Chereads / Divine Beast of Episteme / Chapter 16 - 16. Won the Battle, But Lost the War

Chapter 16 - 16. Won the Battle, But Lost the War

The crowd roared with drunk excitement, they had barely been capable of seeing what had happened, but the fact that blood stained the lady's upper arm was enough evidence to those mere men.

Tension built as the two created distance between themselves. The fight already proved to be entertaining.

Tristan felt himself get serious at the sight of a mostly fine Nida. Sure she had received a cut on her right arm which bled, that strike had been the weakest of the three.

Tristan planned to open her belly on the third strike leaving only a bit of force on the first strike. She didn't even flinch from the cut, only slight amusement appearing on her face.

'She' strong,' he let that thought sink in with new meaning. There had been a 60% chance of his attack landing, but it had not. The average sword user would have fallen to that level of skill, but she had parried them.

The dust that had risen as a result of their quick movements gradually settled down, Tristan heard the slight chatter of the spectators, and he felt the staleness of the wind within that place, due to its underground nature there were limited spaces to allow air in.

Vents existed, however, but even at that, he needed to remain careful with how much he brunt, the flaming torches that lit that place up were already burning a lot. He did not want to end up lightheaded.

Welding his sword with a solid grip, Tristan felt Nida grow wary of him, it was hard to find someone who utilized their left hands, their swings were different and required extra force to parry for a right-handed person. Simply annoying.

The two began circling each other again. Tristan had his sword stretched out before him. He didn't even bother to bend his knees. Nida already did that.

Tension built in the air as those seconds seemed to last hours, they moved again, and this time it was Nida's turn to take the initiative.

Taking three long strides towards her opponent, she arrived at his position in no time but he had moved three steps to the side leaving her side open.

Nida swung at Tristan's figure but he evaded it with ease, then she kicked sand at him, stunning him as he moved to leave the range of the sand, which he did albeit getting a bit in his eyes.

Nida charged froth at him by directly piercing the cloud she had created. Her swings were sharp and quick, making use of almost all her movements.

Tristan raised and swung his sword whilst he parried those strikes, unfortunately, she managed to open two cuts on his chest and right arm. They remained superficial but were something.

Taking a side step whilst he decided to take her more seriously, he suddenly crouched to leap towards her figure slamming into her body and bringing her to the ground.

Frantic at the sudden attack, Nida slammed the base of her hit on his back, and in return, Tristan delivered a powerful punch to her gut.

The punch forced the air out of her lungs and her vision went blurry instantly.

At that moment Tristan stood to deliver a kick to her crunched-up figure.

His kick sent her rolling and she struggled to come to her feet. Tristan waited for her to stand again. He wanted her to be on her feet for a little longer.

The moment Nida regained her balance she dashed towards him with rage in her eyes, but also excitement, she hadn't felt such power in a punch for a very long time.

Taking a solid stance, Tristan fell serious again.

So far he had been wielding his sword with only one hand, the moment he gripped his sword with his right arm he dashed forward also, and their blades met at the center of the arena.

The sound of those metallic objects drowned every other noise as everyone knew to have their eyes on the fight now.

A flurry of swings unfolded into existence as the light of orange sparks never stopped lighting up the arena. Dead silence existed all around the two fighters but they were too focused to notice that detail.

'Right, left, lower side, right side!' Tristan chanted inwardly, the rush of that fight getting to him and pushing his power up, his stance with both hands on his sword seemed unmovable.

His clashes with his opponent's blade remained as powerful as ever, he released those swings in explosive but rapid movements.

Nida matched those executions, however, and she returned them with slashes of her own.

Her shoulder never stopped moving and she tried to follow Tristan's but found that he quite literally swung erratically, only shuffling his attack point, this made his swings incredibly hard to counter and soon that reality started to become evident.

But this did not happen until they had been in that singular state for ten minutes straight! Both individuals felt stamina leave their arms and legs at stupendous rates.

The end to those flurry of swings ended when the sound of Nida's blade shattering, unfolded into the world.

Her world seemed to move in slow motion as the remnant power in Tristan's swing pushed her backward and her eyes widened when she found that she still could not follow his movements.

In that instant, Tristan opened three major cuts on Nida's thighs sending her to the ground almost instantly.

He stopped swinging at that point and the rising and falling of his chest showed just how much he had exerted himself.

The rush of their battle still filled Tristan's mind since he raised his sword to deliver a killing blow to his wide-eyed opponent. Her dark hair fluttered strangely.

A gong sounded, however, and the voice of the announcer boomed forth in the arena pulling Tristan out of his daze. He had not heard what the man had said, but when he saw three figures rushing toward him and Nida he guessed the fight had ended.

Taking a deep breath in a bid to relax, the moment he exhaled, he sucked his breath in as pain ravaged his mind with violent intensity.

His eyes grew blurry and tears clouded his vision. Tristan let go of his sword for weakness filled his very bones.

He quickly scanned his body and saw to his astonishment that his figure was riddled with an uncountable number of slashes. He was losing blood at a scary pace and his face grew paler by the second.

He and Nida had cut themselves in their ten minutes of non-stop swinging, but he had been injured the most.

He had focused on large cuts while she had focused on smaller ones till they piled up and were capable of killing him.

Realization dawned on him in those instants as even the three men had been rushing towards him, not her.

Violently coughing a mouthful of blood, Tristan managed to make eye contact with Nida, expressing his surprise.

'Bitch.' He exclaimed inwardly, after which his world spun, and he passed out from excessive loss of blood. The last thing he had seen was her satisfied smirk.

He won the battle but lost the war.

The unfolding of time would lead him to understand the deep consequences of that event.