Duel

Looking out to the door, what Curtis and Ellis saw stupefied them. The princess was wearing an adventurer styled outfit? There was even a wooden bow holstered behind her back. On second though, what if this wasn't the princess?

The picture of a princess in Ellis' mind looked nothing like what she was seeing. Furthermore, she was wearing a pink coat similar to hers! How come it wasn't a dress?

Then again, a princess was still a princess. This was a fact not to be mistaken. Though, was she really the princess?

With black straight hair, with two thin long side burns curling downwards. Her hair untied, let loose freely at the back, strands of stray hair hooked around her shoulder. Two red crystal ornaments clipped to both sides of her hair. Her monochrome eyes and complimenting eyelashes that could charm most people, even girls. Given her face and the way she posed herself, it could be assumed that she evoked a feeling of maturity. To describe her outfit in colours, it would be pink and white, wearing tight-fit leggings,

Ellis' instincts told her that this person was, definitely a royal. How did it come to this conclusion? By imagining her wearing a dress, simple enough.

"These are the two I mentioned about," Dean was quick to break in a remark.

Tensions befell on the three, with Dean being the only one looking normal.

The princess flashed an expression of disdain, mixed in with shock. Her eyes fixed on Curtis.

'That swirl on his hair—'

Curtis and Ellis had never come so close to someone with a royal status. So they had not a clue as to how they should react.

Louise nodded at Deans introduction.

"Louise Rozel from Rozel Kingdom, a pleasure to meet you," she acted as if she wore a crown—she did not. Pinching the two sides of the no-no-existent gown fabric with her fingers before giving a cross-legged bow. A curtsy.

She wore pants, yet she acted like she wore a skirt.

Curtis could only wonder.

Ellis turned to look at Curtis, she had no idea what they should do. Should they say something? How should they address themselves? What manner should what they said be presented?

"Nice to meet you Princess. My name is Curtis and my partner here is Ellis," a blunt introduction. Ellis wanted to puke blood. It's too bland, too bland! What kind of introduction was that? It's so straight forward and amateurish! Wasn't Curtis the one with the sly tongue!

Ellis flashed a smile at Louise, her eyebrows obviously twitching. Deep down inside, her heart chucked with thorns while her stomach was being tickled by butterflies. Her outwards appearance looked A-O-K though.

Dean understood the awkward situation unfold in front of him.

"Princess—"

"Shall we have a duel?"

Dean was cut off, her words were direct.

""Eh?"" in unison, Ellis and Curtis tilted their heads.

"Miss Ellis and Sir Curtis was it? From Sir Guild Master Dean's description, you two have remarkable ability. Sir Curtis, experiencing a fight with a mage would indefinitely be enticing. Do you accept?"

'Accept a duel?'

In Rozel kingdom where dueling is a akin to entertainment, duels were a common event. In Haital however, the popularity of such a thing was still in its initial stages. Most adventurers here battle for the sake of learning, and was usually done with a hired mentor or instructor.

Not liking the ordeal of paying someone just to train, most of the time, it would be them three, Curtis, Ellis and a friend of their's, Tia, training with each another. To experience a battle with someone else outside their group was a rare occurrence.

"I'm sorry, but..."

"You can't say no. This is an order," The princess worded in an ice cold tone, though, it felt more like a sneer. "I allow you both to come at me together in a 2 versus 1."

Curtis didn't feel any sort of malice or fear in reaction to that. Rather, annoyance.

Couldn't she be more considerate here? What's up with her demands?

Dean creased his eyebrows.

"Why should.."

Ellis quickly tugged at Curtis, and shook her head. No good to go against the princess.

Curtis thought Ellis' opinion had its logic. A short duel, no harm. Hopefully. "Fine."

—not.

Louise chuckled in an obvious manner although very softly. "Sir Guild Master Dean, is there any place around where the duel can be held?"

"Yes Princess. Croquel's training ground. It's not too far away from here. I can clear up the area for the purpose of the duel, but are you sure about this princess?" Dean was thinking about how the princess had just arrived today. She had to need some rest after such a long trip, right?

Dean understood the kind of talent Louise had. Though, at the same time, he didn't think the two combined, Ellis and Curtis, would be any more inferior than her.

"A single duel won't do any harm would it?" A sly, unruly expression was present on her face; a weird look of satisfaction.

Dean made a rough expression. This princess was candid, yes; yet, she wasn't keen in maintain her image as a royal? Then a realization; Dean thought it was quite interesting.

She was just like him wasn't she? Frank and direct. This was the way to make build a relationship that wasn't in anyway hindered by one's status.

Curtis and Ellis made a complicated expression. 'This was a princess?'

|

|

A medium crowd gathered. Something that would happen only when fights were to brake out. Well, a fight was actually about to break out so...

The training ground was basically a field with shoddy fences that separated the different sections of the training sets. It was a grass-desolated square patch that stretched out at least 100 meters, both in length and width. The barren mustard ground was composed of fine sand particles, making it somewhat unstable. Frankly, this wasn't a good place to fight. The conventional requirements for a duel ground were far fetched when compared to what they were seeing.

Croquel's training ground had remained the same ever since the dawn of day. No discrimination was imposed, anyone could use these grounds. Even members from other guilds, so as long as a neutral understanding was maintained. Which which obviously meant: not being authoritative or impulsive.

Furthermore, the sun was beating down on the ground like a flat scorching oven. Curtis being baked, Ellis being cooked. So if so then, the princess was being fried?

'Why now?'

At this moment, Curtis had come to his senses a little more, regretting his choice somewhat. He and Ellis had just eaten lunch. It was an implicit, unspoken rule that you shouldn't run around after a meal, what's more, a duel.

With this understanding, Ellis felt a shred of despair. She hadn't realized this before, if she did, she would have to agree with Curtis then. And since Dean had already prepared a space for the fight, it would be too bashful to turn down now.

But in this situation, Ellis couldn't fight. So it was up to Curtis, alone.

You were either born with magic talent, or physical enhancement talent. With Curtis being a mage, he didn't need to move much. Thus, having a full stomach wouldn't cause much of a problem. Casting spells while holding his ground was the normal way he would fight.

"That's rather haughty of you. Well, a one-on-one would still be interesting. Though I must warn you to be careful," taking out a tiny gryostone from somewhere Louise passed it to Curtis.

"This is?" Ellis cursorily glanced at the crystalline rock.

"It's a custom compound gryostone,"

Most people regard gryostones as single coloured compounds. However, with the advancement of forging and transcription technology, a new term for gyrostones emerged: custom compound gryostones. Actually, almost every single coloured gryostone was in fact a compound gryostone, this was because no gryostone could ever achieve 100% purity. It would be inadvertently be mixed in with other compounds during it's formation. 'custom' just means that the balance of these impurities were tinkered meticulously to achieve a combined effect in mind.

A fusion crystal was actually an orange crystal combined with a blue crystal, in a standardized ratio.

What the princess had passed to Curtis was a coin sized purplish gryostone with a golden chain attached to. A bracelet.

It shone with three different colours, orange, blue and purple. The highest constitution of the three was purple.

The blue crystal inside functioned as the mana supply, the orange one to evoke the spell and the purple one to reinforce the spell.

Curtis inspected the intricate transcription inside the compound gryostone by flowing mana through it. The purple gem had the effect of increasing defensive properties of a targeted object. Which meant that the orange crystal should evoke some kind of defensive spell.

"How do you activate the barrier?"

"Oh, so you know about it? I didn't think you would have been exposed to such an item before," followed by a thinking gesture, Louise continued. "Pour in mana and see what happens?"

As that was said, a faint glow accompanied by a soft feeling enveloped Curtis. It was creating a defensive barrier around him. {Coat O' Arms}, but this one seemed weaker, more porous.

'Interesting.'

Ellis gave Curtis a look that wished him good luck before backing away. Standing to the sidelines where Dean was.

"Rules are as follow. The crystal acts as a damage absorber. The first person whose crystal loses it's shine loses, the other part will be crowned the winner. Each party may only bring up one mana crystal in battle," Louise gave a very brief announcement.

"Understood."

The fact about the one mana crystal rule was made up.

Louise pulled out her bow that hung behind her back. Her weapon of choice.

The magic-reinforced mahogany frame had natural bark wrinkles all around it. The top and bottom nock had an exaggerated forward bend, having a slightly whiter shade to it. A little above the middle section of the limb, three glistening red crystals. There were also empty dents, and one of it had a blue crystal embedded in it.

Weird, there isn't a single fusion crystal present. What is the need for the blue crystal?

Louise attached a golden string at the two nocks of the bow, adjusting the tension with a tiny gear at the base. Plucking the string, a sweet hum, akin to a harp could be heard.

The whispers among the crowd, nobody dared to speak out loud.

Three red crystals. Just how much did that bow cost?

A bow could be seen as an unorthodox weapon. The difficulty of mastering a weapon like this would not be a worth-while option as a close-ranged weapon could play in more roles.

So it was really unusual.

An arrow condensed in her hands.

Some people were dumbfounded at the sight.

A magnanimous smile appeared on her face, though, she had no intentions of letting her guard down.

This was something similar to his spellbook? The arrow manifested not from thin air but from a marble-like item. Just what kind of technology was that? Or was it, earth magic through a gryostone medium?

Curtis' spellbook fluttered open, the pages turning gently. The single mana crystal dangling on his neck illuminating an invisible light.

"You may commence your duel," Dean said, taking a few steps back.

Louise nocked her arrow in an instant and shot forth. It covered the 20 meter distance in a flash.

Curtis waved his hands.

{Wind}

A gale swept past in front of him, tossing the arrow to the ground. Curtis didn't need the aid of his spellbook. Perhaps he wouldn't need it throughout the whole fight. He only had so much mana with him, casting a large spell wouldn't be worth it.

Nevertheless, the power held by that single arrow wasn't something to be taken lightly. From the mere contact between the two forces, Curtis could feel that there was an unstable layer of air compressed at the tip of the arrow, simply waiting to burst out. The gale that swept passed nullified the intended effect coherently.

Louise was flabbergasted by what she saw. The arrow she shot out was something that took advantage of normal the normal reflexes of a sword user. If one were to dodge the attack, she would command the compressed air to explode, sending the person to the ground.

But to her surprise, Curtis was able to totally eradicate the effect with a spell. Moreover, the way he casted the spell, and doing it so quickly made it feel so easy...

The thought of fighting a offensive-capable mage piqued her interest. Mages wouldn't normally cultivate magic for combat. A person like Curtis was almost non-existent!

She shed her hesitation and condensed another arrow, nocking it even faster. Then another arrow was shot, then a third. In a blink of an eye, three arrows were shot.

Again, Curtis waved his hands, wind with a greater might (might as well wave at the crowd if he had spare time). Three arrow were shot, two of them seeming got caught in the gale, the third one just flew past as if purposely missing the shot.

Curtis felt something amiss. The arrow wasn't like the previous arrow which had air condensed at the tip. There was a slight aura of wind magic coming off the back of the trail.

Curtis waved his hand behind. He felt the trail of the arrow that missed would make a turn, and aim at his head.

That ricochet arrow was sent down to the ground.

Curtis considering the crowd. All the arrows had so far ended up like an ostrich's head in the ground. If it wasn't for his accurate wind control, it would have sent the arrows fly amok where the spectators were standing.

Presently, the crowd didn't find the fight any more interesting than seeing squandering projectiles. They continued to wait, the fight had yet to reach a booming point. It was clear that the princess utilized wind magic, which meant she was a mage. A bow would have certainly suit her temperament if such was the case; magic as the augmenting medium.

Ellis was a little hesitant.

Curtis swept his hands at an angle. A flurry of arrows exploded to the ground. However, Curtis was blown back a few steps, the numerous arrows had been charged at the tip, exploding the moment it met the gale. The pressure shockwave was enough to make Curtis tumbling.

Louise stood there, a very delightful smile was shown. The crowd was taken aback. They had initially thought that this would become a stale battle of attrition. From her monstrous nocking speed, how many arrows was that?

"Nine," One of the spectators who had better eyesight yelped.

Curtis stabilized himself and faced Louise. She stood there, letting him take a breather. Her delicate face shone like glazed pottery; Her smile resembled the imposing standards of a rose. This wasn't merely a normal fight. She had clearly restrained herself.

"Impressive. Did the little warm-up help enlighten you a little?"

Ellis knew that this was an unusual start.

A question appeared in her mind. From the speed she showed prior, was really she a mage?

Curtis understood the issue, just like what Ellis though. Her swiftness wasn't something mage talents people with slower reflexes could achieve.

"If you're not careful, everything will end here you know?"

The ground rumbled, rock pieces levitated from the gorund. A gentle but powerful wind swirled around Louise. Exploding forth from her initial position, the recoil sent some of the people behind her flying. Woohoo!

{Gale Steps}

No, this was even faster.

Before Curtis could even cast a spell, a decimating strike had already been directed at his side.

Slam!

Louise didn't only utilized her bow to do long-ranged attacks. The specially designed, incredibly sturdy frame of it made it akin to a mallet.

This was a killing move! The strength had been adjusted with just the right amount to destroy the effect of the gryostone barrier. Louise had expected Curtis to act, however, his reaction speed was too slow!

Curtis was blown to the side. His foot dug into the ground, wind magic was supplied to soften the momentum. This strike was one of the most direct attack he had received in quite a while now.

Sliding a full 10 meters before coming to a stop. Then moving an extra 5 meters further to increase distance.

Ouch.

Curtis could feel the food in his stomach shaking, quite unpleasant.

The crowd created an uproar! This princess didn't only have magic creation abilities! She also possessed physical enhancing abilities! A fusion of both traits!

This was unheard of, sorta..

"How can someone have both talents! That's insane!"

"She from the Rozel Family! Of course she has some special talents!"

"Magic boosting physical abilities? That's cheating!"

"A cheat princess!"

Curtis was fortunately still able to stand. His entire body was numb, the strike Louise unleashed was truly terrifying. This wasn't something he should mess with. Furthermore, her speed.

The biggest issue of being a mage was people thereof had normal reflexes. Their actions were very slow. Compared to Louise or Ellis who had physically enhanced talents, Curtis was a snail. This was why most people with mage talents chose to not fight.

This wasn't going to be as simple as he thought. So much for the 'short duel' and 'no harm' he expected.