Duel

As Licht sits down he opens his mouth "do you believe in the level beyond the swordsmaster, the so called 'grand swordsmaster'"

"that's an interesting question, do I believe it exists? yes, yes I do. but achieving that level is much harder than just speaking about it here, why do you ask?" he says with a serious tone in his voice

"I want to be the first person to reach that level in 400 years, how do you think one would reach that level?"

"I have no idea how one might reach that level, most people haven't even heard of that level, and the ones that have believe it to be a myth instead of an attainable level, which they aren't wrong, after all even me and others who have reached beyond even swordsmasters haven't reached that level yet" he says sending a questioning gaze to me

"I was just trying to get as much information about it as possible, as there is currently no one alive who is at at that level, their is someone in the past who reached that level, but of course they are dead" Licht say to Ian 

"That's quite ambition, is there a reason why you want to reach that level so bad?"

"It's not for some great cause or anything, I just want to reach that level, and have bragging rights over all the other great masters out there"

'I know that level exists, the amount of people who have reached that level could be counted on one hand though, truthfully I have no idea of how to reach that level, as it wasn't really explained in the story, or at least what I remember of it. I do know that the next grand swordsmaster will be Khun, although only for a moment he almost one shot a devil while he was dying, that all came from a swordsman who wasn't talented'

'That's why I loved him in the story, it is much more impressive for someone who has nothing to do something than someone who does, in the story I was never impressed with Ilya, she has one of the best sword styles if not the best in the entire novel. I was impressed with Judith who had nothing and made it to as strong as she was'

"Is that all you wanted to ask?" Ian asks Licht

"Yes, that is all" Licht say again 'I really don't need anything but that, he is much less experienced that me, weaker than me, and his aura is weaker than mine, so he really has nothing that I need'

He gets up and walks out of the office and shuts the door after himself

(Licht POV)

I walk through the corridors on the way to my room to rest for a little bit, the only thing going through my head is how to reach the next stage

Dion Lindsay was the only other person who reached the 'grand swordsmaster' level, he was the one that killed the devil dragon king or something like that

well, there's no use thinking about this for now, when I leave the academy I will try to find more about it

...

"Hey do you know this song? Turtle - if you drop your sword, I'll grill and eat you" Judith says to Airen

"No. It's my first time hearing it." says Airen

"Is she really the same person? sir Lloyd, it's kind of odd isn't it" one of Brett's follow says to him "What if she became crazy after almost drowning?"

"Ugh I'm getting goosebumps" another follower says

'The strangest thing I can see at the moment is about Airen and Ilya, they seem strangely distant, what happened between them?' thought Brett

"Attention everyone! as you already know we start sword training classes today. feel free to feel your achievements over the past four months" shouts Ahmed (red hair guy) "I'll give you a chance to handle your sword freely over the next 2 hours. Pick up the sword you want under the supervision of the assistants"

as everyone chooses their swords I hear something to the side of me "waah! When I swung it aggressively before, I found it hard to keep my balance" says Judith 

'Of course. We weren't just helping you increase your strength and stamina' the instructors thought to themselves

'Although it's only a sword, I'm defiantly different from before' Brett thought while swinging his sword 'I have grown to the point where I can feel it'

As I was looking for something similar to an Odachi many eyes fall upon Airen who walks over to a large greatsword hung on the wall, he pulls it down a down swings it around for a bit as wind picks up when he swings his sword surprising everyone

I am still struggling to find a sword that would fit what I was looking for "Licht Bach, we have your sword over here" I here from behind me and look towards where the assistant was pointing, it was a wooden katana, smaller than I would have liked, but it will do

"I thought he said he's never held a training sword before" says a boy from the crowd

"He's a beginner who's trying to act cool, how ignorant" another boys says before someone starts to walk towards Airen

"Sir Lloyd?" someone as they see him walking towards him

"Airen parriera, I challenge you to a duel" he says which shocks everyone

he is temporarily stunned before he looks around for a short time then looks back towards Brett "Alright"

"W-What are you two doing?! Duels start after normal sword training classes!" Ahmed shouts at the two trainees "everything has to be done in order-" 

before he can say anything else he is interrupted "hoho, but there are sometimes where you need to make an exception"

"swordsmaster?" he looks at the small man next to him

he then walks down to the stage an in between the two boys standing across from each other 

"The duel will begin. If either of you feel like you are in a dangerous situation, say in advance so that we can intervene. Do you understand" he says towards the boys 

"Yes!" they respond

"Then begin" once he says this Brett immediately charges towards Airen and slashes his right side which Airen manages to block with difficulty but Brett prepares for a thrust which narrowly misses as Airen tilts his head to the side

Brett continues his onslaught of attacks toward his opponent who is desperately struggling to block his attacks 

"What the, he's holding on quite well" a boy comments while watching the fight

"Yeah. I thought it would be over right away" another guy says

'Brett really is good with the sword, it makes sense though as he was one of the youngest swordmasters ever, Airen is doing pretty well too, he has only trained for a few weeks with his sword if I am not mistaken. that is obvious as his balance isn't good, his moves are inefficient and his posture is all over the place, the only reason he has lasted this long so far is his reaction speed, which is pretty good. well, my reaction speed has been compared to precognition so it's nothing compared to me, but it's still pretty good' I think while observing the two clash

Brett does another slash to Airen which he blocks again before backing up and looking at his opponent for a short while

He charges in again, but low this time intending to go for his legs, Airen sees this and does a vertical swing towards the charging Brett who dodges to the left before hitting his sword out of his hand and puts his sword up to his neck

"The duel has ended! Winner Brett Lloyd" shouts Ahmed while looking at the duel in interest

as everyone is talking about the duel they hear "I would like to challenge Licht Bach to a duel" everyone looks toward a silver haired girl

I look toward Ilya and gain a small smile on my face "I accept"

we both walk to the center of the room and once again Ian stands in between us and goes over the rules again "If any one of you feels like you are in a dangerous situation, say in advance that way we can intervene in time. Do you understand" as he looks at the both of us

"yes" we both respond to the man

"Then begin the duel" he says 

'This is gonna be fun' I think as Ilya charges at me

She attacks with a slash which I promptly block, then another, and another, and another before I slash back at her, she blocks but is sent flying back and as she looks back up I appear in front of her throwing another slash to her left as I go on the offensive before she parries one of my strikes and pushes me away as she retreats back 

She looks at me for a second before she pulls her sword behind her and the wind starts to pick up and she thrusts her sword forward with a mini tornado along with it 

I hold my sword above my head and do a basic downward slash which cuts down and disperses her attack, I didn't actually think that would work, but it seems like it did

"Woah, so that's the sky sword, it's as incredible as they say" a random guy says

"Yeah but isn't Licht more impressive than that, he just blocked that with a normal slash" says another boy refuting the other boys claims

"There's no way he could do that again though, that was surely just luck" the guy says again

'They're on another level, how could they be that strong already, will I ever be able to catch up to them?" Brett thought as he looked on at the fight 

Ilya watched what happed with a confused look on her face, how could he do that, she could understand if it was a swordmaster, be he wasn't(to her knowledge) so how was he able to do that

But as she was distracted thinking about what happened she fells something her neck

"I win" I say as I stand behind her with my sword on her neck

"The duel has ended! Winner Licht Bach!" Ahmed says from the stage with a worn out Ilya and perfectly fine Licht standing there

Everyone of the trainees watch in confusion, the wind disappeared, how does that work?

they had never seen anything like that before and were stunned at the show of events that they had seen, the duel only lasted about a minute but so much happened which they could not understand before they were brought of of their stupor

"Now that we have concluded with the duels, stand orderly in front of the stage and we will explain what will happen from now on!" Ahmed says from the stage