[2 minutes and 40 seconds left.]

During the time the others were fighting against people like the tribal chief, Mika was facing a group of northern soldiers. Those soldiers were a lot stronger than the average foot soldier, after all, they were guarding the academy from close with Arnold Pyril, the strongest in the North.

However, their numbers already began to decrease as they fought Mika who did not break a sweat yet. In the beginning, they were roughly 15 people and now, their group consisted of barely ten people.

[I would recommend you to hurry up so that you have enough time left for the real challenge.]

"..."

Using the Holy Spear, Mika adjusted its length as he swung it around, knocking one after another out.

The northern soldiers had difficulties facing him as they could not guard against a weapon that they thought of as a relic they had not seen before in their lives.

Now, there were only seven.

In a panic, the remaining soldiers cast an ice spell together, causing a wide-range ice attack at Mika. But even though sharp icicles were heading towards him, Mika did not care.

Their attack engulfed their whole area.

"D-did we get him?"

Some of them started to feel relieved.

"!"

But one of them suddenly sensed someone behind him and immediately turned around.

[15 teleportations left.]

Mika appeared behind one of them and stabbed him with Excalibur which he switched with the spear.

Seeing that, the others were on their guard again and dashed towards Mika desperately.

Mika put Excalibur back and decided to use his new sword which he engulfed with lightning magic.

[2 minutes and 27 seconds left.]

Around that time, Mika undid his transformation because he felt like he did not need that against the remaining six soldiers.

The soldiers charged at him with their saber swords.

"..."

Gripping his sword tightly, Mika rushed at them, too.

"Haa!"

One soldier yelled from the depths of his lungs as he swung his sword from above. However, Mika swung with an even greater force and snapped the soldier’s sword in two. While he did that, Mika also left a cut across the soldier’s chest.

From behind one soldier tried to ambush him but Mika managed to block it. Mika proceeded to swipe the soldier’s legs from the ground and cut him down as he fell.

Following him, two soldiers attacked him simultaneously. One of them used his sword while the other used ice magic.

Mika dodged every attack and charged his attack in the meantime.

It was a technique he copied from Lisa. He assembled lightning on his sword and thrust it afterward towards the enemies. The output may have been lacking in comparison with Lisa’s execution but it was enough for the soldiers.

Both of the soldiers were blown away, leaving behind one soldier who, however, decided to retreat and flee to somewhere else.

"..."

Mika watched the yelping soldier run away for a short time before he shifted his gaze to Sylvia and her father.

Currently, those two were fighting each other. Or rather, Sylvia was trying to escape from her father who launched attacks without taking a break.

It should have been a heart-warming reunion between father and daughter but it was way far from that.

"Something’s off." Mika muttered, narrowing his gaze at Arnold.

Even though he was initiating the attacks, he seemed in pain.

Instinctively, Mika was about to take a step towards them, however, he was stopped.

"Don’t interfere, Mika! Leave him to me!" Sylvia shouted as she was evading attacks.

"..."

It would have been more efficient if he were to help her but leaving her alone could prove to be important for her personal growth. Thus, Mika complied and just stood there and watched.

[Do you not want to head to that woman?]

"Not yet." Mika replied.

He knew that he should head over to Vira but he wanted to watch Sylvia’s determination for a little longer.

"Who’s that boy?" Arnold asked with an apathetic expression.

"Why do you care all of a sudden?" Sylvia scoffed.

"Because I’m your father." he said, destroying the asphalt ground beneath Sylvia with his bare fist.

"Well, if you’re my father, would you attack your own daughter then?" she mocked him after she jumped up.

Arnold did not move and looked bitterly at Sylvia.

"Just... Just what happened on that night? And where’s Mother...?" Sylvia asked softly.

Instead of answering, Arnold took a quick glance at the academy’s roof.

"Did you forget our rules already? The stronger one is the winner. So if you want answers, you have to beat me first." he stated sternly, cracking his knuckles.

"..."

Sylvia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Understood." she said saddened and disappointed.

Following that, her father was the first one to charge at her with his fist retracted. Meanwhile, Sylvia just stretched her hand and summoned multiple sharp icicles in the air and aimed them at him.

Arnold stopped in his tracks and created a thick wall to block the attacks but the number of icicles was so high that the wall quickly got trimmed. Still, Arnold did not give up and applied more ice on the wall to keep it thick.

Some icicles still passed through and left shallow cuts on his body.

"?"

That attack, however, was just a decoy as Sylvia intended to sneak up on him from behind.

She wielded two ice blades and launched slashes at him but he dodged by jumping away. However, she quickly adapted to the situation and threw her swords at him.

He, in turn, created a large and thick sword in his hand and shattered the light swords thrown at him with one swing.

"Ugh...!"

After the swords came a big ice pillar which was pushing back in the air.

Sylvia placed her hands instantly on the ground from where an icy trail followed Arnold and soon passed by him.

"..."

Arnold could not help but smile faintly as he looked back, following the ice trail with his eyes.

The ice trail stopped and at the spot it stopped something akin to a bush with icicles poking out from it emerged from the ground.

If he would not do anything, it could end dangerously for him so he let go of his sword and grabbed the pushing ice pillar at the sides with his hands.

Flexing his entire body and muscles, he caused cracks in it until it then shattered. Therefore, Arnold was able to touch the ground again, avoiding getting pierced by the icy bush.

He took a small breather.

"?"

But then, he noticed a large shadow hovering over him.

And when he looked up his smile widened a little.

"..."

Sylvia summoned a rough-shaped ice block as big as the academy above Arnold.

Still, Arnold did not seem like he was troubled, instead, he seemed impressed and proud.

At the same time, he reached out to the falling ice block, he summoned a few big ice pillars from the ground around him which did not stop growing from there.

These pillars then pierced the ice block from different angles and spots, causing it to fall apart. The debris caused by that scattered around the whole field, destroying parts of the academy and its grounds. Even the others, who were fighting in their vicinity, were affected by that as they were panicking.

Mika, who was watching the fight, turned his back on them.

[Are you going now?]

"Yes. It took me too long to realize but the battle was already over from the start." Mika stated with a faint smirk.

A halo appeared above his head.

"Now, it’s my turn to do my job."

[2 minutes and 26 seconds left.]

[14 teleportations left.]

Mika disappeared from the field.

"..."

With a stern and slightly irritated expression, Sylvia slowly approached her father. And with each step she took, an icicle as large as a person shot up from the ground.

Arnold avoided them by barely moving his body until he was soon entrapped by the icicles.

He could not move his body anymore when Sylvia stood right in front of him.

"Congratulations. You are the winner." Arnold declared with a grin.

Crossing her arms, Sylvia stared at her father who was once called the strongest in the tribe.

His strength may could not have been compared to Elsa’s but if it was not for her, then Arnold would have been a member of the Grand Order.

That fact alone irritated Sylvia even more, the more often she thought about it.

"What are you thinking?" she said sharply.

Sylvia grew a lot more in the couple of months but she would not dare to compare herself to a Grand Order member for now. And yet, she was apparently able to beat her father.

"..."

His smile appeared apologetic as he averted his gaze from her.

Behind them, the academy was about to fall apart due to a large object having pierced it from the sky but Sylvia and Arnold ignored that and the commotion it caused.

"Why did you hold back against me?"