Chapter 53: Chapter 14: Slaying Dragons Laying Maidens [2]
He warned her before his body shot forward, like a whisp in the darkness, his body's speed accelerating thanks to the four blood wings with black feathers propelling him forward as she struck Guinevere with a downward attack.
*Slash**Swipe*
Guinevere's body pushed off the ground as his blade cut through the air, her kneeling leg snapping upwards.
She twisted her lance and blocked his slash with the width of her shaft, holding both sides with her hands—the force pushed her back, sliding across the stone as it cracked under the pressure.
"Tsk!"
Her legs began to cramp from the sheer pressure of tensing her glutes to the max, trying to stop his blow completely—Guinevere looked at the glowing eye sockets and could swear she saw a smirk!
*Woosh*
Lancelot's body released the pressure, causing Guinevere to stumble forward, her guard and stance broken, his blade flicking along with his wrist as it cut her abdomen with a deep tear, the icy blade causing chilblains upon contact with her flesh, easily cutting through her red scales, as she stumbled forward, pushing into the ground with her lance to recover.
Guinevere snapped back, only to be rapidly greeted by a dozen sharp purple blades flying towards her face, "Shit!" Spinning Longinus, the blades were destroyed, scattering into beautiful purple petals of Ether.
"Woah! This is awesome!"
"This IS Awesome!"
The crowd cheering became more rowdy as both sides started to fight back and forth, the speed of Guinevere was slightly superior, but she lost all places.
*Slash**Pierce!*
Lancelot's swords slashed her right thigh, and his offhand cut through her left forearm scales while her spear penetrated his abdomen, cracking his scales, forcing him to stop his flowing blade flurry, and taking several steps back.
*Woosh!*
A burst of flames exploded around Guinevere's body as she used the dragoon's flame to burn away the chilblains and restore her body to normal temperature, no longer slowed by the icy debuff from Marimo's sword.
"Haa...Haa..." Guinevere looked at Lancelot, holding herself up with Longuinus, a weapon that rapidly drained her Ether just by holding it, but she was smiling—the broken red helmet showed her beautiful white teeth and broad smile with little dimples.
Lancelot was the same, his body filled with a pleasant fire of delight and desire. He always wanted to fight against Guinevere in the past life, her huge red Dragon and the spear that killed the black Dragon.
Their bodies darted around the arena, clashing with their weapons, sword versus spear, man versus woman.
Blood and sparks spraying around created a beautiful spectacle as the duo clashed repeatedly.
*Crack**Shatter!*
The armour on their bodies began to slowly dissipate, both of them losing Ether fast, one due to having manifested Marimo in the real world AND using her Summon Drive, the other for using Longinus and her Summon Drive...
Beautiful red lights began to flicker, dancing in the sky around Guinevere as her armour and Summon Drive faded, the same for Lancelot as his Dominus cracked, slowly reaching his limits as the pair looked at each other with a euphoric smile, both helmets shattered.
"Phew... Guinevere, how about one more round, one last attack?"
"Fufu~ are you that confident, Lancelot?"
Suddenly the surrounding crowd became confused; why did they speak like friends? Their gazes were strange...
Especially the 2nd Year Elite students who came to watch their Rank 1's future wife; however, they quickly realised something was wrong upon watching this battle.
Firstly, his future wife, a first year, was not much weaker than he is now as a 2nd year, and this strange fallen noble... He is even stronger—obvious to see each time he could have taken her out, and his blows were softened as if to make the fight longer.
However, the biggest factor...
Guinevere was laughing, smiling at this man.
She had never laughed or smiled even when meeting or viewing the grand battles of her Fiancé.
In the quiet academy of the elite students from the Empire, it looked like trouble was brewing.
Meanwhile, on the stage, the two fighters didn't care about the plots, the royal family, the duty, their future—even Avalon vanished.
There was only Lancelot.
There was only Guinevere.
A sword!
A spear!
"Marimo, thank you for the hard work—please rest," Lancelot whispered as the beautiful blue sword of ice glistened, a pretty mist of ice filling his body before her body appeared.
Lancelot gently kissed her forehead, glad he had made the sheet of ice cover her body as she was completely naked after transforming; her eyes looked at him with a sense of delight and bliss as she breathed heavily.
"Return home, my lovely knight."
"Mm!"
With that, his body faded into soft particles of blue luminescence before the ice curtain vanished, and Guinevere looked at him with a strange face.
"???" Lifting her eyebrows before smiling at his usual gentle self.
"My cute little Hare would have been seen in her state of birth—I didn't wish for her to cry."
The demonic aura vanished, his scales gone, and standing in his basic school outfit and the Gale Sword in two-handed form—Lancelot faced Guinevere with a faint smile, trying to hide his exhaustion with a short, sharp breathing technique.
Lancelot pointed the two-handed sword towards her chest while his hands tightly gripped the blade as he cushioned the pommel in his right shoulder.
"Princess Guinevere,"
"You Face Lancelot of the Empire."
"Take up your spear and face your judgement."
As if embodying the old Lancelot, the words and verse sent chills up the spine of Guinevere, the image of watching him hundreds... Thousands of times, going to battle with his goblins, only to come back wounded.
Yet no matter how badly he hurt, showing her a gentle smile...
Guinevere took up her spear, finger and arms trembling from nostalgic feelings and exhaustion.
Longinus pointing towards his heart, took a deep breath as the huge Ether from Lancelot's body gathered as if those words triggered him to become serious.
Hundreds of small swords appeared around his body, like before when he transformed, but this time, they were real.
A single moment passed, then another as nothing happened.
The crowd felt the tension as sweat oozed down both people's faces, but they still looked immaculate.
*Dang!* *Dang*
With the sound of the 4 pm bell, both bodies rushed forward, Guinevere's spear lunging forward with twelve strikes, four at his face, body and crotch. At the same time, Lancelot's sword and body twirled around with a powerful upward swinging slash, then chaining with an instant downward chop and lunging thrust.
*Clang**Slash**Pierce*
Guinevere's spear almost tore out Lancelot's eyes, but his head leaned to the said with the slightest inch of space as the spear cut his cheek, left, right, right, left.
He dodged the first blows before his upward swing slashed across Guinevere's chest as her four piercing thrusts to his chest were deflected, forcing her back.
But he chased, slashing down her chest, blood and her armour destroyed as she was sent stumbling back, the spear dropping from her hand and turning into golden particles of light, as her Dragon landed beside her with an exhausted face, falling on its side tongue out of its mouth panting.
*Thrust*
Lancelot's final thrust aimed right at her heart, too fast for her to dodge, her body out of all power as she began to fall backwards. His eyes opened, noticing he was too forceful and the strike might kill her before a flash of blonde hair followed by a fierce kick sent his body rocketing into the sky.
Evaine stood holding the collapsed Guinevere in her arms as she looked at the pair with a huge smile and a shit-eating grin as she furrowed her brow, seeing the annoying Mordred and the second-year elite swaggering over.
[That was quite the little fight... Did you enjoy beating her while holding back?]
'Ah... Morgana... I think I still love her.'
[That is fine, but that path, you know how it ends...]
[The Empire will not look kindly to a knight that seeds their future empress...]
He looked at Guinevere, who ignored the crowd and medic, instead looking towards him with the most wonderful smile, despite the blood dripping from her nose and lips.
The pair seemed to have an understanding from this fight.
"I'm sorry I let you down, please forgive me..." - Guinevere.
"I know the truth—what is there to forgive, silly girl." - Lancelot.
Evaine reminded him of the duel as he took out his phone and made the appointment in their secret language.
"WINNER! LANCELOT DU LAC!!!!"
"Wooooooooah!!!"
"Fuck it was so awesome!!!"
"Nobles are pretty badass too!"
"Ah... someone gets his number... He's my future husband!"
Lancelot watched the face of Guinevere turn bright red upon reaching for her vibrating phone while he gave her a cheeky grin when she looked at him with a pout.
'Let's go—moving to Avalon will be annoying to time right...'
[I will support you;—Marimo looked extremely happy...]
'She was extremely helpful, as was Meru.'
[That Meru... even though she acts like she hates you... I think she adores you more than a normal troop...]
'Who cares? You are all mine.'
'And I am yours.'
[Fufu~ you broadcast that troop wide on purpose!]
'You did the same, no?'
[Damn... the cute Lancelot, where did he go!?]
'You ate him on the bed!'
Walking towards the North West of the academy, Lancelot felt amazing and would claim his prize, even if the entire Elite class turned into his enemy.
'The more enemies, the faster I will grow.'