Chapter 15: ...And Brutality

If the observers were not already shocked from the hot start of the sparring match; they definitely would have been shocked a few seconds later with the sudden elimination of Belle and Venia.

Truth be told, many had an inkling that Ser Rheya still would have been favored to win the match even with the numbers advantage; this was especially true for those who had watched Ser Rheya's earlier showings. If asked to talk about her previous outings, many would speak of her beautiful swordsmanship and graceful technique; none of those descriptions matched what had just transpired. The movements were still smooth and practiced, however, they had an edge to them. There was a sense of gritty realism with how she had kicked the Princess to the ground and slammed Venia on top of her. Many understandably, were surprised by this change in fighting style.

Lord Rhys, who was observing, made a sudden realization and then chuckled to himself while in thought.

"It seems we can really learn many lessons from those around us, I just hope you do not take it too far and that your teacher learns from you as well." He says to no one in particular. However, the troubled face of a youth comes to mind.

Lord Rhys still remembers the private practice session he had seen by chance. It was the only time he recalled seeing Rheya in a stalemate among her peers, he still vividly remembered that the score was 5 to 5 by the end.

"I still wonder where that boy is, he's the type to get into a lot of trouble if no one is watching him. Especially with what had happened..."

Lord Rhys pauses then looks up to the sky.

"I pray to the Heavens that her love still reaches you. For your own sake, let it." He ends.

Back at the training ground, Belle and Venia had finally recovered from the shock of being dealt with so easily.

"I yield Ser Knight."

"So do I Ser Knight."

Both Belle and Venia respond, respectively. Hearing the pair's surrender, Ser Rheya nods then jumps away to let them up as well as ready for any sudden attacks from the remaining members of the squad. The two girls then continue to get-up and bow to their professor and then wish their remaining squad members luck.

"Be careful everyone, we should have seen the light magic being used but I haven't seen Ser Rheya fight like that before in practice." Venia yells out.

"Neither have I, please be careful." Belle adds in support.

Calid and Levik look at each other.

"It feels like our scouting report wasn't entirely accurate." Levik says with a slight resigned smile.

"Mhm, I think we just have to fight normally at this point hahaha." Calid on his part, feels the heavy pressure due to the loss of their teammates so easily. However, he is still excited to find such a difficult fight.

Though house Robur's land were on the border, most of Robur's experience in combat was fighting monsters and low-skill bandits. This led to him being intrigued by the idea of high-level duels, just seeing what had just happened caused his bloodline to boil. He goes ahead and activates his bloodline again with even more force.

The crowd averts their eyes as the previously red-headed noble boy was now closer to a tree made from lava. The heat emanating from him was causing perspiration in the crowd. Levik needed to step away a few steps since it was becoming unbearable to be near Calid due to the heat.

"I'll try to stay out of her range and harass with wind blades." Levik says to Calid as he re-sheathes his katana and gets into stance to release more wind attacks.

"Let's go! It would be kind've embarrassing if we lost just like that." Calid yells back trying to gain back some confidence after the crushing momentum swing.

"In the future try to make alternative plans ahead of time, I could have charged in while you both were talking." Ser Rheya smiles with amusement.

"In our defense, it's hard to plan for half.. Fark!" Calid tries to defend their unpreparedness. Unfortunately, Ser Rheya did not wait this time for them to finish talking and started running at the two.

Calid smiles and gets ready to defend, he knows that it is extremely difficult to fight him at close range due to the temperature and his tough skin.

"Watch out for her "flash" spell, it can only be cast quickly if it appears from her hand. Look at her legs or the ground near her." Levik yells a suggestion from some distance away. It would be very problematic for them if they were blinded again like what had happened to the girls previously.

"This should be easier; I don't care how much more skilled you are Ser. That rapier isn't piercing through my skin or armor." Calid thinks to himself as he tries to keep Ser Rheya in front of him. He is aware that when he is using his bloodline, it would be more beneficial for their instructor to just ignore him and focus on taking down the more vulnerable Levik.

The trio begin their engagement and it becomes obvious after a few exchanges that the duo of students was still being overmatched. Aside from the gap in skill, the two students are severely hampered having to rely on their peripheral vision to track Ser Rheya's movements out of fear of being blinded. She was having free reign to dart in and out of range of Calid's heat while dodging the less accurate wind slashes from Levik.

Though they were not receiving physical injuries, the mental impact of the situation was beginning to set in for Levik and Calid. It was at that exact moment that Calid, who was trying to keep a wide lateral stance, crossed his legs due to fatigue which made him stumble to the ground on one knee, allowing Ser Rheya to pass him by and head straight to Levik.

"This is bad, she can run towards me faster than I can away from her." Levik thinks quickly as he assesses the situation.

Levik on his part tries to fake out a "flash" spell from Ser Rheya by trying to feint looking up at her face and then looking at the ground once again. Once the flash spell is cast, he would be able to look clearly at Ser Rheya movements and hopefully delay her a few seconds which would be long enough for Calid to catch up and support him.

"Flash!" The spell is cast and Levik gets his desired reaction. Unfortunately, when he looks up again, he sees a small circular metal object a few inches from his face.

"Thud!"

Levik feels the heavy metal object smash into his forehead. The pain occurs instantly, and he immediately becomes disoriented due to this and leaves himself open to attacks. He tries to remain standing, but his knees give out and he is placed on one knee.

"The fark was that... is that a pommel?" Levik curses inwardly until he notices a round metal ball with around a 2-inch diameter on the ground near him.

It was a simple metal ball with a threaded hole that could easily be attached to the handle of a sword. When he realizes what the object near him was, he glances up towards Ser Rheya. What greets him, however, is the metal gauntlet holding a now pommel-less rapier; then there was darkness.

Pommels were the threaded objects found at base of most bladed weapon handles. They acted as a counterbalance to the weight of a blade and as a preventive measure to avoid the hand slipping of the handle. Today, Levik had just found out that they could be used as a blunt throwing weapon.

"Sh*t that's not good." Calid curses when he sees Levik getting knocked out cold by Ser Rheya's punch.

He mentally prepares for the one-on-one match he will be facing by making his heat stronger. To his surprise however, after catching the falling Levik. Ser Rheya does not place him down but instead throws Levik towards Calid.

Seeing this, he instinctively deactivates his bloodline and catches Levik. He quickly looks at his classmate and new friend’s body before glancing up again. And similarly, to Levik, see a small metal object hurdling towards him.

"Fark."

"Thud!"

It was too late before Calid realized what had happened. Ser Rheya had repeated her pommel throwing strategy when she realized it would be difficult to approach Calid due to his bloodline. Thus, she decided to instead use Keru as a hostage and force Calid to deactivate his ability.

While holding Levik, Calid is unable to keep his balance alongside the pain and disorientation of getting nailed in the head with a pommel. He topples over on top of Levik, and in his blurry vision he sees Ser Rheya's rapier pointed at him.

"Hehe...We yield." Calid in his daze chuckles before surrendering the match. After doing so, he slumps his neck forward.