With those parting words, the woman began walking again. She brushed right past me and disappeared down the hall, leaving Fay and me alone.
A slightly awkward silence appeared between us, but I broke it, coughing into my hand.
“Listen, Fay,” I began, forcing her to look at me. “Do not underestimate that woman. All of your opponents up to now were beginners, including Finn. Catalyna is going to be your first major hurdle. However, I have confidence that you can beat her. In terms of raw talent and potential, you surpass her in every way possible. Your biggest obstacle when fighting her is going to be the gap in experience. She has a lot more of that than you.”
Fay nodded as she listened to me. “I watched all of her fights so far. Catalyna definitely has a wellspring of battle experience compared to myself. I’m aware of that.”
“You’ll need to be creative if you want to close that gap.” Fay nodded one more time, causing me to smile. “Go show everyone what you can do.”
“I will!” With her face brightening like the sun was shining on it, Fay walked past me and disappeared.
I continued on my way, entering the waiting room, where several faces turned to me. I was already used to this. However, before I could walk over to the window, Dante came up to me with a laidback smile on his face.
“That was a pretty impressive battle,” he said.
“Thank you,” I murmured, not sure what he wanted. He normally seemed like the type to just silently observe me.
“It was even more impressive,” he began, his face becoming more serious, “because you weren’t going all out.”
I grimaced. “I’m surprised you caught that.”
Dante grinned when I didn’t deny his words. “Well, it wasn’t that hard. Unlike Hellen, who looked like she was struggling just to stay conscious toward the end, you didn’t even break a sweat. Even now, your expression is calm and collected, as though your battle with her barely made you exert any effort.”
I wasn’t sure I appreciated how accurate his analysis of my abilities was, but I tried not to let it bother me. This man was one of Kari’s fathers. Being paranoid around him was rude to her.
“Thank you,” I said.
I walked toward the window. Dante followed me. This almost made me sigh, but I withheld it.
“Do you want something from me?” I asked.
“You’re close to Kari, right?” Dante scratched his cheek as he asked me this question.
I could only nod. “The entire reason I entered this tournament was for her.”
That was, strictly speaking, not one hundred percent true. I was also fighting in this tournament for Fay. However, I had already defeated Grant, so Fay’s problem had been rectified. Kari’s was only half-solved.
Dante seemed a little startled. Perhaps it was my blunt admittance that my only reason for entering this tournament was Kari, but I didn’t care enough to find out.
“So I see. Kari means that much to you.” He cupped his chin and observed me. “And what exactly are you hoping to accomplish by participating in this tournament? What is it that you want from Kari?”
“Want?” I frowned at him. “This isn’t about what I want from her. It’s about what I want for her.” I glanced back out the window. Fay and Catalyna were standing in the center of the arena, getting ready to battle. “Kari is a girl who dreams of exploring the world, adventuring into ruins, and discovering new things. What I want is for her mother to stop caging her in Nevaria and let her travel outside. Kari is like a Phoenix. She needs to soar through the sky in order to reveal the splendor of her wings. She can’t do so if she’s grounded here.”
The more I spoke, the more shocked Dante became, until it looked like his eyes would pop out of their sockets. He recovered with admirable swiftness, however. I had to give him credit for that. After recovering, he looked at me as though he was seeing me in a whole new light.
“I see you really do understand Kari well—perhaps even better than we do.” Dante looked out the window as well. “If you win this tournament, then you can request any one thing from my wife. I can already guess what your request will be.” He smiled. “If I’m being honest, I’m now kind of hoping you’ll win this whole thing.”
“Don’t worry.” I smiled as the battle between Fay and Catalyna began. “I intend to.”
Chapter 9
The First Defeat is Always the Worst
“This should be an interesting battle,” Mykkel said as Fay and Catalyna walked onto the arena floor.
Kari’s gaze was pinned onto her former childhood friend. She bit her lip as she stared at the confident and determined expression on the girl’s face. That facade showed how determined Fay was to prove herself. Would it be inappropriate if she cheered for her? Kari wanted more than anything to let Fay know she had her support, but she didn’t know if her former friend would appreciate or even want it.
“Catalyna is a member of the Kriger Family,” Geirolf mumbled as though talking to himself. “As a family that holds martial prowess in the highest regard, all of their members are extensively trained from a young age to fight, and each one is said to be blessed with incredible reserves of Spiritual Power. I’ve heard that among all the members in her family, Catalyna is ranked among the top five.”
The words of her third older brother caused Kari to look at Catalyna, who wore a confident smirk that made her seem like she had already won. That expression made her frown.
“This battle isn’t going to be as guaranteed as you two seem to think,” Earland said.
“Who said I believed Fay was gonna lose?” asked Geirolf, blushing as though ashamed. “I was just saying it’s gonna be a tough fight!”
“Sounds like someone has a crush,” Mykkel teased.
“W-what? That’s not it all! Shut up!”
Fay… Ignoring her brothers now that they had devolved into senseless bickering, Kari clasped her hands together and prayed for her friend. Good luck.
* * *
“Are the two of you ready?” asked Rainer as he looked back and forth between Fay and Catalyna.
“Of course I am,” Catalyna said, tossing a lock of hair over her shoulder. She was wearing the same smirk she had been this whole time. It was quite irksome.
“I am also ready,” Fay added.
“In that case, let the battle begin.” Rainer raised his hand and swung it down in a swift chopping motion. “Fight!”
Despite the battle already being underway, neither Catalyna nor she began fighting right away. Fay was wary of this woman, who exuded a confidence that bordered on arrogance. On the other hand, Catalyna seemed to be curious about something, as she tilted her head and stared at Fay like she was a puzzle.
“Do you mind if I ask what your relationship with Eryk Veiger is?” Catalyna asked suddenly—a question so out of the blue Fay was caught completely off guard.
“Wha—” Fay tried to stop her blush, but she could already feel her cheeks burning, though she did her best to cover it up. “Why do you want to know about that?”
“It’s just… that technique you two use is one he taught you, correct? It made me curious to know whether you and he were lovers.”
“L-lovers?!” Fay hadn’t felt this embarrassed since her father suggested she and Eryk get married. “What makes you think we’re lovers? Why would that thought even cross your mind?”
“So you aren’t lovers?”
Fay bit her lower lip as the words, “Of course not!” came to mind, but she held her tongue because, in truth, that was the kind of relationship she wanted. If she admitted that she and Eryk were not lovers, it felt like she was admitting that Kari had beaten her. She didn’t want to do that.
“I see.” Catalyna chuckled. “It’s unrequited love, isn’t it?”
A sharp pain pierced her chest as Catalyna’s words struck her like a lance to the heart. She placed a hand against her chest and took several deep breaths, calming down. When she was sufficiently calm, she looked at the woman aga
in.
“I don’t plan on letting it remain like that forever,” Fay declared. “Right now, Eryk has told me he loves someone else, but I will make him fall in love with me. I don’t plan on letting my feelings remain unrequited forever.”
Even though she spoke with confidence, Fay was not at all confident that she could accomplish this. Kari was prettier than her, had a better pedigree than her, and Eryk was already in love with her. There was so much that Fay had going against her in the quest to win Eryk’s affection. She honestly didn’t know if she’d succeed, but she didn’t want to let others know she had no confidence in this matter.
“So you’ve decided to do the chasing instead of being the one who is chased.” Catalyna nodded several times and smiled. “I can respect that. However, you are going to have more to worry about than just that other girl he likes.” Catalyna swung her sword, causing lightning to crackle along the tip. “After having watched him demolish his competition so easily, I think I have fallen for him as well. I hope you don’t mind having another love rival added to your current competition.”
“Huh?!”
Fay only had a single moment to feel shocked before Catalyna swung her sword, creating a powerful lightning wave that rushed toward her. It was easy to tell at a glance that she wouldn’t be able to overpower this attack. Her hair was already standing on end as the static electricity preceded the technique.
Using the Flash Step, Fay appeared several meters away from the attack. Lightning washed over the place where she had been standing. Fay gulped when she saw how the technique was so powerful it caused the ground to become black and scorched. Even if she had her Spiritual Aura protecting her, a technique like that might have still injured her.
“So that is the famous movement technique up close,” Catalyna observed with a tilt of her head. “I can see why it would pose such a problem to deal with. You can appear practically anywhere within the blink of an eye, though as we’ve seen from your fight with Finn, there are ways of getting around this.”
Fay realized that if she wanted to defeat Catalyna, she couldn’t afford to stay on the defensive. This woman’s attacks were seriously strong. Not only were her powers nothing to scoff at, but her talent at observation was enough to make Fay wary.
Narrowing her eyes, Fay used the Flash Step again, appearing in Catalyna’s blind spot. She slid her right foot forward. As she tucked her left arm into her torso, fire trailed along her fist when she moved it in a spiral pattern. There was no hesitation in her movements as she rotated her torso, launching her fist, which had caught fire, at Catalyna’s side.
Catalyna must have had eyes in the back of her head. She didn’t even turn around as she tilted her body away from Fay’s punch. The fire that had been gathering on her fist exploded in an intense wave of heat that flew several meters away before running out of power. As Fay gawked at how her punch had missed, Catalyna spun around and swung her sword.
Fay used the Flash Step on instinct, disappearing within the blink of an eye, but she must not have been fast enough because a flash of pain seared her body like an electric jolt. Lightning skittered across her skin, and because she’d used the Flash Step, she didn’t have the protection of her Spiritual Aura. Fay came out of her Flash Step and tumbled along the ground, though she managed to somehow land on her feet.
“So that technique of yours can’t be used in conjunction with your Spiritual Aura,” Catalyna analyzed. “That’s good to know.”
Gritting her teeth, Fay activated her Spiritual Aura and rushed forward. This made Catalyna grin as she activated her own aura, which looked like arcs of lightning dancing across her skin.
The two of them met in the middle. Catalyna swung her jagged sword around in a wide arc that Fay dodged by sidestepping. Then she stepped into the other woman’s guard, fire swirling around her fist as she threw a powerful punch, which unfortunately didn’t do much. Her fist slammed into the armored chestplate. Fay bit back a yelp as her fist received a powerful jolt that made it go numb. She leapt back, which allowed Catalyna to attack.
An arc of pale lightning swept out of Catalyna’s blade as she swung it, causing all the hairs on Fay’s body to stand up. She managed to duck underneath the attack. However, her body became slightly numb from the sensation of lightning washing over her. She scrambled out of the way and leapt back in time to avoid her opponent’s follow up, but she could tell just from how sluggish her body moved that she was in a bad situation.
“I bet you didn’t know your Spiritual Aura could also be used to attack, huh?” Catalyna said, chuckling. “It’s a more advanced technique and not something that just anyone can learn, but I’m kinda surprised Eryk hasn’t taught you how to do it yet. Maybe he’s not all that interested in making you stronger, after all.”
Those words caused Fay to see red, but they also left a kernel of doubt within her heart. What if that was true? She didn’t think it was. However, if it wasn’t, then why wouldn’t Eryk teach her about how a person could use their Spiritual Aura to attack?
Catalyna must have sensed her uncertainty. Wearing a wide grin, she twirled around like a dancer, swinging her jagged sword in complex patterns. Each time she did, it formed a line of crackling Spiritual Power in the air. One line became two, two became four, and four became sixteen. Once the number of lines reached sixteen, the crackling power within each line was unleashed.
It burst forward like a tempest, a giant wave of pale lightning that suddenly shifted, transforming into shapes—wolves. The shapes within the wave resembled a pack of ravenous wolves. They stamped along the ground, lightning exploding from their feet, burning the arena floor. Fay’s heart leapt into her throat as she saw the attack coming at her.
Fay was about to use the Flash Step, but Catalyna’s words about Eryk stopped her, and that hesitation cost her. She gnashed her teeth together and took a wide stance. She moved her hands in a circular pattern, fire swirling around them as she tucked them into her torso, gathering all the Spiritual Power she could muster. When the lightning wolves were barely half a meter away, she thrust out her fists and fired two massive balls of flame from them.
It was no good.
While her two attacks did punch a pair of holes through Catalyna’s lightning wolf pack, there was simply too wide an area for her fireballs to effectively disperse the technique. Fay realized this as her opponent’s Spiritual Lightning Technique continued forward unabated. She briefly thought about using the Flash Step to get away, but it was already too late.
The wave of lightning washed over Fay.
* * *
“Damn it!” I roared as I jumped through the window, which fortunately had no glass, and rushed onto the arena floor.
Fay was currently trapped within the middle of a lightning storm. I recognized the Spiritual Technique. It was called Lightning Wolves Asunder. The technique created a wave of lightning that took on the shape of a wolf pack, which charged into the enemy lines and demolished them. It was only a B-rank Spiritual Technique, but in the right hands, it could be incredibly deadly.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I used the Flash Step to appear next to the technique. I thrust out my hand, generating a powerful negative force of lightning that swept over the Lightning Wolves Asunder Technique, causing the entire wolf pack to disperse in an instant.
Fay was in the center of this technique. She was, surprisingly, still standing, but her back was hunched over and her arms were dangling at her side. I walked up to her and peered into her eyes. They were open, glazed over, and her pupils had rolled into the back of her sockets. She was completely unconscious.
“The technique caused her muscles to seize up,” I muttered as I realized why she was still standing.
I reached out and closed Fay’s eyes. At the same time, I sent the water element through her body, relieving her currently stiff muscles of the tension that kept them locked in place. Her body began to slump as her muscles turned to jelly, but I moved forward and caught her before s
he could fall. She landed against my chest. For just one moment, I allowed myself the guilty pleasure of holding her close, but I knew it wasn’t appropriate, so I scooped her into my arms.
Her legs dangled and swung as I moved, and her head lolled against my chest. I looked down at her for a second longer. Then I glanced at Catalyna.
“That’s quite the fierce look you have there.” For some reason, Catalyna’s cheeks were flushed red. “Are you going to tell me using a B-rank Spiritual Technique was going overboard? Gonna say I should have held back?”
“No.” I shook my head, causing her to raise an eyebrow. “This was a battle, and while you might pretend this fight was easy, I know you went all out right from the beginning because you knew you’d lose if you didn’t.” I glanced at her chestplate, which was cracked. “It must hurt.”
“Ah ha ha ha!” Catalyna seemed more amused than angry. “It looks like I can’t hide anything from you. What an observant fellow.” She reached up and placed a hand against her cracked chestplate. “That girl’s attack pierced straight through my Spiritual Aura and my armor. Were I not as powerful as I am, I would have definitely lost to her. She’s quite the little fighter.”
I nodded, but I didn’t say anything more. While I understood that it was a match, that injuries were part of combat, it did not make seeing someone I cared about being injured any easier.
Rainer chose that moment to step forward, raise his hand, and announce the results of the match. “The winner of this match is Catalyna Kriger!”
I ignored the roaring applause of the audience as I turned around and walked toward the exit. I needed to find a place where I could set Fay down and heal her injuries.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 4 Page 15
