"I see, if Gaius did it, it must be of very good quality, it should be enough. What do you think, Sakuya?"
"For me it's fine, there won't be much difference."
"Oh, I see you have a lot of confidence."
"Of course, I'll win in less than three moves." Sakuya said without any hesitation, but she didn't ignore her mother's words.
"Really? I wouldn't say it's going to be that easy, maybe Blake hasn't even set foot on the runic path, but I can see that he has warrior potential, it might surprise you."
"Yeah? Then how about a little bet?" Then those words came out of her because she didn't really believe that.
"You know I hate gambling... But I'd like to see the look on your face the moment you lose... Okay, what's it all about?" And hearing his mother agree, a small laugh came out of Sakuya.
"Hehe, if Blake can't withstand three of my blows, then I'll win, and as payment, you'll have to allow me to openly promote my gift shop to all the guests and patrons of the inn without judging my methods."
"Okay, but if Blake can resist, then you'll spend a whole month eating boiled eggs for breakfast."
"What?! Everything but that!"
"I already gave my condition, where did that confidence go from a few moments ago?" And seeing the smile that was now on Shino, Sakuya kept her complaints inside her.
"I... Damn, okay, I accept!"
"Ufufu, well, this will be fun." While that conversation was going on, Blake had already moved away before to be able to take out his shield without being noticed, and once he felt ready, he returned to both and noticed that there was a small feeling of rivalry in the air as Shino's voice was heard again.
"Okay, I see you're already prepared. Then take your positions." Heeding Shino's instructions, both Blake and Sakuya began to move until they were a considerable distance from each other.
Sakuya wasn't really worried, she was relying on her strength to follow through on what she said, so she positioned herself and, after putting her hand into the sack hanging from her waist, a longsword with a single-sided edge appeared in front of her hands.
Blake saw this and started thinking about how he should attack, he didn't worry about getting hurt, he could always use magic and heal any superficial wounds, his master was there too, so he took a defensive position and waited for the match to start.
Shino saw that they were ready, so she positioned herself between them as she quickly lowered her hand and walked off the field indicating that it was time. To her surprise, she could see that just as she gave the start signal, Blake seemed to have disappeared, but this didn't catch Sakuya's attention as she quickly raised her sword to slash at the person who had appeared right in front of her.
'He's fast.' That was the thought that appeared in Sakuya's mind.
Blake was not going to trust, so he quickly used the dash to move until he was in front of Sakuya, but it seemed he didn't have much luck as the blow he had thrown was quickly blocked and, before he was even balanced, he had to raise his shield to stop the slash that went straight to his head making him take a good number of steps back at the same time that he couldn't help but express his thoughts.
"You are really strong, Sakuya."
"I must also say that you surprised me, besides that you were able to block that blow, I thought it would be easy, but I think I should get serious, and don't worry, I will use the dull part of my sword, I don't like to hurt my clients." It seemed like she was just joking, but Sakuya was completely serious. From the speed and strength, she felt when she had to block Blake's attack, she knew that couldn't take the confrontation lightly, so she drew her sword with both hands and increased her speed in that instant to launch a new attack toward him.
Blake noticed that Sakuya had decided to throw herself at him, so he didn't hesitate either and raised his sword towards her. Both did not take a second when the typical sound of metal colliding could be heard and some light sparks seemed to come out right on impact.
The image showed how both would stand in a stalemate, but Blake couldn't react in time when Sakuya let go of her sword and then used her fist to slam it into Blake's chest causing him to fly out and fall heavily on his back to the ground.
The air seemed to have left his lungs, Blake couldn't understand how with a simple fist he had ended up in that situation, he couldn't believe that Sakuya had a strength of that magnitude, but he didn't have time to think since he was doing everything possible to recover from the impact.
Sakuya saw this and didn't attack Blake at the time, she had been holding back herself, she couldn't just use her full power or she could actually seriously damage Blake with a single blow, but in that instant, she had subconsciously released a bit of her energy making Blake end up in that situation. She was about to go over to him and help him, but once she saw him get up, she totally changed her mind, not because he didn't seem to be hurt at all, but because Blake was giving off a strange feeling that she didn't know which was at the same time that a small smile seemed to be seen on his face.
Meanwhile, the reason Blake had recovered from the impact was because of the notifications she had just heard just as he was on the ground.
[Level up.]
[Shortsword skill, increased.]
[New technique learned: Short sword Jump.]
Suddenly, the pain he felt had disappeared and new information had entered his head, the sudden increase had come at just the right time and he knew that he really didn't have much energy left to continue with the confrontation, so once he got standing up, he took his sword firmly and used the dash once more to close the gap as much as possible.
Sakuya saw that technique again, so she thought that instead of blocking it, she should attack to end the battle. She didn't want to miss this time, so she released a little more of her strength into that attack thinking it would be enough to finish, but the next thing she felt left her completely shocked.
Blake, despite seeing how the attack was coming straight at him, didn't try to cover it and put his sword in front of him, but the instant he did that, he used the strength of his legs to make a big jump at that point causing both he and Sakuya were thrown into the air.
The quick change of scenery left Sakuya bewildered, but what she really couldn't understand was that the previous attack she had made seemed to have been negated by Blake and she felt like a greater force had been responsible for her being in the middle of the air at that time.
She had no way to defend herself in that state, her sword had left her hands from the sudden thrust and just remained flying, maybe she should wait until fell to the ground to reposition herself and make a counterattack, but that didn't seem to be possible since she could see as Blake seemed to be unaffected by the state they were in, and he could move forward directly at where she was.
Sakuya just closed her eyes waiting for the blow to land on her body, those few seconds seemed like hours while the sensation she was waiting for never came, so she opened her eyes slowly to see how deep gray eyes were looking at her right now at the same time that her mother had a look of complete satisfaction on her face. That's when she knew what had happened, she had completely lost.
[Progress... Saved.]