Zen’s sword could absorb magic and reuse it, created by the pinnacle of magicians with indecipherable Extinct Magic Formulae.

‘What is a battle to you?’ Vod asked Freya.

Both of them walked in a desolate harbor where there were an absence of ships and people. Where they were walking, the horizon was within sight; and Vod could see the clouds running away toward Lune. The skystorm was going to arrive earlier today than it had the day before.

Freya did not get the question and was in thought.

‘A battle,’ Vod said, ‘to me, is a hollow. When I fight my world becomes empty; and when it does, I become more skilled with the sword.’ That was how he was taught by his father, the deceased sword saint, to fight. Empty his mind, think of no unnecessary thought, and let the sword guide him.

Hard to say that he let the sword guide him when he broke it often.

‘What is a battle to you?’ Vod asked again.

Something about her is special, he thought. He wanted to know just what was it that made her a good swordsperson. Was she the same person as Vod was, or entirely different? No matter her answer, he was sure he could learn from her way of fighting. He didn’t doubt it; he had seen how her fight with Ignes unfold after all.

‘When I fight…’ Freya said and trailed off. She then placed a hand on her shoulder and looked toward the sky in thought. Looking at her response, Vod was convinced that she too was someone who emptied her mind when fighting like he was. However, what he wanted wasn’t his assumptions, but her answers.

‘Try remembering the duel with Ignes,’ Vod suggested. ‘What was your thought process during the battle?’

‘Which part specifically?’ Freya asked back.

‘From before you landed a counter until the end.’

Freya told her thought when she had the battle against Ignes:

***

‘When she came at me,’ Freya said,

Ignes had crossed her right arm and held both her swords on her left side as she dashed.

‘I knew that she would bait my sway and go for an unavoidable slash.’

Freya had dodged Ignes’s diagonal slash coming from below with a sway to her left. However, the attack wasn’t over yet and Ignes’s other sword was coming at her, this time diagonally from above. She hadn’t given her the chance to right her position from the sway. An evasion wouldn’t be enough.

‘My right hand was free.’

The distance between Freya and Ignes had closed after the first slash; and Ignes’s hand which was holding her other sword was within the reach of Freya’s right hand. Of all the opponents which she had faced ever since becoming Freya, she never had herself a chance to use her freehand. Either her freehand was not needed, or the enemy would have enormous strength that made hers useless. Against Ignes, although Freya’s strength was lesser than hers, she could alter the direction of the slash coming at her.

With her right freehand she pushed her opponent’s left hand upward, altering the course of the slash so that it would just miss her. Once the blade had went past her, she only needed to right her position; and as she rose, she swung Celeste and stopped the sheathed blade beside Ignes’s neck.

‘Ignes didn’t expect my freehand. She must have thought her attack would hit, perhaps from experience against fighting Ray who used my style, and was careless.’

‘What if Ignes had the strength and you couldn’t use that trick?’ Vod asked.

‘Her attack pattern was readable. I would have figured something else if I think redirecting her slash wouldn’t work.’

***

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‘This is a fluke!’ Ignes had shouted in protest.

While in theory, redirecting her slash with her freehand was possible, the magnitude of skill and recklessness required to pull that off was enormous. It’s impossible! Ignes thought. How come I’ve never heard of her if she’s this good? A fluke. It must be a fluke.

It was unsightly for the head of the sanctum to refuse admitting defeat. However, when the other Zenists looked at her, they couldn’t look at Ignes in the eye and state that they would accept what had happened. Had they experienced the counter on her end, they too would have reacted the same. What happened was difficult to believe.

Additionally, her refusing to admit defeat wasn’t unsound; as the duel wasn’t completely over yet. Freya had stopped her sword short before hitting Ignes’s neck, and her sword had been sheathed. Although the duel was technically over, it practically wasn’t.

However, the decision rested on Jagzak’s shoulder, the witness of the duel.

He stood there, stunned by the feat that the swordswoman had shown. As he pondered his decision, Freya had pulled her sword and was creating distance between her and Ignes, ready to fight again should he call it.

Her gesture said: It wasn’t a fluke and I’m willing to prove it.

‘What’s the decision, Jagzak?’ Ignes asked. Let me go at her again, her stare stated.

Jagzak, after careful deliberation, voiced his mind: ‘I believe that the battle is already over. That is my call. However, suppose that the challenger would continue, then it’s not over yet. What does the challenger say?’ he threw the question to Freya.

‘Suppose,’ Freya said, ‘I say that it’s over. I would win this duel, gain the sword saint title, and have the right to use the Stormpiercer?’

Ignes gritted her teeth. ‘That would be so,’ she answered for Jagzak.

‘Then there’s no point continuing the duel, isn’t it?’

Ignes reluctantly answered, ‘That would be so.’

‘You would like the duel to be over then?’ Jagzak asked for confirmation.

Her amethyst eyes stared at Ignes. A cool; sharp stare. Not of underestimation, not of insolence, not of courage or cowardice. What do your eyes see? Ignes questioned in her mind.

‘No,’ she finally answered. ‘Let’s go at it once more. Make it quick.’

***

Vod felt like he was starting to understand what a battle was like to Freya. To her, a battle was a matter of predicting what the opponent would do and responding in the most efficient manner. She didn’t have the build to catch up to her reflex; and she overcame it by making her style depend on reading the opponent and having no wasted moves.

A method that suits her…

Was Vod’s method of emptying his mind something that suited him?

‘Your style was already shown, you already won, and engaging into another fight would be disadvantageous.’ Vod thought it weird. If Freya’s style was being figured out by Ignes and that her goal was to gain the Stormpiercer… ‘Why give Ignes another chance?’

‘She wasn’t accepting defeat,’ Freya looked toward the water. ‘I thought it respectable that she still wanted to fight. Thus, I gave her a second chance.’ There was movement in the water. ‘Is that Drizzle?’ she asked.

‘Drizzle?’ Vod questioned; the name was unfamiliar to him.

Someone was drowning and trying to stay afloat by flapping his hands and hitting the water. She recognized the man’s face and was not mistaken.

‘I’m going for him.’ Freya ran and jump into the water to retrieve the drowning Drizzle.

***

The battle had continued and Ignes had gone with the same attacking pattern.

She dashed at Freya with both swords pointing toward the ground to her left. First, she swung with the longsword diagonally from below, forcing Freya to sway. Second, she took another step in and lifted her left hand, slashing the other sword diagonally from above.

Freya, with her left freehand, managed to grasp Ignes’s left hand and pushed upward, altering the course of the slash so that it missed her.

Swish. The blade struck air.

Freya righted her form, bringing her sheathed sword up along with her, aimed toward Ignes’s neck once more. This time around, Ignes was prepared and dodged with a backstep.

Whilst in a backward motion, she had to admit, It’s not a fluke.

Freya chased after Ignes with a dash. She had been a responsive swordsperson throughout the duel and had only waited for a chance to counter. She was taking initiative now.

Her response is fast. Ignes tried to control the range between them by swinging her longsword, but Freya ducked and dodged it at the bare minimum and continued closing in. Not fast. She saw this.

Freya had passed the longsword, but Ignes’s short sword was waiting. Ignes swung her sword, expecting Freya to dodge; allowing her to gain space and leeway. Instead of dodging, once the distance was within her sword’s range, she planted her feet to the ground and spun her torso. She responded to Ignes’s attack with an attack of her own. She brought the sword from below, diagonally upward.

She had a sheathed sword. She had sharp; unsheathed swords.

Recklessness alone wasn’t an accurate enough word that would describe the swordswoman Ignes was fighting against. Faced against a blade that could kill her, she swung hew own sheathed blade without a trace of hesitation. As if not thinking that if her slash was slower, she would die.

As if believing—that her attack would land first.

***

In the water, Freya dragged Drizzle close enough for Vod to pull him up to land. He then laid Drizzle facing up toward the darkening sky and pumped his chest once, twice, thrice; and water burst out from his mouth in coughing fits.

‘As the witness of this duel, I, Jagzak, announce that the title of sword saint—’

Drizzle saw Freya pulling herself out of the water beside him. He didn’t shout relieve that he was still alive, nor thanked Freya for saving him. There was something more important than those. ‘Did you get the Stormpiercer?’ he asked.

‘—is given to the challenger, Freya!’

Freya smiled. ‘I did.’