My Yandere Empress

Chapter 29: Ch 29: First Day [2]

If you were to be spawned in the middle of a fight, what were the things you would desire at that very moment?

Surely, your own set of techniques? Maybe even a few overpowered abilities.

To break it down in simple words, one would be needing something that would help them defend themselves and possibly even win.

"Nine hundred ninety nine! And six hundred eighty four! Head towards the sixth ring."

So when Enzo found himself being called for his first match in the very first round itself, he realised something of utter importance.

He didn’t have a weapon.

Not just that but he was also a partial awakened, having awakened only his mana core. And in this world, you don’t gain skills or affinities until you reached the awakened stage.

His Mana Vision was an exception of its kind. It was a gift or rather a bounty that had been placed on the Great Old One.

"Best of luck, Enzo". His companions encouraged him as he thanked them before walking towards his assigned ring.

The invigilator eyed him but Enzo’s attention was on his opponent, who was already standing on the other side of the ring with a confident pose.

Enzo could tell that his opponent’s confidence wasn’t from hollow arrogance. He possessed a fit body, his posture disciplined and was equipped with a high quality sword that hung at his waist and shining armour - something rather uncommon among the other candidates comprising mainly of middle class families. frёeωebɳovel.com

At the same time, the invigilator voiced his own concern. "Slave boy, won’t you use weapons?"

Already suppressing a rising dread after having analysed his opponent, he turned to the invigilator with a grim face.

"I don’t have any."

The man nodded in response as if he had already anticipated that. Then he pointed towards a large bin that was kept in the middle of all the eight rings.

"That contains a few second hand weapons of various types. They are kept for people without any weapons. Pick whatever you want and come back here. Just remember to keep them back in there after you are done with this round."

Enzo was quite grateful for that. He sighed in relief as he briskly reached the bluish container, where a boy was already searching for suitable weapons.

Enzo waited for him to finish before peeking inside. Ranging from offensive to defensive weapons, every type of weapons were stacked inside.

But as Enzo picked up the nearest shortsword for inspection, a clinical expression appeared on his face.

"This is partially covered in rust. I doubt it even qualifies as a second hand sword." He muttered as he checked the sword from all angles.

Enzo dug inside the large bin as he tried finding for another sword. But he found none.

Technically, there was a longswordl. But he was unsure if his frail body could even pick it up during combat. Not to say he hadn’t ever trained with one.

So with a dubious expression, he picked up the rusty sword. He even found a suitable piece of body armour for himself. And after a bit of contemplation, he picked up a battered shield as well.

He figured the armour he had received wouldn’t exactly be doing anything of help against his opponent, who was not only armed with expensive weapons but also looked like he knew what he was here for.

Moreover, Enzo wasn’t carrying a helmet with himself. There were a few but each of them were dented in some area or other. It was extremely uncomfortable to wear such a faulty equipment.

"Good. Now that both of you are here, are you ready?" The invigilator asked as he returned back.

Both Enzo and his opponent nodded. The invigilator took that as the sign and ordered them to enter the ring.

"Start the match!" He shouted the moment they entered the ring.

There was a brief pause as both of them examined each other. The boy let out a haughty laugh as he unsheathed his sword.

"Name is Ariel. But I suppose a stepping stone doesn’t need to know that."

Enzo shrugged as he raised his shield at his chest level and lined his sword horizontally, taking a proper stance for himself.

The boy raised an eyebrow at that. "So you aren’t a complete rookie either..."

Enzo offered no reply. He was focussed on his own breathing as he emptied his thoughts, letting go of every distraction.

As a wise man once said: Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless...like water.

His opponent charged. Enzo didn’t wait either as he took a few tentative steps. Then stepped aside at the last moment as Ariel’s sword cleaved the space he had been standing at.

’Too fast.’ Enzo thought as Ariel without breaking the momentum pivoted to his left and slashed the sword in a horizontal arc.

Enzo brought up his shield as it absorbed the entire force behind the strike. But his eyes widened as unadulterated pain shot up his shield arm and he was pushed back a few steps.

"A body enhancement skill..."

Hearing Enzo mutter, Ariel grinned pleasantly.

’Ugh, that means he already has an Aspect. And more importantly, he is an awakened.’

"Fine...we can do this." He whispered under his breath as his eyes narrowed in focus.

So when Ariel struck again, he wasn’t entirely unprepared. His mana flared inside him, rushing upwards to his arm and enhancing his strength.

While not comparable to body enhancement skills, it was still enough for Enzo to hold his stance against Ariel. At the same time, he slipped his own sword through Ariel’s vulnerable defense and struck his abdomen.

"Point!" The invigilator raised his index at Enzo as he shouted.

Ariel’s face turned ugly as he parried away Enzo’s second strike and countered with his own.

This time, the force behind the strike was much more than his previous ones as even with mana enhancement, Enzo was forced back and his shield vibrated with a ringing sound.

He dodged to the left as the next slash landed, finding it wiser to not engage the furious Ariel.

But Ariel gave chase. He extended his sword as far as possible as he kept on banging at Enzo’s shield, battering it further.

Enzo felt his arms going numb as he reatreated back with every single strike of the sword. He wasn’t even getting any time to raise his sword in a counter strike. Ariel was just that fast with his sword that he had to focus entirely on detecting where the next strike would be coming from.

Suddenly, Ariel vanished just as his sword was about to land.

Enzo panicked for a brief second but he quickly turned to his back, raising his shield and holding his sword in an inclined position, making sure to cover himself.

"Heh! That was really predictable."

Enzo’s eyes widened in pain as a foot landed on his back and he was thrown away like a ragdoll.

"Point!"

’Shit, he didn’t teleport! He simply turned invisible for a second.’ freёwebnovel.com

But he didn’t have the time to complain as he rolled on the ground just as a sword landed where he had been a moment ago.

"Haha, you aren’t really special. You just got lucky with that one strike."

Above him, Ariel sneered in disdain.