by RA. Gil
Courtney laughed. She slowly made her way to where Valeriana was.
“Don't be so confident. It's annoying.” She stated, glaring at Courtney sharply. For just once, she was going to curse. “Bitch!”
God, that felt good.
Courtney's expression faltered and she seethed. She ran forward and attacked Valeriana with a critical swing.
Valeriana was barely able to hold up her sword properly before their blades clashed again. She made a pained noise in the back of throat. Her wound hurt like hell.
“Too bad for you.” The girl said. “You messed with the wrong person. It just had to be me.”
“You can be Madonna for all I care.” She said each word as hard as she could, moving her sword forward to block her attack. A sharp ring echoed as their blades crossed. Valeriana glowered at Courtney as they pressed more pressure onto their weapons, trying to overpower each other. “Taylor Swift or whatever. Selena Gomez if you’d like.”
“What nonsense are you babbling about?”
“I’m saying whoever you are, because you’re such a bitch, I’ll still want to crush your face.”
It seemed that this statement got on Courtney's nerves. Her opponent's eyes widened momentarily before she narrowed them and glared at her in irritation. This gave encouragement to Valeriana. At first, she felt frightened because her opponent was one of the best students. But, remembering her father's advices, it made all of her worries fade away. He was right. Whoever this girl was, she wasn’t perfect. She had a weakness. She just had to find that weakness. After that, even if Courtney had the upper hand, she would have the chance to turn things around.
Seraphina did spoil her a bit of the information she needed. This girl was easily angered and, apparently, it was true.
Meanwhile from his seat, Lord Aeron was watching the show with creased brow.
“You shouldn't let yourself be provoked when fighting.” He commented.
Courtney's one major flaw was that her moves became reckless when she was angered.
“I do admit Valeriana's attitude can be very infuriating.” Corvan said to himself. “I found myself on the verge of reducing her to ashes the last few hours.”
“My,” Aeron chuckled. “You both just met and she already came so close to that already? How very impressive it is to see someone able to get under your skin so easily.” He laughed.
In the middle of the arena, the fight between the two girls started to heat up. The duel became more intense during the past few seconds that ticked by. Valeriana did not know what she was going to do and she was wearing herself out. It wasn't noon yet so it didn't feel hot. The air was cool and refreshing. Still, her skin was covered with a sheen of sweat and her back was already soaked wet. She could feel her muscles protesting with the moves she made.
“You're an annoying imbecile!” Courtney yelled, striking down hard that it threw Valeriana back and sent her rolling away.
She groaned in pain as her weapon slipped from her grasp and skidded a few feet away from her. She gasped in shock and looked left and right for her sword. Courtney was just a few steps from her current position, and a victorious smile tugged on her lips.
“I'm telling you this now. You are no match for me and you will never be a part of this academy.” Her opponent sauntered confidently towards her, dragging her sword while its tip grazed the ground. This left a trail behind her, which even made the scene look ominous.
Valeriana tried standing up, but it seemed that she injured her ankle when she fell. She cursed as the ache shot up from her feet. She couldn't even bring herself to stand back up. Her quivering knees protested, refusing to heed her commands.
“I-I can't stand up!” She harshly whispered to herself. Her legs turned jelly and rock at the same time, barely even functioning.
This was what they called cramping, right? Well, shiznits.
“Agh! Not now!”
She started to crawl pathetically towards her weapon, hands trembling. The crowd was going wild in excitement as they watched the current events unfolding.
“Give up! You already know that you aren't going to win!” Courtney's discouraging words rang in her ears.
“No. Never.” She emphasized each word under her breath and reached out to grab the hilt of the sword. But unfortunately, Courtney harshly stepped on her fingers then kicked her chest and stomped on her shoulder.
“Ouch!” She cried, gritting her teeth as Courtney intentionally pressed down more pressure on her hand. “Holy shiznits!”
“That's where you belong.” Her eyes were wide and looked psychotic. “Dirt. Ground.”
Gosh. Did this girl have anger issues? She clearly hadn't been called a bitch her entire life.
Feet on Valeriana's hand and shoulder, her opponent bent down and picked up the weapon that was almost at her reach. She waved it around playfully which irritated Valeriana even more. This girl was acting like one of those bullies back home when she still attended elementary school!
“Give that—” Valeriana glared up at Courtney, but was only answered by having the pressure from both her feet increased.
Back up at the royal box, Headmaster began suggesting, “This is getting out of hand. Maybe we should stop the fight right here.”
“Let's give Valeriana a chance.”
“But . . .”
“It'll be fine.”
With the current position that she was in, Valeriana needed to be clever. She didn't have her weapon, so what exactly was she going to use to defend herself? She reached out with her free hand, patting the ground for any rock that she could use to throw towards Courtney. Unfortunately, there was nothing but sand!
She immediately paused at the thought.
Sand! She mentally exclaimed.
With newfound hope, Valeriana grabbed a handful of the sand and threw it to Courtney's face. This action caused her challenger to stumble back with a loud gasp of shock. She instinctively dropped Valeriana's sword to the ground as her hands flew to her face.
Courtney screamed, rubbing the dirt out of her eyes.
As she took the sword back into her firm grip, Valeriana remembered all the things Seraphina shoved into her head. She listened to all the important points she told her about, and the needed skill to let her survive the fight.
Valeriana finally regained some strength on her lower body, so she forced herself to stand back up on her feet while using her sword for support. Her ankle still ached so much she wanted to slap herself.
“Now . . .” She whispered. “What did Seraphina tell me?”
Chapter Twelve ♣ Recall
Seraphina’s eyes were trained to a scarecrow-like training dummy planted into the ground.
“Now listen closely to me Valeriana.” She said. “Courtney's way of fighting is intense and relentless. She won't give you a room to breathe, so you've got to be very careful and never let your guard down. Just focus on the fight.”
“Got it.” She answered immediately.
“Fighting is simple.” She then said. “People make the fight complicated. Look at this.” The lady knight turned towards the human and held up a polished sword in her right hand, and a stick in another. “What do you think is the difference between these two items?”
“Uh . . .” Valeriana's mind was blank. “They are both weapons?” The girl looked expectantly at Seraphina.
“I can see that.”
Valeriana grinned at Seraphina humorlessly. “Sorry.”
“This mere stick can be a weapon if one focuses all his power on it. This plain wood can be as firm as metal when one knows how to handle it properly. Observe closely.”
Valeriana watched Seraphina as she temporarily plunged her bladed weapon to the ground and spun to look at the dummy she envisioned as her opponent. She lifted the stick into the air and brought it down speedily to the structure she put up.
She witnessed the training dummy fall down to the ground with a cut in the middle. The stick itself then broke apart right afterw
ards. This forced a gasp out of her.
“Whoa. That's amazing.” She whispered before breaking in a girlish scream. “Exactly like what Doug Landers did! Oh my god! I have never seen anything like that except in movies and cartoons!”
Her mentor raised a brow at her. Valeriana stopped immediately when she saw the face she was making and flushed a deep red when she realized what she was doing.
“Oh.” She mumbled, redirecting her gaze down to the ground and kicking the sand.
Seraphina sighed. “Look Valeriana, there's no difference between a wooden sword and a blade when the one who wields it has a firm conviction. It’s really just that the stick has less durability.” She pointed at the cut where the object struck and dropped the other half of the broken stick over the other. “Knowing this technique, you'll be able to cut a thick sword, or even a tree in half without fail. But you must remember, how sharp the sword is does not rely on how well it's polished, or how sharp its blade is. It's always about the one who holds the weapon with the weapon itself. Do you understand?”
“So are you telling me I should be one with my weapon or something?”
A smile curled on her lips. “You catch on easily. A true swordsman knows how to be one with his weapon. In a battle, a weapon and its user should always be the same entity. You do not treat the sword as a mere weapon. You should treat it as if it's a part of you.”
“So I should just cut Courtney's sword into half, and it's over?”
“Preferably, but having you develop that skill overnight is close to impossible. It'll be a miracle if you did.”
“Then what is the point of showing it to me?”
“Cutting off Courtney's sword is not the exact reason why I showed this to you.”
“You know, this isn't the time to be cryptic since there really is no time at all.” She told her.
“Oh, but what kind of learning will it be if you don't figure it out for yourself?”
-*-
Valeriana was brought out of her reverie when she heard Courtney's agitated voice.
Up to now, she still couldn't get what Seraphina meant. “Crap.” She could feel anxiety twisting in her stomach. “How am I supposed to do this?” Valeriana whispered, watching as Courtney opened her now red and sore eyes.
“Consider yourself dead.” She growled.
A voice then chimed into her mind. The voice echoed at the very back of her head. She didn't know where it came from, but it whispered very wise words. 'Become one with your sword. Feel it. Control it.'
“But how?” She whined.
'Be the water that flows through the rivers.'
“What the heck does that even mean? That's physically impossible!”
And she heard one word she never thought her mind would call her. 'Idiot.'
It was too freaky knowing that there was a voice talking in the back of her head. But whatever or whoever that was, there was no time left but to listen to it and heed its advice.
'Do not just rely on technique or anything you learned!' This time, the voice echoed as though infuriated. 'Be like water! Swift and fluid like water!'
“Oh . . . is that you, dad?”
'I am not your dad.'
“Then who the heck are you and why are you in my head?”
'I'm your common sense. Why do you think I'm in your head?'
She thought back to their training session and wondered for a moment. Seraphina's movements when she saw her practicing before she even arrived wasn't how she thought it would be. It took her a few hours to realize. Her grace, her poise, and the beauty of how she rhythmically moved with her weapon . . . she was like water.
Water represented grace, gentleness, life, and refinement, but simultaneously, it could bring forth destruction and demise. Water symbolized generosity as well, but it could become the hands of death.
She looked down at the weapon in her hand and took a deep breath. She curled her fingers around the hilt firmly and closed her eyes as Courtney began charging towards her with her own weapon in hand.
“One . . . with your sword.” She whispered again. She chanted the same sentence over and over again until everything around her faded. All she could feel was something vibrating from the blade, aside from that, she did not hear, see or feel anything else.
“I'm going to slice you to pieces!” Courtney cried.
Her blood pulsed and her heart thumped.
Now.
Valeriana's eyes zoomed in on her enemy and she immediately swung her blade with her right hand before Courtney even had the chance to take a swing. Her limb almost felt like it moved on its own, as if the action was innate in her blood.
Miraculously, she blocked Courtney's recent attack with ease. Everything was only made hard by a wounded arm and a sprained ankle, but Valeriana successfully managed to tolerate the pain with the thought of everything ending very soon.
Their swords clanged deafeningly in Valeriana's ears, making her grit her teeth, but she immediately willed herself to relax and go with the flow of the fight. She exerted some force once in a while, but she reserved most of her energy. The next few blows they exchanged had a different rhythm. Unlike before, Valeriana could feel every movement of her hand, every vibrations, and every swing she made with her weapon. It almost made her feel like the sword was just an extension of her arm.
“Valeriana found her rhythm.” Headmaster Kylon commented.
“She moves with precision.” Seraphina cut in. “A swordsman will know how he is supposed to move based on the opponent. Adaptation is very important in every fight. For this one, you need to be calm and go only where the fight goes. Courtney is like fire—very passionate, yet easily provoked.”
“I assume you needn't teach her how to provoke an enemy.” Headmaster Kylon chuckled.
“Yes, that does seem to come naturally for her.”
They shared a laugh.
Corvan silently agreed.
Seraphina merely sighed. “To defeat fire, you need to be like water—meandering quietly down the river. Mindless of the rocks, mindless of every obstacle. After all, you can't fight fire with fire.” She whispered. “She finally got what I was trying to tell her.”
They lasted a few more minutes in that pace. Courtney was taken aback by the sudden change of character, but more than everything else, it struck fear and anger in her nerves.
Valeriana eyed Courtney's movements sharply, every twitch of her brow, the flick of her wrist, and the steps she made. There was something off with how she moved, and she noticed it.
Her movements are off. She thought. She’s becoming reckless, throwing mindless strikes—like an old, boring rhythm.
Something began building up inside her, and even before she knew it, her blade instinctively cut swiftly through the air with an audible swish and, unexpectedly, Courtney's weapon was sliced in half. Shocked by the sudden event, Courtney stopped and watched as the top part of her blade fell to the ground.
The whole arena went silent, all eyes wide in disbelief.
“Whoooo!” Lord Aeron yelled, pumping his fist in the air. His scream ruined the wall of silence.
Everyone looked at him incredulously.
“Did she just . . .” Corvan trailed off, eyes wide.
“Apparently, she just did.” Lord Aeron grinned.
Seraphina smiled proudly. “The point where you find a weakness is the time where your enemy's defeat is set. If a warrior lets his guard down, his weapon will do just the same. Good work, Valeriana . . . but I never expected you to really cut Courtney's sword in half.”
Valeriana dropped her weapon. She fell down and sat tiredly on the sandy floor.
“I . . . did it. I seriously did it.” She murmured in a low voice, thankful. “That's just about everything I can do. Thank god it's over.” She sighed in relief.
“Over? I don't think so.” She looked up at Courtney in puzzlement. Her hair hid her face, so her current expression was shadowed. The only thing that was visible was her dropping th
e broken sword and clenching fists.
“Let’s end this, Courtney.” She suggested, hoping it would make her feel better.
“End? I won't ever lose to someone the likes of you!” Courtney's eyes peeked through the strands of her hair, wide and full of hatred.
This girl really did have anger issues. She was seriously overreacting. Was losing such a big deal?
Valeriana stood up, her knees shaking in weariness. “Look, if that’s much of a big deal, fine. You win. Does that make you feel happy.” She said.
“What do you take me as? A fool?” At that statement, she opened her hands and whirlwinds appeared on her palms.
A loud screeching noise came from a distance as Seraphina stood from her seat in abrupt. “Stop it, Courtney! You are forbidden to use your element! You might kill the girl!”
A bunch of scary-looking whirlwinds appeared behind her, completely shadowing the light from the sun. Valeriana felt her heart leap to her throat as the wind's current around her increased. The wind was so strong as it billowed at her hair.
“That is exactly the point.”
Valeriana's eyes widened and she a couple of steps back, limping. She was scared knowing that Courtney would be unleashing her so-called power to wield the winds.
“Hey! Wait a minute! Have you lost your mind already?!” Even she couldn't hear herself over the wild howling of the wind, the deafening cries of the element totally muted her screams.
Courtney wasn't listening at all either. She was already blinded by her anger. She stretched her fingers before she balled her fist, causing the whirlwinds to disappear momentarily, making it seem like the calm before the storm.
She shot her hands towards Valeriana's direction. Slightly visible figures of copious, gigantic convex lines rode the wind, heading directly to where her hands were aiming.
Dust fogged the area, clouding everyone's sight. Valeriana crossed her arms protectively in front of her, closing her eyes tightly in slight hesitance to face the rapid arrival of death. The lines in the wind struck the walls of the arena after running over the position where Valeriana was situated, leaving evident cracks before it dissipated. The audience in that specific area had already scrambled to get away.