Moyako…
Ranni was at a loss for words, unable to process her shock of having her youth returned to her so suddenly.
“Why would you...if you had the power to return my youth to me this whole time, then why do it now?” she asked, before she seemed to realize the implications that her words might have and looked down in shame.
But she was not offended by her words and understood full well that Ranni wished she could have retained her youth to the same extent that Camilla or the others could have.
“If I wanted to, I could have cursed you with eternal youth a long time ago. Although, if I did that, then the lesson I intend to teach you would fall on deaf ears. Now raise your sword and fight,” she said as she lunged towards Ranni and swung her sword with a backhanded slash.
Ranni raised her sword just barely in time to block Moyako’s strike as she was pushed back.
She shook her head as she tried to collect herself and get her mind in the game. She then gripped her falchion sword tight before she blinked as a thought seemed to have come to her.
“If we are restricting ourselves to only using sword techniques and not magic, then does that mean we are unable to make use of spiritual energy to reinforce ourselves? Because there are many techniques that I would be unable to use if I was unable to rely on the power of my soul in battle.”
Moyako frowned as she pondered over it before she came to a conclusion.
“Alright then. However, I will restrict the amount of spiritual energy I can use to match your level so I don’t overpower you with a mere tap of my blade. I must keep it fair to some degree.”
Moyako then took her stance as she gripped her sword with both hands, held the handle close to her chest with the tip of the blade pointed upwards, and put her left foot forward.
Ranni mirrored her stance and waited patiently as she knew that it was typically the first person that strikes who loses the clash.
The muscles in Moyako’s arms, legs, and chest tightened right before she stepped forward and swung down with her blade.
Ranni parried and tried to counter but Moyako quickly pulled back and smacked her sword away with the base of the blade.
What resulted after was a furious exchange of swords clashing against each other as both women tried to break the guard of the other.
Ranni was giving it her all to break through her technique, but in reality, Moyako was hardly putting forth any effort.
There was something to observe about the differences in how Ranni fights in her more youthful body compared to her older one.
In her older body, with such a lack of strength, she had to focus on efficiency. By focusing on better positioning and telegraphing one’s own attacks, Ranni could could deflect and redirect attacks using less energy. However, ultimately her strength in attacking, her ability to block, and her endurance were hampered by her aging body.
In a younger and stronger body, she could make use of the greater endurance, speed, and physical strength it gave her. However, gaining her old strength back seems to have made her forget about her techniques.
She’s failing to properly make use of both her strength given to her by her regained youth and the efficiency of her techniques that she honed for decades.
Moyako felt nothing but disappointment from her.
In the very next moment, as their clash continued, Ranni’s grip on her sword loosened. Rather than use gloves or gauntlets to keep sweat from forming on her palms, Ranni preferred to handle her sword with her bare hands. As a result, her fingers slipped and her grip was compromised which led to her fumbling for her blade as Moyako’s katana smacked her sword away.
Before Ranni could recover, she swung her sword and blood sprayed as she cut a large gash into her shoulder.
Ranni winced and took a sudden step back as she clutched her shoulder in pain.
“Come on now, I’m sure you can do better than that. Why haven’t you used any of the Shura techniques I taught you?”
Ranni started panting as she looked at the blood on her palm and cursed.
“I didn’t want to use them since they exhaust me so much, but in this state I guess I can manage it,” she said as she gritted her teeth and stood up straight, held her sword in front of her horizontally, and rested her left hand on the flat of the blade.
She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and said, “Full release”
Moyako’s eyes widened slightly at the sharp increase of power resonating from her soul. It was certainly greater than she remembered, but still not impressive enough to put her on edge.
She was right to allow Ranni to harness the full strength of her soul and limit this to a battle of swordsmanship rather than a clash of magic power.
It would end with an incredibly boring conclusion otherwise.
Ranni…
With her body being granted its old youth again, she felt like she had been reborn. It was almost euphoric being so young again in contrast to before.
Even the pain in her shoulder from where Moyako had cut her made her feel more alive than she had in a very long time.
Even so, what kept her from feeling drunk on her youth and not giving in to a reckless abandon of reason was her shock and fear of what Moyako was capable of.
Ranni had no idea that she was capable of restoring youth, and yet she acted as if it were something that she could do so casually. What else has she been hiding from her? What other powers or techniques is she privy to that she has refused to shared with the others in their old group?
Whatever. It doesn’t matter, she thought to herself as she readied her sword.
Moyako looked her in the with a hint of amusement as she held out her left hand and beckoned her to charge at her.
She decided to humor her and leapt towards her with such speed that it even surprised herself.
Her body was wreathed in such a tightly woven stream of spiritual energy that her arms felt as strong as iron.
Moyako swung her sword to the side absentmindedly as she deflected her strike, but her feet visibly left the ground for a fraction of a second as she had been pushed back.
Seeing this, Ranni continued to swing her blade unceasingly in an effort to pressure Moyako into fighting back.
The more she swung her blade, the more Moyako’s eyes narrowed and the barely audible grunts of effort became more frequent.
With one final push, Ranni feigned a thrust attack, and just as Moyako tried to step to the side to avoid it, she switched to a horizontal slash and sent her flying tens of feet away.
While she was still suspended in midair, Ranni held her sword close to her chest with the point aimed to the ground. Her index finger and thumb pinched the flat of the blade and compressed the spiritual energy within it. Compressed air began to circulate around it before she swung her falchion sword through the air, using her fingers as a form of resistance, and a wave of compressed wind cut through the air.
“Iai Wind Blade,” Ranni muttered as she waited for her attack to reach Moyako. She, and all the other Nøkkran Assassins were taught by Moyako to utter the names of attacks as a way of reinforcing one’s mental fortitude in battle as well as to manifest their will within their attacks. She had said it would make the power of their attacks stronger, and strangely enough, it did.
At the very last moment, her feet finally touched the ground before she began to suddenly accelerate in speed and jumped over Ranni’s attack.
Seeing this, Ranni smiled as she was hoping Moyako would react in such a way. Now there was no way for her to dodge the next attack in time.
Ranni repeated the stance from before, and quickly began to focus her energy into her sword.
Before she could swing her sword, Moyako vanished from sight.
What?! Where did she go? She was right there in the air!
But then, in the corner of her eye, she saw her.
How is she...so fast?
Moyako stood to the right of her with her katana raised above her head as if to decapitate her in one swift movement.
I cannot hesitate! I need to strike now! she thought as she quickly spun her waist around to swing her sword through the air and deliver a vertical wind slash.
Effortlessly, Moyako sidestepped out of the way, but Ranni refused to give up and she twisted her entire body so that she could deliver a wide sweeping horizontal slash.
“Hah!” she shouted as she cut through empty air.
She looked down just in time to see the air vibrate for just a moment as Moyako sheathed her sword. Multiple arcs of distorted light shined as the air in front of her seemed to solidify, but she could not feel the pain of an attack reaching her.
Moyako stood up, looked her in the eyes, and said, “This battle is over.”
“What…? How did...-” she whimpered as horrified disbelief shone in her eyes.
Before she could say another word, she could feel her arms, legs, hands, and parts of her torso begin to fall apart in bloody chunks.
She had been cut apart so finely that she couldn’t even feel the blade as it passed through her body.
As Ranni’s back hit the ground, she was barely able to stay awake long enough to see Moyako looking down at her in boredom and disappointment.
However, past all of that, she could make out the hint of anger and bitterness in her eyes.
She had said that there was some lesson in all of this that she had intended to teach her. If so, then what could it have possibly been?
Seeing the confusion and wanting for answers in her eyes, Moyako said, "The lesson is that no matter how much you try, no matter how much work you put in, and no matter how much you desire it, your sword will never reach me. I know that you hoped you would one day be able to best me in skill with the sword, but the gap between us will never shrink. I'm left wondering why you would participate in this contest at all. Go back to teaching the lessons I gave you, so that someone else might put them to better use."
Before she could die of blood loss and total organ failure, she was left wondering why her former master would treat her in such a way as to not give her an honorable defeat. She had to completely humiliate her and reduce her body to a useless lump of flesh.
This was not the same woman that Ranni remembered.
What could have happened to make her this way?
She no longer had the strength to ask such a question as her body failed her and her death signaled the end of the first match.
Nashandra…
From the sound of things, it seemed that her fight was about to begin. Although she loathed to participate in this contest under Kayron’s orders, she did not have a choice so long as he maintained ownership of the Bloodletter.
She was compelled to obey him by the weapon that once belonged to her revered king. Only now, it was in the hands of that Mordrinite worm.
Hopefully some day she might be free to live her life of her own free will once again. Though for now, she would have to suffer through servitude once again.
She took a deep breath, gathered her thoughts, and stood up from her seat.
Before she left the waiting room, she took a look in the mirror and smiled at the pleasant yellow color of the dress she was wearing.
She remembered that Jonas had enjoyed the times where she wore this dress. He had said that looking at her with this was like looking at the sun.
He had left her with many pleasant memories.
Thinking of him made her servitude more bearable at the very least, even if the memory became painful the more she dwelled on it.
After she had left the room and closed the door behind her, she foolishly tripped on her own feet and would have fallen if someone had not caught her.
Her absentmindedness caused her not to sense that anyone was nearby and so she had closed her eyes, waiting until her body hit the ground. She did not expect for someone to catch her in time.
When she opened her eyes, she realized that it was a woman who had kept her from falling.
The first striking features that jumped out about her was jet black flaming hair and blue eyes that shone as if they were glowing.
“Excuse me,” she said in a slightly impatient, but polite tone.
She helped her back to her feet, said her apologies, and walked away.
Even after she left, Nashandra was left somewhat speechless, though not due to her striking beauty, but rather the unusual presence of her soul.
She had already deduced that she was one of the Nøkkran Assassins from the stories she had read. Sensing the power of Nøkkra within her wasn’t surprising in the least.
What was truly surprising was the fact that she could sense a mild, yet noticeable shred of power not unlike that of King Dagon’s nature. Beyond that, there also lied something greater still.
There was a power dormant within that woman that was so profound that it shook Nashandra to her very core.
Perhaps if she advanced to the next bracket, then she would be able to realize what that power was.