--- [Isabella’s perspective]
Ugh…
I didn’t even want to be here, but Sabrina insisted.
I swear, if something happens to us because of this…!
Maybe I’ll keep her locked in as punishment!
No, that’s mean…
I suppose the reward money is nice, and it’s cool to see some of my teammates from the D-rank exam again…
If Alex wins his match, he’ll be our next opponent.
After that, if she makes it that far, it’ll be Lett.
“Now, for the penultimate match of the first round… Quinn vs Isabella!” – Bob
With no time to waste, I pull out my sword.
--- [Sabrina’s perspective]
Quinn vs Isabella…
She’s not even the one fighting…
Her name is attached to everything; I never get any credit.
I let out a sigh…
Whatever.
It is what it is.
Let’s just focus on beating that Quinn girl first.
“We’re similar, you and I.” – Quinn
“How so?” – Sabrina
“We both have to hold back to not get disqualified. You can’t decapitate your opponents, and I… Well, you’ll see.” – Quinn
“Stop with the excuses. If some simple rules are all it takes for you to not be at your best, then you’ll never get far. I won’t let the no killing rule affect my performance. Not one bit.” – Isabella
“I like your attitude. Try to not die!” – Quinn
As soon as the words leave her mouth, she rushes right at me.
With the sword in one hand and the sheath in the other, I enter a defensive stance, ready to take on her assault.
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As she gets close, she stretches out her arm as far as it goes, trying to grab me.
I swiftly slash down on her forearm before she can reach me, but instead of it cutting right through, it gets lodged.
She’s durable as hell…!
I pull the blade out, leaving behind a deep wound.
Before she can reach me, I slam the tip of the scabbard into her hand to force her to keep her distance.
She grabs it and throws it away, but it quickly teleports back into my hand.
“Interesting… That’s clearly not a regular sword you’ve got there. I should probably get rid of it.” – Quinn
Suddenly, a powerful explosion detonates on top of my blade.
Surprisingly, I’m completely unharmed.
She must be controlling it, making sure it only affects a tiny area.
If she let loose, she could probably end up accidentally killing audience members too…
Her intended target was my sword, but of course, it’s as good as new.
It doesn’t matter how powerful her attacks are, it is completely indestructible.
“Really…?” – Quinn
She looks genuinely shocked.
“That wasn’t enough to destroy it? Did it even leave a mark?!” – Quinn
“Unfortunately for you, no matter how hard you try, you will never even put a scratch on it. You’ll have to defeat me the old-fashioned way.” – Sabrina
The most pressing matter now though…
How did she create that bomb?
Can she just make anything explode whenever she wants?
Is it something she has aim?
Are there any conditions?
Without knowing how her specialty works, she’s extremely dangerous.
I need to either figure it out quickly, or…!
Just defeat her!
With all my might, I attack the same spot I did before.
Due to her arm already being damaged and dumbfounded by my sword being intact, I cleave her limb off.
“Aaghhh!!!” – Quinn
She lets out a cry of pain and clutches what’s left of her arm.
“You bitch! You’ll pay for that!” – Quinn
Suddenly, the blood on my sword starts glowing, before erupting into an even bigger explosion than before.
Naturally my sword is fine, but my hand is charred.
So it’s her blood that explodes…
She whips her now severed arm around, sprinkling blood into the air all around us.
All at once, it detonates.
I managed to deflect most of the blood with my scabbard, so none of it hit me directly, but it still caused quite a lot of damage.
At the same time, I hear screaming from the audience.
It seems her blood went way too far and ended up hurting some of them.
Where did all that control go?
After I severed her arm, she completely lost her cool.
It’s like she’s consumed by rage.
Is she actually trying to kill me?
“The match is over! Quinn, you’re disqualified for harming audience members!” – Barbara
The healers all jump into the crowd to help them.
Despite the announcers saying the match is over, she doesn’t stop.
She picks up her lifeless forearm, and crushes it, making her blood erupt all over the stadium.
The hunters working here are all busy protecting the audience members; there’s no one other than me who can stop her…
They already called the match, and she’s a danger to everyone, so it shouldn’t be a problem if…!
Before she can detonate her blood, I take a deep breath, and grip the handle with both hands.
With one swift slash, I decapitate her.
As her head falls to the ground, I whip her blood off the blade.
I look directly up at the announcers.
“I assume that was okay, right?” – Sabrina
“Y-yeah… You’re good…” – Bob
From the looks of it, there doesn’t appear to have been any casualties in the audience.
Good.
As I walk down the stairs and head back to my waiting area, the crowd starts cheering for me.
If Isabella was out right now, I bet she’d be really embarrassed…
I sheathe the sword again, giving control back to her…