Capítulo 16: The Clash of Fire and Rain
Roy watched Phantom with an excited look. Phantom's face was covered up in the same featureless white mask with only two eyeholes. Two stormy gray eyes blankly from these eyeholes like two glass eyes. Roy was never certain what exactly Phantom was thinking, it was always hard to tell. Once in a while, Phantom's face underneath the mask would make a vague expression or make some sort of noise to reveal his inner thoughts, but other than that it was as if Roy was talking to a doll with no emotions. Those two storm cloud like eyes would never change at all.
It was the same case for when they were faced with the goblin hoard from earlier. He saw Phantom kill the goblins effortlessly with the same indifferent eyes.
Roy was sure for certain, Phantom was a strong swordsman.
Roy's fist uncontrollably clenched harder onto the handle of his sword. He had to spar with Phantom at least once. How strong was he? Was he stronger? A slight shiver ran down Roy's spine causing him to tingle with energy.
Phantom stared at Roy for a moment or two before finally replying. "Why do you wish to fight me?"
"You are strong," answered Roy back immediately.
"You are wrong. I am less than average."
"I can feel it," grinned Roy, "You are very strong. Sparing with you will be very interesting."
Phantom let out a small sigh. "Well, you are wrong. I do not have your talent with the sword. You are able to imbed mana into your sword. I cannot. There is no point in continuing this duel or spar."
Roy frowned. Phantom was unable to imbed his mana into his blade? That had to be a lie. Roy wouldn't feel excited at the thought of fighting against Phantom then. He trusted his instinct that was screaming that Roy had to fight with Phantom. It had never failed him before and it wouldn't fail him today. Roy was sure that Phantom was making an excuse to avoid sparring with him.
"Then I shall not imbed mana into my sword as well. Draw your sword Phantom. I will fight you no matter what today."
"You do realize that I'm a water spiritualist right? My specialty is long range attacks. Not the sword which relies on close combat."
"You can use a sword. I saw you killing those goblins earlier."
"What if someone gets injured?"
"I have a few high quality life potions. As long as the wound isn't severe, it should be easily healed by it."
Phantom sighed once more. "Well, I guess I can't avoid anymore then. I formally accept your request to spar."
Roy let out a giggle. "Why are you speaking so noble like? Are you some sort of prince?"
"Perhaps I was in the past," indifferently replied Phantom like always. "However, I am now a phantom free to roam whoever I go."
Roy let out a laugh. "Is that why you call yourself phantom?"
"Nah, the guild receptionist pissed me off so I just randomly blurted out a random name."
"Hahaha, you are such an interesting person."
Roy slowly drew his sword before holding it out in the front facing Phantom. Once again Roy observed Phantom with excited eyes.
Inky black hair that looked as though it had been dyed with charcoal, a white mask like that of a faceless ghost, two stormy gray eyes that seemed colder than death herself. A calm demeanor that seemed as though everything in the world held no true importance. An arrogance that didn't come from being arrogant. Now that Roy thought about it, Phantom was a fitting name for him.
Roy watched as Phantom unsheathed his sword. It was a rather thin and disappointing looking weapon, while most standard swords were about two to three inches thick, Phantom's was nearly one. Roy flicked his glance down towards his own blade, which was a little over three, and frowned. The thickness between their two blades were incomparable. Perhaps if the blade was single edged, it might have been able to defend against his blade, however, as Phantom's blade was double sided, Roy seriously doubted whether or not Phantom's blade would be able to last a single strike before shattering in half.
Roy hesitated. Maybe Phantom had been telling the truth. Maybe he had guessed wrong and Phantom was actually weak.
However, all of Roy's doubts disappeared when Phantom stared at him with the same deadly eyes and whispered, "Come."
Without hesitation, Roy dashed forward towards Phantom and gave a heavy sideways sweep. Just as expected, Phantom opted to dodge instead of blocking by leaping back until the tip of Roy's blade just barely grazed past Phantom's stomach. As inertia carried Roy into a full spin, Phantom took this chance to give a quick thrust towards Roy's neck with deadly accuracy. Roy just barely managed to avoid the deadly thrust by utilizing the inertia to shift himself to the side in exchange for losing his balance.
However, Phantom refused to let Roy off easily and quickly followed his thrust with a quick slash of his own. Roy grunted as he felt a painful sensation on his neck and forcing his swinging blade into the ground which allowed Roy to roll away from Phantom whilst blocking a third attack headed for his neck and forcing Phantom to also take a step backwards.
Immediately, Roy got up from the floor and placed his sword in a defensive stance while Phantom watched him from afar with dead gray eyes. Roy felt the blood drip down from his neck and involuntarily shuddered. His instincts had not failed him. Phantom was strong.
Once again in the positions that they were in when they started this spar, Roy and Phantom stared each other off for a long moment before it was broken once again by Roy.
This time making sure to avoid using heavy attacks, Roy gave a few slashes towards Phantom who somehow evaded them without batting an eye. Every once in a while, Phantom would give an unexpected thrust or slash that would force Roy to hurriedly defend in a panicked manner.
Suddenly, in the middle of their fight, Roy noticed Phantom stumble and grinned. Brandishing his sturdy blade, Roy started to unleash a bunch of nightly slashes that forced Phantom to dodge without being able to completely regain his balance or counter attack. After a few more particularly close dodges, Phantom was unable to remain standing and tripped backwards onto his back and Roy gave a cheeky smirk.
Although Phantom was undoubtedly a good sparing partner, it turned out that Roy was still stronger. Roy raised his blade high before bringing it down at Phantom who was on the floor unable to dodge or retaliate. With confidence coursing through his veins, Roy was about to stop his blade right before it lacerated into Phantom's chest and declare himself the victor when a sudden thin fragile looking blade unexpectedly come forward to defend against his blade. Roy's only thought in his head was the image of Phantom's blade shattering as it defended against his final blow.
And then, in a flash, the thin blade was twisted around until Phantom's sword faced his blade at a steep angle. Roy's blade slid down the flat side of Phantom's blade like a child on a slide, harmlessly passing by Phantom, before crashing into the ground. Before Roy could react to what had just happened, he noticed a blade resting quietly on his shoulder right against his neck.
Spellbound by what had just happened, Roy stared into the empty stormy gray eyes of Phantom who slowly got up from the floor with his blade still against Roy's shoulder before saying in a whisper as quiet as death, "Are you satisfied?"
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