Chapter 47 - The first tournament (8)

Lily had distanced herself from me, trying to get enough space and time to prepare and inflict a tidal blow. I would have normally immediately cut the distance and impeded her to do as she desired, but this time I let her be. Aura and mana swirled around the greatsword, swung towards me like a baseball bat.

I mimicked her actions and swung my mace. The two weapons made contact, sending sparks flying and delivering a violent echo. I was able to reduce the greatsword's momentum, but I couldn't stop it in its tracks and it carried on in its path.

The force behind the attack was still dangerous, but it was low enough to put my plan into action. I raised my left forearm and the shaft of the mace and used both to block the greatsword. The shockwave travelled through my body and the following explosion almost sent me flying, but the greatsword had dug into my flesh and embedded itself in my bones.

Without even a flinch, I retracted my mace. Lily's eyes opened wide once she understood my intention. She tried to retract the greatsword, but it was stuck. Using all the strength I had in my body, from calves to fingers, I swung my mace downwards, towards the point where the greatsword was already damaged.

My weapon went through hers like it was made of wood, splitting it in half and sending metallic shards flying everywhere. Lily's mouth hung open due to the shock and she remained fazed for a split second. I took advantage of this opening by swinging my mace once again. It made contact with her lower stomach, sending her flying through the air.

Lily landed on all fours and the first thing she did once she touched the ground was to spit out a mouthful of blood.

"T-that hurt," she managed to say with a feeble voice.

She coughed a couple of times, supporting herself with the stump of a greatsword that had remained in her hand.

"Is it time for the second phase," I egged her one, removing the blade from my forearm and letting it fall to the ground.

The bleeding quickly stopped, but the gash in my flesh showed no signs of disappearing. It would require some time to recover from such an injury, also due to the residual blue aura ailing the wound.

"You can count on it," she responded with a twinkle in her eyes.

Excitement took the hold of her and something inside of her changed. The previously calm blue aura slightly changed hue and assumed an electric tonality, starting to vibrate and sprinting erratically from one part of her body to the next. Her eyes were feverish. The presence of different hues of aura signalled a multiplicity of characters, in this case the duality of her usual lively self and this frenzied state.

A great amount of aura started to coalesce towards the sides, moving towards the area where the twin blades were located. Lily unleashed her weapons and aura flew like electricity from the handle to the tip.

Looking at me with a twinkle in her eyes, she acted. In an instant, she was in front of me. Her movements were akin to those of a dancer or of a drunkard, elegant and unpredictable. Her swords cut through the air like lightning, leaving in their wake the smell of ozone.

I had to speed up significantly in order to keep up. This was when Lily's was at her most dangerous. Although her previous fighting style would prove in the future to be highly effective against big groups, on one on one and in close quarters this fast paced style of combat was almost unrivalled.

Every time I tried to parry or stop an attack the blade seemed to bend in impossible ways, ignoring all laws of distance and geometry, and made contact with the nearest unguarded location on my body. Shallow cuts were rapidly accumulating, slowly incapacitating me due to blood loss, and every time the metal impacted my body an electric discharge went through it, paralysing me for a moment.

This was her own personal form of spellcasting, where her blades behaved like electric currents and always reached the designed target, following the path of least resistance until they hit the mark in its least protected portion. Defining precisely what "least guarded" stood for was not an easy task, but spells followed a distorted logic and still performed exactly as they were envisioned to do.

Although its aura expenditure was incredibly high, its effectiveness more than made up for it. It was not designed for long sustained battles, but for brief skirmishes in quick succession or one on one fights. The time constraint wasn't really a problem, due to the fact that fights against her typically ended early.

I was being pushed back. Every time I tried to swing my mace, she avoided by pirouetting, somersaulting in mid air or performing the limbo. Every single dodge was accompanied by a flurry of swing which inflicted shallow but bothersome cuts.

My clothes were now reduced to shreds and my breathing had gotten heavy. I was certainly resilient, but I could only go on so far under such heavy blood loss as I had incurred. I could disregard pain as much as I wanted, but even my body had limits it couldn't overcome. I needed to deal with this problem using my brain.

I came up with a single option, which took advantage of my knowledge of the principle behind. I kicked the ground, sending me backwards and putting distance between me and Lily. I contorted my body in a strange position, protecting the most vulnerable parts of my body with my mace, shielding the sections where the bones were more superficial, like the elbows, knees and front part of the legs, where the tibias were.

Lily immediately reached me, her twin sword raised high. She turned and pirouetted about her vertical axis, before opening up and letting her attacks rain down on me. The first blade found a gap through my defence and slashed my right cheek. Once the second blade started to fall upon me, I got into action.

I shifted my position, creating an opening in my lower abdomen. By parrying and moving around my mace, I was able to guide the blade towards its designed location. The blade pierced through my skin, traversing my body and exiting from my back. I immediately contracted the muscles of my core, trapping her sword.