Chapter 33: 5 vs 5 (4)
Before the sparring match, Head Instructor Everhart had a serious conversation with Knight Anton over tea.
It was an important discussion about how to handle Anna’s participation in the sparring.
“Anton, no matter how much the princess insists on joining the sparring, I can’t help but worry.”
Anton had responded firmly during that talk.
“There won’t be any need for the princess to step in.”
“Why not?”
“Because we made a promise.”
He explained that Anna had agreed to only participate if she passed his test, so she wouldn’t fight.
Everhart hadn’t asked about the test’s details but assumed Anton wouldn’t let her participate easily.
Yet…
‘Anton is allowing the princess to fight so easily? Did she actually pass your test?’
He still didn’t know what the test was.
But there was no way Anton would let Anna fight without reason.
That left only one hypothesis.
Anna’s skills were exceptional enough to compete in the sparring.
‘At least it’s fortunate her opponent is barehanded Jack. Jack, please go easy.’
He hoped Jack would realize who he was facing and act accordingly.
But Anna wouldn’t allow even that.
“Before we start, I have one thing to say. Jack! If you hold back against me, I’ll consider it an insult and punish you. Got it?”
Descending the steps, Anna pointed directly at Jack.
Jack nodded.
“Understood.”
Anna had declared before the sparring that she wouldn’t be spared.
Now, no one could interfere with this match.
All they could do was watch.
In case of an emergency, referee Brook focused all his attention.
Amid the tense atmosphere, Anna stepped onto the training ground.
Unlike the previous cadets, she carried no weapon.
She only wore a loose overcoat.
Brook, forgetting his role as referee, asked with concern.
“Uh… Are you fighting barehanded?”
“Don’t worry about me. Just start.”
“Oh, understood.”
As a referee, he couldn’t favor one side, so he stuck to his duty.
“Exchange greetings!”
He proceeded while staying on high alert.
“Now…”
An unusually long ready signal.
It showed how tense Brook was.
“Be…”
Jack prepared to charge instantly,
while Anna just smiled and clasped her hands behind her back.
“gin!”
At the signal, Jack raised his fists and rushed forward.
—Dash!
His only thought was to subdue the princess quickly.
‘I don’t know what tricks she has, but I’ll end this fast!’
Anna unclasped her hands and extended her arms in a cross.
Instantly, something silver gleamed in the sunlight and flew.
—Swish!
It was a projectile aimed precisely at Jack’s predicted path.
Jack stepped back, identifying it.
—Ting!
The silver projectile was a throwing dagger.
Anna’s chosen martial art for the sparring was throwing knife techniques.
“Wow, I’ve lived to see the princess throw daggers?”
“But those won’t hit us, right?”
“Idiot, there’s a barrier around the training ground. How could they?”
As the cadets buzzed,
Everhart, watching from above, analyzed her actions.
‘Throwing knife techniques. With the princess’ current strength, wielding heavy iron weapons continuously would be tough. But those daggers? She can handle them easily.’
Well-crafted daggers were lighter than table knives.
The Academy’s blacksmiths were among the continent’s best, so the daggers were of top quality.
For Anna, whose only experience with blades was cutting steak,
these daggers were the optimal weapon she could wield at this point.
But they had a clear weakness.
‘Jack, through training with the dean, can unleash explosive movements with refined qi. If she can’t keep up with his speed and misses, the daggers are useless.’
No matter how powerful a weapon, it’s worthless if it doesn’t hit.
Especially for throwing weapons like daggers.
‘But Evan, who knows Jack well, wouldn’t overlook this… What’s his plan?’
For now, Everhart decided to stop speculating and keep watching.
Having confirmed Anna’s weapon, Jack raised his qi to exploit the weakness of throwing knife techniques.
Instead of charging straight, he moved side to side to confuse her attacks.
—Dash! Dash!
His side-to-side movement was so fast it left afterimages, making it hard for cadets to follow.
“Crazy! That’s Jack?”
“No way… Was Jack always that fast?”
“It wasn’t a mistake earlier…!”
As the cadets marveled at Jack’s speed, Anna reached into her overcoat and pulled out a dagger.
“Hmph~”
With a scoff, she threw one seemingly at random.
It looked like a miss, but the dagger targeted Jack’s thigh precisely.
“Ugh!”
Jack twisted to dodge.
Then, a second dagger flew at him off-rhythm.
“Urk!”
It aimed exactly for his vital points.
The daggers weren’t faster than him,
nor was Anna looking directly at him.
So how could she target him so sharply?
‘Did she predict it?’
As Jack suspected, Anna had anticipated his path and thrown the dagger there in advance.
Watching, Anton looked at Anna with pride.
‘The princess was praised as the greatest magical talent ever. Magic relies on spatial awareness and complex calculations. If she can master that, predicting a boy like Jack’s path is child’s play.’
The training ground’s size, Jack’s movements, and even wind variables.
In less than a minute, Anna had analyzed the entire environment.
“Jack, was it? Standing still like that is just begging me to hit you.”
While Anna fought with meticulous calculations,
“Tch! I won’t hold back anymore. Don’t blame me if you get hurt!”
Jack had learned from the dean to move instinctively.
His instincts aimed to disrupt the environment Anna had analyzed.
“Hngh!!!”
Jack clenched his fist, gathered maximum qi, and struck the training ground.
—Boom!!!
The stone training ground cracked in all directions, with shards jutting out.
“Whoa!”
“Eek!”
As dust filled the air, the cadets panicked.
Anna steadied her swaying body, trying to regain focus.
‘She’s blinded. Now’s my chance!’
Jack charged through the dust, stepping on the protruding stones.
—Dash! Dash!
The broken ground forced Anna to consider not just side-to-side but up-and-down paths—a four-way dilemma.
Jack moved freely, closing in on Anna.
He noticed the daggers thrown at him were slightly off course.
‘It worked.’
Bursting through the dust, Jack threw a punch.
But instead of Anna, a dagger was right in his face.
“Urk!”
Barely dodging, he saw Anna already far away.
She relentlessly threw more daggers.
—Clang!
Deflecting them easily, Jack couldn’t understand.
‘No way. She couldn’t have seen?’
But Jack overlooked something,
a talent only Anton fully understood: Anna’s battlefield awareness.
‘Clever move. But you picked the wrong opponent. That level of disruption won’t faze the princess. Not unless an earthquake hits.’
Anton, closest to the princess, evaluated her while nervously tapping his foot.
‘Princess, isn’t it time to pull out that move?’
He touched the scar on his earlobe from a cut.
Evan was thinking the same.
‘She’s in control now, but Jack will adapt soon. She needs to end this quickly.’
Indeed, the distance between Anna and Jack was gradually closing.
Simple throwing knife techniques weren’t enough to secure victory.
As Jack adapted, Anna began unleashing everything Evan had taught her,
and one dagger grazed Jack’s waist, cutting slightly.
‘I definitely dodged?’
Looking closely, she was holding the dagger’s blade.
Instead of a simple thrust, she spun the blade with rotational force.
And that wasn’t her only trick.
—Slash! Slash!
Despite Jack’s perfect dodges, small cuts accumulated.
The daggers’ speeds varied wildly.
The cadets thought Jack’s reactions had slowed.
But those above instructor level saw the truth and were stunned.
‘Speed control? Mastering such a technique in just a week?’
Anna was displaying skills typical of elite assassins.
“Hah… Hah…”
But her ability to sustain this level was limited.
She had maybe 20 seconds left.
“This is tough…”
Her untrained body was overheating,
and her throwing arm trembled, nearing its limit.
Both sides needed one big move.
Jack gathered strength and closed in again.
“Haaah!!!”
Anna held a dagger with both hands and threw it plainly.
‘I’ll deflect it and strike!’
As both sides collided for the final blow,
someone intervened.
—Boom!
A sound shook the training ground.
It was the dean, who had leaped from the platform and landed.
As the dust cleared, he was seen holding Jack’s arm in one hand and a dagger in the other.
“We’ve lost.”
The dean declared defeat.
As the onlookers puzzled, he explained.
“If I hadn’t intervened, the princess’ dagger would’ve pierced Jack’s vitals. So, Jack, you’ve lost.”
Jack, who had intended to deflect the incoming dagger, protested.
“Dean! I could’ve blocked that!”
“Really? You could’ve blocked this?”
At the dean’s feet lay another dagger.
Moments ago, there had been nothing there.
“There wasn’t just one dagger coming at you. If this hit, your abdomen would’ve been pierced.”
Indeed, Jack had only seen one dagger.
Even recalling, Anna had thrown only one.
From Jack’s perspective, at least.
“When did…”
The dean answered his question.
“To think she’d use such an assassin’s technique. You were truly determined to win.”
It was her hidden trump card, the same technique that scarred Anton’s earlobe.
A shadow throwing technique called the Projected Dagger.
“Hiding a second dagger in the shadow of the first? It’s astonishing Evan knows this, and even more so that the princess mastered it.”
It was such a high-level technique that Jack, with little real combat experience, couldn’t detect it.
But one thing sank in painfully.
If the dean hadn’t intervened, that dagger at his feet would’ve struck him.
“…I’ve lost.”
Jack cleanly admitted defeat.
With no fighters left on the instructors’ side, the outcome was decided.
“Brook, make the call.”
“Oh, yes! With a final score of 5:3, Evan’s victory!”
Evan Lafard.
His trained cadets had won.
In this unbelievable situation, no one knew how to react.
Cheering seemed awkward with the instructors watching, but the winner deserved celebration…
“Yay! We won!!!”
Anna jumped and shouted.
Someone among the cadets followed suit, sparking a wave of cheers.
“Woooo!!!!”
Cheers for the victor echoed through the training ground.