Sweet Revenge

Kaito stood face-to-face against Francis in an arena at Rina’s estate. Apparently, Rina’s place had everything. Khrom, Evona, and Fiona sat in the stands alongside the other nobles, getting amped up by how things escalated. Iori was more nervous, while Rachael was visibly frustrated.

“Just follow the plan… That’s all he needed to do…” Rachael vented to herself.

Rina sat in a special VIP area between her two adoptive parents. The mother looked annoyed at the situation, while the father stared arrogantly, expecting a decisive victory for Francis.

Rina, on the other hand, looked upon the arena in anticipation. Her hands clasped together, hoping for Kaito to pull off an upset somehow.

“I’ve been waiting to get a swing at you for a long time, pretty boy,” Kaito declared with a serious face. He was dead serious about the fight.

“Heh, do you really think you’ll get a hit off in this battle?” Francis mocked Kaito. “I’ll dice you up like your unsightly pet cat in the tournament.”

Kaito didn’t react. Instead, Francis got irritated by Kaito’s seriousness.

The battle commenced.

Francis jetted towards Kaito and locked blades with Kaito, who barely got up his defense.

“Making you suffer is going to be fun,” Francis whispered. “I’ll give Rina no choice but to accept me.”

Kaito glared at Francis, then activated his Feint skill. He appeared behind Francis and unleashed his attack. Francis ducked under it and stabbed Kaito’s leg with his rapier, using a skill.

“And that’s already checkmate,” Francis continued to babble.

Kaito looked at his leg; he was poisoned. It started to feel stiff, but Kaito had no time to acknowledge it since Francis advanced.

Francis unleashed a flurry of jabs. Kaito began dodging them, but it was becoming apparent that he was being outpaced. Just before Kaito was overwhelmed by Francis’s jabs, he used Phase to get to a safe distance.

Francis slowly turned to face Kaito with a cocky smile.

This time, Kaito advanced. He ran towards Francis and attacked him directly with his blade. Francis parried Kaito’s attack and unleashed Counter. Despite being off balance, Kaito used Air Step to dodge the counter, but his face was slightly grazed.

Kaito landed on the ground, but then the poison sank in. He fell to one knee in pain.

Francis smiled and started to charge up some skill. Activating it, he jousted towards Kaito extravagantly, completely piercing through him.

The crowd gazed upon the scene, some worried, others excited. Everyone thought it was over. Kaito was sent flying in the air, but suddenly poofed out of existence.

Kaito stood at the other side of the arena, completely uninjured.

“All that for a simple clone?” Kaito mocked Francis.

Francis was unamused.

Kaito fired off an arrow, but Francis simply tilted his head to dodge it.

From behind Francis, the arrow turned around. Kaito activated his Pinpoint skill late to redirect the arrow’s trajectory.

Kaito had been practicing advancing how he used his skills while Rina was away. With his clone’s improved durability and new delayed tactics, he plans to use what he learned thoroughly.

Though this time, it was to no avail. Francis slashed the redirected arrow without even turning around.

Francis shunned Kaito. “No matter how many tricks you use, your defeat is imm—”

An arrow struck Francis in the back. Francis looked upon the arrow that had pierced through his body.

Kaito activated another one of the skills he learned at the Giora Adventurer School, Splitshot. A skill for his bow that duplicates the number of arrows shot. Francis didn’t know, but two arrows were redirected towards him with Pinpoint.

“I got you in check,” Kaito mocked Francis, copying his chess reference.

Francis slowly looked at Kaito, then at the judge, intimidatingly.

“You there…” Francis called out.

“Y-yes?” the judge responded nervously.

“Turn off the protective barrier for the duel,” Francis ordered.

The judge was shocked. “B-but—”

She couldn’t finish her sentence because of Francis’s stare. She looked at Kaito, and he gave her a thumbs-up. Reluctantly, the judge turned off the protective barrier. As soon as it turned off, blood dripped from where the arrow pierced Francis’s body.

The loser of this battle could die.

Francis charged at Kaito faster than he did before. Kaito couldn’t react and was thrust right through his stomach by Francis’s rapier.

Kaito didn’t even flinch. He grabbed Francis’s rapier and looked at Francis with a mischievous grin.

“You really gotta learn which one’s a clone,” Kaito joked.

Francis was alarmed. A second Kaito appeared from behind and ran in for an attack. Francis tried to pull out his rapier, but the initial Kaito resisted. Suddenly, Kaito purposely let go, which sent Francis back off balance.

The unstabbed Kaito got a clean punch in, but Francis endured the attack and struck back. Francis’s attack hit Kaito, but Kaito poofed out again!

The stabbed Kaito was the real one.

Francis realized and swiftly turned back around to face Kaito, but he was met with a stab to his chest. Francis stood there, shocked, before he jumped back with Kaito’s dagger still embedded in his chest.

“Curse you,” Francis muttered to himself.

Francis looked at Kaito, who coughed up blood from being stabbed in the chest. A bit of blood dripped from Francis’s body as well. Kaito was more frail than Francis, so the exchange was still more beneficial for Francis.

Francis pulled Kaito’s dagger from his body and flung it far into the arena, almost hitting a spectator.

“Enough of this fool's play,” Francis announced. “I’m ending this.”

Kaito got up and laughed methodically. Everyone was stunned by Kaito’s behavior despite his position.

He held his hand to Rina in the crowd and activated a skill.

Pickpocket.

Francis’s eye twitched upon seeing what Kaito now held.

Kaito held Rina’s sword out horizontally and took a deep breath while slowly opening his eyes to glare at Francis.

“YOU’RE AN AMATEUR AT SWORDSPLAY, DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN BEST ME!?” Francis was furious.

Francis pounced at Kaito and swung his sword in a great arc.

Kaito parried it with perfection.

Francis' stance was flung back as he looked upon Kaito. His eyes were glowing blue.

Completely focused, Kaito began attacking Francis with a flurry of slashes. Francis, on the defensive, had to block everything being swung at him. Francis eventually got an opening and swung at Kaito, but he activated Feint and got behind him to barrage Francis with more slashes.

Francis used Counter before Kaito could overwhelm him again. Kaito was struck back, but immediately recovered, somersaulting off his hands to regain balance.

Getting back into the action, he used Accelerate to close the distance. Francis reacted and slashed down at Katio, but he activated Feint again to dodge and successfully strike Francis in the back.

“How is he activating so many skills!?” Francis thought, stunned, as he was hit.

Francis recovered to face Kaito, who stood in an offensive stance with Rina’s sword pointed at him. Kaito’s eyes remained glowing as he took another deep breath.

Kaito ran exponentially towards Francis. Mid-run, he did a front flip, then a spinning jump before slashing at Francis. Francis was mentally overwhelmed, so all he could do was defend. Despite the first slash being blocked, Kaito maneuvered acrobatically to attack repeatedly.

“That’s Dancing Blade!” Rina proclaimed, getting up from her seat and grabbing onto the balcony.

Francis was being pushed back to the wall; he needed to do something, so he tried to force an opening.

“COUNTER!!!” Francis yelled, activating his skill.

Kaito was expecting this. He ducked under Francis’s attack and used his Pierce skill to finish off Francis, stabbing him right in the stomach.

Francis fell to the ground, and everyone in the crowd went silent.

“Kaito!” Rina yelled as she jumped down from the stands. She landed on top of Kaito, knocking him out of his focused state.

Kaito had won.