Chapter 50: Mock battle (1/2)

”This will be our last fight before the start of your ceremony. Are you ready?”

”I am, don't forget our deal. If I succeed in breaking your sword or wounding you in a place that should have been fatal, I win. Once I win, you will listen to one of my demands.”

”Breaking my sword would mean that your intent was stronger than mine, any warriors need to be rewarded. So I will listen to any requests from you.”

Sol and Lilith stood apart on the clearing that was repeatedly bathed in Sol blood during the span of those forty days.

Perhaps in the future, he would look back to those days with fondness, but currently, he just shivered at the thought and decided to lock those days behind a wall.

Lilith was wearing her usual ridiculously revealing purple Qipao, a glowing blue large sword in her hand, while Sol stood in his trousers and a glowing golden long sword in his.

This was a pure mana construct. Few if any used intent in such a crude way in a fight. Each hit would cost too much mana to maintain the sword and the intent necessary to maintain the form would mentally tire the user. But it was perfect for training.

At first, he thought that he could easily beat Lilith since this kind of fight was more demanding on the mana quantity.

He was both wrong and right.

Mana was necessary to maintain the shape and as such people with more mana had an edge. But people like Lilith were different.

She had ten times less mana than Sol, but she could use each unit of her mana hundreds times better than him. When paired with her firm will and her superb skills, Sol found himself outclassed in every way possible.

But today, he would win.

Silence settled between the two of them. Their mana, rising slowly from their bodies and sharpening their swords. Even though they didn't add the intent to kill in their sword, it didn't mean that it wasn't dangerous. At the very least they could wound themselves quite badly.

To avoid any dangerous situations, Edea was seated further aside under her parasol with Freya, the two of them elegantly sipping some expensive tea. Edea could simply rewind time and avoid the danger.

–Having a time mage next to you was always damn useful.

They didn't have to say anything, they didn't have to prepare a signal. As if they were of the same mind, they moved exactly at the same time and crossed their sword exactly in the middle.

Body-wise, Sol was stronger than Lilith. But, mana wise, she was way outside of his class. This created a rather equal situation as they fought each other to get the edge.

They stared at each other's eyes, their intent to fight clear in them.

A smile lit up Lilith's eyes as she took a step back and kicked him in the stomach, taking out the air from him.

Using the moment his breathing was disrupted, she twirled on herself and used the centrifugal force to bring her sword even faster on him.

Boom!!

Since they were mana constructs, they logically shouldn't have weight. But adding different intent such as cutting and crushing, Lilith could make something similar.

Dust rose, obscuring Sol from her sight. But she was in no hurry.

Whoosh!

Using the cover of the dust, Sol rushed toward her at full speed, wind stirring behind him before he crashed into her, but she calmly avoided him with another twirl before kicking him in the side.

There were no rules in their fight. No limits everything hit was allowed and Sol knew that if he did not use his racial traits to his advantage, he would simply lose.

Still,

'She is incredible.'

Humans were physically the weakest races in this world. Even goblins had more strength than them. Sol on the other was half-dragon and had many innate advantages. Despite that, he was still unable to completely overpower her. What more, he knew she was holding back, limiting her capacity to his level.

'Well, let's not stress.'

Discarding those distracting thoughts, he used her kick to take some distance from her and focused on himself.

Slowly, he began to change. He became taller, his white skin became bronze, and two glowing golden horns formed on his forehead.

Immediately, Sol felt the difference. It was like all his stats were immediately boosted tenfold. Still, he didn't let this power go to his head, because,