"Is this a dream… ah… this is?"

It was something that I always felt. It seemed like fleeting dreams.

I could feel it was just a dream.

Is this about me… or him?

He just sat on the bench. Feeling lost and heartbeat. Holding back his tears.

It was his first tournament and maybe the last…

After entering high school, he did something that he never was in his past by joining the Softball club. It wasn't that popular a sport, but he trained quite diligently every week, and once a month, the club had physical workouts that were quite intense.

It was a sport that he had never participated in before. So, of course, he didn't make it into a team even with his effort. At the end of his sophomore year, he successfully joined the team and participated in the national tournament.

Since it wasn't that popular a sport in his country, the high school team was just around eight teams, and in the end, his school ended up in third place.

There was a feeling that he never felt. Anguish. The feeling that he could do it better if he worked more while gnashing his teeth, he glared and looked up at the distant field. But at that moment…

He realized that this would be the first and last sports competition he ever had.

And with that… 

I woke up from my daydreaming.

I looked out the window and saw a training field where my mock battle was. It was simple with a spectacle seat. I wonder because seeing this field made me see those previous memories. 

Since in this world where magic exists, the sport really changed. There was no football, basketball, or softball. Most sports in this world were more likely about magic, martial arts, and combat-oriented sports.

"I wonder what these memories want to tell me." Those memories sometimes just come in absurd times and not in a particular order. It's really a random encounter. 

"Are you telling me to work harder or telling me how the last chance you have…"

"Are you nervous? Ichida-san." Chifuyu asked me since I had been talking to myself for a while. I couldn't help doing that after seeing my previous memories.

"Nervous? Maybe, a little… I have participated in some minor tournaments before, but I never thought this mock battle would gain a lot of spectators." 

I could see a lot of people in the spectate seat. 

"Ahahaha, yes. Many people had gathered and were interested in the sudden mock battle. Especially the mock battle about two special students that this school was buzzing about." Chifuyu said while there was someone behind her back. 

There was a person I saw many times through the display. Stella Vermillion was standing behind Chifuyu. She had a tender white porcelain-like skin, long eyelashes with ruby eyes, and her hair was akin to fiery crimson hair tied into twin tails using her yellow ribbon. 

I couldn't help but look at her unique and beautiful appearance. Unlike my previous memories, she wore Shirai Academy's uniform, just a simple navy blue sailor uniform. Still show her bewitching body, with both large breasts and a voluptuous figure.

“Good day, Ryuu Ichida-sama. My name is Stella Vermillion. As you may already tell, I'm your opponent in this mock battle. Nice to meet you." Stella introduced herself while giving me a bit of an elegant noble gesture, just like in the movie. 

"How polite of you. My name is Ryuu Ichida. Nice to meet you." I answered her back. She was kind of different than I thought, but I think about it deeply. In the novel, her introduction was quite a mess. No wonder she looked very emotional. 

I could feel Stella staring at me in amazement. 

"Hope we have a nice fight," Stella said with such a relaxed tone without any anxiety at all. I didn't think she thought of me as an equal opponent. I don't know if it is because of her pride as a strong magician from a small empire, the Vermillion Empire or because she didn't feel threatened by me at all.

"The mock battle will be starting soon. Both of you, be sure to be ready in the field." Chifuyu said.

And so my mock battle started.

***

 

"Haaaa!" The mock battle immediately started when Stella leaped toward me and swung her flaming sword. Since I knew what had happened, I maneuvered by stepping back. Her broadsword smashed the ground below and shook the entirety of the third training field. 

Honestly, I didn't think my mana barrier could handle Stella's attacks at all. 

Most of the magician battles were one will win if the opponent's mana barrier fell to 0. Since if the mana barrier vanishes, there'll be actual damage to that person.

"Hump… good reaction. You wouldn't have made it out so easily if you took my hit." Stella said while grinning and pursuing me. Immediately after she finished speaking, Stella casually attacked me.

Her explosive power and the control she had over her movements were both incredible. It was almost as if she had danced herself in this fight.

This attack would have knocked many magicians down, realizing how far the level was between them.

It was easy for her to catch up with me. Stella Vermillion Magic was so enormous that she could maintain her speed with explosive magic power. She brandished hers with an unavoidable swing that was so strong that it felt like it could snap my sword when our swords clashed with each other.

"Still, you shouldn't get conceited over this level of skill!" Stella realized how good my eyes and my strength were. She kept attacking, again and again, not giving any time for me to take a breath.

"Now, let's dance. Dance with Lævateinn and me!" 

A swung and another and another and another. The attack continues to rain down on me, and they're all precisely attacked, so I can't dodge them all. 

Even so, my magic was mostly strengthening magic and recovery magic. That's why I calmly caught each of her blows. I didn't need to block it hard with power adjustment, angle, and timing - those powerful strikes could be parried with minimal magic power.

This tactic depleted their massive magic power by letting them feel overwhelming me, and they lusted endlessly for their magic abilities and wasted a lot of their mana. It will be easy to fight magicians who are much more focused on their magic abilities than their martial art, which is sometimes so poor.

"What's the matter? You'll never win if you just keep defending, you know?" Stella realized what my tactic was, but she didn't change her maneuver at all.

That's why I started my attack with the help of my imaginary training. I understand most of her swordsmanship. 

I waved my sword lightly, fast and strong. My thin-looking katana that focused on just jacking all of the trade has another advantage with my magic. That's how durable this sword was, and with my magic, I could change the weight of my own katana. 

So the value of my katana was its weight.

It could weigh more than 100 kilos.

So when my katana met her Lævateinn, the one who stepped back was Stella, who didn't expect such power from my lightly swung.

"What the hell?!" It was a surrealistic scene for Stella that made her speechless. Her mouth was wide open from shock. This was the first time in her lifetime that Stella had ever stepped back by a boy that was around her age.

Since the katana weight had changed, my attack made a loud noise. It was impossible for her to evade my attack. Stella has her own pride. She tried to outclass my swing. 

In front of her, there was a boy that wasn't using a shred of her magical power, but he could overpower her magical power. 

Slowly she was getting beaten back as she was the one who needed to make a distance between them. 

"But how… how can it be…." Stella talked as pushed back by me. "No, there is no way this happened." She shrieked and jumped far away. Her eyes became fierce. She raised Lævateinn to the sky. The fire around her grew ever brighter, ever hotter that blazed like the sun. She glared at me menacingly. 

"Ah… this is…." I realized what Stella was doing, but I could do nothing. A powerful explosion of heat blasted the surroundings as she used its strongest spell, powerful enough to be considered a final trump card. 

"To think I will win this fight because of my own talent. Pierce the blue sky, flame of purgatory!"

She clearly had no intention of trading blows anymore. Stella admitted that she lost at swordsmanship and tried to triumph in this fight using her own magical power. Her gifted and unfair level of raw talent.

"You're done for. It would be better for both of us if you accepted defeat gracefully." Stella spoke a bit differently than before as she acknowledged my skill and power and was going to crush me with all of her power.

"Katharterio Salamandra!" 

The burst of magic crashed down upon the ground, waves of heat billowing out like a tsunami as it tried to incinerate the battlefield. Seeing such overwhelming magical power… 

Honestly made me envious of her, but I will never give up.  

"In the end… the only man can do is brute force…." I spoke to myself as I gathered all of the magic. Most people knew about strengthening magic because using that magician could increase their strength and mobility. 

The problem for me was that it needed magic power in the end and with my weak magic power… there was no way I could defeat a person with more magic power than me. 

That's why I needed a way to make me stronger and faster than people with more magic than me.

And my answer was quite easy but difficult at the same time.

It was to increase my skeletal muscles to higher maximum power output. It was like a steroid or drug. I put my own magic into every skeletal muscle I could do and strengthened it to the max with that I could become stronger with such a minimal magical power.

It's just really hurting my body, so I needed to control it by channeling my recovery magic simultaneously. 

This is something that never really touches it in this world. As they forgot that man in the past was stronger. 

Stella enveloped in her flame and aimed her attack at me, but before her blade could hit its mark. I was simply dodged so quickly that it looked like I had disappeared in front of her.

Despite that, Stella still aimed at me. Her attack was a formless sword of pure heat that could strike from a distance of a hundred yards at speed unthinkable. A godlike power. 

Even so, I ran through the battlefield, evading every swing of that blade of heat. 

"I got you!" With that conviction in my mind, I closed in on Stella before driving my swung at her unguarded abdomen.

"No way… then you.."

"Right… I'm just using brute force." 

I didn't hold back. My speed left her no time to do anything. That hit blew Stella ten meters away. At this point, my outstanding body granted me incredible physical abilities, making me so powerful that I could easily smash bedrock to pieces with my own hand.

Stella's consciousness was lost like she was struck by massive kinetic energy. She collapsed with just one strike.

"That's enough! The winner is Ryuu Ichida."

As Chifuyu announced the winner and the cheers from the spectators. Some of them sounded disbelief, and some of them cheered happily.

As for me… I felt really tired when I inactive my steroid - drug - like magic.

"Fuh… I win."

And smile satisfied before sitting on the ground. 

"Ah… I feel a bit hungry too…."

So my mock battle with Stella Vermillion ended.