Chapter 304: Weapon of Choice Part 2

The tower’s enchanted horn blared across the coliseum.

“OUR DUELISTS SEEM READY TO FIGHT!” Mark yelled.

Jane cupped her hands together and shouted into the horn, “THEN LET THE 9TH MATCH OF THE CHALLENGE OF SPELL & STEEL… BEGIN!!!”

Diane didn’t need another cue, orange mana surged into her veins and empowered her body with agility magic. She ran across the arena straight at Sylvie. Sylvie didn’t move. Diane raised her swords. Still, Sylvie didn’t react. The orc’s blades glistened in the sunlight, but the dire vampire simply smiled casually.

The sands underneath Diane’s feet shifted and the ground exploded in a solid wave of stone. She yelped out in surprise as the ground launched her twenty paces away. She spun her body in mid-air and landed in a roll, knocking the sand up in a cloud around her.

Diane coughed and shook her head, then jumped to her feet.

Sylvie placed her hands on her cheeks and gasped dramatically with wide eyes, “Oh no! Is the swordmaster in fact at a terrible disadvantage!? Who would have guessed that magic trumps steel!?”

“Shut up, you damn giant oaf,” Diane muttered angrily.

“Oh, I’m just kidding,” Sylvie laughed lightly. “Steel kills mages as easily as anyone else. It’s just that in this case, I’m the better mage. Plus I have the better weapons.”

“What did you just say?” Diane sneered.

“I’m saying that I have an aegis, dummy. Your swords will never reach me, but my ax will definitely reach you. So you might as well give up alread–”

Diane didn’t wait for her to finish. She rushed back in. The sands shifted once more and exploded underneath, but this time she was ready. Diane vaulted into the air and the stone wave passed beneath her harmlessly. Sylvie’s lips formed an ‘o’ shape as she looked up at the swordmaster falling down above her.

Sylvie flicked her hands; blue mana instantly coalesced into a giant glob of water that vaguely took the shape of a hand. The aquatic hand slapped Diane out of the air and straight into the ground. Diane gasped in pain, the wind knocked out of her. A dull stone pillar exploded from the sand and smashed into her stomach, sending her flying back into the air. She fell a dozen paces away with a hard thud.

Sylvie groaned loudly, “Come on, it’s rude to cut someone off when they’re speaking.”

Diane grimaced and coughed up bile mixed with blood. After a few moments, she pushed herself to her feet in an unsteady stance. “...You don't take this seriously, do you?”

“Hm?” Sylvie cocked her head to the side.

Diane wiped the blood off her lips with the back of her hand, “You don’t take any of this seriously, do you? Not me, not this fight, and not even this tourney. Do you?”

Sylvie shrugged, “I don’t even know what that means. I’m here to fight like everyone else.”

“No. No one is here to fight. They’re here to prove themselves. But you,” Diane narrowed her eyes, “It’s like you’re here just to play like this is a party or something. Whereas everyone is putting their lives on the line just to be here.”

“What? Do you want me to be scared of those two little metal needles?” Sylvie pointed at the swords on the ground. “Sorry if I’m not afraid or worked up like you.”

“What are you even after? What do you want?”

Sylvie smiled, “To win, obviously.”

“I hate people like you the most,” she sighed and picked up her blades.

“Those swords won’t help you, you know.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Diane pointed her clenched fist at Sylvie. A plume of flames blazed to life and thrashed towards the vampire hybrid. The aquatic hand swiveled in front of Sylvie and met the raging fire in an explosion of steam.

The aurum aegis ignited to life. Bronze and golden specs of light flared around Sylvie’s body and formed a protective shield from the heat. As the steam cloud slowly diffused the crowds gasped in surprise. Sylvie hadn’t moved an inch, but Diane was right behind and above her, trapped and suspended in mid-air by a web of shadow tendrils emerging from Sylvie’s silhouette.

Sylvie slowly turned her neck back and looked up at Diane, “You used the steam as a distraction to try and jump me from behind? Not bad. But even if I hadn’t stopped you, my aegis would have protected me just the same.”

Diane tried to move, but the shadow tendrils wrapped around her more tightly. She growled in frustration, “Easy for you to s–”

The shadow tendrils suddenly pulled back and launched the orc across the arena. Diane fell in a sprawl of limbs. She groaned in pain and tried her best to breathe through what was undoubtedly a broken rib or two.

“See! It’s annoying when people cut you off isn’t it!?” Sylvie yelled.

With slow measured breaths, Diane gingerly stood to her feet and picked up her swords.

Sylvie furrowed her brow, “Are you seriously still going to try and fight? Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter how strong of a swordmaster you are if your sword can never reach me! Why even bother fighting!?”

Diane smiled painfully, “...Heh, it’s easy for you to say when you’ve been handed everything in life. A rich little princess whose parents spoiled her with an aegis and a gold one at that!”

“It’s called an aurum aegis,” Sylvie said, a trace of anger in her voice. “And what do you know of my family? You never met them.”

“And yet I know you inherited their powerful magical legacy. Not only that, life itself deemed you worthy enough to be born a Dire. You are a being that physically, magically, and financially towers over others. Everything must come so easily to you that you’ve come to actually believe you somehow deserve that power. But you don’t.”

Sylvie glared at her, “You’re wrong, I worked hard and earned every bit of my power.”

“Bullshit. I’ve known countless kids who spent their entire lives working to reach even a tenth of your power and they still failed. So don’t come here trying to pretend like you deserve to stand here with the rest of us. You don’t and you never will.”

“You’re wrong,” Sylvie said tersely.

“Am I?” Diane laughed, “I finally get it now. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You want to feel like you belong? Don’t you?” She spat at Sylvie’s direction, “Look around you, take a good look at all the faces in those crowds. You see it, don’t you? You. Do. Not. Belong.”

Sylvie’s face grew solemn, bereft of expression. Her eyebrow twitched. And for a brief moment, Diane spotted something behind Sylvie’s scarlet eyes she hadn’t before. Unbridled rage. Diane felt a shiver crawl up her spine.

Sylvie closed her eyes, took a deep slow breath, and smiled serenely, “I already told you, you’re wrong about me. I don’t need my magic to prove that to you.”

“What…?”

Sylvie unclasped the silver lace chain around her neck and pulled off her aurum aegis; a golden medallion riddled with arcane sigils and a magestone embedded deep within.

Diane licked her dry lips, “W-what. What are you doing…?”

“It’s simple,” Sylvie slipped the aegis into her pocket and picked up her two-handed ax. “No magic. I already bested you as a mage. This time I’ll best you as a warrior. Let this be a Challenge of Steel and Steel alone.”

Diane chuckled at the absurdity of it all, “You can’t be serious. You already broke my ribs.”

“You want to win, right? This is the one shot you’ll get.” Sylvie gripped her ax tight, “Here I come!”

Sylvie charged her and swung the ax down.

Diane raised her swords in a crossed stance and blocked. She gasped and fell to one knee from the sheer force of Sylvie's single attack.

“T-that… won’t… be enough!” Diane said through gritted teeth and labored breaths.

“Who said I was finished!” Sylvie pulled back her ax and prepared for another swing.

Diane relaxed her breathing and let the life force residing in the core of her body flow into her muscles. She abruptly kicked off the ground and narrowly evaded the ax’s edge. Yet Sylvie pivoted and slashed out with another attack. Diane clenched her teeth tight and blocked the blow. She stumbled back a step, but quickly regained her footing.

Sylvie didn’t let up and assaulted her with an onslaught of swings. Diane’s feet shifted and she was forced to retreat. Sylvie’s long arms and her ax’s shaft gave her a reach that far extended beyond Diane’s swords. Her dire strength made each ax blow crash down with the force of a wild beast. Even worse, Sylvie was fast, faster than anyone Diane had encountered.

Even with life force energy strengthening Diane’s muscles, she could hardly stop the attacks. Every block sent pins and needles of paining running through her arms. And yet despite the pain and ferocity of the attacks, Diane kept blocking. Her swords fell into a familiar rhythm and she found herself shifting the force of the ax’s swings away from her until eventually not a single blow could reach her.

Sylvie stopped attacking and looked at her in surprise, “How did you–?”

“You’ve really underestimated the title of swordmaster,” Diane smiled ferociously. She stepped forward and swung her blades in a blinding flash of steel.

Sylvie raised her ax and blocked the slash from the right, then the left, then top, and then… Sylvie’s eyes flittered around as she tried to stop each oncoming attack. Diane’s blades didn’t have the incredible strength behind them like her own, but the orc somehow anticipated where her ax would block, and then Diane would shift her blades somewhere else.

“The title of swordmaster is only given to those of us who’ve strived beyond any other!” Diane yelled as she slashed her blades in a flurry of steel. “You mock the sword, but you don’t know what it means to wield one!”

“It’s just a stupid sliver of metal!” Sylvie yelled.

Despite Diane’s overwhelming skill, she could not close the gap between them both. Sylvie’s reach was too great and she knew it.

Sylvie grinned, “Those flimsy swords can’t touch me! You should have gone with a spear!”

“All I need are my swords!” Diane narrowed her eyes and kept attacking. The pain in her ribs melted away amidst her endless strikes. “The sword is my will! My vision! It is the legacy of everyone who came before me! And I will not let you ridicule them!”

Thin streaks of green life force swirled around Diane. Her feet shifted in a blur and her body skipped forward like an arrow, past Sylvie altogether. Sylvie stiffened and glanced down at her ax, the wooden shaft had been cut clean in two.

“That was close…” Sylvie muttered.

“You’re wrong. I finally reached you,” Diane turned back around and smiled triumphantly. She raised her sword, the tip of her blade was dyed red.

Sylvie slowly raised her hand and touched her cheek. A small gash bled below her eye.

“I fucking hate swords,” Sylvie cursed under her breath. She tossed away her broken ax and opened her arms wide. “Fine! I was wrong. I underestimated your sword…”

“Swords,” Diane raised both blades.

“Nah, dual-wielding those flimsy needles is still stupid,” she grinned.

“Is that right?” Diane smiled coldly and abruptly swung her blades at Sylvie’s left arm.

Sylvie’s body spun with pale red light and the blades passed by her harmlessly. Diane's amber eyes widened in surprise, she tried to retreat but she had overextended. Sylvie sharply slammed the side of her hand down over Diane’s wrist. The crunch of bone resounded in both their ears.

Diane cried out in pain. Her wrist went limp and dropped the sword. She jumped back and stared at Sylvie with a mixture of pain and shock.

“That red light. It wasn’t magic…” Diane muttered warily.

“Nope,” Sylvie said casually.

“It was… a manifestation of concentrated life force energy?”

“Yup.”

Diane frowned, “Only a master warrior can manifest their life force…”

“So they say.”

“But that’s not possible…” Diane shook her head vehemently. “You didn’t use any energy techniques against me earlier! I defeated your ax!”

“Yeah, I guess you did,” she shrugged.

“Then how!? How can you–!”

Sylvie dug her foot underneath the fallen sword, flipped it up, and snatched it from the air. She twirled the blade comfortably in her hand and tested its weight. “Hm, how indeed?”

Diane paled, “No. It can’t be. You can’t be!”

Sylvie spread her legs apart and lowered the blade behind her back. Soft red life energy crept over the sword. The wind began to blow around her as if pooling around her very being. The breeze lifted her blood-red hair up in a mass of scarlet strands and the sunlight dyed her hair in a red glow.

Diane’s jaw went slack. This was more than a simple energy technique. This was precise life force control and terrifying sword skill fully realized.

“Why!? I don’t understand!” Diane screamed. “You said you hated the sword!”

“I do.”

“Then why!? You’re a swordmaster, why–!”

Sylvie dashed forward, her figure a red blur. Diane raised her sword and tried to block. The air imploded in a clash of steel. Diane’s sword snapped in half and her arm was torn apart from the pressure of the raging life force. She spun from the sheer force of the attack and collapsed on the sand in a bloody mess of nicks and gashes.

Sylvie looked at her fallen opponent indifferently. She tossed her sword away and turned to the crowds cheering her name.

She waved and smiled widely, though it did not reach her eyes.