"Haha, that's really a funny sword. How will you fight with it?" Maryl said as she laughed.
Hearing her, Grace covered her face as she softly chuckled. Not at Arkhen, but at Maryl. 'That's what you get for not paying attention to classes.'
Arkhen grinned and easily lifted the sword as a burst of steam gushed out from behind the sword's handle.
The gear patterns on the sword's broad blade moved as Arkhen lifted the sword and swept it in the air, creating a gust of wind.
"How about we spar to see how I fight with it?"
Instructor Klein coughed and said, "Princess Maryl. The size of the sword doesn't matter. Arkhen's awakened gear weapon manifested in that shape due to his internal steam spirit."
Maryl's face turned slightly red, but she quickly composed herself and smiled, "If you wish to spar, then sure."
Saying that Maryl stretched her right hand as a burst of steam appeared from her glove before her gear weapon manifested.
*Splat!*
It was a whipblade sword! The blade of this sword could extend and become like a whip.
Instructor Klein thought of something and smiled, "Sure. The fight will go on until one of you faints."
Instructor Klein waved his hand after saying that as a trail of steam came out of his gloves before forming a white ring.
That ring made from white steam soon released transparent energy before turning into a hundred-meter square barrier.
Arkhen and Maryl entered the veil barrier and stood five meters away from each other.
Veil Barrier was an advanced steam technique that only Radiant-rank and above Knights could perform.
Inside Veil Barrier, all physical damage is transformed into mental damage. For instance, if someone stabbed a sword into their opponent's stomach inside Veil Barrier, the blood wouldn't come out, and the flesh also wouldn't appear. Instead, the one stabbed would receive metal damage in mind.
As the Gear Weapons were made from steam energy, their physicality would be nulled inside the Veil Barrier.
But if someone used a normal metal weapon to attack inside the Veil Barrier, it would result in a normal result; Blood and Gore.
"Start the battle after I count to three," Instructor Klein said. "One, Two, Three!"
*Swoosh!*
Maryl attacked first. She used her steam energy and extended her sword's blade as it turned into a whip before shooting toward Arkhen.
However, Arkhen pointed his sword towards the incoming whip and let it wrap around his sword blade before he pulled his sword.
"Ahh!" Maryl was yanked towards Arkhen, but she quickly stopped after two meters by exerting her strength and reverting her sword to its normal long sword form.
"Brute!" Maryl pouted.
"Hahaha," Arkhen laughed as he dashed towards Maryl.
"You are not as fast as me," Maryl grinned as she did a perfect backstop and dodged Arkhen's sword swing by a fist's length.
"Do you know the specialty of my sword?" Arkhen grinned as he put his sword on the ground after that swing.
"What?" Maryl asked before using her steam energy to channel it into her feet and sword to use a sword technique.
"It is Shock Slash," Arkhen said as his sword's gears moved, and the location where he swung his sword previously suddenly produced a powerful sword slash made of black steam before shooting towards Maryl!
'Shit!' Maryl cursed internally. 'As expected of S-class steam potency. The power in that slash is no joke. I will faint instantly if I get hit by it.'
'But only if I get hit by it,' Marly grinned as she jumped high in an arch towards Arkhen, successfully dodging the attack and releasing her sword technique from the air.
'Whip Storm!'
Her sword produced a burst of steam before producing ten whips as they shot toward Arkhen.
"Nice," Arkhen said before he channeled his power in the sword and swung it powerfully!
*Swoosh!*
A powerful shockwave shot towards incoming whips, obliterating all of them as a cloud of misty steam formed.
Maryl clicked his tongue, 'What the heck is that power? How much he trained before his coming of age?'
She couldn't see Arkhen amidst this misty steam but suddenly heard a voice behind her as she landed on the ground.
"I also know the steam acceleration, princess," Arkhen whispered and also stabbed his sword straight through her back.
When his sword hit her, it passed through her body without penetrating her.
But Maryl felt a burst of headache. She tried to bear it, but in the end, she lost consciousness.
"Battle over. The winner is Arkhen," Instructor Klein announced.
"Damn. Princess Maryl also had S-rank Steam potency, right? How come she lost?"
"Yeah. It's strange."
Mike snorted and said, "What do you all know?! When all of you were playing in the mud, Arkhen had already started training vigorously."
Instructor Klein removed the barrier while Grace healed Maryl as she groggily opened her eyes.
"Arkhen, it was your well-deserved victory," Grace said with an elegant smile. "I could see the result of your hard work in your swings and movement. That Steam Acceleration was more proficient than Maryl's. If you had used it from the start, the battle would've been over soon. Why didn't you use it?"
Maryl stood up and stood beside Grace before snorting at Arkhen, "Then he wouldn't have defeated me completely, humph. He waited for me to use my technique and destroyed it head-on before using a steam accelerator to get behind me right after I landed."
Arkhen whistled while looking around, "I don't know what you are talking about. I didn't use steam acceleration at first since I thought that I would reach her with my normal speed."
"Alright, that battle was not that impressive. You both need to improve a lot," instructor Klein said with a stern voice before turning to other students, "I will make more Veil Barriers, so all of you must spar with each other and get familiar with your new weapon and its specialty."
"Tsk, you are a Radiant-rank, instructor Klein. So you would obviously feel our battle like child's play," Maryl said as she rolled her eyes.
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