Frey moved with practiced elegance, a shallow stare and an intimidating posture.

She walked up to the Mech, and only stopped when she crossed a thin white line the size of a fist which created a large circle around her and the Mech.

It was the edge of the battle ring.

"The rules are simple," the Officer yelled again just as she halted, "just as you need three hits to win, the Mech needs the same to make you lose, either that or you concede defeat by leaving the ring."

"Concede?" Frey scoffed at the word, taking her battle stance. "Let’s begin."

At her command, the sound of the Mech charging up filled the air and in the next moment it stretched out its right hand and shot multiple sharp spikes at her.

The young woman did not falter, widening her stance and then, out of thin air, formed a cloud of shadow underneath her foot that grew rapidly into a wall so large it covered the entirety of her body.

The large spikes collided with the surface of the shadowy wall, each one only making it a few inches through before getting stuck in its thickness.

The Mech continued to fire at the shadow, up until it realized its attacks were futile, then it went about to attack.

Lunging forward, the enormous form of the Mech moved towards Frey with unbelievable agility.

She lowered the shadow and then stretched out her right hand at the Mech.

At first nothing happened at her gesture, and the Mech continued to approach dangerously, getting close enough to land a devastating attack, when...

Crack!

A loud sound erupted from the ground beneath the Mech, and in an instant, the strangest thing appeared.

The ground beneath exploded, out appearing spirals of ice, about three of them sprouting at an inconceivable speed.

Two spirals lodged themselves into the abdomen of the robot, and the final one into the hind, restraining the Mech mid-movement.

The crowd... No... Finn was in awe.

The match had ended, and Frey had won so easily.

His stomach tensed at the sight. ’She only needed two moves to end the match against a Mech. I’m not even sure I could do it in ten.’

And not just that.

Finn had seen her use two magic talents, one of which was the shadow that blocked the attacks and the other which was ice.

It was rare enough to find someone with two magic talents, even more difficult to find one with three.

"I guess that’s the strength of the Antigonous Family—"

Terrence patted him on the back before he could get too far with his thoughts.

"What?" Finn asked.

The handsome young blonde simply shrugged and said with his thick manly voice, "Oh my gosh, Finn, you really riled her up. Nice work on motivating your girlfriend."

"Wait, girlfriend? She’s not my... What? Why would you even think that?" Finn complained, staggering backwards a little.

The handsome blonde man simply shrugged. "The way you keep looking at her says a lot."

Finn arched his brows in irritation. "I look at everyone the same way."

To worsen matters, he heard the once silent voice of Estes in his head, low and sad.

"You never look at me that way, and I am barely in clothes most times?"

"Shut up, Estes," Finn complained and just as he spoke, he realized he had made a big mistake.

"Estes? Who’s Estes?"

Finn rubbed his temples. ’Oh God.’ he thought, noticing how he had said that aloud in front of Terrence.

’Nice way to throw out the secret your life rides on, Finn.’

He opened his mouth to defend himself, say anything fast to clear up the suspicion in Terrence before it rose and...

Thankfully, the Grey knight in charge spoke once again.

"Frey Antigonous has finished with a Level 4 rating," the Grey knight said, turning to Frey who stood right next to him, stretching out her hand towards him.

The Grey knight placed his fingers carefully onto hers and then operated some sort of weird mechanism he held between his fingers onto Frey’s forearm.

After a moment he pulled away and left Frey to rejoin the group.

"Next we have, Terrence G. Mont."

At this Terrence grinned, turning to Finn and throwing him a thumbs up. "Wish me luck, buddy."

Finn reciprocated his smile reluctantly not wanting the handsome blonde to pester any further.

And with that, Terrence walked towards the Mech which was now freed from the ice spirals.

However it was still heavily damaged from the attack Frey had inflicted on it.

While Finn waited for the second battle to be initiated, he took his time to study the other participants, which were the other girl and boy.

First at the boy.

The boy was gloomy looking, and despite being larger than Finn who was frail, he seemed rather shrunk in his stance.

Probably having confidence issues.

While the other one, the girl, stood upright, her face filled with determination, and strangely apart from him, she also carried a weapon, which was a sword strapped to her waist side.

Finn did not fail to notice that the sword she carried by her waist was somewhat, unlike his crude weapons.

It was more well designed.

Its hilt jagged and the scabbard seemed to have been made from what seemed, a rock-like material.

Finn could not explain why, but his heart throbbed, his fingers itched, and his mind raced with the urge to hold the hilt of the sword, to feel its texture, to cleave at the subtle air, and to sense its power.

Was this his spirit will calling out to the blade for some reason?

Finn wondered, and just in time to save him from the pressing tug of his curiosity.

He heard Estes’ voice in his head.

"I see you have found an interest in that little thing."

Finn furrowed his brows, anxiety creeping within his mind. "What is that? I mean, what kind of sword does she have on her person."

Estes remained silent for a moment as though carefully arranging her thoughts, or thinking of the appropriate answer.

Then after what felt like an eternity, she replied.

"Oh well, that is a Corrupted Weapon."

A corrupted weapon? Finn repeated within his mind, a seed of thought blooming almost immediately.

One that caused his heart to race in expectations.

If a regular sword could increase his strength by two folds or somewhere around that mark, how much stronger would he get with a Corrupted weapon?

How much greater would his spirit will become even?

Finn was brimming with questions and all led him to one final question that quaked his thoughts.

What if he were to use the sword against the Mech? Would he be able to perform just as well as Frey, or even outperform her?

Finn clenched his teeth.

The opportunity to outperform Antigonous Frey was clearly in his sights. What would he do?