Vol.4 Ch.3 – Duel

Chapter 3: Duel

“Are you sure that was a good idea?" Selene asked, quite gently.

In response Anna deflated. “I... don't know. He just made me so mad I couldn't take it.”

We had rushed to Anna's room so she could change, which she was in the process of doing, tossing her dress off and changing into her adventuring clothes, or at least one set of them.

“You'll be fine," Yume said, causing Anna to look up at her. “I told you before. You are a prodigy. And now you finally have the power and training to put all of that talent to use.”

“Are you sure?" the princess asked and I put a hand on her shoulder, which I could finally do now that we were finally in private.

“When he said you needed us to keep you safe I wanted to slug him. You did more than your fair share of the work in all our battles. You'll do great.”

“Go out there and kick his ass," Selene suggested helpfully.

Anna finished putting on her boots then took a deep breath and smiled up at us. “Thank you.”

“Who knows," Alisha mused. “If you do well Felix might reward you later.”

Anna looked up at me and I shrugged. “If she does well, sure.”

The princess subconsciously bit her lip before she shook herself out of it. “You all are insatiable.”

“Are you bored of us already?" Alisha asked, batting her eyelashes.

Anna chuckled at her antics. “Not by a long shot.”

**

I hadn't even known the royal palace had a courtyard before today but it was one of those things that really shouldn't have surprised me. In fact, by sheer logic I assumed that the palace had to have two such courtyards.

The palace was built around the Crystal Crown, a helix comprised of two unfathomably large spikes of crystal, which we had recently learned was actually the manifestation of the dungeon that lay beneath the capital. The older a dungeon got the more it would warp the area directly above it and the Crystal Crown's dungeon was ancient, old enough for its manifestation to be visible from every corner of the kingdom and possibly well beyond it.

The courtyard we were standing in was built around the base of one of those crystal spires so it followed that there was a second courtyard that wrapped around the other one. In truth the actual open space was small compared to the enormous pillar of crystal at its center, though even so it was more than large enough for duels.

The grass was immaculately groomed although it was likely that this close to a dungeon it just grew perfectly on its own, and there was just enough space for a few trees to grant shade to the area. That shade was sorely needed because the crystal spire acted like a prism, a riot of colors being projected onto the surrounding area whenever the light hit it just so, the colors very reminiscent of the gems the royal family could summon.

We were only there for a few minutes, enjoying the breeze as Anna tried to relax and slow her breathing, when Richard appeared.

Anna had taken the time to put on her adventuring garb, a leather vest over a long-sleeved tunic, long sturdy trousers and leather boots. She had not taken her bow or her satchel full of herbs, potions and salves along, though, intending to face her brother with only the power of their shared bloodline.

Richard was likewise dressed in practical clothes, though his leaned more towards the pompous. His pants and tunic were white with golden embroidery, ornamental buttons over his chest that made it look button-up without actually being so and the top had a short, blood-red cape that draped over his right shoulder. I didn't like the guy much but I had to admit he had a certain amount of style. He was very handsome and knew how to dress to impress. It made me wonder why he had been at the gala dinner weeks ago without a partner. The noblewomen there had certainly been giving him all kinds of looks.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Anna?" he asked as he approached.

“Getting cold feet?" Anna replied, her tone too cold to be taunting.

He let out a breath, not quite a sigh but close. “Worth a try," he said. “How are we doing this?”

“Crystal powers only," she said. “I have a point to make.”

“You can't win against me with those," he said.

He'd said it matter-of-factly, as if it was just the way things were, but Anna didn't bristle. She'd heard that all her life and none of her siblings knew yet that it was no longer true.

“First blood," she said, ignoring his comment.

As I said, dungeons could affect their surroundings, creating manifestations above ground, but their influence went much deeper than that. If a family spent generations living in the vicinity of a dungeon the mana would actually tinge them, to the point that if a family member was born with magic potential the magic would usually be similar to that of the dungeon they lived on top of.

For example, the village of Shackled Hollow was built atop a dungeon whose manifestation messed with space, making the disc of rock above it float yards above the ground and exposing the underground ecosystem beneath it, and the mages born in Shackled Hollow all shared an affinity for space magic because of it.

But for the royal family that influence went deeper still. The royal family had actually been standing watch over the Crystal Crown's dungeon for centuries and the affinity was no longer confined to their magic. Their very life force was tainted by the mana of the Crystal Crown, giving them the ability to conjure gemstones without even needing to have a talent for magic.

The issue with that was that manipulating life force was practically unheard of in our kingdom. The Southern kingdoms, meanwhile, had many techniques for doing so, as Yume had shared with us. As such, in order to keep the source of their power a secret the royal family hired Qi specialists from the southern realms in order to instruct their children in the use of their powers. As Annabella's instructor had died in a 'tragic accident' before he even reached the royal palace Anna had been left without such instruction and none of her siblings had deigned to enlighten her. She had managed to find out how to use the life force within her on her own, which according to Yume was almost unheard of, but without any formal instruction her technique had been horribly sloppy and she could barely conjure up a fraction of the power her siblings could. But now, with Yume's help, Anna had managed to refine her techniques, bringing her to at least the same level as her siblings.

On top of that, Anna had eaten the same mystic fruits we had and they had supercharged the elixir sea within her and purified the pathways that power needed to take within her body, likely making Anna stronger than any of her siblings. She had also had all those other mystic fruits so her body was stronger and her senses sharper. I'd seen her make shots with her bow in the dungeon that I was certain no human should have been able to make and I was sure that if she wanted she could win a fight to first blood in a single second.

But from her posture and the hardness in her eyes I could tell she would not end this quickly. There was a lifetime of history between these two, both good and bad, and she wanted to make a point.

“First blood," he repeated. “Fine.”

**

Richard took a deep breath, reached forward with his right hand and started drawing power. When I had first watched Anna use her power I had thought it was magic, especially because Anna herself had described it as magic, but now, with more experience, I could clearly see him reaching deep inside himself, into the well of life force in his dantian, as he drew out the power. In the span of a few seconds a ruby sword materialized in his hand, a slender straight sword that looked almost regal in its simple design. And just looking at the weapon any remaining doubts about the identity of Anna's would-be assassin evaporated because the blade he summoned looked nothing like the blade that had been flung at her. That sword had been more like a rapier, a weapon made for thrusting and not slashing, while Richard's weapon was clearly a longsword.

Annabella analyzed the sword her brother had summoned and then held out a hand and summoned her own, mirroring the speed with which Richard had created his. From all the time we'd fought together I knew damn well that she could have done that much faster but evidently she wanted to lull him into a false sense of security.

“You've gotten faster," he said, sounding impressed. Oh he was in for a rude awakening.

“Yeah," she said, and the strain in her voice would have sounded genuine if I hadn't known better.

The two of them advanced on each other and attacked, their swords clashing. They fell into an easy rhythm of attacks and counters that made me think they'd been sparring together for years and it only took me a few minutes of watching them to realize that I'd seen that style of swordplay before.

Once, years ago, I fought a group of bandits led by a noble whose family had fallen on hard times and he'd employed that exact same style, court fencing it was called. Then, a few months ago, I'd seen that same style from a cultist of Shub-Niggurath who had later turned out to be a noble who had practiced his rather variant religion in secret.

Anyway, I knew a little about the style and both of them were quite adept at it. Despite what the name suggested, court fencing was a very efficient fighting style with only a few flourishes added in. It was mostly employed during duels or when fighting weaker foes and it showed. The style was all about harassing the opponent with shallow cuts before ending things with decisive thrusts. In a duel like this one the two of them went almost exclusively for the harassing cuts, trying to score first blood as quickly as possible and end things, while they both avoided using those very dangerous thrusts.

Another thing that quickly became apparent was how much stronger Anna was than Richard. During our time in the dungeon we'd only fought supernaturally powerful monsters so it had been hard to appreciate just how much stronger we'd gotten down there and thus a fight like this was highly educational.

Nobody would ever accuse Anna of being a wilting flower. Anna was strong and toned. She wasn't overly muscular or anything but she had defined abs, toned thighs and noticeable biceps. And thanks to Richard's rather tight outfit I could tell that both of them were about evenly matched when comparing their physiques.

And because of that it was plain to see just how much stronger Anna was. After a few minutes of fighting Richard was already breathing hard while Anna was still fresh and by the way she kept parrying his blows I could tell that she could have stopped him cold if she'd ever let him hit her squarely. But she was purposely avoiding head-on attacks, letting him think they were evenly matched. Even more, I could tell that Anna was having a much easier time reading her brother than he did her, his movements a little jerkier as if he had to course-correct his strikes every now and again.

Except he didn't really seem to notice that she was toying with him. Through pants he asked her: “Is this really the best you can do? Didn't you say you'd gotten stronger?”

Anna gritted her teeth at that. “I'll show you.”

“No," he said, then attacked her full force, their blades clashing, before they both disengaged. “I'm ending this.”

He raised his free hand up high and a dozen ruby blades formed high above both of them, their points downward. Anna's eyes widened momentarily and then Richard jerked his hand down, causing the blades to rain from the sky.

It was an impressive attack but with our newly enhanced senses I could practically see the weapons falling in slow motion and I could almost feel the desire radiating off Anna to stop holding back, to use her superhuman reflexes to weave through the blades without even breaking stride, but something was still holding her back, keeping her from showing her full power. So instead of embarrassing him by walking through his flashy move she threw herself into a roll, avoiding the hail of blades entirely. I also noticed that they all disappeared a moment after hitting the ground. Maybe keeping all of them around was too taxing for him.

But the moment Anna rolled I knew what Richard had planned. While she was still righting herself he lunged at her, trying to graze her bicep with his blade and end it, but Anna had expected it and was ready for him.

Still on one knee she leaned out of the way of his blade, reached past it to grab his wrist and then yanked, pulling him off-balance with his own momentum. It was one of Yume's favorite tricks for dealing with enemies taller and heavier than her and she'd taught it to all of us. And right then Anna used it to turn the tables because now it was him that was reeling on the ground.

She came at him, holding her blade above her head in both hands, intending to cleave down and hit his shoulder, but right as she brought her weapon down he summoned a half-dome of ruby shards over himself and Anna's sword bounced off it with a high-pitched tinging sound.

While she was still reeling the ruby shards all flipped ninety degrees to point right at her.

“I'm sorry, Anna," he said and then let loose the hail of sharpened shards.

I felt Alisha's fingers digging into my forearm before there was a tremendous clatter and then Anna stood there, unharmed, a pair of sapphire wings wrapped around her, keeping her safe.

I'd known intellectually that our Qi had gotten stronger and our meridians cleaner, had even felt the power answering much more readily than before, but this really put things into perspective. Before she'd started training under Yume it had taken Anna most of a minute to create one of these wings and had tired her out. After training with Yume she could summon one wing without difficulty but creating a second still took a lot out of her. But this time she'd created two in only a few breaths.

And these wings were complex shapes, consisting of large shards that looked like feathers, translucent enough that one might think they were made of tinted glass except that they were far too tough to be glass. They moved as if they were natural wings and though I was pretty sure Anna wouldn't be able to fly with them, seeing as they were essentially made of rock, she could block with them, slash with them and use them to send out sharp shards in the shape of feathers. And with them she'd managed to block Richard's attack. But in the process she'd shown just how strong she'd gotten.

“How?" Richard asked quietly. He stood up but made no move to attack her, he merely stared at the wings that were now wrapped protectively around her shoulders.

“I told you I've gotten a lot stronger," she said.

“But how?" he asked.

“I told you mother had sent us into the dungeon. Did you hear about what happened?” He just looked at her. “We were chasing a group of cultists of the Black Goat, Richard. A group of cultists led by Wilhelm.”

“What?" he asked, shocked. “But did...”

“Did we know it was him doing it?" she asked. “No. Not until today. Anyway, we chased them down all the way to the fifth floor. They were after the boss of that floor.”

“The one great-grandfather lost half his men to?" he scoffed. “Shame you didn't let him. Would have been a slaughter.”

Anna shook her head. “You know why great-grandfather struggled so much with it? Because it spawns monsters until you're buried under bodies. Wilhelm wanted to corrupt it, to turn it into a creature of the Black Goat, so it would spawn creatures completely loyal to his goddess.”

Richard swallowed. “But you stopped him before he could, right?”

She shook her head again. “No, Richard. They had already corrupted it when we got there. We killed that boss. Great-grandfather lost almost fifty men to that thing and we killed it with the five of us.”

He stared at her, her words sinking in. Finally he took a deep breath. “Alright, fine. I admit you're strong, Anna. But why? Why do all of this? Why go out there and risk yourself? You could have a happy life right here, working as mother's emissary. But instead you go out and fight monsters that could kill a group of trained soldiers. Why?”

She gritted her teeth and started trembling with rage. “All my life you, all of you, have treated me like I'm weak. Now I can finally prove that I'm strong and you still ask this?” She charged at him and once again their swords clashed.

Her fighting style was reckless now. But it was calculated recklessness. She'd noticed that he only went for glancing blows, for her limbs instead of vital areas, and so she left herself wide open, practically taunting him with how she left her vitals exposed, knowing he wouldn't strike her anywhere life-threatening. It allowed her to go for flashier moves that he scrambled to parry and dodge.

“I just don't get why you won't just work in politics," he said, pushing her back to buy himself time to breathe. “You wouldn't have needed to get this strong for that.”

She came at him again. “I fucking hate politics you asshole. All the nobles make fun of me and you know damn well why. I'm worthless to them and they never let me forget it.” She shoved him back and nodded at us. “But they don't. They care for me.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, until they find out.”

She scoffed right back at him. “You conceited ass," she hissed. “I already told them. They don't mind.”

He seemed shocked for a moment but then he sneered. “Oh, great. You're such a free spirit, Anna. You broke your yoke of being a princess so that you can have these commoners leech off you.” I could hear Yume growling next to me, a low, dangerous animal sound I'd never heard from her before.

“How DARE you?!" Anna roared at him and then her wings beat once.

I knew she had fine control in spades but what happened next was awe-inspiring. She had sent out three sapphire pinions. Just three. The first one shot through Richard's left pant leg, pinning him to the ground. The second cut the short-cropped hair off the top of his head. His hair had been maybe a tenth of an inch long and she still managed to shear off a little of it without the shard touching his skin. The third grazed his right cheek. Neither of the three drew blood, not even the one that grazed his cheek. Her aim had been just that precise.

“I've been getting shit from you all my life," she said in an icy hiss. “And that's fine. But you do not get to insult the people I care about.”

He was visibly shaken by her display, acutely aware of the fact that she could have won their duel then and there but had chosen not to. Aware of the fact that those shards could have just as easily hit his vitals if Anna had wanted them to. Finally he composed himself, tore his pinned leg loose and charged at her again, locking blades once more.

“The people you care about?" he scoffed, bearing down on her. “You've known them for, what? A month?”

“Yeah," she said, anchoring herself in the ground with her wings so she wouldn't have to yield even an inch. “A month of life and death struggle, of trust and bonding. A month in which I've bared more of myself than I have to anyone else all my life.” She shoved him back by their locked blades. “The more you belittle it the more you're proving that you know nothing about me.”

Richard's face slackened in shock and Anna managed to shove him back.

“What's wrong? Out of snappy remarks?" she growled.

He shook his head as if to clear it. “You're right, Anna," he finally said. “I feel like I don't know you anymore. What happened to you?” His tone was no longer insulting and belittling. It was honestly shocked.

“For years I've been putting up a front," she said in a quiet voice. All the anger had melted out of it. “For years I was having fun wherever I went but really I was just trying to drown out the loneliness. I was scared to get truly close to anyone, scared they wouldn't want me back. But then I met them. Felix, Alisha, Selene and Yume. They don't think I'm worthless the way the nobles do. They don't think I'm silly for wanting to see the world. And...” Her eyes watered and she hiccuped. “And since I met them, for the first time since I turned nineteen, I feel comfortable in my own skin again.”

He was about to take a step forward to comfort her but she raised her sword to stop him.

“We're not done yet.”

“Anna..." he said but reluctantly raised his sword again. “Alright, fine, have it your way.” He raised the sword above his head and summoned another six in an arc above him, all pointed at Anna. “Let's end this.”

“Yeah," Anna said, leaning forward on one leg as if she was about to break into a sprint. “Let's.”

Richard pointed his sword forward and the six above him shot forward as if loosed from invisible bows, hurtling towards Anna.

Anna, for her part, broke into a sprint and, once the blades had almost reached her, jumped. Her wings beat once to give her additional momentum and then twisted impossibly, batting two of his blades out of the air. She twisted with inhuman grace to avoid two others, then batted a fifth out of the air with her own sword and with her free hand she grabbed the sixth one out of the air, her palm missing the blade by a hair's breadth, spun around once more and then flung the sword at Richard.

Her aim had been perfect and the blade would have hit him in such a way as to just graze his cheek but before it could reach him he used his own power and dispersed the blade into nothingness. He was about to summon another attack but Anna wasn't done yet. After flinging the sword she had summoned a small crystal pillar out of the ground and kicked off it, launching her whole body at Richard.

She was on course for a head-on collision with her brother and he blocked with his sword but she twisted out of the way at the last moment and, as she hurtled past him, the very tip of her left wing grazed the back of his left hand, drawing a thin red line of blood on his skin.

The hit was so faint he didn't even notice and spun to attack her. Only when he raised his hand to attack her did he notice the blood welling from the back of his hand. He stared at it and then started chuckling.

Anna righted herself, then turned around to see him and then she started chuckling as well.

I was wondering what they found so funny until he said: “You finally managed to win.”

“Only took me ten years," she said and walked up to him, pulling out a little jar of healing salve. She opened it, intending to spread it on his wound, but he pulled his hand away.

“No, let it scar. It's proof that you've finally managed to best me.”

I had already gotten a fairly good feel for the complicated relationship these two shared but I was still confused and clearly the girls were feeling similarly lost. And so I damn near jumped out of my skin when Queen Emilia said, from right next to me: “They have been sparring for years. The only times Anna managed to beat Richard was when he was deliberately holding back. But this time he was giving it his all and he still lost.”

I turned to her and saw that both Queen Emilia and King Luke had settled down right next to the girls and me, as if they'd been watching the duel with the same rapt attention we had.

“Y-your majesty," I said.

“None of that," she said quietly. “Right now I am just a mother talking about her children.”

“You could have stopped them if you wanted," I said. It wasn't quite an accusation but it was close and I had only dared to say it because of her candor.

“I could have," she agreed. “But they needed this. This is not the first time their arguments have turned violent, nor the fifth. They care about each other as much as two siblings can, they just have a strange way of showing it.” She nodded at the siblings, who were holding each other tight, rocking gently.

“For a while we thought it might have been Richard who had tried to kill Anna," I said. “The assassination attempt happened right after they argued and back then we still thought it had been a ruby weapon.”

Her eyes widened and she nodded, finally putting the pieces together. “I am glad you were there for her, then.”

“We'll be there for her for as long as she lets us," I said.

The queen gave me a small smile, nodded and got up to walk away.

“Aren't you going to stay, to let them know you care?”

The queen looked from me to her husband and he gave her a very slight nod. She let out a sigh and turned back around to face her children.

By that point Anna and Richard had finally let go of each other. I'd heard them mutter apologies to each other while I was talking to the queen and now they seemed relaxed in each other's presence again. They began to walk over to us and then paused when they saw their parents standing with us.

“Mother," Richard said, surprise clear in his voice. “Father. What are you doing here?”

The queen gave a soft chuckle. “We couldn't help but overhear you two clashing blades and yelling at each other so we came to investigate.” She was about to turn away and walk off but her husband gave her a look so she added: “You two fought brilliantly. You especially, Annabella. I am so proud of you.”

Both of them were stunned and Anna had to swallow hard before she could reply: “Th-thank you, mother.”