Chapter 247 – Sparring Training

Chapter 247 – Sparring Training

Iris held a kitchen knife, crouching behind a tree.

Not far away was her good neighbor and good friend, Alba.

She hadn’t noticed her yet—a perfect opportunity!

The moment the timer started, she burst out, moving at her fastest speed.

Running through the woods with obstacles everywhere, it was nearly impossible not to make noise.

She’d barely taken a few steps before Alba turned around.

“Iris! You’re ambushing me!”

Her mouth said disbelief, but her hand drew her knife without the slightest hesitation.

The two were just about to go at it fiercely when a gust of black wind swept past.

A voice lingered in the wind: “Pardon me.”

Iris and Alba looked at the bleeding cuts on their arms and gnashed their teeth in unison: “Moira!”

The sparring training had barely begun, and Mo Lan had already wounded both their arms.

What a terrible start!

Still, the two of them knew in their hearts that with their speed, catching up to Mo Lan was impossible, and counterattacking was equally unlikely.

Fortunately, this training wasn’t an elimination-on-injury format. Instead, victory was determined by the total number of opponents defeated. Wounding someone counted as defeating them, earning one point, with a maximum of 27 points per person.

Although the training had no rewards or punishments, the young witches’ competitive drive was fierce.

Losing a point to Mo Lan was one thing—there were still opportunities with everyone else!

For instance, right in front of them…

The two quickly tangled together in combat.

Moments later, a fresh wound appeared on Iris’s waist.

The outcome between them was decided.

“Hss! Some good friend you are—you don’t hold back at all with that knife!” Iris clutched her waist.

“Haha! That’s what you get for trying to ambush me!” Alba said cheerfully. “Hurry to the broom rack and grab your wand to heal up! Good thing we didn’t wander too far.”

Everyone had left their wands at the broom rack on the edge of the training grounds. If you wanted to heal wounds during training, you had to go to the broom rack to retrieve your wand.

Wandless casting wasn’t something they could manage at their current level.

The training had a time limit, so going to heal meant losing time, which meant losing points.

Iris hesitated for a moment but decided to go find her wand first.

The wound on her arm was small and could wait, but the one on her waist was starting to affect her movement.

“Mo Lan’s speed being that absurd is one thing, but Alba being that decisive too…” Iris sighed. “I’m not going to end up in last place, am I?!”

“No way! I need to heal up quick and go find some— Who’s there?” Iris whipped her head around. In the bushes, a figure sprang up with knife in hand.

Moments later, yet another wound appeared on Iris’s body.

Even though she’d been pummeled by water orbs for a month and had built up a tolerance for pain, right now she wanted to cry.

She’d been beaten by three people in a row!

This was far worse than getting hit by a water orb.

Her heart hurt more than her body.

Where some suffered, others thrived.

“Haha! I knew someone would come for their wand to heal soon enough!” Cheryl said. “With the way Mo Lan was going, I figured within ten minutes everyone would get slashed at least once. Camping here and waiting was the best strategy!”

“You got hit by Mo Lan too?” Iris’s gaze swept over Cheryl’s body—she couldn’t see any wounds.

“Just healed it with a healing spell,” Cheryl said.

“So I wasn’t the first victim!” Iris was immediately cheered up. “Just you wait! I’ll be back to camp here too.”

A few minutes later, there was another little witch crouching in ambush in the bushes.

“Twenty-five.” Mo Lan scored another point. “Only Vasida and Sylph left!”

“They went that way!” The little witch who’d just been wounded didn’t hesitate to reveal Vasida and Sylph’s location. “I just lost points to both of them too.”

Mo Lan ran in the direction she’d indicated. After a while, she indeed found Sylph, who was locked in combat with another young witch. Sylph was slightly superior in both speed and physical ability, and appeared to have the upper hand.

Mo Lan didn’t hesitate. She rushed in and slashed Sylph. “Even in the middle of a fight, you need to watch your back!”

Sylph had been right at the critical moment of victory when she was suddenly backstabbed by her companion. And that wasn’t all—she’d been firmly in control of the fight, but Mo Lan’s interference gave her opponent the opening to land a cut on her as well.

A direct double blow.

Sylph stomped her foot in fury. She’d never found Mo Lan this infuriating before.

But according to the training rules, once you were wounded by an opponent, the match between those two was settled—you couldn’t attack them again.

Otherwise, Sylph would absolutely have charged in and given Mo Lan a taste of her own blade.

Mo Lan never lingered after a win. She turned and ran, already heading off to claim her final point.

The training grounds weren’t that large, so finding someone was still fairly easy. Before long, she spotted Vasida’s trail.

Vasida had just won a point and was still chatting with the witch she’d defeated. Hearing the sound and seeing Mo Lan approaching, she didn’t say a word—she turned and bolted.

Mo Lan’s plan to rush her while she was distracted crumbled. She called out helplessly, “Hey! Why are you running?!”

Vasida didn’t even know why she was running.

She’d just seen Mo Lan charging toward her and felt a surge of panic, and her legs moved on instinct.

Thinking about it carefully, she figured it out—it was probably because Mo Lan had taken her down bare-handed twice before.

And during the water orb training, Mo Lan’s results had been far ahead of everyone else.

Vasida didn’t think she could beat Mo Lan in a fight.

“But it’s not like I have zero chance of winning! In stamina and endurance, I still have the advantage!”

With that thought, Vasida ran even faster.

Only by exhausting Mo Lan would she have a chance to win.

As she ran, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her back.

When she turned around, Mo Lan was just sheathing her knife.

“Did you forget? I’ve fused Super Speed a few more times than you.”

Vasida: “…”

She should have just stood her ground!

Her loss came down to having started earning mana later, which meant she’d also purchased Senior Lilith’s blood fusion spell later.

“With your speed plus your fighting ability, who in our entire year could possibly beat you?” Vasida said.

Thinking about how in every future training session she’d have to take a slash from Mo Lan—a real, bleeding slash—she winced at the thought.

“You’re right, nobody can beat me,” Mo Lan said. “27 points—I’ve gotten them all. The rest is up to you guys.”

Vasida: “!!!”

She glanced at her watch. “It’s only been eight minutes since training started!”

The gap was enormous!

Mo Lan was leagues ahead of everyone, and the rest of them were just a bunch of noobs pecking at each other?

No way! Even among noobs, she was going to be the strongest one!

Ignoring her wounds, Vasida rushed off to score more points.

Mo Lan returned to the broom rack, retrieved her broom, and flew up into the sky to watch the fights.

An hour later, the training ended.

The young witches gathered together to compare scores. Vasida had the highest, having defeated 15 young witches for 15 points. Sylph came in second with 12.

The other young witches all hovered around 8 to 9 points, with little difference between them.

In one hour, in a wooded environment, they hadn’t managed to find everyone and fight them all.