Chapter 168 - A Lesson

Serilla released her Sword Intent and did her best to try and direct all of it onto Cecil. The pressure came, but Cecil looked undisturbed.

He just held his sword in his stance, no changes happening to his countenance whatsoever. Serilla grinned happily upon seeing this.

"As expected of the man I chose~!"

"..." Cecil released a tired sigh. She looked so serious earlier, but...

Cecil raised his sword overhead and slashed down. Without using any Sword Intent, a sword wave flashed out from his Adamantium sword and flew straight for Serilla.

Serilla was shocked seeing this and she hurriedly dodged away.

"S-sword Energy! H-how?!"

"Hm? So you know about this as well?"

"Th-that's something...only the sword saints and saintesses should have!"

"Really? Hah, it's nothing special. Especially for someone who's already awoken a Weapon Intent. This 'energy' is just a degraded version."

"D-degraded?"

"Here, let me show you."

Cecil extracted his spear. He stabbed his sword into the arena's floor and held his spear with both hands. He lowered his body and leaned back. The spear's tip pointed straight at Serilla and a fearsome pressure enveloped her body and froze it in place.

It was Cecil's spear intent.

Cecil grunted and stabbed his spear forward. His intent was ejected out of his spear point and flew straight at Serilla. The intent brushed the side of her face and continued forward, slamming straight into the arena's protective barrier.

SWWWIIIIPPPPP

A small hole cracked open in the barrier and the intent continued to fly and pierce into the stadium's wall, creating a small hole.

"...that's Intent...and this—" Cecil swung his spear in a wide arc and a wave of spear energy flew out slamming right into the arena's protective barrier.

BOOOMMM

"—is Energy. It's nothing special, only an inferior, embryonic form of a Weapon Intent. I should commend you and Eli, since the two of you skipped Energy and straight away stepped into the Intent Stage."

Cecil's 'lesson' was over and he put away his spear. He walked up to his sword and pulled it out of the ground. He swung it around and got into his stance again.

"Lesson's over...shall we fight now?"

What he was explaining was only something that he learned from his family's martial arts. It was all written down in his family's manual. He couldn't understand how Alterna's martial society didn't know this.

They were ways ahead of Earth's martial knowledge. Shouldn't things like this be more common for them?

"...s-so you're saying...I've already surpassed the level of a Sword Saintess?"

"Hm? Yeah sure, at least in terms of comprehensions, I'm not so sure about technique, skills, and experience though."

"Ha...haha...oh gosh~" For some reason Serilla was giggling happily.

"...?"

"Hmhm~ the man I chose is actually above my mother~ huhuhu, I definitely won't let you go!"

With those words, Serilla did her best to direct her Sword Intent at Cecil and dashed straight towards the boy.

Cecil responded with a wave of his sword. He sent his energy flying at the girl and she responded by releasing an Intent-fused sword wave.

Just like Cecil said, Sword Energy was only the inferior version of the Sword Intent. Cecil's sword wave was immediately broken through and Serilla's Intent continued forwards.

Cecil dodged and dashed towards Serilla. He couldn't win when comparing Sword Realms with Serilla; he hadn't even awoken Sword Intent yet! Cecil decided to just engage in a melee instead.

He swung his sword at Serilla and the girl parried it and counterattacked with a stab. The two exchange blows for some time, but as the seconds passed Serilla was put at a disadvantage.

Serilla's Sword Arts constrained her into only using her sword to fight. Not Cecil. He used his entire body to fight. He swung his sword and his fists, kicked with his legs, pushed with his shoulders or struck with his elbows and knees.

It was natural that Serilla would be put at a disadvantage. They were in a melee so she didn't have enough time to gather her Intent into her sword and swing it at Cecil. The boy didn't give her this chance.

Not long after, the fight became too one-sided with Serilla taking more and more hits. Cecil took into consideration that she was a young lady so he never struck at her face or use his sword to cut at her when he succeeded in creating an opening.

But the blows that Cecil delivered were painful nonetheless. Cecil was aiming to break Serilla's protective enchantment, but he started to feel worse and worse as the fight continued. Serilla's painful groans and her small yelps of pain began eating at his conscience.

This was a girl who proclaimed her love to him, but he was beating her around like a punching bag.

"Tsk..."

Cecil gathered mana into his palm and slammed it onto Serilla's stomach.

"GAH!"

She flew across the stage and landed outside of the ring. Seeing her pained expression, Cecil had an awful look on his face.

"Damn, how come to enchantment hasn't even broken yet?"

Cecil didn't understand this, but the enchantment would only break if a stronger force of mana struck it. All this time, Cecil had been using only his bare hands to fight so there was no way that he would ever break the enchantment.

Even his last mana-infused palm was too weak to destroy the enchantment. Most of the time he would straight forwardly beat his opponent and send them out of the stage. He tried doing the same with Serilla, but the girl was stubbornly clinging onto the stage, doing everything she could to stop her body from being sent flying.

"W-WINNER! Cecil Silvaria!!!"

Although he won, it left a bad taste in his mouth. Cecil scowled and moved to pick up the fallen girl, but another person beat him to it.

"I'll take over from here." It was the Student Council President, Zephyr Arks.

The dragonkin picked up the fallen girl and brought her straight away to the infirmary. Before he strode off, he had a complicated look on his face as he stared at Cecil who at the edge of the stage.

The next fight was about to begin so Cecil decided to stay on stage. The referee looked at him a little puzzled and asked.

"D-don't you need a break?"

"Hm? Nah, just get the last match over with."

"But..."

"Hey, ref! Aren't you going to announce our match yet?" A female voice sounded out just below the stage.

The referee turned his head and noticed that the other contestant was already waiting by the ring side.

"Wait! Doesn't Cecil need a break before the match?"

"Hm? No? Why would he?" Lucia answered back.

"Eh?"

"Hey, ref. I don't need a break. Hurry up and start it." Cecil added.

"O-okay?"

This caused the two foxkin to smile. The referee cleared his throat and began announcing the next battle, the final battle.

"FINAL MATCH! CECIL SILVARIA VS. LUCIA YUKIHIME!!!"

The crowd roared in response. It was the Undefeated Combat King vs. the Undefeated Apocalyptic Queen. It was bound to be a very great fight!

Up in the private rooms, the Sword Saintess had a worried look on her face. Unlike most of the normal audience who couldn't hear the exchange between Cecil and her daughter, many in the private rooms heard them.

"Hohoho~ looks like the boy's pretty capable! Wouldn't you say, Headmaster Elufied?" The King said in a teasing tone.

"Why yes! He successfully stole the heart of a sage level character's daughter AND the Sword Saintess' daughter! My, oh my~" Elufied replied in a similar teasing tone.

Sword Saintess Celia heard the two and couldn't help, but direct a glare at them. She then remembered their statuses and bowed in reluctant apology.

"Please forgive me, esteemed ones..."

"Hahaha~ we're just joking around Celia, but wouldn't you say that the man your daughter picked is pretty exceptional?"

"...yes, but someone else already owns the boy."

"Own? I don't see it like that. That boy is his own person, nobody owns him. I'd say your daughter may still have a chance, even if she's going up against Master Anna's daughter." Elufied replied.

"Hmmm..."

"Aiyah~ why so skeptical Celia? Don't you think this is a blessing? Didn't you hear their conversation earlier? Sword Energy is actually 'inferior', can you believe that?"

"..."

"Well, the boy did show evidence of the two, but this is the first time I've heard about this 'Intent'," The King replied with a smile.

"Yes...and apparently my daughter and the princess also has this... 'Intent'," Celia said with a doubtful look.

"We'll ask about it later~ I'm sure Master Anna won't be too opposed to this!" Elufied said.

The King and Sword Saintess only responded with a nod, and then the two turned their attention back to the stage. It was the Finals and it was between the two children of the previous Headmaster, Anna.

"Oh my~ my daughter and son are going to fight each other! Who should I root for~?" Anna said worriedly with a hand to her cheek.

"Let's just root for them both." Zaki replied with a smile on his face.

"Yes~ let's do just that! Go, go Lucia! Go, go Cecil~ Yay~!" Anna cutely cheered.

This caused Zaki's smile to widen even further as he looked on lovingly at his wife.

******

Back on stage, Lucia was smiling with her Shirayuki and Butterfly in hand. It was such a bright smile that everyone watching her couldn't help, but think that she was genuinely happy to be in the finals.

To the Little Kings and especially to Cecil...this smile was terrifying. Cecil was already sweating bullets. He thought that his earlier words had appeased her fury to some degree, but it was all a facade.

She was still burning with anger, and now that they were scheduled to fight, she could let out all that anger onto her intended target, Cecil.

"L-Lulu...before we start, calm down okay? Deep breathes!" Cecil began to inhale and exhale, trying to coerce Lucia into doing the same, but the girl just kept her smile.

The smile turned even brighter with each passing second, and this caused Cecil to become more and more frightened.

"Let me hit you, just once, okay?" Lucia tilted her head and said brightly.

"..."

This was unreasonable! If Cecil said yes, then there was no doubt that Lucia would most likely send an Apocalypse straight at his face. If he said no, then an Apocalypse would no doubt be the reward for his rejection.

Either way, he would still receive an Apocalypse to his face.

"Uhm...how about I let you...k-kiss me?"

"Oh?!" Lucia exclaimed in surprise. This wasn't like him at all, shouldn't he be running instead? "Hihihi~ I'd like that~ but not now, I want to hit you~ so let me? Okay?"

"...th-that's unreasonable!"

"Is it~?"

"...crap..."

The announcer cut in and loudly asked after his long-winded introductory speech.

"READY?!"

"Yes~" Lucia replied.

"N—"

"He's ready—"

At Lucia's words, the referee paused and looked towards Cecil. He was just standing there so the referee shrugged and declared loudly.

"FIGHT!!"

"—FOR A BEATING!!" Lucia shouted and dashed straight at Cecil.