Crea's training regime - duel

The duel started in an anti-climatic manner.

A shade of annoyance appeared on my sister's face when her opponent didn't attack her right off the bat, but she quickly erased it and confidently moved forward in small measured steps. She kept a constant watch on the ponytailed girl's hands, ready to deflect an incoming projectile with one of her weapons. It was almost certain that Rinne was underestimating Eri, yet instead of making the first move she tried to maintain the distance.

'Reptar. Send your opinion.' Crea's order was directed to the short-haired silver elf, who was emotionlessly watching the duel. For some reason in addition to holding a short bow prepared to shoot, he also kept several arrows in both hands. But since no one seemed to be bothered by it, I followed their example.

After receiving the goddess's order, the silver archer immediately lowered his head and obeyed. 'Master, this slave thinks that the duelist with the rapier is still too young, too immature. Her child-like overconfidence is either an act to hide a lack of skill and experience or a falsely gained conviction. This match would already end, in a single exchange, if the other duelist wasn't afraid of drawing accidental blood.'

Both the dark-skinned elf and the ponytailed guy nodded in agreement.

'It is indeed an act, but I didn't think that even you would be fooled by it.' Sent slightly bored Crea and moved her attention back to the duel.

'... this will be bloody.' I added, hoping that healing magic was included in Crea's repertoire.

'Don't worry. Rinne's just not used to fighting with important kids, but soon she will disarm her opponent without as much as putting a scratch on her.' Sent Nerion in a condescending tone.

This time, I ignored him. A moment later, first blows were about to be exchanged.

Despite saying that she was a throwing knife user, Rinne didn't throw a single one. Instead, while holding a knife in each hand, she finally decided to overpower her opponent in direct confrontation.

As soon as Rinne made the first step of her lunge, the silver-haired girl jumped back, outside the knives' short melee range. At the same time, with a smile on her face, she threw her dagger aimed at the leg that Rinne put forward. The off-hand weapon wasn't balanced in a way that would allow it to penetrate deep into the flesh, but it still managed to surprise the green haired elf and draw the first blood.

The ironical message contained in that throw hit both Rinne and Nerion hard.

Without delay, Rinne retaliated by throwing one of her knives. She was sure that it would be enough to scare away the immature looking opponent. Then she grabbed the dagger and pulled it out from her thigh. But this temporary distraction cost her greatly. Eri didn't falter even for a second. She easily dodged the lackluster throw and instantly followed with her next attack. This time it was a proper one with a lot of speed and power behind it. The rapier's thin blade easily pierced through Rinne's left forearm, and the cute girl yelled loudly from pain.

After gaining the upper hand, the small silver girl wasn't going to waste it.

My sister didn't bother with aiming at the parts protected by the leather armor. Instead, she made good use of her weapon's superior range and focused on attacking her opponent's limbs. None of her attacks were as dangerous as the one that pierced the forearm, but she made up for it with their sheer amount. She employed a hit and run tactic, danced around the ponytailed girl, and harassed her with a multitude of quick strikes that came at various angles, but mostly from Rinne's left side.

The ponytailed girl no longer looked down on her opponent, but she was distressed and lost her composure. Eri was putting constant pressure on her, which didn't leave Rinne any breathing room and forced to shift her entire attention to defense. On top of that, nearly half of the silver girl's thrusts were feints that she quickly turned into slashes as soon as her opponent fell for it. This resulted in Rinne's sleeves and pants being torn piece by piece.

As the holes and rips got bigger, we saw a multitude of shallows cuts and injuries carved into the light brown skin beneath. The sand around Rinne was no different from a yellow canvas on which Eri was happily painting with dark red blood and small pieces of flesh. She did all that without suffering as much as a single scratch while the throwing knife user had yet to throw even a single knife seriously.

I knew that Eri wasn't likely to lose, but I didn't expect her to dominate the sandy ring so easily. My sister's super aggressive style turned the multitude of knives attached to Rinne's armor into a mere weighty decoration.

'If only Rin was allowed to strengthen herself...' Sent Nerion pitifully, he didn't even realize he did that until Crea decided to respond to him.

'It's better this way, trust me. Otherwise, that girl would start targeting Rinne's eyes, trachea, or groin. I once saw as she grabbed her opponent's braid and set it on fire with a nearby torch... nevermind.'

With each drop of blood intercepted either by my sister's pale skin or silver hair, the grin on her face grew wider. It seemed that she was explicitly targeting the places that were already injured to cause as much pain as possible. She responded to each of Rinne's pained hisses with a giggle and an increase in her attacks ferocity. Eri's wicked red eyes were sparkling as if she was having the time of her life, and even I could tell that at this point she no longer treated this as a duel but was merely playing around with an elf-shaped toy.

Although a rapier was a weapon mainly used to perform nimble thrusting attacks, its edge was still capable of cutting and slashing. And right now Eri moved her focus to those secondary aspects. She had already removed Rinne's left sleeve and was now trying to see what was the longest stripe of skin that she would be able to cut off in one swift movement.

It didn't take long for Rinne's left forearm to look no different from a piece of bloody meat in which large chunks of muscles and tendons were missing. Even her fingers weren't spared. The middle finger was neatly skinned to the bone when Eri's rapier slid along the entire length of one of its phalanxes. I didn't even dare to imagine how painful it was, but just watching Rinne's reaction was enough to realize that indeed it must have hurt like hell.

Each time my sister came close to her left side, the ponytailed girl visibly panicked and desperately tried to move that arm as far away from her opponent as possible. It even led to situations in which, by hiding the injured arm behind her back, Rinne was willing to open herself for a hit in another place. Eri didn't ignore those free hits. When one of them came around, she relentlessly switched to work on bringing Rinne's right hand to the same wretched state. Nevertheless, she always tried to position herself on the ponytailed girl's left side.

Rinne was repeatedly saying something, and I didn't have to be a genius to understand that she was trying to yield. But Eri took pleasure in listening to those words. They only served to further fuel her onslaught. After all, it was just the prelude of things to come. The silver girl's eyes were strangely fixated on her opponent's hair… or more like her forehead?

This cruel side of my sister was something I only saw briefly in her memories. And since I told the evil princess that I wouldn't be afraid, it took all I had in order not to show the reaction to it on my face. At least those were my surface thoughts. The thing that I was truly afraid of was that despite feeling sorry for the cute girl whose skin was being removed in small patches, I found this show… strangely mesmerizing.

The others were more open with their thoughts, especially Nerion whose tightly clenched fists were visibly quivering. Time after time he moved his hands in the direction of the bow on his back, only to give up mid-way due to the silver slave's intense stare. I decided to abandon my initial plans of rubbing more salt into his wounds after Eri's victory.

'My lady… I beg you… stop this.' Finally, Nerion was no longer able to stand it and dropped to his knees.

'Don't ask me, ask Victor. Believe it or not but that blood splattering little maniac is his younger sister. They were even happily holding hands not so long ago.' Crea turned her head in my direction. 'Oh? Aren't you paler than usual Victor?'

'I'm f-fine.'

'Victor... no, my lord. Please forgive me for calling your honorable sister a child. Please forgive Rin for insulting you. I beg you, my lord, Rin's my everything… don't make me watch her suffer anymore.'

'... you will owe me a big one for that, understood?'

'Yes! I will do whatever you wish my lord!'

Thank the heavens. Now I had a proper reason to stop Eri. In the end, that cute girl's tears and screams were too much for me to bear. And her deep green eyes reminded me of another pair that I saw today.

"Sister!" I yelled, but she ignored it and gleefully continued to aim at tendons of Rinne's right hand. Apparently, her new goal was to 'disarm' the green haired girl.

"Eri! Listen to me and end this duel, or I will tell everyone that you once tried to wash your bottom by sitting in a bucket full of water! The entire bathroom was flooded and you were stuck in that bucket for hours!"

The effect of this threat was almost instantaneous. There was a short break in Eri's attacks during which she couldn't believe the words that just left my mouth. Then she pointed her rapier at me and yelled:

"I WILL KILL YOU!"

My careless intervention was a huge mistake. Not only Eri was furious, but I had distracted her during a serious fight.

In a desperate attempt to gain some distance, Rinne used one of her legs in a sweeping kick aimed at the smaller girl's waist. By no means there should be enough power or momentum behind it. Not to mention that my sister had a 'special armor' wrapped around her waist… yet among Rinne's painful groans, a different one emerged.

For a split of a second, this unexpected turn of events left me too shocked to react.

'What the heck?' Sent the elf with the small scar, not understanding over the top reaction from the silver girl's side.

"ERI!" I started running towards the fallen girl but was stopped by Crea's air wolf that quickly overtook me and blocked the way.

'Victor, don't interfere anymore. Go back and learn from Nerion how to control yourself.' She scolded in an incredibly amused tone. 'This will be a good lesson for that conceited girl.'

I ignored her words and kept staring at Rinne. Only after making sure that she didn't use this golden chance to finish off the opponent who lied next to a puddle of her own vomit, I reluctantly returned to the goddess side.

While staggering and leaving bloody traces, the green-haired girl took the rapier that caused her so much pain and began to move to the ring's opposite side. In her left hand, she still tightly held the dagger that Eri threw at her. Rinne's merciful behavior might have been caused by the fact that Erica Yelvesfor was now effectively disarmed.

My sister lied on the sand, breathing heavily. With both hands, she was desperately trying to do something beneath her shirt. Only me and Crea realized the reason behind all this. As Eri was getting more and more excited, her scaly tails must have been continuously tightening themselves around her waist. And when it reached a point that she wasn't able to tolerate anymore, this was the result.

But we were wrong.

The real reason revealed itself after Eri had successfully unwrapped her tails. That was also the moment when everyone saw two slim tails sprouting from the lower part of her back. Each was a meter and a half long. Their silver scales with black metallic luster were additionally coated with a thick layer of blood… Eri's blood. It seemed that simple squeezing wasn't the entire reason behind her fall.

Out of the two sharp arrowheaded tips of her tails, one was entirely painted in crimson. Judging by the quickly growing red stain on her green shirt, there was a deep wound in Eri's abdomen. I would love to run to her and dress the injury, but Crea's summoned wolf was still present right next to me. And there was another problem.

Crea's telepathic network was flooded with many inner voices. None of them were friendly.

'Master, your orders?' Sent Reptar and aimed his short bow at Eri.

'... she's a monster.' Elmar's message was sent by mistake. He quickly lowered his head and tried not to gather any further attention. Nevertheless, he kept one hand on his sword's hilt.

'My lady! Why did you allow this thing to torment Rin?!' On top of sending this, Nerion said something to his precious friend, then he started moving towards her. He even took off the bow from his back. No trace was left of his previous servile attitude towards me.

The air wolf blocked his way in a matter of seconds.

'The duel is still not finished.' Announced the goddess, and we felt that the two girls were reconnected to her network. 'Rinne T'aire has already stated her will to end the duel, and she has also successfully disarmed her opponent. What about you, Erica Yelvesfor, do you want to continue?'

Eri slowly stood up. She was gritting her teeth and watched me with a hate-filled gaze. She started to move in my direction.

I hoped that it was only an act… though she had warned me that hurting her pride in public wouldn't be tolerated.

A ruse to scare me… though she paid for my silly intervention with a humiliating display of vomiting and a painful injury.

'Erica Yelvesfor, if you leave the dueling site I will declare the duel as finished.' Crea's words had no visible effect on the silver girl. Eri left the ring, still walking in my direction.

'Since both duelists have agreed to it, I declare that the duel between Rinne T'aire and Erica Yelvesfor is hereby concluded!'

'Rin!' Sent Nerion and began to run towards the girl who smiled weakly at him… I was so fucking jealous of them… why couldn't we act like that?

*Slap*

The sound of a powerful hit resounded inside the small training hall. Eri put every ounce of her strength into hitting my face with the hand covered in chain gauntlet. Not only I barely kept my balance, but I could also swear that at the same time our soul-bond was strongly yanked as if she was trying to break it.

"Still holds? Damn it!" She said and while holding her belly moved to exit the room.

She seriously wanted to break the bond between us. This realization made me unable to comprehend anything else. I expected her to be angry, but not to such a degree...

While I stood shocked, holding my cheek, Crea took care of the aftermath.

'Reptar, this is a priority order. You are to take the girl with tails to Infirmary and protect her until I say otherwise. She has a warden's badge, use it if you encounter any troubles.'

'Yes master.'

'Nerion, you better take Rin over there as well before she loses too much blood.'

'Thank you my lady.' 'T-thank y-you...' Replied in unison the ponytailed duo, and tried to follow the previous pair through the door. The girl kept her right arm around Nerion as he helped her to walk.

I couldn't stand watching it any longer. In the first place, it was his fault, not mine! And on top of that, they thanked Crea not me?!

'No.' I declared, a whirl of dark emotions was swirling inside my head. 'He said that he was going to do whatever I want.'

'Hmm?' Responded Crea curiously.

'Make the other guy take that girl to a medic or something… I want Nerion to remain here so he can listen to my demand.'

'You heard him.' Sent the goddess and while Nerion showed an unhappy expression, there was no time to waste with Rinne in that state. On the other hand, Elmar seemed more than happy to leave. They quickly switched places, and another two elves left the room.

Only Crea, Nerion and me remained.

'Yes? What can I do for you, Victor?' Sent the ponytailed guy in an annoyed tone. It was exactly what I needed to feed the dark flames raging within.

'Oh, that's simple.' I started while massaging the cheek hit by Eri. 'You've said that Rinne was your everything? Well, since it looks that I've seriously pissed off my everything in order to save yours. I want to be compensated for it.'

'... what do you mean? Don't bring Rin into it or-'

'Shut up you fucker! You offered to do whatever I wished, so you better stick to your word! You either give me back my everything or repay me by becoming my fucking slave!'