Heroes [IX]

"Hey, boneheads! Can't you see you both are bothering other people?! And how dare you two hog all the spotlight when I'm here!"

I blinked.

So did Michael.

And everyone else present here to witness this bizarre scene.

No one moved. No one spoke.

No one knew who this girl was and how she managed to just casually swat aside two of the strongest Cadets on this battlefield?

Of course they didn't know.

But I did.

Just one look at her, and I instantly recognized who she was. It was as obvious as daylight.

She pointed a finger in our general direction as she berated us, but her eyes never met ours.

Instead, she was looking down.

It was strange.

For someone with such a blood-boiling confident smirk, practically radiating arrogance, refusing to make eye contact while trash-talking?

The reason was simple.

She… was blind.

But that blindness meant nothing.

In the game, she started out as an unparalleled martial artist and grew up to become one of the greatest warriors of her era.

Her mastery of combat earned her numerous titles by the end of the story.

Some named her with reverence — the Martial Saintess, the Technique Queen, the Fist of the Heavens.

Others called her with indignation — the Mad Dog, the Crazy Tyrant, the Devil in Angel's Disguise.

But most dared not speak of her at all, believing that even uttering her name out loud might bring her to them.

That was how much they feared her.

And their fear made sense.

After all, this girl became strong enough to even fight against the Spirit King himself for thirteen whole minutes during the final war.

But of course, all that was far into the story.

Right now she was none of those things.

She was just a blind girl who ran from her home to join the academy.

She was the youngest daughter of the Western Safe-Zone's second Duke.

She was Alexia Von Zynx.

I drew in a measured breath, dusted off my ragged jacket, and put on my best diplomatic smile.

"Lady Alexia, what an honor to finally meet you!"

Her head instantly snapped in my direction, and though her eyes gazed vacantly past my shoulder, the knowing smirk on her lips only grew wider.

"It is indeed an honor for you to be in my presence," she remarked with a nod. "But this is not our first time meeting."

"...Eh?" The sudden confusion shattered my carefully crafted composure. "What do you mean? It's… not?"

"Nope," she shook her head. "It's not."

Wait, wait!

That was… not what I expected her to say.

Something wasn't right.

I knew with absolute certainty that she and I had never met before.

In fact, throughout the game, Samael and Alexia never had much of an interaction, despite both of them being the youngest children of the two Western Dukes.

Nothing in the story had ever suggested they knew each other from before the beginning of the plot, either.

And even after going through my memories, I couldn't recall ever meeting Alexia.

I admit my memory was far from flawless, but surely I would have remembered meeting a blind, brash girl such as herself!

Since I was a high-noble, it was customary for me to attend many social gatherings held by the elites of the upper echelons of society.

Royal balls, dinner parties, art auctions, charity galas, noble weddings — I'd been dragged to all of them, either accompanying my family or alone as our clan's representative.

This wasn't anything special. Every noble child went through the same thing to forge connections that would prove valuable in the future.

After all, noble circles were tight-knit. Most of us knew each other, if not by name then at least by face.

So yes, attending these events was kind of mandatory for any noble who wished to maintain their influence.

That's just how the world worked.

Yet Alexia was always... absent. She never showed up at any of those gatherings.

In fact, her family was notorious for obsessively keeping her hidden from the public eye, guarding her with a zeal that seemed almost paranoid.

Her father even went to extreme lengths by bribing paparazzi and news outlets to suppress any media coverage of her whenever she went outside their mansion.

She didn't even have a social media presence! Yes! Imagine not being on social media in this day and age!

The only reason anyone knew what she looked like — or that she existed at all — was because she fled from her home two years ago and entered an Awakened combat sports tournament.

That was her very first public appearance, and videos of her fights spread like wildfire across the internet.

She was a remarkably good fighter, advancing all the way to the quarter-finals in her category.

But before she could compete further, her family tracked her down and forcibly dragged her home.

Aside from that single incident, no one had ever seen her in public.

So how could she possibly claim we had met before?

I mustered another polite smile, though my confusion must have been evident. "You must be mistaken, Lady Alexia. I would surely remember meeting someone as... unique… as you."

The petite girl chuckled softly in a low, unsettling way that sent a chill down my spine.

"You shouldn't tell a lady you've forgotten her, Lord Samael. That's quite rude," she admonished, her tone full of mock offense. "Besides, I don't ever forget a face."

"You never forget a face?" I nearly laughed aloud. This was absurd! I couldn't help myself. "With all due respect, Lady Alexia, aren't you blind?"

She shrugged, unfazed by my incredulity.

But the others around us did not share her calm and composed reaction.

Gasps of disbelief rippled through the Cadets witnessing our exchange. Even Michael was visibly shocked.

"What? She's blind?" someone yelped.

"No way! But she moved so well earlier!" another exclaimed. 

"Wait... did he say 'Lady Alexia'? As in Alexia von Zynx?" someone else's voice hushed.

The crowd erupted into a flurry of murmurs and whispers once again. Meanwhile, at the receiving end of all that attention, the blind girl merely smiled.

After a moment, she lifted her head and pointed a finger at me, her other hand still clutching the executioner axe she'd taken from Michael.

"That aside," she began, "the racket you two are making nearly threw me off balance and cost me my fight! The audacity — to disturb everyone here and flaunt your powers like that. Do you two actually think you're strong? Well, I suppose you wouldn't mind if a helpless blind girl like myself joined in then, right?"

I gawked at her, unsure of what to say.

Then, finally finding my tongue, I gestured to Michael with my chin and tried, "Wait a second, Lady Alexia! We're both high nobles. It wouldn't reflect well on our families if we fought like this, right? Let's form an alliance against that peasant! We'll take him down together and then—"

But Alexia cut me off. "Sorry, I can't team up with someone who's clearly weaker than me."

The smile froze on my face. "Weaker… than you?"

Right. Of course.

This was her personality.

In the game, Alexia was an unapologetically narcissistic girl, carrying herself with a confidence that bordered on arrogance, but somehow, it felt more natural than off-putting.

In that regard, we were uncomfortably alike. Too much for my liking, even.

But surprisingly, she had the strength to back up her confidence.

"Fine, then," I sneered, adopting a fighting stance and raising my gauntlet-covered hand.

A long silence stretched between us, and for a split second, my gaze flicked to the video boards above the coliseum.

There were about forty minutes left in the exam.

It barely took me a heartbeat to check the time and move my eyes back to where she was standing, but by the time my gaze returned to Alexia, she was gone from her spot.

Instead, she was already in front of me, swinging the massive executioner axe that looked almost comical in her tiny hands.

I snapped my gauntlet to the side, catching the axe's blade and crushing it in my grip, effortlessly thwarting her strike.

But I quickly realized she hadn't put any strength behind that swing. It was a feint attack.

Before I could process this, she released the broken axe from her grip, shifted her weight, and lunged at me.

My gauntlet was still at my side. There wasn't time to bring it back to block her. My only option was to strike.

So I threw a left hook.

She easily deflected my fist with a flick of her wrist, twisted, and came up beneath me, driving her elbow sharply into my ribs. I stumbled back, wincing.

"Oh, come on, golden boy," she taunted, her voice dry as dust. "I heard you were quite the fighter. Don't disappoint me now."

My gaze sharpened as I bent down and brushed my fingers along the ground.

Alexia charged at me again, but just as she approached, the ground beneath her began to soften.

She tripped over to the side, and for a second it seemed like she was about to lose her footing and fall.

I seized the moment and rushed her.

But as I closed in, a cocky grin spread across her face. She performed a half-cartwheel and stood on her hands.

"What the—?!" I yelped in surprise as she twisted her body and spun on her hands like a hurricane.

Before I could react, a spinning kick landed squarely on my jaw with enough force to flung  me back several meters until I crashed against a random concrete wall Michael had raised earlier.

Alexia flipped back to her feet, her smirk still intact.

Michael, uncertain of what to do, approached her cautiously. "Uhh, thank you… I guess? But this is between me and him, so you don't really have to interfere."

Alexia extended a hand toward him, her fingers almost touching his chest. "How dare you tell me what to do, you peasant?"

"What are you—? Khuaa!" Michael started, but his words cut off as Alexia's fingers clenched into a fist that she planted in his sternum.

Thwaaam—!!

A one-inch punch!

The force of that attack rocketed Michael backward until he collided with the ground and sprang back up in one motion.

His eyes were wide with shock as he looked down to see a faint crack on one of his two remaining orbs.

A single question was written on his face — 'How did she do that?'

How did her punch generate enough power in such a short distance to knock him back this much?!

It was then he noticed the card hovering around her waist — dark gray on surface with a fiery orange glyph.

What kind of Origin Card was it? What kind of power did it grant this blind girl to let her push him back so easily?

Once again, he didn't know.

None of them did.

Except for me.

I rose, every bone in my body wailing in protest, and stared at the blind girl, sighing.

Her Origin Card gave her the ability to sense the auras around her and control her own aura to a basic level, enhancing her physical abilities.

She'd mastered her powers so well that she'd even developed her own martial arts, targeting pressure points and blocking aura pathways — or chi points — to temporarily paralyze her opponents.

So close-quarters combat with her was dangerous.

But with my Essence running low, I didn't have a choice.

I sighed again, louder this time. Alexia turned her head toward me, the smirk on her face still as infuriating as ever.

"What's the matter, Lord Samael?" she teased in a sing-song tone. "Not up for the challenge of facing me? Thinking about running?"

"Please," I chuckled. "I don't run from fights."

As I said that, Michael used this time to dash toward Alexia. Startled, she turned to him.

With her back to me, I began closing the distance myself.

•••

What had begun as a duel between two Cadets soon transformed into a breathtaking three-way dance of destruction.

The protagonist was still like an unstoppable force of nature unleashed upon the world to bring its end.

The former third-rate villain moved with calculated restraint, his movements were slow and measured.

He preserved his strength like a desert wanderer rationing water, letting the major attacks slide past him and never exerting his full strength.

And then there was the blind noble girl who turned the battlefield into her stage.

She wove between the two boys with the unpredictable grace of a flower petal drifting in autumn wind, impossible to get a hold of and a sight to behold.

Their fight was… mesmerizing.

No Cadet could tear their gaze away. The sheer skill, tactics, and power on display were nothing short of awe-inspiring.

…Or so it appeared from the outside.

For the three in the battle, it was pure chaos. 

They didn't just attack each other — they had to defend against two opponents as well.

Michael had lost the edge he had when he was facing Samael alone. He couldn't get close to him without taking the risk of Alexia flanking him.

And if he tried to keep the petite girl at a distance, Samael would exploit the slightest distraction like a hyena on a hunt.

But things weren't easy for Samael, either. He now had to fight two foes with monstrous stamina, while he himself was on the verge of falling down with extreme exhaustion any moment.

Alexia, unlike the boys, seemed relatively at ease. She moved seamlessly between attack and defense, allowing them to clash before interrupting at crucial moments.

She was keeping up with them, yet even she had no real advantage in this fight.

In simple words… it was a stalemate.

Each of them was searching for a way to break it.

But none of them could find an opening. Their only chance lay in two teaming up to take down the third.

Yet none of them was willing to make that alliance.

Something needed to change.

And, fortunately, it soon did.

The countdown hit the last thirty-minute mark, and the terrain shifted for the final time.