Guess?

*Clang! Clang! Clang!* The blades collided, ringing out like a symphony of steel. Felix was inwardly astonished—his training sword was specially crafted from black-steel ebony, a fine weapon by any standard. His opponent held only an ordinary wooden sword, yet it had clashed against his ebony blade so many times without breaking. Either the wood was extraordinarily tough, or her swordsmanship was exceptionally refined. He believed it was both. The moment she pulled back to defend, Felix’s eyes sharpened. Raising his sword high, he brought it crashing down with vicious force, pivoting his torso to channel his full body weight. To onlookers, he seemed to glide forward at high speed, his ebony sword smashing down like a shockwave! Yet his strike hit nothing but empty air! Just like the previous times, an instant before he could strike her opening, Sonia would execute an exceedingly bizarre footwork. Interrupting all her ongoing movements, she would abruptly slide across the ground, narrowly escaping his lethal strikes every time. And then— Turning his head, he caught Sonia’s calm, detached gaze and the blurred afterimage of her counterattacking wooden sword! *Clang!* Sweeping his blade to block the blow, Felix grew increasingly anxious. Although Sonia had not yet managed to wound him, he could sense that she was gradually growing familiar with Wave Stance, putting ever greater pressure on him. Even though he had earlier admitted she was more talented than him, Felix did not believe he would lose. Putting aside her stamina consumption, the sheer advantage of Wave Stance alone already placed him on invincible ground. Sonia had clearly studied Starry Stance from the *Swordsmanship Manual*. Despite its grandiose name, it was merely a foundational stance. Its advantage lay in providing a solid groundwork that allowed an easy transition to other stances, as well as the ability to summon three sorcery spirits: 'Slash Sword,' 'Cut Sword,' and 'Thrust Sword.' Its flaw was mediocrity. Wave Stance, on the other hand, was a secret art of the Vosroda family renowned for explosive power, and the Wave Sword sorcery spirit summoned from it was similarly an instantaneous-burst type. Felix had thought he would need only a relentless offensive to defeat this swordsmanship prodigy who had appeared out of nowhere. He had never expected that, beyond Starry Stance, she would also wield such bizarre footwork, stubbornly evading several unavoidable attacks. Although Felix had now roughly figured out her rhythm, Sonia had simultaneously seen through the intricacies of Wave Stance. The gap between them had narrowed! Beyond that, she had also mastered a sword-drawing technique. Yet compared to Wave Stance, the instantaneous burst of the sword-drawing technique was somewhat lacking. Felix had actually hoped she would clash against him using it; the sheer recoil alone would have been enough to fracture her wrist. But having suffered a minor setback once, Sonia immediately abandoned the technique, focusing entirely on maneuvering around him. Felix did not want to drag this out, nor could he afford to. Even if he dragged things out until Sonia's stamina was depleted, that would only be a self-deceiving victory. Moreover, her supple, proud figure seemed to harbor an endless reserve of stamina. He suspected that when the time came, the one collapsed from exhaustion would not be her, but himself! It was time to end this! Instead of hunting for an opening, he took a sudden step back, resumed Wave Stance once more, exhaled a deep breath of turbid air, and fixed his sword-sharp gaze upon Sonia. “The next strike decides it—victory or defeat!” he declared with absolute conviction. “Fine.” The next second, the surrounding onlookers wore expressions of utter shock, while Felix’s face contorted in sheer fury! Sonia had raised her wooden sword high in her right hand, turning her body sideways to face him in the exact same manner as Felix—she had assumed Wave Stance! No one believed Sonia had actually learned Wave Stance. Setting aside the fact that she had only just witnessed it, even if she had observed Felix’s training before, mastering it would have been impossible. Felix practiced in the training hall regularly, and everyone could observe the details of his training, yet who had ever stolen the secret arts of the Vosroda family? A stance encompassed not only its forms, but also breathing techniques, footwork, and precise methods of exerting force. One could never master it through mere observation. Even with direct instruction, not everyone possessed sufficient talent to comprehend it—every faction of sorcery capable of stepping into the Void Realm came with an exceedingly high threshold. Therefore, the crowd believed there was only one reason Sonia adopted Wave Stance: to provoke Felix! Nothing was more humiliating than defeating someone with their own technique. The provocation was clearly a resounding success; Felix’s face darkened completely, and he uttered not a word. Only Celia could not help but cheer secretly in her heart: *To humiliate and provoke Felix like this—even if he wants to forget you, he never will. Who would have thought a female hunter with such superb methods existed among the first-years? She's given me a lesson... Next, you'll gracefully lose to give Felix a way out, naturally setting up future sparring matches to increase your chances to get close to him, right?* “You brought this humiliation upon yourself!” Felix roared. He stepped forward, twisted his body, and brought his single-handed sword crashing down like a whip, like a boulder, like a cascading torrent! There was no flamboyant name for the move; its core principle was simply 'break'—to shatter the enemy’s defense with everything he had! Felix locked his eyes onto Sonia’s knees. He had realized that whenever Sonia used that bizarre footwork, the sole warning sign lay in the movement of her knees. By reading her knees, he could predict her evasive direction and adjust his blade's path accordingly, determined to crush her resistance in a single strike! Yet, contrary to his expectations, Sonia did not dodge. Instead, she executed the exact same strike: stepping forward, turning her body, and swinging her sword downward! Ferocity clashing against ferocity! *Clang!* Accompanied by a tooth-grating roar, their silhouettes crossed past each other. The crowd held their breath, waiting for the outcome. *Snap.* Half of Sonia’s wooden sword broke off, clattering to the floor. No one was surprised by this, for they saw a one-winged swordsman manifest over Felix’s shoulder. Most striking of all, its blade was composed of black light—the Wave Sword sorcery spirit! “A breakthrough in battle! Such a thing really exists!” “Summoning a natal sorcery spirit in the middle of combat!” “As expected of a Vosroda!” Ingrid stepped forward to support Sonia, comforting her, “Don’t lose heart. You’ll be able to summon a sorcery spirit soon enough, and when that time comes—” “I didn't lose,” Sonia said calmly. The onlookers froze, assuming she was merely saving face. Yet in the next second, Felix’s ebony sword snapped in two, clattering to the floor with a sharp crack. Over Sonia’s shoulder, a one-winged swordsman also emerged. Unlike Felix’s, however, hers was female, and the swordsman’s blade was composed of pure white light. “The Wave Sword sorcery spirit?!” “How did she summon the Vosroda family's Wave Sword sorcery spirit too? Could it be...” “Did she learn Felix’s Wave Stance during the battle and summon it right then and there?” “How is that possible...” “Wait, doesn't that mean she went from a novice swordsmanship apprentice straight to a sword sorcerer in just a few hours?” The crowd was practically dizzy with shock. Many of them had spent years without becoming a sword sorcerer, yet Sonia had attained in a single evening what had eluded them for years. The crowd’s envy, Ingrid’s astonishment, Celia’s jealousy, Felix’s conflicted gaze... Sonia was in no mood to care about any of it. She stared intently at the Watcher standing among the spectators, wearing an expression that said *I've seen through the truth*. In her mind, she asked, *Are you saying you're just an illusion manifested from my inner self, that you don't truly exist? That you merely represent my own inner thoughts? That you're just my hallucination?* The Watcher said nothing. He simply squatted down, picked up the broken piece of the wooden sword from the ground, joined it to the break on Sonia’s sword, and wiped his hand lightly across it. The wooden sword was restored to perfection, without even a hairline crack at the fracture. Even as he performed such a miraculous feat, no one noticed him, nor did anyone notice that the wooden sword had been mended. He dusted off his hands, turned, and walked toward the exit, leaving behind a reply that made Sonia’s blood boil: “Guess?”