Chapter 15

And so, another fight rages on. Despite the fact that she is both exhausted and injured in her last fight, Rose Knight continues to push on and managed to hold on her own against the mysterious black-robed man who challenged her to a fight.

However, in the middle of the fight, Rose Knight noticed that her movements started to slow down the more she moves, and could not keep up with the fast-paced movements of her opponent.

Furthermore, the black-robed man flew up into the air, raised his scythe into the air as several long sharp spikes appeared above him. He then pointed his scythe down at Rose Knight and in an instant, the spikes rained down on her.

But Rose Knight saw it and knowing that she had no room left to dodge them all, she focused her energy as she created a shield with the shape of a dragon's head on it and held it above her. The long spikes rained down on her but her shield protected her.

Unfortunately, due to her decrease in strength, one spike managed to pierce through the shield and landed on the ground inches beside her right leg! What's more, is that the weight of the shield is a little too much for Rose Knight to even carry.

She eventually had to muster up the strength she had and drag the shield to the side as it shattered letting the long spikes fall to the ground beside her. Rose Knight breathed heavily as she wiped off the sweat on her forehead.

'I-I don't know how much longer can I keep this up.' she thought to herself, 'Sooner or later I'm gonna die.'

A split second before she could react, the black-robed man appeared behind her and hit her with the back of his hand so hard she flew across the sky and landed on top of a nearby building. CRASH!! THUD!!

Rose Knight slowly crawled and managed to stand up but kept falling to her knees. In addition to this, she noticed that the red arm plates on both of her arms disappeared into particles of light.

"What in the world--?" she muttered to herself,

Before she could think of anything else, the black-robed man landed on the roof holding his scythe and resting it on his shoulders. Rose Knight tried to stand up but couldn't do it. She had to grip her sword and hold on to it like a cane to stand up.

"Is this all you've got?" he asked, "I fought against someone way more powerful than you."

"Well,... you could've at least tried to wait and reschedule the fight." Rose Knight commented, still breathing heavily, "Coz you really came at bad timing."

The black-robed man wasn't amused and slid his scythe back inside his sleeves. "I am honestly disappointed," he then said, "And just when I thought I would have the chance to go up against someone who's on my level."

"What do you mean by that?" Rose Knight asked,

"It's none of your business." The black-robed man said, "Fine then. Let's make this fair. I'll give you a handicap." He then proceeded to place both of his hands behind his back.

"Remind me again why are you doing this?" Rose Knight asked,

"I got bored and wanted to see what you can do. That's all." The black-robed man replied,

'I highly doubt that's all he came all this way for. Besides, I don't get why he would come at me in my current state when he can just wait until I'm at full strength.' Rose Knight thought then replied, "Alright then. You asked for it." Her eyes started glowing red and a surge of energy flowed from the ruby brooch as she slowly stood up and firmly held her sword up.

"Oh! You were holding back." The black-robed man said, "Then let's see what you can really do!"

'I've only got one shot at this. One wrong move and it's the end of me.' Rose Knight though to herself. She then proceeded to swing her sword around multiple times as her sword bursts into flames forming into a blooming fire rose.

By the time she aimed at the black-robed man, she thrusts her sword forward and the flaming petals dispersed from the rose and unleashed a barrage of attacks heading straight for him! Suddenly, the flaming rose petals surrounded the black-robed man and forming a wildfire tornado around him.

"Seriously?" The black-robed man wasn't amused and yawned while inside the tornado, "Are you trying to fool me or what?"

As soon as he said that, another wave of flaming petals suddenly appeared from all sides unleashing a relentless barrage of attacks. BOOM!! BAAM!! BOOM!! KA-BOOM!!

On the other hand, Rose Knight's eyes stopped glowing, the surge of energy faded away as she fell to the ground exhausted. Her red armor vanished into particles of light leaving only the black long sleeves and the visor on her head.

'Did I do it?' she thought in her head.

She looked at where the black-robed man was hit. However, as the smoke cleared, he was still alive and well just dusting himself as he looked completely unharmed by the attack.

"Not bad. Not bad at all... for a rookie." The black-robed man commented,

Rose Knight was horrified and utterly shocked by what she saw, 'How did he survive that attack?'

"And now I am bored." The black-robed man said and started walking towards her.

'I guess this is really the end of the line for me.' Rose Knight thought in her head,

But the black-robed man just looked at her and turned around to leave. Confused, Rose Knight looked at him and said, "Wait, so you're just gonna leave me like that?"

The black-robed man trailed to a halt. He then peered over his shoulders and replied, "This is only the beginning. The next time we meet will be for real. No holds bars." With that, he vanished into thin air.

Rose Knight's clothes changed back into her casual outfit and transformed back into Emily. Suddenly, the sky turned purple and clouds swirled above and in a blink of an eye, Emily was standing in the side-walk.

Emily was confused. She checked herself and noticed that she had sustained no injuries and was carrying her backpack in her hand. She then let out a huge sigh of relief until she felt something buzzing in her pockets. She reached into it and took out her phone only to find her mom calling.

Emily held it up to her ear and said, "Hello?"

"Where are you? What's taking you so long?" her mom asked,

"I, uh, was, uh, getting school supplies," Emily replied as she was crossing her fingers hoping that her mom wouldn't suspect a thing.

"Well, you better get back home now. Dinner's almost ready," her mom reminded Emily, and then she hung up the phone.

Emily just shrugged as she placed her phone in her bag and started walking to a nearby bus stop and headed home.