Lian moved first.
He stepped forward and swung the sword toward Margaret in a diagonal slash.
Margaret was already prepared. Her stance allowed her to react to whichever direction he attacked from.
Just as Lian's sword was about to reach her, Margaret moved her sword and struck his blade from the side.
The impact was much stronger than Lian expected.
The force traveled through his sword and into his hand.
His fingers went numb, and the sword slipped from his grip, falling to the ground.
Lian immediately raised his hand.
Several metallic swords suddenly formed in the air around him.
Without giving Margaret any time to react, they shot toward her one after another.
Margaret easily read the attack and dodged and deflected them.
Quantity over quality.
The liquid metal swords weren't particularly strong, nor did they have much attacking power compared to specially crafted weapons reinforced with pure Ether.
Margaret scoffed.
"All those flashy runes, and there's barely any power behind them."
She knocked another sword away.
"This is the difference between tools and weapons."
Another sword attacked from the side, but she easily deflected it.
"This is a battlefield, not some toy shop. Stop hiding behind your little tricks and learn how to actually fight."
Another sword attacked from her blind side, but Margaret easily turned around and deflected it.
That was the opening Lian was waiting for.
He immediately closed the distance and unleashed his Pyromancy, pushing its intensity to the maximum without caring about how much Ether it consumed.
A huge wave of flames erupted, spreading nearly ten feet in both height and width.
Margaret was completely engulfed in flames.
For a moment, no one could see what was happening inside. They couldn't tell if Margaret had been injured or if she was even still standing.
Then Margaret suddenly burst through the flames and swung her sword at Lian without giving him even a moment to react.
There were slight burns on her body, but she barely seemed affected by the attack.
Lian reacted in a split second and formed a metallic shield.
But the shield hadn't fully formed and become rigid yet.
Margaret's sword struck it before it could fully solidify, and Lian took almost the full force of the blow.
The impact nearly sent him to the ground.
His bracelet completely shattered after taking most of the impact.
Lian's vision started to fade, and he almost lost consciousness.
Lian no longer had any armor, and if he took another attack, his body would take the full damage from it.
He could barely stand. He had already lost the fight cleanly, and by this point, the fight should have been over.
But Margaret didn't look like she was done yet.
She came in for another attack.
Lian quickly formed another shield, but this time, he was knocked out cleanly.
Lian fell to the ground, completely unconscious.
Even then, Margaret still didn't stop.
Margaret walked over and kicked him hard.
She kicked him again, then grabbed his shirt and pulled him up slightly before throwing him back onto the floor.
"You better remember this for the rest of your life."
She kicked him hard in the face again.
Lian's unconscious body barely moved from the impact.
Margaret looked down at him with disgust.
"Is this all you've got?"
Lin Ling took a step forward, about to stop her, but someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
Lin Ling looked back.
It was Aren.
Aren stepped forward and broke the silence.
"Excuse me, ma'am. I think we should move on to the next topic. We don't have much time left before the period ends."
Margaret looked back at Lian, still itching to beat the unconscious student lying in front of her.
She finally stopped.
Lin Ling took Lian to the infirmary.
By the time Lian woke up, the nurse walked over to him.
"How are you feeling?"
Before Lian could answer, she said, "Okay, he's ready for the second dose."
Another nurse brought over a small glass capsule filled with purple liquid and loaded it into an injection gun.
She pressed it against Lian's arm and injected the liquid.
"Damn, that burns."
Lian sat on the bed, holding his head for a few minutes.
Then he moved his arms around and looked at his body.
"Holy shit. My body feels almost normal already. Is this from that octopus-like creature with the crazy regeneration? The one with blood that can heal injuries?"
The nurse smiled.
"You're a pretty smart kid. It's a refined blood extract. After processing it, we use that for medical treatment."
Lian looked around the infirmary.
"This academy really has some premium stuff."
The nurse nodded.
"Also, take a look at your face. You still have bruises and injuries all over your body. Those will probably take about a week to heal completely."
Lian pulled at the bandages wrapped around his body and looked over the bruises before quickly wrapping himself back up.
"Yeah, no shit. It's even worse than I imagined."
Just then, Lian's friends walked into the infirmary to see how he was doing.
Lin Ling stared at him.
"You're fucking insane. Why did you even decide to do something like that? Are you out of your mind?"
Nox laughed.
"Bro really thought he was going to look like some cool hero. That backfired pretty badly."
Sunny shook his head.
"Dude, it's an epic fail. Almost everyone in the academy is laughing at you."
Nox leaned closer.
"So, are you making any plans to take revenge on her? Or maybe some ways to ruin her life? You have my full support. I've never even met her, but her actions are pissing me off too."
Lian leaned back against the bed.
"There's no doubt that old hag is a sick, twisted piece of shit."
He paused for a moment.
"Whatever happened, happened. Right now, I have other things I need to take care of, and they take priority."
He shrugged.
"Although I might change my mind later. When I have lot of free time, I'll think about revenge."
Sunny stared at him.
"Did he just say all that? I can't believe it."
Nox added, "Dude, this isn't like you at all. The Lian I knew would hold grudges for a lifetime. He didn't care who the other person was, whether they were big or small, strong or weak. He'd spend all his time planning how to get back at them."
He continued.
"Remember that time when we almost got a teacher fired by filing fake harassment complaints with different hand writings just because he gave us low grades? That was so fucking fun, man. People deserve consequences for their actions. If not you, then who else is going to do it? Everyone else, like Sunny, is just a pussy who's afraid of people in authority."
Nox grinned.
"Only you are the cool guy. Just let me know when you come up with a plan."
Sunny looked at him.
"Wait, so it was you two who did that? How come you never told me about it? I would've helped you guys."
Nox scoffed.
"Nah, don't lie. You're too afraid to even act against the teachers."
Lin Ling shook his head.
"Don't listen to them. Just focus on improving yourself. Revenge isn't worth it."
Lian stood up and lightly stretched his body. The movement sent pain through his bruised muscles, making him grit his teeth.
"Need a minute. Gotta go pee."
Lian was walking across campus toward the restroom when he spotted Aren.
Aren noticed him and waved.
"Hey. How are you feeling? I was actually just about to come check up on you."
"I'm good. Might take a couple more days to get back to normal."
Aren's expression became a little sad.
"Sorry. It's my fault. I should've been the one to step in and stop things before they escalated instead of you. You tried to stop her and do the right thing, but it ended up going badly. Now you're not only badly hurt, but you've also become a laughingstock."
"Don't blame yourself. I already knew all of this was going to happen," Lian replied.
Aren looked at him.
"If you knew, then why did you still decide to do it?"
Lian shrugged.
"What kind of friend would I be if I left my friend alone in that situation and just watched? Isn't that what friends are for?"
Aren stood there, seemingly lost for words.
He looked at Lian with a deeply moved expression.
Lian simply walked past him.
"Alright, see you around."
As he walked away, Lian glanced back at Aren.
Wait... did this guy actually believe everything I just said?
He shook his head.
He really trusts people way too easily.