The cafeteria was about two hundred meters wide and one hundred meters long. Rows of tables extended from the central aisle towards the sides, leaving two passages on either side. On the wall opposite the entrance, there were display cases and the kitchen, and whenever the arrows hit those areas, the clash of pots and broken dishes echoed across the battleground.
The girls circled the room, sometimes leaping over tables or using them for cover. They remained on opposite ends of the room, exchanging precise shots. The Imperial guard showered Miriam with a hail of small arrows, but she avoided targeting critical points, repeatedly leaving cuts on her arms and legs and tearing at the lightweight armor. Miriam's arrows, in turn, inflicted more damage, tearing sizable chunks from the guard's armor, but they were fewer in number, and the guard managed to dodge most of them.
"If this continues, I'll end up at a disadvantage," Miriam thought, checking the quiver on her back – there were only five arrows left. She had already started reusing arrows she had previously fired, pulling them out of tables, but they didn't hit as accurately as the new ones. "But there's something else I can use."
At her waist, the archer had a final means of defense – a long dagger. Engaging in close combat for an archer was not the best idea, but she was sure her opponent was also ill-equipped in that regard. The only thing left was to pick the right moment. Miriam observed the guard's behavior – she performed many acrobatic tricks and evaded shots while continuously firing back with her own arrows. She could shoot while moving from almost any position. However, she had never used that attack with twenty simultaneous shots. It seemed her ammunition was limited, much like Miriam's, but she shot much more frequently, always firing simultaneously with both hands. Also, after every hundred shots, she would pause, replacing a small black box on her crossbows with a new one from her belt. That was clearly her ammunition supply. Miriam needed to seize the right moment.
And there it was. The guardswoman had already fired ninety-six shots, and they were now approaching the center of the hall in a position opposite to where they had started. Miriam reached the center first and released an arrow at the crossbow wielder. Dodging, the guardswoman fired back with two arrows. Immediately after, the archer shot two more arrows and charged straight toward her opponent. The guard stopped in the aisle and fired the last arrows in her magazine at her enemy. Rolling on the ground, Miriam evaded the threat and rushed towards the guard, grabbing the dagger's hilt. Only fifty meters remained, and she had no time to reload, but then the guardswoman aimed her weapon at her opponent's shoulders again.
"I had been wondering when you would notice," the arbalist said with these words, pulling the trigger.
At that moment, two warriors locked eyes outside. Facing a warrior of similar class, not just in training but in a real battle, was a valuable experience and an opportunity to test one's abilities.
"Well, let's go, what are you waiting for?" Vivien jumped towards her opponent, thrusting her spear forward.
"Uh-uh, okay!" Although the young man in armor had an imposing size, his voice trembled like that of an inexperienced boy.
Vivien delivered a direct strike, but the guard easily deflected it with his own spear.
"And here I thought you were weak," Vivien executed a turn and swung a circular attack. The guard stepped back, and the spear only left a scratch on his breastplate. Undeterred, Vivien continued her turn, landing a powerful strike to the guard's head, finally hitting her target. The helmet shifted slightly, and the guard stepped back, trying to adjust it. "Hey, if you yawn again, I'll stick you on a toothpick!"
"P-please wait, I understand that you're not a mage, so I don't need this," the knight gestured with his hand, asking Vivien to stop, and began unfastening the armor.
"What are you doing there, deciding to undress in the middle of the battle? You're such a strange one, mumbling all the time, and you don't rush into the fight. I thought the imperial guards were the best warriors of the empire."
At that moment, the young man removed his gloves and unstrapped his helmet, leaving only his breastplate and greaves.
"So that's how it is?" he said, taking off the helmet and revealing a rather handsome young man with chestnut hair combed back and a melancholic gaze. He appeared to be around twenty-five, and his voice didn't match the timidity he had shown earlier. "You could only have learned about us from Aileen, so I assume you're holding her hostage."
"Oh, you suddenly got so serious," Vivien even took a step back from the aura the young man created.
"She's not just my battle companion but also my best friend. Could you please return her to us?"
"Well, no, you'll escape if we return her, so you'll have to wait."
"Then you leave me no choice," the young man gripped his weapon with both hands and assumed a combat stance. "I'll extract the information from you."
"Well, finally, you've decided to fight me for real! Do you have enough strength?" Vivien rushed towards the enemy. With incredible speed, she showered him with powerful strikes, but he effortlessly evaded them despite his considerable size.
"What about this!" The girl delivered a straight strike from below, holding the spear with her right hand slightly below the middle. The spear scratched the breastplate and went upwards. Vivien bent her wrist, using her left hand on the upper part of the spear to strike the warrior's torso. He received a strong blow and recoiled, managing to intercept the next attack from the spearwoman.
"To deliver such a powerful blow with such a small space to strike, you're much stronger than you seem," the young man made his first move, gripping his spear closer to the blade, and lunged forward. Vivien managed to dodge to the right just in time as the guard raised his weapon over his head, gripping the lower half, and delivered a powerful downward strike. The spearwoman barely jumped back, somersaulting and landing a couple of meters away from the massive hole left by the attack on the ground.
"Hey!!! Isn't your spear too heavy for throwing?" Vivien was astonished not only by the size of the hole but also by the fact that the tiles around the impact were cracking in concentric patterns over several meters. The guard's weapon didn't resemble a typical spear at all – it had a broad, long blade, sharpened on one side with a pattern at the base, attached to a long metal handle with a sphere at the end. No matter how you looked at it, this construction seemed too heavy for throwing, and spears were originally designed for that purpose.
"This isn't a spear! It's a guandao!"
"A guan... what?" Vivien tilted her head in confusion.
"It's my family's weapon. My great-great-great-great-grandfather invented it! Or was it my great-great-great-grandfather..."
"What does it matter? Tell me, is it convenient to fight with?"
"Years of training, and you can use it like an extension of your arm. I won't be outdone by a simple student in battle."
"Oh, you shouldn't underestimate me!"
Vivien launched another attack, delivering circular strikes, lunges, and whenever possible, attacking the opponent with her legs. However, he effortlessly repelled her attacks, with the spear sometimes coming close to vital points, but the sturdy breastplate dampened the impact.
"Weak! You can fight much stronger, but your own strength holds you back," the young man found the time to analyze Vivien's actions, and it infuriated her.
"Well, I'll show you my strength!" The spearwoman swung and delivered a downward strike, but the guard parried it with the glaive of his spear and pushed Vivien back. Before she could touch the ground, he launched a powerful lunge straight at her chest, and she barely managed to block the strike with the shaft of her spear. Unfortunately, it wasn't sturdy enough; the opponent's blade shattered the spear, and the impact sent Vivien flying to the ground.
"It's over, surrender," the guard declared.
"Not a chance!" Vivien, driven by fury at the loss of her father's weapon, at the composure of her opponent, and at her own weakness, launched herself into a desperate attack. With the remaining spearhead in her right hand, she struck with all her might at the opponent's heart. At the last moment, the young man made a half-turn, and the spear entered his armor tangentially. At the same time, he thrust the blunt end of the spear, the steel sphere at the tip, straight into Vivien's abdomen. The blow sent her reeling, and she lost consciousness.
"A remarkable girl," the guard touched his chest; the spear had entered at an angle, and even so, it managed to penetrate his heavy armor. He pulled out the embedded spearhead, and blood started to flow from the wound. "A couple more centimeters, and it would have hit my heart. I'll have to take her with me."
The young man hesitated for a moment, standing over Vivien's body. Carrying her on his shoulder would be a terrible insult, so blushing, he picked her up like a princess and headed towards the cafeteria.
"I hope Camilla is finished in there. I could use some help from a healer."
In the cafeteria, the battle had also come to an end. One girl lay on the floor, while the other triumphantly sat on top of her, holding a dagger to her opponent's throat.
"So, how did you do it?" the guard Camilla breathed heavily.
"Do you really want to know, you perverted lady?" Miriam was also breathing heavily, never before had she run a hundred meters so fast.
"I really do!"
A few seconds earlier:
Camilla aimed at Miriam's shoulders and fired from her crossbows, even though they shouldn't have had any bolts left. But when she shot, the strings on both crossbows snapped, leaving her helpless as she watched the archer take out the last three arrows and fire them simultaneously into Camilla's chest, neck, and forehead. The first arrow smashed the remnants of her breastplate, the second tore off the helmet fastenings, and the third knocked the helmet off Camilla's head. Miriam won this clash.
Now, the guard lay without armor, wearing only a short black top. She was a beautiful girl with lush black hair down to her shoulders and black eyes. Even though she was defeated, a smile didn't leave her face.
"I was hoping to catch you with a simple trick, using the spare arrows in the magazine. You see, there weren't just fifty arrows, but fifty-five."
"Yes, it was a simple trick, but it could have worked. However, I noticed something else! In the first attack, you fired twenty arrows in one salvo, so why didn't you repeat the same attack, especially when there were opportunities when I couldn't evade all the shots? The thing is, at such a pace, the strings on your crossbows overheated, which meant that after a certain number of shots, you needed to give your weapon a break."
"But the strings on them are made of the thinnest metal wire, but they stretch from the heat, and I can't shoot as accurately anymore. But to hope that the next shot would snap the string, you're quite a daring girl."
"I'm not daring, just smart. Take a closer look at it."
The guardswoman raised her crossbow and pulled the string, the edge of the tear was smooth, as if it had been cut.
"You cut it? But when did you manage to do that?" Camilla gazed at the victor with bewilderment.
"Cut it? Of course, I did, right from the beginning. Do you remember my first shot?"
"What?" The guardswoman recalled the attack she interpreted as a challenge to a duel. Two arrows split her wire and stuck into the ground next to her at an equal distance. "But you couldn't have planned everything from the very beginning!"
"Of course not, I'm not some Krito. At first, I wanted to disable your weapon, but when I realized its material wasn't that simple, I came up with a new plan. And then, a bit of luck, and everything turned out just as I planned."
"Hahaha!" Camilla burst into joyful laughter.
"What are you laughing at? If you have something to say, say it!"
"Nothing, really. I think I've fallen in love."
Camilla playfully glanced at Miriam, who, in turn, started to suffocate with embarrassment.
"What?"
Only a nervous "What" distracted the girls from each other. In the doorway stood a young man in black armor, holding a girl in his arms.
"S-s-s-sorry! I-I-I seem to have interrupted! I'll c-c-come back later!"
The young man quickly turned away but still couldn't make himself leave.
"What?" Miriam tried to look at the situation from a different perspective.
One girl lay sprawled on the floor, and the other was sitting on top of her, pinning her to the ground. Both girls' clothing was torn, and they were breathing heavily. Moreover, one of them declared her love to the other.
"What? Ehh? EEEEEEEEEE!? IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!!!"
"Kin, help me, please! I love being on top!!" The guardswoman lying on the floor called out to her comrade in a capricious voice.
"Miss Camilla, I already told you I won't be involved in this! Sort it out yourselves."
"And I'll let you watch!" Even from the back, it was evident that the young man's neck and ears turned red.
"SHUT UP!! We weren't doing anything like that here!!" Miriam snarled angrily at the guardswoman, but she only smiled contentedly.
"Oh, come on. It looks like a draw," Camilla glanced at Vivien, who was unconscious in Kin's arms.
"Eh? Miss Camilla, did you lose??" Now the young man also understood why the girls were sitting in such a position. "Mmmm. So what do we do now?"
The situation was ambiguous. On one side, Miriam held a dagger to Camilla's throat, and on the other, Kin held Vivien hostage. Moreover, they couldn't kill each other.
"Well, maybe you could just wait. I'm sure we'll be called to the main event soon."
A familiar voice came from the window. Throwing black fabric bundles the size of a person through the frame, a girl in a brown dress observed what was happening.
"Rumy!? You're right on time! And what's this?" Miriam warmly greeted her teacher.
"And this?" Rumy partially unwrapped the bundle, revealing a small young man in black armor. "Found him on the way, such a stubborn one, he didn't want to surrender alive."
"Sinner!? YOU? How did you? He's—"
Camilla was gasping from surprise; it seemed that the defeat of this guard was the last thing she expected. "So, you must be their strongest fighter?"
"Me? Oh, no, why would you think that? By now, you should have figured out where our strongest warrior was headed. Hehe," Rumy smirked playfully.
"GENERAL! We need to warn him! Kin, my transmitter is destroyed, contact the leader!"
"And mine?!" The young man looked around in confusion. "Damn, I left it in the helmet. I'll be right back."
But Rumy blocked his way and said with a satisfied smirk, "No, you're staying here until they call you. Or I can quickly put you in a position similar to your friend."
"Damn, what are the others doing?" Camilla roared, unaware yet that the other guards were also going through difficult times.