Chapter 158: Eren vs Alice
"Oh? My reckless fiancé and the nation’s beloved saint are up next?"
Aria murmured, sitting on the steps with her friends, a smile gracing her lips as she watched Eren step onto the arena floor.
"Do you think Lord Eren actually stands a chance of winning, Lady Aria?" one of her noble friend members asked, leaning in with genuine curiosity.
"He just might," a second noble girl chimed in. "Did you see how effortlessly he embarrassed Lord Reinhardt last week? He treated a prodigy like an unruly toddler."
"Yes, but Alice is an entirely different caliber of monster," the third girl pointed out, shaking her head. "She is the chosen Saintess, blessed by the heavens themselves. Defeating her? Most knights would consider landing a single glancing blow a miracle."
"Hmm..." Aria hummed noncommittally, keeping her golden eyes locked onto her dark-haired fiancé.
Deep down, she knew the girls were right. Alice wasn’t just a student; she was a walking, smiling holy calamity.
Aria’s gaze then turned sideways to the girl huddled quietly beside her—her newly acquired purple-haired companion who hadn’t uttered a single word since arriving at the arena. Violet sat with her knees pulled tightly together, purple eyes locked on the ground below.
"So, my sweet little Violet," Aria called, leaning her head with a teasing glint in her eyes. "Whose side are you cheering for today?"
Violet jumped like a startled rabbit, her eyes snapping wide as she frantically turned toward the intimidating villainess.
"I-I... um..." Violet stammered, her voice a tiny, breathless squeak. Having spent years locked away in isolation, spending time with top noble ladies in the academy was enough to set her social anxiety on fire.
Aria leaned in close, practically occupying the girl’s personal space with a wicked smirk. "Come now, don’t be shy. In one corner, you have your cherished, lifelong best friend. In the other, you have your savior. Pick a favorite."
Violet’s cheeks instantly turned red at Aria’s closeness.
"I... I don’t know!" Violet squeaked, her brain short-circuited. "I-I support them both, Lady Aria! I want Alice to be safe... but I also... I guess Lord Eren should... I mean, I guess..."
Aria and her friends burst into soft, melodic chuckles at the spectacle of her panic.
"Relax, little one. I was merely teasing," Aria laughed, gently patting the girl’s soft purple hair. "You really are just like a skittish kitten."
"I-I am not a cat!" Violet blurted out in flustered embarrassment, puffing out her flushed cheeks in a desperate bid for dignity that only made her look ten times more adorable.
***
Down in the ring, Eren rolled his shoulders, holding the dull training steel blade in his hand as he stared at the golden-haired protagonist.
Alice stood opposite him in her fitted academy combat uniform, gripping her steel longsword with picture-perfect holy knight posture. Her blonde hair swayed slightly in the artificial arena breeze, looking every bit like the celestial savior she was destined to be.
The massive, bald instructor stepped between them, his booming voice echoing off the stone tiers. "This is a sanctioned assessment duel! Magic and aura reinforcement are fully permitted. The second I call a halt, weapons drop instantly. Understood?"
"Understood, Instructor," both answered in unison, trading deceptively sweet smiles.
The referee backed away, and Eren couldn’t resist a casual smirk. "So, Saintess... are you planning to cash in two years’ worth of pent-up harassment grudges in one swing? Should I brace for a merciful execution?"
Alice smiled back, raising the tip of her blade until it aligned dead-center with his chest. "I don’t hold petty grudges, Volsver."
"Good to know."
"However," Alice’s smile widened, a glint flashing in her eyes, "I have no intention of holding back."
"BEGIN!" the instructor bellowed.
True to his habit, Eren didn’t flinch. He stayed rooted in place, letting his opponent start the initiative.
Alice moved like lightning, leaving electric trails behind.
With a quiet step that splintered the arena sand, she closed the distance in a moment of a heartbeat. Her combat style was legendary for a reason: overwhelming, single-strike blitzkriegs designed to end fights before spectators could even blink. The entire spectators gasped, already anticipating another poor noble brat being swept off his feet.
Eren widened his left eye, activating the [Temporal Eye].
Instantly, three distinct neon-blue phantom silhouettes split from Alice’s charging frame.
Three lethal outcomes, zero margin for hesitation.
Following Emma’s advice, Eren abandoned raw conscious analysis. He let his subconscious instincts mesh with the predictive visual feed until the three ghostly silhouettes snapped and collapsed into a single, blazing path.
’To the throat,’ Eren deduced.
With terrifying acceleration, Eren swung his steel sword upward in a brutal parry.
CLANG!
The blades collided with a loud metallic screech just inches from his throat. Alice’s amber eyes widened in genuine, momentary shock—she had never had a student predict her initial shot, let alone intercept it dead-center.
Before she could process the impossible block, Eren pivoted his hips, reversing his momentum into a heavy, brutal downward cleave. Alice reflexively snapped her blade flat to guard, but the monstrous force from his swing slammed into her guard, sending the Saintess skidding backward across the sand by several paces.
She dug her heels into the ground, her instincts screaming to retaliate in a split millisecond.
She looked up—only to find a searing arc wave of bright orange flame tearing through the air, spawned directly from Eren’s downward chop. The fire arc was already inches from her face.
"Divine reinforcement!"
Reacting purely on instinct, a radiant, glowing golden aura erupted across Alice’s blade. With a vertical slash, she cleaved the fire arc clean in half, extinguishing the magical flames into harmless plumes of white steam.
A dead silence in the entire arena.
Up on the seats, students froze with their jaws dropped. Emma sat with her elbows on her knees, an impressed grin spreading across her tanned face, while the bald referee stared at the golden glow with his mouth wide open.
Eren had just forced the divine-blessed Saintess to use her divine aura within the first five seconds of a casual sparring match.
Alice let out a soft, breathless chuckle, brushing a stray strand of blonde hair from her forehead as she straightened her posture. The shimmering golden aura coating her blade hummed with quiet, celestial power.
"That flame burst..." Alice asked softly, her eyes sparkling with awe. "Did you made that from the mana you absorbed from Violet?"
Eren offered her an unbothered smirk. "Yeah. Packs a pretty decent punch, wouldn’t you say?"
Alice laughed, the sweet sound echoed through the dead silent arena. "I really never expected you to change this much, Volsver. You’re full of surprises today. But seeing how capable you actually are... I have no intention of holding back anymore."
"Why are you so obsessively fixated on winning a simple assessment match, Alice?" Eren teased, tilting his head with a cheeky grin. "Did a certain prince promise he’d shower you with praise if you crushed your opponent?"
Alice’s turned flustered red.