The Duel - Military School (Part 8)

"Begin!" 

As soon Shizuko had said that the duel started. Vula slowly walked towards me and I also walked towards her. 
Soon we got in each other's range and Vula made the first move. She threw a punch at my torso, which I blocked of course, before sending a kick, aimed at her head. 
She smiled when I made that decision, and I hurriedly retreated back. 

"Good observance, Void." Vula complimented. "I wouldn't think you would notice me smiling." 

"Thank you, Vula. I must admit from that one punch that you're powerful!" 

"Thanks. But enough chit-chat. I'll go serious from now on since I can see you're pretty strong." 

A droplet of cold sweat ran down my neck.
I know this feeling! An aura of fear and... the instinct to survive! 

I looked at Vula. I couldn't just help it and laugh inside. I'm one that usually runs away from fights. I'm not strong nor intelligent enough to use tactics to defeat the stronger opponent. And meanwhile, Vula, my own twin sister is the complete opposite of me. 
She's smart, influential and... the most essential factor in a world like this... is power. 

"What's wrong Void? Not gonna try to fight back? Very well then." 

A powerful force struck my body and I was launched a couple of metres back even though I guarded the attack. It was a long time since I experienced pain. And I don't like it. But this time... the pain wasn't so painful and instead, I smiled with glee.
"Fine." I said. "Let's fight." 

Vula was confused but immediately got back in a defensive stance. Even though I don't like fighting, I still know how to fight.
"And I'll show you a real good fight, Vula, one which won't leave you disappointed!" 

"Great! Come at me!" 

Left, right, right, left and centre. I entirely focused on attacking and defending. Vula was getting pushed back, but her counterattacks are getting more often. From a viewer's perspective, we were quite evenly matched but my stamina was about to reach its limits and with that remaining stamina that I had left, I tried to deal as much damage as I can. I created an opening that I could use as a springboard to leap back, creating a distance between me and Vula. 
At this point, we were both catching our breaths for air. Vula recovered more quickly than did which put me at a disadvantage. 
No time to think!
I used whatever I could think of and materialised it. A cold mist came slowly leaked from the rocky ground of the battle arena before small patches of ice formed on the ground. 

Understandably confused and shocked by what I did, Vula was now in a semi-state of panic. 
"I won't ask how you did it, but it was either unknown technology or a supernatural concurrence that just so happened to appear. The latter sounds too unrealistic so show me what your unknown technology can do, Void!" she said. 

She can think of an answer lightning-fast to unknown occurrences. That's for sure, quite scary. 

I gave a quick glance towards Shizuko, who was now sitting in one of the front-row seats with her legs crossed and with a bland facial expression. But her eyes were wide, meaning she was at least surprised by the ice suddenly appearing out of nowhere. 

"Okay! You asked for it so you're going to receive it!" I replied. 

By buying some time by chit-chatting with Vula, I was able to calm down my mind and body, and in turn, allowed me to think much more clearly and faster. I actually thought of just ice and it materialised, just not in the form I would like. 

But no time to wonder about my thoughts again. I narrowly dodged a flying knee kick and grabbed Vula by her ankle, throwing her towards the ground. She caught herself but it created an opening that I used to land a pretty hard punch towards the stomach area. I followed it with a sweeping of the legs to cause Vula to fall towards the ground but as expected, I was too slow in performing the sweep and Vula was able to dodge it and land a double roundhouse kick to the rib area. 
Of course, I was thrown to the side and Vula did not miss a golden opportunity to pin me down. 

"You're strong, I can say that, but show me what you can do with that technology combined!" 

I kicked her off me and I replied. 
"Sorry, sorry. Won't happen again. Here. A welcome gift as I might say." 

"A welcome gift..?" 

And by a 'welcome gift', I meant throwing sharply condensed spears of Divine Essence at her. It wasn't meant to kill her but to throw her off guard. It was the first time she was seeing something like this and by human nature, we tend to be quite curious about new things. And if that new thing suddenly appears in front of you, then of course, no matter what life you had lived through, you are going to be caught off guard at the very best. 

And it did catch Vula off guard. But as expected as a Lieutenant General, it only provided me with a few extra seconds to make my next move. But that time was enough. First running straight at my opponent, Vula, and then targeting a few of the spears towards Vula would force her to either block or try to out-maneuver the spears, but either way, her hands would be too full with the spears to counter my attacks during the meantime. 
It wasn't a full-proof plan but currently, it's the best I got, or at least I could come up with. 

As she was frozen, trying to figure out a plan to deal with the spears, I rushed forwards towards her with the spears soon coming after, just as I planned. I wouldn't know the outcome because that's all down to fate-

Wait a minute. Fate? .... Heh. I can't believe I forgot about the most important thing that I have in my arsenal. 

"Shizuko!" I called out. 

"What?" she replied. 

"Can we use weapons?"

She turned her attention to Vula and then turned her attention back to me. 
"If you are talking about guns, then no, but swords and those spears; I'll allow them." 

Hearing her answer gave me the signal to go. A new plan. 
"Alright, thanks, Shizuko!" 

By now, I was less than a couple of metres away from Vula, who was now back to normal. I don't think she has a plan in mind to deal with the spears just yet, as she doesn't have enough information on them but she should be now focusing on me now. 
I arm threw her to the ground followed by a DE spear locked onto her. I had expected her to recover fast like last time, which she did, but this time she didn't account for the DE spear, which can lock onto people. 

"Wha-?!" she yelped in surprise. Instinctively, she tried to dodge it but at this point-blank range, it was almost impossible. The DE spear tore through her left lumbar section and some parts of her intestines would be seen hanging. 

I panicked. Damage like this would be certainly irreversible I concluded. But when I looked at Shizuko for help, she doesn't seem to flinch at this occurrence. 
The same goes for Vula. 

"Well, I guess I played around too much and this was the price to pay for it." Vula said. 

"Are you okay then?" I asked. 

"Yeah, no problem. Just wait a second." she replied. I was confused by her reply, wondering why she isn't concerned about that. 

And just what Vula had said, a second later, the damaged part started to slowly patch up and heal. 
What's going on?! How is it recovering by itself?! I asked myself. I was left standing there, dumbfounded by what just happened. 

"138 sextillion." 

I stared at Vula.

"That's 138 followed by 21 zeros." 

"Huh? What do you mean?" 

"Every high-ranking officer that also has attained the Entanian Senior Uniform, would be provided with at least 500 trillion LNBs. And I got 138 sextillion of them. So don't worry, keep on going. Don't need to worry about me until I warn you about it." 

"Huh? Vula, could you please try and make sense?" 

"What she's trying to say, Void," Shizuko stepped in, "is that, she has 138 sextillion LNBs, codename or short for 'Life Nano Bots' which can provide support and recovery speeds never seen before. Which basically makes us nearly immortal in most general things, such as that wound you gave her. Me, personally, I don't have many, only around 30,000 LNBs currently." 

"Oh. I see now." I replied. Shizuko returned to her seat in the front row, and I got ready to continue the duel.
LNBs? Never heard of them. Maybe some kind of Entanian or Cloud Empire thing? I wondered. All I know is that what the Council member countries use is way less advanced compared to their enemies. Maybe it's a good thing that I was brought to the other side. 

"You got me good, real good, Void," Vula said. "And since you had shown me what you can do, in return, I'm going to show YOU what I could do." 

A drip of sweat rolled down my entire body. 
Didn't she say she was just going to go serious? I guess she was still holding back huh. 

A sudden blur entered my view and I was unable to react to it quickly enough to block it. I was still left standing on my feet but was now several metres away from where I was originally standing. 

"Tch. Failed." Vula clicked her tongue once again. 

Shizuko was roaring with laughter in her seat all while an annoyed Vula stared at her with bloodlust. I used the time to recover my footing and gather up my thoughts. 

This... is going to be a hard fight to win.