Meanwhile, Marcus watched Arvell, who didn't seem to slow down despite his active gravity field.
'This guy is the real deal!'
The more Marcus learned about his silver-haired opponent, the more he liked him.
Marcus was hesitant when his family sent him to the academy, which was supposedly full of brats who only knew how to eat diamond spoons and act arrogant using their parent's power.
He felt like going to such a place would only stunt his growth and end up being nothing more than a massive waste of his time.
Even going as far as to sleep in class so he could spend his waking hours training himself properly.
But he could tell immediately when he saw the silver-haired youth look at him from across the room.
Arvell was strong enough to get Marcus's blood boiling from just a glance.
From that moment, Marcus had wanted nothing more than to duke it out with Arvell.
If it wasn't for certain… issues, he would have challenged Arvell on the spot.
Marcus shuddered as his mind drifted.
'No… There's no need to think about that right now. What matters most is the fight!'
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Marcus dashed until he was finally within striking range of Arvell.
He swung an overhead diagonal slash at Arvell's chest while Arvell blocked by bringing his sword above his head.
However, he didn't just block it usually.
Arvell crossed his hands and tilted the sword's tip towards the ground, causing Marcus's sword to follow the trajectory of the blade, effectively redirecting Marcus's attack on the grass-covered ground.
With his sword still going through the motions of the slash, Marcus's entire body was wide open for a counterattack!
An advantage that Arvell wouldn't pass up that easily!
Without pausing, Arvell moved his sword and slashed down onto Marcus.
Before Arvell's sword could reach Marcus, Arvell's blade started to slow down in speed.
It was as if his sword was being pulled in the opposite direction.
While Arvell's sword slowed down substantially, Marcus's sword, on the other hand, suddenly accelerated forward, pulling Marcus along with it, allowing for the black-ringed youth to dodge Arvell's slash.
'He changed the direction of gravity to propel himself!'
*WOOSH*
Hearing a loud gust of wind, Arvell quickly turned around to face Marcus, but instead of Marcus, he was greeted by the sight of a dulled blade quickly closing the distance and nearing his face.
Arvell kicked off of the ground, jumping backwards, dodging the slash.
Landing on the ground in a crouching position, Arvell stealthily grabbed a handful of dirt as he turned to face Marcus.
In the short time frame which Arvell had used to jump, Marcus had closed the gap between the two of them.
He aimed his sword at Arvell and stabbed it with all his might.
As the sword again neared Arvell's face, he threw the handful of dirt at Marcus's eyes before rolling to the side and dodging the stab.
Marcus had tilted his head to avoid the incoming dirt, but that opening was all Arvell needed to once more even the playing field.
Pulling himself back to his feet, he took a fighting stance as he aimed the tip of his sword directly at Marcus's heart.
Marcus found his bearings and mirrored Arvell's stance.
They began to circle around each other, looking for any weakness they could exploit.
Marcus's eyes narrowed as, all of a sudden, the surrounding gravity went from roughly 2x normal gravity to half of the normal gravity.
Effectively decreasing the gravity to 25% of what it was before.
Caught off guard by the change in gravity, Arvell's foot stumbled, causing him to lose his balance.
Without giving Arvell a chance to find his bearings, Marcus dashed towards Arvell, hoping to land his sword on the silver-haired youth.
The surrounding groups had already finished their respective fights and even consumed the emergency potions the Professor brought with her.
At this point, everyone eagerly watched Arvell and Marcus's fight.
Professor Lorine had a look of amazement as she watched the fight.
Pulling a pocketwatch from her shirt, Professor Lorine frowned lightly.
As Marcus once more neared Arvell, Arvell fell on his back and quickly kicked Marcus's sword so that it would miss his face before spinning back up his feet and slashing at Marcus's face.
Using gravity magic to quickly readjust himself, Marcus swung to meet Arvell's sword again.
As the two swords neared to meet, a female's voice called rang out.
"Sorry guys, but for the sake of time, you'll need to continue this at another time."
Before the two swords met, they were both caught by the pale white hands.
Professor Lorine smiled at the two students, appearing before them like a ghost.
"That was an excellent fight. You two should be proud of yourselves."
Arvell and Marcus instinctively scowled at the Professor.
Why did this woman need to come and interrupt their fun?
"Calm down there, you two. If you really want, you can always fight later. I'm on a strict time schedule to run this class, so I can't let you two duke it out right now."
Knowing that the Professor had said there was no way they could keep fighting, the two of them let out disappointed sighs.
"Arvell, let's fight again. Now that I found someone as skilled as you, there's no way I'm going to leave you alone!"
Arvell nodded his head with a smile.
"The feelings are mutual, Marcus."
Marcus turned from Arvell to look at Professor Lorine, who was only half a foot away from his face.
Seeing the Professor, Marcus's expression went from a confident-yet-eager look to a momentary look of pure terror.
A look which no one seemed to notice, not even Arvell…
Swiftly letting go of his sword, Marcus jumped as far back as he could.
He let out a sigh of relief after Marcus was more than 5 metres away from the Professor.
'Safe.'
Being the only one left in the class still holding onto a sword, Arvell hastily let go and walked over to where Zen was standing.
"Give me a second to move the weapons off to the side, and then I can introduce you all to the fundamentals of being an Arcane Warrior."