NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12: Finals
Chapter 12: Finals
-----------------------------------------------
“They feel afraid of me, feel threatened of me. When a young dragon suddenly gained massive power and influence, it stands to reason that my enemies should feel scared. To all my enemies that I haven’t killed yet; rejoice, as a final act of mercy, I will give you all a quick and painless death.”
Laurence, Lord of the Dragons
Year Pre-Summoning
//
--POV: Laurence—
--Place: Clarissa’s Dorm Room / Time:22:15—
She pulled it off….I did not expect her to be able to beat all of her matches with just fireballs. A pleasant miscalculation that I have not predicted.
“You did much better than I gave you credit for” I evaluated her matches, after all.
“Mhmmm” A satisfied grunt leaks out, is this girl getting spoiled? Well, her performance was more than satisfactory this time.
“But don’t celebrate yet, we still have tomorrow’s match, against Ryuta”
“Is he good?”
“I don’t know if I’ll say good, however, let’s just say his powers are weird.” Very weird, in fact. “I’ve been observing his matches, and I’ve found out that he has no sword technique, just overwhelms his opponents with speed and strength.”
“A musclehead?”
“I wouldn’t say musclehead, he does use brute force most of the time though” This isn’t the important part though “He is faster than you, while you are definitely stronger than him”
“So close-range would be a bad idea?”
Well, yes and no. “While you may overpower him with strength, he has the upper hand in speed, plus there is his sword"
“His sword?” Yes, his sword.
“If his sword manages to wound you, you would feel severe effects from it” This is the bad part “At the minimum, you will suffer severe nausea and intense pain. While it may not poison you, the effects of the sword may heavily affect your performance, which could result in a loss”
“Ughh……is this sword lethal? Or is it just meant to put the enemy out of commission” She rolls on the bed like a child as I try talk sense into her.
“Any wound you get, I can heal” However, that doesn’t mean you should be reckless “So don’t worry about that” Plus, if the healing magic can’t remove the sword’s powers I can always…
reverse time on her body.
But she doesn’t need to know that “I suggest you tread with caution, wouldn’t want you slipping up now would we?”
“I won’t slip!” Instead of a face of determination, the only thing I see is an angry pout.
How childish.
--POV: Ryuta Koichi—
--Place: 1st arena of Volitaire / Time:08:39—
I’m starting to think Lilith really is a worrywart, just thinking about the nagging she gave me last night is already giving me a headache.
Does she really think I, the hero, will lose to a noble girl? She clearly has never read the isekai light novels back at home.
I’m willing to pardon her, though.
Anyway, back to the girl standing in front of me. I have been cautioned of her being a magical swordsman, but she hides her strength.
Is she really hiding her strength? Maybe the only thing she can use is a fireball? While she may be pretty….actually scratch that, she is very pretty. With blond hair, currently in a ponytail, along with sparkling blood-red eyes, overflowing with life.
She would be a model back on earth, actually a supermodel. She is wearing tight training clothes with a sword of some kind at her hip. The curves are in all the right places, I notice after further inspection.
She is also staring at me, with cold eyes that threaten to kill me with their gaze alone. Seems like she is fired up, huh?
“FIGHT!” As soon as the referee calls out, I immediately rush forward towards her, holy sword in hand, planning to slash her down.
Upon seeing me closing in, she releases 10 fireballs…..is she trying to use her lukewarm strategy on me? Hah, I don’t think so.
SHIELD!
An invisible barrier coats my body, as I don’t slow down. Instead of getting burnt by the fireballs, they get deflected, now what Clarissa? Ohh?
She pulled her thin sword out and dashes towards me, a head on confrontation? As our swords connect, I realize something….
Am I getting pushed back?! How strong is this girl?!!
MIGHT!
Giving myself a strength buff, I manage to bring us to a stalemate strength-wise. However, the only difference is that Clarissa is using her own strength, while I am relying on a strength buff that will soon run out and then be on cooldown.
It’s either now or never, I have to take her out before I run out of steam. BOOST!
Adding another buff, this time, one to enhance speed. I break the stalemate by retreating, followed by circling Clarissa. She doesn’t stay still either, and immediately sends fireballs after me.
I stop my encirclement, and immediately dash towards her, despite the fireballs being in my way, the SHIELD should take care of it.
Fuck! As our swords connect she deflects it to the side lightly to get rid of the momentum I brought from my run towards her. She doesn’t stop there, and uses the deflection she caused to hit me in the stomach with her left lag.
I decide to retreat from close-range to mid-range,but the question is…..how do I overcome this? Wait a second…it is way too chilly for a morning breeze…..
and it’s way too windy…..
“Is this…” Just as I was voicing my thoughts, a pain in my right leg alerts me that the SHIELD has been hit, yet again. This time by a wind blade? I wasn’t aware she could use wind magic, fuck?!
This is bad, the SHIELD won’t be able to take more than a few hits at this rate. I need a new strategy…..what if I use that?
If I enter close-range and use the BLAST, which is a bit stronger than a grenade explosion on earth. I should be able to at least knock her out, while my SHIELD takes in the last of the damage, I should be the last one standing.
Good….It may a bit Kamikaze-ish, but it’s the only thing I got before my buffs run out. I just need to occupy her for about 10 seconds, as I gather divine power for the BLAST.
I look at the fireballs coming at me, with newfound determination in my heart.
--POV: Laurence—
--Place: 1st arena of Volitaire / Time:09:17—
As Ryuta’s sword clashes against Clarissa’s, I can’t help but feel something is off. There is a bit too much of that weird energy around Ryuta. Does he have yet another power, the great me is not aware of?
Clarissa should feel this as well, why the hell isn’t she backing off? Is she trying to take him out before he is able to use another power?
It’s gathering at a faster rate, and there is way too much of it. Clarissa is still on the offensive, what the fuck is she doing?!!
Is this Ryuta last ditch effort at a win? Clarissa should just retreat and let Ryuta’s new charging attack fail, why is she still there?!
Fuck, fuck, fuck….she is still attacking, what the hell is she doing?
‘Retreat now!!!’ I communicate to Clarissa telepathically, only to get….
No response….she is still attacking, there is too much energy around him, if this energy were to be released one shot, Clarissa would take serious damage.
The energy around Ryuta stopped gathering….is the attack going to go off now?....you know what..
FUCK IT!!
I immediately place a gravity spell 20 feet behind Clarissa, hoping that it would pull her backwards.
*BOOM*
An explosion goes out, as half of the people on this stage probably hear a tinnitus (high-pitched ringing), luckily, I dragged Clarissa out of harms way just in time, the only actual damage she took, was that she fainted from the shockwave, same as Ryuta, who is also unconscious.
“Haah” I let out a frustrated sigh, planning what I’d do with the disobedient girl laying on the grass of the arena.