The arena floor had been repaired by the earth mages, but the air still crackled with the residual mana from my fight with Samantha.

Now, it was time for the titans.

Kael walked out of the tunnel. He had cleaned the mud off his face, but the intensity in his eyes hadn't dimmed. He drew his sword—a standard academy-issue steel blade, yet in his grip, it seemed to hum with anticipation.

Opposite him, Princess Celestia stood with royal grace. She tapped her staff on the ground, and a circle of frost expanded instantly around her.

They were friends. They were party members. But right now, they were obstacles in each other's path.

"I won't go easy on you just because you're my friend, Kael," Celestia said, her voice cool and composed.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Princess," Kael replied, lowering his stance. "I need to prove something today."

"Begin!"

WHOOSH.

Celestia moved first. She knew Kael was a close-range fighter.

[Glacial Prison]!

Dozens of ice pillars erupted from the ground, aiming to box Kael in.

Kael didn't back down. He dashed forward, weaving through the erupting pillars with terrifying speed. He slashed his sword—left, right, overhead.

Clang! Crack!

The ice shattered on impact. His sword glowed with a brilliant, blinding golden light.

"He's cutting through magic?" Mariella gasped from the stands. "That's reinforced ice!"

Kael closed the distance.

[Ice Lance]! Celestia fired three projectiles.

Kael spun, deflecting two and ducking under the third. He was a blur of motion.

[Solar Slash]!

He swung his blade. A crescent of golden energy ripped through the air.

Celestia's eyes widened. She raised a [Mana Shield] in panic.

BOOM!

The impact skidded her backward five meters, her boots carving grooves into the ice. A spiderweb crack appeared on the surface of her shield.

'Is it just an illusion?' Celestia thought, her hands trembling from the vibration. 'Or has Kael become much stronger than last week?'

****

Celestia's doubts were correct. Kael had become much stronger than a week ago.

But what she didn't know was that Kael was not like any other cadet.

He was the Protagonist of this world. He was Heaven's Chosen.

His luck was not just good; it was offensive. It defied the laws of probability. While ordinary people tripped and broke their ankles, Kael would trip and land on a pile of gold. Even when things seemed to be going badly for him, the universe conspired to turn it into a blessing.

The same thing had happened here.

He was suspended from the Academy—a mark on his record, a humiliation that sent him spiraling. But for Kael, rock bottom was just a trampoline.

While Lucien was calculating points and buying skills from a shop, and while the rest of the students were buried in books, Kael was living his own genre: The High Fantasy Adventure.

During his suspension, humiliated and angry, he had fled to the Beasts' Forest on the edge of the capital to vent his frustration on monsters.

He fought for three days straight, sleeping in trees and eating berries.

On the fourth day, while chasing a wounded Dire Wolf up the misty peaks, he slipped on wet moss.

He fell down a hidden ravine, tumbling through vines and jagged rocks, landing in a forgotten cavern hidden from the world for centuries.

It wasn't just a cave. It was a tomb.

There, sitting on a stone throne, was a skeleton wearing rusted golden armor. In its lap lay a dusty manual bound in dragon leather.

[The Lost Arts of the Sovereign Sun]

It was a technique forgotten by history, a sword art developed by the First Emperor to cut through darkness—and magic.

While everyone else needed to train for years to increase their mana capacity by a fraction, Kael had tripped on a root and fallen onto a legendary artifact.

He spent the remaining three days in that cave, reading the manual by torchlight, practicing until his hands bled, unlocking a power that shouldn't belong to a first-year student.

****

[Present Time: The Arena]

"HAAHH!"

Kael roared, his aura exploding outward. The golden light intensified, turning the air around him scorching hot. The frost on the ground melted instantly, turning to steam.

Celestia grit her teeth. The heat was overwhelming her ice domain.

"If you want to win, you'll have to survive this!" she shouted, desperation creeping into her voice.

She slammed her staff into the ground.

"[Grand Magic: Blizzard Domain - Glacial Coffin]!"

The temperature dropped to absolute zero. A massive construct of ice—a giant, freezing tomb the size of a carriage—formed in the air and crashed down toward Kael.

It was the same spell she had prepared for Lucien, but faster, stronger, and infused with every ounce of mana she had left.

Kael looked up at the falling mountain of ice.

He didn't run.

He sheathed his sword. He took a deep breath.

He lowered his center of gravity, his hand hovering over the hilt.

'Lucien uses tricks. Celestia uses talent. I… I use will.'

[Sovereign Art: First Form - Dawn Breaker]

SHING.

He drew his sword in a single, upward slash.

A beam of pure, concentrated golden light erupted from the blade. It wasn't just mana; it looked like a pillar of actual fire rising to meet the ice.

CRASH!

The golden light met the ice tomb.

For a second, the two energies struggled. Gold vs Blue. Heat vs Cold.

Then… the ice cracked.

BOOM!

The massive spell shattered into a million sparkling snowflakes, evaporating before they hit the ground.

Kael burst through the falling debris, his sword point leveled at Celestia's throat.

Celestia stood frozen. Her mana was drained. Her ultimate spell was broken. And the tip of Kael's blade was inching from her jugular, radiating a heat that dried the sweat on her brow.

Silence descended on the arena.

Kael was panting heavily, his clothes tattered, but his sword hand was steady as a rock.

Celestia looked at the blade, then up at Kael's determined eyes.

She let out a shaky breath and lowered her staff.

"I… surrender."

"Winner: Kael!"

The crowd was stunned.

For a moment, no one moved. No one cheered. They were processing what they had just seen.

The Princess. The Prodigy. The undefeated mage of the first year.

She had lost. Not to a noble trickster, not to an upperclassman. But to a Commoner.

Then, slowly, the applause started. It grew louder and louder until the arena shook.

"KAEL! KAEL! KAEL!"

Celestia smiled weakly, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

"You've grown stronger, Kael. That was… magnificent."

Kael sheathed his sword, the golden light fading. He offered her a hand, pulling her into a quick, respectful hug.

"The Semi-Finals are concluded!" the Referee announced, his voice amplified. "There will be a one-hour recess for the finalists to recover their mana and stamina. The Final Match: Lucien Ashborne vs. Kael will begin shortly!"

*****

Kael walked back toward the tunnel, still breathing hard.

Immediately, he was swarmed.

"Kael!"

Bordon, Elisha, and Mariella rushed over, their faces a mix of shock and awe.

"What was that?!" Bordon shouted, slapping Kael on the back hard enough to make him stumble. "That golden light… I've never seen a Sword Art like that! Not even from the Royal Guard!"

"And you cut through a Tier 4 spell!" Mariella squealed. "Do you know how impossible that is? Ice doesn't just break like that!"

Elisha looked at him suspiciously, though she was smiling. "You didn't learn that in the Academy library, did you? Where have you been hiding this?"

Kael grabbed a water bottle and downed it in one go. He wiped his mouth, looking at his friends.

"I… I found something," he admitted vaguely, looking at his hands. "In the forest. I'll explain later. But right now…"

He looked up at the digital bracket on the wall.

[FINAL MATCH: LUCIEN ASHBORNE VS. KAEL]

His expression hardened.

"Right now, I have one more wall to break."

****

The Cadet Duel Assessment was the most important event of the semester. It was the midterm that determined our ranking, our future resources, and our standing in the noble hierarchy.

But right now, nobody cared about grades.

The entire arena was fixated on the two figures standing in the center of the ring.

On one side, Kael. The Golden Boy. The Hero. He stood tall, his uniform tattered from the previous fights, exposing muscles that seemed carved from marble. A faint, golden haze distorted the air around him—the overflowing mana of the Sovereign Art.

On the other side, me. The Villain. The Gunman. I stood loosely, the Benelli M4 resting on my shoulder, my other hand hovering near my ammo pouch.

Samantha stood between us, her hand raised. Even she looked tense. She knew this wasn't just a spar. This was a collision of ideologies.

"Do you have anything to say before we begin?" Samantha asked, looking between us.

Kael stepped forward. His eyes burned with a mixture of anger and pity.

"Lucien," he said, his voice low but amplified by the silence. "You rely on tricks. On money. On weapons that you didn't forge with your own soul."

He pointed his sword at me.

"You hid behind the rules to suspend me. You used technicalities to avoid a fair fight. But there are no rules to hide behind now."

I sighed, adjusting the grip on my shotgun.

"You talk too much, Kael. It's a bad habit."

"And you don't respect true strength," he countered, his aura flaring brighter. "You treat this world like a game. You treat people like pieces on a board. Today, I'm going to show you that there are walls you can't climb with money."

I smirked, racking the bolt.

CLACK-CLACK.

"And I'm going to show you, Kael, that 'true strength' doesn't matter if you can't hit the target."

Samantha saw the air practically sparking between us.

"Ready?"

She swung her hand down.

"BEGIN!"

BOOM!

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