Chapter 151. A Lone Wolf, a Solo Knight, Definitely Not Synchronized
The training yard was no longer a place of learning; it was a slaughterhouse of magical residue and shattered stone. The sun hung overhead like a bloodshot eye, casting long, jagged shadows as the combatants pushed past the limits of human endurance.
The air tasted of copper, burnt ozone, and the salt of desperate sweat.
Kaela’s breathing had become a wet, rattling sound. A deep gash along her ribs carved by one of Catherine’s earlier wind enhanced sweeps wept crimson onto the gravel.
Every time she drew breath, the wound screamed. But her eyes remained feral, twin embers of defiance.
"Is that all you’ve got, Instructor?" Kaela spat, blood flecking her lips. "You’re getting slow!"
"Your movements... they’re getting heavy!"
’My ribs feel like broken glass grinding together every time I move...’ Kaela thought. ’My lungs are burning. ..But if I stop, I die.’
’If I hesitate, Lia won’t be able to cover me...’
’I have to... burn brighter. I have to burn until there’s nothing left!’
Lia’s face was a mask of pale determination, though her own hands trembled from the magical strain. "Don’t listen to her, Kaela!"
"She’s trying to bait your rage! Focus on the flow break her rhythm!"
Lia raised her hands, the moisture in the air condensing into razor-sharp shards of ice instead of water.
SHHHH KRIIIIII!
The sound of freezing air was like teeth grinding together. "Glacial Needle: Piercing Tide!"
The ice shards shot forward like crossbow bolts. But William was already moving. His reflexes, forged in actual battlefields where death was the only teacher, bypassed thought entirely.
He didn’t just block; he danced through the hail of ice.
CLINK CLINK CLINK CLINK!
Steel met ice in a rapid-fire staccato. William’s sword moved in a blur of silver, each strike precise enough to shatter the magical projectiles mid-air without wasting a single calorie.
"You’re reading the mana before it even forms, Lia," William said, his voice dropping to a low, terrifying growl as he closed the distance. "But you’re still thinking like a student."
"You’re thinking in patterns... I’m thinking in consequences."
With a sudden, explosive burst of speed, William lunged. He didn’t aim for Lia’s weapon; he aimed for her center.
Lia gasped, twisting her body to avoid a lethal thrust, but William’s follow through was devastating. His armored boot connected with her sternum CRUNCH the sound of cartilage protesting the impact echoing across the yard.
"Lia!" Kaela screamed, . CRUNCH,ing all tactical caution.
She launched herself at William in a suicidal inferno, her blade trailing a wake of molten fury.
’This is it,’ Catherine thought, her silver eyes narrowing as she saw the opening. ’The moment they break.’
The coordination between the two girls shattered. Lia was doubled over, gasping for air as her ribs cracked, and Kaela was overextended, her entire body committed to a single, desperate strike.
"William, now! The pincer is broken!" Catherine commanded.
The counterattack was not a move; it was a symphony of violence. William parried Kaela’s flaming blade with a brutal downward stroke that forced her to drop to one knee, the impact sending a shockwave up her arms that made her bones feel like they would splinter.
KRA THOOM!
"You’re wide open, Kaela!" William roared.
Simultaneously, Catherine became a streak of silver lightning. She didn’t just attack; she dominated the space.
Using Wind’s explosive propulsion, she appeared behind Kaela in a heartbeat.
FWOOOSH!
Catherine’s blade didn’t cut; it struck with the blunt force of a sledgehammer. The pommel of her sword slammed into the base of Kaela’s skull with a sickening THUD.
Kaela’s head snapped forward, her eyes rolling back as her consciousness flickered.
"Finish the sequence, William!" Catherine shouted, already spinning to intercept Lia, who was trying to crawl toward her partner.
William didn’t hesitate. He stepped into Kaela’s guard, his sword’s edge pressed against her throat while his free hand grabbed her shoulder, twisting it with bone deep pressure.
"Yibone-deepreak."
Lia tried to raise her hands for one last desperate spell, but Catherine was already there, her boot crushing Lia’s wrist against the stone. SNAP, SNAP, the sound of a breaking bone makes several students wince and turn away.
"Enough!" Catherine’s voice rang out like a guillotine blade.
She stood over them, her silver armor gleaming, her breathing steady despite the carnage. Her sword pointed directly at Lia’s throat.
The yard fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the ragged gasps of the defeated students and the distant drip of blood hitting the gravel.
"The lesson is over," Catherine said, her voice cold as winter steel. "You fought with passion, but you fought as two individuals."
"In real war, that distinction doesn’t exist... You fight as one, or you die as two."
William stood over Kaela, his sword still extended, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
"You almost had us," he said quietly, almost to himself. "Almost."
The aftermath of the violence felt surreal. The acrid smell of burnt hair and ionized air still hung heavy over the courtyard, and the crimson stains spreading across the gravel served as a grim reminder that this had been more than a mere exercise.
The students watching from the sidelines remained frozen, their faces pale as they processed the brutal efficiency with which the instructors had dismantled their peers.
William sheathed his sword with a metallic SHING that seemed to echo unnaturally loud in the sudden silence. His chest heaved, ribs aching from the magical backlash, but as he looked at the two girls one bleeding from a gash on her forehead, the other cradling a wrist that was already beginning to bruise purple a lopsided grin split his face.
"Match," William called out, his voice rough and gravelly from shouting commands.
Kaela, still slumped on one knee, let out a sound that was half sob, half growl. She dropped her practice sword; it hit the stones with a hollow CLATTER.
"That was bullshit!" she barked, wiping blood from her split lip with the back of her hand, smearing it across her cheek. "The vice-headmaster cheated!"
"She used that wind burst to teleport behind me like some kind of silver ghost!"
Lia, despite the sharp pain throbbing in her broken wrist, tried to maintain her composure. "She didn’t cheat, Kaela."
"She exploited the lapse in your defensive perimeter. That’s just because your flames became too predictable."
"Oh, shut up with your textbook analysis, Lia!" Kaela snapped, turning her fiery glare toward her partner. "If you hadn’t spent three seconds over channeling that water pillar, I would’ve had Instructor Wade’s head on a platter!"
"Overchanneling? I was providing cover fire!" Lia shot back, her calm facade cracking as adrenaline and pain mixed into irritation. "Without my pressure, you would have been incinerated three minutes ago!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Miss Perfect Strategy," Kaela rolled her eyes dramatically, flopping backward onto the grass with an exaggerated groan. "We lost because we’re cursed."
"That’s the only explanation."
William watched them the way Kaela immediately sought Lia’s defensive presence even while insulting her and the way Lia instinctively positioned herself to shield Kaela’s flank even while they argued. A low chuckle rumbled in his throat.
"You know," William said, stepping between them as he offered a blood-stained hand to help Lia up. "For two people who claim to hate each other’s methods, you two sure do get along."
Both girls froze.
"Get along?" Kaela repeated, her voice rising an octave in disbelief. "Are you insane? She’s a walking encyclopedia of boring rules!"
"And she’s a walking disaster zone of uncontrolled impulses!" Lia countered, her face flushing pink.
William grinned wider, deliberately poking at the wound. "No, look at it."
"You two move like two halves of the same soul."
"When Lia’s mana drops, Kaela’s flames intensify to cover her."
"When Kaela overextends, Lia’s water catches her."
"You’re not just fighting together; you’re breathing together... That’s called teamwork, girls. That’s called being a unit."
The silence that followed was deafening. Kaela and Lia stared at each other, the memory of their synchronized movements and the way their instincts had fused in the heat of combat flashing through their minds.
For a heartbeat, the genuine bond they had forged through blood and sweat was laid bare.
Then, the realization hit.
"We are NOT a unit!" Kaela yelled, scrambling to her feet, her face crimson. "I work alone! I’m a lone wolf, Instructor Wade! A predator!"
"And I am a solo knight who prefers intellectual solitude!" Lia shouted back, though her grip on her injured wrist softened, betraying her. "Don’t you dare imply we’re... synchronized!"
"See?" William laughed, glancing at Catherine, who was approaching with a medical kit. "The more they deny it, the more obvious it becomes."
Catherine walks closer to them, her expression softening from the cold commander to a concerned mentor. She ignored the bickering, kneeling beside Lia first to assess the wrist.
"Save the theatrics for the infirmary," she said firmly, though there was a glimmer of pride in her silver eyes. "That coordination I saw... that was the closest either of you has ever come to true mastery."
"You should be proud of that performance. Even if you’re both too stubborn to admit you’ve become each other’s greatest asset."
Kaela crossed her arms, huffing and looking away, though she didn’t move away from Lia’s side. "Fine. Whatever."
"We’re ’assets.’ Happy now?"
Lia sighed, closing her eyes as Catherine began to wrap the wound. "We’ll get you next time, Instructor Wade."
"Next time, the ’unit’ won’t be so easy to break."
"I’m counting on it," William said, his grin fading into something more serious, more approving. "Because if you keep fighting like that... I might actually have to start worrying about you."