At 7 AM, in the combat training room.

Two students were going through their hands to hands combat session in the presence of the instructor who was guiding them and overseeing the whole spar.

The two students were Lucas and Roan who were training from hands to hands combat in close range. Roan being a mage, is weak in this type of fight but with Lucas being his training partner and under Harris's guidance he is getting quite adept in close quarters.

Lucas is only able to make two days in his slot for training with Roan, with four days being occupied in the training course and after classes, he had to train with the Princess and if he gets a day off, he would visit swords club after which in the weekend he either goes to the dungeon or trains by himself.

Lucas and Roan took a few steps back and both of them readjusted their stance for fighting, Roan was slightly nervous as he looked at Lucas's eyes.

Though Lucas had lowered his level to a peak of 1-Star same as Roan.

Lucas's experience and his battle prowess were much better than his.

Even if Roan seems to be able to hold on but I truth Lucas was going easy on Roan and his fist and kicks are not generally the best that he could perform giving leeway for Roan to adapt as Lucas slowly increased the level of the fight with time.

"Roan are you ready?" Lucas asked with a smile.

Roan nodded with a solemn expression.

"Here, I come," Lucas spoke as he dashed toward Roan dragging his steps to allow Roan to gain enough time to react.

He doesn't want to take out Roan at the first strike as Roan is still adapting to close quarters after being a weakling throughout his life.

Appearing before Roan, Lucas gave an uppercut which Roan was barely able to dodge.

As Roan took a few steps back, Lucas rotated his body and gave a round kick.

Roan ducked it and threw a fist of his own towards Lucas.

Lucas avoided it easily by tilting his head to the side allowing the punch to pass.

While Lucas was ducking Roan's fist, Roan didn't just remain standing as he gave a small low kick aiming at Lucas's hip.

Lucas rolled his eyes seeing Roan kick. Moving his left leg backwards transferring this weight on his left leg, he raised his right leg to block the Roan attack in the mid-air, blocking Roan's leg, countering it he gave a kick of his own.

Roan wasn't able to reply to Lucas's counter and was hit by his Kick and took a few steps back.

Lucas moved back with a smirk on his lips after kicking Roan who seemed to be frustrated after getting kicked.

"Tch."Roam clicked his tongue as he tried to copy Lucas's fighting stance signalling Lucas that he is going to give his all in the brawl and this time he will be the one to strike first.

He leapt towards Lucas raising his knees to strike at Lucas's chin, threatening to break Lucas's chin with his hit. Lucas, however quickly moved his head back avoiding Roan's knee by a few inches.

Roan didn't stop here as he used his other leg as a foothold as he landed on the ground after his attack had been ducked by Lucas, using his other leg as a foothold, he kicked with enough force to break Lucas's face with the back of his foot aimed towards Lucas's face.

Lucas rotated his entire body in response to the incoming kick before Roan's feet could reach Lucas's face, without any pause Lucas pushed Roan's feet away causing him to lose his balance.

Although Roan lost his balance, he didn't give in and with his other leg as support jumped in the air rotating his body to give a tornado kick spinning his hips aiming straight at Lucas's body.

Lucas was stunned for a moment seeing Roan throwing a counter and thought 'He finally started to learn and is improving in close range.'

After all, the kick thrown by Roan aimed at his head had some serious power and could hurt a 1-Star peak rank warrior.

Lucas raise his hand to block the attack and bent down his head in case he would be hit.

Bangg.

Roan kicked was blocked by Lucas's hand and as he fell, he swept his leg drawing another low kick to make Lucas lose his balance but Lucas avoided it by jumping back and somersaulted a few times to gain some distance.

" It's time to raise fight level a bit.'Lucas muttered as he saw a small scratch on his left hand and he dashed towards Roan and threw a barge of fist on him.

Roan frowned seeing the Lucas barge of the fist as his speed had become much faster than before.

Roan raised his hand threw fists of his won to parry Lucas's attack and dodged some of them that he was unable to react.

He was constantly tilting his head to the left and right to avoid the punch as he was pushed back by Lucas's constant punch.

Lucas punched constantly like a battling gun shooting bullets.

Roan was finally got hit a few times in the chest and his shoulder.

'Thank God at least my face remain unscratched.'Roan thought as he was constantly getting hit.

But his thought changed when he saw Lucas closing the distance and suddenly Lucas's image blurred for a moment and disappeared from the spot and he felt a chill from behind as Lucas suddenly appeared behind him.

Roan turned back as he suddenly sensed danger from behind and saw Lucas's elbow coming towards him.

As Roan saw Lucas's elbow coming towards his face as if his elbow will destroy his face and anything that stood in its path.

Bang!..

A small bang was heard as Lucas's elbow landed on his face or so he thought that the elbow should have hit his face as he closed his eyes in panic seeing the attack coming at him with a speed that he was unable to react to.

"..." Roan opened his eyes to see Lucas's elbow stopped in front of his face and the space between them were just a few millimetres.

Seeing Lucas stopping his attack in the mid, Roan breathed the air of relief as he thought he had to attend the class with his swollen pig-like face.

Releasing a deep breath Lucas retracted his elbow and turned back to leave.

As he took a step forward, he suddenly raised his leg to give a superkick towards Roan's jaw but was surprised as his attack hit something solid with a long band that thundered the arena.

As he looked back he saw a small orange coloured magic circuit between his foot and Roan's jaw and raised his brows to ask Roan what was it?

Honestly what Lucas did was just to let him know that one shouldn't let his guard down before the opponent even for a moment but he was the one who was surprised seeing Roan skilfully tackle his attack.

Calp.Calp...Calp.

Harris's clapping snapped both Lucas and Roan from their thoughts as they saw Harris clapping for both of them.

"You both did well. Roan, you still need some time to polish your skill in your close combat but the skill you cast now honestly even took me by surprise." Harris spoke as he admired both the students before him.

He had seen them growing from the beginning they entered the academy. They have surely come a long way till now.

Lucas is at the peak of 2-Star while Roan is on the verge of a breakthrough to 2-Star. He was quite satisfied with thier progress. Both of them can be said to be geniuses in their respective field.

Putting down his leg, Luca looked at the small magic shield disappearing into thin air and asked"Roan what kind of magic was that?"

Roan scratched his head with an embarrassed expression as he had to resolve to magic to defend and spoke"I have invented it recently. You know how vulnerable I am in close quarters, so I made this small shield type of magic after taking reference from the magic wall that can be cast at a higher level."

"Woah! It's so cool. It's like a battle suit that can be summoned." Lucas exclaimed with joy with his dazzling eye.

Taking a deep breath of air, Roan spoke"It's not that simple Lucas, it can only defend the low-level attack and my spell manages to stop it cause you didn't use your full strength. Since it's the area of coverage is small, you have to accurately predict your opponent's moves so that you can cast the shield at the right place you are aimed."

"Hmmm. You are right" Lucas nodded.

"Still, it's quite a good spell Roan. When you grow stronger and had more mana reservoirs, you can shield a whole area. I am telling you, Roan, you are underestimating the spell you have invented. The only ones who can cast huge shields or walls that can cover huge areas are higher rank mages and many of them are required to cast magic walls but till now no one has been able to simplify the magic and used it as innovatively as you. As far I remember there were none." Harris spoke as he nodded his head in satisfaction praising Roan.

Lucas's looked at Roan with a hint of admiration. Looking at Roan, he remembered the day when he had saved him from the bully.

At the time he had never imagined that Roan would so much talented in magic.

'Hope one day you can become a strong magus whose name will be spread throughout the world..'Lucas muttered inwardly wishing for Roan.