Nox had face multiple battles that he was sure he would lose, especially against the Chimera and the Wendigo.

And everytime he did, there was always this bit of hope that he would win, even if he himself didn't actually believe in that hope.

But this time, that feeling was nowhere to be found. Instead, he knew without doubt that he had no chance against the monster before him.

He now knew exactly how much Astra was holding back during their previous training sessions.

The other combat division students had their eyes wide open as they looked at the 'sparring' session before them.

Wasn't she the one who said, 'no trying to kill each other?', then what the hell was she doing.

Even more surprising was the fact that Nox still stood.

His win condition was to just touch her with his solar tech and she wouldn't be using her solar tech to attack him either.

That... was a hard task to complete.

No matter how much he tried, she just seemed too fast for him. And even though she didn't use her solar tech against him.

Her martial arts was just as much a weapon as her solar tech was.

Nox felt blood drop down his head as he slammed into the barrier yet again with Morphos laying a distance away from him.

But even then, he refused to give up.

He wanted to...no, he was going to win, after all, Astra promised him a favor if he did and he wasn't going to let this chance slip.

"Are you sure you don't want to stop this?" Astra asked again, as much as she was enjoying this spar with the kid, she had to be careful not to cause permanent damage.

And that was getting harder to do by the second.

Nox seemed completely different from the boy he trained before, and although she was dominating this spar, she had the weird feeling that he was holding back.

Which was strange, since the look in his eyes told her that he wanted to win this.

"I can keep going," Nox said, standing up even though his limbs were trembling.

He extended his hand and his weapon flew back to it before he split it into two, each taking the form of a dagger.

"Alright then," Astra said with a sigh, "come at me."

At least, now the headmistress won't blame her if anything happened to the kid, after all, he was the one who wanted to keep going.

Nox, on the other hand was a bit lost in his thoughts as he tried thinking of a way to win.

He couldn't outmatch her strength, couldn't outspeed her reflexes, and he definitely couldn't overpower her technique.

So he stopped trying to.

The moment Astra lunged forward, he also started running but to everyone's surprise, it was not toward her.

Instead, he seemed to be running away.

Some students let out giggles as they watched Nox suddenly dashed sideways, rolling across the platform just as Astra closed the distance where he had been standing a split second earlier.

She frowned slightly, confused at what he was doing, the kid knew that she was faster, so what was he up to.

Nox, on the other hand, didn't slow down one bit.

He suddenly turned and threw a dagger towards her, only for it to miss by a large margin.

The dagger flew past her shoulder, embedding itself into the barrier behind her.

Seeing the attack fail, Nox continued moving, a layer of golden light covered him and he teleported away just in time for him to avoid Astra who suddenly reached him.

He reappeared to her left, then right, then behind, each movement was sloppy and inefficient, but it was unpredictable.

After all, there was a saying that went like, inorder to confuse the enemy, you must confuse yourself first....or something like that.

Astra's instincts suddenly screamed.

She twisted sharply, catching the blade that was heading for her, just inches from her neck between her fingers, crushing it with a sharp crack.

But Nox wasn't done yet, before the weapon could touch the ground, it suddenly returned to his hand, the dagger reforming again.

"I was sure that'd hit," Nox muttered but Astra just shook her head.

"You'll have to try harder than that," with her words, she moved again.

Nox teleported away but even he knew how close she was. He had felt the tip of her fingers grabbing his face just before he disappeared.

"I guess I do," Astra suddenly felt something behind her, and the next second,

BOOM!

The barrier exploded behind her, thanks to Nox's dagger that was still embedded in it.

Only when she fully turned around did she realize that it was a distraction, but it was already too late, because Nox had closed the distance.

He aimed his dagger at her arm since he wasn't planning on hurting her, but unfortunately for him, just before it could come in contact with her, she grabbed his wrist.

"Close," Astra said turning to him with a smile on her face, "but that won't work."

"Really?" Nox asked with a grin on his bloodied face before adding, "then how about another."

He swung his free hand but this was also caught by her, but his chuckle made her realized that this was a mistake.

In the hand he swung was nothing and the next second, she felt a small prickling sensation on her wrist, which caused her to let go of him.

He had telekinetically moved the dagger with his SE and managed to catch her off guard, which was the only reason why he won.

Nox staggered past her, momentum finally giving out, dropping to one knee as the glow on Morphos faded.

Everyone was completely silent, their gazes alternating between Nox and Ascended Dawn, their disbelief evident.

Then Astra slowly looked down at her wrist, there was still a small cut on it, an evidence of the fact that the kid had actually touched her with his weapon.

It wasn't that he was stronger or faster, it was just that he had completely outsmarted her.

"…You win."

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