Chương 20: Friday & First of Many
Nagisa's "Arcane Awakening" immediately kicked in with Chisa dashing towards him for his throat. The impact would be in less than a seco…
Nagisa was already forced to parry it and balanced off her rapier against his sword to nullify and halt their movements for a second to spare. However Chisa rotated her wrist and rapidly stepped in for a triple barrage with her rapier, exhaling slowly.
< Flaring Triburst >
Incoming multiple attacks in less than a second, throat, torso and waist. Nagisa could only choose to block the first one to his throat, then leaped backwards and the third one clipped his waist, opening a slightly light flesh wound.
Nagisa's enshrouding cloak protected him from any potential lethal harms, making the wound minimal. Nevertheless, the pain was real and Nagisa felt a slight sting. The enchantment also allowed for rapid healing, closing the wound periodically, in a slow fashion linear to his current defense stage ability.
A drop of sweat from his forehead hit the ground and Nagisa thought: "Damn, she is good!". Chisa smiled back almost as if she had read his mind and did not falter her attacks.
She kept up the triple barrage beyond his speed and Nagisa grinned, this was sure one he would lose. The mobility gained from the Fire user class was something he could not handle with his Wind nor Arcane abilities and current stage as of yet, adding on top of her skill with the rapier.
They sparred for about four minutes and his magical cloaking had critically diminished, and he was close to reaching mana depletion in a few seconds regardless. The five minutes upkeep was something he could only attain without taking any substantial damage.
"I have to look for at least one blow to counter," Nagisa leaped backwards to think for a few seconds.
Meanwhile Chisa kept rushing him without any signs of slowing down. He removed the sweat from his forehead with his left arm.
"My enchantment can only take about another hit or so... considering all of these small flesh wounds," Nagisa estimated his own condition.
Nagisa's body was covered in minor ones, hemorrhaging little by little, all over, his arms, legs, chest. Chisa even managed to clip his back a few times.
One thing he managed to figure out was that Chisa's damage output was small, sacrificed into making her attack speed high. If he wanted at least one strike on her, he had to face Chisa and provide a counter to one of her thrusts.
"Do not falter, you may only move forward," Nagisa closed his eyes and exhaled calmly to regain his focus and began to sprint forward.
This turn of events surprised Chisa and the two of them grinned upon colliding. She aimed for his left shoulder and got a successful hit in and his absorption shield completely broke, then the second one was aimed towards thrusting his abdominal area and Nagisa found his counter.
He deflected her rapier out of the way and got a good deeply inflicted wound through onto her left shoulder. In response, Chisa struck Nagisa briskly through his left kneecap and he let out of a muffled scream.
"Yours hurt as well, it is only fair," Chisa helped Nagisa stand back up who was bleeding all over.
Nagisa especially bled from his left knee since there was no wind cloaked barrier prior to the incurred injury.
"I thought a spar ends at one's enchantment breaking!" Nagisa complained instantly and tried to suffer quietly through the pain.
"You struck me after I broke it, remember? Too eager and all excited you had finally found your one counter in exchanging blows!" Chisa scolded him.
Nagisa knew Chisa was right and regretted his eagerness. Chisa threw him a vial.
"Drink up!" She smiled.
And he listened, popping the vial right open and gulping it down. The wounds immediately closed right up, yet the damage and fatigue still lingered. Both of them sat on an upper row looking down at the battle field, most sparring warm-ups have been concluded.
Nagisa considered himself lucky enough to rest before facing Miyuki. After a couple of minutes Chitose clapped her hands together to gain everyone's attention.
"Ahem…" Chitose cleared her throat before speaking with her right hand.
"We will now begin the mock-battles, you may either choose to fight until first blood is drawn after one's magical defense has been breached or until one breaches the magical shielding," Chitose spoke loudly.
"The first one is the formal rule that all of you will be subjugated under to during most tournaments. The only exception being is either loss of consciousness or if you resign. The first blood ruling is since your magic enchantment absorbs most physical damage and prevents hemorrhage to a large extent. This is something all of you should already be familiar with," Chitose concluded the briefing of the tournament rulings.
She then turned around and brought over a whiteboard table onto the grounds.
"Sign-up your mock-battle opponents, else they will be completely randomized," Chitose tapped her knuckles lightly against the board twice.
Immediately after Chitose had spoken, Miyuki smirked over to look at Nagisa and proceeded to head on down to sign them up. Nagisa's nerves built up, watching everyone else having their mock-battles before him.
The ones that remained were the ones involving the upper-class and nobles one mostly, including Nagisa's battle with Miyuki, the reason being that they were estimated to be longer.
"Next up, Nagisa vs. Miyuki," Chitose called for them to head on down.
Chisa took Nagisa's hand when he arose from his seat and gave off a worrying look.
"Do not worry, I got this," A brave facade was put on and Chisa could not help but wish him luck.
"Good luck!" Chisa let go off his hand and watched the two of them prepare for their mock-battle.
Miyuki kept his grin all the way from the stage, right from the moment he heard their names and walked down to the battle arena. Nagisa shook and kept repeating one thing.
"Relax, relax, relax…" Nagisa uttered hushly, to a seemingly pointless repetition of unnerving nerves.
"Ruling?" Chitose urged them to pick one and Miyuki stepped forward.
"How about we mix it up, and have tournament ruling? I like the one about your opponent giving up or losing consciousness," Miyuki cunningly smirked.
This arose everyone's attention and people were excitedly standing up, chanting for it to pass.
"Afterall, are we not friends, Nagisa, come on, let's live a little?" Miyuki kept his smirk.
A quick look from Chitose was tossed his way to see if Nagisa agreed and he nodded hesitantly. Nagisa could see May shaking her head, and he knew it was a mistake. But what other choice did he have? Either fight Miyuki here, or be abused later outside for refusing to.
Chitose later gave the signal for them to commence battle in ten seconds and for them to set their enchantments.
Miyuki swirled around his sword around his shoulders, flicking his hand and wrist and enchanted with his eyes open with ease all too naturally, at the same time approaching Nagisa slowly from a long distance.
< Engulfing Flame > & < Engulfing Exterior >
It was the first time Nagisa had seen Miyuki's enchantments. The flame wrapped around him was inexplicably beautiful and fierce at the same time. Nagisa gulped, he knew Miyuki had not skipped training and was dead set onto beating him.
"I will do you a favor and keep it at Stage-1," Miyuki broadly smiled.
Favor or not, his flames almost appeared as livid and strong as Chisa at her Stage-2. Nagisa closed his eyes and prepared his own.
< Enshrouding Wind > & < Enshrouding Cloak >
Then moved onto his Arcane abilities as well.
< Arcane Awakening > & < Arcane Coating >
"Mmm… I thought your emitted aura would be weaker, but I have to give you some credit, Na-gi-sa!"An overwhelming excited Miyuki smiled and continued to walk towards him.
Nagisa felt the pressure, should he take the initiative to strike first or wait for Miyuki to come to him? No matter the decision, Miyuki was too calm and focused, and did not seem to mind either outcome.
Miyuki kept swinging his sword around playfully until the two of them were almost at a sword's distance. Nagisa thought perhaps he would have the advantage considering his Arcane ability secretly buffed him to Stage-2.
"What is the secret you are keeping from me, why is there a pink burst of stream in your little misty wind. Hmm...?" Miyuki noticed his Arcane ability without knowing what it is.
This remark made Nagisa panic and dash towards him to make the first move and Miyuki halted his playful swing. Nagisa attempted to slice his chest upwards rapidly and dashed at full speed, however what happened next took him by surprise.
Somehow Miyuki had already moved in and stood up close to him before he knew it, then struck Nagisa deeply with his sword's grip into his stomach's sweet spot, enough for him to cough up some blood.
Nagisa fell on his knees and Miyuki walked past him to slice him once on his back, leaving a deep cut and almost hemorrhaging as much as Chisa's strike after his magical guard had broken. Miyuki then kicked him hard enough for Nagisa to fall onto the ground and drop his sword.
"Wha…" Nagisa coughed up blood and felt more injured than he ever has in his entire life.
Miyuki walked to pick up Nagisa's sword and help him right back up and then put the sword back into his hand before taking a few steps back.
"Nagisa… come on, is this all you have got? Do I need to slow down for you?" Miyuki shook his head with both hands held above his shoulders.
Everyone was in complete awe, almost no one knew apart from Chisa, Chitose, May and Daiki what happened. Miyuki somehow moved in, deflected Nagisa's strike and in the blink of an eye, had injured him with his grip, sliced his back and kicked him. Nagisa trembled all over and froze for a second.
"Slow down? You are not even at your full power! Do not fuck with me!"
Nagisa's mind broke completely and his panic took over. Nagisa attempted to thrust, slice, strike or hit in whatever way he could, however Miyuki dodged all of them with just a hair's width of a grace.
Nagisa's Arcane Awakening was not working either, even now when Miyuki willingly chose to slow down, he could only catch glimpses of his rapid movements.
"Have you lost your mind? Where was all this heat in our previous world?" Miyuki angrily complained.
The entire endeavour seemed to leave a bitter mark on Miyuki who began to become more and more pissed with Nagisa. It was almost as if Miyuki was expecting more of him, in spite of the large disparity in their abilities. Miyuki spat on the ground out of frustration to vent while he kept on dodging Nagisa's frenzied and desperate barrage of attacks.
After about three minutes, Nagisa's barrier was already at the brink of breaking due to fatigue alone, his mana was near depletion. This made Miyuki even angrier and swiftly moved in and gripped Nagisa's hand. Miyuki squeezed it unimaginably hard for Nagisa to let go of his sword, then Miyuki kicked him onto the ground and tossed Nagisa's sword on ahead.
"You disappoint me," Miyuki stabbed Nagisa through his leg while he was trying to crawl and pick up his sword.
Nagisa screamed out loud since his enshrouding cloak was long gone at this point. Even so, Nagisa did not want to give up and kept crawling forwards with the sword lunged into his right leg.
Right before he was able to reach his sword with his fingertips Miyuki stomped his fingers down and Nagisa let out another scream. Miyuki removed his blade and looked down at Nagisa with full anger in his eyes.
"You truly have not changed nor accepted what you are, have you?" Miyuki furiously scorned him right before impaling Nagia's right hand.
Nagisa yelled out in tears, and Chitose looked and moved to stop the battle, however halted, hence both of them agreed to the terms, preventing her from doing so.
"And why the fuck are you using your ri…" A much still infuriated Miyuki removed his sword and strived to impale his other hand.
But his sword did not hit its mark. Chisa managed to dash right on in and deflected it and picked Nagisa up to lean against her chest.
"Chi… sa?" Nagisa faintly spoke, looking up at her before losing consciousness and closing his eyes.
"And what do you think you are doing?" Miyuki roared and readied his sword to pierce right on through Chisa.
In response Chisa promptly replied to replicate Miyuki's request of exchanging blows and initiated her barrage of attacks.
< Flared Triburst >
Albeit, Miyuki parried all of them completely with ease to her surprise and Chisa's jaw dropped. Miyuki's blade was just about to penetrate her chest right before Chitose managed to intervene and repel his blow fully.
"Enough!" Chitose barely made it in time.
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