I had locked everyone out of my room so I could practice my sword swings for tomorrow. I was practicing my swings, but they seemed routine now. I sighed and looked at the pillows on my bed. I had hid my sais under them. Maybe I could declare it an, 'Anything-goes' match... I smirked, that's exactly what I was going to do.
Conrad was patrolling the castle, but his thoughts were elesewhere. Why is Yuuri like this? I left her soul in the gentle and capable hands of earth mazoku and his human wife... And what's a ninja? Conrad sighed. What kind of life had Yuuri lead?
The next day, Iwore the same, if not similar, clothes to what I had wore yesterday, except the ribbon on the shirt was silver. I found another silver ribbon and used it to tie my hair in a ponytail since there were no hairties here. I crawled to the top of the canopy and retrieved my belt and leg pouch. I donned them, then retrieved my sais from under my pillows and slipped them up my sleeves. I looked out my window and saw some people who served in the castle gathering around a rectangular platform. I opened my window silently, then dropped out of the two story window and landed silently on my feet. If I had walked through the halls, I would've probably got lost and ended up being late. I started walking over and heard the calming 'chink' my dragon blade katana made when it swayed back and forth in it's sheath. When I neared the battle ground, the servants parted and bowed their heads and I said, "You don't have to do that..." I walked to the middle of the field and looked around. I saw Gwendal, Gunter, and Conrad standing at the edge of the field on one side watching me.
"Where's Sir Snob?" I asked Conrad.
"It's Wolfram!" I heard him say from behind me. I turned and looked at him. He was wearing the same thing as he was yesterday, except he now had a sword with him. Like always, he was glaring at me.
"Here are the rules," I said to him, "There are none. Anything goes."
He smirked and said, "Even Maryoku?"
"I'm not a hundred percent sure what that is yet, but sure, even Maryoku." I said. Maybe I could use this opportunity to get a closer look at Maryoku. Wolfram smiled and drew his sword, as did I in response.
"Before this match begins, I want all the servants a safe distance away, now!" Gwendal yelled to the onlookers. They immediatly scattered into the castle and started peering out the windows.
"Geez, it's just like when I get in a fight at school..." I mumbled to myself. Wolfram used this oppurtunity to strike, but I quickly deflected. "Too slow." I said with an evil grin. I immediatly slipped behind him and hit the hilt of my sword against the back of his head and he fell to the ground, but immediatly got back up. "Wow, I was expecting more of a defense..." I said in a disappointed voice.
"Shut it human!" Wolfram yelled at me. My eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Again with the human thing... Wolfram lunged at me again, but I dodged to the left and was about to hit him with the blade of my sword when he quickly blocked it.
"Wow! You actually blocked it this time!" I said in mock amazement.
"Urusai!" He yelled as he lunged at me again. I used my sword to block his, and they immediatly made contact. We were now face to face with only our swords seperating us. I got a glimpse into his emerald eyes and quickly read his emotions. Anger, definately anger, with just a little... sorrow? Wait! Why's he sad?! Before I could think about it longer, he took his sword away from mine and was about to strike me, but I quickly dodged. I was a little too slow so I now had a cut on my right shin.
"Your majesty!" I heard Conrad yell to me concerndly.
"Back off!" I yelled at him, "This is between me and Sir Snob!"
Conrad looked hurt, but reluctantly nodded his head.
"It's Wolfram for the last time you pathetic human!" Wolfram yelled as he brought his sword down on me since I was crouching from the last dodge. I quickly lifted my sword above my head horizantally and blocked his attack. I put my free hand on the blade to help hold it up, but it started cutting into my hand. Well that backfired a little... Wolfram smiled evily and started putting more weight down on his sword, thus, putting more weight on my sword and making it dig deeper into my hand. Blood started flowing down my arm and dripping off at the elbow. I was really pissed now.
I rolled onto my back so Wolfram fell on top of me, then kicked with all my might and he flew to the other side of the dueling ground. I stood up shakily and looked over at him.
"I'll admit that was impressive, so when you die, I'll let you have a proper funeral." Wolfram said.
I didn't want to fight him anymore, I thought it was going to be a fun duel, but he just actually had to get serious with the death thing. I reached down to my belt and pulled out three spikes. Wolfram looked at me confused. I quickly threw the spikes at him and they hit the three pressure points on his right arm. He dropped his sword as his arm went numb from the spikes hitting the right spots, then said, "What the hell!?"
Gunter and Conrad looked surprised, but Gwendal's face remained unchanged. A vein popped in my forehead as I turned to Gwendal and said, "Would you please get rid of that annoying frown for once! Smile! Scowl! Glare! Something other than that annoying frown! Geez! What are you?! The Grinch?!"
The three brothers and Gunter looked surprised at my sudden change in victims.
"See? Was it so hard to look surprised for a change?" I said with a smile.
I then turned back to the fight and lifted my sword up. "Now," I said. Wolfram didn't look too pleased about the current position he was in.
"What the hell did you do to my arm?!" He yelled at me.
"Relax," I said while glaring at him, "It will wear off soon enough. Well, if you consider two days soon..."
I started walking over to him and he started backing up. Once I was close enough to him, I lifted my sword and put the point at his throat. "Wolfram von Bielefelt," I said coldly, "Third son of the twenty sixth Maou, do you accept defeat? If not, I will kill you to prove whom the victor is." Wolfram glared at me with a mix of anger, humiliation, and disbelief in his eyes. He lowered his head so his bangs were covering his eyes, but he was still wearing his frown.
I smiled and slung my sword over my shoulder and said, "Good duel though, you were better than any of the opponents on earth." I turned and started walking away when I heard Wolfram saying something.
"All the beings that make up the element of fire, obey this brave Mazoku who summons you!" Wolfram yelled out.
"Yuuri! Watch out!" Conrad yelled to me. I barelt dodged a fireball Wolfram threw at me. This is different then the Maryoku dad showed me... I thought to myself as I dodged more fireballs.
"You're good at dodging, but let's see you dodge this!" Wolfram said as he conjured up a giant fire lion.
"You've got to be kidding me." I said as a bead of sweat ran down my forehead. There was no way I could dodge something that huge! Wolfram made the lion run straight at me. For once, in my fifteen years in a life of training, I panicked and froze. Dive... My instincts said to me, so I did just that and felt the heat from the lion as it passed over me. I was about to let out a sigh of relief when I heard someone scream. I turned and saw the lion heading straight for a maid and my eyes widened in horror as it made impact and she fell to the ground.
"Are you alright?!" I heard some guards asked the maid as they ran over to her. I didn't bother to listen to the rest, there's no way a human would've been able to survive that.
"Is this your idea of a duel?" I asked in a dangerously low voice.
"Tch, it was meant to hit you-!" Wolfram started.
"SILENCE!" I yelled as lightning lit up the once clear sky and thunder resonated within the courtyard. Storm clouds rolled in and it started to rain heavily. My hair grew longer, so long, it almost touched the ground. "Is this your idea of winning? Pretending to surrender, then throwing a childish fit and injuring an innocent bystander?!" I yelled at him.
"Heika..." I could hear Conrad say.
"It was not my intent to shed blood, BUT YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE!" I yelled as I put my hands out. A water dragon came out of each of my hands and wrapped around Wolfram, lifting him into the air. "Wolfram von Bielefelt, repent your ways, or I will crush you!" I said. As if to emphasize my point, the water dragons constricted Wolfram tighter.
All of the sudden, one of the guards yelled, "She's okay!" I looked over my shoulder and saw the girl rising shakily to her feet.
I turned back to Wolfram and said, "The gods are merciful towards you today, but know this, if you ever endanger another innocent life, I will not hesitate to kill you! Let justice be done!" The water dragons formed the japanese character for justice, the fell away as I weakened with exhaustion. I whispered out, so quitely that no one would hear, "I'm glad I didn't have to kill you." Then I fell onto the ground in exhaustion.
Do you guys hate me? I mean, I have ZERO comments. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong. To out of character? To, 'seen it before'? (Quite frankly, I thought it was very original...) Please tell me...