Burst_Swords to the Skies

by Adam Wan

  "Alright, where's the wooden sword?" he asked.

  "No need, we'll use our real swords. And of course, the first strike wins. What? Scared"

  She said that as she drew out her sword from her scabbard. A click was heard from her drawing the sword out. The blade was pretty thin and was black in color. The rainguard was red and gold in color, the blade had a white line in the middle of it.

  "No, not scared at all. Just watch out"

  Cel raised his right hand in front of his left shoulder and swung it down to his right waist area. His right hand glowed fiercely with a bright light, white light sparkled from his hand and out to the air. When the burst of light disappeared, an elegant white sword appeared in his hand. The crossguard was decorated with clear light diamonds that reflected the light in the room. It was the sword, Crystallite.

  "Woah!!!"

  "What the?!"

  "That's crazy!"

  The crowd made the dojo into an arena. The shouts, cheering and clapping filled the place, making me feel like closing my ears. I was actually amazed by Cel myself, he looks so cool!!!

  "Hmph! Let us begin. Stand back people, this is going to get rough" said the girl.

  "En garde, Lumi"

  "Lumi?!" I silently let out.

  I did not know that the girl was Lumi, I expected her to be slightly older. She looked like a teenager. She looked like someone who was around 17-20, my guess would be 18.

  Everyone stepped back around three steps. My heart was pounding at a fast pace because I was hoping for Cel to win. I heard that Lumi was strong and quick, which made me worry.

  They stood around 5 meters away from each other and stood in their ready poses. The silence engulfed the room as the coach shouted the countdown sequence.

  "2... 1... Fight!"

  Immediately, a loud clang was made they hit each other's swords with a horizontal slice. Another loud clang was heard immediately after that as they made a vertical slice.

  Lumi jumped back and raised her sword that was in her right over her right shoulder in an attempt to do a vertical slice but Cel jumped forward and blocked her attack by doing a horizontal slice in an upward direction.

  Lumi placed her sword near her left shoulder and started a spin attack. Her sword gave out a purple glow as she twirled like a ballerina, jumping step by step, pushing Cel back as he blocked the attacks.

  Clang! Their swords locked in the middle of the large room. Cel pushed hard, moving Lumi backwards step by step before raising his sword over his shoulder and sliced downward, pushing Lumi back again.

  Lumi strengthen her pose and stood strong. She raised her sword over her right shoulder, her sword was pointed towards Cel. Her face had a serious expression on it.

  The sword emitted a bright pink glow, she thrusted her sword forward in a blink of an eye. Cel blocked the attack stylishly, sparks flew brightly in the air from the blades of their sword.

  Her sword sprung, as if it was hitting a spring, and swung left in a horizontal slice. From there, her slices and thrusts quickened, becoming faster and faster until it was faster than the "Rapid Fire" skill.

  "Mother's Requiem?" I asked myself.

  Sparks, sweat, dust, all of them were in the air. The attacks became crazy fast but Cel block every one of them. My eyes widened from the fight that was happening in front of me.

  Suddenly, Cel started to swing his sword and quickened his attacks. He did the "Rapid Fire" skill after a while of Lumi's attack. The arena was filled with blinding light, smoke and sparks.

  "Hyaa!!!!" shouted Lumi.

  "Haa!!!" shouted Cel.

  The smoke and light made the crowd talk and question. The crowd asked things like "What happened?" and "Who's going to win?", I was wondering that as well.

  The smoke blew away in a burst of wind. The hair of everyone in the room got blown. I closed my eyes from the sudden blast of wind before opening them.

  In the middle stood Cel and Lumi. Her sword was near Cel's left shoulder, it was stiff and did not move at all. The sword was dropped to the ground, making a clanking sound.

  Cel's sword was placed lightly on Lumi's delicate left cheek. Her eyes were open really widely, it looked like she just saw a ghost to me. Because Cel touched her body with his sword, technically, Cel wins.

  "Woah!"

  "He really is the best!"

  "No wonder he is the princess's knight"

  "He's the hero anyway"

  Lumi stepped back about two steps and stood like she just lost her balance. She looked down at the white carpet.

  "I lost? Even when I used my special skill?" she whispered to herself.

  She looked up and shook her head pretty quickly. She seemed to be cheered up after she shook her head. I actually felt sorry for her but I was really happy that Cel won.

  "Well, you're as good as they say. I should be proud that I only lost to you. There goes my winning streak but whatever. That was good"

  "You're pretty good. No wonder people call you the best swordswoman" said Cel.

  Cel shook her hand politely. I was happy to have him as my husband. I smiled as I saw them talk.

  "Talking about swordswomen, I know one right here. The princess herself, Princess Sora Alt-Ryea"

  Cel said that as he pointed at me with a smile. He winked his left eye at me once, I stepped forward and into the arena. Lumi smiled as she looked at me walk towards them.

  "She's been practicing with me and she wanted to get better" said Cel.

  "Well, let's have a duel to see how good you are" said Lumi in a happy voice.

  "I bet that she's good enough" said Cel.

  Lumi approached me and gave me a cute smile, I could not help but smile at her cute smile. I noticed that she was 10 centimeters shorter than me.

  She shakes my hand and said "Good luck!"

  "You too" I replied.

  She turned her body around and walked a few steps before stopping. She placed her left hand on her hip and placed her right hand near her mouth.

  "Hey, Conn! Get me some wooden swords"

  Just after she shouted that, a young man, more or less her height, brought two wooden swords and gave it to Lumi. She turned to me and took a sword, she handed it to me with her left hand.

  "Thank you"

  I accepted the sword and held it in my right hand. I swung it vertically a couple of times before walking to the area opposite of Lumi. Cel stood back in the crowd as he watched me.

  "First Strike?" Lumi suddenly asked.

  "Uh, yes" I replied.

  "Alrighty!"

  She twirled her sword as she entered a ready pose. Her sword that was in her right hand was placed in front. She stood straight and strong with her legs

  "Cel, watch me fight, watch me try, watch your wife get stronger" I thought as I got into my ready pose. My sword was placed near my waist, my knees were slightly crouched, my eyes were sharp on her.

  "En garde!"

  We shouted those words together. The silence was, once again, upon us. The crowd was focused on me because I was the princess and that made me attract a lot of attention. Everyone was watching me, more importantly, Cel.

  "...Fight!"

  I leaped and began running towards her. My feet felt like they were gliding on the slightly dirty and stained white carpet. I raised my sword, pointing the tip towards her, over shoulder, next to my head as I ran.

  I thrusted when I was about a meter from her. The running distance was further because we had a further distance between each other, 9-10 meters.

  A loud clonk was heard as Lumi did an upward horizontal cut, blocking my attack. I immediately reacted, I placed my left foot in front of my right and used it as I spring.

  I jumped backwards and dived under her sudden horizontal slice. I placed my right foot on the floor, twirled it slightly clockwise as I move my body back up.

  I raised my sword to my left shoulder and executed a twirl clockwise as I swung my sword horizontally. Lumi dodged my attack by leaping back a
nd doing a swift backflip.

  "Nice" she commented right after she performed the backflip.

  I regained my balance and got into my ready position. I raised my left hand and wiped the sweat of my forehead before smirking and complementing her with:

  "You're fast"

  She simply shrugged and smiled with her eyes closed before returning to a different stance, her other ready pose. Her right hand was over her right shoulder with the tip of her sword pointing towards me. Her left hand was pointing forward too. Her knees were crouched slightly, the left foot in front of the right.

  Her stance was sort of like how I started the fight. She seemed to be aiming for a thrust, but I did not know where she was aiming. Her eyes did not reveal anything about that.

  She took a quick step and starting charging towards me. I charged towards her as well, swinging my sword as I moved my feet across the floor.

  She had her sword swinging towards me. I shifted my swing from a horizontal cut to a vertical slice. My sword made a curve as it moved towards my left as it moved slightly upwards.

  Clonk went the swords as they hit each other, her sword was hit of course, probably.

  I hit her sword strong enough that it made it to her right shoulder area. Just as it reached the area above the shoulder, the sword immediately swung downwards, hitting my sword that was swinging below it.

  My sword hit the floor, making a thumping sound. Lumi's sword was near the floor too, I noticed that it was about to spring back up.

  I placed my left foot, which was in the air, back down on the ground and used my sword to push against the floor.

  I could feel the wind that flow against my cheek as the sword shut up vertically passed my left cheek. I lifted my sword from the floor and raised it over my shoulder and behind my head.

  "Hyaa!"

  I swung my blade in a down-left direction. The sword glowed faintly, the glow was of a near transparent color. Lumi blocked my first attack and placed her sword at waist level, she seemed to be ready for a horizontal slice.

  Her sword swung to her left and immediately bounced towards her right. My sword was moving towards it at a pretty quick speed. The swords made a clonk when they met.

  Tiny pieces of wooden floated in the air when our swords met. I could smell the scent of wood as I fought.

  I quickly raised my sword over my left shoulder and swung it towards her right shoulder. It was a part of the "Rapid Fire" skill that I was trying to pull off.

  The sword moved left and right, almost like it was moving itself. I felt like I was not doing the move myself, my swings were moving at a fast pace, moving left then immediately going right. The attacks were dodged and blocked, not even getting near her body.

  She thrusted forward, my sword landed on her sword and stopped moving instantly. Like a lightning bolt, she moved her sword away from mine and placed it near her shoulder. She quickly moved her sword forward and thrusted towards my left shoulder in a blink of an eye.

  I had no time to react, I only got to step backwards one step. I lost my balance slightly and felt like I was about to fall. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

  I felt a slight push on her shoulder. I placed my foot down on the floor and regained my balance. I opened my eyes as Lumi took her sword away. "I lost" was the thought in my head.

  Lumi placed her left hand on my shoulder as she tilted her head to her left and smiled happily with her eyes closed.

  "You're good! I could teach you!" said Lumi as she patted my shoulder lightly.

  "I am?"

  "You're the second best person I have ever fought before, you know? And you already know who's the best I've fought"

  A light smile appeared on my face when I heard her kind words. She opened her eyes and looked into mine, her golden eyes looked into my light brown eyes with a kind and soft look in them.

  "You could teach her now. I'm not around until this evening. I have to go now" said Cel.

  "That was amazing Sora! But we have to go" said Spica.

  "Yea, bye" said Ayla as they waved goodbye.

  The chatter of the crowd continued and I bet that there were people gossiping either about Lumi, Cel or me. It was guaranteed that the news of me being in the dojo and fighting Lumi would appear in the next edition of the daily newspaper the next day.

  "It's enough people. You can return to whatever you want to do. There's no more fights for today" said Lumi in a loud voice.

  The crowd moved away, some exiting the building while others continue there training. The clashing sounds of wooden swords were heard again. Clonk, clonk, clonk.

  I suddenly felt a warm and wet hand grabbing hold of my wrist. I turned around and saw a sweaty Lumi pulling my hand slightly.

  "Could you come here for a bit, Your Highness?"

  "Sure"

  We walked into a little room that seemed to be her office or something. The room had a candle on the wooden table in the center of the room, there were two chairs placed in front and back of the table. The table had a cup of a certain beverage in it.

  Behind the table was a rectangular window. I could see a concrete pavement outside of it, there were a few workers too, they were moving wooden planks, wheelbarrows with with powder and some others.

  Lumi closed the door, a click was heard when the door closed. She turned around and sat down at the chair behind the table. She did a gesture that invited me to sit as she said:

  "Please have a seat"

  I sat down on the wooden chair, there was a creak when I sat down. I faced Lumi, who grabbed the cup and drank some of its contents.

  "I want to talk to you about a little mission that I want to go on, and I want you to join me"

  She said that just as she finished her quick drink from the cup and placed it on the table, making a slight clumping sound as it was placed.

  "A mission? What is it?"

  "I want to fight the beast in Cave of Losses, situated in the Secilia Province"

  I was slightly curious to why she wanted to go on a quest like that. I did not know much about her too, especially what made her the current user of "Mother's Requiem"

  "Why?"

  "Umm..."

  She looked down at her lap and took a deep breath while closing her eyes tightly, I was about to burst out something like "It's fine if you don't tell me!" but she quickly lifted her head and said,

  "Its about my mother, Rori Lyla. She died from Filiastra, and that beast caused it"

  She spit those words out of her mouth in a slightly tense tone. It was likely because she said something that was personal to her, and that was her mother's death.

  I was shocked to hear that, I was also confused. And that made me feel like I had to go on the quest because it sort of became personal to me too.

  "H-How did your mother get cursed?"

  "Back before I was born, the beast came to attack the village where I came from-"

  I suddenly interrupted her sentence by asking a question, it felt like it was a little rude to do so.

  "What's the village?!"

  I leaned my body forward out of a suddenwhen I asked, startling Lumi as her eyes widened.

  "Dalinia Village"

  I gasped when I heard that name because it was my mother's birthplace. It made me feel like I had a connection with Lumi's family somehow.

  "That village was attacked by that beast. It cursed some of the villagers, including my mother"

  "My mother too..."

  I said it in a gloomy tone with my head facing downwards at my lap and my hands were placed on my knees.

  I was startled when I heard a keroop sound. I lifted my head and my Lumi with a surprised face. It turned out that Lumi suddenly stood up from her chair and placed her hands on the table in surprise.

  "Eh?!"

  I broke eye contact by looking down the bottom-right corner of my eyes. The sparkling golden eyes stared at me with her eyelids wide open.

  "Oh, apologies, Your Highness. Your mother was killed by
the curse too?"

  "Yes, she came from that village too"

  "Wow, what a coincidence"

  I looked left then right, then left again as I looked under the table. I was thinking of what I wanted to say or ask her. I widened my eyes before looking back up and asking,

  "Why do you want me?"