Uladia [4] - The Light Festival [2]

Looking to the left, Silas saw a girl with pink hair and blue eyes enter the bubble. Her pink hair was disheveled and messy, telling Silas that she had probably trained too much before this, not giving her mother enough time to make her hair look pretty.

Of course, that wasn't even what caught his eye about her.

'She's really short... And unthreatening?' Silas thought as he looked at her pink hair. However, it was probably also due to the innocent smile on her face every time someone cheered for her.

However, despite this, he could not help but feel slightly unsettled.

'Why the hell is she staring at me?!' Silas felt a shiver go up his spine as her piercing aqua-blue eyes stared into his soul. Her expression was mostly aloof, but he expected such a thing from a child.

So why did he shudder?

It seemed like they both had tanned leather armor, yet while the boy had a wooden spear in his hand, she had a wooden training sword that she held in her right hand, and she slowly lowered herself into a fighting pose.

They both quickly swung their weapons to create the shape of a crescent in the ground.

It seemed to be some kind of ritual everyone did before having a formal duel, yet the knight's crescents were much deeper due to the fact they were using real weapons, not wooden ones.

"Who are those two?" Silas finally asked Keira.

"The one on the right is one of the prodigies in our town, but in the overall scale of things, that doesn't really mean much. He's 12 years old and he uses the spear." She explained as the tensions got high and people lowered their voices.

"The one on the left is actually a 7-year-old girl, but she's considered this town's most talented prodigy, right above your sister. Even though she only has talent for the sword, she is an incredible fighter that will probably even rival your father in a few years when it comes to technique and power." Keira explained.

Silas looked at the girl and saw her continuing to look back at him with an aura that made it seem like her interest in the current fight had completely disappeared.

"She is also the only one in this town with a blessing. Apparently, it has something to do with her nose, but I don't actually know." Keira narrowed her eyes when she couldn't help but catch the stare the girl was throwing at her grandson.

"Begin!" The priest finally announced, causing the boy to shoot right toward the pink-haired girl with his spear extended in hopes of hitting her on anything that wasn't the part with leather armor.

The boy with the spear didn't dare to underestimate his opponent, causing him to keep his distance and attack at a range that wouldn't allow the girl to reach him.

The girl looked at the boy plainly without an expression on her face. Due to her younger age, any expression she made seemed cheery to a certain extent, yet Silas knew that if she was just a little older, she would have been able to make a terrifying death glare.

Her persona had changed in a split second, catching both her opponent and Silas off guard.

With a swing of her sword, she knocked away the incoming spear, yet, a second later, several more incoming spear attacks shot at her from the side, aiming for her arms and legs.

With a loud harrumph, the girl covered her arm that was holding the sword with toki. Her use of it was surprisingly efficient, and the power behind it was tremendous, even compared to those two or three times older than she was.

Her sword moved like lightning, snapping in every direction and deflecting the incoming attacks with incredible precision that made the boy before her grit his teeth, and Silas widen his eyes.

'Amazing!' Silas thought while watching how toki coated certain portions of her body and sword to make the attacks as quick and as nullifying as possible.

When the barrage finally stopped, she stepped forward and placed her foot on the boy's abdomen and kicked him away, yet in that same instance, the boy jumped back and increased the distance between them as much as possible, nullifying her kick in the process.

The girl smiled, but her next move shocked everyone, even Silas

Without thinking twice, the girl covered her blade with toki and threw it at the boy, something no swordsman in their right mind would have done.

However, it seemed to have also done its job of making the spear boy freak out. In a moment of panic, yet tried his best to hit the blade away from him. He didn't know why he didn't dodge, but his instincts had taken over.

Sadly, the boy's instincts weren't nearly as good as a trained veteran's, because, unlike him, a veteran would have seen right through such an attack.

Silas could see that the blade had lost all the toki that was covering it by the time it had neared the boy, yet despite that, it seemed to have done its job of reducing drag and air friction, increasing its speed through the air and reducing the power lost.

As the sword neared, the pink-haired girl crouched and covered his feet and legs with toki. Suddenly, the ground under her feet cracked, and in an incredible feat of speed, she shot forward with everything she had, appearing behind within a few seconds of leaving the ground.

However, to everyone's surprise, she wasn't going for the sword. Instead, she beelined right toward the boy, covering her fist with a layer of toki; she slid forward and slammed her fist right into the boy's abdomen, causing him to suddenly be lifted off the ground before puking out his breakfast. Fortunately for her, she was out of the way in time.

'Can he not use toki?' Silas thought while narrowing his eyes at the boy.

Yet, just when Silas was beginning to think that the fight was over, the girl reeled back her left arm and swung at his temple, hitting it and making his vision go black for a moment.

As the boy spun mid-air, the girl spun on her heel, using the momentum of her punch to grab her sword mid-air and perform a 180-degree slash, making the sword tear through the air before appearing next to the boy's neck.

For a moment, it looked like she had every intention to kill the boy with her slash, yet before anyone even had time to be shocked, a white light appeared between the two of them as a sword as bright as the sun blocked her blade and turned it into ashes without hurting the girl.

"..."

Silence fell on the town, yet a moment later-

*CHEER*

The cheers were absolutely deafening as they boomed throughout the entire town, with one name being chanted within those cheers.

"Nymira!~ Nymira!~ Nymira!~"

Silas expected to see her wave to her fans or something along those lines, but even though she was grinning from ear to ear, he had a feeling that it wasn't due to her victory.

'I wonder what kind of motivation you would need to achieve such strength at such a young age.'

And with that thought still lingering in his mind, he saw a hand being pointed at him before a loud and proud declaration entered his ears.

"You! None of the other kids are worthy of fighting me, but you! You are strong! I can smell it. Fight me!" She grinned from ear to ear with genuine excitement.

"..."

Silence fell onto the town for the second time in less than 30 seconds, yet hearing those words made Silas understand why he felt a resemblance when he saw her.

'Ah... She's like me...'

{Sorry for there being no chapter yesterday. I've been really ill for the last 3 or so days. When I'm feeling better, I'll edit this chapter and upload an extra the next day.}