.
True to his nature, Mr. Kowa did not hesitate. He charged while pulling his blade back to prepare for a strike.
Meeting that enormous blade with a pair of cutlasses would normally be an act of suicide, and I wasn’t feeling particularly suicidal. Pouring additional Earth into my blades, I directed my friends to support my arms rather than my back and caught his strike with both blades.
The speed at which I could move and the power I could muster was still astonishing to me. That Fan Li woman moved so gracefully, acted so meek and mild and looked so bookish, it was hard to believe she had such a powerful technique. Of course, she’d grown up in a martial sect, so it made sense she had the skills.
Surprisingly, thanks to that technique, my right blade had taken all the weight of his sword by itself, allowing me to stab with the left. The strike was ad-lib, so it was weak, but it made him spring back. Then, while sending the next pattern I wanted to my spirits, I leapt forward.
My friends carried me into the air, but again, the strength I was mustering prior to their help shocked me. They barely needed to do anything as I somersaulted over his head and came down behind him.
He was getting used to fighting against these arts, and he was developing a spiritual sense, so my move did not surprise him. He spun around with his sword already striking with deadly accuracy, making me lose the opportunity to attack. I could only parry his blade. With that done, I bounded backward, using my friends to lift and carry me out of range.
Rather than return to the ground, I borrowed their power to kick the air and leap to one side, just as his magic missiles came flying at me, then continued borrowing it to turn sideways and run in a circle in the air around him, as if sprinting on a cylindrical wall. As I went, I fired wind blades at him from my cutlasses, the spirits using mana to accomplish the same things they would have done using the energy of the wind on my world.
I thought he would fire a [Spirit Shot] at me– in fact, my strategy assumed it– but instead , he used [Strength Enhancement] to leap directly at me.
Letting out a merry laugh, I caught his blade again, praising him with a “Well done, my boy!”
Naturally he couldn’t stay there, since he had no means to stand in the air, but he timed his fall back to the ground well, bounding like a rubber ball away, the moment his feet hit the ground, evading the [Wind Blade]s I sent after him.
Next came more [Earth Bullet]s, which he guided with Will, countering my friends’ efforts to deflect them. I had to parry them one after the other with my cutlasses instead, while flicking more [Wind Blade]s back at him off them with flicks of my wrist. They were weak, so that was just harassment to keep the young buck busy.
I summoned help again, kicking the air to propel myself straight at him. The spirits joined me, accelerating me with a gust of wind.
My timing brought me there while he was still at the end of his swing, and he was only able to go to one hand on the sword so he could raise his forearm while calling out, “[Armor]!”
He managed to block my first blade with his arm and get the crosspiece of his sword in the way of my second. I was more than just a little bit amazed that he was able to maneuver that heavy blade around one-handed without breaking his wrist, but I had the presence of mind while marveling at him to land my boot in his chest and kick myself away before he could do more.
I won’t continue describing the entire fight. We kept on like this for a good long while. I wounded him twice, badly enough to have to stop and become Tiana in order to heal him, and he got me once, just as good, requiring me to transform to Tiana and back to reset myself.
After the second wound that I gave him, I transformed into Her Ladyship so she could heal him, then she transformed back into me again, but he refused my offered hand to assist him back to his feet.
Instead, he said, “Tell Tiana to fight me.”
I hesitated, then noted, “That’s what we’ve been doing, though?”
“Not as you,” he said, sitting up on his own. “As herself.”
I weighed the options, then told him, “Tell her the reason.”
“You and I are about evenly matched, right?” he asked, instead.
“I reckon it’s two to one at the moment, my boy,” I replied with a smirk.”If you want to call it even, you’ll have to win another round.”
He shook his head. “You and I both know the odds are even. Either one of us might win the next round. What are we even doing, like this?”
With a nod, I sat back down, leaning on my hand. “If you’ve worked off your frustration, then you’ve done what you came for. For my part, I’ve seen enough to approve your progress, and that’s what Her Ladyship was aiming to do.”
He sat up and scowled at the ground, thinking about it. Then he asked, “Are you really the same person as Tiana? And Fan Li?”
“It’s hard to say what that means,” I answered. ” ‘The same person’, is it? I have my own personality, my own life, my own treasured memories. In all those respects, I’m certainly someone other than either of those two. I’m a woman who commanded a crew, fought and dodged pirates and sailed the skies of my homeworld for a living. I was never a ‘My Lady’ or a ‘Your Highness’ or whatever else. And I was certainly never a sage like Fan Li. They called me ‘Captain’ in the port where I raised my children after my time in the sky, but I wouldn’t say I was ever that respectable, in truth. If anyone calls me princess, I’ll laugh at ’em.”
His brow wrinkled, and he shook his head. “What’s the point of having a new life if you don’t remember your old one?”
“You remember it eventually, like I have now. Your past life memories aren’t lost forever. They’re just stored away, waiting for you to reach immortality.”
Then I laughed at myself and slapped my thigh. “Listen to me, talking like a scholar. Sirth the Wind Seeker never knew about such things. I knew how to handle a boat and hardly knew enough to raise my kids. It’s time I returned to being my successor and let her talk about the immortal stuff.”
With that, I changed back to Tiana, but not before I made sure the system gave her the outfit she was wearing outside. She might have gotten comfortable with showing all that skin, but I sure hadn’t.
In the next moment, I looked down at my reasonable and conservative outfit– at least it was conservative compared to my fairy armor– and smiled. I still had my sword harness, with the mithril longsword on my back.
“That may have been her way of dodging the decision,” I commented. “Why do you want to fight me and not her?”
“You heard me, right?” he said. “She and I are evenly matched. I want to fight you.”
I stared at him for a bit, and he stared me right back in the eye. Then I nodded and got to my feet.
“Fine,” I answered, and turned and walked away to put some distance between us while pulling my sword again. Then I deliberately formed a thought for Sirth.
– Keep the wind spirits nearby and guide them for us. I’m pulling out all the stops.
I’m only talking to myself when I do that, of course. Framing it like communication is just a way of organizing my thoughts.
I turned and looked at the young man with the oversized great sword and let Kwelabi read his body language while Daq began the mind mantras that would sharpen our thought processes as clearly as possible. Meanwhile, I channeled my Will and began my spiritual body techniques. With everyone else hard at work, Fan Li couldn’t participate, but I felt like I could manage her simpler techniques with borderline confidence now.
He set himself up in Kendo stance, middle guard, once again. I held my longsword and my stance in Orestanian form, low side guard, then swept my sword tip up and saluted him.
“Last round, Mr. Kowa,” I declared while growing my wings. Earth mana filled my blade as I prepared my magic swordsmanship and Water mana filled my body as I began my [Body Fortification] skill. His blade and body both filled with Earth.
“Onegaishimasu,” he replied.
I gave a single mighty flap of my wings, bounding toward him. Sirth’s spirits sent me hurtling that direction at twice the usual speed, but it was okay, because they also added to my swing as our swords met.
The thunderclap of the mana repulsion between Earth and Wind should have sent our blades and bodies flying apart, but we were both buttressed by our techniques to the point where it was impossible. The backlash blew into both our faces and bodies like a slap from a thousand-pace-tall giant. Great gouts of soil flew out of the ground to each side of us as a trench twenty paces long was instantly dug out of the ground between us.
I pushed off his blade to hop backward, then drew back my sword. He quickly prepared his own swing and our weapons met once again, blasting out another divot. We parted and rejoined twice more with the same effect.
His armor was a mess, with parts of it missing entirely, but his [Body Fortification] was protecting the skin beneath. Belatedly, I realized that my own clothing was getting shredded by the blasts. What was left of my blouse was now hanging from one arm, and I didn’t want to guess what the damage to the chemise beneath it might be. I simply grew my raiment to improve the coverage.
I formed a thought about how Sirth’s spirits might help drive my blade even harder, while forming up my Will to enhance the power of my limbs beyond that, then attacked once again.
The blast blew Ryuu backward. I gave one more vigorous flap of my wings as I followed him to deliver one last swing, using the flat of my blade. His body folded around my weapon and he lost his grip on his sword as I struck. His limp body flew away, landing on the ground two paces distant, bounced twice and then came to rest, motionless.
He’s dead? I asked Curator as I watched him lie there.
Quite dead, Commander, she answered succinctly.
I sighed and sheathed my sword, then looked down and shook my head. My chemise was in tatters. If Ryuu had any time to look, he would have gotten a pretty sweet view.
Fix my clothes, please.
She swiftly restored my clothing to its original state.
Now, reset him.
Ryuu’s body disappeared, then he reappeared near my feet, laid on his back with his sword at his side.
I nudged him awake with my toe.
“Satisfied?” I asked him.
He looked up at me as he visibly considered the question. Then he nodded and grinned.
“Yeah.”
I put a couple steps distance between us so I wouldn’t be looming over him, then asked, “Were you expecting some other result?”
He shook his head. “Nope. It went about the way I expected.”
“Hm,” I replied, not sure what to say about that.
“Do you figure Chiara saw that?” he wondered.
“They were watching, so I assume so.”
He humphed, then smiled. “Well, she probably didn’t expect a different result either.”
He sat up, laying his hand on his sword hilt, then said, “I don’t think there’s a point to this, anymore.”
I nodded. “So we’re done here?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
Honestly, I’m not entirely certain what thoughts were going through his head. Maybe mortals were becoming as inscrutable to me as they were to Senhion.
I grew my wings. We had moved a long distance from Durandal, and I needed to go pick him up.
“I’ll send you over to where Chiara and Dilorè are, Mr. Kowa,” I told him. “I owe a friend of mine a fight with a dragon. Do you have anything else to discuss before we part?”
With a slightly mystified expression, probably in response to the bit about the dragon, he shook his head. I nodded and transferred him over.
