I packed a little more than I thought I would into this chapter, so I decided to split the two duels into two chapters. Otherwise, I'd basically be putting two chapters into one. See you at the bottom.

Chapter 24

Climbing the Stairs

From seeing Julian in duels before during the Advancement Exam, he made his battles that of attrition. He would wear down his opponent by constantly dodging their attacks, until they were too tired to perform at their best, and then he'll strike. It was an effective strategy, something that would be perfect for a one on one duel like the one we were engaged in right now. Unfortunately for him, I knew in a head to head duel, he was…quite frankly rubbish. All he knew was how to dodge the strikes, but countering them? He had no chance.

I had to make this duel as short as possible. The longer it went on, the more tired I would get from trying to hit him and make mistakes that would cost me. And I needed to force him into a head on duel. That was the key to winning this fight.

Speed was one of my strong suites.

I pushed my weight onto my toes, extending my right arm to the side, and then leaping towards Julian. I swung in a wide arc, a perfect parallel line to the floor. Julian threw himself backwards, away from the slash. I knew he was going to do this, and took another step forward, performing the same motion but in the opposite direction.

If I force him back to the walls, he won't have anywhere to go and will be forced to engage. That's my chance.

However, Julian had this twinkle in his eye that worried me. It's almost like he knew this was my plan. Of course he did, it was the only way I could theoretically beat him.

I took another swing at Julian, and his back was against the wall. I drew my sword back and thrust the point of my sword at his neck. He ducked down and readied his own strike aimed at my legs.

It was the perfect bait.

I twisted my sword so the edge was pointed downwards and dropped my sword downwards at his shoulder. With the time it took him to aim properly at my knees, my blade would already be in position to hit his shoulder and win the duel.

I didn't expect him to roll out of the way, causing me to overbalance and fall against the wall. His roll didn't put him in a position to retaliate, but I couldn't follow up. He took a few steps towards the middle of the room, and we were in the same position as we started.

He's a slippery bastard. I took a deep breath and began to think of a new strategy.

A few ideas ran through my head. All of them had to do with stopping him for a few seconds. I couldn't use Sacred Arts, otherwise I'd use a flash of light to stun him and get an easy hit in. The only good idea that I could use would take some serious acting on my part. I remembered during training with Lord Grant, he would make me use Sword Arts. After every one, I would feel my muscles tense up for a few seconds.

It was all about baiting him into using one while not letting him on that I was baiting him.

Julian knew some Sword Arts. He used them as a finishing blow against his opponents. So I needed to convince him that I could be finished off.

At least I have a better game plan than just try and back him against the wall.

I let a smile slip, and immediately that twinkle of certainty that was in Julian's eyes faded. He had obviously expected me to be a little downtrodden by that little exchange.

I launched myself at him, aiming at his centre mass. I started out with concise, quick strikes, knowing he'd have to work harder to dodge them. This time, he refused to back towards the wall, instead aiming to just dodge from side to side. It was kind of impressive how flexible he was with his back; bending backwards and ducking around my blade. I tried my best to force him backwards, but it wasn't working.

Screw it, time to switch it up.

I gripped the sword with both hands and began doing the same motions. It was small, but it can be a sign of someone starting to wear down. And as I guess, he noticed it too, the twinkle returning.

Not yet…it's too early.

I took a moment to observe the reaction of the crowd. Most looked confused, wondering why I was just repeating the same strikes. But a few saw through it. It made me worry for a second that Julian might be able to see through it too, but the twinkle hadn't faded.

Very subtly, I began to artificially insert mistakes into my routine. I began to overswing slightly, a common sign of fatigue, and I toned down my speed a little. That was a great change of pace, because even though I was acting, my muscles were beginning to ache a little. And it was working. That look in Julian's eyes only intensified.

I raised my sword over my head and went for a massive swing, an imitation of the High Norkian Style's Mountain Splitting Wave. Julian dodged to the left, making my swing miss wildly. I heard the crowd muttering at my mistake.

As I predicted, this was when Julian made his move. His blade rested against his back and glowed a deep crimson as he jumped towards me. He was using a Sword Art which quickly covered ground, and it was aimed right at my exposed back.

Checkmate.

"Remember boy, this technique is great in a pinch, but that's it's only real advantage. To surprise an opponent with a quick turn around."

My sword glowed green as I turned on my heel, sweeping my foot around. At the same time, I brought my sword up to aim straight at Julian's sword. Green and red collided, smashing together in a beautiful light show, before red faded, snapping straight down the middle.

Baltio Style, Storm Wave.

Julian was thrown backwards, the two pieces of his sword spiralling in the air. He landed with a dull thud, the sword pieces clattering to the floor soon after. I did a little flourish with my sword before returning it to my sheath.

The crowd cheered for my victory. I did a small bow before walking over to Julian, offering a hand. His face split into a wide grin as he took it. "Damnit, I thought I had you there."

I returned the smile and lifted him up. Not in a million years…

I walked into the waiting room to the knowing smile of Kimiko and the glare of Diaz. I put the used sword back on the rack and got a fresh one ready for the next match, quickly checking its Life to see if anyone had accidently placed it in the wrong rack.

"What, are you expecting someone to have tampered with it?" Diaz grumbled from across the room.

Almost on cue, my cheek began to throb a little. "Accidents happen."

"Even if we wanted to, it's against the school rules to interfere knowingly with the tournament equipment."

I bit the inside of my cheek. Because supposedly assault was against the Taboo Index, but he managed it. I sheathed the sword on my belt, inwardly shrugging.

Kimiko stood up with another student, ready for her match. I gave her a small smile for good luck before she stepped outside, which left me with Diaz and the two other students.

I sat down back in my corner, letting the adrenaline of the previous fight drain from my bloodstream. I leant my head back against the wall, almost wanting to fall back into that same dream again, to slowly piece together the parts of my past that were missing, like who called out to me and that girl called Kristina.

I was at a point where I wanted to know more…

But I was throwing it all away for Kimiko.

I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as possible and lightly shook my head. This isn't the time, not now. I slowed my breathing, relaxing myself.

Where was that place? With the sand, and the sea air? It tasted like salt. There's nowhere like that in the Wesdarath Empire. In fact, I don't think it's anywhere in the Human Empire. There's only the lakes in Sothercrois. But the books in the libraries don't describe a sea like that. In fact, where would I even know the word "sea" from? If it doesn't exist in the Human Empire, I shouldn't know it.

The right side of my head began to hurt…

Then a thousand voices began to ring out inside my head.

"Your Eminence, the Senate has picked up something interesting."

Her eyelashes trembled before parting, revealing two silver mirrors for eyes, with a glimmer of curiosity. "Was there another anomaly that needs fixing? If so, send one of the puppets to pick them up. One of them should be interested in an assignment by now."

"It would be best if your Grace would see this for yourself. It's a rather unusual case."

I sucked in a deep breath, my right eye twitching a little. I put my hand up to it, feeling it under my eyelid to confirm it wasn't gone. For a second, it almost felt like the entire right side of my head had exploded.

I took a moment, my right temple feeling rather numb right now. All the pain that had been there was gone as quickly as it came. I sighed, leaning back again. Luckily, no one in the room seemed to have noticed. I wouldn't have liked it if Diaz had seen anything…

The Ocean Turtle sat in silence. Then, for the briefest of seconds, the lights flickered, died, and turned back on.

Well then, that was certainly a fun duel to write. Something I see often is that the fights in Alicization are too short. In anime form, they can be, but written out like in the Light Novels, 30 seconds in anime can translate to a thousand words. Plus, duels in real life don't take too long anyway, so it kind of makes sense when a duel is over in a couple of hits.

Next up will be the duel between Light and Diaz. I hopefully won't take too long to write the next chapter. I've been hit with a wave of motivation thanks to my wonderful new girlfriend. And speaking of...

Reviews:

blackbutterfly1313: I hope I can continue to intrigue for you. It's been a work in progress for a very long time :)

I'll see you all in the next one (I'm purposely not talking about parts of this chapter because got to keep that mystery up XD). As always, Stay Cool.