NOVEL NEXT Chapter 95: Friendly Duel: Grace vs. Lucien
"What are you doing here, heroine?" Lucien speaks to me coldly as we stand in the castle's training area. I had decided to come train a bit and ended up finding him here, which is a pleasant surprise.
'Oh, he has such well-defined muscles!' I stare at his abdomen for a brief moment before looking at him with interest; since he's shirtless, I can see his body well.
"I came here to train a bit with the practice swords. After all, I'm allowed to use most of the castle's facilities," I tell him with a smile. He looks back at me with a mix of irritation and interest.
"I heard you're a swordswoman... how about a friendly spar right now?" he proposes with a certain degree of malice, but I quickly nod in agreement. After all, it's a chance to talk.
"Sure, sounds fun. Although I might end up going overboard," I say with pure confidence, which irritates him because it sounds like mockery, as if I'm underestimating him.
"Then come at me with everything you've got." He walks over to the sword area and tosses one to me, picking up another of the exact same type.
"To be fair," he says, falling into a fighting stance, holding the sword with enviable mastery. I swing the sword, testing its feel, and quickly figure out a good way to use it.
"Great, I actually like this type of sword," I say, gripping the two-handed sword with just one hand. He gives me a brief look of confusion, as if he's seeing something wrong, but shrugs it off.
"..." Without another word, he charges at me with an overhead slash. It's strong, but I quickly spot openings. I dodge and kick his unprotected belly, pushing him back.
He recovers quickly but looks at me, shocked, probably because his perfect posture was shattered by a simple kick. I give him a simple smile as I readjust my own stance.
"You... are really good." He assumes another stance, again perfectly formed. However, perfection doesn't mean there are no flaws. The perfect kitchen knife isn't capable of felling a tree well.
Just as the perfect axe can't cut down a mountain, perfection is only for specific things. His posture is perfect... but only for attack. His defense is a basic, general defense that would work against most, but not against me.
He advances, delivering a series of skilled slashes, but even with my own imperfect stance, I defend without much trouble, using his strength against him.
'He's trying to pressure me...' I release the hilt of the sword, moving it in a way that makes it spin along the blade of his sword, and with my other hand, I grab it again. Seizing the opening, I kick his chin, sending him flying a few inches into the air.
"..." Now, instead of praise, he looks at me with anger for not being able to land a hit. He puts some distance between us, stepping back while I take a few steps forward.
"Something wrong, Lucien?" I ask him, attentive to his changing posture once more.
"Nothing. Just finding it strange how inconvenient you are. First, you're chasing Marie around, and now you're here bothering me..."
"You're the one who proposed this duel. You can't get angry for being weaker than me," I say with a certain mockery, provoking him to charge at me. It doesn't work perfectly, but I still see a vein bulging on his forehead.
He advances, using clearly dangerous fencing techniques. Although there's no murderous intent, it's obvious he's doing it on purpose. I start holding the sword with both hands, and with that, he loses any margin for attack.
I reverse our positions, going on the offensive and forcing him to defend. Quickly, I begin pushing him back with basic fencing skills, and the moment he falters, I cut his cheek with the blade, making a very shallow cut.
But it's enough to break his focus. I use this to trip him, and as he falls, I forcefully drive my sword into the ground near his head, making it clear that I've won.
"...Okay... you win... human," he says with disgust as I release the sword and step away from him. He looks at the cracks in the floor, seeing that this blow would have been fatal for him.
"If you were an adventurer, what would your Rank be?" he asks with interest now, giving a strangely pleased smile, as if he's seeing something entertaining.
"Rank S." It's not exactly a lie, but it's not 100% true either. If I had my own sword, I'd probably be Rank X, since I've accumulated so much experience with that blade, making it incredibly strong.
"I see... I guess you really are good," he says, tossing his sword aside.
"Another duel?" I ask, but he just charges. And now there's a noticeable change; he delivers a strong, hard-to-defend blow, forcing me to use the correct posture to redirect it.
'My wrist...' My wrist almost broke from my poor defense. It seems I'll have to take this more seriously or I'll get stupidly hurt.
He delivers another sequence of three blows, pressuring me immensely. The difference in skill between before and now is staggering, forcing me to treat this seriously. I adjust my footwork to match his movements to better redirect his blows, while I no longer see any openings.
'How the hell...?' Before, he didn't seem to know how to use a sword like this, but now he's improved absurdly. I guess that's to be expected from a son of the Demon King; he adapts really fast.
"You're not bad at all," I say, rotating his sword upward using a great deal of my strength, breaking his guard with the motion. I deliver a stronger kick right to his chest, throwing him back and finally giving me space to adjust properly.
"Tsk, seems like being a heroine was no joke," he says with a broad smile, taking a new stance. He holds the sword pointed slightly upward toward me, keeping a wider stance with his legs and his body leaning slightly forward, closing all the previous openings.
"This is pretty fun. There are few swordsmen who can improve and compete with me so quickly," I say with a smile, praising him as I take the offensive with a strong horizontal slash followed by a kick at the broad side of his sword.
He uses my force to spin, and to avoid being cut, I lean my entire torso back, using my flexibility. He tries to kick me, but I jump back into a backflip with all my strength, once again taking a good distance.
Crack.
I stomp on the ground hard, cracking the floor and kicking up a piece of rubble that I launch toward him. He cuts the stone with a perfect slash, but it creates an opening for me to advance and deliver a powerful upward swing from below.
He manages to defend, but the force is so great that his hands are thrown up and back, opening his guard again. But learning from his last mistake, he uses the momentum to deliver an axe kick aimed at my chin.
I'm forced to retreat to avoid being hit, allowing him to recover completely. I see sweat streaming down his body as a single drop runs down my own forehead.
'He's really very good.' I give him a big, happy smile. In my opinion, he adjusted quickly to my fighting style; he can now counterattack without any problems, and he's also quite strong physically.
"I praise you again! I really like how this duel is going! In the future, you'll be a monstrously good swordsman!" I say with a big smile as he prepares himself.
"I'm not a swordsman. I use many different weapons, so it doesn't make sense to practice only with swords," he says, surprising me. He has all this mastery with a sword, and yet he isn't a swordsman?
'Could it be some kind of skill? Or maybe his blessing is related to this? I heard the sons of the Demon King have blessings...' All the sons of the Demon King apparently received blessings, but almost no one knows what each blessing is.
I even tried to get that information, but no one in the castle could say for sure what each one's blessing is, since the owners themselves have hidden it well.
"Hahaha, that's great! A good, versatile warrior! I'm sure your wife will have good protection," I say, wiggling my eyebrows flirtatiously.
"...?" He charges, confused by this, while I advance, clashing head-on with him.
"You're quite handsome, you know. These perfectly worked muscles, your strong hands, and your fencing, though rustic, has a pleasant beauty to it. Your white hair with those purple eyes is also charming," I praise him, biting my lip seductively.
"You're a strange girl. Are you flirting with me? What human would have the audacity to flirt with a demon so brazenly?" he says, picking up on the obvious flirtation.
"Well, well, well, you're a cutie, of course I'd flirt. You're also good with a sword, how could I not feel something about that?" I say, pressing him back with my sword.
"...Well... you're not bad either, for a human," he says, sounding somewhat amused now as we continue our duel and our conversation, which has now become lighter.
He's no longer just trying to give me a hard time in the fight but is actually sparring in a good and pleasant manner, while I also maintain a fairer, less mocking pace.