[Human Empire Encampment]
Upon requesting a match from Luke, Rebecca herself started to stretch her own muscles as she takes off some of her gears leaving only a white long sleeved shirt, with a female version black slim pants and a high boots that shows off the curves in her body
Followingly she hungs up heir red hair into a ponytail by tying it with a white cloth
Due to this turn of events, most of the group watched such match which includes ingrid and Lily who were betting on who will win
"So who do you think will win?" Asks Lily
After thinking about it Ingrid replied
"I'm putting my bet on Rebecca, since she must have known that in order for her to be useful to kaido, she in turn need to get stronger" answered Ingrid
"I see... . . Then Luke will be my bet, cause he's an SSS-rank adventurer, we both know in terms of battle, experience is more important than instincts" stated Lily
"Maybe your right, maybe your wrong" shrugged Ingrid
After a while even Melfina, Anna, Sarah joined the queue, in time Cara the Catwoman has also joined the spectator stand
At times some soldiers from the empire also took notice of this as they started to gather up around the made up arena
Taking a look at Luke who was only wearing a leather pants and boots at the bottom, while brownish white shirt at the top, Rebecca's heartbeat started to rise as she knows that luke won't be an easy opponent
Most of the time even though she was also one of the first ones who joined Kaido's group, for some reason she started to fell out of place as more and more stronger companions starting to pop up beside him
She deducted that if this continues, she will be left behind, not only in terms of strength but also in terms of usefulness
So when her father Marquez Lucio introduced her to their family's ancient sword arts, she started to see an opportunity to become stronger, and not solely relying on enchanting magic for her momentarily boost
One thing that was given to her bybher father was the dazzling pure blue sword from the tip of its blades until its end of its hilt
The design on its scabbard was a natural blue crystal that was explained to her by her father during her training with him back in the hidden town
("This sword came from our ancestors from a very long time ago... . . I believe this sword came from the time where the demon king was so strong that power in that era is a must and a sign of superiority, at that same Era the war back then was called the Divine War where it consisted of different factions from aliens species and demons to humans, angels fought against each other"
"Basically a war on all fronts where alliance is of no existence... . . Back then a hero rises up from the humans in the darkest of times and wielded a holy sword with him, followed by multiple strong individuals, among those individuals was our ancestors who was once called
"The material was so big and heavy which is the reason why the sword now is heavy, its beauty was incomparable to any gems from the past till now, it was once believed it was the heart of the world itself... . . With that reasoning the sword was henceforth called
Looking at its sword now which was now belonged to her, she couldn't help but feel attachment to the sword who have almost looks like have chosen her as the new wielder
Only one advice spoke up from her mind from her father when wielding the sword
("Strength is not the key to wield this sword, even if you need strength, it will be enough if you could hold on tight to the the sword, what you need is speed, power, and time")
Glancing at the silencing crowd, Rebecca immediately kicked off the ground as she wielded her sword one handedly
After running up for a few mile, Luke in turn raise up his shield as he took a huge step back as he arch his back in preparation for a huge attack
After Rebecca got close to about ten feet from him, Luke instead pulled all his might as he made a huge sideswing directly at her
After practicing for a lot of time already, Rebecca has finally manage to get herself used to high speed reaction and high speed battle, but implementing this to actually getting g use to it was completely different
With a though trusting her instinct, she quickly leapt off the ground by pushing the tip of her toe upwards before raising her sword vertically
With a slam she smacked down the Frozen Heart against the orichalcum sword of Luke, due to the difference in rankings of material, the Frozen Heart's weight greatly burdened Luke to tilt sideways in order to dodge major injury
Taking a step forward Rebecca finally managed to get inside Luke's defences as she used two hands to pull up a sideswing to the lower abdomen of Luke
"Iron body!"
Using a spell Luke's whole body turned into solid iron as it completely blocks the former's attack sending sparks of brittle flame and elctri to fly off from the collision
Even though Luke has successfully protect himself, he couldn't help but still felt pain as if some Boulder was slammed on his stomach
Realizing tthat all of his pain came from the former's sword, he couldn't help but marvel on how strong the sword was to inflict pain on his iron body
Quickly taking a distance between them, the latter immediately raises his orichalchum sword as it sents out another attack
"Your not the only one who improved! Decapitator!!!"
With that spell a huge illusionary are manifested on the slash, in which it took a toll on Rebecca's momentum just by blocking it
But as she Successfully blocks it, the recoil however took place as Rebecca was sent flying and stumbling non-stop
Quickly stabbing the sword to the ground, Rebecca managed to stop her stumbling, but when she looked up Luke was apparently just a few steps from her as he slammed her with his shield right to the face
"Shield Bash!!!"
Due to that Rebecca was in a daze for a moment, when suddenly brought down another huge attavk against her one afyer another, leaving her no space to take a breather
From the spectator stands, the crowd however became rowdier as the majority supported the SSS-rank Berserk Guardian rather than an unknown swordwoman
"It feels like the exhibition match all over again" commented Lily
"Really? But I think we will get to see something interesting this day" said Ingrid
At the far side Melfina together with Anna, and Sarah were having a talk on their own
"Looks like Rebecca has improved yet again" said Melfina
"I know!... . . This time she's basically reading Luke's attacks causing her to Successfully blocking its every attack launched at her" added Anna
"Are you sure? I think Luke will win, just look at this situation" implied Sarah who somehow became talkative along the way
"That's what you see, but if you observe closer Luke's attacks are getting weaker as his hands become numbner" stated Melfina
"Indeed!"
"You guys... . . Your specs are crazy"
As the spectator has its own point of view, Luke's condition however was just like what Melfina has said, but instead of feeling a painful numbness, he couldn't help but feel a freezing numbness
As he took a closer look, the more he fights against Rebecca who wielded a special sword, he would feel a freezing cold bite through his skin causimg him to fall behind on the uptake when Rebecca would launch a counterattack
When he focused his mana in his eyesight, he could somehow see a trail of mana coming from the sword, and this mana was somehow merging with Rebecca's own mana, causing it to rise significantly to a higher realm, if this rise don't stop it will eventually surpass both his mana and Alda's mana when they are using their 100%
With that in thought luke has a sudden premonition that one day Rebecca would become the strongest swordsman in the continent and become the first swordsman who is a woman that is so strong that will be comparable to being a sword Saint
Even if the sudden rise of her strength was because of the sword, he couldn't help but take tbis into a possible happening in the far future
Having a chance in a lifetime of dueling with a future strongest female swordsman, Luke finally let loose all his reigns as it adruptly activated his trump card
"Berserk mode!!!"
As his aura rises it eventually soreads throughout the camp, which in turn startled everyone except Kaido who was much more entertained on playing on the uranium stone rather than watching the battle
With a step and Luke's frosty breath, he chanted many spells to launch a series of spells directly at Rebecca that was appropriate for an SSS-RANK Beserk Guardian
"Ground Shaker!!!, Berserk Charge!!!, Body Enhancement x10!!!, Projectile Swing!!!"
Noticing this Rebecca heightened her senses to the current maximum degree as she saw the ending point of the attacks
Very quickly she held the Frozen Heart vertically to her eye level as she took a dash forward and try to force her way out by charging headfirst
"Faster! Faster! Faster! I need to move faster! React faster! Block all of them!!!" She thought to herself
With a follow up swing she blocks the projectile swing from luke, while at the same yime using the broken and rising debris to launch herself upwards completely avoiding the person's charge
Unfortunately Luke has already seen through this as he implanted his feet to the ground to make a sharp turn and launch himself to the air, completely catching Rebecca off guard
With a swing he brougjt down Rebecca towards the ground and following it up with multiple fast swings
"Speed enhancement x5!!!, Muscle agility x6!!!, Guardians pressure!!!"
With his pressure he brought down Rebecca to her knees before attacking her with a fury of attacks
Struggling with all her might she tried her best to deflect all of the attacks coming from different direction with a debuff from the pressure
But unfortunately some still manage to pass through as it cuts some parts of her arms, shoulders, sides, face, hair, tights, and calves
But as this happened she still motivates herself to move and react faster than ever before
This time as if answering her will to fight, the sword adruptly shines so bright that it basically illuminated its figure
After all the training and meditating with the sword, connecting her mind to the swords memory, she somehow gained the information about the sword including the proper way of handling it and using it to battle
When she meditated she somehow like a virtual reality, manage to experience the life of her ancestors as if she has gone back in time since the ancient times
But the most exciting first person experience she received from its memory fragments was the life of the very first wielder of the Frozen Heart during the dark times of this world the 13th generation of otherworlders
Known to her she belong to the 35th generation of otherworlders after the passing of the millenia of 34th generation otherworlders
As its current successor, she manage to experience the dreadful war back in the dark times
But nonetheless she was a little disappointed that the farthest the memory could get was the dark times 13th generation
She was expecting somehow to experience story of legends the "1st generation of otherworlders" or in other name "The Era where God's walks among men" or "The Generation of legends" or "Legendary War of the Diety's"
But elsewhere she was grateful for the passed on experience of the very first wielder
Without further ado she held the sword in a downward position with one hand and made a huge swing against the ground as she released the ancient magic of the sword
"Sword Offensive Enchantment Release: Frozen Grove!!!"
From that cut on the ground, ice started to spread out from it completely enveloping the area around her for about 10 diameters, as huge spikes so numerous that can't be counted sprung up from the ground and stretched out towards Luke like a huge claw closing in
With a shout Luke releases his new spell as he raises his sword upwards and countered the ancient magic of the sword
"Mountain crusher!!!"
As two high level spells collides a huge outburst of pressure exploded inside the Encampment that voilently shook the ground, surprising even the non-magic wielder
As the sudden huge influx of mana erupted, it basically alerted any mage that has a high mana sensitivity in the area
Back on the arena however, what was left on the explosion was a lithered pieces of ice and Rebecca who was sprawled wide on the ground and like who was Injured all over as it raises its arms as a sign of victory
Like a volcano the spund of cheers filled the whole vicinity as everyone was taken by surprise
"That was sick!"
"Awesome! I hope I can fight like that!!!"
"Just what kind of magic did the woman use to have a sudden huge mana influx?"
"That woman is good too congratulations!!!"
Of course the other group also was happy for Rebecca's improvement, this clearly shows that she can be as strong as her peers
Afterwards like held out his hand to Rebecca as he said
"Congratulations! You've become stronger than before, I'm sure he's proud, and I'm sure Alda would be proud if he was alive"
Seeing that her effort has come to fruition and it wasn't pointless at all she begun to tear up with tears of joy as she exhilarated from the result even if she lost
"Finally! I'm glad it wasn't all for nothing"
Coincidentally Kaido was also looking at her from afar and was somehow proud of her improvement
"The bird has finally left her nest, looks like I didn't made a mistake to let her come with us" said Kaido proudly after witnessing Rebecca's progress
Author's notes:
A round of applause for Rebecca's improvement and possibly one of the powerhouses for the important storyline in the future