They didn't count down.
The moment both fighters settled into their stances, the sparring match began.
Ren moved first. His spear shot forward in a straight thrust aimed at Arthur's chest, and Arthur sidestepped smoothly. The spear tip passed inches from his ribs. He brought his practice sword down in a counter slash aimed at Ren's extended arm.
Ren pulled back, and the spear retreated before coming around in a sweeping arc from the left. Arthur ducked under it, felt the displaced air above his head, and lunged forward while Ren's weapon was still completing its swing.
His sword thrust toward Ren's shoulder.
Ren twisted his body, and the blade missed by a hair. The spear shaft came up, catching Arthur's sword and deflecting it aside with practised ease. Then the butt of the spear snapped forward toward Arthur's face.
Arthur jerked his head back. The wooden shaft whistled past his nose.
They separated, both breathing slightly harder, and Arthur didn't waste the opening. His hand crackled with yellow electricity as the Lightning Bolt formula assembled in his mind. Mana channelled through his pathways, and he thrust his palm forward.
The bolt fired, yellow lightning streaking across the gap between them.
Ren's boot slammed down. The earth beneath his feet responded instantly, rising in a curved ramp that lifted him backwards and to the side. The lightning bolt scorched empty air where he'd been standing half a second ago.
'Oh, that's going to be annoying to deal with.'
Arthur charged forward before Ren could set up whatever counter he was planning. His sword came down in a heavy overhead strike, and Ren's spear met it with a crack of wood against wood. Arthur pivoted, trying to get inside the spear's reach, but Ren stepped back smoothly and maintained the distance between them with his longer weapon always in the way.
They exchanged blows in rapid succession. Arthur's sword came down, and Ren's spear deflected it. Ren thrust forward, and Arthur parried to the side. Back and forth, testing each other's reactions, neither committing fully to an attack that would leave them exposed.
Arthur tried casting while moving again. He channelled mana while his feet were still in motion, and the Lightning Bolt formula flickered to life in his mind. He released it mid-step.
The spell destabilised immediately. The bolt fired wide, crackling harmlessly into the ground several feet to Ren's left.
Ren's eyes narrowed, and there was definitely amusement in his expression now. "You know, for someone trying to prove they can cast while fighting, you're really not making a great case for yourself."
"Shut up and fight."
Arthur pressed forward with the First Form of Thunder Blade Style flowing through his movements. Sword high, then low, then centre in the twelve-movement sequence he'd drilled into muscle memory. His blade whistled through the air with increasing speed.
Ren met every strike with his spear, deflecting and redirecting with precise footwork that always kept him at optimal distance. Then Arthur saw his opening when Ren's spear came in high. Arthur ducked under it and rolled forward, coming up inside the spear's reach with his sword, thrusting toward Ren's chest.
Ren jumped backwards, and Arthur pursued immediately. His boots hit the ground, ready to close the distance.
The earth beneath his feet moved.
Not like before. This time, the ground didn't rise or tilt. Instead, stone wrapped around Arthur's ankles like hands grabbing him. The earth hardened instantly and locked his feet in place.
Ren's spear came in fast, a thrust aimed at Arthur's exposed torso.
Arthur couldn't dodge. His feet were trapped, and his options were extremely limited.
He moved through the First Move of Thunder Blade Style's Second Form. The movement was faster than anything in the First Form and more aggressive. His sword came up in a diagonal slash while mana surged through the blade at the same time. Yellow lightning crackled down the wood, and for a split second, his practice sword moved with genuine lightning-enhanced speed.
The blade met Ren's spear and knocked it aside with enough force to crack the wooden shaft. The lightning discharge also shattered the earth around Arthur's ankles and freed him.
Arthur stepped forward and swung hard. Ren barely got his spear up in time, and the impact sent him sliding backwards across the packed dirt.
'That actually worked. Okay, maybe I'm not completely outclassed here.'
But Arthur's mana reserves had taken a serious hit from that move. His core felt noticeably lighter, and he had maybe three or four more spell casts before he was running on fumes.
The fight continued, and Arthur stayed aggressive because he couldn't let Ren control the pace. Couldn't give him space to set up more elaborate techniques.
But Ren was experienced in a way Arthur wasn't. Every time Arthur thought he had an opening, Ren's spear was already moving to cover it. Every time he tried to close the distance, something changed. The ground tilted just slightly. Small rises appeared that threw off his balance. Uneven footing forced him to adjust mid-step.
Ren wasn't just fighting with his spear. He was fighting with the entire battlefield, constantly reshaping it to his advantage.
Then Arthur noticed something else. Stone was forming along Ren's forearms. Not thick armour, just a thin layer of hardened earth coating his skin like gauntlets. When Arthur's sword struck Ren's arm during an exchange, the blade bounced off stone instead of flesh.
'He's armouring himself. Of course he is. Why wouldn't he?'
Arthur was being pushed back steadily. His breathing was getting laboured, and his arms were starting to burn from blocking spear strikes. His mana reserves were depleting with every spell attempt, and he was running out of options.
Ren thrust forward with a powerful strike aimed at Arthur's shoulder.
Arthur activated Kinetic Assimilation, and mana drained from his core in a sudden rush. The skill engaged, and Arthur could feel kinetic energy awareness spreading through his body.
Instead of dodging, he moved into the strike. His shoulder took the impact, and the spear hit hard enough to send pain radiating down his arm.
But the skill absorbed it. The kinetic energy flowed into Arthur and stored itself just below his core while his mana drain spiked to hold it there.
Ren's eyes widened because he'd felt his strike land, but Arthur hadn't been knocked back like he should have been.
Arthur closed the distance. Three steps brought him right into Ren's guard, and his palm thrust forward at point-blank range.
The stored kinetic energy was released in a shockwave that rippled the air visibly.
An earth wall erupted between them. Ren had stomped his foot down, and the ground responded faster than Arthur could track. A thick barrier of stone rising to intercept the blast.
The kinetic shockwave hit the wall, and the stone cracked. Shattered. Chunks of earth exploded outward in all directions.
But the wall had done its job and absorbed most of the force.
Arthur tried to follow up and capitalise on the opening, but his legs wouldn't move properly. His mana was gone. Completely depleted. The combination of activating Kinetic Assimilation, storing the energy, and releasing it had drained everything he had left.
His core was empty, and his body felt like it weighed twice as much as it should.
He couldn't even raise his sword anymore.
Ren's spear came in fast, and Arthur saw it but couldn't do anything about it. The wooden tip stopped half an inch from his throat.
The fight was over.
Arthur stood there panting with his mana completely depleted and a practice spear pressed against his windpipe. Ren was breathing hard too, and sweat ran down his face. His spear was cracked in multiple places, and the stone coating his forearms was crumbling away. But he was standing upright, in control, and clearly victorious.
"Do you yield?" Ren asked.
Arthur wanted to argue. Wanted to keep fighting somehow. But his body had absolutely nothing left to give.
"I yield," he said.
Ren lowered his spear and stepped back. Arthur's legs decided that was permission to stop supporting him, and he collapsed to one knee, catching himself with his sword planted in the ground.
'Well, that was thoroughly humiliating. I started a fight with this guy because I almost hit him with a spell, and then I got completely dominated in the spar I insisted on having. Fantastic life choices all around.'
Ren walked over and extended his hand down toward Arthur.
Arthur looked up at him, and Ren's expression wasn't mocking or triumphant. Just genuinely respectful, which somehow made losing worse.
Arthur took the offered hand, and Ren pulled him to his feet.
"You're a lot better than I expected you to be," Ren said, and his tone was honest rather than condescending. "That lightning slash technique, what was that exactly? I've never seen anything move that fast from a practice weapon."
"Oh, it's just my sword style," Arthur said. "Channels lightning through the blade to increase speed and impact force, but it costs a lot of mana to pull off."
"It nearly got past my guard, so I'd say it was worth the cost." Ren examined his cracked spear with a somewhat rueful expression. "And that absorption technique at the end, that was definitely a skill and not a spell, wasn't it?"
Arthur nodded because he was too exhausted to explain the details of Kinetic Assimilation.
"That was a smart play, honestly," Ren continued. "Risky as hell because if I'd been a fraction slower with that wall, you would have landed a solid hit, but the tactic itself was sound. You've got decent fundamentals with your sword work, and your spell mastery is clearly high, even if your mobile casting needs work. The main issue is that you keep trying to use techniques you haven't fully developed yet, which is what got you into trouble with that wild lightning bolt in the first place."
"Yeah, well, bad decision-making and overconfidence are kind of my signature moves at this point," Arthur managed a weak grin. "I'm thinking about making them my official combat style."
Ren laughed, actual, genuine laughter that didn't sound forced or mocking. "I noticed that about you." He shifted his damaged spear to his other hand. "Look, I came on way too strong earlier when that lightning bolt surprised me. I got angry and defensive, and I shouldn't have pushed for a spar when I was already pissed off at you. That wasn't fair."
"You won the spar pretty decisively, so I can't exactly complain about how it turned out."
"I had a full sub-tier advantage over you in terms of rank," Ren pointed out. "If we were both Middle Apprentice, that fight would have been a lot closer, and you know it. You made me actually work for that win instead of just walking over you." He paused and seemed to be considering something. "Do you train here at the grounds every day?"
"Pretty much every day, yeah. Trying to push for Upper Apprentice before the Academy year starts, so I'm putting in the hours."
"Same here, actually. My family situation means I need to be at the Academy early, and I'm using the time to improve as much as possible before classes begin." Ren's expression shifted to something more thoughtful. "We should train together when we're both here. You clearly need a sparring partner who won't hold back on you, and honestly, most of the second-years I've been practising with go way too easy on me because they don't want to hurt a first-year. It would be good for both of us."
Arthur blinked in surprise. "You want to train together? After I almost fried you with an out-of-control spell and then immediately lost the sparring match you challenged me to?"
"You didn't lose, not really. You fought someone who's a full sub-tier above you, and you still managed to put me on the defensive multiple times. That's not losing; that's just reality catching up with the rank difference." Ren extended his hand again, this time clearly offering a handshake rather than just helping Arthur up. "So what do you say? Want to be training partners?"
Arthur looked at the offered hand and at Ren's expression, which had completely shifted from the angry guy who'd been yelling at him about wild lightning bolts to someone who seemed genuinely interested in training together.
'Huh. I made a friend by almost killing him, getting into an argument, and then getting my ass thoroughly kicked. That's definitely a new approach to socialisation.'
Arthur shook Ren's hand firmly. "Training partners sounds good to me. I could use someone who actually knows what they're doing to beat the mistakes out of me."
"Perfect. And for the record, try not to almost kill me with uncontrolled lightning next time we're training near each other."
"I'll do my best, but I'm not making any promises about my spell control."
They walked off the sparring circle together, with Arthur's legs still feeling like jelly and his mana core sitting at absolute zero. He'd need several hours to recover properly and probably a meal to help with the mana regeneration.
But he'd gained something significantly more valuable than mana. A training partner. An actual person in this world who didn't just exist in his memories from reading a novel. Someone real, standing right here, whom he'd fought and talked to and somehow managed to befriend.
And maybe, given enough time and training together, an actual friend.
'Five weeks until the academy year starts, and Lloyd Ashford shows up with his protagonist energy. At least now I won't be completely alone when that happens.'
That was definitely worth getting his ass kicked for.