As Levy rested on Bea's lap, Kuro had prepped himself in the arena. Rai was watching them with a stern face, leading Merlin to question him.

"Why do you look like that? At least she's fine now."

"It's not that... Kuro... I've only seen him like that once."

Curious, she turns to the arena where Kuro and Azure are. This time, a judge is present in order to stop any of them from killing each other. This was Rai's request. Kuro held his sheathed bladeless sword and charged it, as if to release it instantly. Azure charged his scythes as well.

The judge was nervous, if one of them were to die, then the blame would fall on to him. However, above all else, he was still a mage. His curiosity was still emanating after finding out that Kuro was actually the one that taught them unique magic.

"3..."

The 2 of them prepare.

"2..."

Their mana bursts explosively.

"1..."

Azure placed his right leg back, ready to dash at him, but Kuro... Deactivated his mana.

"GO!"

"Original Sword Art: Moon style: Crescent slash."

As Azure was about to dash instantly, he saw Kuro had already unsheathed his sword and had been released as if he had already attacked. He saw the judge's expression, that had changed from nervousness into pure awe and astonishment. He looked behind and saw that the barrier had a huge gap, as if it had been sliced open. The cracks formed from within was growing slowly, indicating that the barrier had taken a truly heavy hit.

Azure looked back to Kuro's blade, yet he didn't see any blade and only him gripping tightly on his hilt.

'This?! He's this powerful?!'

'Azure... Please...'

'No! I haven't fought anyone interesting for years Zane, let me have this fight!'

Kuro then stood up straight after exhaling deeply, startling Azure up a bit.

"Sorry, I just had to let off some steam. Let's start for real this time."

Kuro then sheathed his bladeless sword and went back to his first position again, ready to attack anytime. Azure looked at him this time, and saw that Kuro's eyes weren't blinking at all. His mouth was open and he could feel a small amount of air being constantly released. It was a common technique that people do to release tension. This time, he enhanced his eyes with mana and took a look at his sword. It turns out, his sword's blade wasn't a solid entity, but was instead a firm thin mana string. The mana string's durability and strength depended on the user's mana, the fact that he was able to destroy the barrier meant that he consumed a lot of mana.

This time, Azure was ready for whatever Kuro could do to him. Fire and null magic user, magic swordsman class that can deal pretty brutal attacks both close and from afar, he's one of the first magic swordsman that can threaten him to the extent that his spine shivered from imagining the amount of pain if Kuro were to hit him instead of the barrier. The magic swordsman class were considered to be pretty weak considering that one must focus on training both swordsmanship and magic. And when in combat, they must also focus on multi-tasking both hands for magic and physical, that's why people with the magic swordsman class were ridiculed as the people 2nd to the weakest class, yet here is a magic swordsman that could threaten an S-ranker.

Finally, the barrier was fixed and they were ready to begin fighting.

"3... 2... 1... GO!"

This time, Azure dashed much more advanced than his first time before, this time, jumping above Kuro instead of going at him head-on. He made a foothold and was about to dash onto Kuro.

"Pillar of flames."

Immediately, a huge fire sigil appeared under Kuro and above Azure's foothold. Upon seeing that, Azure hurriedly change his direction and evaded, leaving Kuro to burn within the fire pillar.

Then, as he waited for the pillar to end, he charged himself up to do an assassination technique, but then a small ember lit up near his foot. Remembering this, he moved as far as he could, but nothing came out.

'A ruse?'

Suddenly, he was hit on the back of his head, his face landing first on the ground.

"Gah!"

Kuro then released another punch, but then he noticed it.

'Aha!'

Kuro then pulled away and jumped back.

'Guide, manage the mana on my arm and pull the fist repeatedly in a 3/4th interval.'

'Yes sir.'

As Azure slowly stood up, still dazed from Kuro's surprisingly powerful strike, he suddenly felt Kuro's hand behind him. He looked behind to see a struggling Kuro with his fist near Azure's face. Upon seeing this however, he was already too late.

"Imitation: Martial skill: Heavy Smash [1]"

Suddenly, an explosive burst appeared behind Kuro's elbow, propelling his attack even faster. With the imitation of the skill he got from a game, by the time he hit Azure's face, his wind barrier broke and with Kuro constantly pushing and pulling his arm repeatedly, by the time all of the force he exerted blew up on Azure's face multiple times.

Azure flew off, still dazed and astonished by what's happening. Suddenly as he was flying off, an ember suddenly flew by in front of him. There, Kuro immediately appeared.

"Imitation: Martial skill: Rush [1]"

Kuro then proceeded to beat him up easily since Azure's wind barrier had finally been expelled.

'Go to sleep Go to sleep Go to sleep Go to sleep Go to sleep Go to sleep Go to sleep'

Kuro kept praying that Azure would get knocked out as he beat him up repeatedly.

'This pain... Yes... This flurry of attacks... This power... I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS! THIS IS MAKING ME HARD!'

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

As Azure laughed, black wind bursts out of his body, pushing Kuro back and even injuring his face and uncovered right arm.

"Hahaha... Kid, have to hand it to ya. I REALLY underestimated you... It's time I go serious."

'Well shit, this wasn't in the plan now is it? Well fuck it, let's roll with it.'

Kuro then unsheathed his bladeless sword and pulled the crossbow's string that was on his left arm. Kuro breathes in and out deeply.

As he opens his eyes, he immediately shoots at his left and creates a small ember on his right hand. It turns out, Azure already threw black wind scythes on him, however, Kuro suddenly disappears by the time the ember on his hand lit up. Looking to Kuro's left, Kuro took aim at him and shot an ember with the crossbow. Azure evades and swings his scythe the embers' location where Kuro is.

"Agh!"

Kuro took a direct hit and this time, he was the one who will take on a barrage of attacks.

'Azure!'

'I know!'

Azure sheathed his scythes and covered his fists with wind balls. He then proceeds to repeatedly attack Kuro on the chest as he was pushed to the barrier.

'WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!'

'No shit sherlock! Gah!'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Kuro took repeated hits, Merlin became worried if Azure's going too far. As she's about to stand up to stop the match, Rai stops her.

"Don't, that kid would get pissed at you."

"But-"

"Just don't. I know his limits, I beat him up multiple times."

Upon hearing that, she sat back down. She looked around to see the other teachers' reactions to be the same.

"Miss Merlin! Should I stop them?"

The judge's expression shows that he's very worried about Kuro. Being the closest one to the arena, he could hear Kuro's ribs breaking as he collides with the barrier and Azure's wind covered fists. Merlin sighs deeply at the sight of Kuro getting beaten up black and blue.

"Don't."

Merlin reassures him as she went back to her seat. The judge, now slightly terrified as he could no longer hear any bones breaking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Guide, temporarily disable pain receptors using mana.'

'Yes sir.'

'Mana?'

'3028/4351'

'Alright.'

Kuro enhances his eyes with mana and looks at Azure's fists. Upon closer inspection, he sees that only his fist is covered with wind mana while his body is heavily enhanced and clad in null mana. He then enhanced his hands and held Azure's arms tightly and immediately proceeds to do an uppercut with his knee to his chin. Having been stunned once more, Kuro then strikes Azure's chest with his palm. However, the wind barrier was raised, rendering his attack useless. But Kuro had already planned for it.

'Explosion!'

As his hand stopped by Azure's wind barrier, an explosion occurs, bypassing Azure's wind barrier. Kuro then kicks him on the side, but the wind barrier is still up, letting him create another explosion. He then creates a mana string connecting to his sword that he let go when he was attacked and pulls it to him.

'Imitation: Rampage [1]'

Kuro's sword formed a blade out of mana and holds it with both hands, swinging it vigorously against Azure's wind barrier. Azure finally regained conscience and hit his wrist powerfully, letting his sword go once more. This time, Kuro enhanced his fists with purple fire. Kuro then threw a  left punch at him. Azure, knowing that that fire is dangerous, evaded immediately to his left and saw Kuro's punch explode in one direction and even throwing a fireball.

'Dangerous! I can't block that one.'

He then stepped back and dodged Kuro's right fist that did the same. Kuro was slowly getting irritated, but he can't get irritated, else his identity as a Silver Dragonkin will be known and he will be hunted. There's only one thing he can do.

'Guide, limit my dragonification to my left hand and eyes.'

'Yes sir.'

Kuro prepped himself by jumping twice and immediately dashed to Azure.

'Fast!'

'Guide, apply mana enhancement only on my legs, hands and heart.'

'Not including arms?'

'Yes.'

'Affirmative.'

Kuro then punched Azure as his punch exuded an explosion and a fireball. Kuro kept throwing fists, but they all missed as Azure observed his movements.

'WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!'

'Read warning.'

'Pain receptors will return soon: 2:01.'

'Well shit.'

Kuro continued to throw his fist everywhere, still missing Azure.

"The fuck are you doing kid?"

'Mana.'

'2140/4351.'

'Azure, he has a plan. Be careful.'

'Well no shit Zane.'

Kuro then proceeded to change his location and then continued to throw punches. Each of his punches contained dangerous explosions and even fireballs. Kuro then opened his left hand and released flame lashes, one for each finger, and lashed at Azure to which he evaded once more. 

'Mana.'

'1327/4351.'

'Alright! Focus all of the mana into barrier creation.'

'Yes sir.'

Kuro then took a step back and punched the ground, creating fire on the location. Seeing this, Azure panicked and realized what he planned to do. He looks around to see all of the fireballs he threw stayed lit up.

The teachers that were already in awe became astonished once more. Not of awe, but by more curiosity of what Kuro's going to do.

"You little..."

"Original Sword art: Moon style: Astrology creation in the night sky."

'This is a new move, but if my theory is correct...'

Kuro took a deep breath and formed his blade made out of hexagon-shaped barriers.

'Alright, let's test it out!'

Suddenly, Kuro partially turned into smoke and dashed onto Azure. Azure immediately blocked his attack, which worked for that time. After that one attack, another immediately ensued, and then another, and then another. Azure was astonished at the speed Kuro had, knowing that Kuro never exhibited that speed. Azure then looked around and saw that Kuro's directions were directed to the fireballs.

'Azure, I think he immaterialized part of himself and dashes there.'

'Impossible! He's a Dragonkin!'

'You haven't listened, right? He's part Dragonkin and Human... He must've done the ritual, but the fact that he can still keep himself as a dragonkin...'

'... I see. So he found a loophole that 'they' couldn't huh... That makes it easier for the both of us then!'

Kuro kept dashing and attacking him at high speed. It slowly becomes harder for Azure to block since Kuro kept attacking at a constant rate. Kuro's attacks were weakened by Azure's wind barrier, but he could still hit him time to time.

'Azure, something's wrong.'

'Yeah, he's only attacking. This isn't like him. I can't look around either, I have to focus on the defense else we're screwed.'

Azure's defense slowly whittled down as he continuously blocked Kuro's attacks. Slowly, fatigue had built up and Azure had knelt down. Kuro stopped attacking and jumped to the very top of the barrier. He opened his magic bag and threw 5 sharp spikes. Azure saw it, they were fingers. He knew what was about to happen.

"Supernova: sacrificial blast: 5 fingers."

The fingers that were stuck on the ground lit up and had exploded into huge fire pillars with Azure in the middle. Kuro jumped away and sat down out of sheer exhaustion.

'Mana.'

'523/4351.'

'Haa... I'm tired.'

As the explosion was still occurring, Kuro grabbed his water bottle and drank heartily from it. Since it was endless, Kuro can freely drink from it.

'As always, it still burns. How much time left?'

'12 seconds left before pain receptors are active again sir.'

"12 seconds huh..."

Smoke came out of Kuro's mouth as he massaged his brows.

"I'm really tired."

"So kid, was that all you've got?"

Startled, Kuro looked behind him and saw Azure, perfectly fine and smiling behind him. It was unusual due to the fact that the explosion hadn't ended yet.

"A half-fire spirit huh... You really exploited your own blood, even using your own fingers as fuel. Look at your hands, you still have them! Let me guess, you cut them in the past and you're willing to use it for 'Supernova: Sacrificial blast' huh... Smart, but you underestimate an S-ranker, even if I'm wearing limiters."

'Move.'

"Die."

'MOVE!'

Kuro kept screaming within him. He couldn't move at all, he could only get attacked at that point. Torso, left arm and leg, right arm and leg, crotch, head, neck, spine, lower spine, both hands and eyes. He was attacked at all of those points with blunted scythes. The beatdown lasted for 30 seconds. Since his neck was attacked, his vocal cords were broken. His screams weren't heard at that point. Blood spilled everywhere as Azure maniacally laughed.

'Azure stop.'

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

'AZURE!'

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

'AZURE STOP IT NOW!'

Zane couldn't handle Azure's violence and forcefully took over his body back. Merlin was still being stopped by Rai. All the teachers and his friends that were conscious came in to check Kuro's broken body, only to see a bloodied corpse upon closer inspection.

"Rai! Why didn't you stop them!"

Merlin was enraged. Her hair was flowing as she held her staff. Her veins were about to explode due to rage.

"Relax Merlin, look."

"HAH?!"

"Miss Merlin! I believe you should take a look."

"Told ya."

Baffled, she took a look at Kuro's bloodied corpse and saw a bunch of steam.

"What the...?"

"He's part-fire spirit. He didn't tell you did he?"

"Part-fire spirit?! Don't tell me he did the ritual?!"

"He did. And it was surprising for me as well."

"I thought it's impossible to succeed in that ritual while keeping his human figure! How?"

Merlin's rage immediately dissipated as if a child wasn't dying.

"I'll explain it to you later. Right now, bring that kid to the infirmary and turn off all cooling ventilations. Make it warm, else he wouldn't live."

Karin went to Zane and punched him on the shoulder.

"Well look at you Mr. Reaper. Why couldn't you stop?"

"... Sorry."

"Well, we're lucky that kid's part-spirit. You really need to keep your battle-junkiness in check."

Zane turned his back as he shrunk himself.

"Sorry..."

Talk with your body! (Examination arc) -END-

 

[1] = These come from the mobile MMORPG game, Toram