Only allowed to use a simple wooden practice sword, Tanya stood in line with the other freshman students, standing as still as flat water.

"Today will be your first day as students of the swordsmans.h.i.+p cla.s.s. I am Sir Marcos Malone, you instructor for this year. We will be testing your form and technique first, then I will move onto teaching you with your current abilities as a baseline." A tall armoured bald man stood in front of the students with a wooden sword poking into the ground. His words were like the words of a man that had no interest, almost mocking the students.

"You can choose to spar on your own accord, I will grade you all based on what I see." He took out a piece of paper and a pen, looking disinterested.

"Lady Vermillion, will you spar with me?" A young blonde haired boy approached Tanya, speaking in a posh accent. Seemingly a gentleman of reasonably good physical prospects, the boy was clearly here with ulterior motives.

"Sure." Tanya brought her sword to a relaxed stance and faced her newfound opponent with a grin on her face.

"Such a pretty face and elegant body, I will make you mine." The boy pointed his sword at Tanya, ready to begin.

'He does not seem to be balanced. His sword is stretched out towards me and I can see the s.h.i.+ft in weight towards me, he might try to compensate with a backwards dash and then use the momentum to attack me from there with a stab.' Tanya methodically a.n.a.lysed her opponent with her keen eyes.

'But then again, he is an amateur.'

Tanya's sword came swooping down like a mountain slide, quickly coming down over the boy's head but stopping just short of the scalp.

"I believe you have lost." Tanya smiled.

It was not too difficult to achieve the feat. Tanya was just much faster, so even without her practical advantage in terms of experience, she also could overpower her opponent in terms of just speed.

"I accept my defeat." The boy surrendered just like that, knowing that no good would come out of a worthless challenge.

'And here I thought the kid would have known at least a single footwork technique.' Tanya seemed rather disappointed after easily defeating the boy, but she remained calm and collected as she waited for another challenge.

"Erina Port, I wish to duel you." A green haired boy smiled as he pointed his sword toward Erina.

'Oh? Ms Port is also in this cla.s.s.'

"Your challenge is accepted, do not disappoint me with low cla.s.s techniques." With a cold expression, Erina spoke down to the green haired boy.

'Hmmm… Charles if I remember correctly.' Tanya watched the scene with a detailed oriented eye.

PENG

Their swords clashed with a loud impact, sending them recoiling back a step. For a first move, both of them came out on equal footing, however, Tanya saw more from the simple encounter.

'Erina's sword is slightly damaged.'

"Another!" Erina charged in and slashed horizontally at Charles, rotating her body around right after to conduct another slash.

PENG PENG

Both attacks struck Charles' sword, leaving him unscathed but slightly jarred around his hands.

"Your moves are indeed strong, but my technique can beat yours." Charles lifted up his sword and pointed the tip towards the ground.

CHIP

A chunk of wood flew off of Erina's sword, landing on the gra.s.s behind her.

"My sword!" Erina jumped back and dodged another cut aimed at forcing her to concede.

"Hah… Ms Port, it's time to decide the duel." Charles dashed forward with his sword, read for one last cut.

"!!!"

The broken wooden sword twirled in the air for a moment as Erina jumped towards Charles. With a motion of her hands, she disengaged the weapon from Charles' grasp and s.n.a.t.c.hed it for herself. All of this happened right before she landed and caught the flying sword.

"I surrender." Charles felt two wooden objects sandwiching his neck, at which point he knew he had to call his own defeat.

"Bravo, bravo…" Tanya clapped her hands slowly and smiled at Erina.

"!!!" Erina turned away and avoided eye contact with Tanya.

"Oh? Why won't you look at me? I just want to challenge you to a fair duel. A one on one duel, cannot be simpler than that." Tanya stretched out her sword wielding arm to the side and gazed right into Erina's embarra.s.sed eyes.

'The physical duel is only half of the battle. The mental duel is the other half; the much more important half.'

"If you can block one blow, you win." Tanya goaded her opponent in with another offer.

"Fine." Erina readied her recently looted sword and faced Tanya.

"Ready, set… go." Tanya s.h.i.+fted right in front of Erina and her sword came down at a steep diagonal angle, ready to tear into its opponent.

"Not so fast!" Erina moved her sword to parry with her swift reaction, angling perfectly for Tanya's projected sword arc.

'Too easy.'

Tanya's sword suddenly reversed direction as Tanya side-stepped and span the sword around back towards Erina; this time, going at waist height.

"A trick like that won't work on me!" Erina again moved to parry.

'Speed is a different type of boundary.' Tanya suddenly sped up her strike and struck right at Erina's sword before it again took another turn and went straight for Erina's collar bone.

"What!?" Erina scrambled to adjust.

POKE

The tip of the wooden sword lightly jabbed at Erina's rib, signalling her defeat.

"How?!" Erina still did not know what happened.

It was like a flurry of blows that always connected and then served as momentum for the next strike.

"That was a fine duel, Ms Port." Tanya stretched out her hand towards Erina.

"Yes… good technique." Erina went in for a formal handshake despite her obvious embarra.s.sment over such a huge defeat.

"I did not ask for your hand because of that type of formality." Tanya grabbed onto Erina's hand and pulled it towards her own lips.

SMOOCH

"Our date will be tonight at 5pm, Room W-101. Don't forget your favourite underwear, it feels better when you have it on~"