"Can you lower your voice down a bit?" Wilhelm requested as he slowly remembered where he was.
This was The Combat Class.
"Alright." The girl nodded.
"Wait you are." Wilhelm recognized the girl as his senses returned back to him.
It was the same girl he'd met back at The Academy's entrance.
The same black hair which fits her olive complexion well.
"So you remember me, that's good." The girl smiled heartily yet switched her expression immediately to focus on her current objective.
"Let's fight!" The girl repeated.
Wilhelm stared at her dully.
The resolute girl meeting his gaze froze.
Finally after a moment Wilhelm broke the awkward atmosphere with a sigh.
"You do know I have reached The True Wizard Stage right?" Wilhelm asked.
"Of course I know that! Why else would I bother you?"
"Voice." Wilhelm reminded.
The lips of the girl slightly twitch as she heard this yet sighed.
"Sorry."
"Alright then, I assume you have reached The True Wizard Stage as well?" Wilhelm asked.
"Yes." The girl replied.
Hearing this Wilhelm nodded.
"I refuse."
"What?" The girl asked, unable to understand what Wilhelmmeant.
"I refuse to spar with you." Wilhelm reiterated.
"Why?" The girl, though shocked, still didn't raise her voice.
"My combat prowess is considerably weaker than any other True Wizard in The Academy, so fighting you would result in my loss and I doubt I can learn anything from losing so quickly." Wilhelm without hesitation gave the truth.
He was quite possibly the weakest or among the weakest True Wizards ever with the only thing that he had to his name being Niflheim's cold yet even that could backfire on him and implode him.
Until he had completed Frost Lance, he couldn't bother himself to fight someone else.
"B-but sparring is meant to build that combat experience!" The girl couldn't hold it in longer and shouted, drawing the attention of the nearby students who were busy either sparring or discussing their spars.
"Well just wait for a few weeks and then ask me again. I'll probably have built my second Spell Construct by then and will be able to equal you." Wilhelm waved his hand.
"Well my Spell Construct has nothing to do with offense related stuff." The girl replied with a confused tone.
"You can't even wait a few we- wait what?" Wilhelm paused.
"What did you just say?" Wilhelm asked again.
"Uh that my Spell Construct isn't offense related?" The confused girl replied.
"Why?" Wilhelm asked.
"Don't you know?"
"Know what?" Wilhelm was now confused .
"For their first Spell Constructs,nobody is given an offense related spell! It's always just a passive spell that has little effect in combat related events or stabilizers." The girl explained.
Wilhelm was confused by this logic.
"Wait, you didn't know this? Weren't you paying attention when Mrs Grease explained this?" The girl asked.
"She did? When?" Wilhelm asked while trying to remember if such an event had even occurred.
Seeing the girl nod in response only added further confusion.
Even though it looked like Wilhelm didn't pay attention during lessons, to the contrary he was memorising everything said and even asked questions.
Yet now he wasn't able to remember!
"Could it be that I forgot? No not possible, True Wizards have an exceptional memory enhanced by their Spell Constructs, there's no way I can forget something so important within a span of at least a few days." Wilhelm tried to make sense of what was happening.
"So now that you know, do you want to spar?" The girl asked, causing Wilhelm to break away from his thoughts.
"Why are you so insistent on sparring with me?" Wilhelm couldn't help but ask with a frown.
Hearing this a tint of red appeared on the girl's face as she paused.
"What?" Wilhelm masked, he felt a chill up his back as a ridiculous thought popped in.
"Is it possible? Does she have a crush on me?" Wilhelm thought.
He didn't think of himself as handsome enough to make girls fall in love with him at first sight.
"There has to be something else."
The girl being glared at by Wilhelm's eyes finally gave in and replied.
"Uh… ahem… I-I defeated all the other students in the class, and, um… y-you're the only one left."
Wilhelm hearing this has a single thought.
"What the fuck."
The girl ignoring Wilhelm's shocked expression continued.
"Every day I challenge a student to test my power but they always are defeated so quickly and that's why I want to spar with you!"
"That….is not a good reason." Wilhelm, this time understanding that in front of him was a battle maniac, calmly refused.
"Well what if I give you this!" The girl in desperation, which Wilhelm found odd, took out something from her pocket.
"Whatever it is,I've already said I do-" Wilhelm froze when his eye caught a glimpse of the object.
It was a piece of metal tied to a chain.
It had an inscription on it.
W.A.D
Wilhelm's eyes widened as he glared at those initials.
They seemed so familiar as if they were his to begin with.
"I agree, where do you want to spar?"
Before Wilhelm could even think of what was happening, he instinctually agreed.
The girl hearing this smiled.
"Great! Let me send you a request for combat."
The girl began to tap the air which Wilhelm knew was her communicating with Siegfried.
Soon a display popped up before his eyes.
[Rachel Ebengairi has requested for a spar
Accept or Decline?]
Wilhelmdidn't know what had taken hold of him as he instantly accepted the spar.
Instantly Wilhelm and Rachel were transported out of the class.
Miss Grease who was watching everything from her table couldn't help but frown.
"Looks like they've sped it up." She muttered.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The field was barren with rocks and sand being its acquaintance.
Here, a student was allowed to use any thing he had at his disposal, after all to restrict a student in combat was equivalent to snuffing out any future combat talent for them.
That was according to Ms.Grease.
Both Rachel and Wilhelm stood facing each other, one's gaze was of a thrillseeker and the other's was that of want.
"Let's st-" As Rachel was about to announce, Wilhelm dashed towards her.
"Burst Forth, Niflheim!" Cool air began to permeate the surroundings as even his breath could be seen.
Rachel, although surprised, wasn't deterred as she readied herself.
Wilhelm as he got closer, kicked up some sand which instantly froze and flew towards Rachel.
SWOOSH!
Rachel calmly dashed to the side,dodging the frozen sand and rushed towards Wilhelm.
"Can't let her get close!" Wilhelm knew that with her combat experience, she could do considerable damage.
Wilhelm quickly picked up a rock and was planning to throw it towards Rachel.
Yet as he gripped it tightly a dull sound rang out.
CRACK!
"Huh?" Looking at his hand,Wilhelm was shocked to discover that the rock had been reduced to rubble.
BANG!
As he was comprehending what just happened, a sharp pain assaulted his face as Rachel landed a punch on Wilhelm.
Wilhelm quickly countered with a fist to the abdomen.
BAM!
The attack struck square in Rachel's abdomen sending her flying back.
"Holy shit!" Wilhelm muttered under his breath in shock.
How had his punch been so powerful?
Then it struck him.
"It's my body!"
Wilhelm's body was, as Akarius had stated, inadvertently improved during its reconstruction. Although Akarius had stated it was powerful, it was only now that Wilhelm realised the true extent of its power.
It could send a human flying with a single punch!
How crazy was that!
"Calm down, there's still an opponent." Wilhelm reigned in his excitement and focused on Rachel.
Rachel in question was kneeling down in pain, her hands clutching her abdomen.
Blood could be seen splattered on the ground.
"Did I win?" was the first thought that entered Wilhelm's mind.
His attack was truly overwhelming for a regular individual, so it wouldn't be a stretch to claim he had won, right?
As he thought this, a searing pain assaulted his hand, drawing his attention.
"What the—!" Wilhelm was shaken as he stared at his fist.
It was charred!
"Wilhelm!" A shout pulled him out of his reverie as Rachel stood up, grinning.
"You are truly powerful! I admit it!" she proclaimed, her voice sundering the ground below.
"But if you're going all out, then I might as well join in!" Rachel glared at Wilhelm with a playful grin as her hair stood on end.
What happened next would forever be ingrained in Wilhelm's memory until his bitter end.
Fire erupted from Rachel's soles, enveloping her in its scarlet embrace.
Yet instead of devouring her, it formed an armor around her. She had become the fire.
To Wilhelm, this felt eerily familiar.
Rachel, now fully clad in fire, shot toward him.
Wilhelm could have dashed to the side to evade the attack, yet he didn't.
He remembered those flames too clearly.
They instinctively felt similar to Niflheim.
If what he possessed was a Realm of Frost, then what she had was a World of Fire.
As Rachel's fist dug into his stomach, Polaris's voice rang out within him.
"The World of Fire—the total opposite of Niflheim."
Polaris didn't need to finish; Wilhelm completed it for him.
"Muspelheim!"
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rachel stood over Wilhelm, watching him with concern as he threw up.
"I'm so sorry! I thought that since you had that ice thing, you wouldn't get hurt!" Rachel apologized, though her words only made Wilhelm want to throw up even more.
At last, after some time, Wilhelm stopped vomiting.
"It's al—" Wilhelmhad just tried to reassure Rachel when he began to throw up again.
"Should I send you to the infirmary?" she asked.
The infirmary was undoubtedly what he needed, and the fact that Rachel had to ask made Wilhelm want to bite his own tongue and die.
"You just punched someone in the abdomen so hard they're throwing up all their food, and yet you're asking if they should be sent to the infirmary?" Wilhelminwardly cursed.
Seeing Wilhelm's worsening state, she quickly made a decision and picked him up.
Placing Wilhelm on her back, she had just begun to open Siegfried to send them back when je grabbed her hand with the last vestiges of his strength.
"What?" Rachel frowned, confused by his action.
"After I heal, you have to spar with me again. Same stakes, alright?" Wilhelm said.
Hearing this, Rachel looked at him strangely.
Seeing her gaze, Wilhelm was about to make up an excuse when he began to throw up again.
"Let's get you to the infirmary first."
"Yes, please."