All she had to do was injure Hylli, but that was easier said that done.
It was already an incredible feat to fight against Hylli for dozens of minutes. The future emperor of the empire was a master of his craft, after all.
If she could utilize magic as much as she wanted, she could get at least a single scratch on him, but she had to face him without a single magic stone so there were limits.
"When do you think I'll be able to go home?"
"Just get a single scratch on me."
"Home... Home..."
Shuraina swung her sword half-heartedly from exhaustion, so Hylli did the same as he blocked the attack. When her legs began to give way and her knees bent together, her attacks drooped. So did he.
In the end, the two of them flopped over onto the ground and carelessly swung their swords at each other.
"Die, crown prince."
She narrowed her eyes and said, exhausted. Shuraina laid with her arms and legs spread as she poked Hylli's side with her wooden sword. Hylli stared at the wooden sword that tickled his side before lowering his leg and acting out his part with Shuraina's quote.
"Eugh….. Ugh. You're so strong."
"Where did the cringey quotes go? Again."
"Then you add some details too."
"'kay."
Shuraina started from the beginning. She stared at the sky, gasped for breath, then held up her sword with a miserable expression on her face as she stabbed Hylli's side.
"We're both stuck her, between the roads of fate. I can't help but scoff, seeing your ugly, scowling face. Oily Orde Ianess, the crown prince of the Orde Empire. Huff. Kek. Accept your fate."
Wh, what. Hylli was bewildered by Shuraina's serious attitude as she ran through such a cringey quote. She must've really not wanted to duel him. She was doing everything under the sun to avoid it. All the while, the little taunts here and there didn't go unnoticed. Hylli was about to act half-heartedly but seeing Shuraina try her best made him feel like he needed to reciprocate.
Shuraina poked at Hylli's side for him to say the next line, so he scowled and pretended that it hurt. He needed to get turn it up. Hylli searched his mind for something from all of the novels he had read thus far.
Sigh. He could just say some random quote from that one war novel that had been popular among the swordsmanship students, right?
But it was pretty faint.
"Ugh. Is this how it ends, in the end? I had thought you were my comrade before your betrayal. Keugh."
He covered his face with one hand as he bit his lip.
"I ground my bones to make this sword called friendship for you. But our friendship soon turned to dust, just like this."
He became immersed in the situation as he spoke. It was a scene where a comrade betrayed the character and murdered them. He had been touched by it, and had loved reading the scene. The novel was titled, "The Prodigal Son is a Loose Cannon."
"I want to crush you with my bloodied hands, but they're powerless."
Shuraina erased her presence somewhere in the middle and disappeared
"If you will kill me…. If you must kill me….. Do not shed any tears. I would like to fade into nothingness."
Hylli gathered his hands near his chest, lowered his head, and spoke in a meaningful tone. He could clearly see the blood and gore from the novel. He was a character laying on a cold slab of stone, and he was staring down at the cold, remorseless eyes of his former comrade.
He raised his head to look at Shuraina as he said the next line.
"Shu, Shuraina?"
Only dirt and empty air remained where Shuraina had been standing. He belatedly realized the situation.
Hylli suddenly felt terrible for himself, who had acted out an entire scene by himself in the middle of the forest. He laid down and put his hands on his heart.
His heart was wounded….
Good idea, Shuraina. Hylli soon shifted his hands from his heart to cover his face.
One day, two days, three days. One week, two weeks. Quite some time had passed since the new training had begun. To be honest, she had seemed to be having so much difficulty that Hylli was willing to send her home if she requested it. But Shuraina stayed and dueled with him until the very end.
Shuraina was having a miserable time, having to try and hurt Hylli without a single bit of magic. But she fixed every problem that she had and tried again and again. She began to get new tips and tricks. And with that came additional talent.
She wasn't using any magic, so now she was able to see the detailed parts of swordsmanship. She burrowed into her newfound skills deeply, and her skills improved even further.
It was a continued string of failures, but it was also a string of successes. She grew physically exhausted but became more and more alert.
And then, one day, Shuraina finished her light physical training and asked Hylli for a duel.
"1 win, 0 ties, 90 losses. I'm aiming to lose 100 times."
Shuraina spoke confidently, arms crossed in front and resignation on her face. That one win during junior year was her peak. She hadn't known back then, though. It was time to get back to her peak! Shuraina was ready to lose as she thought to herself.
"The first time you lost to me, it was because you were taken aback by my random attack patterns."
"Yes."
"So I made another attack pattern."
Shuraina tossed Hylli a wooden sword, and shifted to a very familiar pose to prepare. The two of them stared each other down as they walked in a circle. Soon, Shuraina ran in and Hylli raised his wooden sword.
Shuraina let out a meaningless shout and got close to him. She focused her strength towards her legs and shot up, swinging her sword down, but Hylli caught the attack and threw it down to his side. When she stretched out her short legs for the next attack, he tossed it back at her with ease.
And then, Hylli's attack poured in. Every single attack of his was powerful. He was controlling his strength because he was using a wooden sword, though. If it was any other sword, she wouldn't have been able to catch it. She felt her body buzzing whenever she blocked any of his attacks. When Hylli poured his strength in, her body was pushed further and further down. Shuraina slipped out under using the direction of Hylli's strength, and Hylli swung forward. Shuraina used that moment to try and attack his open back.
'Now!"
She prepared to attack right then, but it was blocked. Damn, if only she had been a bit faster. If she had been, then she could've gotten him. But Shuraina saw a ray of hope. Hylli went light on the next few attacks and shifted his feet for his next attack.
If she wanted to successfully damage Hylli in some way, then she had to be smart about it. She had to think what her strong points were and what her opponent's weak points were to fit it like a puzzle. First, her strong point was that she was fast and flexible. But the problem was that Hylli was incredibly swift for someone his size. Hylli was strong, swift, and flexible, so it was hard to figure out his weak points. The only thing she could think to beat him with was magic, but she only had a limited amount of it so she had to be smart.
Shuraina sighed and decided to try out her new attack pattern.
"Hylli, who do you think is the smarter one between the two of us?"
"..."
"I sincerely hope you're not as smart as me. If you're smarter, then I really don't have anything I can beat you with."
She had some sort of plan. Hylli realized that Shuraina had stopped using her aura and was pooling her magic together.
I may not be as smart as you, but I don't have any intentions to let you win. Hylli looked away from Shuraina and checked his surroundings for any tracks. Shuraina was great at surprise attacks, so Hylli was nervous.
Shuraina used about a third of her magic and stretched it out like a thin piece of thread. It was a reinforced thread that only magicians could make. When she tried to tie Hylli's feet with the thread she had created on the spot, he felt the shift of magic and turned his waist to cut the threads with his sword and, feeling the incoming magic circle, cut that too.
While he used unnecessary movements to clear off the magic circles, Shuraina was at the left-hand side creating sharp spears that fell from above.
But Hylli had even sensed that as he lowered his back and used his sword to reflect the attacks off of himself. All of the spears fell to the side.
He blocked all of the spears with ease, but he barely caught Shuraina's silent movements as she attacked from behind.
"Was that your ploy?"
But she was blocked again. He was so skilled that he could block off all movements if he wanted to. Shuraina scowled. Her magic was almost completely empty.
Shuraina gritted her teeth. She had exhausted her magic and she had already been exhausted. She only had the sword to rely on. Shuraina gasped for breath as she swung her sword and poured as much power as she could into her attacks. Hylli worried about Shuraina and her haphazard attacks, but he stopped worrying when Shuraina tossed her sword onto the ground.