Move, Kanarin's voice came into my head, and as if on instinct, I reopened my eyes and managed to move in the correct direction to avoid the strike. I created some distance between us and allowed myself a moment to gather my thoughts.
However, it was Mediator who spoke first.
"Director Kanarin, while I understand you wish nothing but the best for your pupils, please refrain from interrupting," she said flatly. "My apologies, Mediator. It will not happen again," Kanarin said with a bow, helping me to realize just who I was taking on.
She can even tell Kanarin what to do? Just who is this person? I wondered as Kanarin rose from her bow.
"I will count that round as neither against nor for you. Let us begin again," she said, this time entering a stance for the first time since we started. It was an airtight stance, not a single opening or weakness I could exploit.
Her right elbow was tucked closely to her body, while her left was just a little less tucked in, with her fists just tight enough not to let her fingers move. Her right leg was back, while her left foot was staggered a little more openly.
There hadn't been any sort of mana pressure coming from her before, but the moment she took her stance, I could tell she was going to take my test a little more seriously.
"Come, then. Let me see whether the rumors are true, Thoma Fayren," she said, her irises flaring hardly enough for me to notice. "As you wish, Mediator," I said, sinking into a stance that mimicked hers. A slight curling of her right brow was enough to let me know I'd done it correctly, but as before, I had no idea what was going through her mind.
This time, instead of relying on my regular speed, I immediately leaned into the space between us, using the time it took me to get there to prepare my first strike. She was much taller than I was, so the only real places I could try to attack were her torso, and even that was still at roughly head height for me.
She deflected my first strike, which I immediately followed up with a second, third, and fourth in rapid succession, then leaned into the space to my right to avoid the incoming counterattack, which missed me by a hair's breadth.
As I was reappearing, another strike was coming in from above me, one I knew I didn't have the time to escape, but trusted my instincts to move, just as Kanarin had told me to earlier. Again, I dodged out of the way, moving in to strike her liver as I reappeared beside her.
She blocked the blow with her elbow, but I'd noticed something at that moment that I hadn't before.
I was getting better at keeping up with her speed.
It was a momentary victory, one I'd wished had lasted longer than half the time it took to blink before another attack came for my head. Trusting my instincts as before, I moved out of the way, only this time, I didn't use the technique.
Instead, I twisted my body to deflect her strike away from my head with my forearms, which felt like I had just stopped a steel bar from hitting me. I winced, but I didn't have time to acknowledge the pain. Rather, I kept moving and deflecting without using the technique as much as before, pushing the limits of my abilities as far as I could manage.
Each strike I deflected made my forearms scream in agony, as if the weight of an entire group of Synners were striking a single point with all their might. Regardless of whether she knew how I was feeling, she kept up her barrage, forcing me to dodge left, right, underneath, and take a step back from the strikes to help manage the impact.
It was only a handful of seconds that felt like an eternity.
You're still holding back, aren't you? I quickly understood, though I suspect my eyes told her everything I'd just thought, earning me nothing but pain in return, since in the heartbeat that followed, I was on my back again, staring at the clouds.
It was a humbling experience, to say the least.
"Alright, that one hurt," I wheezed as I coughed up a mouthful of blood. "I would be surprised if it didn't hurt. Although I must admit, you are a fast learner," she said, though this time, she hadn't moved away.
I realized it wasn't due to her being facetious; it was because she simply didn't have to. I suddenly understood that she hadn't taken a single step from where I had initially begun my assault, leaving me with a sense of the true gap in power between us.
"T-Thank you, Mediator," I said between a pair of coughs. "One more round?" I asked, already feeling the mana in my body beginning to do its work. "The current score is three to zero. How much longer do you want to keep going?" she asked matter-of-factly as I wiped the blood from my nose and mouth.
"As long as it takes. You can beat me down as much as you want, but I only have to win once," I said with a challenging smirk, earning me a slight widening of her eyelids, though why they did, I couldn't even begin to comprehend. "As you wish," she said, getting into her stance once more.
Thoma, are you sure about this? Mom asked, her concern for my mental state bleeding through her question. It's just like what happened with the Eyes. Syldir told me to never show any weakness, as that was the quickest way to admit defeat; something I can't afford to do when I don't know what would happen if I did, I replied, getting into my stance.
"A fine observation," Ryfon added aloud with a grave nod, earning him a sideways look from Mediator. "Begin," Karthus called out for the fourth time. Before I could even acknowledge the command, I came to the sudden and abrupt realization that she had made the first move.
One I might have died from if I hadn't started growing accustomed to her speed.
It was the strength of her blows that quickly became the real problem. Each one could easily have shattered a large boulder, or perhaps something larger, if they had fully connected. I knew that from the way my robes violently snapped around my torso as the next blow nearly met its mark.
The first in her combination of strikes came from above, and I managed to side-step it narrowly, while the second set forced me to deflect to my left, and the third I was forced to duck beneath or deflect accordingly.
However, it was only after the fourteenth consecutive strike that I had a sudden epiphany, a moment of clarity that would likely shape the course of this wager, and I could feel my eyes widening in realization.
Vauv, you're a genius, I mentally smirked, but in reality, I was wincing through the pain racing through my forearms.
All of the strikes she was performing had the exact forms Vauv had been teaching us for the past few months. Granted, her speed was almost impossible to deny, but the fact remained that she'd never once strayed from the basics.
Knowledge is power, I recited Taegin's words in my head, nearly causing me to lose my focus as a smile grew on my face.
As her fifteenth blow came for me, I sidestepped and pushed her elbow, rather than her forearm, away from me. The momentary pause between that and her next strike had allowed me to throw her off just enough to sneak in an uppercut, one I sent with everything I had.
I would have liked to say my blow landed and sent her soaringbackward throughtheair, but that was not at all what happened.
There was a massive shockwave that erupted from my strike, one that would have likely sent more than a handful of glicks flying off in all directions. However, Mediator's robes merely fluttered with the impact against her torso, while her body hardly yielded a centimeter.
Did I just punch the side of a fucking mountain? I winced as I felt my knuckles nearly shatter from the blow.
I was viciously torn from my thoughts when I noticed a change in her features. It wasn't anger, rage, frustration, or anything laced with malicious intent.
Instead, it was a warm, welcoming smile highlighted by a gentle pulse of mana in her irises.
"I see the rumors are true, Dauthridem. Well done," she whispered, patting me on the back a single time as she recovered. "Th-Thank you, Mediator," I said, feeling the sudden sigh of relief flee my body as if it had been imprisoned for decades.
I felt a flood of emotions erupt within my core as the others, who had so kindly held back from accidentally distracting me, finally unleashed a barrage of their own, while Mediator and I stepped away from each other.
There was a brief moment of understanding between us that I couldn't put into words if I tried. As she took a few steps back, she consistently held the smile, showing nothing short of delight on her fine marble features.
"Well, I'll be glazed in glick-sick. You did it, shit-bird!" Bernar exclaimed, rushing over to me with a severe lack of decorum. His phrasing, of course, could have been better, but after it elicited a chuckle from Ryfon, I figured we wouldn't have to worry about a long-winded reprimand.
"I-I can't believe it! That was amazing, my love," Ysevel said, rushing over to me and wrapping her arms around me tightly. I could feel a sense of relief coming from her, but I knew she didn't want to bring those worries to light. "Thank you, love," I replied, kissing her forehead.
Please don't do that again, she sent me privately. Yeah, next time I'll think twice before taking her on empty-handed, I replied with a mental chuckle.
Mom was next and came up to me with a proud smile. "Now that was a fight to remember. I'm so proud of you," she said, wrapping one arm over my shoulder and tousling my hair with her free hand. "Thanks, Mom," I said with no small amount of humility as she kissed the top of my head.
"It is good to see you have such a strong bond with your family. That will be important in the coming days," Mediator said plainly, though there was an obviously ominous undertone.
"Although I must admit, for a moment, I nearly misjudged you when you said that you wanted to fight me without a weapon. For a moment, I thought your own hubris might have gotten the better of you," she said plainly, something I hadn't been sure she was even capable of; what with how flawlessly she carried herself otherwise.
"It was genuinely out of respect for you, though I will say that there were a few times I nearly regretted my choice, Mediator," I replied with a deep bow. "I am glad to hear you see things that way. If you had chosen to use a weapon, I might have viewed you differently. Fair is fair, after all, and I see now why she chose you," she said, allowing the corner of her mouth to be tugged at slightly.
"She? You mean Ysevel?" I asked with no small amount of confusion. "My niece as well, of course, but that was not whom I was referring to," she said, allowing her words to hang for just a few seconds. "Essentia," I said, finally realizing what she meant, earning me a subtle nod.