Chapter 49: The Duel.

Chapter 49:

"Care to join me for a walk?" Rin offered me to join her for a walk.

I was done with the registration work, so I had no reason to deny it.

"Will you wait for a second? I will first go check up with Rai and ask Agata if she wants help with anything else," I said as I walked away.

"Cool I will wait here, you go get your work done," she replied.

She continued as I walked away "It is rude to make a lady wait, so don't keep me waiting for long."

"Roger that," I replied as I walked away towards Rai's desk.

Now that I think about it, since when I and Rin are on such good terms.

We are still practically strangers, I know nothing about her except her name and also the fact that she wants to recruit me to some shady organization.

"Rai, ill be out for a while. you seem to still have some people over your line, so I will be back till you are done" I informed her.

"Okay, just come back to pick me up," she said without paying attention to me, she was Focused on registering people in the participant's list, so she didn't even bother to look me on the face while talking.

After that, I cross-checked with Agata that if she wanted help with anything and apparently she didn't need any help.

So I was totally free.

I was back at my table where Rin was waiting for me.

"Okay, let's go," I called out to her.

"That didn't take long."

"You were the one that told me to not make a lady wait."

"Oh so you view me as a lady?." she asked, surprised.

"Yeah cause that's what your gender is, there is no deep meaning to it," I said brushing her off, I didn't want her to get any kind of misconception.

She started walking ahead of me as she said "Follow me."

I think I might get kidnapped today.

"Are you going to kidnap me? you have already given up on winning, So you are going to kidnap me to forcefully join your organization."

She let out a cheerful chuckle and she spoke "Don't worry, I won't kidnap you."

She slowed down her pace of walking, so she could walk right beside me, "There will be no need to kidnap you since there is no chance that I will be losing."

She continued "I am good at fighting, I believe that I have one of the finest swordsmanships, and even if it's battle of wits, I won't be losing."

She has confidence in her skill set...

"We will see about that during the competition next week.", I stopped walking and opened my mouth asking "So anyways, why did you bring me in this dark alleyway."

I was led into a dark alleyway as I kept following her and now I am standing in this typical-looking gloomy dark alleyway.

This gloomy dark alley is maybe the result of being hidden from the sun. Even in the dead afternoon, there was no trace of sunlight.

From the moment I entered this narrow alleyway, there was no person in sight except for the two shady guys who passed us earlier.

She paused in her tracks before saying "Duel with me.".

Is she having mood swings? what's with the sudden urge to fight me?

"You don't want to wait for the competition?" I asked.

"I just feel like fighting now," she answered.

So it's a mood swing after all. But whose mood suddenly goes like 'I feel like fighting to the death with someone.'

She continued "During the duel, you can kill me if you get the chance to do so and I won't hesitate to kill you either."

She was serious, she meant the thing she said.

"Fine, let's get it over with," I said.

"I think dying in the hands of beauty like me is not a bad thing either," she said teasing me or mocking me, I wasn't sure.

No, no matter how you look at it dying, in general, is a pretty bad thing.

49-2

(Third person POV)

Rin unsheathed her sword and took an offensive stance, pointing his sword directly towards Grey.

Grey didn't have a sword on him currently, so he condensed an icicle in his hand to form a sword made up of Ice.

The icicle sword that Grey condensed was the exact copy of the one-handed sword given to him by his father.

Grey readied himself gripping his icicle sword tightly.

"Will that ice sword hold up against my sword? Because it will be pretty embarrassing if it breaks away mid-fight." Asked Rin mockingly as she slowly stepped closer to Grey.

"Despite its fragile look, it is actually pretty hard. But are you sure you will win? since it will be pretty embarrassing if you die by this icicle sword." Replied Grey also mockingly, as he also stepped closer to Rin.

With that, there was no conversation between them. They just stood silently, at a certain distance away from each other without making any move.

In an instant, they dashed towards each other clashing their swords.

With a fluid motion circular motion, Rin parried Grey's sword. The circular parry was so smooth that it took time for Grey to even notice that his sword has been parried.

Being wide open, it gave Rin a chance to swing her sword towards Grey's abdomen which Grey was barely able to avoid, by rolling backward.

But Rin still managed to leave a slight cut to Grey's abdomen, tearing Grey's cloth.

"Your reflexes ----- It's fast." Spoke Rin, "I thought I almost had you with that slash."

Grey took a deep breath to regain back his composure as he said "Yeah even I thought I was done for."

Grey again dashed forward and clashed his sword against Rin, but this time on purpose.

His sword was again parried with a smooth upward motion. Again Grey was parried by Rin without even knowing that his sword was parried and he was left defense less.

But this time Grey was able to avoid her attack without getting hit by it.

As Grey stepped back, he was met with another slash from Rin as she dashed forward without giving to create distance between them.

Every time Grey try to block or parry her attack, almost all of those times Grey found his sword smoothly tackled away from his body.

The weird sensation of his sword getting fluidly parried away from his body leaving him defenseless less was taking Grey off guard.