Reincarnated as the Only Male in an All-Girls Magic Academy!
Chapter 53: Ren Vs Mirabella (1)

Chapter 53: Ren Vs Mirabella (1)

Ren stepped forward, the spikes on Bloodsucker’s club end rattling faintly like a caged beast desperate for freedom.

His breath came in steady, measured inhales as he scoped out the space between himself and Mirabella: the sunlit marble tiles of the arena floor, the glittering crowd beyond the barrier, and the faint shimmer of ice clinging to every surface in her wake.

He let his gaze travel up her silver hair, braided back with a single violet ribbon, and linger on the dagger in her hand; its blade frosted with a thick, crackling sheath of ice that glittered like a captured lightning bolt.

In that moment, everything slowed for Ren. He felt the pounding in his veins matching the distant roar of the crowd, heard his own heartbeat humming in his ears like a war drum.

He frowned, silent and serious, and Mirabella returned the gaze with a calm, graceful narrowing of her eyes. Then, without a word, they launched into motion.

Swish!

Mirabella’s first step was a flicker so quick that Ren’s analytical mind registered it as a flash of silver light rather than a footfall.

She leaned forward, her dagger raised like an accusation, and the air around her toes frost‑bloomed into a scattering of snowflakes.

Swish! Bang!

Ren instinctively brought Bloodsucker up in a wide arc to parry, the spiked club catching the ice blade with a sharp clang that sent sparks of frost dancing across the floor.

He felt the impact tug at his arms, and he activated his Umbral Kinephantom Panther rune; just a flicker of power, enough to redirect the dagger’s momentum downward into the ground.

Boom!

With a thunderous crack, ice splintered at their feet.

Instead of pressing forward, Mirabella receded, her legs moving in those uncanny short steps he’d heard rumors about.

It was too fast, precise and unpredictable, almost like she was walking on lightning.

Each tiny step left a small ring of frost that vanished in an instant, as though her presence froze the world for a heartbeat.

Ren raised an eyebrow, impressed. Most opponents he had faced telegraphed their advance; she telegraphed nothing.

He twisted the chain around his waist twice, calibrating his stance. Kusarigama spins were his specialty: wild on the surface, but underneath, every motion was calculated.

Every rotation, every flick of his wrist, every snap of the chain served a precise purpose.

It was time to show the might of the forge!

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

He began with a slow drill: scythe blade sweeping at ankle height, club end hammering low, chain coiling and uncoiling like a serpent tasting the air.

Mirabella watched, dagger poised, her cold aura humming like a warning siren.

Then, Ren shifted his weight and snapped into action.

Swoosh!

The scythe blade soared upward in a blur thay was simply too fast for a casual spectator to follow.

It literally vanished like a dark beam of light!

Even Mirabella barely managed to slide back in time, the scythe’s tip grazing the hem of her clothes, shaving ice from the ground as if to carve his path.

There was no wound, but the message was clear: he could nick her if he tried.

She responded with a graceful pirouette, dagger slashing in a frozen arc that Ren met with the club end.

Bang!

He felt the impact through his bones, and again flicked his rune: this time, redirecting her strike’s momentum into a sudden backward somersault.

She landed on her feet lightly, dagger raised above her head but found Ren already swinging the scythe back down.

His movements flowed too bizarrely, and when logic dictated him to move back, he was coming forward instead!

Truly a headache to deal with!

Ren plunged the blade low in a feint, then whipped it upward behind his shoulders in a savage counter‑slice so quick it sounded like a clap of thunder.

Mirabella tensed, ice crackling down her knife, but she bent her knees and dove off to the side. The scythe bit into the marble, sending up a spray of ice and stone.

She rolled forward and came back up on one knee, dagger tracing arcs of frost through the air. Her rune glowed a pale violet light, and the dagger shivered.

Ren took a breath and mentally ran through his options, cataloging every detail: the slight weight shift in her shoulders, the angle of her knees, the way her dagger hummed with frost .

He distracted her with a loose spin of the chain, its movement wild, chaotic, only to stop dead, releasing a snap that sent the chain flying across the arena.

Mirabella flinched at the sound, and Ren’s scythe was already arcing toward her flank.

"Not bad," she murmured, voice low and impressed, stepping back and letting the scythe whistle past her elbow. "Very... unpredictable."

Ren was actually able to suppress her with just his weapon wielding skill! He was a monster with this kusarigama!

But she was a monster as well!

Bang!

Ren dipped into third gear, flipping the kusarigama so the club end snapped at her chest.

She raised the dagger in time to block, the impact freezing a shockwave of cold into her skin, yet she never flinched.

Ice formed a web pattern across her arm, but she simply absorbed the cold, toes digging in, and used her rune to coat her dagger in even thicker ice.

The blade pulsed with power now, a torrential cold ready to roar.

Ren tapped his rune again, feeling the familiar pulse of the Umbral Kinephantom Panther energy surge through him.

It didn’t require much, just the tiniest transfer of momentum from the dagger’s impact back into his step.

Suddenly, he found himself beside her in less than a heartbeat, scythe held behind him, dagger poised to strike.

Mirabella’s violet eyes widened ever so slightly. She might have respected his speed, but she never expected him to close that gap so quickly!

She parried his reversed swing, the blade shattering a spray of ice like fireworks.

Then, with a swift kick, she knocked him off balance, sending him skidding on one knee as ice cut a shallow arc across his armor.

Ren landed face‑first on the floor, pain flashing through his cheek where ice kissed metal.

He swallowed out a mouthful of spit and grit, mind racing.

’Three runes... three runes.’ She had stamina and raw physical power on her side.

Yet momentum was his domain. She froze water; he froze time—well, not quite, but he turned her own force against her.

He rolled to his feet, clothes streaked with sweat and ice crystals, and flexed his fingers. The crowd was roaring now, but their words were a distant echo.

All he heard was his own pulse. He ducked under her next lunge, chain whipping around her wrist in a brutal snare that sent her dagger spinning high.

Before she could recover, Ren’s club end dropped in a heavy arc.

She braced with her other dagger and ice flared like a flash grenade, but his spike club broke through her defense, rattling her arm and sending her stagger back.

Yet even as pain flickered across her face, she blinked and smiled. A single droplet of frost hung in the air around her eyes.

"Impressive," she said, voice calm but fierce. "You really are different."

Ren panted, adrenaline and blood rushing through him. "Good different?" he panted.

Her smile widened. "Very."

Right then, both recognized something unspoken: the battle had only just begun.

Swoosh!

Ren’s eyes narrowed as Mirabella’s ice‑blade thundered toward him, its sharp edge closing the gap in an instant.

But before that strike could land, he already read her every nuance; the subtle shift in her shoulders, the breath drawn a split‑second before the blade extended.

His mind, honed by days of countless evolutions and brutal training, played out her options like a complex equation.

As the ice blade cut an arc of shimmering frost through the air, Ren tapped into his space affinity and wove the first Space Lock.

Ooom!

Time itself felt to slow, the threads of reality contracting around Mirabella in an invisible cage that snapped shut so quickly most onlookers would’ve missed it.

Mirabella’s violet eyes widened in surprise, but she did not panic. Her feet dug tiny divots in the ground as she struggled against the unseen walls pressing in from all sides.

Ren didn’t hesitate: he yanked the scythe end of his Bloodsucker forward and spun it with all his cunning kusarigama skill, the chain thrumming like a live wire.

Bang!

He caught her briefly off guard and struck, the serrated blade biting shallowly into the fabric of her sleeve, enough to draw a line of frost‑tinged blood along her arm.

First blood!

She gasped, surprise and pain flashing across her perfect features, before her eyes flared with icy resolve.

Ren seized the moment to cast two more Space Locks, his Chaos Mental Sea giving him the rare power to cast multiple weaves at once.

The arena air quivered as reality bent around Mirabella a second time, trapping her again even as she shattered the first bond.

This time, though, she bit back, her power brimming: her beautiful violet eyes flashed a bright white light and the ice affinity threads in the loom were being woven at an insane speed!

She was weaving!

She raised a palm, and dozens of razor‑sharp icicles as small as fingernails shot out like gunfire, each one aimed to puncture.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

But Ren danced through them, his momentum transfer rune flickering, instantly redirecting each step’s force into the next step of his footwork.

He weaved a deadly ballet, the heavy kusarigama a blur of black and red, keeping her at bay with rapid spins and feints so varied that no single pattern emerged.

Mirabella’s breath came in controlled puffs of frost as she realized brute speed and power weren’t enough.

She straightened, clustered her mental energy, and charged. Each step was a lightning flicker of Mirabella’s bizarre technique filled with tiny, unpredictable strides that let her vanish and reappear at odd angles.

Ren narrowed his eyes, but even he hadn’t expected how fast she would close the distance.

Before he could fully react, she activated her rune again and this time, effortlessly triggered its resonance.

Rumble!

Ice exploded around her dagger, forging it into a wicked, jagged sword of living frost that hummed with destructive intent.

There faint mirage of a dazzling Snow White Butterfly manifested behind her and fluttered its majestic wings.

The crowd roared.

Resonance! She actually triggered Resonance!

The blade’s range lunged outward, thrice as long as before, and Ren felt a shock of ice cold terror when he realized his momentum‑rides wouldn’t be enough to dodge this one.

The sword arced toward him in a single, devastating slash.

Rumble!

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