Huh?
Lingcai’s move blindsided Aniel, a chill ripple under bright noon. She expected some hidden art, yet Lingcai simply shoved Scarlet Leaf forward.
The one pushed out looked plain as unpainted wood, a village girl under gray sky. She held the Crimson Cherry Blossom Blade, yet swung like a smith at the forge.
Aniel didn’t buy that someone like Scarlet Leaf could ever threaten her, a cold rock seated in her chest.
“Uh? Am I really okay?” The doubt showed first, like mist before dawn.
Lingcai nudged Scarlet Leaf again, a palm like a breeze: “Relax. She’s enough for you.”
There was a pinch of condescension in that calm, a thin needle under silk.
Aniel heard it, and killing intent surged like a black tide: “You mocking me?”
Lingcai waved, voice soft as rain but words sharp as flint: “No, no… not looking down. I mean… you’re kinda green.”
Aniel’s fists nearly cracked like ice under a boot.
These two broke punks! Still putting on airs under a dusty sun!
Anger flooded her skull like boiling stormwater, and her body moved. Lightning-laced foam orbs rushed at Scarlet Leaf, an arc like a rainbow across wet stone.
Scarlet Leaf still didn’t move, calm as a pond at dusk. LilyBell panicked first, trying to raise a paper wall against the tide:
“Art of Thousand-Fold Paper! Battlements!”
Black sheets whirled like crows, stacking like tiles to form a curved wall, moon-slick and tight.
She trusted the wall, iron-strong in her heart, but water magic was its bane, a river against ash. Bubbles burst with crackling light, shredding the wall into soggy confetti that blew like dead leaves.
At least it stopped one wave, a sandbar against a flood.
By the look of it, Scarlet Leaf got saved, a lantern spared by chance.
Scarlet Leaf glanced at LilyBell, a touch annoyed, like a smith interrupted mid-swing: “Uh… what are you doing?”
LilyBell blinked, a sparrow in sudden wind: “I… I was trying to block?”
Lingcai stepped in, lifted the bewildered LilyBell like a cat, and set her behind Scarlet Leaf, a gentle reposition under drifting clouds: “Not your turn. Just watch, don’t draw aggro.”
“Eh? Eh?” Her confusion bobbed, a cork in choppy water.
She took it as her sage master shooing her away, and backed off like dusk receding. Aggro… what does that even mean, a word like fog?
Scarlet Leaf walked straight at Aniel, steady as a cart on packed earth. She set the blade at her hip, one hand on the hilt, a draw-cut stance under pale light.
It looked a bit like swordcraft after all, a swan’s shadow on a river.
Aniel felt no fear, a stone wall in a storm. With her device, she could drown Scarlet Leaf in magic foam, a tide against a pier.
She lifted her hand. Another volley streaked out, pearls of doom on a string.
Ding—!
The instant the foam kissed Scarlet Leaf, a flicker of steel, like moonlight on water—every linked bubble detonated in a chain. The shockwave punched Aniel flat, a tree felled by its own echoed wind.
She sat there stunned two heartbeats, mind blank as a white sheet in rain.
She looked up and saw Scarlet Leaf unscathed, still holding the sheathing pose, calm as a mountain. Fire rose in her chest, a kiln gone wild:
“Who do you think you’re belittling! Today… I’ll butcher you country bumpkins!”
She poured more power in, a deeper current. Slower, heavier, the mana thrum rolled like a storm-swollen sea.
Scarlet Leaf kept the sheathing pose, as if listening to snow. The bubbles didn’t rush; they drifted slow, ringed around her like pale moons.
Aniel’s tactic landed, a hawk’s smile cutting through cloud. Slow or fast, she thought, the blast can’t be dodged, a net cinched tight.
Even angry, she stayed cold at the core, a knife under wool. That grit had saved her often, flipping danger like a coin.
She needed no bodyguards; she trusted her own hands, a captain in her own storm.
She detonated.
But the crackling arcs got drowned by a clean ring—Ding—! a temple bell over thunder.
Ding—!
The shockwave slammed back twice as hard, a tide reversed by the moon, hurling Aniel ten meters and dumping her on hard earth. Scarlet Leaf stood untouched, a pine in winter wind.
Thud.
On the ground, Aniel still couldn’t see the loss, a map smeared by rain.
What even is this?
She lifted her head like pulling a net from water and saw Scarlet Leaf slide the Crimson Cherry Blossom Blade into its sheath, unmarked as new snow. Her face twisted, a mask under strain: “What… what did you do?”
Lingcai looked over from afar, eyes a calm lake, then strolled in, slow and smug, words like tea poured warm:
“It’s just a magitech device, not some rare toy only you own. Your wand’s etched with a simple elemental trick that blows electric bubbles. This Crimson Cherry Blossom Blade—Moonlight Reveals the Heart—is my own alchemical magitech device. It bears a Master-tier, non-elemental advanced spell: ‘Water-Moon Stance · Construct of Mirror Flowers.’ If you counter within 0.2 seconds of the draw, it sends all damage back. Only flaw? It can’t initiate, just parry and rebound.”
0.2 seconds? Her? The number hung in the air like a gnat.
Aniel stared at Scarlet Leaf, unwilling as a frozen brook, refusing to believe two perfect parries in that narrow window.
Scarlet Leaf caught the fire in her eyes and answered while sheathing, voice plain as bread: “It’s not that hard. Like forging—catch the heat, strike on time. That’s the job back home.”
“You’re really just a blacksmith?” Disbelief bit her, a dog that won’t let go. “I don’t buy it… I lost to someone like you…”
Unwilling, she pushed herself up, a willow in wind. A noble bred in salons, her shame made her drive keener, mind clearing like frost at dawn.
“Heh… heh-heh… heh-heh-heh…” Laughter came thin, a cracked reed pipe.
Lingcai thought she’d finally surrender, but a thought sparked behind Aniel’s eyes, lightning behind clouds. She staggered up with a ragged grin, then sneered:
“You said… that blade’s spell can’t initiate, right? That’s what you said, yeah?”
All eyes turned, a flock wheeling as one. Aniel swayed like a drunk onto her feet, as if she’d grasped the golden thread, then dropped her wand like shedding dead weight:
“Then there’s only one correct answer! If I don’t attack, you can’t rebound anything! That means I win!”
Lingcai, Scarlet Leaf, and LilyBell shared the same baffled stare, three fish under strange moonlight.
What is she doing?
Aniel even strode right up, arms thrown wide like a mad scarecrow: “Come on! If I don’t attack, let’s see your tricks! Knock me down! Do it!”
Scarlet Leaf watched that manic grin, confusion like fog, and flicked her eyes to Lingcai for guidance.
Lingcai answered with a few quick signs, wind-light: “Just don’t hit the face.”
Nod received, Scarlet Leaf raised the scabbard, wound up like a forge swing, and smacked Aniel square in the gut.
The laughter snapped, a string cut.
Aniel went down.
Thunk.
“Think her brain’s broken?” Scarlet Leaf looked at the heap on the dirt and asked Lingcai, a sparrow’s question in quiet rain.
Lingcai shook her head, a willow swaying: “I’d say… a little cracked, yeah.”
