Ken woke up.
The world around him was buzzing with activity; children were making their way to the open fields to play, some men and women made their way to their private lands to see the progress of their fields, some men went out and about to go to the other villages for work. All in all, people were engaged in various activities.
Ken got up and made his bed. He heard the sound of swords clashing against one another.
'Sigh. It's so early in the morning and they're already dueling?'
After changing and freshening up, Ken made his way outside of his house.
Several people greeted him as he walked between the streets, slowly making his way towards his family's private land. Everyone had bright smiles on their faces.
For some strange reason, many children and adults were currently walking the same path as him. They were also making their way towards Ken's—Alex's family's private land.
Ken realised why as soon as he saw a crowd of people gathered in a big rectangle like shape, surrounding two armored figures; they were his aunt—Rose, and his uncle—Edwalt.
'I see. So, is it time? Is it time to decide who's gonna enter the trial?'
Ken heaved a sigh. 'Ah, man. I'd have to reveal some of my cards here. If I wish to get stronger, then I have no choice but to reveal my power. I'd have to defeat aunt Rose who's the supposed strongest of the clan, atleast in this place. Possibly, I can just draw her without looking too suspicious and we both will have to enter the trial.'
The three great clans occasionally sent their strongest warriors in the illusion—or the trial.
Each clan's different regions would have their share of duels.
And a single person will be selected from each region. However there's also a thing where If the finalists of a region draw. Then, the two would have to fight someone from another region. And the one who will lose will have their position as the representative taken away; be it one of the two or the third representative.
Ken turned his gaze to the two armored figures who were engaged in a duel.
'It's quite obvious who's gonna win. Aunt Rose isn't even using her unique skill. It's all just her raw talent and sheer power.
She was just born ready.'
Ofcourse, it would be wrong to just outrightly say that Rose would win, but, Ken was able to analyse the battle thanks to a skill of his.
Edwalt would soon lose if he kept going on like this.
Edwalt took a step forward and unleashed a Melt Strike at Rose. Rose dodged with ease. Suddenly, Edwalt appeared before her and augmented his body, he unleashed a barrage of different types of slashes, which were all dodged by Rose.
'This is all quite idiotic. No warrior can give it their all unless they have the permission to kill.'
If only this duel was a real one, would the real victor be known. This was all about skills and show-off. 'Just what type of system have the great clans even built?' Ken questionped the idiocy of the great clans.
Suddenly, a bright, golden flash of light encompassed the area as a golden dome rose from beneath Rose's feet and expanded further in all directions.
Edwalt's eyes widened at the sight of the activation of Rose's Unique Skill—[Sacrosanct.]
It was a skill that Rose had received after undergoing Evolution. No one knew what it did exactly, except for Rose herself. But there was definitely a vague understanding present.
Edwalt lunged at Rose in order to finish her off before the [Sacrosanct] fully manifested itself.
Rose dashed towards him and clashed head-on. As soon as they clashed, though, Edwalt's sword stopped a few inches away from Rose's armor and couldn't move any further as if there was an invisible barrier.
Shock was evident on Edwalt's face. Rose stepped forward and suddenly a light fell from the highest point of the dome.
BOOM!
An explosion followed, dust covered the surroundings, fragments of stone flew here and there.
"Saint Rose is the winner of the semi-final duel!" Jin announced as Edwalt was revealed to be heavily injured from the attack.
Ken had not the see the battle from the very start, but he knew that Edwalt must have put some resistance at the start, but now....
What use was resistance infront of such an overwhelming force?
Edwalt grimaced, slowly got up and walked away.
After sometime, preparations were made, and the final—most awaited duel started:
Saint Rose against her nephew—Alexander Aulbert.
Alexander, or Alex, was considered to be a prodigy among prodigies. He had travelled far and wide with his relatives and his family on many missions to hunt down various Magic Beasts, Demons and Agressors.
Rose walked near Alex and whispered into his hear:
"Do not hold back. I know you're more than capable of winning this."
Alex's eyes gave out a hint of surprise, before he composed himself.
"Sure," He said as a smile appeared on his face.
"I can not fight like this, though, if you wish for me to go all out."
Rose raised her brows and asked:
"What do you mean?"
"If you wish for me to fight at full power, then I can't fight here among so many people."
Rose looked at Alex, surprised a little. Then, she smirked.
"Well then. We'd take this duel to the dungeon."
Rose turned back and informed Jin about it. Jin agreed after some persuasion.
****
Inside a vast dungeon filled with many brilliant, shiny metals, two figures clashed, with them, two different colurs clashed too; golden and blue clashed throughout the cave.
Alex had synchronised his body with his mind and soul. He dodged through all of Rose's strikes, and attacked her from different directions. He behaved as if he was one and many at the same time. His movements were like a serpent slithering past all defenses and attacking from different directions.
Despite all of that, he could not hurt Saint Rose. Her skill—[Aegis of Faith], allowed her to form an extremely potent barrier fueled by her faith and will. The stronger her conviction, the stronger the barrier.
However, the barrier was not indestructible, like all barriers. It did not posses any inheritent weakness, but, applied enough force, and the Aegis of Faith would crumble.
Rose could tell that her nephew—Alex was holding back preety much a lot. But so was she. She held back from using her unique skill.
She knew that Alex was capable of defeating her due to a skill of hers. She could set a power level and see if a person would be able to defeat her by using that much of their powers.
'I see. So, that's what that skill was about. That's how she knew about me holding back.' Ken thought as he finished using [Analysis.]
Both the figures clashed back and forth, generating shockwaves throughout the cave as their weapons clashed—one formed through Rose's magicules, a golden spear, the other, a serpentine azure odachi, formed through means unknown to Rose.
Rose swung her spear in a circle with immense speed, blocking all of Alex's attempts to strike at the beautiful lady's fullbody suit.
Suddenly, Alex turned invisible and attacked her from behind, concentrating a huge amount of magicules into the sword. However, it was just a feint.
"[Melt Strike!]" Alex called out as a blue beam of concentrated magicules formed into a beam and collided with Rose.
The beam pierced through Rose's back and came out from her chest.
Rose's eyes widened, for a second she seemed to lose balance in the air and started falling. However, a smirk appeared on her face.
"[Sacrosanct!]"
Suddenly, a bright, golden flash of light erupted from beneath Rose's feet and expanded in all directions; giving way for a large domain of golden to rise.
The hole in Rose's chest healed almost instantly. If it weren't for Alex's [Thought Acceleration], it would've seemed like there was no big hole in her chest to begin with.
Rose suddenly appeared before Alex, who was still in the air, trying to save himself from being encompassed in the golden domain.
Rose's spear transformed into a giant sickle, and she immediately swung it, pushing back Alex alongwith many rocks and boulders.
'Argh! Such monstrous strength!' Ken grimaced and disappered from view.
Rose immediately sensed a change in Alex's presence and unleashed golden flames in all directions.
"Good, good. You're truly a Saint." An insect like voice resounded throughout the cave.
A figure clad in jet black armor—no, exoskeleton. Donning the appearance of a beetle-like Insectoid phased through the flames, though a grimace was present on its face, suggesting that the searing heat of the flames was still in effect.
The figure reached for Rose's face. Rose's eyes widened and she shouted:
"Just what type of tricks do you have, Alex!"
A strange chuckle resounded throughout the cave, ominously.
Before the Insectoid's hand touched Rose, Rose pointed her hand at Alex, or what seemed to be him.
Suddenly, a beam of light collided with Alex, slamming him straight to the ground. The impact shook the whole dungeon. Destruction followed.
BOOM!!
Hundreds of debris and rubble flew into the air as Alex collided with the ground, sandwiched between the beam and the floor of the dungeon.
Dust covered all view.
Rose walked through the rubble and threw aside some debris. "Wait. You didn't die or something, did you? Alex." Rose called out, trying to get a response.
Suddenly, an armored, broken and mangled arm rose from the debris and did a thumbs-up.
Rose set aside the debris covering Alex. Suddenly, a blue aura shot towards her, throwing her back.
A figure clad in extremely durable jet black exoskeletic-armor—though, severly broken and mangled, appeared from the dust. A blue aura rose from Alex's body like steam.
The scene was really menacing under the errie gow of the several broken dungeon.
However, the woman infront of the strange being, smiled and immediately healed from all damage in almost an instant.
Sigh.
"Why can you do that?" The human-Insectoid said. Suddenly, though, the blue aura rising from his body like steam, was pulled and glued to his body. Healing all wounds in an instant, too.
He then snapped his fingers. A blue dome of light rose from beneath his feet and devoured the golden dome. Then, Alex transformed back to his human form.
"Oh! Sorry! It seems my reserves are way superior than yours." Alex said with an innocent expression.
"Ha! It seems we'll finally be able to conquer the trial thanks to you," Rose said as a sweet smile appeared on her face.
"Well. We still don't have a victor. We ought to continue," She continued.
"Also, how strange. You seem to posses a skill that can allow you to copy others' skills? That's too overpowered." Rose talked to herself.
After that, the two continued battling till there was a victor. But, there was no victor; Alex never gave it his all, Rose seemed to use all of her abilities but never went all out in output.
At last, they declared a draw.
A/N:
I really feel like the quality has dropped quite a bit. Oh! There was no quality to begin with.