CHAPTER 35: END OF A FORCED DUEL

I make all the blades go as fast as possible.

"Mesumari" He suddenly speaks that name again, and in his hands appears a "Sword" in an instant all my weapons are destroyed with a simple swing of that "Sword".

My shark is cut in half while I narrowly dodge by slipping into the shadows.

’R-Ridiculous... was that a cut? And what the hell kind of sword is that?’ That can hardly be called a sword, it seems to be 3 meters long with the blade being 2 meters wide, and practically a metal plate on a handle.

"PANDORA, BE CAREFUL" I hear Violet scream, so I dodge, soon I see that he swung the sword down towards me, his sword seems to ignore physics and logic as the cut of it cut everything in front of it ignoring distance.

"Violet, I never thought I’d be so happy to hear your voice," I say to her as I take my position to dodge if necessary.

"Pandora, doesn’t that weapon give you a strange feeling?" Violet says to me.

"...Yes... I think that sword..." I start to say.

"It’s grade 11," Violet completes, saying what I had already imagined.

"Violet... do you think I can win against that?" I can’t consider the thing in front of me a human, it destroyed my plan with a single swing of the sword.

"...I don’t know, with a lot of luck, it’s a possibility."

"How encouraging..." I create a sword for Violet to help me.

"...Are you ready, Demon King?" He asks as he prepares.

"Of course I am."

I quickly enter my shadow and come out of his, aiming to strike him quickly, he jumps forward to dodge, soon he accelerates coming towards me as I’m still coming out of the shadows.

"[Neutral Barrier]" I use a barrier to try to at least slow down the blade of his sword, but it didn’t work, my barrier broke as soon as it came into contact with the blade, I receive a cut as I narrowly dodge being split in two.

’How can he move something so big with such speed and precision?’

My blood drips to the ground.

"[Explosive Life]" I turn the blood into an explosive and wait for him to advance.

Soon I am struck in the back with a kick and thrown face-first against one of the pillars.

"V-Life... blerg cough cough" I cough up blood when I try to use the explosive life magic to make it explode where he is, I feel as if my organs have been destroyed by this blow.

"Pandora, change your approach," Violet tells me, so far she hasn’t been very useful to me, nor can I get close enough to use a sword.

’If I use all my magic in one attack... and fail, it’s the end...’ If I had a 100% chance of hitting him, then using 100% of my magic in one attack is a possibility.

"Pandora, try something different if you don’t want to die here."

"I know, I know, but what can I do against this thing..." I enter the shadows and start circling around him, he seems to have started getting bored.

"Demon King, if you don’t show me something interesting, I’ll end this fight right now."

"..."

"..." Violet and I don’t know what to do, with no time to think and not enough strength to go head-on, this situation couldn’t get any worse.

"Pandora, I have an idea... but if it goes wrong, all your mana will be depleted and you’ll be vulnerable."

"I don’t think I have much choice, tell me what to do," I ask her while still circling Mikael.

"You can use all your mana at once to strengthen your body, but when the mana runs out, you’ll be at 0 mana and exhausted, so you have to end it quickly."

I’ve never thought of using all my mana to strengthen my body, I usually only used a little bit.

This makes me realize how absurd Mikael is, since he’s not using a drop of mana at all, he hasn’t used any magic to strengthen himself, and he hasn’t used any magic at all, it’s just his strength and his fencing with the sword.

I come out of the shadows and walk up to Mikael, I point the blade of my sword at him.

"Mikael, I challenge you to a sword duel, I’ll show you how interesting I can be for you," I say with a smile as I challenge him head-on, the craziest thing I could do is try to go toe-to-toe with him, but that’s exactly what I’ll do.

"...Hahaha" He laughs, but not with mockery or sarcasm, but with excitement.

"How interesting, so you’re saying you won’t run from the fight anymore? Great, I accept your challenge, and may the sharpest blade win." He accepts my challenge, pointing his sword at me.

A sword fight between me and him will be a competition not only of strength but of technique, when he said the sharpest blade, he was referring to me and him, which of us will have the best fencing in this fight, this will be one of the decisive factors of this duel.

I take the initial stance, soon I see him also preparing.

"Yes, may the sharpest blade win," I say to him with a smile and a strange excitement.

I start using 100% of my mana to strengthen myself, in an instant I feel an explosion of power coursing through my body, my reflexes and senses have been greatly enhanced.

"..." We stare at each other and then.

Clink

We rush forward at once, now I can see his movements and even compete with him in strength, I hear the sound of the clashing of the blades, soon we start a series of blows so far evenly matched.

This first exchange of blows shows how strong Violet is, the sword made by me is at most grade 5, but with Violet’s strength, this sword can compete with the blows of a grade 11 sword.

I use Scheitelhau, a downward cut with force, to try to open Mikael’s guard. I feel my heart racing at a thousand beats per minute in this exchange.

I see a smile on Mikael’s face while I notice that I’m also smiling with the sensation, it’s exciting, the adrenaline coursing through my body is wonderful, along with that unknown feeling that I still don’t understand.

He defended my blow with some strange fencing and brought his blade closer, his blade cuts a strand of my hair and stops moving, while I push it back.

I use Winden to redirect his blade to the ground and kick him in the abdomen, I see him make the first expression of pain since this fight began.

"Not bad, Demon King," He says as he regains his guard and strikes me with a vertical blow.

"Call me Pandora, Mikael," I say to him as I use Abnehmen to dodge and prepare a counterattack.

I’m a few meters away, he stomps the ground and rushes forward with renewed momentum, cutting the distance almost instantly with a blow coming from above.

I block the blow as the ground around us cracks with the force of the impact.

"I see... so Pandora, show me everything you can do," Even though his form is distorted, I can understand his expressions and tones, he’s excited, and so am I.

It’s strange, the fear I had slowly turned into excitement, it’s something more.

He uses a horizontal blow with speed instead of force.

I use Durchwechseln to reposition his blade, making it go to the ground, trying to reposition this attack before would have split me in two, but now I can.

I move my sword taking advantage of its size to try to cut his throat with Absetzen, taking advantage of the fact that his blade is on the ground.

"What a beautiful smile, Pandora," He suddenly brought his face close to mine, making me hesitate for a second with what he said, but hesitating was a mistake.

"AAARRHHGGG" I am struck extremely hard in the stomach and thrown against the pillars.

"Pandora, don’t get distracted like that, damn it, if you want to die, die alone," Violet scolds me for hesitating.

"Tsk... i-it wasn’t intentional," I resume my stance.

He soon rushes towards me, I use the broken pillar behind me to jump over him and fall behind him, in a quick movement I turn using Mutieren so the angle doesn’t go wrong.

He jumps slightly, still holding the sword in his hand as he avoids my blow, soon he lands on the ground and turns, spinning the sword.

’T-This is bad!!!’ He’s using the rotation to increase the force. I use Fühlen to better feel the force and direction of his sword. Then I use Indes to be able to react instantly to the attack.

I crouch down quickly, narrowly dodging the blade that completed the full rotation and almost took my head off, if it had been a little lower, it would have been the end of me.

I use Ringen am Schwert to try to push him against the pillar, he turns the blade, hitting the tip on the ground and locking it there, when my sword strikes, my whole body trembles with the generated vibration.

"Pandora, your time is running out, finish this quickly or it will be the end of you..." Violet warns me, her arrogant tone has a certain concern.

I back away from him as far as I can, then I rush forward again to gain more momentum, he prepares to defend.

I use Zornhau, a powerful diagonal blow with all my strength, when the blades collide, it generates a shockwave that destroys the surrounding floor.

I prepare to strike until everything seems to blur, I get dizzy and jump back, my vision starts to turn slightly red, I notice a warm liquid flowing from my eyes.

’Blood...’ I’ve reached my limit, I feel my strength quickly diminish as I feel exhaustion, muscle pain, and severe fatigue.

"What a shame... it seems this is your limit, Pandora, it’s sad that our duel ends like this," Mikael says with a certain sadness.

"Y-Yes... hahaha it was much more fun than I expected... it seems defeat is mine this time," I say with a smile as I feel the blood flowing down my face and dripping to the ground.

"It seems we’re done here... I liked you, Pandora, you’re not bad at all, goodbye," As he says that, my vision is inverted.

"Beautiful..." I see a glimpse of his true appearance, as my vision spins, seeing the sky, the ground, and my decapitated body. That palpitation in my heart happens again, even in this situation, and instead of fear, I feel something completely different.