"Kurome, you are really strong but we have a problem here...Can this be called an injury? Even if your blade was poisoned, from such a small nick, I wouldn't have been even poisoned." The armored guy finally turned at Kurome while showing his forearm to everyone around to judge.
"...There is no blood so I wouldn't call it injury, however, her blade definitely grazed you despite you wearing armor." Najenda was the first one to recover from the shock and she quickly honestly replied. After replying, she looked towards Kurome.
"? What? I agree with your reasoning so let's resume the match." Kurome replied nonchalantly which definitely surprised Najenda.
"You...It's your win, girl. However, it almost seems as if you are disappointed by the result. Did you want this duel for a different reason other than saving your friends?" Kurome's opponent replied without any shame in his voice, no, it even looked as if he was proud of her despite having no reason to.
"It's not every day that I can go all out so it was disappointingly too short." Kurome nodded her head and replied without hiding anything.
"If you will join us, we can spar every day and you will even meet enemies stronger than you." He said, thinking that Kurome was actually battle junkie.
"...I already told Najenda, you have to talk to Akashi Nii-sama and not me. Also, I am not a battle addict, don't try to rope me in if you don't even know the reason why I want to gain more experience and grow stronger." Kurome replied with furrowed brows.
"It's Akashi, isn't it? Not wanting to be left behind, right?" Najenda said in a low voice.
"*sigh* Will you let us go or will we continue our duel?" Kurome refused to acknowledge or refuse Najenda's words.
"They can go" The armored guy said while pointing his spear at Green and Akame.
"You remain...I will give you what you want. I will give it my all this time plus I know from your expression that you aren't satisfied with this "injury" you have caused me if you can call it so." He redirected his spear at Kurome and continued.
"Naturally, that was my intention to begin with." Kurome replied
"Kurome, no! You don't need to do this, let's go back." Akame immediately shouted and Green supported her.
"She is right, we won't leave you here." Green narrowed his eyes at the enemy in front of him.
"You are losing your cool, I thought that at least you would be able to see the reason but I guess you are still inexperienced but I also don't blame you since you are just a kid." Najenda said with a small smile while looking at Kurome with genuine respect in her eyes.
Najenda took a liking to these 3, they cared for each other and didn't hesitate to sacrifice themselves for others, having someone so dependable on her side is essential. Not to mention that one day, they would suffer under the Empire's injustice. One of them could be killed by some noble who saw them just as an eyesore and they wouldn't be able to even avenge their comrades.
She was still regretting a little bit the deaths of those 2 other kids but she still saw hope. They didn't care for them as much as for each other and their strength was also much lower than theirs which could only mean that they were from the other unit. Maybe with some time, they would have forgiven them but either way, if Najenda wants to have this chance, she would have to let them go even if Kurome lost her duel.
"?" Green frowned upon hearing Najenda's words and tried to think about the reason but before he could even start, Kurome interrupted him.
"If we will return without Natala and Gin, it will look too suspicious. We can't tell them that I have "rescued" you because we would need some kind of proof that we killed them and they will also send a team to investigate. If we will say that we had a deal while exchanging hostages, they won't trust us and...I already know that you are a big suspect in their eyes, big sis." Kurome explained before glancing at Akame with a sad look in her face.
"?! Wait, then what is your plan and how do you know that I am a big suspect in their eyes? I have never had a chance to tell you anything about this..." Akame no longer tried to hide anything since there was only Kurome in front of her and Green who was actually consulting with her about that matter for some time already. If he wanted to sell her out, he would have done so already a few weeks ago. However she had complicated feelings since she knew that Green wouldn't sell her out because of his feelings towards her which only make her feel guiltier. She felt as if she was exploiting Green's feelings, she had no intention of dating anyone even if she really liked Green.
"My plan is this: you two will return and say that I remained behind to buy you some time. As for how I knew about you...He already predicted it." Kurome said and Najenda nodded her head.
'He? ...Akashi?' Akame thought.
"Do you really think that they will believe me that I left my own sister behind? They will never buy it." Akame said and shook her head with closed eyes.
"*Then just mention Akashi Nii-sama...He has yet to return to the Capital so no one knows his whereabouts, he can be here...watching over me even right now. You just have to say that we arrived too late to save Natala and Gin.*" Kurome hugged her sister and secretly whispered to Akame's ear.
Kurome let her go and looked at her with a look in her face that said 'Please, trust me'. After a few seconds, Akame nodded her head and looked towards Natala and Gin's bodies.
"*Akame, no. There is no way they will believe us if we will take them with us, it must look like we are retreating. We will come for them later.*" Green instantly knew what she was thinking about and talked her out of it.
"...Alright" Akame replied and turned around to leave while Green followed her. Before she disappeared inside the dense forest, she cast a last look at Kurome before running inside.
"I must say that I am impressed by you..." Najenda said while looking at Kurome with a smile since she was now all alone in front of 3 possible enemies that could break their promise.
"Yeah, you are strong, and not just in terms of fighting." The armored guy said and Kurome could imagine him all smiling under that helmet.
"Don't misunderstand, I just know what kind of person you are, General Najenda. Rebels or not, I wouldn't trust any kind of enemy if I didn't have information about them. Anyway, let's continue our duel, we still need to create some damage to the surroundings to make it believable." Kurome said with a sarcastic smile before she sprinted towards her previous opponent who already got ready for her attack.
'This time, I will do my best not to hold back at all! So come at me with everything you have, Kurome!' The armored guy thought with an excited smile under his helmet.
Kurome slashed at the place with cracked armor.
'Too predictable' He easily deflected her katana to the side and then performed thrust towards her head.
'?! He really isn't holding back!' Kurome thought when she dodged the spear just by a small margin but even then a little cut appeared on her cheek.
'I already knew that he will guard that place the most but it's even harder to get through his defenses than I previously thought! He is in an advantage because he needs to protect only 1 place...then let's force him to protect more of those places!' Kurome thought and slashed towards his right shoulder however when he was about to intercept her attack with his spear...
'The trajectory changed?!' He was surprised that Kurome was able to change it in the middle of her attack but the only thing she hit was his wrist. And due to the abruptly changing trajectory of her attack, it was much weaker therefore it was unable to penetrate armor.
'Still, her attack managed to leave a scratch...I was ready to protect my forearm and head but I never imagined her going for my wrist...' The guy thought with a slightly confused expression under his helmet.
He wasn't the only one confused by this, both of his allies were confused by Kurome's choice where to attack. They thought that she would try to find a weak point in the armor but attacking a wrist...
Kurome continued her onslaught of attacks while the guy just defended himself while occasionally counter-attacking when he saw the opening in Kurome's defense.
After a few minutes of fighting...
*Huff* Kurome was catching her breath since she was constantly attacking while being under the pressure of his perfect counter attacks.
'Left wrist, right wrist, left thigh, and right location under the knee. She has been constantly attacking those places which are difficult to protect at the same time. Although my Incursio was able to absorb all attacks, it's still cracking after that onslaught.' The guy glanced down at his armor just to see cracks in all locations he named.
"Let's end this!" He said and darted towards Kurome with incredible speed while swinging his spear overhead at Kurome.
*Bang* Kurome quickly jumped to the side to dodge the attack and debris flew everywhere. That attack was strong enough to easily overpower someone like Kurome so she decided to dodge it instead of meeting it head-on. She didn't waste any time and rushed through the curtain of dust at the previous location of her opponent and when she finally had him in sight, she quickly made a motion of attacking him while looking at the gap between his armor on his forearm.
He saw through her intentions but instead of defending, he decided to attack her, thrusting the shaft of his spear towards her stomach. This time he used shaft because he was unsure if Kurome will be able to dodge this or parry it.
'Hm?!' However, on the contrary to his expectations, her planned attack was only feint and before she could gather the momentum behind her attack, she stopped it and maneuvered around the shaft and dodge it just by a small margin while she maintained her eyes on the gap on his forearm.
'This is definitely a fake but...what location will she attack?' He thought and got ready to intercept her last attack with his free hand.
Once again, Kurome performed her last attack, the trajectory of her slash was pointing that her goal was really his forearm.
'Tch, this girl, one doesn't know if she is just faking it or not until you can see it.' The guy thought and moved his free hand to intercept her slash but at the moment when he was about to punch her blade away, Kurome moved her body even closer, slightly changing the trajectory of her attack towards his left thigh.
*Crack* *Splash* The blade finally pierced through the cracks in the armor and caused him a small injury but the instant moment after her blade slashed his left thigh, she was kicked to the side by him.
*Cough* *Cough* Kurome was out of breath while coughing and holding the place where he kicked her with her hand. Her face was slightly distorted in pain but there was still a confident smile on her face.
"You are greatly using your size to your advantage. For me, it's hard to fight someone with a small figure like you despite me being fast enough. This time, you were even able to truly injure me." The armored guy rested his spear on his shoulder while saying this with a slightly surprised tone.
"You were still holding back, that's why I was able to win. Only one of your kicks rendered me into this state..." Kurome said but this time she was smiling and was quite pleased with the result. She was able to learn a lot of things from this guy and she couldn't wait till she can apply it but first, she needs to absorb all of it and try to incorporate it into her style.
"You are still young, raise your head and hold it high and be proud of the result!" He said while giving her thumb up, Kurome could already imagine him smiling from ear to ear, revealing his teeth like an idiot.