Chương 14: Fight between brothers
The soldiers soon returned and gathered around the grounds. Many of them wore the same expression of annoyance, undoubtedly because I barged in on their practice and created a scene.
"Anyone else, willing to fight my son?" Announced my father
Despite the looks of annoyance and contempt they directed at me, no cadet took him up on the offer, trying their best to avoid his gaze.
Then one hand raised up.
"Are you sure?" Dad looked uncertain
"Yes father, I'm certain. I can win"
Tatsuya stepped up to the plate, grabbing another wooden sword while I was still holding my broken one.
He looked at me and flashed a smile before assuming his stance. I just stood there, unmoving.
"Are you ok Yukiko? Let's fight, it'll be fun I promise" He said with a smile.
I couldn't hear him.
"Alright, since you gave me this opportunity" He laughed, dashing towards me with his sword beside him.
He planted his right foot in front of me, brought his sword up and to his side and swung down diagonally, aiming for my neck.
I brought my sword up and intercepted his. Our swords met and he tried to overpower me by applying force on his weapon. I met his raw power with total concentration and we found ourselves in a stalemate.
I stepped to the side, angling my blade so Tatsuya's sword would slide off and prepared a horizontal strike aiming for his neck. Tatsuya responded by following my movements and blocking my attack.
Again, our blades remained glued to each other for a few seconds before we both jumped backwards to reset the fight.
Tatsuya charged at me, the hilt of his sword horizontally aligned with his head and the tip of the blade pointing towards my face. When he got in range, he thrust, hoping to hit me.
I stepped to his right to avoid the piercing attack. When he hit air, he changed the grip on his sword and swung it diagonally, only to be met with another block.
He withdrew his blade, holding his hilt horizontal to the ground and stared at me.
'Enough is enough, I'm ending it' I dashed forward by lightly overloading the vessels in my legs and swung my sword aiming for small but precise cuts.
My strikes resembled a blender as my overloaded arms made their speed unmatchable by any normal human.
But Tatsuya held on. Despite clearly being on the backfoot because of the blade flurry, he could still feel the blades coming at him by pure instinct, blocking only the ones that would instantly end the fight, tanking the rest.
His clothes were tattered and blood flowed from his forehead, yet he didn't give in, withstanding the mad flurry of strikes, looking for an opportunity to strike back.
That opportunity never revealed itself. When Tatsuya finally staggered backwards, I stopped my strikes and brought the sword back to my side, winding up for an attack.
"First form, water surface slash. Overload" The blood vessels in my arms were overflowing with oxygen once more, considerably boosting the attack's speed and power. The pain was there, but I didn't care, I needed to end this fight quickly.
A powerful stream of water followed my blade as it neared Tatsuya's side. I waited for contact, yet there was none. He had dropped to the ground just before it reached him. The attack was too simple, too telegraphed for an experienced fighter to not read, despite its unnatural speed. After the sword flew safely above his head, he used his long legs to deliver a kick to my ribcage, making me lose my footing. Then, sword still in hand, swung at my legs in an attempt to get me on the ground.
These people were nothing like the samurai I read about in my previous world. They used any method to ensure they won a battle, no matter how underhanded and with no care for honor.
Between me and my brother, I held the speed advantage and a slight strength advantage, but the difference between our combat experience was too great to simply overcome with overwhelming speed.
Yet I still had my breathing style.
"Dead calm"
I tried using the eleventh form of water breathing to block, yet the state of tranquility never washed over me. I couldn't calm down. Instead, the waters around me remained turbulent.
I conjured all the strength I could muster and overloaded my arms once again to intercept his attack with a simple block. His wooden sword was cut in half, now reduced to merely a dagger.
I regained my footing and activated another form of water breathing.
"Fourth form, striking tide. Overload"
What was supposed to be the finishing blow, was reduced to merely a small prick on Tatsuya's skin as my arms refused to listen to me, falling limp just before I was about to strike.
He kicked me in the chest again and got back on his feet to stand over me. I had no more strength to struggle, none of my fingers would move as my arms were bleeding and popped blood vessels could be seen underneath my skin.
He plunged the wooden dagger toward my heart and 'killed me' signaling that he won the fight.
The crowd erupted in cheers. I didn't even want to look at anyone anymore.
Tatsuya offered his hand to help me up. I didn't refuse, but I couldn't accept either. I couldn't even move.
"Just leave me here" I said, my voice barely a whisper.
The crowd began chanting his name in unison. Something which attracted many other soldiers and servants to the scene.
"Ok now you rowdy bunch, pay respects to both fighters, they put on a brilliant show for us today." My dad shouted, his commanding voice silencing the cheers of the crowd. "Burn this in your memory, most of you will most likely never witness a fight like this in your lives again, much less take part in one. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to bring my son over to the infirmary."
My dad came over to me, picked me up, and started walking away into the mansion. As soon as we entered the house, the cheering exploded again as all the cadets swarmed Tatsuya.
"You did well," My dad said with a smile.
I couldn't care less. My mind was still in jeopardy. It would take me a while to process everything.
Dad didn't go to the physician's office though. He went directly to the garden and looked for grandpa.
"I know you're there old man, show yourself. Yukiko is with me." At that last sentence, the garden seemed to rearrange itself as we walked in a random direction and found grandpa sitting on top of his boulder.
"Stupid brat. This is what you get for not listening to me." Grandpa spat out when he saw the state I was in.
"Leave him with me" He commanded.
Father bowed deeply before taking his leave, leaving me half passed out on the boulder.
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