Anita waved to them with both hands, her smile brimming with playfulness and confidence. The children jumped and waved back, as though they saw their own hero in her. Then Anita turned toward the royal box, waving in the direction of the Young Wolf. Andras, Noelle, Christina, and even Floralys waved back, signaling that the Whirlwind did not stand alone upon the battlefield's sand—behind her stood the strength of the Wolfwoods and the support of their allies.
The murmur of the crowd grew louder, the air thick with tension. Two knights of the same age, two representatives of different worlds, prepared to clash. The second duel was about to begin.
The horns blared once more, and the crowd held its breath as two female knights stepped onto the sand‑covered battlefield. This time, two warriors of the wind element faced each other: Apollonia Velvett, lieutenant of the Royal Knights, gripping her longsword tightly, and Anita the Whirlwind, the fierce and fearsome champion of House Wolfwood, wielding a short sword in her right hand and the familiar blade in her left—the very weapon she had used countless times against bandits.
The referee's flag dropped, and the two knights clashed instantly. The clash of steel rang out, blades striking with lightning speed, as though wind itself collided with wind. Both had activated their wind element from the very start: their weapons, once dull, now seemed sharpened by the very force of the air. The crowd watched in awe as the two knights moved like mirror images, neither able to land a decisive blow. The duel was balanced, and the question hung in the air: were they truly equal in strength?
Apollonia's eyes flashed as she parried one of Anita's lightning‑fast strikes.
"You attack dishonorably!" she shouted. "It feels as though I'm fighting a bandit, not a knight. Aren't you ashamed to call yourself one?"
Anita answered with a mocking smile, her blade singing as it cut through the air.
"The Young Wolf once told me: a duel is not about good and evil. A duel is the battle of a victor and a loser. The loser dies, the victor lives—and by living, gains the chance to save even more lives."
Apollonia clenched her teeth, thinking bitterly: "The Young Wolf again? How much more salt will you rub into my wounds?"
The blades clashed once more, sparks bursting into the air. Apollonia's voice rang with fury:
"Such thinking tramples the knightly code into the mud and spits upon the honor of knighthood!"
Anita's eyes gleamed wildly, and her words cut sharper than her blade.
"Your lands are still crawling with bandits, while ours are free of them. Where do people live happier lives, hmm? I alone have cut down more bandits than you Royal Knights together!" Anita's voice rang sharp as steel.
Apollonia countered, swinging her longsword.
"You were only lucky to find such a bloodhound!"
"Luck?" Anita laughed, surging forward like a storm wind. "Then try taming one yourselves! The Empire is full of them! Or are you too afraid to set foot on Imperial soil?"
Apollonia's eyes darkened, her voice brimming with fury.
"I've had enough of you! All you ever do is insult us!"
Anita burst into mocking laughter, her words striking like a blade.
"Don't start crying! Or has someone stolen your panties too, like the Princess's?"
Apollonia's face flushed crimson, and in her rage she shouted:
"You vile wretch!"
The crowd gasped as the blades clashed again with the force of a storm. The second duel was no longer merely a contest between two knights—it had become the clash of the Royal Knights' honor against the wild freedom of the Wolfwoods.
The sand of the battlefield was already stirred up by the clash of the two wind‑element knights. Apollonia's longsword and Anita's short blade and dagger struck again and again, sparks scattering into the air. The crowd watched in awe as the two female warriors fought in near‑perfect balance: neither could break through the other's defense.
Apollonia's thoughts raced like lightning.
"We are evenly matched, but until now I've fought only in my defensive stance. If I switch to my offensive stance, my strikes will be thirty percent stronger. I will win this duel!"
Anita's eyes gleamed wildly as she launched another attack.
"This will never end at this pace—she's on the same level as me. We've been fighting for five minutes already. I'll use my trump card against her and finish this quickly."
The Whirlwind suddenly shouted:
"Damn it! I wanted to save this technique for the Hero! Take it as an honor that you've forced me to use it!"
Apollonia's eyes widened.
"She has a stronger technique hidden away?! Then let's see which of us is better! Switching from defensive stance to offensive stance!" she thought, raising her sword into a new position.
Anita lifted her weapons, her voice filling the arena:
"When the Wolves go wild, the monsters tremble! Savage Mode!!!"
The crowd gasped as Anita's body was suddenly infused with an invisible force. Her movements accelerated, her eyes burned with a feral light, and every step seemed like the storm itself unleashed. Her sword and dagger carved nearly invisible arcs through the air, and Apollonia could barely keep up with her speed.
In the royal box, the Young Wolf, Andras Wolfwood, watched the scene with a grave expression. His thoughts echoed deeply within him:
"I developed this magical technique so that Anita and Andrea, if one day they faced a monster like the Blue Ogre alone, would be able to kill it one‑on‑one and survive the battle. Ironclaw's beast abilities gave me the idea. Ironclaw is a true hunter—the instincts of the Wolf Beast are astonishingly strong, even among its own kind. A born predator. She uses this ability by instinct, but I studied her carefully and realized: it can be copied, if you have a magical element."
Andras's eyes darkened as he followed Anita's movements.
"The essence of Savage Mode is to unleash all your magical power at once and forcibly spread it throughout your body. Your strength and speed suddenly double. Of course, there is a limit: once you run out of magic, you collapse, and your body suffers muscle pain for three days. But that is a small price to pay for surviving a battle against a magical beast. With Anita's magical capacity, she can sustain Savage Mode for ten minutes. In that time, she could defeat even a Knight Captain. This duel belongs to Anita!"
The arena's sand swirled, the force of the storm filling the space. Apollonia, switching into her offensive stance, tried to push back her opponent, but Anita's Savage Mode granted her terrifying speed. The crowd watched breathlessly: would the disciplined strength of the Royal Lieutenant prevail, or the wild instincts of the Whirlwind?
Apollonia's eyes flashed with determination as she raised her longsword into a new position. From defensive stance she shifted into offensive, every movement embodying the discipline and honor of the Royal Knights. Yet at that very moment, Anita unleashed her trump card.
The Wolf Knight's body erupted with magical power all at once. She felt the force overflowing within her, every muscle tightening, every nerve aflame. When the wind element reached her throat, a deep, feral howl tore free. The sound ripped through the arena with such force it seemed as though Ironclaw the Beast herself had cried the battle‑call.
The atmosphere in the stands froze. The children's flags stiffened in mid‑air, the spectators listened in stunned silence to the beast‑like howl. Even Apollonia's heart clenched with icy fear: she felt as though she faced not a knight, but a true wolf beast.
Then Anita surged forward. Her movements were twice as fast and twice as strong as before. Apollonia's offensive stance increased her power by thirty percent, but it was not enough—the Whirlwind had doubled her strength, and every strike crashed down upon the Royal Lieutenant like a storm.
"Impossible! How did she become so strong so suddenly?! I can't keep up! It's as if I were fighting Eris herself!" Apollonia thought desperately, struggling to parry the relentless blows.