The Embodiment of Evil

Donna looked across the platform at Severus de Blood. He was spreading his poison as before with Tyrannus and his sinister eyes looked at her with caution. 

He knew that she recently progressed two levels, giving her the confidence to fight him so he isn't taking her lightly. 

Furthermore, he had just been embarrassed by Tyrannus, so he wanted to give a good showing and not get demoted another place in the rankings.

She dashed at Severus at full speed, sweeping aside his poison with her wind abilities easily. As she attacked with her sword, it was blocked by Severus' gauntlets. 

He wore two gauntlets with fingers having swords tipped with poison. They moved like they were a part of him, causing Donna to have to dodge and somersault to avoid them. 

The two danced in the air and fought acrobatically for several minutes. Wherever Severus' swords missed, it left a hiss as the poison corroded the floor, or even parts of Donna's armor. 

Ultimately, Donna managed to slowly prevail as Severus' strengths are in poison and assassination, not in straight forwards combat. 

Donna's armor however had nicks and holes in them having been sliced and pierced by the gauntlet. 

"I yield!" Severus yelled as Donna placed her blade on his throat. 

In her next challenge, she fought Aribeth and found herself at a disadvantage. Her wind blades were no match for Aribeth's sword lights as Aribeth could cast them faster and more numerously. 

Donna had to dodge the ones her wind blades did not counter, causing her armor to get more damaged. Under the armor, she had numerous cuts on her body. They weren't serious, but she was still bleeding. 

"I have to admit, you've improved alot, but not enough. Do you surrender?" Aribeth asked. 

Donna looked at Aribeth, then at Tyrannus who was watching intently. She hesitated for a while, undecided what to do

Donna unclasped the locks on her armor, and her breastplate fell to the floor. Then she removed the rest of her armor, exposing her injuries. 

She was wearing leather pants and a white blouse under the armor which were now cut and had blood all over. 

However, to the shock of the crowd, she didn't stop there. She removed her blouse, revealing her bra as she used her blouse to wipe her injuries. 

Then she used her sword to slice open her leather pants, cutting the legs off, making them into thigh revealing leather shorts.

"Ok, now I'm ready" Donna said with a determined look. 

"Really? You really want to continue like that? Alright then. En garde!" Aribeth said as she fired her sword lights.

Donna charged forwards and to everyone but Tyrannus' surprise, she started avoiding most of Aribeth's attacks.

As she was not as proficient in avoidance as Tyrannus, she still managed to get cut, once on her right thigh, once on her left arm and a cut on her shoulder, but in an instant, she had reached Aribeth. 

Their swords clashed instantly as wind and light powered swords clashed multiple times in seconds. Both had exquisite sword skills and they evenly matched each other. 

Every slash and stab was countered perfectly by the other for several minutes. It was impossible to determine who would win. 

However, after a while Aribeth could clearly be seen taking more damage. 

Donna seemed to have this uncanny, yet familiar looking skill of dodging, enabling her to hit yet not be hit, causing Aribeth to fall into an disadvantage.

Slowly, the momentum turned and while Donna was still going strong, Aribeth was slowing down and getting more bloodied. 

Suddenly Aribeth disengaged and jumped to safety.

"I surrender! You've won!" Aribeth yelled, looking quite worn out.

Donna jumped into the air in elation. Then she pointed at Lancelot.

"Are you sure, princess? You've just had two tough battles?" Lancelot asked as he walked up to the platform. 

She smiled and got into her fight stance.

"Alright then. En Garde!" He yelled as lightning surrounded his body.

Just as he attacked, Donna's body swayed. Lancelot thought that she was dodging the way she did against Aribeth and countered her movement, attacking her trajectory.

Suddenly Tyrannus appeared in front of her, easily blocking the spear with a mini explosion between his hand and the spear, and causing the spear to fly out of Lancelot's hand.

The next moment he was outside the platform with an unconscious Donna on his arms.

Lancelot looked confused and realized that Tyrannus was searching Donna's body before finding a gruesome cut on her upper back that was turning purple and corroding.

"Severus! Is this one of yours?" Tyrannus asked.

"Err....yes.. I believe so. I didn't know I managed to cut her" Severus said, running over and handing the antidote.

"Many thanks" Tyrannus said, having a quick sniff and determining that this antidote was to be taken orally, immediately feeding it into her mouth.

Severus gasped. Is his knowledge of poisons so profound that he could determine what antidote it is by the smell?

Aribeth looked over with conflicted feelings. Donna beat her while poisoned?

As Tyrannus brought Donna to the infirmary, the new rankings were announced. The top 5 are:

1) Tyrannus Rock

2) Lancelot

3) Donna de Avalon

4) Aribeth de Mornay

5) Severus van Blood

As he brought Donna to the infirmary, she slowly regained consciousness.

"Tyrannus? What happened? How did I lose to Lancelot?" she asked

"You didn't lose in the duel. You passed out due to being poisoned by Severus' blade in your earlier battle" he explained.

"I see, so I did get cut. Thanks for everything Tyrannus" she said.

"No problem" he smiled

"But you've got to train me more" she said

"Sure" he answered.

He left her in the infirmary and wondered around campus, ending up at the library.

The several days later after a complete recovery, Donna left the infirmary and started looking for Tyrannus. He had yet to attend any classes, and haven't even signed up or even checked out what classes were on offer. 

But she couldn't find him and started asking around before hearing that he was sighted at the library several days ago. 

She ran through the campus, briefly passing by the ranking list to check what her new ranking was. She smiled as she saw her name in 3rd while Tyrannus was now the number 1 student on campus. One who has yet to attend a single class. 

She entered the library and found him on the 5th floor. She had expected him to be learning more martial abilities, or maybe history and geography of the country, but instead he was surrounded by a eclectic selection of books. 

She found him engrossed in a book on cooking recipes for magical beasts. She looked at the other books and found books on dancing, books on magical craftsmanship, on herbs, poisons, medicine, painting and even an extremely explicit book on sexual positions. 

"Tyrannus! What are you reading?" she asked, holding up the book on sexual positions.

"Uh... Donna... hi!" he smiled. He looked at the book in her hand and blushed.

It wasn't that he liked studying or reading in general, but as he entered the library, his mind started recalling brief glimpses of many different subjects. He felt that he was once immensely knowledgeable about those subjects, but he seemed to have forgotten them. 

This made him feel uncomfortable as it made him feel that he had lost his memories, and this feeling frustrated him. 

So each time he had a glimpse of something, he immediately sought a book on it to try to fill the gaps in his memory about that subject. 

"I uh was browsing through the library because I was bored, and these were a few books that caught my attention" he said. 

"Indeed" Donna said as she turned the book sideways and the page she was on unfolded to become a bigger page. 

"Good god! Is this even possible?" she gasped looking a picture of an obscene sexual position.

"Uh... I've read enough for today. How are you feeling? Have you checked the rankings?" Tyrannus said while taking away the book from her and placing them in his book pile, then holding her hand and pulling her away. 

"Yeah, I'm ranked 3rd now. You're first!" she said. 

"That's great! Where do we get food on campus? I'm starving" he said, having not eaten for days. 

"Don't change the subject! You have got to train me to beat Lancelot" she said. 

"Ok, ok. Feed me first" he laughed as they both walked out of the library.