Vol. 5 Ch. 4

“Now, that’s what I’m talking about. BUT YOU BETTER CATCH ME FIRST!”

She stood up, picked up the swords, and ran to the collector up north.

He chased after her.

“DAMMIT! I’M GONNA HAVE TO USE MAGIC AGAIN AFTER ALL!” he grumbled.

He chanted, “ROCK WALL!”  and aimed in her direction, forming a wide rock wall in front of her path.

She tried going around the wall by heading to the west but a beam shot towards the area.

“Stop right there.”

“I’m so close to the collector, are you sure you’re gonna be able to keep up with me?”

She examined him.

“What are you gonna do? You know magic isn’t gonna stop me from this distance and you don’t even have a wooden sword.”

“ICICLE BARRAGE!”

He fired the spell at her, a bunch of icicles head her way but she dodged the projectiles by rolling to her right.

She took a glance at him and was flabbergasted, for he held a sharp ice shard, treating it as his weapon of choice.

“Who said I had to fight with a wooden sword?”

She smirked, then she held the two swords in her hands.

“Let’s play a game then, shall we?” she provoked him.

He pointed his ice shard at her.

“Which will be first? Will your sword be intact until I reach the collector? Or will you retrieve your sword?” she asked as she tried to stall for time.

With no remorse, he went for her.

She threw the sword in her right hand to her left. She now held both swords in possession of her left hand. Her right hand was pointing towards the ground.

Then a sudden realization came to him, “Wait a minute…”

Wind blew out of her right hand, launching her off the ground.

“Doesn’t mean I should engage in battle though,” she said.

“I couldn’t cancel it, it was out of my range. But…”

He cast a spell, “ICE BRIDGE!”

An upwards slope made out of ice forms from him to her.

“Clever move, however…”

Pointing her right hand to her east, wind blew out, pushing her in that specific direction.

“Rookie mistake. I should end this now,” he thought.

“WIND!”

He lined up his left hand to his back. Wind came out and he used this to propel himself up the ice bridge.

She was astonished, “WHA?”

He let go of the ice shard and grabbed her. They were flying high up in the air.

“ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU LITERALLY PROPELLED YOURSELF THIS HIGH JUST TO GET ME?”

They were now falling.

“I told you to take me seriously. Now give me the sword and I might consider saving you.”

“I can take care of myself thank you.”

She hit him in his gut with her elbow.

“IYAH!”

He accidentally let go of Hazel but was able to grab one of the falling swords.

“Why, you…”

She too used wind to propel herself away from him. She let out a sigh.

“You know… you could’ve…”

She watched where the two swords would’ve been only to see one falling sword.

“Wait…”

He coughed from the earlier blow. But upon inspection, he held in his right arm, a wooden sword.

“When did you…”

He cast a spell, “WATER!”

Aiming down, he used the force of the gushing water to land safely on the floor of the stadium. Meanwhile, Hazel used wind to do the same.

“I got a sword,” he comprehended.

He inspected the name embedded onto the sword’s blade.

“This isn’t… my sword.”

The engraved name clearly states ‘Hazel Paufia’.

On the other hand, Hazel was staring at the sword she had remaining. She discerned that he had her sword.

She proposed, “Looks like we each have something of our own, how about a sword exchange?”

“ICICLE!”

Yet again, an ice shard forms on his left hand.

He exchanged the positions of the two swords now with the ice sword on the right and Hazel’s sword on the left.

“Let’s pick up where we left off.”

“I’m not taking the offensive this time. I’m now aware of her skill. She doesn’t particularly excel at swordsmanship, she’s witty, agile, and her reaction time is exceptional. That’s where I’ll try to surprise her,” he hypothesized.

He stood still.

…

..

.

She was staring at him, she wondered, “He’s not rushing? He clearly has the advantage. Is he baiting me?”

She stood still for a while then darted to him.

She went for a pierce.

He sidestepped to the right and attacked using the ice sword with a downward slash to her back.

She rolls to his right to dodge the attack.

“Reaction time,” he thought.

He attacked her with a slash to the right using his ice shard.

She ducked and made it her objective to retrieve the wooden sword he had.

He retracted halfway and used his knee to hit her chin.

“UFUH!”

She ended up being drawn back.

“A feint? I didn’t expect you to improve this fast,” she complimented him.

“I learn from my mistakes.”

“I’m not particularly used to using two swords. I want to kick the wooden sword away but there’s a possibility of someone else catching it while we’re busy with each other,” he theorized.

She lay an uppercut with her sword with him dodging only for a split second.

“WOAH.”

She attacked with a pierce.

He sidestepped to the left.

She attacked with another pierce.

He dodged to the back.

“SHE’S ANGRY!” he concluded.

She attacked with another pierce.

He sidestepped to the right but Hazel suddenly revoked her attack and pursued the wooden sword.

“CRAP! I DIDN’T EXPECT THIS! I HAVE NO CHOICE!” he panicked.

He threw the wooden sword away from her.

“NO!”

She ran after the sword hurriedly but he attacked her with the ice shard to the neck.

“GYACK!”

She fell flat on the ground and dropped Phize’s sword.

“I think I hit her too hard,” he thought.

Phize peered at where he threw away Hazel’s sword.

He was shocked, the sword was no longer there.

“Wait, didn’t I throw it there?”

Someone passed by him from his right.

“Who’s there?”

He looked at where his sword was.

It had vanished as well.

“THE SWORD! IT’S GONE!”

“They said AT LEAST 2 swords, right? And that’s including your own sword,” the voice of a young girl spoke coming from behind.

He turned around.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

“That’s not how you greet someone. I’ll take it anyway. My name is Lili Aundrabeau, nice to meet you. Um… what’s your name?”

“How polite of you to introduce yourself in this mess. It’s Phize Gratham Drestil.”

“Phize, what a weird name, and not in a good way. Well then, I bid you farewell.”

She darted away to the collector to the right.

“WAIT!”

“Hazel was already troublesome enough. Dammit,” he grumbled.

Lili disappeared in the crowd of fighting students.

END OF EPISODE 28