The Knight was currently in the training dojo, readying for the battle between the Bachelors, it was just a sparring match, but it served to increase the Knight's understanding of elemental light.
'Boom!' Rang the walls of the practice room. This is because, even though this is a sparring match, none of them had imagined they would struggle. As such when the chance became visible, they started going harder at the battle, to avoid losing.
The fifth match was between the Knight and Zoldi. The Knight had defeated Karen, level 264, Igal, level 268, Dorus, level 269, and Derell, level 276. After Derell fell, the others started thinking about things more clearly. The sparring matches usually go like this, first, two battle, the winner fights the next opponent, then the winner of that match again does so with the next, until everyone had fought and only one is left. The tradition has always been to start with the newbie versus the current weakest and slowly build up to the top.
This might have been a sparring match, but it usually serves to kill the arrogance of newbies. This is not meant to discourage them though, by slowly showing the newbie's foes lose, until the strongest is left is meant to show them, that they still have some growing left to do. This helps create the atmosphere for the newbie, making the structure of power evident.
They had expected that maybe the Knight might win its first fight, but by the third they were all starting to get confused. Sure, they had seen the battle with the Knight against Banneret Vice, but they had not thought that he was actually this strong.
The stronger one during tournament fights usually controls their strength, to make it an evaluation and not a beat down, they had figured, she was holding back. The strangest part is that it had not even been healed yet, it was insistent that it could heal itself, which is not unheard of but a strange combination with power.
Poli, the level 280 healer, was strong, but she mainly specialised in healing. She could fight through the battlefield, to heal those falling on the front lines, but she was not that powerful, when compared to a typical level 280. Even today, she was serving as just a spectator, and healing the others in-between battles, she does not participate in this specific kind of sparing. Her healing powers did not work on the Knight.
"A hero sure is something." Said one of them.
The Knight was also just as disappointed; the first four battles had not provided the Knight with the level of insight it had hopped. Their battle prowess was strong, but they did not use their elemental light efficiently.
They had been told that this knight was used to facing foes stronger that itself, which is something the knights specialise in but seeing someone do it so flawlessly was strange. The knights might be strong now, when compared to how they were at the start. They would always be facing stronger opponents, but rarely alone.
This one was taking them on alone and with unparalleled battle savageness. Even nowadays, the knights still have to face foes on a higher level on the daily, even in single combat, they were bred for such battles, but the disparity of power had lessened. While Poli was healing Derell, the battle between the Knight and Zoldi began.
"So, you're still not going to use your sword, are we not enough?"
"Like I told Banneret Solace, only one sword belongs in my hands, any other is turned to dust. I could hold yours if you want to see."
"No thanks. Did you lose it during those hundreds of years in a dungeon?"
"Before that…"
She had unsheathed her sword, aiming to plunge it into the Knight's neck. She moved it with an even better level of movement than the other four. She had slayed dozens with this sword. The Knight had fought Vice, so this was a mediocre level of skill in comparison.
She was still slower than the Knight's teleportation. But she compensated with the flawless shift between stances, it looked like she would turn into liquid, then solidify at the next position. This had not fooled the Knight's vision though; this was just her skill probably. On closer inspection she was actually reversing her body symmetrically.
"Boss, that's no skill, it's a power over symmetry."
She had begun with using her power right off the bet. The Knight was using a shield and hammer as usual. When defending, the hand with the shield would move to the hammer side hand and the hammer to the other hand. This had made dodging awkward.
The sword would move through the hazy block of the hammer and land a few blows, which the Knight had to strengthen with the void and avoid the damage. She could even flip the Knight's position, either to the other side of the ring, where she would be waiting to strike, or the centre point dividing the Knight's torso and the legs. The Knight is a battle monger, fighting on its arms, while using its legs was strange but easy.
Then the Knight covered itself with a thin film of the void, making the area around it darker, but without drawing too much suspicion, due to the concealment. After activating the Dreaded power, Zoldi lost the ability to flip the Knight, which gave her this confused expression. She was not fully sufficient with using this power like the knight Bannerets were, but she was not as bad as to suddenly lose control over a single foe, who is even weaker than her.
The Knight used this momentary lapse to throw a punch, which she had come to enough to parry, but she had missed the hit from the hammer coming from the side. The Knight threw the hammer up, punched her, which she parried, dropped the shield, caught the hammer with the shield arm at an awkward angle, but still delivered a blow sending her reeling. The Knight could do this because, it was no longer switching sides symmetrically at random intervals.
'Time to use it in conjunction with my skills.' She thought.
She was still holding back though, she could flip organs if she wanted to kill him, or flip the mental thoughts, even the soul itself. If she had tried any of these she would have been let down, the Knight is no human, even flipping all these would not kill it, it had the build common to all void dwellers, soul and formed to control a husk. Destroying them would require more effort. Regardless of her understanding, she decided to use her skills with her power, which made her deadlier.
Suddenly, there was a bright light, it hovered above her shoulder, then another one glowed hovering above her other shoulder. These were light rays, a skill hard to learn but worth it in battle due to its automatic nature. Once the Knight got close, the orbs became focused beams aimed at the Knight, they touched the Knight, when the scorching began, the Knight used the shield to block the rays.
'I guess light elemental is like actual light visibly, just looking pure white, like how darkness and the void could look similar. It's just more effective against darkness though. This is at least something noteworthy.'
Then the Knight teleported behind her, the shield vanished, then it summoned a smaller shield. She then turned to face the Knight. That is when the beams themselves recalibrated and aimed at the Knight; the Knight had realised the flaw in the skill.
'She has to see her target, then the orbs send beams towards their foe, and they don't avoid hitting her, she seems to be immune.'
The Knight then hit the beams coming at it with the shield, and even though this shield is smaller, it's able to deflect attacks, thus retuning its own focused beam, which the Knight used to blind her for a second. Then the Knight did a series of teleportation's to make noise around the place. After going invisible the beams would just shoot at the last heard noise, not really hitting the Knight. They could not follow the Knight as such the Knight could hit her then step back and confuse her.
But then she used her second skill, this one was orientated around shadows, which the knight had not expected to work in unison with the light. This made the Knight manifest a shadow, even though it was invisible, this must be her special skill, because the shadow would solidify as a liquid-like substance, this would slow down the Knight in-between teleportation's, like stepping on glue on every step.
If only the Knight had not lost Orgas, it could have solidified the air underneath to create a thin barrier between the shadow and the Knight's soles. 'Do you hear just how much you cost me Mugaw?'
Mugaw was silent, pretending to flicker in the wind. The Knight kept using the shield every time the beams of light caught up to the Knight. This is when Zoldi felt a fear like none before. She was so terrified of the orbs floating on her shoulders, that she dismissed them immediately, even then it was on instinct.
She also dropped her sword, then she flipped this fear, thus she felt immense joy for her sword, but before picking it up she felt a sharp blow to her stomach, slightly bending her plackart. Good thing they were going to the smiths after this. This punch, the Knight had done in a flash, concentrating just enough augmentation to knock her out of the ring, but still trying to keep her armour and soul intact.
She then slowly rose up from the dust and slight wreckage to the walls, which had been reinforced, so they remained solid, even after the fifth person was sent flying at them. Everyone was staring at the Knight, then moved their eyes to the dust, noticing Zoldi slightly trying to get up.
This was quite a remarkable sight. Zoldi got up and dusted her amour, moved her gauntlet across her plackart, then moved her visor to face the Knight, she took her helmet off, and screamed, "Whooo! Let's do that again! That whole thing was exhilarating; I haven't been so scared of something in a long time!"
While everyone was still shocked at her enthusiasm – after all, all those who lost know of the fear she is referring to, which made her sound insane – she tried to get back into the ring. Then Poli stopped her, "you need to be healed first, and by the way, you know the rules, you fall out you lose, and by the way it's Fetching's turn."
"Can I have your turn then? You haven't fought."
"No, by the way, you haven't noticed yet, but your fight took a few hours, we're off schedule as things stand anyway, I can't let you back into the ring, so now stand still and let me treat you."
No-one could get sick after reaching level 50, under normal circumstances anyway, at level 100, self-healing starts, but the healing from Poli was instant. But there are cases like the Knight, heal at an extra ordinary pace, after a minute, the Knight was back to default condition. Fetching entered the ring; she was still as imposing as ever. She looked at the Knight's chest and said, "Wow, your armour heals itself too, who made it?"
Everyone's attention was back on the ring, even Zoldi and Poli. The former was watching with itching anticipation, eyes brimming with the eagerness to join. So, they all had heard Fetching's observation, and felt impressed, but even more so where they impressed by the Knight's answer.
"I made it."
The Knight had realised this over the constant use of crimson smith skill. The Knight had earned it through the smithing of its armour and the sword, that's missing in action.
"Wow! What more surprises do you have in store? You seem to have given Zoldi the thrill of a battle, I hope you can accommodate another lady."
"As long as you can make the battle, last longer than a few rounds of attacks, then I promise you a sweet demise." With that their battle had begun, the sound of metal ringing, could be heard across the whole dojo.
The scraping of armour made insufferable screeches, every time they clashed, but the battle was just so mesmerising, it failed to make the audience look away. Soon the whole place was filled with the echoes of a synchronous battle, and the heat that came with it.