The Strongest Knight

Ritya was the first to recover from the initial shock of Medrauta’s declaration.

“You cannot challenge us to a duel! You have no personal stake in this conflict!”

“Hah! No, let her!” Bastiche laughed, a cackling sound that clearly conveyed how idiotic he thought Medrauta was. “I don’t care if she’s known as the ‘strongest knight’! What the hell is she going to do without a lord by her side, huh?”

“Fool,” Medrauta spat. “I challenged these knights to a duel, not a match. ‘The nobles are governed by different rules than we’, are they not, Ritya? Tell him about the rules that govern us knights.”

“...Dame Medrauta is correct, Lord Bastiche. Nobles may not aid us during duels. However, this challenge is invalid. She has no personal involvement in this situation.”

“Oh? But I do.”

Ritya looked at Medrauta skeptically. “...And what is your stake, praytell?”

Medrauta grinned. More accurately, the expression that she displayed on her face right now was not a smile, but that of a predator baring their fangs at their prey. “The highest of them all. I am Lady Viviane’s knight, and you have all slighted her.”

“H-Huh?” Though confused, Viviane stared up at Medrauta in wonder, her once dulled eyes now glistening with not tears, but rays of hope.

“I must have disappointed you, Lady Viviane. To think that you would seek to replace me with another... Allow me to dispatch these ten fools in your name,” Medrauta smirked. “Then, we can have a nice long talk afterwards.”

...What? No... It can’t be! Did I miscalculate!? A thorn of fear and doubt shot into Ritya’s heart for the first time since Medrauta had entered the room. She was used to being calm and composed. She was used to controlling the situation around her merely with words, and using only the most elegant methods of force to dispatch her enemies if needed.

Yet, Medrauta had turned the situation around with only a single declaration. Ritya stepped backward, her body instinctively understanding that Medrauta was by far her superior in single combat.

Wait... I’m not alone this time! This isn’t single combat! She challenged us all! A surge of hope rose in Ritya’s chest then. That’s right! She might be strong, but there’s no way she can defeat all ten of us!

“Nobles. Clear the area,” Medrauta commanded. “Knights. Draw your swords or shame yourselves and your oathsworn for now and forever.”

One by one, the knights looked upon one another and nodded, as if affirming something. Slowly, they encircled Medrauta as the nobles vacated the center of the training hall, climbing up onto the bleachers by the edges of the hall to watch.

The sound of steel slithering against leather was the only noise in the training hall for a good couple of seconds. It wasn’t until Medrauta drew her own sword that the reality of the situation truly began to sink in for all the knights in the training hall.

Although she was the ‘strongest knight’, it was still suicidal to challenge ten knights simultaneously, especially when none of them could be considered weak by any measure. If it had been any other knight, they would have been defeated instantly.

However, Medrauta was not ‘any other knight.’

The shuffling of leather boots against the hardwood floor. The adrenaline-laden breaths of her opponents as their bodies acclimatized to combat. All of these were sounds that would have been insignificant to any other knight, but not to Medrauta.

By taking in even the most insignificant of minutiae, Medrauta deduced her opponents’ coordinated attack a second before they could strike.

And a mere second was all she needed.

As all ten knights thrust at her encircled position in tandem, Medrauta leapt upwards and thrust the tip of her sword down rapidly, striking the point where her opponents’ swords all converged and propelling her outside of their formation.

“W-What!?” One of the knights cried out in surprise as Medrauta sailed over his head. He whirled around to face her, only to find his vision obscured by a flash of silver before everything went dark.

Medrauta flourished her sword, leveling its point toward the nine remaining knights who were still standing. A few of the knights shuffled backward, fear visible in their eyes.

Though the swords that knights carried outside of matches were blunted, they were still heavy and dangerous enough to cause serious wounds as evidenced by the knight that Medrauta had struck down.

The knight laid sprawled on the ground, blood trickling from a rapidly bruising wound on the side of his head. Despite holding back, Medrauta’s strike had wounded him greatly.

Seeing as none of the knights dared to advance even with superior numbers, Medrauta spoke.

“Next.”

“What... the hell? Are you looking down on us?” One of the knights grit their teeth in anger, his grip tightening around the hilt of his slender rapier. With a roar, he charged forward in a lunging thrust intended to put Medrauta in her place.

Medrauta leaned to the side with contemptuous ease, avoiding the knight’s thrust and grabbing the blade of his rapier with her free hand. Her sword flicked upwards once, its point catching the boy on the cheek and tearing the skin there.

“A-Aaaugh!” He screamed in agony, releasing his rapier and clutching his face as he dropped to the ground.

While Medrauta had been preoccupied with the rapier-wielding knight, two other knights had advanced toward her in an attempt to take advantage of the situation and flank her.

They converged toward Medrauta’s position from both sides, one of them wielding a large battle-axe while the other held a standard longsword.

Still clutching onto the rapier’s blade, Medrauta eyed the two new threats and stepped explosively to her right, catapulting her forward to meet the longsword-wielding knight and intercepting her advance.

Surprised by the sudden speed of Medrauta’s arrival, the knight could do nothing but desperately raise her weapon in an attempt to guard. Yet, that attempt would be in vain.

Medrauta lashed out not with her sword, but with the rapier that she held in her off-hand. While the knight’s guard would have blocked an attack from a blade, the heavy hilt of the rapier was a different story.

Medrauta swung the weapon thrice, first knocking the knight’s blade aside before slamming the weighted hilt of the weapon into the knight’s head twice in rapid succession and rendering them unconscious.

Not built to handle such punishment, the rapier snapped, half of it hitting the ground along with the knight that it had smote a mere second earlier. Medrauta dropped the now-broken blade as she whirled around to face the other knight.

Their battle-axe was held aloft, and when Medrauta turned, it had already begun its downward descent. A wicked hiss split the air as the enormous weapon swung down at Medrauta’s head, but she remained unfazed.

Instead, she stepped to the side with ease, allowing the massive head of the battle-axe to fall beside her, ending the death-heralding hiss that followed in its wake.

CRACK!

With one smooth motion, Medrauta had pivoted and brought the pommel of her sword to the knight’s temple, fracturing their skull and removing them from the fight immediately.

Within seconds, four knights had already fallen. Not only that, but they were dispatched with an almost mocking ease. The remaining five knights steeled themselves despite the dread that was quickly spreading through their bodies.

One by one, the remaining knights charged toward Medrauta after gathering their courage, employing all the fruits of their training in the hopes of breaking through her defense at last, only to be swatted away like flies.

In the end, there was only a single knight who remained.

“T-This... This isn’t possible...”

“Ritya.”

“N-No! S-Stay away from me!”

Medrauta took a step toward the sole remaining knight.

“S-Stop! Stay back!”

And another step.

“D-Don’t come a-any closer! I’m w-warning you!”

Clang!

The sword that Ritya had clumsily brandished at Medrauta in a fruitless attempt to ward her off had been knocked from her hands with a powerful strike. It clattered uselessly to the ground.

“Do you understand now? What it means to be called the ‘strongest knight’?”

Ritya collapsed onto her knees, staring up at Medrauta in disbelief and despair. “You’re no knight... You’re a monster...”

For a moment, the look in Medrauta’s eyes darkened. And then she smiled. A terrifyingly nightmare-inducing smile. “No, Ritya. I am the knight you send to kill monsters.”

And then, Ritya’s world vanished before her eyes.