NOVEL WEB Chapter 284: Pushing Back? [Bonus]
What if... Lillian were to somehow learn her techniques mid-way through the match? That way, she would have a much higher chance of beating the enemy swordsman.
As she was thinking this, she sighed, deflating slowly as she leaned back into her seat.
No matter how many times she may call Lillian talented, there was absolutely no way she would remember how she moved and attacked, especially in her current situation.
She then remembered something she was told in the past.
It was that Lillian was the luckiest person she would ever meet.
But could that be proven true here?
Marionette gave a small smile, finding hope in Lillian's luck in beating this battle. It was, after all, like she said before, one of the many factors that play in the outcome of a battle.
She then muttered under her breath:
"And... If she loses... It doesn't really matter. Something as trivial as this competition isn't that important apart from receiving a little bit of fame."
As she was saying this, she couldn't help but think back to the various spars they had in the past. Her mind was calculating, recalling, and processing each memorised movement Lillian had made against her.
She rested her elbows on her thighs and bent over, leaning the bottom of her chin on the back of her interlocked fingers.
Her eyes shone with dark calculations as she looked over Lillian's moves, even overlapping the same attacks she made with one another.
After a moment of heavy processing... She came to a surprising realisation that caused her eyes to widen.
This... Surprise left the edges of her lips to curl up with joy.
In the past, she had thought that Lillian's progress was little. Far little than she expected.
But... She was wrong.
Lillian had indeed been making progress. A lot of progress, in fact. And this battle she was having, which was devoid of the use of magic, was only furthering her abilities.
At this point in time...
Lillian's talent was becoming active... The talent the Assassin knew the Rabbit had inside her all along.
"I'm never wrong."
***
Lillian continued to defend against every single strike that Kuro had to offer.
She raised her jian, gripping the handle tightly before slashing diagonally upwards to the right—
CLANG!
—Parrying one of Kuro's attacks. Albeit with extreme difficulty.
The Sword Genius, who had been seeing Lillian as someone inexperienced with the blade, was surprised, even startled, by her parry.
It impressed him.
And as they continued to spar, he couldn't help but unconsciously increase the weight behind his strikes as he watched Lillian grow to adapt to his technique.
Although the girl's adaption to his attacks was slow at the beginning, it seemed to have laid a steady foundation to allow counterattacks to slip in between his strikes.
CLANG!
However, for now, he was focused on the way the girl's eyes shone with a burning light that seemed to scream survival, as though she had endured countless battles and died countless times.
And...
He wouldn't be wrong to think so.
Lillian's body, which was intertwined with mana and the energetic hormone of adrenaline, was now unconsciously stringing together movements to save herself from harm.
Her body was developing a form of fighting inside her very soul.
She, who had constantly been under intense battle against a certain Assassion and died multiple times against them, was beginning to show the fruits of her labour.
She, who used to swing her sword recklessly with no sense of direction, now moved with purpose and grace as though she had a mental guide.
And what that guide was?
It was her instinctual need to win. Her body and mind in this life had yet to experience True Loss.
Her spars against Marionette? They never counted. That was for training purposes.
But in this match? Where it was all purely about skill and endurance?
Although, deep down, she knew she may lose this battle. She could at least console herself that she didn't go all out. That she didn't truly showcase her skills.
That... Was enough of an excuse for disappointing a certain someone, right?
Would they... Even be disappointed in her for losing against someone like the young man before her?
CLANG!
No... Of course, they wouldn't. They have down-to-earth expectations of her. Expectations she had reached and even exceeded in the time the person had known her.
Lillian gripped the hilt of her jian even tighter, breathing in the air that had become even thinner and thrumming with energy.
As the air circulated inside her chest, her mana rushed to her individual body parts.
Even if the woman's expectations of her had already been reached and exceeded... She wanted to exceed it even more.
She wanted... To see the look of joy on their face as they see her win.
Something like that... A thought like that... A scene like that... Couldn't help but put a large grin on her face as her eyes burned with the need to overcome the man before her.
She didn't care if his talents with the sword dwarfed hers completely. She had something he didn't.
And that was luck. Luck bestowed upon the very Lady herself.
CLANG!
Their blades clashed again, locking together as they pushed forth, trying to get over each other in strength, in which... Lillian was losing.
However, that didn't stop her from getting a genuine look of fascination from the young man, whose hair ruffled from the amount of mana ferociously spilling out of their bodies.
"Perhaps I was wrong about you, Miss Lillian."
Winning over the clash, he knocked her back with a swing of his sword.
After creating a gap between them that spanned several metres, he looked down at the edge of his blade, noticing several chips in it.
He glanced towards Lillian, watching as she moved back into her stance like a doll whose only motive was to continue fighting.
He couldn't help but think of her earlier form and stances, finding them to be beautifully unrefined in his opinion. But beautiful nonetheless.
"While you are inexperienced, possibly only being a few months old swordswoman, you are, in fact..."