Prince of The Abyss

Gripping his blade, Aether slowly entered the arena. On the other side, he saw Orion, smiling, while holding his katana. Once he saw Aether, he winked at him, which made him chuckle.

After all, everyone expected them to hate each other, and while that was pretty much the case at the beginning of his Academy life, Orion didn’t like him one bit; they had grown closer. Especially this fall, interestingly enough, he also struggled with some classes, so they had been in the same boat a lot of the time, which had made them even closer.

”You know I won’t go easy on you. Right, Aether?” He said.

Aether nodded. ”Of course, I don’t want the people to think that I paid you to win, you know? My reputation is bad enough.”

Gripping the wooden rapier, he waited until the bell finally rang.

His eyes fell to Orion, who only stepped forward, not rushing his way, but it was too slow for his rhythm. So he dashed forward, only to see Orion instantly back away the moment he saw his foot leave the ground.

Annoyed, Aether dashed forward again, but again, the Knight ran away. And he was fast with it, really fast. He continued until he backed him into the wall, where he prepared to thrust his blade, but once he did, Orion swung his katana, making the rapier glide on it and miss his target.

Stepping out with his footwork, he turned with his hips, as he prepared to end it with a hit to the stomach, which was considered lethal. But before he could, Aether caught the blade with his bare hand. But before he could do anything with it, Orion twisted it inside his fist and was able to get it out.

Before backing away.

Aether sighed. ”Don’t you think you’re running away too much?”

Orion shook his head. ”Not at all. I think my style of fighting is the manifestation of what the blade was meant to be used like.”

And then the next second, he finally pushed forward with a stab. Aether blocked it with his blade, only for the Knight to slip the blade under his hand and raise it in the air, leaving his stomach open. If he had been in his place, he would have punched himself right in the heart. But... he didn’t; instead, he tried attacking with his blade again, but that was too slow, since it gave him time to come down with his hand and block it, which was exactly what he did.

”Why did you do that?” Aether said, as he attacked Orion once more, only for his thrust to be deflected once more.

”Isn’t it obvious?” Orion said, backing away at the last second before the tip of Aether’s rapier met his chest, then pushing it aside to try an attack of his own.

”This is a battle of the blades, not some street fight. I will only use a blade, no matter what my opponent uses.” As he finished, he pushed forward, getting through his defense and stabbing his shoulder.

But it wasn’t a lethal shot.

...

In these cases, he got a point. Since, of course, in a fight more of these would also be lethal. If he got three points, he won. So he had to be careful.

After all, it wasn’t hard to see that he was getting outskilled.

But he didn’t know how; after all, Orion’s style was so basic, all he did was run when he got in a dangerous exchange and deflected his attacks, he hardly attacked himself, and when he did, it was to bait him more than anything.

Comparing it to his style, which was designed to adapt to any style and allowed him to be both unpredictable and efficient at the same time, by using his whole body, he should win, and yet he was losing.

Gripping his teeth, he became more aggressive.

Every time Orion stepped back, he pushed back faster, forcing him to deflect his attacks without being able to hit back.

And yet even with putting on so much pressure, he wasn’t able to hit him once.

Frowning, he took a deep breath before thrusting hard at the boy, only to watch him dash forward next to the blade and swing his blade towards his neck.

Twisting his neck, he barely managed to avoid it, but he felt the blade touch the hairs on his skin. Turning towards him, he tried to stab him once more, but as he started to push his blade, he saw Orion’s katana brush against it, as it stabbed him in the other shoulder.

Aether gritted his teeth hard before gripping the katana and throwing him with it, onto the ground, making a huge cloud of dust. Dashing forward to it, he thrust his blade through the smoke.

...

...

Only to see the tip of the katana already pointed at his neck.

...

’Huh?’ Aether stood frozen, staring at the blade.

Only the bell woke him back to reality, as the cheers quickly started to come after.

...

’I... lost?’ He watched as Orion got to his feet, patted his shoulder, and walked towards the crowd to celebrate as they shouted his name.

He clenched his fists before throwing the blade onto the ground and walking back in the dark hallway, the frown on his face darker than it had been in a while.

...

How had he even lost? I mean, what kind of trick did that guy even use? He knew he had been better with the blade, but not to this level.

’He has to have cheated somehow.’

...

”Really bad performance, I have to say.”

Aether froze. ’Out of all people that could have appeared at the moment, to anger me even more, he is the worst.’

He gritted his teeth hard as he turned around to see Lilith smirking at him.

”Did you miss me? I sure didn’t. Quite sad you aren’t dead yet... it would have been a nice surprise.” Freedom said, chuckling.