Nakia dashed at me. My spear crackled with electricity mere seconds before running straight at him. I smiled as I struck Nakia with the side of my weapon. My eyes widened as my weapon went through him.

"An afterimage?"

Nakia held his hand out and grasped the shaft of the spear. "Not exactly."

Nakia sent the spear flying off into the white void above with a wave of his arm. I shot it with electricity as it fell down, pulling it toward me.

The knight smirked and appeared between my spear and me, flicking it away once more.

"Ha. You think that I'm dependent on it?"Though, this was bad. Being separated from Carlos for too long could trigger my demonic transformation, like when I fought Tetsuya.

"Oh, yeah?" He charged me again, only to be met by an attack. I had readied a lightning blade in his direction, but I missed his head.

He gasped as he jumped back. "A spell?"

Why was he dodging when my attacks could go through him? Or did that ability only last for a short moment?

I laughed. "Why so surprised? I am a descendant of the first Magus Maximus, after all." Electricity surrounded me, warping me behind him.

He grasped the badge on his uniform and transformed it into a rapier. Unlike Ximena's, his was golden and had a spiral-shaped hilt.

Nakia grinned at me and said something strange before attacking with it. A series of cuts opened up along my body. One even nicked me close to the right eye. Though I healed them with my prana, my body didn't stop bleeding until Nakia landed a solid blow in the center of the chest with the pommel.

I coughed up blood as I was sent flying back.

Tsk. This guy was stronger than I thought. No, it was not strength. It was his general technique...

***

[Years Ago]

I groaned as I stabbed a target on a straw dummy with my wooden spear for the umpteenth time.

"How long do I have to do this, Master?"

My tutor looked up from his book and smiled. He had it easy, relaxing under the shade of the mulberry tree. "A dozen more."

"Okay, but I still don't get why I've done a hundred of these!"

He snickered as he returned to his book. "Finish, and I might tell you the purpose."

Wouldn't it have been better to have told me before we began?

"That said, I would've preferred you to figure it out yourself."

I hummed and returned to my training. What could it be that he wants to teach me? To quicken my pace? But I already knew that.

I sighed and focused on stabbing the target while remembering how much Mother hated it when I missed or hesitated. The task was to hit the target quickly and with precision. Going fast often led me to miss the center by a bit. On the other hand, going slow didn't help me get any better.

Wait, what if I slowed down and then sped up? I stabbed the dummy slowly, hitting the center. With each successive hit, I tried doing them faster than the last.

Master chuckled. "Looks like you got the hang of it. Starting slow helps one be able to view the target accurately." He stood up and walked over to me. "Being fast is useless if one fails to hit their target."

"But this is a dummy. People will knock me out before I have a chance if I'm not fast enough to dodge and hit back."

He smirked. "Did Lady Eiko or Sir Eiji tell you that?"

"Mom did."

He touched his chin and put his other hand on his hip. "Well, can't say that she's wrong. Hitting a moving target is different, but that's what we're working towards with this."

"Will I be moving up to that soon?" I asked, beaming.

He ruffled my hair. "Yeah, since you're getting a handle on your technique."

I tilted my head. "Technique?"

"You wasted more energy than you should have with each stab."

"That's because I tried to pack as much power behind it as possible."

He laughed as he stared at the broken plastic targets on the floor. "Yeah, but you'll tire yourself out quicker that way."

"Not if I can take down my opponents in one hit!"

"Seems you're a single-hit type of guy. I prefer taking mine down with a thousand small strikes."

I swung my hands behind my head. "That's time-consuming, teach!"

He laughed. "Perhaps it is, but everyone has their own technique. If your aim is single hit, then be sure to hit your opponents, else you'll exhaust yourself."

"But my stamina isn't bad."

"True, but some opponents love to drag battles out. Anyway, focus on refining your skills. With how versatile you are, you'll be unstoppable if you can do that."

My eyes glistened. "Unstoppable?"

***

[Present]

I jumped into the air and grasped Carlos. Given that Hyosetsu became the strongest of us five, perhaps Master had a point on technique. Did Master also have a fighting style like Nakia's in mind when he told me that?

"Oh? You can still move despite being hit a thousand times?"

I smiled. "I'll end this in a single hit!" My golden wings emerged from my back and pushed me toward him.

Nakia dodged and appeared behind me.

I smirked and thrust my spear behind me, striking his weapon. The force of the blow sent him flying back.

He laughed and spun around, moving in the air like a hummingbird. His cyan wings even resembled those of one.

I raised Carlos in front of me.

"How about we put our techniques to the test, you and I?"

Nakia shot up at me, but I swung my arm downward and struck with the tip of my spear. He flew backward until I pulled it away.

"Ugh, such sheer force," he said, shaking his head.

I laughed. "Finally, I've wiped that smirk off your face."

Nakia smiled again. "Only for a second. But, it's time that we both get serious." The air around him crackled with mana.

I gasped. Second Heaven?

A cyan aura enveloped Nakia. The energy flowed into his rapier, focusing on the tip and elongating it. "Lustrous singularity!"

I gasped as he stabbed the air, causing it to explode like a supernova. I gritted my teeth as the force blew me over the arena's edge. I'd yet to hit the ground, so I should've been fine. Not that Nakia mentioned any disqualification rules for being knocked beyond the ring's boundaries. Or any rules in general.

My mana and prana began leaking out through my body. It felt as though they had gotten twisted in all directions. What had just happened...

"Remember what I told you before," Carlos's voice echoed in my head.

I smiled. Right, he taught me how to untangle them. I concentrated and formed a hole in space, warping back to the battlefield.

Nakia glared at me. "I thought I was going to take a momentary break."

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down by drawing upon the mana around us.

My opponent raised an eyebrow at me. "You're going to do that amid battle without a barrier?"

I nodded and placed the tip of my spear against the ground. With this much force at my disposal, there wasn't any need for one. My blade then grew sharper and cut into the earth itself, cutting through the arena floor like it were butter.

"What?" Nakia said, gasping as the ring shattered. He took to the air while I remained below. His eyes widened as the debris flew at him.

"Earth?"

I snickered. "Why are you so surprised? I might not be from the main house nor its junior branch, but I am a member of the Kuroriku clan all the same.

Seemed that asking Hideo to help me with my earth mana control wasn't a waste of time.

Nakia focused more of his mana into the tip of his rapier and thrust his sword downward. The attack bounced off me with little impact as a golden aura wrapped around me. Before he could perform another singularity of light, I fired two pillars of stone spikes straight at him.

I gasped as both of them went through him. There it was, that technique or ability again. Seemed that it wasn't limited to one hit either. His invulnerability had to do with time in that case.

He floated away from the rubble and sighed. "That smirk... You've figured it out, haven't you?"

"Only a bit!" I said, launching more debris at him. I still wasn't sure if his body became light or if the ability or technique allowing him to become invulnerable involved spacial distortion. Wait, if it was spacial, then the mana around him would be warped, which wasn't what I was sensing. Then, that left light or some other thing behind it.

But enough of that! It's time to show my true strength and win this fight fair and square! I pumped up my mana even further as I shot toward Nakia, wielding my spear like a staff.

"I'll end this now!"

Nakia snickered as he dodged my attack and struck me on the side with his hand.

My world spun until I hit some of the debris I had suspended in the air. The damage must have been much greater than the last attack for the momentary lapse in concentration. My eyes widened. I couldn't seem to move an inch.

"You've fought well, but you're still a novice."

I gritted my teeth and glared at him. "I'm not a novice? I've been training since I was a little kid!"

"And yet, you're just barely beginning as a knight," he countered. "A warrior who can't use his full potential is no different from those without any skills at all. Though that will change soon enough. Or else..." He disappeared from sight as I looked around in confusion before spotting him again, hovering high above me with his wings flapping.

"What did you say?"

He landed upon a rock and kicked it at me as hard as possible.

The arena floor rammed into my body and knocked me into the remnants of the battlefield still intact. A bright pain radiated through my chest, which forced out several gasps. I fell to one knee, struggling to catch my breath while the blood oozed out of my chest wound. And I'd just finished healing it with my aura too.

"Did you barely learn how to use this transformation?" Nakia asked, dropping down from the sky.

I pushed myself up. When it came to Second Heaven, I was a novice, but I wouldn't let all of my time training in Munil and with Sabine be for naught.

"Oh, still have some fight in you, huh?" He vanished and reappeared behind me. "I'll need to fix that."

I blocked his hit and punched him in the stomach, causing him to cough up blood.

"Sorry, but I don't plan to lose here." I wiped the blood off of my face and warped over to him.

Nakia glared at me and blocked Carlos with his rapier. But, it was a wrong move trying to stop a spear with that kind of sword.

I launched a shockwave of air at Nakia, knocking him backward. He flew away from me as he gritted his teeth. I pumped mana into the air until I created another ring, using the remaining rubble in the center as its anchor.

"Huh?" Nakia said, gasping.

"What? It's best to have a proper battlefield to wrap this up," I said, grinning as electricity crackled on the tip of Carlos. I had no idea if this would work or not. If so, then this was over. This technique wouldn't do much to someone who didn't have enough prana, though... Well, Nakia sure hadn't shown any signs of fatigue, so I was fine. The only issue was that this wasn't an easy one to pull off due to the sheer quantity of mana it required. It would likely be over for me if I missed, given how much energy I'd used to close my wounds.

"That attack... that's a rank-five move!" Nakia closed in and stabbed the air, sending needles of light rained down.

I coughed out blood while choking on the pain. One of them had struck me in the chest. Damn it. This was why I didn't like wasting time with attacks that took too long, be they spells or angelic techniques.

A smirk covered my face. That said, this kind of battle was what I loved!

He raised a brow. "You're smiling...?"

I laughed as my entire aura flowed into Carlos. "Just because I'm in pain, it doesn't mean that I can't enjoy a fight. If anything, it makes my blood rush!"

Nakia flew up. "You are insane!"

"Perhaps, but I also feel very much alive!"

Nakia and I both gasped as a bright light enveloped Carlos. What was going on?

"You've done it, Eiichi. You've awakened yet more of my power," my angel's voice echoed from the spear. The light fade, revealing a golden spear with a shorter blade than base Carlos, but with longer and broader prongs. The edges facing outward were sharp, giving it the vibe of a spear with elements of both a trident and a battle ax.

To make up for the shorter blade, the overall length of the pole had increased, giving me more range than before. Wrapping up its look was a fleur-de-lys on the bottom side. But it wasn't purely ornamental as the central 'petal' was as sharp as any spearhead.

"Incredible."

"Now, use the Spade Spear to wrap this up!" Carlos yelled.

I smiled. "I was planning to until you acted up."

Nakia chuckled as he drew closer, vanishing and reappearing. The guy was fast enough that he had little need for his invulnerability. I'd only forced him to use it by surprising him. If he thought he could tell what was coming, he would likely not use it. Not that it really mattered. This hit would land, regardless.

The next thing I knew, Nakia stabbed down toward my body. My hand flashed out faster than the eye could see. It caught his rapier right at its tip before slamming into my palm. His sword shattered upon impact and my fingers brushed against the metal of my new weapon. Unfortunately, Nakia managed to narrowly dodge it.

"Impressive... though too late," he said. He vanished again and reappeared with an airy swing of his arm.

I blocked with my left arm, wincing as my bones creaked. This wasn't a good time to get a broken arm! Unfortunately, I was out of mana. That left me with only my prana.

"Lightning Strikes Twice!" Carlos yelled.

I gasped as my spear roared back to life.

"What? How?" Nakia asked, jumping back.

Was this a new ability? Wait, Hideo also awakened one when he got his 'Clover Gun' form! Had Hyosetsu and Tetsuya also gained new skills or moves with their Diamond Sword and Heart Shield?

"Yes. It allows you to perform resurrection attacks automatically," Carlos's voice echoed in my head.

Resurrection attacks? According to Mother, one needed to precisely time the dissolving of one's attack to be able to accomplish such a feat. Of which she knew few who could. Among those who had done so was the creator of my spear, Takeshi Kuroriku. To think that he would've created a weapon to recreate what only those with his level of talent could do.

I eyed Nakia, who was watching me nervously. He likely hadn't met someone who could perform resurrection attacks before. Or didn't understand how I had managed to achieve it.

A smile dotted my face. This ability plus mana control meant that my mana was basically infinite!

I flashed over to Nakia and smirked. "What? Running away? Isn't that something that a veteran knight like yourself should know not to do? Or do you have no honor?"

Nakia raised his hands and laughed nervously. "Well, I'm not exactly the most honorable of us seven."

I snickered as I spun around. "You did strike me as the easy target type. But you did defy expectations for as long as you could. Thanks for giving me a battle that I will remember for a long time. I've learned a lot."

Nakia said and lowered his head. "Seems that I am still wet behind the ears myself."

I looked down as the ring dropped back down.

"That was quite the match," my ancestor said, smirking.

"Hope that you learned something yourself from this, Nakia," Kiyoka said, closing his eyes.

So, they were watching and hearing us from here. Probably by means of a spell.

"I say that we up his training regimen," Yukari said, smirking.

Nakia gulped. He sighed. "No, you're right. I do have to work harder."

Yukari jumped down from his throne and patted his fellow knight on the back. "Don't worry, my dear nephew. I'll have you in shape for the war."

Hopefully, they wouldn't see any action here. At least, not while those of us on the offensive were away.

"You did well, Eii. I took the time to brief the others on the rest of the situation with the war."

I stretched my arms and sighed in relief. "Good. That means that I can rest a little."

He smiled. "And you can see your girlfriend too."

I turned away and blushed. Yeah, I could go see Sabine. May the brief rest be enough for her mind to be at ease.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the fight ^^. Thoughts on Eiichi and the Seven Lights?**