Chapter 27: Her Duel (1)

Q: What is the mystery of Dominion?

A: The power of dominion is both limited and infinite at the same time. A paradox. It is mentioned that the power of the same type of dominion comes from the same source, yet some can pull more than others.

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The person before Yasmine was the prince of the Mahenar Empire, Aaelin Sholinar. Nevertheless, Aaelin could not hide from the rumours. But unlike the person she was dating, Aaelin was not a delinquent nor an alcoholic.

All the bad rumours she heard about him were related to girls, though she was not sure how much of it was true. But one thing was certain: Aaelin enjoyed courting ladies. He gave the impression of being honest with everyone, but he managed to irritate every young woman he met and by the looks he was giving her. He was not far away from getting on her bad side, either.

The two of them moved to a vacant spot while the other four, including her father, Lord Gareth, and two others, followed. Among the two newcomers, one was younger than her and was the youngest son of Lord Gareth, Gabin Sholinar.

Gabin has a lot more in common with her brother than Lord Gareth himself. He had similar shimmering blond hair and eyes to her opponent, but he lacked the assurance Aaelin exuded. He did not have the build of a fighter either, though he was in the maroon code.

The other person was another male in his early thirties—with the badge of a captain. There really weren't that many girls in the army. Aside from the common soldiers, only about 5% were ladies in the unit; the rest were scribes, other workers and the families of high-ranking officers and soldiers.

Yasmine brought out her sword—the one her father gave her a little while ago and ran her spirit force through it. Spirit surged in her body, lightening her, strengthening her than she ever felt before. The amount of reinforcement the sword gave her was almost threefold compared to her old sword. It has a spirit force reinforcement of nearly 150%.

Accompanied by such enormous power and the lighter gear, she held onto a strength that she had never felt before.

"Start," Lord Gareth said from the sides as both of the two duellists ran at each other, bearing their sword.

Yasmine tests the water with a half-slash at the handsome, tall man. In the duel, Aaelin was entirely a different person compared to the one she had seen. His eyes were narrowed and focussed as he met her blow. Swords clashed as the metallic clang resounded, with the release of spirit force from the clash.

She could not underestimate this person. Accompanied by the fact that he was the son of the Prince of War and especially trained by him, with the best resources of the Empire, she could never take it easy against him. With all that, even a talentless person would soar like a dragon.

The earth below her feet shook, and Aaelin threw her another piercing blow. Yasmine ducked and felt the earth lift her up in the air. That was not all. The sharp edges of the earth lurched at her fiercely after her successive ducks.

Earth element, she thought and made a full-slash of wind on the earth as her body lifted about a couple of yards in the air, splitting the earth into fragments of stones and splinters. The sharp splinters remained; another weapon for her opponent to use. But she beat him to it.

Yasmine sucked in a deep breath and triggered the power of the dominion on the stone splinters she had just shattered. The dominion she was presented to was one of the best of the four the empire had. It was the Dominion of Gravity. Though she was never taught how to use it, it came naturally to her the moment she fused with the power.

She used the gravitational pull on the sharp splinters with her sword, pointing around them. The basic rule of using a dominion is you have to use some gestures and movement of the body to trigger it. It was somewhat the same, yet different for everyone until they mastered the dominion. Yasmine had to use her arms as if she was picking them up with her palm to shove them towards her opponent.

Unlike her expectations, the stones did little to stop her opponent. The splinters could not even get close to a couple of yards as another surge of gravitational push worked against her gravitational force.

Yasmine felt silly for expecting anything from her push. Evidently, it was never meant to be easy.

"I commend you for having such mastery of the dominion in just a few days," Aaelin said with a smile. "But how do you expect to use it against someone who has been mastering gravity for two years?"

Yasmine said nothing and ground her teeth. She pulled everything she had, stamping her feet on the ground. Her feet dug into the stony ground, but even with all that, she could not make the stones budge even an inch.

He's strong, she mused, gritting her teeth. This was the worst problem with the dominion of gravity. If the opponent had more mastery and force behind his gravitational push, there was no way for the other person to get an inch.

Yet she still pushed. Not because she did not have other tricks, but she felt she could pull more. Even though she had little time to practise her newfound ability and had never used it fully, she didn't worry about it here. First, she needed to understand how strong her opponent's dominion was, and how far she could push. If Gravity does not deliver her victory, she will have to find another way.

"Oh boy," Aaelin said, and a glint appeared in his eyes.

The tension between the two gravitational forces against one another crumbled the stone splinters. Even though Yasmine had only been familiar with her dominion for a couple of days, she did not lose out in the struggle of pushing against Aaelin. Some portions of the splinters had turned into pure dust, while some turned into smaller rocks, and moreover, most of them escaped from Yasmine's grip. Raw power could only do that much.

Yasmine's mind rang as she saw the stones lurching at her violently, as well as the dust blinding her vision. She saw it coming and already had ways to get out of the way.

She surged the wind element and pulled a full-slash far more powerful than before, flinging away the stones out of her way. She escaped from the stones, but immediately a figure shot towards her, in her blind spot, giving a hard slash to her right thigh.

Her initial defence broke easily, like cutting through paper, but the Ward she wore restricted most of it, though she could not ignore the pain. But she felt humiliated more than pain by the blow. Her opponent had not slashed with his blade; more like a sword-slap with the breadth of the sword.

"Father, how do you expect her to win against Aaelin?" Gabin asked, frowning. This kind of play was nothing new to him. Even when they were little, Aaelin never grew tired of his tricks. "Aaelin already has all the advantages he needs to win it. There is no chance for her. No offence, Sir Rogan."

"None taken," Rogan said, though his eyes did not move from the duel.

"It's not about winning or losing, Gabin," Gareth said. "All I want to see is if she meets the criteria needed for the job. So far, I am surprised to see that push from her. In raw power of the dominion, she is barely below Aaelin. It seems like taking gravity as her first dominion was the best decision for her."

In the duelling ground, Aaelin was now flying all around, making slashes and hacks at Yasmine with all the advantage he got from the higher ground. Yasmine was barely keeping up on the ground, and if not for the new gears, she would have already lost.

Fortunately, her new sword could ignore the gravitational pull of her opponent. If she came with her other sword, it would really be a disaster for her.

"I would be really disappointed if she did not figure out how to fling herself using gravity," Gareth commented, while Rogan clasped his palms into fists.

Yasmine took a deep breath and saw her opponent coming to the ground. She understood he was using the Dominion of gravity as a force to move himself, but she could not figure out how.

Her opponent took the flight again, and she resolved herself to do it as well. She triggered the dominion's gravity on herself and tried to lurch against the planet's gravity. Yet nothing happened, other than the indignation she felt inside. It was as if all her force was nullified when she tried to lift herself up.

In theory, every particle has its own gravity, but some are so minuscule that it does not matter against the gravity of the realm. Just like hers when she tried to lift her body against the gravity of Shrankor. Her dominion was minuscule compared to Shrankor's.

Was it because I did not have enough training? She thought and found that it was not the case. She was probably doing something wrong. In between the battles, she thought about all the elements that came into play when she used the dominion of gravity.

She looked at her opponent and thought, 'He might be powerful, but in no way does he have the strength to pull himself against the gravity of the realm. Then how?!'

'What if I do the opposite?' with that thought, she did not lift herself against the gravity of the realm, but instead, she pushed all her surge of dominion against the ground.

She was trying to push the realm away from her, and it worked. Her body lurched upwards instantly, perpendicular to where she was standing.

Weird. Now that I think about it, whenever I use gravity, I work against a stronger force. She felt like an idiot. When she tried to lift herself up using gravity, it did not work, yet now when she used it against the gravity of the planet, it worked. But even after succeeding, another problem arose. It was too damn hard to control.

One moment she was shooting towards the sky and the next she was dropping on earth. And worse, it took away a lot more spirit force than any normal pull or push.

"You finally get it, huh," Aaelin said, and he came at her bearing the sword. "The dominion of gravity doesn't work on yourself as you yourself is the centre of gravity. All the force turns to zero when you use it like that."

His explanation helped her understand, but she still did not know how to control her position in the air. Yet her damn opponent showered her with attack after attack while explaining to her how the dominion works. So generous of him! She knew he was doing it half-heartedly, or else she would have failed already.

"Even though the dominion does not work on yourself, it does on others," Aaelin said, smirking. He lifted one of his arms and used pull on her figure as she lurched towards him, and the worse thing was she could not work her dominion to stop him.

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