System vs Rebirth

"No." Noel snorted coldly, rejecting the offer without hesitation. However, there was a progress in his temperament since the previous Noel would have said, 'I'd rather die than learning from you.'

Anna also noticed it. Although the timing was a bit absurd, she just felt happy about it.

Hence, she decided to show it to Noel instead of teaching him. With the talent Noel had shown this whole time, there was a chance that Noel would understand what was going on and implemented his knowledge by himself.

Even Noel saw her body releasing yellow-colored particles. Normally, she never spent this much Spiritual Energy because it wasn't cost effective. However, she needed to make sure Noel could see everything.

Noel furrowed his eyebrows, observing the Spiritual Energy.

'The Spiritual Energy comes out of the body… Now that I think about it, how do you use a Spiritual Energy?' Noel imagined the feeling he felt when using Mega Slash. It felt like something in his body was sucked outside.

The movement came from his heart to his hands before flowing into his sword. There was only cold sensation followed by a bit of pain.

'Now that I think about it, other than using the Mega Slash, I have never touched the Spiritual Energy itself.' Noel took a deep breath as he shifted his blade to the side. His other hand gently touched the wooden sword while his right hand still prepared to swing the moment Anna make a move.

'Mega…' Noel followed the Mega Slash motion and started muttering inwardly to enhance the imagination.

He suddenly felt something warm in his other hand as the blue light started coming out of his sword.

'This is…' Noel glanced at the blue light and thought, 'I do feel drained like losing my blood. My temperature will also drop. But the Spiritual Energy is such a warm thing… It's like a blood but the texture is similar to that of air. Something like that in my heart…'

Noel tried to imagine that power and draw more from his heart, but he couldn't feel anything. There wasn't a movement at all.

After standing still for thirty seconds, Anna finally made the first move.

She leaped to his side and struck him from below.

Noel took a step back to gain some distance and slashed downwards, hitting her sword right in the middle.

Mega Slash.

*Bang!*

The moment the two swords collided, Noel broke Anna's sword apart due to Anna not covering her blade with Spiritual Energy.

"What?!"

"Is he stronger than Anna Stargaze?"

"Impossible."

No one could believe it because losing one weapon would mean losing the battle. However, Anna didn't think that was the case.

She proved it by letting her sword go.

After breaking her sword, Noel's swing continued on its path, preventing him from pulling back.

'No! She baited me!' Noel widened his eyes and wanted to change the path of his slash, but Anna was one step ahead.

She grabbed Noel's wrist and spun her body before lifting Noel with her back, throwing him.

"Kh." With his body hanging upside down in the air, Noel knew that Anna wanted to take this chance to defeat him, especially with the fact that her Spiritual Energy gathered on her fist.

Noel hurriedly raised both arms, protecting his body.

"Not good enough." However, Anna responded by touching his arms gently as if she never planned to harm him.

But the next thing he realized, the Spiritual Energy burst out, giving a powerful shock wave that was concentrated on his arms.

*Bam!*

The shock wave shook the entire training ground as it blew Noel several meters.

He crashed to the ground on his back, but instead of his back, Noel was overwhelmed by the pain on his lower arms.

"Argh!" Noel gritted his teeth, trying to endure the pain.

"Even if you lose your weapon, you will use everything around you as your weapon. I'm sure that the instructor has taught you that," said Anna with a calm expression, reminding everyone that everything hadn't been set in stone just because they lost a weapon.

Noel's hands were shaking. It was clear he had a hard time moving them.

'Kh. This is not enough. I need to draw the Spiritual Energy from my heart. It seems there is a kind of reservoir in my heart that stores the Spiritual Energy. The fact that I can use Mega Slash before absorbing the crystals means there is an initial cup that allows me to draw a portion of its power… But I don't think I can do this right now… Even Shale said it will take a long time to even use Spiritual Energy…'

Although he was a bit disappointed about it, he decided to stop focusing on the Spiritual Energy in this fight. Instead, he planned to rely on something else.

Just like Anna said earlier, losing a weapon didn't mean losing the battle. He might not be able to use a sword with this sword, but he still had a few ways that could injure Anna.

Even though he couldn't grasp his sword, he still could held the dirt. While he was rolling around to endure the pain, his hand grabbed the dirt.

The moment Anna dropped her guard, Noel pushed himself back to his feet and threw the dirt right at her face.

Anna was surprised that Noel used this tactic. Luckily, her soul seemed to retain her instinct. She leaped back to gain some distance, avoiding the dust.

After that, she leaped back to Noel, but somehow stopped in her tracks, avoiding Noel's kick.

'A kick, huh. He can't use his hand, so he uses his foot.' Anna thought before gathering her power in her calf and put her left foot on his way.

Noel hurriedly retracted his foot because he knew kicking Anna would just injure him.

'She can envelop her body with the Spiritual Energy while I can't. The only thing that can injure her is my Mega Slash right now… Should I stop to retain some of my stamina? If I injure myself foolishly, it will just lower my chance to wound her.' Noel narrowed his eyes, assessing the current situation.