The moment she had aimed her sword to slice through Noah’s abdomen, Victoria had already begun to form the circuit of her spell.

The time taken for her to do the same had decreased by a lot compared to the last time, when she had used the same spell against Kael.

Over the days after her defeat at the hands of Kael, Victoria had rigorously practiced all her spells, resulting in the time taken to cast them being vastly reduced.

Now she had become capable of multitasking while being in live combat, something that she had struggled with a bit during her previous fight.

"You sure are full of surprises."

"Hm?"

Victoria had at least expected Noah to be down for a few seconds, but the latter emerged from the smoke, though his clothes had some burn marks on them.

"That attack required me to use quite a bit of mana from my core, and even then my barrier was destroyed. Maybe I should have expected something like that from the vice president of the academy."

Dusting his clothes with complete ease, Noah closed the distance between the two of them before rotating the wrist of his right hand, which was still holding his sword.

"Too bad for you... my body is quite durable."

Though Noah had a smirk on his face, his words held a considerable amount of truth.

Since birth, Noah had a body as if it had been forged from some metal and bore no resemblance to that of humans.

And the day he had begun to use mana... his body had undergone another transformation, making it far stronger than it had already been.

Still, it wasn’t like Noah was invincible.

His expressions might have appeared arrogant, but on the inside Noah knew his situation wasn’t ideal.

That blast had consumed a huge amount of his mana, and even after all his attempts, the barrier he had erected had still been destroyed, resulting in his body taking the brunt of the attack.

Victoria didn’t respond to Noah’s words, choosing to get into her stance again.

Noah too didn’t rush, as he leaned slightly before increasing the distance between his legs and keeping them in a diagonal position for maximum agility.

Silence had now covered the surroundings as both of them observed each other while trying to predict their opponent’s next move.

But the silence didn’t last long, as Victoria was the first one to move.

She had to end the fight sooner or at least corner Noah enough to make the guy drop the idea of fighting her altogether.

Within a moment, Victoria had closed the distance with Noah, as her blade moved from a downward trajectory before aiming for the upper parts of Noah’s body.

Noah didn’t stand still and responded with equal aggression, as his blade tore through the very air around him before striking against the silver blade moving towards him.

Victoria, being a Gold 3, was a lot faster and stronger than Noah, but the protagonist had cheats of his own.

Noah’s mana pool was much bigger than what an average Silver 3 had, and coupled with his inhumane physique, the commoner was a calamity to be faced in battle even for a cultivator on the level of Victoria Frost.

Still, repelling every strike made by Victoria drained more mana than what Noah would have normally required in a fight against an opponent of an equal rank.

But Victoria wasn’t faring well either, as she had used a considerable amount of mana to defend herself against two of the explosions of mana made by Noah... coupled with that was the fact that she had used her spell far earlier in the battle, resulting in an even greater amount of mana being drained from her core.

At least that would have been a huge problem for an average Gold 2, not someone on Victoria’s level... and a Gold 3 no less.

Sparks began to fly in the air as their blades clashed against each other in a frenzy of unspoken arguments.

"Are you sure you want to continue the fight... student Noah?"

Despite having to defend against Noah’s blade while trying to find weaknesses in his defense waiting to be exploited by her... Victoria still retained her calmness, as she stared into Noah’s eyes while asking the question.

Noah, on his part, didn’t reply, as he tried his best to outmaneuver Victoria, but the latter was a far more accomplished warrior than him.

It quickly became crystal clear to Noah that it was his lack of experience in combat that was currently holding him back.

He could surpass Victoria in raw strength and use the advantage of his physique to the utmost extent, but wasn’t able to spot the traps that Victoria had been laying since the start of their fight.

The traps weren’t literal, but were more like the intricate web of attacks that Victoria had already woven.

Just as Noah tried to repel her strike before initiating an attack of his own, Victoria’s sword would already be in motion, as if she could predict everything with ease.

Noah had to shift his strategy, and he knew what would be more effective against a master of combat like Victoria... at least in their clash of blades.

Mana churned through Noah’s mana core, as he willed it to supplement his arms and the muscles in his legs.

Willing more mana through his dominant right hand, Noah ducked down to evade Victoria’s attack that was aimed at his neck, before rolling on the ground and throwing his sword with the maximum strength he could muster at the moment.

The sword cleaved through the air as it was launched towards Victoria’s stomach, making her unable to dodge it in time, but—

Victoria wasn’t a fool either.

She hadn’t been idle during the fight, as another of her spells was already in motion, and now it was ready to be unleashed.

"Epentra."

Victoria uttered the words with calm ease, as opposed to the chaos around her.