t

The moment the match bell rang, the knight dashed forward, closing the distance between us. I hadn’t planned to just watch him, but his movements took me by surprise.

Once he was close enough, he raised his sword to strike. Because of the height difference, it almost seemed like he was planning to split me from above. All I could do was block it by swinging my sword from below.

The heavy sound of our swords clashing rang out through the arena. The sound alone proved that neither of us were holding back at all.

Okay, now I knew I could block his attacks. I could do this.

I had actually decided to take the first blow from the start, in order to gauge his skills. Now that I knew where we were at, I didn’t really have to take any more hits and could change my fighting style.

「Miss, you’ve got to be kidding me.」

The knight looked astonished, seeing that the attack he had put all his strength into had been blocked so easily. He must have thought that single move would have been enough to finish me off.

The knight tried to put even more power into his sword, but my sword didn’t budge an inch. To return the favor, I myself put some strength into my sword to push him back, and he was forced to jump away, which prompted the crowd to erupt in cheers. All I had done was stop one attack; they didn’t really have to make so much noise…

Anyway, now my opponent also knew that his attacks could be blocked. All I had to do from here on was to avoid his attacks and slip one of mine past his defense.

The knight approached me slowly this time around, so I decided to use the chance to go on offensive myself. I forcefully swung my sword up from below, but the knight handled it well, parrying it away. Using the force of momentum, I then twisted my body around to swing the sword in an arc around me. The knight stepped back, however, dodging my second attack without much of an issue.

He could switch from offense to defense so quickly, huh. He sure was strong.

「Hahahaha!」

The knight suddenly burst out laughing.

「As expected of someone chosen by Eleanora-dono. Who are you, Miss? Even though you are just a student, you were able to block my attack and force me to dodge…」

「You are not so bad yourself.」

I had thought my spin attack would have hit him, but he had managed to dodge it. His skills might be on the same level as the top players in the game.

「If I wore my shield and armor, I wouldn’t have been able to ward off your attack, though.」

「But then, you could have just blocked it with your shield, no?」

Knights should be able to use their shields to block such simple attacks, right?

「Figo! Why are you having such a hard time against this little girl? Hurry up and finish her off!」

「That man may be telling you to do so, but I won’t let you finish me off so easily, you know.」

I said and readied my sword once again.

「Miss, I wonder if you can block this attack, then?」

The knight said and promptly rushed at me. I tried to deal with him by jumping back, but he kept dashing towards me. I then tried to move to the right and put some distance between us that way, but he was right on my tail.

Hmm, was he so nimble because he had taken his armor off?

Well, if I used my Bear Feet properly, I should be able to easily put a good distance between us, but constantly running and dodging would accomplish nothing. I decided to stop this game of tag and take his attacks head on instead.

The knight stabbed his sword at me, but I sidestepped it easily. He continued throwing slashes at me in quick succession, but I defended myself with my sword, and when possible, tried to sneak in attacks of my own. Our back and forth match continued until we ended up locking the swords with each other and made it a contest of strength, again.

I added a bit of my Bear Hands’ strength into the sword, but it was still possible I might be blown back. If I used too much, they might suspect me of using magic, and I really didn’t want to lose to a foul.

I wanted to prove to everybody here that I could win relying on the sword. If I didn’t do that, there would be no point to this battle.

Eventually, our swords slid to the side, and as the knight tried to catch his balance, I kicked at his leg. Yet, the knight still managed to dodge my kick by letting his body go with the flow and whirl around.

「You must be kidding me. My swings aren’t so light that they should be blocked this easily. Also, what’s up with those legs of yours? To think that you could go for me when our balance was broken.」

I could only do all of that thanks to my Bear Hands and Feet.

Still, for him to dodge my kick in such a situation… I had been sure it would have landed.

「If my reaction was just a smidge slower, those cute shoes of yours would have gotten me.」

「Things would have ended if you had just let me kick you down.」

「So, it wasn’t just me? I dodged it because I felt a sense of doom coming from that kick.」

Had he realized that I had actually aimed for his crotch?

I wanted to aim for the weak point of men, but it seemed like doing that wasn’t so easy.

For our next exchange, I decided to try and attack first.

I dashed straight at the knight, swinging my sword up from below again, and he blocked it from above. This time, however, I pushed forward with a flurry of blows, only to have them all parried by him.

As my barrage started to wind down, the knight counterattacked with a wide swing. I held my sword diagonally with the tip pointing towards the ground, preparing to block the attack and maybe put some distance between us.

As our swords clashed, I noticed his sword deflecting towards the ground, which gave me an opportunity to raise my sword and take a swing at his defenceless body.

Just as I was about to go for the finishing blow, I sensed danger from his left hand. Flames were engulfing it as it approached to strike me down.

Would he make it make it before I did?

Deciding to play it safe, I dodged his flaming hand by quickly jumping back and them putting some more distance between us.

「Did you really just dodge that?」

The knight just stood there, looking at me in disbelief.

I was the one who couldn’t believe what had just happened, though.

「Hey, using magic isn’t fair.」

I complained, my gaze shifting to Rutum.

Wasn’t it against the rules for a knight to use magic as well? Shouldn’t that make it my win by default?

Using magic in a sword match, what had he been thinking…?

「Why would it be unfair? Truly excellent knights can use magic as well, and that knight is one of those people.」

「Really?」

I decided to confirm Rutum’s claim by looking at Eleanora-san.

「Yu-, I mean, Yuuna-chan, he is indeed correct on that point. I thought it strange that you weren’t using magic…」

Eleanora-san confirmed that we really were allowed to use magic.

「Wha… I was sure I wasn’t allowed to use it. I mean, this is a sword match against a knight, not a fight between magic users, right?」

「That might be true, but if the knight is able to use magic, why shouldn’t he be allowed to use it?」

Even when she said that like it was common sense, there was no way I could have known. I had thought that knights could only use swords, and those with the gift of magic became magicians.

Was it weird for me to have a.s.sumed that? No, with the knowledge I had of this world, it wasn’t weird at all.

Still, now that I knew about it, hadn’t it been stupid of me to have been taking this ‘sword’ fight so seriously, then?

「I do have to praise your sword skills, Miss. Sadly, magic is just another tool us knights can use. Don’t think poorly of me for using it against you.」

「Oh no, you don’t have to apologize. Now that I know I can magic, the match is over for you.」

Honestly, I still didn’t want to use it as that would be unfair. After all, I had received my magic only thanks to the cheat-like Bear equipment while I had trained in the way of the sword since the start of my gaming days.

「Miss, you can use magic as well?」

「That’s right, I can. If I use it, though, I can’t lose anymore. Are you sure you are fine with us using magic in this fight?」

Personally, I would prefer for us to make this all about swordplay. Reviving my gaming days of dancing around with my paper-thin defences gave me a thrill.

「Figo, don’t be fooled! Even if that little girl can use magic, it can’t be that strong anyway. Stop playing around and defeat her already.」

「It’s as he said. I don’t plan on losing this match, so feel free to use your magic, Miss.」

「Okay then. Honestly, I wanted to keep it at a sword-only match for a while longer, but we do have to end this sooner or later.」

「Yu-, ehm, Yuuna-chan, please take this a little more seriously, okay?」

To appease Eleanora-san, I readjusted my stance, and waited for the referees to give us another signal.

The moment they did, the knight shot flames from both of his hands.

He must be testing my range, huh?

I quickly extinguished the flames with water magic while also dodging to the right just in case.

「Water magic?!」

Unfortunately for him, water magic wasn’t all I could use. I dashed straight towards the knight.

「Well, you won’t be able to win against me with such weak water magic, though.」

The knight sent a larger fireball at me, trying to limit my movements, yet I simply moved through an opening and sent my sword directly at the knight.

「Block this or it is over.」

The knight raised his sword to block, while also preparing some more magic in his left hand, but I only continued my swing…

「What?!」

The knight’s sword was suddenly encased in an earthen wall, meaning he could no longer move it to block me… So I stopped my sword less than an inch from his chest.

A short moment later, cheers erupted all around us.

Being able to use magic really was too advantageous to me, who had used to be a magic swordsman.

Using only swords would have made this match more balanced. Still, even if I wouldn’t have been able to defeat him with my sword skills alone, I could have simply used the power of my Bear Hands and overpowered him that way.

「It’s my win, right?」

「Yes, I have lost. To think you could use earth magic to entrap my sword. Also, just how strong did you make it?」

His sword was still stuck in the earth with my White Bear Hand resting close to it. I had put it there just in case he somehow managed to break through, so I could use its defensive capabilities. I didn’t have my Bear Suit on, after all, so I had decided to play it safe.

「I made it strong enough to hold you.」

It was just a practice sword and had no real sharpness to its blade. Had he been wielding a real sword or even a mythril sword, he would have most likely broken through. Such a move probably wouldn’t have worked in a real battle.

「Figo! How dare you lose to a little girl like her? You are a disgrace!」

Rutum angrily yelled at the knight as he got up to him.

「Do you still not understand even after watching the whole match? This girl is stronger than me. Lord Rutum, I couldn’t have won.」

「But, I told you to win by all means, didn’t I?」

「I went all out, used all my strength, and yet she beat me. She could easily dodge and block all my attacks, even magic ones, while her attacks were sharp and well complemented by her magic. She overpowered me by such a large margin, that I can’t even judge how strong she really is.」

「Don’t lie to me!」

Rutum yelled and raised his fist, looking like he was about to punch the knight. However, I dashed behind Rutm and kicked him right it the b.u.t.t before he could do so. He lost his balance and fell head first to the floor.

「What the…?!」

「You still remember our promise, don’t you?」

「f.u.c.k… to think I was done in by a little girl…」

He said, glaring at me with resentment.

「You shouldn’t glare at her with such a scary face. She has just won the wager, after all.」

Eleanora-san got in between us, trying to shield me from his gaze.

「I will quit as the commanding officer of this squadron… That’s what you want, right?!」

Rutum shouted at Eleanora-san with frustration. But that wasn’t enough for us, was it?

「Alright, let’s continue with the formalities, then.」

「…?」

Rutum looked at me in confusion.

「I said I would fight all your knights didn’t I? I have to make sure you officially accept the prospect of female knights.」

「…」

「The fight includes you, Rutum-sama, so in case His Majesty tries to complain, just tell him we agreed upon this on our own, okay?」

As I said that, his face went beet-red, and he seethed with anger.

「Young lady, you are getting too full of yourself. There is no way I will accept useless knights. Fine, I will fight you myself.」

The last boss stood up before I even dealt with his minions.

Author’s Note:

We used the Bear Hands and Bear Feet a bit, but we managed to make a real sword fight happen. Well, she doesn’t own a sword, so she will have to borrow one if she ever wants to repeat this. lol

Also, the common sense of this world is just too uncommon for Yuna.