"Ais-tan, your opponent is the one that pummeling Bete, right?" Loki asked in a worrying tone.
"Un. He is strong" She just nodded her head.
"Yeah, when fighting Bete, I feel that he didn't even use his full power" Riveria followed, "We know that he was using a long sword from the former member of Apollo, and she said he could use lightning to coat his entire body"
"You should be careful" Finn added.
"Aww, don't worry, Ais-tan. You will win!" Loki jumped to Ais' lap while circling her hands-on Ais' neck.
"Tsk, be careful of his eyes Ais. At our first meeting, his eyes were bandaged, but when fighting me, his eyes were already recovered" Bete reminded her, "Also, I feel something ominous from his red eyes."
"Okay, I will" She nodded seriously this time. Ais also remembered that time about his eyes, and she also knew that his eyes could return to normal.
[So unfortunate for one of the Gulliver brothers to be defeated by their own Vice-captain, Allen Fromel. With this, Allen Fromel from Freya Familia successfully advanced to the next round. For the next battle, we will witness the beauty of the sword princess', Ais Wallenstein. She will fight with an untitled adventurer from Hephaestus Familia, Prana. The information said that both of them are at Lv. 5, so I am sure it is going to be an intense fight between the two. Then, welcome both of them. The third round of the day, Sword Princess Ais Wallenstein versus Prana from Hephaestus Familia]
OOHHHHH~~~~
The audiences were cheering for Sword Princess. They were anticipating her performance, the one who might be the youngest Lv. 6 in history. Moreover, they also curious about the newcomer.
Prana who was walking out heard the commotion. He couldn't help to be amazed about his opponent's popularity, and he couldn't help to be curious about this person. This person was one of his objectives; he wanted to complete it, unfortunately, this person was Loki's children.
When he was stepping into the platform, Prana finally knew why she became one of his objectives. This person who wears a one-piece with gold lining and light armor might be the heroine in this world.
Why she was a heroine?
As introduced by the commentator and discussed by the audience, she was the youngest and has the highest potential to exceed the 'KING', and most importantly she looked beautiful and looked innocent.
'Identify'
[Ais Wallenstein; Lv. 5
Magic/Skill: Ariel, Avenger, Hunter, Abnormal Resistance, Spirit Healing]
'Somehow every Lv. 5 adventurers have this Abnormal Resistance skill. It is a bother to paralyze them using my lightning.'
As Prana and Ais stood face to face on the platform, the commentator said, [Ohh, what do I see? The Sword Princess opponent didn't even wear proper gear on himself. We can see that he only wearing dark-red full-body tights with a silver lining, and he doesn't even bring his weapon. I don't know if it's his confidence Without further explanation, Let's the fight, BEGIN]
Prana decided to step back first to gain distance, but Ais was directly unsheathed her sword and chase after him.
'Damn, this girl is aggressive' Prana could only stop his movement, and conjuring a pair of a short sword.
He swiftly parrying the incoming stab by crossing the swords. The collision's impact pushed him back, and he managed to get some distance.
[Ohh! Sword Princess launches the first strike to her opponent. Prana also manages parry by blocking it with his weapons. But, what is that? I ain't sure that was a weapon. It's like a pair of a lightning sword.] The commentator was surprised at Prana's weapon. He was a seasoned adventurer, even though it's not high-level enough. However, only magic-related adventurers could conjure elemental weapons. But, this man could conjure it easily even without any chant.
'This girl's strength should be the same as me, around 2500-2700 strength point. She is only fourteen, but already this strong.' Prana thought about their collision. Even though he didn't have the time to put proper defense, it was amazing for her to push him back.
Prana held the short swords tightly, and throw them to Ais's direction in a curve and straight path to distract her a moment.
Then, Prana conjured a long Kodachi in his right hand after he put a proper Iai stance for lightning breathing techniques.
'First Stance: Thunderclap and Flash' Prana isn't chanted or thinks about this sentence. He just put the proper Iai stance and dashed. As the final stage of the first stance, GodSpeed, Prana's speed couldn't be retraced by naked eyes. He just vanished at the spot after taking the first step in his dash motion.
Ais was highly alert after avoiding the lightning swords and saw the first time Prana took his stance, but she didn't think that he would suddenly vanish like this. Fortunately, as a seasoned fighter in the front line, her instinct had been honed, also her affinity with wind help her find Prana location.
She could feel a sword going to swing from above, Ais hurriedly put her sword over her head to block the incoming attack.
There's no metal clashing, only the sound of powerful thunder ringing in her and the audience's ears.
The floor below Ais's feet cracked and her feet were buried in inches, it didn't manage to withstand the impact.
[Waahhh, much of a surprise of an attack. The same attack pattern and condition, but Sword Princess didn't manage to withstand the payback from her opponent.]
In the audience, at the Loki Familia's room, Finn was frowning in silence at their first exchange.
'I didn't manage to glimpse at him before he was above Ais. Even though I don't really pay attention, I should be able to see some of his afterimage'
While Loki's face was darkening and her playful behavior began to turn cold. She knew this move, even though it is 'his' inferior movement, she could still see a few of 'it' essence.
Back at the platform.
'She managed to block most of the lightning discharged. Also, her reaction is quite fast too. Tsk, I shouldn't be dulling the blade for that probing strike.'
Prana decided to only use his raw speed for now. Somehow, he felt that his opponent couldn't fight for a long time if he always uses that.
For now, Ais could occasionally attack and tried to gain her distance to catch her breath first. The lightning strike from before still numbing her right arm. She needed time for her skill to gain complete resistance over it. This resulted in this situation where the two of them kept getting entangled in the dog fight.
Actually, it was also Prana's intention to do it in this way. Somehow, there was a progress bar on his peripheral vision, and a word of [Hatching in...] appeared. Also, as long he was clashing with her or attacked her the progress would increase by 1%. This was good news for him. This egg was obtained after he defeats the Goliath before. It didn't respond to anything; blood, mana, you call it - it didn't bug. But this time the egg responded.
The fight was intense, in the span of only a minute, the two already clashed tens of strikes, which somehow gradually Ais managed to keep her ground and pushed Prana slightly.
Prana also felt that somehow the girl didn't avoid contact with his lightning anymore. Sometimes she would even go deeper into his strike to counterattack.
'She manages to gain resistance in a short of time and such intense situation?' Prana was frustrated facing a genius like her. Their instinct was so scary. Fortunately, the progress bar was no longer increasing, it stuck at 20%.
'Let's use a real weapon for now'
Prana retreated to the platform's edge. He withdraws his lightning and stuck his forward in a grabbing motion.
With a swirl, a katana was being held at his left hand.
All of the audiences; whether they were normal humans, adventurers, and even Gods were shocked. Someone managed to gain spatial skill, and it was a human who recently came to Orario.
The Gods were surprised but soon they were calming down. However, the audiences were still in an uproar, they were curious about Prana.
A long time ago, before the Gods and Goddesses' descent, there was a story about a hero who saves the world. The most striking difference between them and adventurers was the ability to use spatial magic. Somehow adventurers couldn't comprehend it. Even the so-called teleport was only the user using a high-speed movement.
However, this man was using a spatial ability. Even though, it was only for storing things.
The thing that he pulled out was an eastern sword with a chain-like pattern at its handle.
Before the competition, Prana was buying many things from the store, and one of them was a katana nicknamed 'blunt', Zanto Namakura, which able to cut through 'anything', as the system description.
The price was affordable for Prana, only for 25k SP with a Rare rating.
When the sword was gripped by Prana, Ais tensed. She could tell that this time he was serious. He put an Iai stance, and his eyes also changing color. It's like the time he fought with Bete.
Bete said when those eyes appear, somehow everything was predicted by Prana. Every move he made was simply avoided or blocked by him. Until he used a skill back then, that his moves managed to land at him.
Ais instinct kicked in at this moment, it warned her.
Prana was dashing in a single step at Ais, from his way gripping the sword, bystander could foresee that it was going for a vertical slash.
Ais also predicted it, she braces herself for parrying and counter-attacking it by stabbing at his shoulder. However, a twist appeared before she counter-attacking. Prana vanished again from her view. Then, she felt a burning pain in her back.
After both of them clashing their sword, Prana was using his instant movement to move at her back, and he moves his sword downward to slash at her chest plate and managed to tear a scar at her back.
After he slashed at her, Ais responded instantly by doing a spinning slash at him. However, she was still a tad too late, after seeing her center gravity shifted Prana instantly retrieved a dagger from his belt. He threw it to her thigh while stepping back to avoid her attack.
Unfortunately for Ais, the dagger lodged itself onto her thigh and activating the special effect of 'bleed'.
After managing to get a distance, Prana rushed out once again. Ais' response was also quick enough, she immediately pulled the dagger out, and blocking the strikes with all her might.
Slash after slashes were delivered by Prana which forced Ais to the edge. In addition, she also suffered from blood loss, fatigue came to her.
If she kept being passive light this, she would be knocked out of blood loss.
"BEWARE!!" while defending Ais suddenly shout a warning. Then followed by, a gust of wind that pushed Prana.
"Lil Faraga, Ariel, Enchant"
A light green wind swirled at her sword, it coated the sword and seemed able to rip anything in contact with. Also, the wind also swirling on Ais's body to protect her.
She didn't know why, her logic tried to give in since there wasn't another way to win. Nevertheless, she directly activates her strongest skill. Usually, she only used this skill when fighting the monsters, and avoided when fighting with human and others.
However, this time she couldn't help it. This time it was her time to rush at Prana.
Prana who was pushed away was watching the scene. He couldn't help to think that the skill was similar to his lightning coat.
Seeing Ais' rushing toward him and stabbed him again, Prana sidestepped. He could see its trajectory. However, a small and clean-cut appeared at his neck.
Seeing this the commentator was excitedly relaying the scene, while the audiences cheering for their Sword Princess.
However, Prana was frowning while analyzing the strike earlier while he kept blocking the strikes and getting more small cuts.
'It felt like her blade became wider and sharper. It should be an expansion for half an inch more on each side. Also, her movements become more erratic, not so graceful as before'
"Fight back!" Ais shouted at her opponent, she didn't want to lose cause of fatigued. She knew that it was selfish. 'He is going to win as long as he keeps stalling the time'
'Oh, she's angry! Even though she was faster than before, her attacks become more and more readable. It seems her eyes and muscle couldn't follow her own acceleration.'
Right then, Ais swung her rapier too wide. 'Oh, a chance!' Prana swings his sword at the incoming strike with his all. It managed to force back Ais.
'Time to end this'
Ais calmly took her stance back after being thrown out, and she once again saw Prana dashed at her with an incoming upward slash.
Ais who already knew this move instantly parried it once again, and when she felt her wind stirred from behind she exploded her wind fortress to blown back Prana.
Prana was blown into the air, his posture was crumbling and Ais took this chance to finish him.
Ais followed Prana's step and jumped into the air, and then she blasted her wind once again to Prana in midair.
The wind hit his chest hard, and he was instantly knocked out outside the platform.
Silence.
Then the commentator with a shocked and surprised voice in disbelief, bellowed, [The winner of this round is, Prana from Hephaestus Familia]