my chest burned like a bonfire. It only lasted for an instant, and then I stepped forth and swung Cal. It was a simple, diagonal overhead strike, and the motion felt very familiar, as if I've already repeated it countless times. In a way, I have, just not in the real world.

More importantly, the pent-up heat scattered through my whole body all at once. It was like a stream of warm water that spread out inside me like a rushing river through a broken dam. The process was so quick it was hard to quantify, or even tell the direction of the flow. Nevertheless, its effects were abundantly visible, as Cal's blade hummed with power and cut through the air with a roar. It sounded, for the lack of better descriptive terms, powerful. It was the simplest of practice swings, yet it had all the weight of the mana I could safely muster at the moment, and it wasn't an idle boast to say that it could divide a man with a single stroke, cutting muscle, sinew, and bone as easily as soft tofu.

That wasn't just my conjecture either. I've already tested it with Brang, though obviously only in the context of a Domination fight. It wasn't pretty, but then again, it wasn't like the old Faun was especially gentle with my specters during practice, so I didn't feel too bad about bisecting one of his copies. Either way, the raw power behind my sword stroke was undeniable, though a part of me couldn't help but wonder where such strength came from. Did the mana temporarily increase the weight and density of the blade? Or was it some kind of power field that encased the edge and multiplied its cutting power? Or was it something else entirely? These questions always reared their ugly heads whenever I swung the sword, but I wasn't any closer to solving them.

Meanwhile, the blade came to a stop while pointing at the ground, and it was accompanied by an inexplicable yet certainly cinematic gust of wind that spread out around me as its epicenter. As I've learned, this was a small and entirely useless side-effect of leveraging the mana provided by the armor. I couldn't do anything about it, but on the bright side, it certainly gave a satisfying 'oompf' to the move and gave me a bit of a rush.

"Showoff."

The feeling lasted exactly until a certain friend of mine let out a sudden, yet by no means unexpected, remark. I took a deep breath and exhaled it to expel the excess mana from my system and relaxed my posture before glancing over at Josh. The guy was sitting on one of the bar-stools near the minibar of the secret base, with a cold can of coke in his hand. He wasn't alone either, as three Fauns, including the general, Fred, and Galatea were all clustered around him and watching me go through the motions.

He came over after-school as planned, and a brief (and not entirely all-inclusive) description of the events later we moved to the secret base to discuss the nitty-gritty details of my upcoming duel with Miss Unicorn. To my surprise, he agreed to become my witness more or less on the spot, and call me crazy, but he almost looked like he was craving the opportunity for some action. Whether it was because of his pent up frustration after his loss at Sahi's hands (no pun intended) or just the first inklings of a hot-blooded shounen protagonist attitude slowly coming to the forefront, it helped the plans we conspicuously didn't talk about proceed even smoother, so I didn't mind.

"Kihihi. Seeing the performance of a complete set of authentic External Mana Injection Equipment firsthand is something I never expected to experience," Labcoat Guy commented with a delighted grin on his face. "Or rather, not in a controlled scenario where we can gather precious, delicious data! I've got goosebumps all over!"

"Careful, master. You're drooling."

"No, I'm not!" Fred snapped at the android before wiping his mouth with the hem of his white coat anyway.

"It only looked impressive, I'm afraid. I still couldn't bring out the full potential of the gear," I told the peanut gallery while using my feet to scrape at the conical spot on the concrete in front of me. Even though the sword didn't touch it, I somehow still left a mark on the floor. It wasn't exactly a gash, but more like the top layer was scraped off with sandpaper. It probably wasn't caused by wind pressure, but figuring out the exact mechanism behind it was so far down my priority list I forgot about it the moment Cal spoke up in my mind.

"{Don't put yourself down, young knight! The fact that you could utilize nearly two-thirds of my power in your current condition is already laudable!}"

Even though Cal definitely meant that as encouragement, I couldn't help but let out a dejected groan in response anyway. Sure, 'nearly' two-thirds. In more realistic terms, that was probably closer to sixty percent. Before I donned my full armor for the first time in the morning, right after the Celestial agent left, I naively thought that with my hand fixed, I no longer had to worry about the duel. Reality, as usual, found a way to disappoint me.

For a start, now that I could properly wear my armor, Cal could 'plug into' its magical operating system or whatever, and after running a few diagnostics, we discovered a startling (and in retrospect quite obvious) problem: I had three broken Oaths. One was the Oath of Fealty that was broken for everyone by default, but the other two were still an issue, and they hampered the efficiency of the entire set. That was already bad, but then on top of that, while my injured hand was technically fixed, it soon became apparent that it wasn't fully healed yet.

The best way I could explain it is that it was like a dislocated shoulder that was popped back into place. Sure, it was no longer disjointed, but it still suffered trauma that needed time to recover, and so one couldn't just start bench pressing with it right away. Now, that didn't mean I couldn't use my hand until it was fully healed, but it took the entire morning to figure out the safe 'weight' (read: mana) I could work with at the moment, and even that was only possible due to the help of Dominance. Speaking of which, I spent the morning training with Brang and company, and I had to once again conclude that taking the Fauns in was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Without free and unlimited access to Dominance, I reckon I would've crippled my hand again before I even managed to get used to the Knight gear and the mana it provided.

Ah, right. Mana. I keep talking about it, but to be perfectly honest, I still didn't exactly know what it was. If anything, the only insight I gained after using it all morning was a 'feel' for it. Beforehand, I only understood it as a kind of fuel for enchantments, and Fred still couldn't give me a proper explanation for where it came from, but now I had a more intuitive sense for it. First off, taking it in through the armor felt kind of like drinking a hot cup of tea after getting chilled to the bone; even after I emptied the cup, I could feel the warmth in the pit of my stomach, and it slowly spread through my insides. However, that was as far as the similarities went. It wasn't a tangible material, like a liquid, nor was it really moving around, like some kind of nebulous chi flowing inside some nebulous channels; it was closer to something like an electric current coursing through a conductor.

It was also because of this that my hand was still an issue. While it no longer acted as a short in the circuit, it also wasn't letting mana through properly. According to Cal, this resistance would disappear over time on its own, and the process could be sped up even further now that the Celestial healer took care of the heavy lifting, but it would still take at least a week for a full, one hundred percent recovery. Considering that the duel was only two days away, that was still less than ideal, so I was stuck with 'less than two-thirds of maximum output' to work with for the time being.

Oh, and let's not forget that this number only applied while I was wielding Cal. When I was using the sword that came with the armor set, my 'magical wattage' was reduced even further. To be fair, even with all of these handicaps, the power boost I received was quite significant, but it was nowhere near what a 'proper' Knight could wield. It was a good thing I wasn't relying entirely on my raw fighting prowess during the upcoming duel, or I'd be in deep shit right now. As things stood, it was only knee-high at worst.

"That was about as much power as I can safely put into one strike," I said as I walked over to the onlookers. "Sustained performance is lower, but so far it looks like I can maintain it near-indefinitely."

"What about the ramping?" Fred inquired with unusual zeal, and he even got a clipboard to take notes. When I didn't answer right away, he tapped his pencil against the board and clarified, "According to the reports provided by your assistant, the Knights of the Brotherhood can temporarily increase their peak performance."

"That's something I can't do yet," I told him while I took my helmet off. "Last time I tried it, my hand exploded. Not literally, of course, but I think you get the idea."

"Last time...? Oh, right! During that 'Domination' thing you were talking about!"

"Master, it's Dominance."

"That's what I said," Labcoat Guy retorted before facing me again. "One of these days, you really have to let me take a look at you while you're doing it. The ability to fully simulate your body, including the mana-injection mechanism, sounds absolutely fascinating!"

"Maybe later," I told him a tad morosely and raised my hand to the nape of my neck. Right there, just under where my skull connected to my spine, there was a small, bumpy patch attached to my skin. I carefully got a fingernail under it and peeled it off, and then handed it over to the excited mad scientist. He received it with eager eyes and another 'Kihihi'. "How about we get back to this topic once the whole duel-business is behind us?"

Fred was a little reluctant to agree, but it didn't matter, as he was beaten to the punch by Josh before he even had a chance to respond to me.

"Right, that Arbitration thing. I was under the impression we came here to discuss that."

"Yep, we did. Also, to make some last-minute preparations."

"Can we start with talking about what exactly I was supposed to be doing? As a witness, I mean?"

Josh sounded a little skeptical, but I could understand his concerns.

"Mostly just watch out for foul play," I told him while circling my shoulders.

"And what constitutes foul play?"

"Outside interference, traps, and the other witness getting involved, mostly." I paused to see if Cal wanted to add anything, but they remained silent, so I capped my answer with a shrug.

"Soooo... Why exactly did I have to come here right away?"

"To train, of course. Speaking of which..." The meaningful pause didn't escape the Fauns' notice, and they immediately jumped to their feet and began busying themselves by cleaning up the training grounds, as per my instructions in the morning. Galatea also stood up and headed to the armory area. That left only Josh and Labcoat Guy, so I pointedly cleared my throat to get the latter's attention.

"Oh, right. I should prepare the undersuit, shouldn't I?"

"I still need to familiarize myself with it, so yes, I'd like it if you finished it ASAP."

"Kihihi! Got it, boss! I'll get it prepped right away!"

"What undersuit?"

"Just a side-project," I told Josh as we watched the resident mad scientist leave post-haste. "I'm trying to squeeze out every drop of advantage I can from my resources before the battle."

My friend let out a quiet grunt that I figured was a form of acknowledgment, and then fell silent with a vacant look on his face. I waited for a while to see if he had a more eloquent response in the waiting, but when he remained silent, I couldn't help but poke him a little.

"Are you having second thoughts about this, or is there something else bothering you?"

"Huh? What?" He blinked in surprise, but once the question finally fully registered with him, he hastily shook his head. "Nah, man. I'm with you on this one. I owe you one… or a few, so it would make me a colossal asshat if I refused to help."

"Then what's the problem? You're spacing out an awful lot today."

"There's no problem, just..." He faltered, but after glancing around and making sure that nobody was paying attention to us, he gestured for me to come closer. "Listen, Leo. Do you remember that thing we talked about the other day? About Angie and Lili and everything?"

"Yes, I do. Did something happen?"

"Kinda. I... I think I messed up."

The way my brows rose in doubt was something that Josh obviously didn't appreciate, so I hastily explained myself.

"You weren't in a cold war with Angie this morning, so I don't think you messed up 'that' badly."

"No, you don't get it," Josh hissed in a whisper and waved for me to come even closer. "Listen, after that time, I tried to carefully probe her a little. Just to see if there was any basis to what you said, you see?"

"So?"

"So I asked her if she had anyone she liked."

"... Dude, that's not careful at all."

"Hey, I know Angie. If I was any subtler than that, she would've realized that I was trying to probe her, so I had to make it look like I was oblivious to how my question sounded. I thought this through, okay?"

"Okay, okay, I get it. So, where did things go south?"

"It was after she told me she had someone she likes, but when I tried to ask who it was, she asked back if I liked anyone, so I had to answer her so that she wouldn't get suspicious, and then she kept asking about what kind of girl I liked, but then when I told her I'd prefer someone I had lots of common things to talk about, she joked about how that almost sounded like her but couldn't be her because I don't consider her a girl, so I panicked and told her that I did consider her one, and then she started teasing me, and I was too surprised to brush her off, and now she thinks I have a crush on her."

"... Okay Josh. Before anything else, breathe." Since I refused to say anything else until he calmed down a little, my friend took several forceful breaths. Once his face was no longer on the verge of going purple, I let out a measured breath of my own and told him, "So in short, you became conscious of Angie because of what I said, and now she also knows about this. Where's the problem?"

"The problem is that she knows!" Josh hissed in the company of a deep, troubled frown. "If she thinks I like her, it's going to make talking with her super-awkward."

"Do you actually like her now?" I asked the pivotal question, and the guy fell silent for quite a while before he managed to formulate an answer.

"I... I don't know, man. That's the problem. I can't just stuff the cat back into the bag now and pretend that we're still just friends, but I can't just move forward either just to avoid things staying awkward..."

"Well, if you want my advice, I'd say that's a bridge that you have to cross yourself, and the sooner you do it, the better."

"I know, just... Can't you at least give me some advice on how to actually do that? I mean, come on, man! You're the one with experience in these things!"

"Not really. Last time I tried to turn a girl down, she ended up becoming my girlfriend, so you probably shouldn't listen to me. You know Angie better than I do, and I can't tell your feelings apart for you. You just have to figure this out on your own."

"Well, thanks for nothing," Josh grumbled, and since Galatea's been standing around and waiting for us to finish for a while now, I roughly patted his shoulder with a cheeky 'You're welcome!' before taking a step back and gesturing for the android to come closer.

When she did, Josh's brows immediately rose in surprise. I couldn't blame him; at the moment she was wearing a homemade (by magical injection molding, no less) plastic armor strapped over her casual clothes, and in her hands she had two training swords. One was a long sword, while the other was a cavalry saber, and they were both made of wood and inscribed with some very simple enchantment arrays.

"Preparations are complete," she stated, and Josh looked downright nervous for a moment.

"Preparations for what?"

He sounded a touch meek at the moment, but it didn't bother Galatea one bit, as she matter-of-factly told him, "I've recorded and integrated grandmaster Leonard's techniques. Using my replication subroutines, I can now reproduce his movements with 98.76% accuracy."

"… Grandmaster?"

"I'm the boss of her 'master', so she calls me that. Don't mind her; the moment you start reacting to her is the first step on the road of becoming Fred."

"Oooookay." Despite saying so, Josh still looked more than a little baffled. "And what was that thing about replicating your moves?"

"Oh, those aren't mine," I told him with a reassuring smile. "I've been spying on the Knight girl and her sparring partner. I tried my best to copy the way they used their swords so that Galatea could record them. They're two generations removed from the originals, but experiencing them should still be helpful in case things break down during the Arbitration and you'd have to intervene."

"Wait, hold on! You want me to fight her while she's mimicking you who are mimicking someone else?"

"Yep, that's what I just said."

"That… sounds incredibly overcomplicated to me."

"No, it's only a little overcomplicated. Now then, let's not waste any more time. Off you go."

"Hey, you can't just—"

Josh's protests came to an abrupt end when he, along with the eager androidess, suddenly disappeared with a loud thud. The source of the noise was Brang, who was waiting for my signal on the side and sent the two of them into a pre-set Purple Zone the moment I gave him the signal. Once they were gone, I faced the old Faun and gave him a thankful little nod.

"[I thank you for your cooperation, general.]"

"[Thou art most welcome, Blackcloak,]" he answered with a mischievous smile that was soon replaced by a thoughtful frown. "[I trust thine judgement, but art thou most certain that this course of action was warranted?]"

"[Certainly. My companion requires martial guidance, and the manmade woman of metal and wire also requested an opportunity to exercise her physical frame. Acting thus resulted in eviscerating two avians with the use of a single piece of mineral.]" He still didn't look convinced, so I shook my head and put my helmet back on. "[Worry not your head over such minor matters. My companion suffers from troubles of the heart, so enforcing activities of the mortal coil upon him shall help him clear the recesses of his mind.]"

"[If thou claim so…]"

"[I do so. Now come, time's a-wasting! We shall start with four specters of the mind, as I wish to implement new procedures and techniques!]"

The old Faun let out an amused snort, potentially at my expense, but I didn't really let it get to me and readied myself for another round of Dominance. Miss Unicorn was confident in her chances to the point she already took her victory for granted. After watching her train, I had to admit that her confidence was well-warranted. However, that didn't mean I would give up. Not that it was an option, to begin with.

But first, I had to get used to utilizing mana, step by step. The first goal: achieving a fifty percent win-rate against Brang without Phasing or hurting my hand in the process! Yeah, I know that didn't sound like a high bar, but then again, I never said those weren't baby steps.