The Author's POV

"Begin!"

The referee's thunderous voice boomed throughout the arena. Following his words, Kevin flourished his broadsword. The broadsword was about three feet in length, and its sharp edge directly reflected the glaring light coming down from the sun.

As the broadsword appeared in Kevin's hand, I watched as his muscles bulged outwards and his hand lowered slightly.

A clear indication of just how heavy the weapon was.

SHIIIIING—!

With a light sound, Kevin's sword became enshrouded by a red hue visible to the naked eye! Slowly, layers upon layers of crimson air emanated from Kevin's sword.

At this moment, despite the referee's words, neither one of us moved. A heavy tension enveloped the entire arena.

As I gazed in Kevin's direction, an indomitable aura escaped from his body as it billowed outwards.

I grew solemn when I saw this. Taking a deep breath, time seemed to come to a standstill. Then, at the exact moment that I started to exhale, Kevin's body disappeared from the spot.

SHIIIING—!

Unsheathing my sword and coating my sword with mana, I pressed my foot on the ground and shot forward. In a second, Kevin's figure appeared right in front of me.

Clank—!

A loud metallic ring spread in the air as Kevin's sword met mine. Sparks flew in the air, and a strong pressurized wind expanded outwardly, resulting in my clothes to flutter, releasing a paper-like sound.

The clash lasted only for a brief moment, and once the momentum of our attack dissipated, Kevin's body took a couple of steps back, and so did I.

Stabilizing my body, lifting my head, my eyes met with Kevin's.

"Not bad."

I ended up muttering when I looked at Kevin.

From the first exchange, I could somewhat gauge his strength. It was just a little bit weaker than mine, but it also had to be noted that Kevin still had multiple tricks up his sleeve.

"You're not bad yourself," Kevin replied back with a voice filled with heavy solemness.

Then, raising his sword once again, he disappeared from his spot before reappearing a couple of meters away from me. With his sword above his head, he slashed diagonally down.

A red glow enveloped his sword, and the speed at which it was hurtling towards me was quite frankly, terrifying, but it was still manageable.

Twisting the heel of my foot on the ground, I turned my body to the side, and swung upwardly, trying to meet his sword dead on.

Clank—!

Once again a clear metallic ring resounded throughout the whole arena grounds, as my clothes flapped even more wildly. The hairband which I had used to tie my hair came undone, and my hair scattered all over my face, preventing me from seeing what was happening in front of me.

This may have flustered the normal person, but I was somewhat used to this situation as the mana inside of my body erupted in an outward manner, and I put all my force onto my sword, resulting in Kevin's body being pushed back a couple of meters back.

It was enough for me to catch my breath and fix my hair.

'I seriously need to cut my hair.'

I thought to myself as I brushed my hair behind me.

Although it normally wasn't a problem, it still was a hassle. Especially in big fights when my hairband would always come undone.

It was either cutting my hair or buying a better hairband.

SHIIIING—!

Snapping me out of my own delusions, I suddenly felt a tremendous force come from opposite me.

Like a torrential wave of energy, a bright red light suddenly enveloped Kevin's sword.

Following this, a terrifying pressure bore down on the arena. Taking a step forward, with a loud 'bang' the ground beneath Kevin cracked apart.

The muscles on Kevin's body suddenly bulged upwards, and his veins became more prominent. Wiggling around like worms.

"Haaa!"

Kevin cried out. Both hands held the broadsword, and with a sudden and swift movement, he slashed downwards.

As Kevin slashed, his imposing aura suddenly rose. The air around him began to distort as if there was an invisible current flowing around him, and agglomerating into his long broadsword.

Boooom—!

A thunderous explosion followed after as a powerful sword energy came crashing down on me. Feeling the power contained within the attack, my brows couldn't help but frown.

Activating 'Eyes of Chronos' the world around me started to slow down and Kevin's attack stopped.

Sensing the mana in the air, I calmly analyzed my situation before reducing the effect of the skill, allowing for time to flow a little bit faster. In my vision, Kevin's sword started to move at a snail's pace.

My eyes started to strain once I did this, however, it was a necessary price that I needed to pay.

Tensing the muscles of my right hand which was holding onto my sword, I channeled all my mana towards it, creating a small even green coating.

Then, deactivating the effects of 'Eyes of Chronos', taking a step forward, I slashed out. The moment I slashed out, the mana inside of my body began to stir. Following which, a powerful attack shot out from my sword, meeting Kevin's attack head-on.

Clank!

A metallic ring spread throughout the arena as my feet sank to the ground, and my foot became trapped in the thick floor. Glaring at me from above was Kevin who slashed down with all his might.

Kevin was using a broadsword, which was incomparably heavier than my sword. Although my sword had an effect that could make it become heavier, at the moment, it was of no use. Kevin's sword was above mine, and increasing the mass would only put me in a disadvantageous situation.

As a result of this, he came out on top in this exchange.

"Kaaahh!"

Gritting my teeth, I pushed back with all my strength, and just barely managed to push Kevin's broadsword away. But Kevin backflipped into the air, and as he was airborne, his body twisted at a weird angle and his broadsword drew a majestic arc, aiming straight for my neck.

The attack came flying at me at an incredible speed. Fortunately, I had an ace up my sleeve with regards to speed attacks.

That was none other than, Eyes of Chronos. An <A> ranked skill, and the strongest skill in my arsenal.

Time once again slowed down, as my eyes darted all over Kevin.

Soon, the chip inside of my head started to process everything at a rate matching the speed at which my eyes could see, and using the data coming from Kevin's muscle movements and current sword trajectory, I was able to get a clear idea of where the sword was going to land.

Deactivating Eyes of Chronos, I merely took a step to the right, at a fourth three-degree angle from where I was standing.

SHIIIIING—!

A cold air blew past my face as Kevin's attack completely missed. Taking advantage of this moment, Raising my hand, I smacked in a downward manner. Aiming for the back of his neck.

But, as though he had eyes at the back of his head, Kevin pressed the palm of his hands on the ground and once again twisted his body at a weird angle, just barely avoiding my attack.

"You..."

The next thing that Kevin did truly shocked me. Putting his broadsword back in his dimensional space, and raising his legs, Kevin wrapped his legs around my arm. Then, grabbing onto it with both hands, he locked my arm into an armbar

I suddenly felt a muscle-tearing pain coarse through my body. Just for a second, my knee almost gave out. However, gritting my teeth, I tensed my arm and raised it in the air, with Kevin still latched onto it.

"Aaaaarrghhh!"

Raising my arm in the air, I could feel Kevin's lock tighten. Nevertheless, gritting my teeth, my arm soon raised all the way towards the top of my head. Once that happened, I smashed my arm towards the ground.

All of this happened within the course of a couple of seconds, and so Kevin wasn't able to properly get a hold of my arm.

Sensing the imminent danger, Kevin finally let go of my arm. But I wasn't going to let him go off the hook that easily!

Just as he released the grip on my arm, placing the plan of my hand on the ground to support my body, I twisted my legs and aimed a kick towards the side of his body, hitting him cleanly in the chest and sending him crashing in the distance.

Bang!

With a loud bang, his figure landed a couple of meters away from me.

Standing up and finally taking a breather, I massaged my arm which was aching in pain.

'Shit, I might've torn a muscle...' I thought to myself as I felt an electrifying feeling wash over my body whenever I tried to move my arm. However, this was nothing much. Grabbing a potion, I quickly downed it, and the pain slowly started to disappear.

Doing a similar thing by the other side of the arena, Kevin once again took out his broadsword as a powerful hue sprung out of his body.

Also taking out my weapon, I channeled all of my mana into my sword, forming a thin green hue around it.

Raising my head and meeting Kevin's line of sight, I smirked. Then, pressing my foot onto the ground, I propelled my body in his direction as I slashed down with all my might.

Everything happened in a split second, but the moment I arrived in front of Kevin, what met my sight was the sharp end of his broadsword quickly heading for my face. Turning my foot at a one-eighty degree angle, to halt my body, I similarly slashed to meet his attack.

Boooom—!

Yet again, a thunderous explosion reverberated throughout the whole arena as the ground trembled, and both Kevin and I were pushed back.

Steading my feet, I looked up. There I saw Kevin looking back at me with a very solemn look.

"What's wrong?" I asked, clicking my tongue and trying to hide the fact that my arm was currently trembling from the previous exchange. "Something bothering you?"

I lowered my sword slightly.

In response to my question, Kevin shook his head.

"Nah, I was thinking that it's about time the two of us get serious."

"Oh?"

Kevin rolled his eyes. Lowering his body, he took a stance as an even more terrifying red hue sprang out on his body.

As the hue covered the sky, dying it red with his color, he icely said.

"Let's stop messing about. I know you're also holding back."

"…Fine."

I sighed.

Kevin was right. It was about time that we ended the warm-up.

Lifting my hand, I put my sword back into the scabbard.

Moving my foot behind me, I took a deep breath as I circulated all of the mana inside of my body to the maximum. However, right before I was preparing to take things seriously, I shouted.

"Get ready Kevin, this is revenge for all the stalking you did!"

"Huh?!"

The moment those words escaped from my mouth, Kevin almost tripped on his own feet. The hue around his body shrank considerably. Raising his head, he rebutted.

"If I don't recall wrongly, you were the first stalker."

"But you didn't know that."

"…what does knowing have anything to do with the fact that you still stalked first?"

Kevin asked, his voice filled with disbelief. Shrugging my shoulders, I replied.

"Let me remind you that I've also saved your life…"

"Y…you."

Kevin's face twisted drastically before the hue around his body intensified many folds.

"Talk about ungrateful," I mumbled in a voice loud enough for Kevin to hear. The red hue surging out of his body increased by another fold.

Sensing the power coming from Kevin's body, the smile on my face disappeared as I too channeled every last bit of strength inside of my body.

Following this, my aura and Kevin's aura clashed in the middle of the stage.