Chapter 175:

"So, you have a 3 out of 10 success rate?" Marquis Anabald said, looking at me sitting on the floor.

"Yes."

"Can you save these three, or do they only hold that long?" An asked, inspecting the swords from afar.

"No, they can be saved," I stated, putting them in my storage for a second before taking them out again.

"Hmm, let me guess. Is their durability as good as real demi-god swords?" Anabald stated more than asked.

"Well, probably, but their power is the same." I countered, grinning at her.

"You know weapons don't have their own powers, right?" An said, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Yes, it depends on what I do with it," I muttered, annoyed that she would say every weapon user knows one thing.

"Didn't Steve tell you?" An said, shaking her head at me.

"What?"

"Weapons have three things that matter: durability, sharpness, and how good they are when you fuse mana into them." She explained, making me nod in understanding.

"Ah, that makes sense. Alright, my swords are way better but less durable." I said it with a big ass grin.

"Well, it will be better when you use it," Marquis Anabald said, picking up one of the weapons.

"Uhm, are you going to try infusing mana into it?" I asked, looking between An and my sword in her hand.

"Yes, now come, let's spar," Marquis said, effortlessly fusing my long sword with her mana.

"Is it hard?" I asked, although it looked effortless.

"Not really, but this sort of thing was never hard for me," she bragged, making me grumble.

"Are you bragging?" I grumbled out, shaking my head at her.

"So what if I am?" An said, grinning at me.

"Well, it doesn't matter to me. Okay, let's go," I said, taking the other two swords to the ground. Not waiting or wasting any time, I infused my swords with fire and lightning while charging at her.

"Don't do reckless things." Marquis Anabald said, swinging her sword sideways.

"Don't worry. I am not naive," I said, swinging my swords from behind her.

"You are like Stacy." Marquis Anabald mused, dodging me with ease.

"Well, she is my master." 

"Hmm, one thing, though. Don't infuse your swords. We are only sparring and testing them out," she explained, looking at me even though she was infusing the sword she was using.

"But you?" I said, only to notice that Marquis Anabald had stopped infusing the ice sword with any mana.

"Sorry, I didn't notice you stopped." I apologized, stopping my mana.

"It's fine. I decided we should change just now. However, always observe your opponent," she giggled, smiling at me.

"I do, though," I added with a raised eyebrow.

"Did you see how I dodged you?" She asked, tilting her head at me.

"You moved to the left." 

"Did I? Or did I jump to the left?" 

"Why would you?" I said, thinking back to it and remembering how her height increased for a second.

"Why the fuck did you jump?" I added, looking at her weirdly.

"Observe, okay. You have a good memory, but it doesn't help you in a new fight." 

"Hmm, observe, alright."

'Though I have good eyes as well.' I thought, getting a relaxing stance again.

"Okay, let's go again."

[10 minutes later]

"How the fuck do you do that? You have perfect control over your body even though you jump around like a frog." I muttered in annoyance at not getting a solid hit against her. Or, well, one that she needed to block appropriately.

"Hey, don't call my movement technique moving like a frog!" She yelled, annoyed, while glaring at me.

"I'm sorry, but the closest thing I can think of that moves so weirdly is a frog," I said, shrugging at her glaring eyes.

"Tsk, no one likes my movement technique. Even my daughter thinks it is dumb."

"Well, that's understandable. A lot of people don't have your flexibility and control over mana." I said, knowing that she heavily depends on her flexibility.

"Oh, do you want to learn it?"

"No, thank you. I like trickery and illusions to be my main thing. So being a common movement technique helps put their guard down against me." I said, shrugging, thinking about how to use her movement in my fighting style, but it would be hard to implement.

"Right, you're a fox." She said it sarcastically, looking a bit annoyed.

"Yeah, so jumping around isn't my style," I said, smiling back at her.

"All right then, get up. Let go on." Sighing, she gestured to me to start attacking again.

"Okay, let me just clean up a bit."

"Hey, don't make the floor out of ice."

"Why not?" I asked, tilting my head at her.

"Do I need to answer that?" 

"No, I just wanted a small advantage, okay?" I said, shrugging. I was about to clean the floor from all my blood and some rocks, but I would have left the cracks and craters as is.

"Now that you tried it, all I was thinking was, do you ever slip on ice, or more like, can you slip on ice or water at all?" 

"Nope, it's not possible anymore. Anything with liquid in it is impossible to make me slip," I explained and grinned. 

"So, you broke your ice down to liquid manipulation." An said, flabbergasted.

"Yes, same for air, but it's sadly not strong," I said, shrugging.

"Hmm, and your other skills?" Anabald asked, intrigued.

"Well, fire can't go down any further. The same goes for lightning," I explained to her, shrugging.

"Yes, but you store stuff and teleport around?" An added with a raised eyebrow.

"Space manipulation?" I said, tilting my head at her.

"Yes, you should be able to get that out of those two skills." 

"I guess I never thought about it."

"Well, whatever, think about that later. Now attack me." 

"Alright," I said, grinning. I took the other two ice demi-god swords and slashed at her, sending an arc of fire at her.

"Good move, but easily dodged or destroyed," she said, smacking the arc of fire, which destroyed it easily.

"Cool to know," I said from behind her, slashing down with both swords.

"You're good at using your teleportation, but you use it very predictably." 

"Hmm, is that what you think?" I hummed with a grin.

"Wow, that was close." Marquess Anabald said, pulling her hand up, narrowing it, and missing three needles that appeared out of thin air aimed at her wrist.

"I know multiple ways to use it, but all of them are more deadly and not something you do in a spar where you are trying to figure out how your swords work." 

"Fair point. Sorry." 

"No worries, but thank you for trying to help me."

"I did help you."

"Yes, I didn't know you could split up any skill into its basic form."

"My pleasure."

Boom!

"It exploded?" I said it confusedly, looking at the handle of my right sword, which had a broken blade.

"Now, why did that happen?"

"Hmm, I tried to put fire and lightning into it, and it exploded."

"Weird, did you maybe overload it?"

"Nah, it has shitty durability. That is probably the case."

"Hmm, might be the grade of it."

"Ah, right, all my elements are race-related. Hmm, I will have to do some more tests, huh."

"Yeah, now come test your things out. We have a week."

"Heh, you're right," I said, grinning and starting to attack her again.

[The day of opening]

[Unknown Pov]

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the tournament of the year—something we all have been waiting for," Kayda said over the mic to the entire stadium.

"Boo!! Do a better job." Someone from the stadium yelled.

"That fucking fox," Kayda mumbled, giving me the mic.

'Guess she knows the red-haired fox.' I thought, taking the mic and clearing my throat.

"Alright, ladies! And! Gentlemen!! Today, we have another battle royal on for all your entertainment!"

"Yeah!!! Let's Go!!" The same girl yelled, even though the stadium was excitedly yelling. The girl was louder than all of them.

"Kitsuna!!! Shut up!!"

"…"

"Alright, then, it's time to explain how the tournament will work. The first round will consist of four battle royals. Don't ask me how many are in one because I don't know, although I do know that there will only be eight winners."

'And the crowd goes wild. I guess the girl isn't going to say anything,' the commentator said, looking at the now-named Kitsuna.

"With the boring stuff over, let's start this tournament!!!!"