Christina was dumbfounded.
Eris was dumbfounded.
Lucas was dumbfounded.
None of them had anticipated that Celestina would make such a proposal, and it took a moment for that reality to set in.
However, Christina, who already wanted to beat Lucas up, quickly recovered and nodded, "I'll do it!"
Not only had Lucas thoroughly disgraced her, at least in her opinion, the thought that even if she managed to become Celestina's Disciple now, she would have to call a mere brat 'Senior Brother' irked her greatly.
If there was a chance for her to give Lucas a few good punches to the face while also winning the position she had sought for so long, Tina was more than happy to do so.
Eris, on the other hand, immediately felt conflicted. She firmly believed her little brother was the greatest genius alive when it came to inventing things, but it was just a fact that he had only been cultivating for a short time and wasn't all that strong.
What's more, she had learned that her new Sworn Sister was 15 years old, so Eris figured Tina was even stronger than she was.
When it came to pure skill and technique, Eris hadn't beaten Lucas in a spar ever since his accident last year; but, when it came to all-out sparring, she still won more often than not due to her higher cultivation.
Eris felt that this fight wasn't fair and wanted to object, but upon seeing the stern look on her Master's face, she knew her opinion wouldn't matter here today.
At a loss, all Eris could do was nervously bite her lip as her eyes darted between the various people around her, hoping nothing bad would happen.
As for Lucas, he was also stunned at first, but as he reviewed what his Master had told him earlier, and what she had proposed just now, he quickly understood what Celestina was trying to achieve.
Unlike Eris, Lucas knew very well how strong Christina was, and to put it bluntly, in a face-to-face match, he was absolutely no match for her. However, his Master's hadn't asked them to hold a noble duel, she had told them to fight, no holds barred, right here, right now.
Although the words 'fight' and 'duel' were often used interchangeably, there was actually a distinct difference between them, a difference that after many months of training with Senior Farah had been pounded into Lucas's head.
There was also something else Lucas was highly suspicious of, and that was how Celestina had framed the test she was giving the princess.
Even if Christina were to beat Lucas in a fight, would that really prove she had the necessary 'strength of will' to be 'worthy' of becoming Celestina's Disciple? The way Lucas saw it, just being stronger than him wasn't really a good indicator of Tina's worthiness.
In other words, the actual 'test' here had nothing to do with the fight Celestina had proposed and instead had to be about something entirely different.
All these thoughts, and many more, flashed across Lucas' mind in a matter of seconds, and as he pieced them all together, he quickly arrived at a few conclusions of his own, ones that prompted him to immediately begin gathering his strength.
Just as he was trying to come up with a plan of attack, Lucas heard Christina call out to him, "Follow me! We'll have our duel over there in that clearing."
Having made her declaration, Christina didn't wait for a reply and directly turned around, walking away with determined steps.
Seeing Christina actually turn her back to him, Lucas narrowed his eyes and glanced over at his Master just in time to see Celestina sigh and shake her head. When he saw this, Lucas concluded that his read on the situation was correct and he silently asked for permission to carry out the next step.
Noticing the glance from her First Disciple, Celestina saw the look on his face and understood that he had read her intentions correctly. Even without discussing things beforehand, she had expected this from Lucas as he had already displayed an uncanny knack for reasoning through complicated matters.
Nothing more needed to be said, so with a subtle nod, Celestina gave Lucas the go-ahead.
Christina had already failed this test, and Lucas knew it, but without suffering a real loss here, the princess still wouldn't learn anything. If Lucas wanted to fulfil all of his Master's expectations perfectly, he needed to deliver the final blow personally, even if doing so would lead to him being beaten up.
Haaa… Being a True Disciple isn't going to be easy, is it? Lucas grumbled to himself.
He was happy that his Master had such a high evaluation of him and placed such high expectations on him, but that didn't mean Lucas enjoyed being used as a literal punching bag.
Resigning himself to his fate, Lucas put all his strength into his legs and dashed out, sprinting straight towards the retreating back in front of him.
Rapidly closing the gap between them, Lucas observed his target carefully to ensure he got the timing right, then launched himself into a flying tackle, smashing into the princess, catching her completely off-guard.
Christina, who had clearly not expected to be attacked from behind without any kind of warning, had left herself defenseless and was easily bowled over, landing face-first in the dirt road with a cry of surprise.
Before the princess could figure out what had just happened, or even take a breath for that matter, she felt her right arm being pinned as something wrapped around her neck, clamping down tightly enough to restrict her movements and lock her into a choke-hold.
It was only after she was firmly suppressed that Christina realized what was going on and desperately began to struggle. Unfortunately for the young girl, Lucas' hadn't just randomly hit her to bring her down, but had specifically targeted his tackle to push as much air out of her lungs as possible.
Taken by surprise, having the wind knocked out of her, and now pinned to the ground in a tight chokehold, Christina instantly found herself short of breath and in a very precarious position.
As bad as her situation was, however, Christina refused to just surrender to this cowardly sneak-attack and flailed wildly, thrashing about while trying to use her superior strength to free herself from her vile assailant.
Drawing on the vast wealth of martial arts and combat techniques he had in his inherited memories, Lucas swiftly responded to his opponent's counter-attack by using his legs to wrap around Christina's waist and thighs, further immobilize her.
Lucas then threw all his weight to the left, rolling over onto his back so that he was under the princess, limiting where she could strike back at him.
Lucas' efforts were only partially successful, however, and he was struck several times by the princess' free left elbow, causing him incredible pain and nearly sending him reeling.
Originally, Lucas been worried about harming Christina while trying to render her unconscious, but seeing how fiercely she was fighting back, he knew there was no way he could hold back.
Throwing all caution to the wind, he began exerting every bit of his strength into his hold, trying to end things as quickly as possible.
For the first 20 seconds, Christina's struggle remained fierce, nearly throwing Lucas off several times, but past that mark, her struggles grew weaker and weaker.
In the end, despite Lucas doing everything in his power to gain the upper hand, it still took nearly a full minute before the princess' eyes rolled back and she fell unconscious, a testament to her far superior strength.
Or at least, Lucas thought he had knocked Christina out.
The young boy suddenly found himself facing a dilemma. If he released Christina now and she was just feigning defat, he knew he would be met with a furious counterattack that, at minimum, would leave him with a few broken bones, but if he didn't let go, there was a chance he could seriously hurt her.
Fortunately, there was someone else who Lucas could count on to step in at the right moment. Just as he anticipated, a voice soon sounded, "You've won. Let her go."
Only after Celestina's voice reached his ears did Lucas relax his limbs and collapse back, his breathing ragged.
Having a great beauty lying on top of them was the dream of many young boys and would have been a joyful experience for Lucas, had he not been in great pain all over.
He had strained his muscles to their limits, yet his arms and legs still felt like they were on the verge of being dislocated in multiple places. On top of that, his face and chest had been struck hard enough to leave deep bruises over a dozen times.
Lucas wasn't certain if he had any fractures, but he wouldn't be surprised if he did. Still, this was a remarkably small price to pay in order to defeat an opponent in the Sea Establishment Realm while only having a Second Step Body Tempering cultivation.