“Parzival, i noticed something when we entered the dungeon, your armor is really bad for someone who’s from a noble house, why is that?” I asked.
“Ah, i don’t really get along well with them, they shun me because of my dark elf blood, so they only spent the bare minimum to get me going. My half-sister is the only one who communicates with me. She took care of me when everyone else avoided me.” Parzival replied in a bitter tone.
“I see, so now that we are somewhat close friends, do you wanna tell me which incident made everyone call you a freak?”
“Well erm, it happened last year when i was a first year. It was my first ranked battle and i was nervous. My opponent was overwhelming me so i panicked. Not sure how to fight back, i activated my ability. And when i came around, there were 3 teachers holding me back with horrified faces. I looked at my opponent and she… she was so severely disfigured that she couldn’t be recognised. All i felt then was just… disgust, so much 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘥 for myself. I was so traumatised that i swore upon myself that i would never use that ability again.”
“I think you should really work on that ability, from what i’ve seen, it is really strong, and trust me when i say it has not even reached its full potential. Anyways, i’ve actually come here to gift you something.” I pulled out the carcass of the A-ranked dungeon boss and laid it on the ground.
“Holy s*** dude, is that what i think it is!?” Parzival exclaimed.
“Yup, and it’s all yours now, go and craft and armor out of this.”
“Man you are the best! But won’t you need this?”
“Nah i’m fine, after that performance you pulled on this guy? I think you deserve it.” I said while slapping the carcass lightly.
The expression on his face was one of pure joy, it looked like he received his christmas present early.
—
After lazing around for a few days, i finally decided to challenge one of the top 10 rankers. I took a look at the list and found a few elves and demi-humans in the top 10. There was one familiar name that i spotted on the list, Lithana Bladeheart #7.
“I wonder if she has improved at all, i think it’s time to give tomato a visit.”
It took a while to find the school council room, but i finally found it. Knocking softly on the door, i heard a voice coming from within. “Who is it?”
“It’s someone coming to whoop your ass,” i said, deadpan.
“Hah real funny, come on in.” Lithana replied. “So what’s your business here Eric.”
“Greetings Ms-School-Council-President,” i curtsied in an exaggerated manner. “I hereby challenge you, Lithana Bladeheart, to a rank battle.”
“Ho, i accept, you better watch out or 𝘪’𝘭𝘭 be the one dealing the whooping,” she said with a smirk.
—
The next day, we met up at the battle arena. What i did not expect, was it to be jam-packed with teachers and students. It looked like half the school was in attendance, and the cause of this was probably the other members of the council spreading the news. It was not often that someone challenges one of the top 10.
The announcer started off by introducing us. “ON THE RIGHT SIDE, WE HAVE ERIC PENDRAGON! THEY CALL HIM THE UNDEFEATED ONE. WITH ZERO LOSES AS OF YET, WILL THIS BE THE END OF HIS DOMINATING STREAK? OR WILL HE EMERGE VICTORIOUS YET AGAIN!”
The crowd was split between cheering and booing, the ones who were booing were fans of Lithana.
“AND ON THE LEFT SIDE, THE LETHAL AND BEAUTIFUL LITHANA BLADEHEART! NOT ONLY IS SHE THE SCHOOL COUNCIL PRESIDENT, BUT SHE IS ALSO DEADLY WITH HER DAGGER! WILL SHE ONCE AGAIN UNLEASH THE MIGHT OF THE BLADEHEART HOUSE? WATCH AND FIND OUT!”
This time the noise reached new heights, the collective screaming her fans was deafening my ears.
“Sheesh, how popular are you, these monkeys sure are loud.”
Lithana rolled her eyes in return.
“ANDD, BEGIN!” The referee shouted.
Lithana immediately took out her dual daggers and shrouded her body with shadows. But before she could make a move, i brought up a hand and motioned her to stop.
“Hold up, before we start, i would like to give myself a handicap, if not i think this fight will be too easy, what do you say?”
“Are you looking down on me right now?”
“No, it’s just that with my current power level, i think it’ll be too unfair for you right now, and i do like a challenge. I’ll not use my fire magic.”
“Fine, you better not regret this decision.”
I unsheathed Severance and applied earth element to it, strengthening it by 4 times. The blade glinted in the arena light, like a predator ready to strike.
“Shadow Blades!”
Lithana was first to make a move. She manifested 20 blades made of shadow and shot them towards me, with the aid of her air magic, the blades accelerated towards me at frightening speeds. I immediately transferred Severance to my mouth and placed my hands on the ground, erecting a huge stone wall, thinking it will stop them.
“Air Piercer!”
Lithana then surprised me by adding a layer of pressurized air around the blades, easily piercing through my wall like butter. I turned my head left and right rapidly to deflect all the blades. During this process, Lithana was not just standing idly watching her blades do all the work. She dove into her shadow and appeared from my shadow, directly behind me.
With accelerated movements from air magic, her daggers flashed towards me, one aiming for my eyes and the other for my legs. In the split second before her blades touch me, i knocked the hand aiming for my eye upwards with a strike of my palm and stomped the ground beneath me creating a stone pillar underneath her.
To avoid being hit, she threw herself back into my shadow and reappeared a few meters away.
“Heh, that’s a neat trick, but you gotta do better,” i flashed her a wink.
Returning the sword back to my hand, i sped to her, and at the same time manipulating the ground beneath her towards me. This made me reach her faster than she thought. With no control over her movements, she dropped her blades into her shadow and tucked her arms in front of her.
“Air Wall!”
My blade which was aiming to pierce her was thrown off balance by the sudden wall of wind that knocked me from the side, resulting in a slash across her chest and arm. She then disappeared again and reappeared behind me. But this time i was ready, turning around i deflected her daggers.
With years and years of training, Lithana has become an intermediate fighter and had leaned the way of the dagger. The dagger arts of the Bladeheart house has been passed to her and now she is going to use it.
“Looks like you haven’t been giving your all Lithana, now come, and don’t hold back.” I said with an excited glint in my eyes.
