yemalu

Ugh… Both Mary and Katsuki refused to tell me what it was about…

Or more like Mary did not want to tell me while Katsuki claimed that she did not know about it…

Katsuki really looked like she didn\'t know though, so I guess Mary might have kept her in the dark about it since she knows Katsuki would prioritise my order over everything else. If I had asked Katsuki to tell me, she would have just spilled the beans without question.

Oh well… Since Mary was taking care of it, I doubt I would need to worry about it anyway. In fact, I\'m pitying the guy who did this since he would need to face Mary.

"Wahahaha! Sorry Del, but sister Aster and I are taking the advanced classes!"

I was brought out of my thoughts by Odeta\'s laughter and I turned to look at the two girls following me.

Delmare had her sketchbook out with a line of words written on it.

\'Can\'t I join your class instead?\'

Oh, that\'s right, we have sword lessons today which means I\'ll be sharing a class with Odeta. Delmare obviously wanted to join as well but since it\'s the advanced classes, she wouldn\'t be able to.

It\'s unfortunate but I don\'t think I would be able to share a class with Delmare this semester.

The Siren looked quite disappointed by that fact and was even pouting at Odeta as though to express her unhappiness at being left out.

Although… Since when were they close enough that Odeta called her by \'Del\'? Maybe I should ask if I could call her that as well? Hmmm… Next time when she doesn\'t need to talk through the sketchbook I guess.

I patted her head, "It\'s ok, Delmare! You have some free periods right? You can come watch us during that time!"

\'I can do that?\' She scribbled.

"Yep, we have students coming from time to time to watch us practise too, it\'ll be fine!"

\'I\'ll definitely go cheer for you, Aster! <3\'

Awww~ She\'s so cute~

I didn\'t even want to tell her that it\'s just close combat classes and not a competition so there wasn\'t really a need for her to cheer for me in particular.

We separated and went to our classes once we reached the main building of the school, Delmare moving to her classroom while Odeta and I headed to the fields for our combat classes.

Instructor Henry gathered us together in the field, looking at us with a critical eye.

"I can just see from one glance that some of you have let your skills stagnate during the holidays. Let\'s fix that shall we? Pair up, all of you!"

Odeta turned to me at the same time as I turned to her.

Well, of course we were going to pair up in this case. It\'s quite clear that our instructor would be making us spar with our chosen partners and…

Well… Not to look down on my fellow classmates but none of them were good enough to be either of our opponents.

"All of you got your partner? Alright! We\'ll have you spar for today! No weapons first! Find a spot and begin! Remember, no magic and keep count of your points!"

Oh, that kind of spar I see.

For the spars in this class, you get a point when you land a clean blow on your opponent. At the end of the spar, the person with the highest number of points would be declared as the winner.

The two of us chose a spot that was the furthest away from everyone else before facing each other.

"Wahaha! Let\'s have a good spar, Sister Aster!"

"Umm… Please go easy on me. It would be bad if we destroyed the school grounds so properly hold back, ok?" I warned her.

Odeta grinned, "Ahaha! I\'ll try my best Sister Aster! Let\'s go!!"

The Amrap leapt forward and punched her fist towards my chest without hesitation.

I had to fight against my instinct to block it since I knew that her strength surpassed mine and I would most likely be pushed back from that blow which would leave me wide open for a follow up attack.

Instead, I leapt to the side, creating distance between us as I tried to get behind her.

Unfortunately, Odeta seemed to have anticipated my move as her leg kicked out towards my abdomen, forcing me to raise my leg to defend against it.

I spun away to absorb the impact, turning back just in time to see Odeta leaping towards me again with her fist raised in the air.

I leapt back and the Amrap smashed her fist into the ground, leaving a fist imprint in the dirt. I\'m pretty sure if she had been using her full strength, the ground would have split open.

In that split second where she was still trying to get back up to her feet, I had quickly moved in to deliver a kick towards her side.

Odeta caught my kick with her other hand and I found myself trapped in her grip.

She was about to pull me in to make me lose my balance but I leapt up and used her hand as a pivot to kick my other leg at the side of her head.

That surprised her as I managed to land my kick across her temple, forcing her to let go of me while taking a few steps back.

I did hold back on my strength so her stumbling was more due to surprise than pain. Besides, we\'ve fought more seriously before and sometimes even with weapons too so this was nothing new.

"Ahahaha! That was a nice kick Sister Aster! That\'s one point for you!" She laughed.

I nodded in acknowledgement before going on the offensive this time.

Kicking my foot on the ground, I made a dash towards her to try and get inside her guard. Being far away from Odeta would be detrimental to me as she was larger in size than I was and had longer reach.

Odeta spread her hands out as though to hug me and I quickly skidded to a stop just outside of her reach, intending to swoop in to deliver a low kick towards her ankles.

My plan was unfortunately derailed as Odeta leapt over my kick to tackle me, her hands grasping on both of my shoulders to push me onto the ground.

She pulled back a hand before punching down, slamming her fist into the ground and right beside my head.

"Wahaha! That\'s a point for me as well, Sister Aster!"

I giggled, "Ehehe~ It appears so, but forgive me for this~"

"Eh?"

She only managed to say that one word before I planted my feet at her stomach and flipped her over my head.

She managed to spin around in midair and landed on her knee before quickly leaping backwards to avoid my leg sweep.

I did not give her any time to recover as I chased her with a roundhouse kick towards her chest.

Odeta blocked it with her arm and took a step forward, her fist once again raised up in order to deliver another punch at me.

I ducked underneath the blow and struck at her chest, my fist never reaching its mark as the Amrap had her other hand raised to catch my punch.

To avoid being pulled in by her, I immediately kicked at her exposed side where her hand was occupied with holding me.

Normally, she would be able to take that hit without any problems, but since we were keeping track of points, a hit like that would give me another point over her which she wanted to avoid.

Thus, she had to let me go and stepped back to avoid my kick.

The moment my foot landed back on the ground, I was once again rushing at her, my fists raining down several blows towards her.

Odeta parried my blows and blocked those that she could not, using her larger size to her advantage and preventing me from using my higher dexterity to control the flow.

She would throw in a strike of her own whenever I had a lapse in my attack, which I would then be forced to back off to avoid it before engaging her again.

The two of us were running and leaping around the field while trading blows, both of us fully focused on the other and ignoring everything around us.

I noticed that Odeta had a feral grin on her face and from how my facial muscles were tensing up, I believe I was making a similar expression too.

She once again tried to punch me in the chest and I could not evade it in time so I crossed my arms to defend myself.

The blow sent me skidding back and digging up the earth at my feet. I had no time to recover fully as Odeta was already charging towards me with the intention of delivering another punch again.

With no time to avoid the blow, I raised my own fist to punch at her as well, both our fists meeting in the middle and creating a small shockwave that blasted out around us.

The both of us pulled back our fists, ready to continue our exchange of blows when the both of us were suddenly flipped upside down before falling on our butts.

I looked up and Instructor Henry was standing in between us with his arms crossed.

"And what the hell do you two think you\'re doing fighting seriously like that?!! Do you want to destroy the school and traumatise your classmates?!!"

I looked around and sure enough, there were fist and foot imprints all over the training field and our classmates were huddled up in a group at the far corner, all of them shivering in fear as they looked at us.

Behind them however, was Delmare clapping for us enthusiastically.

Eh? Did her lesson already end?

Were we so lost in our fight that we lost track of time?

Umm… Whoops?