Steel Thorns - Part 2

The moment the signal was given, Graham held his sword with both hands and charged towards me. His speed was almost scary. Even if I gave my all to run away, I wouldn’t be able to match half of that, and in, at best, three seconds, he would be in range to slash me.

Not only was his speed impressive, but the speed in which he covered himself in physical enhancement spells was too. In moments, Graham’s already impressive prowess went even further beyond while his sword started to gain a faint but visible yellow glow.

With that, he would be faster than a pegasus and his sword would easily be capable of cutting steel. All with very impressive magical efficiency at the cost of range and need of concentration. Even with the fact I’m sure to recover my energy faster than he does, I won’t be able to avoid damage as well.

Which was why I removed the plan of tiring him out from the list right away.

“Step one.” I muttered and snapped my finger almost at the moment he was already in front of me. Almost too late, but still, Graham’s body started to glow due to the shine of his barrier being damaged. An almost invisible image appeared in front of him for a moment. A golden half-moon with rapidly-moving teeth on its outer layer.

For just a moment, I could also see it and hear the sound of gnawing teeth scratching the energy wall, but Graham jumped away before he could receive more damage. His reaction time was too good even when attacked by an almost invisible strike.

He then glanced at the afterimage that stopped his attack for a moment, but quickly started to move again. The distance was something he could cut in a second, so there was no reason to not try once more. And this time, when I snapped my fingers, he dodged to the side almost without taking any damage.

Then, almost without losing momentum, he cleared the last few meters between us and tried to deliver an overhead slash. But before he did, the same image from before came true again and we were bathed in the glow of magical power being shaved. The sword didn’t stop this time, though, so I was forced to try dodging, just barely managing to move in time. He still managed to brush the tip of the sword with my barrier, but I avoided the brunt of the damage while Graham retreated again.

“The finger-snapping…?” He asked in an overly-analytical tone that didn’t sound like any of the times we spoke before.

“A distraction.”

“And the spell?”

“Chainsaw Replication.”

“What is even a ‘chainsaw’?”

“I don’t know.” I answered the absolute truth with a giggle. “But I know that it works the best if you don’t use it to strike.”

To be honest, the name is something I made up. Also, the finger-snapping wasn’t just a distraction, it also helped with focusing and aiming when used at range, but it wasn’t necessary. All I had was the concept behind my one attack spell, so it didn’t have a real name and the effect is a bit unstable without some help. But neither makes it any less useful after I figured out the right way to use it.

So, before Graham could react after our little exchange, I pulled some of the dustballs from my belt and threw them at him. His reaction to those was quick, but it was incorrect. They were the same color as the three ones I successfully turned into poison, but these were failures. But with information that I would be using poison, his immediate reaction was to avoid them.

The moment he dodged away, I threw a few others at my own feet, creating smokescreens both in front and behind the knight.

“This won’t wo-”

“It doesn’t have to.” I interrupted him as he was probably getting ready to blow my cover away with brute strength. “Look down.”

“What?!”

I couldn’t see Graham from inside the smoke, but I didn’t need to see him to roll one of my bottles to his feet. Just like how I didn’t need to see to hear the explosion and feel the massive flash of light coming from my makeshift flashbang. A failed product from trying to make proper explosives that only made noise and light with very little impact, but useful if I could avoid the effects. I’m sure I would be blinded worse than him if I tried to use it without some cover.

So, after hearing the first step go out, I crouched down and jumped out of the smokescreen… and almost dived headfirst into a blade.

Even blind, Graham had managed to strike towards me. A much shabbier attack than the ones from before, but damage is damage. It forced me to rush and meet the blade with a panicked spell, holding my left hand in front of the blade while using the catalysts to continuously cast my spell around it.

The spell held the sort in place and diffused most of the impact, but it was MOST of it. Even blocking the strike, my own barrier was still shaved off. In fact, as Graham forced the sword down, throwing sparks as my magical chainsaw shaved at it, my barrier continued to be drained. Less and less as time passed, but I don’t have enough energy to keep this sort of struggle up for a long time.

At this pace, I wouldn’t last more than one or two minutes before getting out of magic.

Luckily, he was still blind, so I forced my concentration further and did a second cast, slashing the saw towards Graham. A showy enough move to make him dodge and to give me time to move back a little. Just barely managing to keep up for now.

My left arm was already numb and the smokescreen was losing density already. Not ideal, but it was still working as intended.

It still took a few seconds for either me or Graham to move after this exchange. I was trying to rest a little after casting so many times and he was recovering from the flashbang. His problem was a lot easier to deal with, but any rest I could get would be useful. It was also time to move along.

“Step two.” I muttered right as the Pretender Knight fixed his posture and lost the signature pupils of someone who got flashbanged. How I know about this signature effect is a mystery, but ignore that. “Already regretting underestimating me, knight?”

“You were right… I’m sorry for that.” He answered, oddly enough, with a small smile propping up. “But I thought you couldn’t fight. Where did you learn all this?”

“Would you believe me if I said that I’m self-taught?”

“Are you… Are you lying to buy time?” He asked back with clear suspicion. I also could see that he didn’t really think I was lying, which was fair.

“Nope. I don’t like lying. But I would love to buy some time, you know?”

“That’s impressive…” He nodded, but quickly fixed his stance and got ready for his next attack instead. “Get ready, Roselia. I’ll take you seriously now.”

I would rather he didn’t, but also, I did bring this to myself. Getting someone strong to praise my fighting was a bit nice. It would be nicer if he wasn’t going to beat me next, but I can’t really complain.

Either way, Graham charged again.

The distance was much smaller than the first time, so I snapped my fingers and created the stationary saw in his way again. This time, the attack was predicted and Graham easily sidestepped the hit, so I dispelled it and created a different one closer to his sword. It, again, was avoided by Graham breaking the movement of his blade and just passing by the spell with just slightly touching it.

“Tch!” I clicked my tongue and changed my posture to defend from his incoming strike. This one would be a sideslash, so the plan was to defend the same way as before. Maybe damage his sword further.

But when the blade was close to connecting with my spell-covered arm, the sword went limp and started to fall. A fall that Graham then broke with an inverted grip and used to make an upwards slash towards my unguarded chest. A forcing move that I could only answer with my emergency trick.

“Oh?”

“Nice trick, eh?” I smirked while holding Graham’s sword in place with my right hand. “An anti-sword spell just for you.”

“What is it?”

“A bit complicated, but I can show you after I win. Didn’t even damage me.”

That part was a bit of a lie. The hit did hurt my hand a decent bit, and the small plate of void steel on the gauntlet's palm turned half to dust with this. But it worked. Would work until he noticed the spell on the sword was broken, at least. That was enough for me to hit it with my spell, though.

Or it would.

“I don’t only have a sword.” Graham shouted and headbutted me before using the blade stuck on my gauntlet as a hook to move me. “A mage shouldn’t fight in melee, Roselia.”

I could only answer him with a dry laugh as he pulled with all his strength and threw me far off.

A seemingly game ender.

While airborne, there was no way for me to defend myself well-enough. Graham’s speed would easily be enough to reach me before I hit the ground. If he could attack, that was pretty much the end.

Luckily, it was IF he could attack.

While I went flying and then started to roll on the ground after landing, my little gift went off by Graham’s face. A full bottle of an unstable mixture that would blow up when charged with magical energy, and that could be further refined into alchemic fire. A bit hard to make, but I did manage to make it three times, two of which I kept without refining.

“Step… three…”

And as I staggered up, getting close to the limit of my stamina, the arena finally went silent, for Graham was also staggering up after being flung by the explosion.

I could bet no one was expecting an actual fight to happen. Just managing to get the Invincible Second Year to the ground was unusual already. Maybe some were even considering that I could actually win now. It just was a fact that they don’t know about this guy’s signature magic.

They can’t see him recovering by sharing energy from his companions.

“Such an annoying skill…” I sighed while watching the literal power of friendship rekindle the spell on Graham’s blade and his stance go back to normal. “Using signature magic is cheating, you know?”

From my notes, it was a skill that ‘healed’ Graham the more companions he had and the friendlier he was with them. Worse than that, if he used his own energy, he could also strengthen said companions instead. A two-way skill based on a silly concept, and more than enough to get the edge on me.

“Weren’t you the one who told me to not avoid using all my skills?”

“Don’t listen to your opponent like this!”

“Maybe I shouldn’t… Will you surrender now?” He asked in a calm manner but that seemed to have a very small hint of worry hidden behind it. “It’s over.”

“I don’t think so.” I put on a front and pulled myself into a fighting stance the best I could. “Get on with it.”

He solemnly nodded as I shut my barrier down to save energy and started to fiddle with my gloves. Then, just like before, he charged with a two-handed stance, so I put on the same defenses.

First, activating my spell on his path, which he sidestepped. Second, an attack to his side, which he slid under. And third, I started to swap my stance to block.

Graham didn’t add any extra movements this time. He knew that I would be out after blocking something like this directly. Just an overhead swing would be enough to end this.

His last mistake.

Instead of finishing my movement, I threw myself forward without any proper stance and got inside his range. The move took him by surprise, but with how little I had left, a full-on attack would take me down before taking his barrier down. But I never needed to take it down.

“Surpise step!” With bloody fingers out of holding the small slab of void steel as a makeshift brass knuckles, my final punch connected with the big guy’s chin. An uppercut powered by the remains of the burnt metal and the little bits of metal behind it. Probably not enough to take someone trained against punches down, but people don’t train to take hits here.

Why train to resist a punch if you’ll die when your barrier goes down.

His sword still went down, but the spell surrounding it was dispelled when the caster fainted. With just gravity and what little force Graham added to it before, I simply got my barrier back and it bounced off. Still some damage, but far from enough to make me go down.

And, with only the sound of me panting and Graham hitting the floor filling the arena, the Pretender Knight lost his first duel.