“I saved you for last on purpose.” Nachi was back to fighting-form quicker than Jaid had expected, and she’d received a call summoning her back to the arena. “You’re the strongest new member. I can tell that much without needing to watch you fight for real. So don’t disappoint me.” Nachi performed a duelist’s flourish and gave Jaid a knowing wink.
Already recovering from the unexpected praise, Jaid now had to force that intent to the back of her mind. Deciphering the mental puzzle of whether Nachi knew the truth—or was merely speculating like Tize—would have to wait. Jaid tightened the grip on her sword and reciprocated the flourish, easing into her fighting stance.
Nachi was more hesitant this time around and not charging in like she had with the others. At least giving her the courtesy of not having to wait around, Jaid advanced first. Nachi dodged the first slash entirely, blocked the second, and dodged the third again. Just when Jaid found it odd that Nachi wasn’t really fighting back, she attempted to parry.
For a normal parry, it involved deflecting the blade and striking back, but the sheer weight of Jaid’s sword wouldn’t allow for it. Instead, Nachi swirled her polearm around the blade like a snake closing in for a strike. Jaid managed to deflect it with a simple shift of her sword, but that attempt also felt off somehow. If Nachi had put more speed behind it, Jaid was confident she could have landed a strike.
Confused and wary, Jaid attempted to get some distance between them, but Nachi wasn’t having it, closing the distance to keep them within just an arm’s length. While Nachi wasn’t attacking, she also seemed to have lost her ability to hold a proper stance. There were far too many openings that Jaid couldn’t help but take advantage of.
Was it the blood loss? Was Nachi still not back to full strength? No, that wasn’t it. Nachi had managed to fend off each of Jaid’s attacks perfectly, but was still making far too many mistakes. They were on purpose, they had to be. Jaid was being baited into attacking, but to what end?
Suddenly, Nachi darted away to the other side of the arena, creating as much distance between them as possible. “Why aren’t you using your Curse?” Nachi asked while she completely lowered her guard, resting her polearm over her shoulders. “You can use your railgun too if you want. Look, I even created some range for you. Perfect time to take advantage of it!”
Jaid didn’t answer, refusing to let her own guard drop. She didn’t know what Nachi was getting at, but wasn’t going to keep slipping into her tricks.
“No? That’s a shame,” Nachi almost looked like she was about to pout. “Well, I’ve enjoyed our slow-dance, but let’s pick it up a notch. You see, while I don’t have a Curse, I do have a damn near supernatural power of my own. I can perfectly read and match any rhythm. Picked it up when my mother forced me to take countless musical lessons as a kid. She wanted me to be an orchestral musician or some such nonsense.”
“Don’t want to use your Curse? Fine. You’re still rejecting your Fiend side. So I’ll just have to beat it out of you! I didn’t create this distance so you could take pot-shots at me with your railgun. I did it so I could do this! Let’s up the tempo!” Nachi whipped out her phone. Jaid still didn’t fully grasp what Nachi was getting at, but that unyielding, wicked smirk on her face told Jaid that she needed to be stopped.
After a deep breath to calm herself, Jaid’s clones burst forward, a line of them darting in front of her until she was just a step away from Nachi. A heavy swing of her sword aimed straight at the phone, knocking it out of her hands and across the room. An audible groan came from Gatrim who was watching in the audience, the knock-off of his family’s signature move flaunted in front of him once again.
It was all in vain, though, since Nachi’s thumb had just managed to tap the screen before it was yanked out of her grip. The amazing craftsmanship and durability of the phone on display as it was unharmed, landing unscratched on the ground after bouncing around a bit.
Music began to play over the speakers in the gym, a punk-rock song Jaid was unfamiliar with. She looked back at Nachi, trying to ascertain how much this would help her, but Nachi was gone—vanished in the blink of an eye. Jaid immediately scrambled to where Nachi had been standing, pressing her back against the barrier as she scanned the arena.
It wasn’t anything as tense as Jaid had been expecting since Nachi was out in the open. In fact, she was right at the center of the ring, happily dancing along to the tune, her weapon nowhere in sight. Watching her, Jaid was starting to understand what Nachi had meant by matching rhythm. Her body was moving perfectly with the song. Every motion, every step was perfectly in line with the hyper-fast beat.
In another life, Nachi would have made an amazing dancer or rockstar, able to put on a show that could entertain millions. “Like the song?” Nachi yelled over to her, barely audible over the music. “I picked it out just for you! Let’s see if you can keep up.” She broke out of her dance and started racing again towards Jaid. The way she ran was different now though, each step timed with the music as well.
The chorus of the song kicked in, and that’s when Nachi striked. She’d taken her swing barehanded, but her polearm reappeared halfway, catching Jaid completely off guard. Jaid managed to deflect in the end, but only enough to avoid a major wound. She still got nicked in the arm, causing a dribble of blue blood to trickle out.
The nicks didn’t stop there. Jaid did all she could to get away from the barrier, realizing too late that she’d cornered herself. Nachi’s attacks were relentless and unending. A Lesser having the stamina to keep up such an assault shouldn’t have been possible, yet Nachi showed no signs of slowing.
Eventually, Jaid managed to get her composure back after the sleeves of her top had been nearly torn to shreds. Thankfully, her blood would keep her hideous Curse Mark from being seen at least. Jaid began fighting back properly, and after a few exchanges, it all became clear.
Any time Jaid took a swing, Nachi was already swinging her polearm to meet her. The increased momentum gave her an advantage to make up for their difference in strength, making each clash come to a draw. That entire time Nachi had been messing around earlier, baiting Jaid’s attacks, she’d been studying Jaid’s style: her motions, the speed at which she swung, her transitions between moves, all of it.
Nachi now knew everything about how Jaid fought, and what’s more, thanks to her ridiculous rhythm, she was able to keep up with and perfectly counter it. Just as Jaid was starting to get used to Nachi’s beat, the tempo of the song suddenly changed, and Jaid was immediately back on the defensive.
This was getting nowhere. It was only a matter of time until Jaid slipped up and Nachi went in for the kill. Each swing Jaid took, she was getting more flustered while Nachi only tightened up, improving her form with each blow. Damn her! She really did beat it out of me.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A clone popped out of Jaid, striking independently to break the tempo. Yet somehow, Nachi managed to deflect that too. Another clone, another strike, another block. Again. Four clones. Four blocks. How? Damn it! Jaid prepared to summon a full force of clones, but Nachi ran away.
“Zjik!” Jaid accidentally let slip when she realized where Nachi was headed. She should have confiscated that damned phone when she had the chance. Jaid attempted to dash again, but it was too late, and Nachi snatched up the phone before Jaid could get to it. A moment later, the song changed. Not only that, Nachi held up the screen so Jaid could see. It had been set to random.
In a blatant move of arrogance, Nachi chucked the phone aside as if she wouldn’t need it anymore. She then waltzed back slowly to the middle of the ring, dancing happily along with the song again, taunting Jaid to come after her.
Fine, if you want me to use my Curse, you’ve got it. A circle of Jaids swarmed around Nachi, leaving her no direction to escape. Unfortunately, due to the size of her sword, they couldn’t all attack at once. It also made her attacks very predictable since she had limited options for her clones to perform in quick succession. Nevertheless, it became a neverending barrage of heavy, deadly strikes that would slaughter any foe.
A useless tiring barrage that got her nowhere. How was it possible? Even though Jaid was delivering multiple strikes at the same time—one after the other—relentlessly, endlessly—a flurry of metal like being torn to ribbons in a machine. How? How the hell did not a single one hit?!
To make it worse, Nachi was acting like it didn’t even bother her. She was just having a fun little dance, twirling her polearm around. In actuality, she was strenuously blocking attacks, narrowly dodging death or fatal wounds with each movement, all while perfectly grooving along to whatever beat was playing. When the music changed, so did her dance, and it all kept throwing Jaid off.
It was reaching the brink of madness, absolute frustration, utter exhaustion. Jaid had never used her Curse this much before in a single sitting. It was draining her. To make matters worse, Jaid found her own movements synchronizing to the beat. This only just made it easier for Nachi, each strike becoming more predictable. Not that it mattered. Nachi had already memorized her attack style, and was likely absorbing more even now.
This would become a fight of exhaustion. One of them would give out first and Jaid wasn’t confident it wouldn’t be her. No, if she wanted to win, she’d have to surprise even herself. While the clones kept Nachi dancing, a few more spawned behind the circle in a line to get some distance. At the back, one of them altered their sword and started charging.
All the other clones vanished and Jaid assumed control of the last one that remained. A blast of energy fired off from her railgun right at Nachi. Without missing a beat, Nachi spun and tossed her polearm right at Jaid. Like a proper lightning rod, the weapon drew in the hit, exploding in a blast of sparks that lit up the arena.
A second later, Nachi had her polearm back, but Jaid had moved. She was directly in the center of the ring where the blast had just dissipated, using the explosion as cover for her next move. Jaid had slammed her blade into the ground, the electricity swirling around to charge once more.
She’d been practicing with the railgun functions in secret and found it could do far more than just shoot a bolt of lightning. She could vary the intensity, spread, and even the behavior of the electricity to an extent. If she fired a bolt now, it’d go right into the ground and be useless. Instead she changed it to a clinging static with maximum spread.
The sword fired and the ground became a field of electricity swarming around the arena. Nachi was quick to react, using her polearm to hoist herself into the air. The same lightning rod that had saved her earlier was now drawing pain right to her. She managed to vault off of it just in time before the entire shaft swirled with electricity.
Repeating a similar attack she had used against Tize, Nachi now flew through the air towards Jaid—fist poised for a heavy hook. Jaid was balancing on the hilt of her sword to stay off the ground, not in any position to retaliate, but she wasn’t defenseless.
Using her own head as an anchor point, a clone spawned, springing foot-first at Nachi. Before Nachi could react at all, she received a boot straight to the jaw, knocking her back. But Jaid wasn’t done. Another clone spawned off the second, axe-kicking Nachi right in the chest, sending her crashing to the floor.
Before Nachi could recover, Jaid had dashed back to the edge of the barrier. A new circle of clones spawned, spanning the entire ring—dozens upon dozens of Jaids. They all held out their sword, charging it back up. She’d returned it to firing a single bolt, but it wouldn’t be the only one.
Every Jaid aimed at Nachi on the ground, not wanting to make the mistake of those virtual shotgunners from the 6th test and hurting herself in the crossfire. Even if she somehow missed, the ground would absorb the lightning in the middle of the room, assuming so much at once didn’t cause some kind of chain reaction.
The room went blindingly white as countless bolts of lightning all fired at Nachi. Hopefully the notion that Ahvra could bring back the dead were true, because Jaid couldn’t think of how anyone could survive this. She couldn’t help but liken herself to a video game boss, using overpowered moves that the foolish hero had no chance of escaping.
A moment before the collision, Nachi acted. She slammed her resummoned polearm into the floor, propelling herself upwards and dodging the blast. Just like before, the metal weapon soaked up all the electricity and exploded spectacularly. A second later, a single bolt of lightning struck Nachi through the stomach and she collapsed to the floor, unmoving and slightly singed.
One Jaid had held their fire, expecting Nachi to pull such a stunt, and had already been aiming at the air. For once, just once, Nachi finally fell into a trap herself. Ahvra rushed to revive Nachi, but Jaid could use a bit of care too. Her vision blurred as she stumbled to the floor, clearly having overstepped her limits. She was on the verge of collapse, but it was a victory nonetheless.
◆◆◆
The members held a celebratory dinner once Jaid and Nachi had enough time to recover. An affirming pat on the back from Nachi seemed to indicate there was no hard feelings or bad blood between them. In fact, Nachi went on to even praise Jaid for her crazy moves.
She then went on to explain that the ranking tests were done for now. While Jaid was eligible for the next test, finding a monster that fit their criteria would take time—let alone capturing it for her to fight, so it was put on hold for time being.
“Alright, now that your starting ranks are out of the way, it’s time to move onto the last bit of training before we let you loose as full members,” Nachi addressed the group. “All that’s left is for you all to get some practical experience in the field. This will also be our last chance to judge that you all can take care of yourself before we give you our implacable trust to be representatives of this organization.”
“We’ll be dividing into three teams, and I’ve picked out three high priority missions for us to tackle. I won’t lie, these missions are top-ranked, and most of you wouldn’t be able to take them normally. It’s why we’re doing them as a group and will be accompanied by a top-rank for each of them. They’ll be dangerous, but no better battlefield for you to prove yourselves.”
“I’ve taken your ranks and individual skill sets into these team assignments. The first team will head out early tomorrow morning. Jaid, Tize, Chorus, Roque, and Kaizu. Get some rest, you’re up first.”
[Final Rank Results]
Rank 3: Crucion
Rank 4: Gatrim
Rank 5: Chorus, Rezin
Rank 6: Itsy, Niloy
Rank 7: Tize, Roque, Kaizu
Rank 8: Jaid