Blades clashed as Mikella’s sword was tossed aside by Myra’s swing of her spear. Now that she had a closer look, the spear was shorter than she expected.
Due to that, she was able to pick up the length, and how Myra might attack, but even then, impressions were nothing when facing the real thing.
Myra didn’t let up. She swung her spear and tried to stab at Mikella through her mid-section. She was clearly experienced, as she wasn’t trying to decapitate her or heavily injure her, but just so that she won’t be put down–at least not without a healer on hand.
The reason the spars can go on with live weapons is because they have healers ready to go. Plus, with Zeke’s Recovery, she didn’t have to worry about getting horrifically wounded before any real battle. Still, pain was pain.
After the strike, it was difficult for Mikella to pull off as she immediately thought about pelting it aside with her blade, then stabbing her head with her sword.
Instead, she jumped back. With her Acrobatics, her body became lighter than air itself, stepping away from Myra’s spear. She stopped just a few feet away, surprising Myra from her incredible speed. She also had a feeling that even without mentioning any skill, her Dragon Warrior Class was making it easy for her.
Unfortunately that didn’t stop her fervor as Myra charged in. Mikella fought off Myra’s strikes with every parry, using the blade of her sword to block or interrupt her attacks.
Myra’s strikes were cordial, flowing ever so seamlessly between each swing. Mikella’s eyes could tell that her body was moving well, her spear increasing in velocity and power, causing her arms to grow numb.
She even used her mastery of the long shaft and the butt end of it to disrupt Mikella’s rhythm, disrupting her personal pacing.
Her Sword Mastery was the reason why she managed to hold off against a seasoned fighter for so long. But she also realized that while she was able to keep up with Myra, she wasn’t able to deal a stable attack in return.
She noticed that Myra’s powerful strikes kept slamming against the guard of her sword. Her hands were starting to sting as she didn’t manage to get away entirely from having the skin off her hands getting sliced every so often from a rampant swing.
It was such a small detail that Mikella noticed as the two went on, the powerful metal shrilling and echoing across the ramparts. The others watched with great intent, unable to keep their eyes off the fight.
Myra seemed to be pretty agitated by the look of her gritted teeth, her brows knitted. Then she kicked her right on the stomach. Her entire body almost flew off, but she managed to dig her heels down and stop herself from flying off entirely. She looked up, only to see Myra coming at her in full force, her eyes full of finality.
Her spear actually seemed to glow with a feint whitish glow, and Mikella knew instantly that trying to block that would be dangerous. It was kinetic energy, or Stamina, charging her strike. With her own perception skill working, she could tell that taking the blow would end the fight.
Without really thinking, Mikella fell down. Way down. Her legs split in perfect halves as the spear missed her entirely, shocking both Myra and the rest of the soldiers.
After the miss, Mikella used her sword to bring herself back up. Her eyes sharpened as Hawk Eyes took over, noticing that parts of her body were glowing bright yellow.
Then, she used her new skill: Heavenly Strike.
The blade of her sword glowed a bright white and green. It was feint, but the hue was there, doubly proven by how her body suddenly felt chillier than before. It was the cost of mana along with stamina, causing her to feel just that tired.
Air and light mana gathered around the blade as she struck Myra. Myra knew the danger as she half-hazardly lunged herself away from the sword blade, but not before a small wound showed up around her left abdomen as blood trickled down.
The two quickly separated themselves, with Myra holding onto her left with her hand. Mikella returned to her stance, expecting an insult or a scream of hatred or something.
But instead, Myra answered as though she was curious.
“That’s an interesting skill,” Myra said, not really sounding angry. Instead, she sounded almost excited. “You mind telling me what class you got?”
The earlier hostility was gone now, something that surprised Mikella. Most of the girls that often challenged her would often not take the loss well, and end up just speaking badly behind her back as though for revenge. In the end, that didn’t matter to her as she only cared about her gymnastics training.
But she didn’t feel anything nasty from Myra at all. It was as though that small instance of life or death battle changed her mind.
Yet, despite Myra trying to make conversation purely for curiosity’s sake, Mikella couldn’t help but be a cheeky brat and smirked.
“I could, but that would ruin the surprise at the end, wouldn’t it?”
Myra was taken aback by her words, then she made a snort as she angled her spear straight back at her.
“Damn brat,” Myra said, her own smirk apparent. “Fine! It doesn’t matter if you have rare class or not! I’ll still kick your ass!”
Without hesitation, she charged after her, her blade once again shimmering in that greenish glow. She also noticed, thanks to her Hawk Eyes that also doubled as enhanced sight, that her feet were also covered in that super feint green glow. She was using kinetic energy to run faster, nearly reaching Mikella in a heartbeat. She returned to her stance, Sword Mastery taking over.
Her blade moved as she dodged the glowing strike, then as a normal one came in, she deflected it back. She regained control as she tried Heavenly Strike again, but her body refused to listen. It cried out in aches, as though her body was begging her not to use the skill so soon.
What the hell? Mikella thought in alarm. Wait, is this one of those cooldowns? Shit, it never mentioned anything like that!
She growled before noticing Myra lifting her spear. In pure instinct, Mikella shifted her head slightly to avoid the strike, Since her body was crying out, she had no other choice but to just shift her head to avoid using more of her stamina.
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Still, the strike was trying to decapitate her, she realized. It made a good cut across her shoulder, blood pouring down from the small wound. If she had not moved at all, it would’ve made a serious injury that would’ve stopped the fight. Not enough to kill her, but it would definitely make her the loser.
She banned herself from using Heavenly Strike for now. Even if she had the energy or the timing right, Myra won’t be fooled into taking such an obvious hit. It would only waste her resources and finish the fight faster.
So instead, she channeled kinetic energy from within her body, through her arms, around her wrists, and enforcing her hands. She could feel each part of her hands strengthening, down to the smallest joint as she spun her sword incredibly fast. Myra noticed immediately and tried to strike back, but the kinetic energy from her sword pushed her spear with a screeching twang.
For a few seconds, Myra was baffled as Mikella dealt another swift strike down her forearm. Myra didn’t relent, using this chance while Mikella was focusing on her own attack to deal another one right back, dealing a small cut down her thigh.
Sharp pain hissed from the cut, but Mikella could only feel herself more alarmed than in pain, forcing her back a few feet as Myra did the same. The two continued on with these bouts, trying to catch each other off guard while avoiding getting hit.
To them, and to Mikella most of all, it was a learning experience. Enough to ensure that Sword Mastery gets a good workout. Perhaps Acrobatics can increase as well. She knew her skill was working overtime already, as by now she would’ve lost a lot more Stamina by now, slowing her performance.
But the level disparity between the two showed immensely as while Mikella was keeping up with all she had, Myra wasn’t the least bit tired. The two kept fighting, not realizing that the crowd was watching them with great interest.
To the crowd themselves, it was a fight worthy to learn from, to feel invigorated to keep up with.
Another moment passed as the two fighters finally ran out of steam, letting themselves slow on purpose, nearly at the same time as they backed off from each other.
Mikella’s beginning stride was decent, catching Myra off guard the first two times, but afterwards, her body slowed as it was the first time she had fought for so long. While it was good to keep the momentum going, it was harder to keep up with it as her resources slowly diminished. The moment she felt her stamina hit the quarter mark, her body slowed dramatically, taking more and more hits.
She ended up with more scratches on her limbs and outer edges of her torso than Myra did, with Myra’s own body only having three, just one more extra during the last bout.
In the end, it wasn’t just the level disparity, but the experience in their fighting style. Mikella had a starting advantage, but Myra had the foundation laid out for her. Something that Mikella had no problem admitting, but knew that she can reach that as well with enough time.
The two breathed heavily, but each carried a smile on their faces as they spoke.
“Impressive,” Myra said. There wasn’t a hint of mockery in her tone, and her eyes still seem vigorous enough for another fight. “I guess I can see why the Captain took you in.”
“It’s…” Mikella let out heavy breaths, still trying to keep up with her stamina dropping so low. “It’s nothing that serious. Hah… it’s really a mercy.”
“She’s right, you know.”
The two instantly noticed Val’s voice, with Myra stiffening up quickly and saluting the Captain approaching them. Mikella tried to stand and salute like a proper worker, but her body was screaming at her to just shut up and listen instead of doing anymore moving. Val turned her attention to Myra, who nearly froze from her steady gaze.
“Myra, I realized that I may have made a misunderstanding. So I want to correct that. I saw your fight earlier, but I also saw what started it. I decided to let it be as it’s my code to let fighters handle it themselves rather than me intervening. But I want to make something clear–This has nothing to do with me favoring one person over another.”
Myra stayed quiet, fully intent on listening to the captain. Mikella kept watching, realizing a few things as Myra stared at Val.
At first, she figured she just had a crush on Val. Despite her being married, who wouldn’t? As she said before, after finding someone so attractive, gender didn’t really matter. So it wasn’t much of a surprise to find Myra pining for her.
Why else would Myra make such a fuss about Mikella taking so much of Val’s time? But then, Myra’s eyes showed nothing about such things. It was filled with adoration and respect, much like looking up towards a parental figure or a role model.
“Myra, I want you to know–not, I want everyone to know–that there is no soldier here better than the other. Some just require more time and effort to teach. Not everyone is the same, especially when you consider how they spent the majority of their lives.”
“I…I understand,” Myra nodded. She clearly looked deflated, but despite her earlier complaints, she had no reason to deny the captain. “I apologize for my childish tantrum.”
“It’s only fair,” Val shrugged, giving a grin. “I certainly spent a bit too much time with Mikella lately. That was my fault for not managing my time better. Once all this horde mess is settled, I hope you can give me a second chance if you let me help you out on what you’re stuck on.”
Myra’s eyes widened, something that was clearly apparent in Mikella’s eyes more than anything else. Determination.
It wasn’t the pining that caught Myra upset, it was the lack of being able to advance. It was that she might lose out the chance of growth by none other than the clearly advanced and powerful captain in front of her.
If that was the case, then all of it made sense. Unlike Mikella’s old world, in this one, everyone here has the chance to grow in levels and strength. But only a few are lucky enough to advance more than once. She was still new to the whole system thing, and perhaps still confused about a few things, but she knew well enough that people are always trying to advance to a higher stage, whether by leveling or skill mastering.
“T-That would be great! I would love to take that chance!” Myra answered, but then quickly gathered herself as she saluted. “T-Thank you for another chance, ma’am!”
“No problem,” Val then turned to Mikella. “But don’t be afraid to keep wanting to improve by yourself. As I said before… I saw your fight. You’ve done well to handle a fighter ten levels above you. I would like to see more of it soon.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The crowd watching the fight all cheered and shouted, showing their praises at the fighters. Mikella even noticed Zeke shouting and clapping along with the others, all the while noticing that the other guys were practically whistling and jabbing at him with their elbows with snide grins.
She can probably guess what they’re teasing him with, and quite frankly, she enjoyed the sheepish look on his face.
“Hey.”
She turned back to Myra who walked towards her. Her tall stature clearly showed how bigger she was than Mikella, but her demeanor lessened.
Before, she was a rampaging forest fire, but now she was a campfire, tame but still bright.
“I kept up my promise. Now tell me your class,” Myra smirked at her. “You owe me.”
Mikella could only snort at that. Apparently, Myra was the type to be serious when it comes to promises. Something that she didn’t dislike.
“You’d probably won’t believe me, so if you want confirmation, we better talk to the captain for that.”
“Hey, any chance talking to the captain is worth it. Come on then.”
Myra, without really letting Mikella react fast enough, grabbed her as she led her back to where Val went, figuring that she was done giving the fighters their well-deserved praise.
…..
Thankfully, Val had a good lie to tell to Myra, as apparently admitting that she had a Dragon Warrior class would start getting Myra to ask questions. Something that would involve divulging her secret special status. It was something neither of the two wanted to share at the moment.
Val did promise Mikella that as soon as she gets stronger, she can willingly tell others the truth. Mikella was glad for that, as the more she knew about Myra, the less she wanted to keep secrets from her.
They decided to tell her that she had the Light Lancer class, a class that relied on the sunlight to increase damage and can move easily compared to other warrior types. Myra instantly became fascinated that such a low level person would be able to acquire a class like that, and she regarded Mikella with more respect compared to before.
She felt a little guilty now, keeping her special status a secret, but for her family’s safety, she had no choice but to do so. In return, the two talked for a while, and somehow Mikella could tell they would be fast friends.
After all, what’s better than having a rival for a friend?