Louis pointed at her and asked whether she was a friend of his. Had they ever fought?
"That girl with muscles instead of brains is not my friend," Cain shouted. "But I fought her." And then he let his guard down a little.
"So you lost," Louis said.
The two of them came up to them and told them to stop chatting and answer. Would he fight or not?
Cain said that she could already use magic and that she was at apprentice level. He thought it was better to ignore her and go on collecting tokens.
Fay screamed with irritation. Did he want to run away with his friend because he could not win? He was a coward.
Cain started to shout at her — and Louis interrupted him and said, "All right." He wanted to see how the great families fought anyway.
Fay smirked and said that was better. To make things fair, she would not use magic.
She rushed forward and told him that they were beginning. She used the sacred spear strike, and Louis watched it carefully.
Fay smirked and said he was very good. Her spear passed close by his body, and she pulled it back toward herself and tried to attack again. Louis dodged, and she cried that they would continue. Fay jumped and began to spin her spear in the air for the sacred spear strike.
She slammed it down onto the ground, and there was an explosion.
There were men standing behind them, watching. Jerry said that he had not seen the Duracan family's spear technique in a long time. Sans said that both the speed and the power were impeccable. In a word, a genius.
Jerry said that the commoner was impressive too. How long did he think the boy could last? He said there was a huge gap between a commoner and a great family. He would lose soon. He turned and asked, "Director, who do you think will win — Fay, or that boy?"
Aronian replied that he was good, but that he could not beat Fay.
Sans asked why. Why not?
Aronian replied that a battle is a clash of body and will.
But at that moment Fay came rushing out of the smoke with her sacred spear. She used a dash, and Louis dodged it quickly. She screamed.
Oh, my, Louis thought. She's exposed.
He looked at her and rushed in to attack, but she pulled her spear sharply back. Louis somersaulted and landed behind her. She said she could not even believe that he had been able to dodge all of those attacks. Even the young master of Oranka could not do that.
"It isn't that difficult if you watch carefully," Louis replied.
Fay released her mana and asked what he would say to that, then. She used the sacred spear, crescent fall, and rushed in to attack.
Louis thought about it. Spear-wielding techniques included a range of methods: lunges, sweeps, defence, suppression — and when they were combined with the spear's long reach, it became a serious problem. But it also had several fatal flaws.
Fay began to spin her spear, and Louis thought that one of those flaws was vulnerability in close combat. In other words, if you timed it right and closed the distance quickly, you could counterattack.
He used sword art, sword dance.
Fay smiled and said that she knew what he wanted to achieve, but that it would not work on her. She began to swing the spear, and Louis said, "What?"
Fay shouted that the sacred spear of the Duracan family had no flaws. Let him get ready — Louis Kiril.
Jerry said that this was truly an outstanding talent. Even the grandmaster of the Duracan family had only learned this technique at sixteen, hadn't he?
Sans said that thanks to her ability to combine magic and spear technique, Fay surpassed ordinary students. That boy had tried hard as well, but what a pity.
Louis gripped his sword and used seven swords. He blocked the attack and thought: another drawback of spear technique is its high stamina consumption. If he simply went on defending himself, an opening was bound to appear sooner or later.
He looked at Fay and thought: there.
He pushed his sword forward — and suddenly part of it fell to the ground.
"That's impressive," Fay said. He had been planning to counterattack, if his sword had not broken.
"Yes," he replied. "Looks like my luck is really bad."
Fay pointed a finger at him and asked whether, by the way, he had been holding back.
Louis asked her forgiveness. He was used to observing first and giving it his all afterwards. But now he would fight seriously too.
"But your weapon is already—" Fay said.
Louis threw the broken sword away and said that in fact he was better with his fists.
Fay thought: there are no openings now. Her body was covered in mana, and she rushed in to attack.
Louis put his hand forward — and at that moment Cain shouted that this was a spinning attack technique. If he collided with it he could be seriously injured.
Louis released his mana and began to tame Fay's attack.
He shouted aloud, and everyone's eyes widened in surprise. Fay screamed that this was impossible.
Louis had gripped the spearhead with both hands. Jerry asked, "Director, shouldn't a thrust like that have defence-breaking effects?"
Aronian wondered what he had just seen.
Sans asked what that boy had just done.
Fay screamed that this was not all. She kicked her spear out of Louis's hands, then caught it again and shouted. If a pinpoint breakthrough was impossible, how could he have done that?
She jumped back, and Louis watched her movements. It was as if she came from every side at once as she rushed in to attack.
Louis grinned and asked, "So what?"
He blocked all the attacks with his hands, and Fay said, "What?"
Aronian said that he had stopped the spear's rotation with some special technique. He had never seen anything like it. It always surprised him.
Jerry said that this was the Duracan family's spinning spear technique — and a commoner had done that to it.
Louis put his hands forward and released his mana. Fay drove the spear into the ground, and only then was she able to stop. She frowned and said in annoyance, "Damn. What kind of weird technique is that?"
Louis replied. It was a type of parry in martial arts. It added a twist that matched the movement of the spear, to compensate for the spinning force.
"Parry?" Fay asked. "A twist?"
Louis rushed forward and told her to think of it as a technique. She looked at him in surprise and put the spear out in front of her, and Louis ran up quickly and began to slip the attack.
Fay swung the spear, but this time too he dodged it successfully.
"An optical illusion?" Cain asked. "His movements are like a butterfly in flight."
Fay shouted that he was right in front of her. Why couldn't she hit him?
Louis thought: an elegant step created by a legendary boxer. Moving quickly back and forth — commonly known as the butterfly step. The light movement of the feet, with its subtle rhythm, was perfect for this situation.
He came in on Fay and hit her. She flew into the air, and Cain said in surprise that this was incredible. He had thrown Fay clear.
"This is unexpected," Aronian said.
Jerry said that their battle might be without magic, but that few people could defeat Fay.
Sans said that perhaps this boy was a genius of hand-to-hand combat.