Chapter 8: Coercion 1: It's Hopeless from the Start

Both my eyes and Vega's stared down at each other as we enter a deadlock and tried to push each other's blade to make some distance, I am looking a little above his face and he is glaring with his sharp crimson red eyes from below my face.

I made a wide grin as I looked at him with absolute confidence towards my triumph while he glared at me with pure anger forgetting that he is here because someone touched the waist of his wife and only acting out of pure anger because he is being looked down upon.

Our two weapons, mine was a dark colored blade and a very condensed form of mana materialized as a blade and Vega have a blade that is enchanted to follow the Fibonacci Sequence started to make sparks all around the place, dust began to scatter as the two fighters started to show off their might.

Every person in the training grounds also forgot their worries about the life of anyone and looked at the fight with eagerness and utmost anticipation, even though they know that only few people really have a winning chance against me, they are still anticipating how Vega will use his very limited and straightforward battle system against me.

First, I shall give you an explanation of what is "Fibonacci Numbers" or "Fibonacci Sequence" for you to have the simplest of outline about how the enchantment in Vega's battle knives works.

Fibonacci numbers, commonly denoted Fn , form a sequence, the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. The sequence commonly starts from 0 and 1, although some authors omit the initial terms and start the sequence from 1 and 1 or from 1 and 2. Starting from 0 and 1, the next few values in the sequence are: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8... And so on and so forth. (1)

Meaning that, his blades have the power or well, enchantment to multiply the damage level of his attack in the same principle as the Fibonacci sequence, for example if he slashed his knife once then that is one and there is no additional damage, same with the second, because it is still one and then the third will be two and then three and then five and yeah it will just go on and go on until he missed an attack and the whole thing resets.

Of course I didn't know this immediately by default after knowing the name of his attack, if so then I will be a fortune teller and not a Ruler, I made a test run by intercepting one of his blade and I came to a conclusion that my hypothesis about his attacks is true.

What do you say? I'm quite the intellectual huh?

Well, not really, I am just manipulative so I know how to piece puzzles together and if you listen to your high school math classes when you are a teenager then piecing puzzles together with just Vega's attack name alone would be easy.

My blade started to crack as a wide grin appeared on Vega's face, but then his face became filled with confusion as to why I have my usual ear to ear smile even though my materialized weapon started to shatter.

Isn't my weapon shattering yours?

Then, why is he smiling like he just got me?

Maybe that was the thoughts on Vega's mind right now in which I gratefully ignored as I easily and casually pushed back the blade of his that is already halfway through my materialized weapon making him grow shocked once again as he spun around the air two times and safely landed on the ground.

"Tsk... Well it won't be that easy...!"

A single mutter was heard into his mouth as he disappeared once again from everyone's sight except me, he appears to be someone that just running considerably faster but not enough to make me squint my eyes.

However, of course for people it is still just a mere instant when a knife is in front of my face just five to six inches away from it in which I also instantly intercepted with my materialized weapon, the two weapon once again intercepted each other and as expected, my weapon shattered like glass being hit by a hammer.

"Loki-Sama's weapon just got....!"

Everyone gasped and have varying reaction with the same meaning as that dialogue, they started to think that maybe Vega have a chance to win but is still confused of my carefree demeanor.

"Oho?"

I maid a simple sound and then also materialized a black colored knife that is enforced to withstand amplified damages.

Of course I can just end this fight right? After all, I already know all things about Vega's battle system, But that would be boring right? What's the point of fighting if you don't enjoy it even if it's a one-sided one from the start right?

Vega's knife in his left hand suddenly slashed towards me downwards aiming for my head, but I intercepted it with my knife, Vega smiled at this thinking that he will shatter my weapon and his attack will go directly into my head, but his wish didn't happen and he instead is now in a very vulnerable position with his left ribcage fully exposed.

Of course he can attack with his right knife, his knives are double wield after all, but he is so shocked that his Ultimate trump card just got stopped, well not stopped, my blade started to shatter again, but that is still shocking atleast for him so he failed to react.

"Wha..."

He gasped in disbelief as I started to materialize another knife in my left hand and then slashed it straight into his ribcage, but he dodged it in the nick of time in which I am honestly surprised, he is faster than I thought it seems.

"Fufu~ that was quite the interesting enchantment you have, though straightforward it is still deadly if not judged properly. However, straightforward is still straightforward in the end..."

He didn't make me finish my sentence and immediately dashed towards me and a battle between two knife wielders (though I am not) started, red and black streaks of light clashed against each other as me and Vega clashed our knives in a never ending pattern of beautiful yet deadly work of art.

"Damnit! What do you even mean by straightforward!?"

He started to blabber about his confusions in this entire fight, how I knew his attacks, how I intercepted it and so on and so forth as I just answered the first question of his.

"Sigh... Straightforward means what it means... I mean, if your attack damage multiplies each time you hit the target in the Fibonacci sequence fashion, what should I do to counter it? Simple, dodge."

With that statement of mine, Vega's sight seem to stop and he seem to be suspended in the air as his attack reached my neck but no blood or resistance was felt or seen whatsoever as a black blur was seen after his whole knife passed through the entire neck of my after image and he found me in his back side making a wide smirk on my face ridiculing his speed.

"Wha!? Did someone just dodged my attack!?"

He made and formed simple words as he gritted his teeth and spun around three hundred and sixty degrees into the air and once again slashed into me.

"Yes it got dodged."

I dodged while saying those simple words and he once again found me in his back, he grew more confused because there is no dust, not a single grain of it to be seen when I dodged and normally people who have eye blinding speed will surely disturb a ton of dust because of the air resistance, but no, there is none.

Using air magic, I made the air resistance almost non existent around me making my speed that is already blinding normally even more confusing and showing Vega the giant canyon between me and him that will never be transversed just because his knife have one hundred percent double damage chance of some sort.

However, Vega didn't gave up, he slashed and slashed increasing his speed every failed attack by which I did the same though the only thing I make is dodge, making him be more and more frustrated, he have confidence in his speed and as an assassin, his life and speed is in the same level of importance and right now, his lifeline that overwhelmed his enemy time and time again in his ninety something plus years old without fail making him a relatively famous assassin (Among his unit) got easily dodged by a being beyond his comprehension.

However, I have more experience than him and even if that's not the case, I am way above the level of him or the level he can hope to achieve with speed alone given that my competitors (namely my mom and my sister) can smack me dead when I am a child, I strived to become strong and here I am now, overwhelming a brat that didn't have any idea how wide the world is.

That was what people doesn't know and won't understand, I may have talent and I know it, but I am still a hard worker because I knew I am not the strongest in my early age.

As they say, a lazy talent is useless and hardworkers can defeat geniuses. (Author: Yeah, a Naruto Reference)

Vega stopped momentarily in front of me, I looked at him without attacking having meaning in my eyes that says "That's it?" Making him look frustrated once again, the crowd was now long silent, they first thought that Vega will give a good fight but now he became a ragdoll of me with the difference that I am not actually mopping the floor with him but just dodging his attacks with pure speed with a little help of magic.

"H-how!? Even with my full speed....! Tsk! No matter, I will surely kill you!"

Vega's eyes turned bloodshot and his speed once again increased, in an instant he reached the other side of the encirclement that me and him is fighting against each other are located and made his usual semi-feral form and then pounced towards me with speed that seem to surpass his limits, I bet shounen protagonists will be delighted by him surpassing his limits though the reason is because of his unbearable anger.

But of course no matter what he do, I am still faster, way, way faster than he ever imagine or speculated with his current narrow minded and anger driven state of mind as I started to increase my speed once again and the only difference is that right now an enormous amount of dust is being flung around violently without end in the whole field, why I stopped using magic? Well because I didn't see the need of showing off already and I have to still coerce them- (including Altair) I mean to convince the two couples in a civilized manner like the law abiding prince that I am to be my subordinates.

I kept dodging the already growing tired and incredibly frustrated, angered and somewhat despaired Vega that long forgot why is he here and is only protecting his pride, making Altair a little bit taken aback, well men are like that, I myself have a lot of pride no matter how I want people to not treat me like a god, it is the same for Vega, his pride is his wife, I mean his wife is hot and have a very good nature and no matter how stupid Altair is, she will understand.

Indeed, Vega is protecting her (his pride) from me because he is afraid that his wife will be snatched away from him, but of course I will not do it because I found that act gross, but they are yet to know that.

Thinking up to that point I made a useless offer to Vega, as I casually raised my right hand at shoulder level and raised my index finger and smiled at him, my smile have leisure on it with a tinge of slyness as I know that it is useless to argue with him and I also know that I have to go and act a little extreme.

"Hey, Vega, I thought of something nice, now that you know that you have no hope of defeating me, how about you become my subordinate eh? I will train you how to balance your abilities and not only be a speed degenerate, how about it?"

Vega just grinned a forced one as he immediately rebuked and turned down my offer.

" Che! And who the hell would like to become your subordinate!? I would rather die!"

He shouted as I sighed while still dodging his attacks while both of my hands are in my pockets.

With that immediate rejection, I pulled my right hand in my pocket and then sucked air on it through mana while muttering "I guess so..." as I stood solid on the ground and looked at Vega right in the eye as he looked at me with confusion on why did I suddenly stopped dodging.

I then, made a smile.

"Boy, you don't really know what's best for you huh?"

With those words I released a pulse of air in the right ribcage of Vega, naturally magic have to be casted with a magic circle for the magic to be casted with one hundred percent success rate, but magic circles are only for complicated spell and what I just did is to suck air and then spit it out so yeah, simple enough.

The pulse was very pack together and the damage it dealt is not scattered unlike how usually wind magic spells are making the damage go all around the whole ribcage of Vega shattering it into pieces making Vega vomit blood out of his mouth, furthermore he flew away for six meters from me as he held his chest part and tried to endure the pain while still coughing mouthful of blood.

I then started to walk towards him slowly, the clacks of my shoes caused the whole army to fall silent.

"Fortunately, for you, I really need manpower right now, so I will give you another chance, be my subordinate, or you and your wife will disappear from this world."

I said while making a giant black colored spike out of my nails and pointing it on him.

All right, let the coercion begin!

________

A LITTLE SPECIAL:

OPHIUCHUS IF SHE CAN HEAR LOKI'S POV: "THE BASTARD IS SO PROUD THAT HE THREATENS PEOPLE TO BE HIS SUBORDINATE..."

(1) Definition of Fibonacci sequence can be found at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number&ved=2ahUKEwjxkqLo2Kz6AhXf9zgGHWtVB9kQFnoECEQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2jTqIcJfSBYBEvcgv-w5dz