Chapter 22 - Imperial Princess [3]

After a couple minutes of waiting, I was finally let back into the throne room. Considering the face Charlotte had, I assumed Caelus had told her something. But, suddenly, she began talking.

"Reinhardt, your family should be heading over to the Imperial Castle soon, they'll be dining with us. But, before that, can we go a round? A light spar, I wanna have a light spar."

"Charlotte, the guy's exhausted. I know you used to give him pointers when it came to the sword through spars, but come on. Even if he can heal himself, he isn't skilled enough to get rid of fatigue-"

Then, I spoke up.

"No, I don't get tired. Or rather, I can 'heal' from it, I don't need sleep as much as most people either. I can 'heal' from poisons too, regenerating entire limbs isn't an issue for me either. In any case, what I'm saying is that you shouldn't judge my skill by the standards of the me before all of this. I'm stronger and better than I've ever been."

The Princess looked at me with an almost confused look, it was understable. The actual Reinhardt wasn't as skilled as I was from what I could tell, nor was his soul as strong as mine. He was probably better in swordplay, but my swordsmanship wasn't exactly ordinary so it couldn't exactly be measured by ordinary standards.

But even putting all of that aside, I want to see if I can beat Charlotte Von Erebus. I want to see just how strong I am compared to someone like her, who has the potential to be one of the strongest in history due to her bloodline and innate talent.

Charlotte's talent was immense. And that's why... that's why I wanted to pit myself against her, who was a true genius. I wanted to know if I could actually consider myself to be a genius. And, if I could best her, then I would know.

In other words, I want to prove my strength and talent to myself.

"Princess, or rather, Charlotte. Let's have a... light spar for now. But, another day I want to fight you at your full strength."

I wouldn't consider it a win unless I fought her at full strength, and won. Any other win would be lackluster.

She stifled a laugh.

"You think you can beat me?"

Then, I flew and in an instant I was right infront of her. I looked down at her, who was still seated.

"Dunno, wanna find out?"

I was smiling, I was excited. I wanted to fight her, I wanted to win. Not to survive, but for my own satisfaction.

Caelus sighed.

"You lot can fight, just here will do. Don't go all out, obviously. But feel free to go for vitals, I can stop you."

Then, I floated back to where I was before as she got off her throne and walked down the stairs that led to her throne and stood before me.

Then, Caelus dissapeared for a moment before reappearing almost immediately after. In each hand he had swords, they looked to be of a much higher quality than the one I had used before.

Both of us took a sword, and stood before each other.

"Man, I shouldn't let you two do this but since you're both consenting it's fine. Fight when you're ready."

I used Arcane Enhancement, and began to Enhance my Weapon too. The Princess did the same, her Ehancement output was lower than mine. And so, I made the first move, going for her throat.

But, she was able to predict where I'd strike, and block and redirect my attack away from her. Then, I created some space by stepping back, and attacked again. She dodged by taking a few steps back, but I used Partial Enhancement to shatter my shoulder joint and forcibly extend my reach causing her to need to block my attack.

Even with a shattered arm, my attack had immense power behind it, causing her to struggle under the weight of my sword. My instincts noticed a moment of weakness, and so I took a step forward and slammed my fist into ribs. This caused her to wheeze out in pain, she only needed a moment to adjust.

But, I didn't give her time. And so, I swung my sword. Due to my shattered arm, I couldn't swing properly, so I decided to use my arm like a whip. My blade rushed towards her neck.

But, Caelus suddenly appeared and stopped my attack. Then, I deactivated my Enhancements and began to heal myself.

"Reinhardt, you... you fight recklessly and you hurt yourself when you fight, but.. it's pretty cool way of fighting. I like it."

Caelus patted me on the back as the Princess coughed before smiling.

"You... you really did get stronger. You won, well done-"

"No. I didn't win. You didn't even use anything besides physical Enhancement. And, it wasn't even at maximum output. This spar was just for fun anyways."

She smiled before speaking.

"You weren't trying either, but yeah I didn't use any real Magic."

As the Princess dusted herself off I summoned my Cloak and looked at Caelus as I put the sword into my cloak before I let it dissapear once more.

"This is mine now."

Caelus shrugged, not really caring as he took the sword off of Charlotte.

"Oh right, you're my disciple and you've got a way of healing yourself. So, I'll teach you the Magic that I created sometime soon. Blood Manipulation."

Then, the whites of his eyes filled with red and his veins began popping as he controlled his own blood flow.

"You'll be better at it than I am, I'll try teach you some stuff about it in the time before your family comes over for dinner. But, what I'm doing right now enhances my physical stats. I'll explain the details later."

A/N: Originally, Blood Magic was gonna be an attribute but this is better and makes more sense and it gives me a way to make it unique to him and Caelus.