Bab 29: Hold
When the first blow happened, the spectators in the arena roared in excitement as two young knights exercise their prowess in their duel.
Though it was her first strike, Delcie's stamina was greatly reduced as her attack was so fast that her inexperienced muscles nearly gave out.
However, she couldn't afford to show weakness in front of her rival, Charles Rigmun. Though her arm felt like it would've fallen off, she grits her teeth as she steels herself for the counter attack.
On the other side of the Arena, Charles was also hiding his surprise from Delcie's attack. It was so fast that it genuinely frightened him. If he had not parried it, his arm would've flown off he thought.
He wanted to charge to counter, but fearing a second attack might connect, he stands his ground and anticipated for the second blow.
But because of his indecisiveness, Delcie was able to catch her breath and relax her muscles. But unlike earlier, she charges with her hands still on the sword on her waist.
Delcie realized that her magic significantly got drained when she attacked from a very far distance and it required her to use a lot of muscle strength. So by shortening the distance between them, she can lower her use of magic and lessen the strain of her techniques to her body.
As she does a quick sword draw, Charles parries her attacks rapidly at almost matching speed.
By increasing the speed of her sword drawing attacks, Charles starts to fall behind and started receiving cuts on his arms and legs.
"It's not too late to yield, Rigmun!"
"Cinder Post!"
To Delcie's surprise, a rod made of flame suddenly springs out from Charles' palm and launched towards her.
By twisting her body to the left, she was able to dodge the surprise counter attack. But because of her stance, she was not in a position to draw her sword.
Seeing this chance, Charles makes his fire magic explode under his feet and launched himself to Delcie.
Without wasting any second, Delcie uses her wind magic to make a small cyclone around her body to spin.
And just when Charles slashes down his long sword, his attack got deflected and struck the ground. And using that same momentum, Delcie throws a kick at Charles that hit his shoulder enough to blow him away from his sword.
Seeing such intense exchange, the crowd roars with thrill and excitement.
"You're disarmed now, the next attacks might take a few fingers or an arm."
"Who said I need that?"
While brushing off the dust off his shoulder, Charles taunts Delcie by doing a hand gesture which seemed to be effective.
"Take this then!"
Delcie uses Force Arte to make herself jump high. After that, she lifts her weapon above her head while gathering wind magic on her sword making it look like she was holding a tornado.
"Compass Breaker!"
As she pulls out her sword and swings down the blade of tornado towards Charles, she saw that her victory already happening with Charles being blown away to the Arena wall.
But to everyone's surprise, that didn't happen.
Instead, Charles caught the tornado with his arms body covered in flames that doesn't seem to burn him in any way.
Delcie was surprised, but seeing how she's stuck in the air because of her tornado blade, she started to panic.
Without letting that chance go, Charles uses all of his strength to swing the tornado blade he caught and mercilessly slam Delcie on the ground with her own sword technique.
Once again, the crowd roared and cheered for both of them.
But before the dust settled, Delcie suddenly emerged from the cloud of dust with her sword out and nearly got Charles by the neck.
Charles half-expected the attack and he was able to bend backwards to avoid it. A technique he learned from Rose.
And using that same momentum, he flips as he kicks Delcie in the gut and to the sky.
But this time, Delcie could see everything from the sky and sheathes her sword. Without wasting another second, despite the pain, she throws a wind blade from her sword drawing technique and struck Charles on the left shoulder.
But because she was in pain from his kick, the strike didn't hit deep and felt blunt and crude. Yet it was still enough to make Charles bleed and drop on one knee.
As Delcie landed, she also dropped on one knee while using her sword as cane to remain standing.
She had some internal organs damaged from the slam which was worsened by Charles' kick to the gut. The pain was almost unbearable for her that a few tears came out of the end of her eyes.
"So, what now, Garaval? Feel like yielding now?"
Though Charles is taunting her haughtily, he himself wasn't unscathed.
He was bleeding all over his body from the cuts he received from the second volley of wind blades. And despite him being able to slam Delcie with the tornado, the tornado itself was able to cut through his fire armor. And to make it worse, his left arm is now disabled because of the blow that nearly cut off his limb.
"Like I'd yield to the son of a Cheater!"
By forcing herself to stand using her sword as support, Delcie tries to prove that she was still capable of continuing the duel.
"I've already explained it to you, but you're too stubborn to accept it. So I will win this duel as fair as our fathers had."
While saying so, Charles approaches his sword and pulls it out with one hand.
Though it was difficult for him to lift the sword with just one hand, he still managed to point the tip at Delcie while infusing the blade with his fire magic making it burn like a torch flame.
"With all due respect, I will show you my pride as a knight. So I will warn you, I will not hold back with my next attack."
Hearing that, Delcie got annoyed and let out an irritated laugh.
"Is that so, then I'll respect that and do the same in turn."
Unlike before, Delcie lets go of the sword's handle and hovers it just above the sword's butt.
The crowd falls into silence as they anticipate the announced final attack.
As they waited for the other to move, they infuse their weapons with all the magic they had.
Charles' sword glows in red as he infuses more and more fire magic into it to the point where the flame turned blue as it was starting to get more mixed with his holy element affinity.
Delcie's sheath also started to glow in green as it vacuums the air around them violently as if it was compressing energy that could explode at any time.
Both of them were serious.
Both of them wanted to protect their pride as knights.
But, before they realized it, it was already too late.
With a single swing, both of them released their magic.
Charles jumps into the sky and swings down a large blade made of blue flame towards Delcie. The blade was so hot bright that it outshined the sun in the sky blinding everyone in the Arena.
At the same time, Delcie finally releases the compressed air from her sheath launching the sword inside with a loud explosion of air. And as she grabs it in the smallest split second timeframe, the magic infused blade releases the magic and launches the blade of wind magic into the air in a form of slash.
But when the attacks connected with each other, the unexpected occurs.
The Blade of blue flame absorbed the magically compressed air into it and became unstable.
"What the-"
Before Charles could finish his own words, the large blade suddenly glows as it explodes right in front of him.
With the blade becoming a bomb, all they could do was close their eyes in fear of what they have created.
But just when everything was going out of control, all of a sudden, he felt a sudden chill in the air.
To his surprise, Rose was suddenly beside him mid air.
"Curse of Darkness: Frost Bite"
-End of Chapter
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