Instructor Nakamura is just standing there, seems like he’ll let me have the first hit… He’s underestimating me, let’s attack him with a big one right of the bat!

I activated my explosion cartridge and just like I expected, some people started whispering that my magic must have failed since nothing came out from my palm. I can’t hear Kaori though, seems like he learned the hard way that my magic is bit special…

Unfortunately, Mr. Nakamura is bit more cautious and instantly activated a sand wall as soon as he saw my chest begin to glow.

My explosion detonated prematurely against the 2 meter-tall wall, creating a large dust-cloud in the process.

Mr. Nakamura, glad that he saw through my explosion magic, begins to gloat:

“You’ll need more than just some petty tricks to knock me down.”

As the sand wall retracts back down into the arena, Mr. Nakamura looks surprised:

“How clever, you’re like a sneaky rat, utilizing the dust cloud as a cover to attack my blind spot… Too bad that you won’t be able to approach me with this!”

He activated another cartridge and spawned a thick thornbush directly behind himself. I recognized the magic, it was the yellow cartridge called: ‘ensnarement’. It’s great for both offense and defense, though the thornbush spawned by the instructor looked a lot spikier and more dangerous than the one I created during the cartridge-try-out…

Unfortunately for the professor, I was already hiding in a different blind spot, directly beneath him.

When the sand wall between me and the professor was still up, I quickly activated ‘shadow steps’ and sprinted towards him. This must have looked really weird for the audience though, me zigzagging directly towards the professor without him noticing…

“Look out Professor! Beneath you!”

That son of a bitch Kaori. I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to mess with other students’ mock duels… Oh well, I guess the rules are more of a suggestion to someone like Kaori…

He’s too late anyways, I already finished preparations and activated my clay hide cartridge.

Mr. Nakamura was about to look down, but before he could, I threw out another explosion magic, point blank.

The instructor couldn’t activate anything in time and got blown away by the force of the explosion, he flew a few meters up into the air before landing in his own bramblebush, ass first.

“FUCK!”

Mr. Nakamura screams and the bush deactivates, looks like the thornbush disappears once someone gets damaged by it.

I actually managed to hit the silver class instructor! But… It’s quiet, nobody’s cheering for me, seems like everybody is more confused than anything…

The silence is broken when I suddenly hear some yelling:  

“YOU CAN DO IT REO! KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!”

Is that Sara? She did come after all, that little tsundere devil… She’s right though, the mock battle isn’t finished yet. And he won’t be underestimating me anymore once he gets up.

I try to follow up my explosion with an ‘After-Image’ in order to get behind the professor, but get stopped when I suddenly feel a cold chill run down my spine.

I… I can’t move… As if that wasn’t bad enough, I also feel an oppressive amount of bloodlust coming from Mr. Nakamura:

“T-To embarrass me this much… You little shit! You deserve punishment!”

Still not being able to move, I’m helpless as the professor suddenly rockets towards me at an incredible speed, looks like he activated a movement magic, quite a fast one too.

He darts towards me, elbow first. Luckily I managed to activate ‘clay hide’ before the impact, but I couldn’t dodge.

*BLAAARGH*

I throw up blood as his elbow gets firmly nestled into the pit of my stomach. It almost feels as if his elbow is going right through me, and it sure hurts like it does too!

I fly backwards at a ludicrous speed before finally impacting the arena-wall and leaving behind quite the sizeable dent into the concrete.

*COUGH* *COUGH* Blood flows from my mouth like a waterfall, I’m afraid I won’t just be able to sleep this one of. He got me good, I can’t move my body anymore and my mana is almost exhausted…

I’m about to announce my defeat when, out of the corner of my eye, I spot Mr. Nakamura’s knee light up, is he seriously not done yet? This was just supposed to be a mock duel right? Is he actually planning on killing me?

“I… *COUGH* I give-”

Suddenly a giant piranha plant sprouts up out of the ground a few meters in front of me, it has razor sharp teeth and is already drooling…

“This’ll teach you! You little shit!”

Fuck, is this the end? What even was that chill I felt from Mr. Nakamura? I didn't see him activate any cartridge, I just suddenly couldn't move any more... I guess this is just the power-gap between a professional Machia and a student…

Right as the plant was about to chomp off my legs, a woman jumps in between us and summons a water-wall so high, you could mistake it for a tsunami. The wall luckily manages to stop the piranha plant in its tracks.

“Are you crazy?! Releasing you aura and bloodlust on a student like that?! Not to mention the red carnivorous plant cartridge! You were only supposed to have yellow ones!”

I can now recognize the woman by her voice, it’s the nurse, Miss. Sato.

Mr. Nakamura, seemingly having realized his mistake, deactivates his piranha plant and scoffs:

“Hmpf, looks like I forgot to replace one of my favorite cartridges and accidentally activated it. Well, it’s also his fault for being so weak.”

I protest his statement with blood still coming out from my mouth:

“Weak? *COUGH*  Should we ask your charred skin or bleeding behind who’s weak? *COUGH* I still managed to knock you down bastard…”

“You insolent brat! That obviously didn’t count, you caught me off guard, besides, I didn’t fall unconscious, so that didn’t count!”

This stubborn bastard…

“You bitch…”

Everything slowly start fading to black, the last thing I see before falling unconscious is miss Sato sprinting towards me with a worried expression on her face.