The moment came that Kichi dreaded: number fifty—her number—called aloud to echo in the arena. She tried to remember that courage was what it meant to be a knight, that the only way to be a knight was to take action and never waver—to do what must be done; however, she didn’t want to give or receive the brutality she’d witnessed in the last few matches.
Hisa pulled a girl with transparent hair behind her down the rows to stop beside Kichi. “Meet Tosa. She’s the one with the eyes.”
Kichi couldn’t believe Tosa was a knight. She looked painfully shy and half hid behind Hisa. “Nice to meet you.”
Tosa gave a nod.
“She can tell us how powerful your adversary will be. Whitebeard asked me to ease your anxiety. Tosa, tell her what you see.”
How did Whitebeard know Kichi was anxious? She unclenched her fist and noticed fingernail indentations.
Hisa pushed Tosa into a seat beside Kichi. They waited for the next number. “Tell her what you see.”
Tosa swung her head to look around. “Most people with the eyes can only see the horizontal energy rings. I can see the others. There are small rings that go all which ways. The weird thing is, some of yours are going backward.”
“Oh, that’s interesting,” Kichi said, but her focus was on her opponent, who rose from the crowd.
Akira wore a violet skintight suit. She was Ujisue’s sister and looked as cold as their ice magic. How angry was she? Masahide’s lance had skewered Ujisue, and it wouldn’t have escaped her notice that Kichi was Masahide’s friend.
Tosa examined Akira. “She’s as powerful as her brother. She has forty rings. I’d be extremely careful if I were you. Despite your many smaller rings, you only have six. That’s like a five-year-old fighting an adult.”
Kichi found herself standing at the center of the square, bowing to Akira. The necromancer and the Duke weren’t in the crowd, which was good because she didn’t want them watching her.
Before the fight began, Akira said, “I hope you're at least as strong as Masahide.”
“I’m not. Akira, I’m sorry about what happened.”
“Don’t be sorry. A violent death is the logical conclusion to a knight’s life.”
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Was that true? Should a knight die horribly? Kichi clasped the amulet's chain around her neck. She’d practiced in her spare time to become deft at it. She closed her eyes against the double images.
She heard the rasp of steel exit a scabbard and drew her pure sword. Then she heard crackling. With a peek, she saw ice extend her opponent's sword. It turned into a ten-foot white-blue razor.
Akira gripped her blade with a gauntletted hand. Because the ice blade added so much weight, holding it in that manner gave extra leverage. The future images rushed forward. Blurs of the ice blade chopped through the air in a flurry.
Kichi leaped back and deflected the ice. She expected it to shatter, but it only chipped with each contact.
Akira ceased the barrage. “You are unmatched with the sword. But what I haven’t seen you use is magic.” Water pooled at her feet and then expanded.
Kichi stepped back as the cold liquid found a small hole in her boot and soaked her foot.
Once the square had a thick layer of water falling from the edge, it crackled and formed ice. Akira began to slide around with grace and in circles along the surface.
Kichi found herself stuck. She pulled, but one of her boots came off, and her bare foot touched the slick ice. Her skin had no traction, and she went down on her knee.
The amulate showed her what was about to happen. A mass of ice blotted out the sky. It was a hail storm of large shards.
There was so much movement in all directions, and the double sight made it worse. It was hard to do the right thing because as soon as Kichi ducked through a gap, more came at her right behind it. She felt like a needle trying to weave a tapestry.
Then it came to a halt. Kichi stood on a field of jagged ice, and the wind stirred the little crystals into a mist.
Akira’s eyes widened when she saw her. “How did you survive?” Then she set her jaw. “Fine, let’s see if you can handle everything I have.”
A mass of white doom swallowed the world.
Kichi noticed something. When she concentrated on which way she was going, when she was torn between two directions, she saw herself in the future vision. It took a second to realize it was true. She saw herself decapitated by a sheet of ice. Her head tumbled from her shoulders and rolled away.
All of existence was chaos. Shards landed everywhere, but they also stirred and grated together. Kichi ran on top of moving sheets, jumping, watching her alternative selves ripped to shreds or crushed.
Kichi’s stomach groaned as the amulate ate through her energy reserves. She slowed, unable to leap, dodge, and roll away, and everything closed on her. None of her alternative selves lived longer than a brief moment. And she felt this was her moment to die a violent death, as a knight should.
Kichi
Level: 6
Focus: Prescience
Secondary focus: Lava+1
Weapons: pure sword - 3% pure
Items: Near Field Amulet (Prescience+2, focus)