“Like how you almost killed Lady Vena?” suddenly scoffed Axelane. “Accidents tend to surround your family a bit too often. What’s one more?”
Safia turned her angry eyes to her rival, but despite flinching, Axelane didn’t shy away from it. It seemed she had decided not to be intimidated by them.
“Then, maybe we shouldn’t make it an accident.”
Ashra suddenly stood up, impressive in her blood-red dress, glaring at Cessilia. Only then did they realize she had been carrying an extraordinary sword, large and with a unique but obviously sharp blade. She stepped down into the arena, pulling it out and pointing it at Cessilia.
“Come and fight me if you will, Princess. This shall be my performance, and my clan’s retaliation for you trying to murder us! The Yekara Clan will not be intimidated by you! You are a War God’s daughter, they say? I shall see if you’re not a sham!”
Cessilia slowly stood back up.
“No!” shouted Tessandra, jumping on her feet. “I will fight you, Yekara girl! My cousin already gave her performance, you have no need to fight her specifically!”
“No, I want to fight her. She’s always hiding behind her loud and brawly cousin, isn’t she? Yet, she is the War God’s daughter, not you. This Princess is only good for her money, and I shall prove it!”
“I said no,” hissed Tessandra. “You dumb bitch, if you raise your sword against Cessilia–”
“Tessa, it’s alright,” said Cessilia.
Her composure contrasted with her cousin’s visible nervousness. Tessandra was restless, her eyes going back and forth between Cessilia and her opponent, but the Princess was calm and resolute. Everyone in the arena was now excited to see what this was about. Was the Princess overestimating herself this time? Or underestimating her opponent? Most didn’t ignore that Ashra was a praised Yekara daughter and one of the very best warrior women in the Kingdom. Perhaps even the very best, but she seldom fought in public. A fight between her and Tessandra of the Dragon Empire would have been impressive for sure, but now, all the attention was on the Princess.
They saw Cessilia close her eyes for a second and take a deep breath. She did seem a bit nervous. With a slight hesitation, Tessandra threw her sword, and Cessilia caught it, effortlessly moving the weapon around.
“…Be careful, Cessi,” she muttered.
Cessilia nodded and took a step back, her eyes riveted on her opponent. The tension in the room was palpable.
Tessandra slowly sat back, her hands joined and her upper body leaning toward the arena, nervous. Naptunie felt nervous as well, and scooted a bit closer to her.
“...Lady Cessilia will be alright, won’t she? Maybe she still learned a thing or two... She should know how to put up a bit of a fight, right...?”
Tessandra turned to her with large eyes, and finally, let out a long sigh, shaking her head. She directed her dark eyes to the arena again.
“Cessi isn’t the one I’m worried about, Naptunie. Really not. I’m more worried about what she’s capable of doing to that dumb bitch...”Nana’s jaw dropped a bit, and she slowly moved her gaze back to the arena. Looking at the slender, tall, and graceful figure of Lady Cessilia, she had a hard time imagining how she could be such a fighter that Tessandra would be worried for her opponent. She had only ever seen the gentle and caring Cessilia, who sometimes did get quite fierce and harsh with her words, but she couldn’t remember seeing her actually wield a weapon. Every time, Tessandra had been the quickest to draw hers. Unlike her gentle-natured cousin, Tessa had always seemed to be the hot-blooded one, and not shy with her weapon, so much so that Naptunie hadn’t even thought Cessilia could also be a fighter...
“So she’s... actually really good?” muttered Nana.
“More than that,” scoffed Tessandra. “She’s only ever lost to her older brothers. Her dad’s trained her himself since she was young. Cessilia never liked to fight, but she’s really, really good regardless. After what happened to her, she picked up her training again and got even better. I know I wouldn’t be able to win against her.”
Cessilia was an even better fighter than her cousin? Naptunie was speechless again. She knew Cessilia was the War God’s daughter, but that didn’t mean she had chosen to follow his steps and learn how to fight! From what she had seen, the Princess was already very proficient in many domains, mostly medicine, but she also knew things like trade and politics, and even how to understand people’s needs. Naptunie had thought Tessandra was mostly the other half of Cessilia, adept in what the Princess wasn’t, but now, it seemed like she had underestimated her once more.
Even now, Cessilia’s figure seemed pretty harmless. She seemed to be barely holding the sword with the ends of her fingers, and not in a position to start fighting at all. However, she was standing very straight, and her green eyes were following her opponent. Naptunie looked around. Everyone around the arena was holding their breath, all eyes on the two young women. The Yekara Clan members were grinning, feeling confident. As expected, they all thought Cessilia’s strength would mainly rely on her dragon blood. Now that she knew they were wrong, Naptunie felt a bit more excited, goosebumps appearing on her forearms. After she had witnessed Tessandra’s fighting skills, she was all the more curious to see how her cousin could compare. If she had been trained by the War God himself, the Yekara candidate was about to learn quite a painful lesson about underestimating opponents...
“Grand speeches and gold coins won’t save you this time, Princess,” smiled Ashra. “The Yekara Clan doesn’t use mighty titles calling ourselves gods to show off. We only rely on our strength to best our opponents. Our clan takes pride in centuries of hard training, ancient fighting techniques, and unique weapons crafted by the very best blacksmiths!”
Just as she said this, she took off the skirt of her dress, revealing pants with two strange blades attached to her hips. The blades had been cut in unique shapes that added a hook before the tip and were clearly sharpened. Naptunie felt a chill just from looking at them. Compared to Cessilia’s weapon, Ashra’s were made to injure the opponent multiple times. Tessandra suddenly clicked her tongue next to her.
“That sadistic bitch... Those are torture swords,” she grunted. “Those swords aren’t made to kill in one go, she wants to make a show out of this.”
“Is it very bad?”
“It’s strange, considering she knows about our skin. She most likely wants to show off. She wants to show she can injure us despite our dragon skin, and make the fight last. Cessi won’t have it, though...”
Indeed, Cessilia didn’t seem to care at all about Ashra’s speech. She hadn’t moved since before. Naptunie realized her sword seemed completely still as well, and almost like it was part of Cessilia’s body. Ashra’s sword had a handle with a long, red ribbon, and symbols carved into the blade, while the Princess’ sword had a simple leather handle, without any other kind of flourishes. Strangely, it seemed much more noble.
“...You should use a d-different sword,” Cessilia said. “That one isn’t s-suited for c-combat.”
“Oh, I know. But to a specific monster, one shall adapt their weapon, Princess. Those scars on your neck mean your dragon skin cannot completely save you from cuts, hence I want to see how long it takes for you to bleed...”
“It’s a fucking test,” muttered Tessandra. “This isn’t even about the fight. The Yekara Clan is experimenting with what it would take to kill us...”
Naptunie, who had been looking forward to this fight, was back to worrying again. The Yekara Clan was truly too much. They left nothing to fate; they were targeting the Princess on a long-term basis. They definitely had planned this fight, and to use Lady Ashra to test if she could kill the Princess... Now, it was all down to Cessilia. Despite Tessandra’s words, she couldn’t stop worrying about her. Cessilia seemed like such a kind-hearted person, it was hard to imagine she’d attack her opponent as fiercely and recklessly as they knew Ashra would.
“Your Majesty!” claimed Ashra with a wry smile. “I shall show you this Princess isn’t right for our Kingdom. Our Kingdom needs a real queen!”
Right after that, she jumped forward, aiming right at Cessilia. The next movement was barely believable.
Ashra launched herself at full speed toward her, yet Cessilia seemed to simply step to the side. It was so quick, yet each movement was absolutely perfect. Ashra seemed to be blown aside, although they had clearly seen Cessilia be the one to move. The Princess was swift and quick, and her opponent’s blade found absolutely nothing when she crossed the air in front of her. Ashra herself seemed to be completely speechless for a moment, blinking twice as if she had just been hit by reality.
Cessilia left her no room to catch up, though. The Princess made a simple movement with her wrist, and suddenly, a long, red ribbon flew into the air. Her sword wasn’t even stained, but it was clearly blood that splattered the ground. The movement had been so perfect, swift, and silent, everyone in the audience looked for the injury with confusion. Even Ashra herself looked down to find her flank crossed with a long cut. She then screamed one second too late, holding the bleeding injury with a panicked expression.
“There you go,” muttered Tessandra. “Cessi is gonna give her a taste of her own medicine...”
“She won’t look for a quick victory?” asked Naptunie.
“No. Not now that she’s seen and heard what Ashra had planned for her. Cessilia might be kind, but she is no fool. She especially has no mercy for sadists with a thing for torture... We are not science subjects. Ashra should have faced a dragon instead. She would have gotten a quicker death...”
Down in the arena, the Yekara candidate seemed to be slowly catching up with what had just happened. She was still holding her bleeding flank, glaring at Cessilia with all her might. All of her earlier boastings were gone. Even if she had just been bested, the young woman was a good enough fighter to realize this was no mere luck from Cessilia. She had just realized how much she had underestimated her opponent. Quickly, she adjusted her position, holding her sword with both hands and getting ready, clenching her teeth.
