Chapter 125: Tornament 6

‎Anastasia disappeared from where she stood and blurred towards the mid point of the field, when Aric conjured the same shadow Raven he had conjured earlier, ferrying himself across the field on it’s back.

“Greetings, miss Necron.” Aric curtsied. “Getting to you too, Mr. Tinubu.” Anastasia replied with her ever present smile. “The last time we met, our clash ended overwhelmingly in your favor, but it’s not the same anymore.”

“So you intend on winning. Are you saying you’re going to defeat me?” Anastasia tilted her head. “I very well do indeed.” Aric nodded. “And yes, I do intend on defeating you as well.” He smirked.

“Wow, why didn’t you two just tell us it’s a rematch?” Instructor Lee commented from the side. “I mean, who doesn’t love a rematch, right guys?” He turned to the stands, where the students erupted in agreement. “Well then, “Instructor Lee’s volume went up a notch. “Begin!”

Over a dozen shadow tendrils moved at once, piercing through the space and moving towards Anastasia. The shadows casted by the shadow tendrils themselves, also Rose up from the ground and joined the ranks of the shadow tendrils.

But unfortunately, the moment they got within a meter of their target, they suddenly slowed down significantly, and appeared as if they had stopped in time. Anastasia, their target, didn’t even make a move to stop them. Instead, she merely tilted her head to the side and looked straight at Aric, then smiled in a way that look as if he was saying; ’Really?’

Then Anastasia simply stepped aside. While it looked like she merely stepped aside, in reality, she had moved so fast that she left an afterimage there. Like a domino, the shadow tendrils that looked like they were in suspended animation for a few seconds, suddenly regained their speed, and passed through the space Anastasia had been a moment before, piercing through her afterimage before it faded away.

Aric meanwhile, appeared at Anastasia’s side, his rapier cutting through the air, and falling towards her slender neck. Anastasia ducked, but the blade still got a strand of her vermillion hair. What she didn’t expect however, was for Aric’s shadow to suddenly rise from the ground and burst out in a series of numerous spikes.

Like before, the spikes suddenly slowed to a crawl. Anastasia even had the time to smile, look up at Aric who looked like he was in slow motion as he shifted the trajectory of his blade to split the space Anastasia would be in case she managed to dodged the shadow spikes –which he was most certainly sure she’d be able to do–, before blurring outside of Aric’s vision and appearing behind him.

WHUM!

Aric’s blade split apart the space Anastasia had been a split moment ago, before he rapidly slashed behind him, he hadn’t seen or sensed her behind him, but it was the only logical conclusion he could come to as she wasn’t within his immediate vision, nor his pheripherals.

Clang!

The sound of a bell chime rang as Steel met steel. At some point, a longsword had appeared in Anastasia’s hands, which she used to block Aric’s swing. Rather than rattling Anastasia’s hands, the force from the impact rattled Aric’s own hands instead.

Aric held on, dampening the force and redirecting it towards the ground, before freeing his rapier from the lock, and swinging once more. the two clashed repeatedly, with Aric being on the back foot.

From an outsiders perspective, or more specifically, from Damon’s perspective. Through his reflection, he could see what was really going on. While from Aric’s perspective, it looked like Anastasia was the being fast, Damon and a few perceptive others could see that in reality, it was Aric and his attacks being slowed down.

“There’s no way he’s winning.” Damon shook his head. He had somewhat deduced what Anastasia’s actual ability was, after all, he had been alone with her for days on end. He had observed her keenly, especially during battle. If he couldn’t deduced that much, he might as well go and hang himself.

Whatever it was, it was related to time, and he reckon it slowed down time in an environment, giving the feeling that Anastasia was the one moving faster. It was why she was able to play off her ability as one that increased her momentum.

From what Damon deduced, they were only to ways to defeat Anastasia. The first was that one must be fast enough to keep up with her even under the effects of her ability. And the second was if multiple opponents overwhelmed her at once. Keep in mind that in both scenarios, the enemies must be at her be as strong as she was.

The only one Damon currently thought able to enact the first apart from himself was maybe Alistair. As for the second one, Damon felt he was the only one able to do that, at least when the fight was one vs one.

“Such a pain.” Damon sighed.

Back to the fight, Aric thrust his rapier at the left side of Anastasia’s chest, but Anastasia didn’t even block with her sword. Instead, she stepped to the ‎side, letting the sword pass by her side, but Aric transitioned into a side swing. Anastasia raised her own sword, then slashed at Aric’s own sword.

Clank!

A sharp clank echoed, followed by Aric’s sword snapping in two. His eyes widened. ’She snapped my rapier from the side?’ Anastasia had found some weakness in his rapier’s and took advantage of it the moment their blades clashed, and successfully snapped his blade in half.

Aric recoiled, flickering backwards. However his face went grim as Anastasia caught the split part of the blade she had broken, and threw it at him. He barely managed to evade it, and even then, it still grazed him, cutting a long line across his cheek, before embedding itself in the ground.

He soon snapped out of it however, as his shadow rose from his feet, transforming into the same magnificent shadow raven from before. Letting out a piercing shriek, the shadow raven flew at Anastasia, but the flap of it wings noticeably grew slower the moment it got into a certain range.

Anastasia’s body then blinked upwards, and separated the head of the raven from its body, returning the shadow back to its unanimated form. Aric swiftly transitioned his broken rapier into a reserve grip as Anastasia blinked before him.

Clang!

His broken rapier met her longsword. The longer they fought, the more Aric’s color faded. He could tell from the force she was exerting, and from the expression on her face, she was far from going all out. He had thought that with all the training he had underwent after the mock exam, her be able to at least hold his own against her if they fought once more.

Aric withdrew his now shortened rapier, and stabbed it towards Anastasia’s neck. With all the ease of blowing out a candle, Anastasia effortlessly shoved the hand holding the blade aside, before spinning in place, and launching a devastating kick to Aric’s chest.

Crack!

Aric could have sworn that sound came from his sternum being broken. He felt light for a few moments, as his body floated aimlessly through the air.Then suddenly, he saw a rapidly descending Anastasia heading straight for him. He hastily conjured spikes made from shadow in her way. Why not a shadow wall you ask? Well, the structural integrity of his shadows wasn’t strong enough to tank an attack from her in the first place. The spikes could injure her, or at least, make her second guess.

But Anastasia did not get injured, and nor did she second guess. “Flowing jet wheel.” For the first time since their match started, Anastasia was finally using a technique.

The highspeed pressured water flowing along the edge of her sword, effortlessly cut through the shadow spikes that formed atop Aric’s body. But alas, before it could get to Aric, he had sunk through the shadow casted by his own body.

‎Aric reappeared a distance away, from the shadow of a particularly large debris. It was a given that the field was a nest of chaos and destruction by this moment. After all, numerous abilities had been utilized on it. and it wasn’t like the instructors bothered to repair it after every fight. To them, the students wouldn’t have such luxuries in a real battlefield, so why enact that here?

Unfortunately for Aric though, the moment he reappeared from the shadow of the debris, his head violently snapped to the side.

‎He hit the rock whose shadow he had spawned from head first.

Bang!

The rock shattered from the force, and so did Aric’s head which began to bleed furiously. Along with that, his vision swam, but he was sure he didn’t mistake the sharp glint of the blade against his neck. With a bitter smile, Aric shook his head. “I forfeit.” he said.

“Anastasia Necron wins!” The crowd that had been holding their breath erupted.

**********

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