Chapter 9: Hero vs villain

"Get away from her"

I'm surrounded by knights again...

When I crashed into the girl her ribbon fell off and her hair became a mess, then she started running while I was picking it up. There's no way I could let her go like that, everyone would think that she's a slob and it would have been my fault.

But it seems like she's afraid of me for some reason, she started crying and now her companions think that I was doing something bad to her.

They look angry... I don't think they'll give me the chance to explain myself, in that case...

"Mind void"

A wave of dark mana expands from my palm and flies towards the knights, there's a girl who tries to create a barrier but she's not fast enough, my mana reaches their heads and they all begin to fall asleep.

All of them except one, a man with bright red hair that seems to be aflame and an equally red short beard is holding his sword against his hand, the blade is glowing a hot red color and seems to be burning him, ouch, that has to hurt, but it seems like it's keeping him awake.

"My name is Leon Flameban, captain of the royal knights"

Eh? I think I've heard that name before, isn't he some famous hero? I might actually be in danger this time, but this is my first time meeting a real flesh and blood hero! Maybe I can have him sign me an autograph? No, I probably can't...

"I challenge you to a duel to the death," He says pointing his sword at me.

He has a determined expression on his face that would make him look handsome if the thing he was determined to do was not killing me.

"Does it have to be to death...? Can't we settle this with a game of checkers instead?"

He charges at me and gets his arms ready for a swing, I guess I'll take that as a no.

"Black wall"

From the shadows, a barrier emerges blocking his path, but he just slices it with his sword, it takes him a few seconds but he gets through it.

I think that his sword has an enchantment to help in destroying dark magic, did he come here prepared to fight me?

I try to create some distance between us but it looks like our speed stats are rather close to each other and his movements are a lot more practiced and efficient than mine, at this rate I'm going to get cut!

"Speed drain"

The 'drain' spells removes 15% from any one of the target's stats and adds it to the caster, thanks to that I manage to run away from his range, but immediately after, there's a glow from a gem imbedded on his chest plate and the effect of my spell disappears.

He really did get himself ready for me!

"Shadow bind"

A dozen black ropes fly towards him, but unlike those other knights from before, he manages to cut them all with his sword, now that I think about it I should not have used that spell against a lone opponent in the first place.

"Shadow chain"

This is a stronger version of 'shadow bind' that sends a single chain instead of ropes, but in exchange for the extra strength it can only target a single enemy at a time, even he should not be able to cut this one.

And he doesn't, instead, a ball of mana flies out from his gauntlet and the chain wraps itself around it, does that gauntlet have a mana projector on it? I had never seen one before, since most spells detect the target's mana to find them, projecting some of it can create a decoy.

This is just unfair, I don't have any powerful pieces of equipment like those, since I never expected to get myself in any fights I never got myself any, not that I think I could have obtained any as high level as the ones he has.

But what's strange is that he made the decoy before I actually cast my spell, did he somehow know what I was about to do?

"Fireball"

He tries to throw some fire at me so that I have to deflect it and give him a chance to close the distance, but I can just tell that with the difference in magic power between us it will not have any effect so I simply ignore it and let it dissipate by the mana around me.

Let's go with an attack from beneath him, I crouch and place my hands on the ground.

"Swamp terrain"

The ground for around 30 meters in front of me melts into a black sludge hungry to trap any who step on it, but once again, he was already jumping by the time I was starting to crouch.

"Woah!"

I only barely manage to jump backward in time to avoid his slash as he lands on the spot I was at a moment ago.

Every time he swings his sword, sparks of fire are left dancing in the air across the arcs he traces, he looks very cool, especially when compared to my clumsy movements...

"Black wall"

That wall only earns me a small amount of time to increase the distance again before my pursuer slices it apart.

And now I'm realizing another problem that comes from my lack of practical experience, and that is the fact that I don't really know to which degree my offensive spells will hurt a person.

If I was fighting a monster it would just be a matter of overwhelming it with raw power, but fighting without killing is a bit more complicated, there's a range of power that an attack must be in to be strong enough to hurt the enemy but not strong enough to kill, that range varies depending on how tough the opponent is. And for someone with no battle experience like me, it's practically impossible to find that range.

That doesn't give me many offensive options, I will not be able to live with myself if I kill someone over some stupid misunderstanding, and I can't think of any more spells that can stop this knight captain and are 100% non-lethal.

Then again I'm thinking of this the wrong way, I never wanted this fight in the first place so I don't actually have to 'defeat' him, do I? I should be thinking of escaping instead, I don't think he has a way to chase me if I just fly away.

I summon my wings, jump and... that was a bad idea, when I'm taking off there's a moment when I can't use any magic to attack or defend and he won't let that chance pass. He swings his blade from above me as he, once again, jumped before I did.

Reacting just in time I take out the short sword I bought earlier today and block his attack at the last moment, however the force from the impact is enough to put a crack on my blade as I crash into the ground, then the crack expands and my sword splits in two.

I picked that sword because of its high durability and yet it could only take one attack from him...

"How are you able to predict everything that I'm going to do?" At this point, I just have to ask...

"How could I not be able to tell? You fight like a complete amateur"

That's because I am a complete amateur...

So does that mean that this is that 'battle instincts' thing I've heard experienced fighters have? That is so cool!

In that case, I should use a different strategy.

"Black wall"

Hidden behind the wall I prepare another shadow chain spell, he won't expect me to be right next to it when I used it to run away each other time, and he won't be ready to defend immediately after slicing the wall.

I see his sword cutting the wall from top to bottom, for some reason, the cut is a lot slower this time, alright Luna, get ready to get him the moment he gets through...

Then I'm startled as I see him approaching from the side... what!? Wait... he tricked me! He let go of his sword so that the enchantment on it would keep eating at the wall while it fell from its own weight, and while I believed that he was still there he ran all the way around the house on the side.

He swings his arm at me while his sword files back to him, he catches the sword mid-swing and slashes at me in one single swift motion, that was awesome! Also, ouch, I could not dodge properly and got a small burn on my arm.

This reminds me of those stories where the hero fights a villain stronger than himself, but because the villain is dumb while the hero is clever and skilled the hero still manages to win.

And the one playing the role of the strong dumb villain is me...

Well, I can heal this burn in an instant, burns are notoriously difficult to heal, but my flesh shaping is just that great.

I start backing off again, but then I trip on a small rock.

"Oops"

Seeing me off balance, he takes the chance to attack and cuts my neck, seeing my head fall to the ground, he lets out a heavy breath and sheathes his sword... he dropped his guard! This is my chance!

"Shadow chain!"

"!?"

Caught by surprise, the knight captain becomes bound by the chain and falls to the ground, I then pick up my head and put it back on its place.

"You! How...?" His stoic expression breaks for the first time and he looks at me like he cannot believe what he's seeing.

Well, as far as I know, I'm the only one to have ever mastered flesh shaping to the point that I can keep my body working for about 15 minutes even if it's split into pieces, not to mention the 'auto-resurrection' spell I invented that can recreate my body completely even if it gets reduced to ashes, although that one spends most of my mana, and unfortunately, I cannot do either of those things for someone else's body.

Well, even if I was fairly certain that I could do it, the truth is that, for obvious reasons, I had never tested it before, so that was a bit scary.

"What kind of creature are you?"

It seems like my opponent is having trouble understanding how he lost.

"Mmmmm, your great amounts of battle experience kept giving you the edge in the fight, but it was also the reason you lost in the end"

"What are you talking about?"

"In all your battles your opponents always died when you severed their heads, so when mine fell off your experience betrayed you and made you drop your guard"

I think my explanation was clear enough, but he's looking at me with a strange expression...

Did I say something weird?

forli