Cecil Vs. Alen

"I may not agree with the way you fight, but I do respect how you get winning results" Cecil told me with his sabers edge pointing at me.

"Not everyone is as powerful as you" I took a couple of steps back.

"I'm not nearly as powerful, though. I still have a lot of room for improvement"

One of the reasons as to why Cecil's considered a strong unit in the game is because of his unique passive and class.

He belongs to the fencer class, a class that's sword-locked. But their class passives make up for only being able to use a single weapon type.

Faster speed, more crit rate, and crit damage are a couple of class passives the fencer has.

As for his unique passive, [Gifted Growth] makes him gain more experience on every aspect of the game. He can learn spells, improve on weapon skills, and get better stats faster than anyone else.

He'll always be the first character to get to the max level.

It doesn't help that his stats are also insanely high.

He has an affinity on four elements, with his main one being dark magic, and the others are fire, lightning, and ice magic.

Although he doesn't like dark magic.

So most of the time, it seems like he only has three affinities.

With a quick step, he was in front of me, swinging his sword.

I jumped over his swing, and with my slowed fall, I kicked him in the face.

He swung his weapon once again, and I managed to parry it.

The strike caused me to fly backward in the air as I fell slowly.

Once I landed, he was in front of me again with another swing.

I couldn't defend myself in time, so I decided to step back and create some distance.

But he was fast enough to follow up on his attack and make a superficial cut on my forearm.

"I can see that you're more of a battle mage and not a melee fighter" Cecil said. Dictating the flow of the battle.

Do I seem like a battle mage? If only that class existed in the game... but no, I am instead a simple thief.

"You'd be surprised"

I spent more time with Karla than training magic.

"!!"

I felt my my back hit a rocky wall.

"You still have some things to learn, Mr. Alen. Next time on teacher Zagressa's, I'll help you train"

He clearly knew that I'm weaker than him if he didn't give me time to set up my strategies.

He swung his sword on a diagonally downwards angle, aiming at my chest.

Chink.

I parried the swing with my dagger.

"[Sandstorm]"

Cecil preemptively closed his eyes to weaken the sandstorm's blinding effect.

But no sandstorm came out.

He knows that sandstorm is one of my most used options, so he was bound to react like that at some point.

In this small frame window of time where he still had his eyes closed, I would find the key to winning this duel.

I tightly clenched my fist.

Bam.

The fact that he wasn't expecting to be punched in the face, meaning that his guard was low there, caused more damage to the bodyguard who fell to the ground.

But I can't let him recover from that.

I went for a low kick on his forearm as an attempt at disarming him.

He seemed to be used to this, so he quickly covered his right side with the edge of his blade before I threw out my kick, making me back away.

"Tch" I clicked my tongue and started circling him while he stood up.

We both were focused on each other, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

That's when.

Fwishh.

I saw a brown object flying at my face.

I stopped it with one hand.

But when I looked back at Cecil, he was no longer there.

Instead, he was just a mere inch away from me, ready to swing his weapon.

For a split second, I saw that one of his feet was shoeless, meaning that he threw his shoe at me as a distraction.

Given how close he is, I didn't have any way of getting out of this one.

"[Wind Scythe]"

I cast that spell at the same time I used the palm of my hand to block his attack.

The spell came out in the last second, protecting my palm from being split in two.

Cecil clashed against the spell for enough time for me to throw a counterattack.

Which was...

Bam.

Another punch in the face.

But this time, he wasn't pushed back in any meaningful distance for me to escape, causing him to swing his sword again.

But he was pushed back enough for me to parry his sword.

"Now this is more like it, Mr. Alen" he laughed.

The exchange of Cecil being on the offensive and me being on the defensive continued.

"You look like you're ready to give up"

I am. But I can't give up right now.

Not because there's a reason like planning ahead to help the greater story of this world, or because it's beneficial for both of us.

I don't even want to win.

I want to keep fighting against you. I want to come up with more tricks to use in battles.

I still have a neutral northern wind weapon set spell reserved.

But I can't simply cast it. He's fast enough to dodge it. And I can't fake out another spell. He wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

...

Or would he? If I do the same trick, but I change some things...

While I was parrying, I focused on manually casting the wind hammer spell.

Unlike wind ram or wind scythe, wind hammer isn't cast straight from the palm of my hand. It's cast outside of me, making it prefect to create the spell on his blindspot.

I used quick footwork to keep him from finding out the wind hammer I was manually casting.

The overwork of my mind with multitasking the casting of a spell, a distraction, and parrying sword attacks made me become a lot more distracted, allowing Cecil to connect some attacks on me.

But, in the end, I managed to do it.

"[Wind Hammer]"

Cecil glanced to the side and saw the spell beginning to move.

He jumped over it.

And that is exactly what I wanted him to do.

The spell suddenly vanished, a clear sign that it failed. Something that should never happen with an automatic casting.

And there was the instant mana refund.

And because the spell is still reserved, it allows for a second cast.

"[Wind Hammer]"

Now, the spell was cast on its second version, a vertical strike.

Thud.

Bam.

Cecil was hit by the spell that sent him crashing down to the ground.

But instead of the spell disappearing, I decided to hold it and keep Cecil on the ground.

However, the spell was cut off by another one.

I looked at where that spell came from, and I saw that teacher Kafka was the one that interrupted my spell.

"Participant Cecil Treyaro has fainted and is unable to keep fighting!" he put his hand on my shoulder.

"With two participants defeated, Alen is the undisputed winner of this duel!" He announced to the whole arena.

Instead of the usual applause and cheering when a fight ended, I was met with an uncomfortable, awkward silence.

...

"Ha. It took you long enough to show yourself!" Fran broke the silence by standing up and raising her voice.

"It's only natural that the guy I chose as my friend would be this strong!"

She didn't seem embarrassed by the way everyone was looking at her.

But.

"Pfff... of course you don't care about that" I whispered to myself as I saw Cecil starting to stand up.

"I fall unconscious for a week straight, and you only faint for a couple of seconds" I joked and extended my hand to help him get up.

"Next time, I won't be the one going unconscious, Mr. Alen" he smiled and stood up with my help.

I know that he's thinking about training and improving as soon as he can to fight me again.

"I don't know where your stamina comes from, I personally can't anymore... I just want to rest"

"We still have a whole school day in front of us, Mr. Alen" he said in between short laughs.

"Fuck..."

I forgot that we did this duel as soon as our first class was over, so we still have classes to attend to.

I looked at the arena once again, and saw that neither Fran or Theo were on the stands.

"Fran and Theo must be waiting us outside the changing rooms"

"They probably are"

Other things I caught while scanning the arena stands were my friends from the second year. They were celebrating with tickets on their hand.

It makes me happy that they're so confident in me that they bet for me to win.

I also saw Yani pulling a blushing Kaida's hand.

Now it's her turn to start her own event.

"C'mon Mr. Alen" Cecil waved me a hand and I followed.

Not before looking back and seeing Lyon was also awake.

He gave me an angry tone, clearly clicked his tongue, and walked away.

He's probably angry he lost.

But what do I care? He had no business entering a duel that didn't concern him.

But my walking was interrupted when I felt someone looking at me.

It was a different feeling from being watched because I'm on the center of the scenario.

I felt as if I was being scanned by a bigger foe.

And I wasn't wrong.

Up there, in the stands, I saw the one student I don't want to cross paths with.

Julius Der Botcam, Theo's older brother and the strongest character in the game.

"Isn't it weird?"

"Huh?"

Apparently, Cecil was talking to me this entire time.

"That princess Von Themys called you her friend and not me when we're both friends of her"

"..."

I placed my arm on his shoulder.

"Just... give her time... she'll call you her friend one of these days"

"Okay!"