The swordswoman once again concealed her blade in its sheath and prepared for a lightning-fast strike, her best move. From this distance, it would be useless, but with ice magic, she could create an icy wave as sharp as a sword's edge. Hilda grinned and raised the axe high above her head, gathering a powerful aura on the blade.
"Ice Explosion!" In a fraction of a second, Asura drew her katana from its sheath, and a sharp wave burst forth towards the enemy. But she didn't stop there and followed up with another top-down strike, and then another horizontal one. Following the initial powerful wave, two weaker waves flew after it.
"Ice Fortress!" Hilda flipped the axe with the blade facing down and struck the ground with all her might. In front of the princess, a massive ice wall, almost two meters thick, soared to a height of four meters. Such a wall could stop an enraged bear, but would it be enough against an innate warrior's attack.
The first wave, sharp and swift, crashed into the ice with force. The wall held its ground, but the attack left deep cracks across its entire thickness. The second wave lacked such power, but its strength, combined with the first attack, shattered the "fortress" into tiny shards. The third wave rushed unhindered towards the princess.
"And here it is!" Hilda pulled her axe out of the ground and raised it high into the air. The weapon, enveloped in an icy aura, repelled the last wave and sent it flying upwards. The wave collided with a magical dome and dispersed into thousands of tiny snowflakes. But the impact of the enemy's attack pushed the princess back. Driven by the momentum of her heavy axe, the girl took a few uncertain steps backward. It seemed that just a couple more steps, and the princess would fall onto the sharp spikes that remained in the ground after her previous attack.
"Watch out!" Asura rushed towards the princess, but the latter only smiled in response.
Hilda swung her axe behind her, and the aura oozing from her entire weapon began to disperse sideways in thin threads, providing support for the girl.
"Blizzard," the princess abruptly jerked her axe, and it obeyed its owner with astonishing ease. Following the axe's movement, hundreds of ice shards erupted from the ground and flew forward. A hail of sharp icicles headed towards Asura. The attack area was too large, and there was no way to escape it.
Asura quickly assessed the situation and closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. Withdrawing her blade backward, she executed two quick attacks, and waves of ice energy were released to meet the shards. The attacks clashed, and amidst the hail of shards, a gap in the shape of a cross, no more than a meter and a half wide, formed. The swordswoman stood in front of the gap, ready to repel the remaining shards. She moved with incredible speed and managed to deflect most of the shards, but three small pieces struck her left shoulder, right thigh, and left ankle. The pain made Asura fall to her knees, and the shards melted from the warmth of her body, causing blood to gush from the wounds.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you so badly. Are you okay?" Hilda sheathed her axe and hurried to Asura.
"The battle isn't over yet," Asura trembled from the pain but gathered ice magic in her hand and froze the bleeding wounds. Weakness overcame her due to blood loss, and the blade's magic quickly dissipated, but even so, Asura managed to get to her feet. Her knees were shaking, and she struggled to hold the katana in her right hand, but she defiantly stared into her opponent's eyes. "Until one of us surrenders or can no longer continue the fight."
The rules clearly stipulated the end of the duel, and if she didn't surrender, the fight could go on.
"But I don't want to continue fighting you in this state," Hilda didn't draw her weapon, even though the katana was pressed against her throat.
"But I won't surrender," the warrior had no strength left even to land a single strike. All she had was her pride as a warrior and her unwillingness to admit defeat.
"Ahem, pardon the interruption, but the rector wants to make an announcement," a thin voice from the stands broke the standoff between the warriors.
"Due to the severe condition of one of the participants, I am stopping the fight. The victory is awarded to Hilda Degarun," the rector's words brought tears of disappointment to Asura's eyes.
"Is this really all I'm capable of?" Asura stood upright and, running the katana along the edge of its sheath, hid it. In the next moment, the girl collapsed unconscious.
After a couple of minutes, the northern warrior entered our box, carrying Asura in her arms as if she were a princess. The ice was slowly melting, and blood began to flow from the wounds again. Feris immediately began treating her, while the rest of us looked skeptically at the newcomer.
"What's the matter? I didn't expect my attack to affect her like that. I thought she'd dodge it," unexpectedly, the princess, one of the strongest northern warriors, started apologizing to us for the injuries she caused to Asura.
"Don't blame yourself," Miriam walked around the princess and sat down next to her guildmaster, gently taking her hand. "Our master can be quite stubborn at times."
"Yeah," Vivien circled the bed and sat on the other side. "You daringly took on Lady Asura's most powerful attack, and she wanted to prove that she could do the same."
"Well, I didn't expect that. She could have just slipped into the gap she created with her first counterattack."
"Lady Asura may appear calm and composed, but she's very stubborn and proud. She can't stand it when someone thinks they're better than her and openly declares it," Werner grinned slyly, but a red shard of ice thrown directly at his forehead interrupted him. "Ouch."
"Would you please be quiet? I'm not as bad as you describe me," Asura regained her composure and silenced her chatty comrades.
"Ladies and gentlemen, before the last match of today, we will take a short break. The rector wants to personally take care of Asura's treatment, and I'm a bit worried about her," Vina's announcement triggered a wave of disapproval in the stands. "Now, be quiet! Do you want this beautiful girl to be left with deep scars? My goodness, what kind of people have we become? And while we wait, feel free to place your bets on tonight's most anticipated battle!!! My bookmakers are ready to take your bets in any zone of the stands."
Shamed by the young girl, the spectators fell silent, though they soon resumed discussing the upcoming battle. Five minutes later, all the commentators joined us on the balcony. The rector started helping his granddaughter with the treatment, while Vina rushed to embrace the wounded girl.
"Asi, I was so worried about you! That savage girl almost beat you up!" Vina exclaimed.
"Oh, Vina, don't squeeze me like that. I'm fine, and it's my fault, not Hilda's. I never thought you'd care so much about me," Asura replied, trying to push Vina away.
"Of course I care. You're an important friend to us, not to mention your potential," it dawned on me why Vina was so concerned for Asura. "Your strength and beauty are the perfect foundation for building a small business based on your popularity. Besides, I haven't lost hope that one day you'll join our guild. Then we'll definitely achieve great things together."
"Haha," Asura awkwardly laughed and attempted to distance herself from Vina. "Alright, enough with the hugging. I understand what you want."
"Don't mind her. We're already used to it. Even though she talks only about money, she truly values her friends," I tried to calm Hilda.
"But she still annoys me," the white princess narrowed her eyes discontentedly.
"Don't pay it any mind. Come on, she almost ruined the beauty of our dear Asura!" Vina fiercely confronted the princess. "And now she wants to scold me too!"
"I already apologized. I didn't expect everything to go so wrong. And why should I justify myself to you, you petty greedy peddler!" Hilda loomed over Vina, who was nearly two heads shorter, and narrowed her eyes angrily.
"Ha! And here's a naive northern warrior with her brain turned into muscles!" The princess glanced disapprovingly at the little girl and reached for the axe handle.
"Can I take a swing at her once?" I'm not sure if she actually cared about our permission, but for appearances' sake, she asked.
"Nooo," Vina hid in fear behind Rumy. "This isn't your barbarian land; you can't just attack anyone you feel like! Rumy, protect me!"
"Alas, there's nothing I can do. She still owes me a couple of meals, so put your weapon away," Rumy stood before Hilda, and although she was slightly smaller, she looked just as threatening.
"Hmm," the princess eyed the golem up and down, then smiled and swiftly reached for her axe, delivering a powerful blow to her opponent.
But the axe stopped halfway; Rumy effortlessly halted it with one hand and pushed it back. "I did ask you not to wave your weapon around for no reason."
"Wow, so you're the famous golem! I've heard a lot about you, but my father never let me into the scorching deserts of Leran just for one meeting. I'm glad I got to meet you today," the princess swiftly hid the axe behind her back and joyfully shook Rumy's hand. "Today seems to be my lucky day to meet so many worthy warriors at once."
The perception of an ideal princess was crumbling before their eyes.
"Princess Hilda, please don't upset Vina. She's a good friend, even if she behaves oddly at times," Asura stood up from the small bed where her wounds were being treated. With the help of the best healer in the Academy, her injuries were healing at an incredible speed. "But by the way, you wanted to talk to me about something, and I'm also curious about how you know so much about my clan."
"Oh, no need for such formalities. Just call me Hilda. And how can you not know where I heard about your clan? Our families have many connections, not to mention the blood ties," despite her roughness and some grotesqueness, Hilda smiled quite amicably, which made people warm up to her. "Besides, the training of our warriors includes legends of great heroes. How could anyone not know about the legendary Snow Birds who vanquished the undead during the Great Plague? Your clan saved many lives back then. And that's when our families became related; the sister of the clan's former leader became the wife of our great jarl. Since then, the blood of many warriors in our land carries the magic of ice."
"I had no idea about that," Asura confessed.
"That's strange. I thought your father would have told you," Hilda replied.
"Do you know my father?" Asura was clearly learning a lot about her family.
"Well, of course, though I was very young when I visited your lands. But my father said he introduced us back then," Hilda said.
"Forgive me, but I truly don't remember," Asura replied.
"Unfortunately, neither do I. However, I've heard about the feats of your ancestors—about capturing the Red Demon and the battle of ten warriors against ten thousand. Those were my favorite stories. So when my father told me about the future leader of the clan attending the Academy, I pleaded with him to let me come a year earlier. According to our traditions, I couldn't leave the heavenly palace without an escort until I came of age."
"Huh," Asura sadly lowered her eyes. "It's good that you can defy traditions if your father allows it. I think you've misunderstood me; I'm not the future leader of the clan; I'm just a renegade."
"What nonsense!" the princess growled angrily at the injured girl, who flinched in fear. "You are stronger than many renowned warriors, and I see that you're an honest and generous warrior. How can you talk about yourself like that!?"
Asura smiled at the unexpected praise, but there were still traces of sadness in her eyes.
"Thank you, but unlike you, I couldn't convince my father to let me go the right way. So now I'm just a renegade."
"Well then, no problem; now you're mine!" the princess proclaimed so brazenly, proudly puffing her chest and placing her hands on her hips.
"Ehhhh?" Usually pale Asura blushed intensely, and the others followed suit. "What do you mean, y-y-yours?"