You Cut Your Own Wrist
Whoooosh!
The blood-soaked red blade, now longer and sharper, sliced through the air as it flew.
But Cecilia simply dodged it with a light movement and swung her sword.
Ting!
The red crystal sword connected to my hand bounced away with a clear, ringing sound.
Whoosh!
Cecilia’s sword swept sharply once more.
“Ugh…!”
I hurriedly swung my arm to block with the crystal sword.
Tiiing!
The difference in raw strength was far greater than I expected. I was sent flying a long way, forced to endure the searing pain of a shoulder that felt ready to dislocate.
On top of that, I lost my balance and hastily reached out—only for the needlessly sharp tip of the crystal to bury itself in the floor of the training ground.
Taat!
Cecilia kicked off the ground and closed in at high speed. I turned a few of the tears orbiting me into sharp thorns and launched them, but—
Kwakakakak!
Her sword, charging like the wind, casually batted every last one of them away.
I tried to turn the deflected thorns back into tears to block her again, yet—
“…You’re really fast.”
Before I knew it she was right in front of me, thrusting her blade.
At the same instant the red crystal sword wrapping my hand dissolved all at once into blood-mixed tears.
Whoosh!
The moment I swung my left arm with everything I had, those blood-tinged tears transformed into countless thorns and sprayed outward like buckshot.
Cecilia, as though she had expected it, simply arched her waist back and slipped past them with ease.
Puhk!
“Ugh…!”
Still in that position she kicked me square in the stomach.
After sailing at least two meters and rolling once across the floor to recover my stance, I found Cecilia standing there leisurely, as if she had been waiting for me the whole time.
“…You look pretty relaxed.”
“I am relaxed.”
A single tear settled onto the dagger that had cut my wrist and coated the edge.
I leveled the dagger—now harder and longer thanks to the red crystal—toward Cecilia.
Looking at the blade dyed bright crimson with my own blood, I even felt for a moment as though I were offering her a rose.
“How romantic.”
A few more tears hardened and covered my injured left hand all the way to the elbow like a suit of armor.
The solid crystal completely encased the hand, yet at the joints I had twisted threads of tears into spirals so my fingers could still move freely.
“Was your ability originally that bright red?”
“I didn’t know either, but when it mixes with blood it turns out like this.”
“Aha.”
How did a blind woman even know it was red? The question barely formed before Cecilia closed the distance in a single burst and swung her sword in a powerful horizontal arc.
A simple, honest horizontal slash with no fancy technique mixed in.
And precisely because of that, its power was beyond imagination.
Kwakakakakakak!
I blocked with the armored arm and the dagger, yet I still couldn’t absorb the impact and went flying again.
I already knew that Awakeners could dramatically boost their physical abilities. Even among those whose powers weren’t physical enhancement, there were people who trained hard enough to smash walls with bare fists.
Was Cecilia that type? Or was her ability simply physical enhancement?
What was certain was that I was in serious danger right now.
Shwaaaak!
I twisted my upper body to dodge the sword aimed at my face—only for the blade’s angle to snap sideways mid-swing, turning what looked like a thrust into a cut from the very start.
Kagagak!
A long gouge appeared across the crystal armor on my left arm where her sword had scraped past.
“Is your ability physical enhancement by any chance?”
“Wrong! Two chances left.”
Cecilia gave a bright, sunny smile.
Taat!
This time I was the one who charged in.
I stretched my hand straight toward the sword she swung as a check, trusting the hardness of my ability, and clamped down hard on the blade.
Kwakakak!
Toward the startled look on Cecilia’s face as her sword was seized, I swung the dagger.
I never expected it to actually hurt her. Even if she simply abandoned the sword and backed off, that alone would have been a huge gain—that was the only reason I did it.
But……
Kwakakak!
Cecilia calmly pulled the sword free, then spun her whole body in a smooth circle and brought the blade around at me.
“Ugh…!!”
I hastily reversed the dagger I had been swinging, blocked the strike, and rolled across the floor from the force of the impact.
“Yeah, nice reaction speed!”
Cecilia called out as if she were having the time of her life and thrust at me again.
I swung the reverse-gripped dagger to twist her blade’s path and bleed off the power, then grabbed her sword once more.
A look of mild disappointment rose on Cecilia’s pretty face.
“Elysia. Using the same move twice is a poor choice….”
“The same move?”
“……!”
From the very beginning I had been conserving my tears as much as possible.
So where had all those unused tears gone?
The answer was right here!
They were spread all across the floor of the training ground!!
Jjajajajajang!
The tears lying on the floor instantly hardened into thorns and surged upward as if to skewer Cecilia.
“Whoa!”
Startled, she abandoned her sword without a second thought and leapt high, dodging the thorns stabbing up from below.
Wow—was that really someone whose ability wasn’t physical enhancement?
But it didn’t end there.
The thorns that failed to pierce their target melted back into tears, orbited me for a moment, then—
Jjajajajajajang.
—gathered in midair into a massive spear and shot toward Cecilia.
She only smiled quietly, as if she had known everything all along, and lightly twisted her body to slip past the spear with ease.
That spear, however, had never been meant to hit her in that form.
The instant I clenched my fist, the spear burst with a pop! and scattered back into tears, reforming into daggers of every size that rained toward her.
Cecilia dodged those as well, as though she had expected them, and in the blink of an eye closed the final distance.
She leaned in and whispered right beside my ear.
“How was my surprised acting?”
Puh-uh-uhk!
Her fist drove into my solar plexus. Breath locked in my throat and my vision swam.
“Ugh…….”
As I clutched my midsection and dropped to one knee, Cecilia lightly tapped the top of my head.
“Sparring ends here.”
“…Ugh, yes…….”
The pain gradually faded and air rushed back into my lungs.
“Haa…….”
Watching Cecilia’s back as she strode over to retrieve the sword lying on the floor, I noticed the hair she had tied up behind her head swaying like a little tail.
If we had fought with the intent to kill, would I have won?
I shook my head.
Toward the end I had been using nearly everything I had, yet Cecilia still looked completely at ease.
I had been rolling around the floor getting battered from every direction while she didn’t have a single scratch.
In a real fight my head would have left my shoulders long ago.
And more than anything else….
Killing someone that pretty would be a national—no, a global loss.
Even if I somehow had the power, there was no way I could bring myself to do it!
So, staring at Cecilia’s retreating figure, I thought:
She’s a terrifying person.
Did she know I’m weak to pretty people and deliberately challenge me to spar?
She knows exactly how to weaponize her own looks!
“How frustrating…….”
“Then how about winning next time?”
Even from that distance she had heard my grumbling. Cecilia slid her sword into its sheath as she spoke.
Then she walked over, helped me up from where I was sitting on the floor, and added,
“But first we need to get you to the infirmary.”
Her gaze was fixed on my wrist, still encased in crystal armor.
“Oh.”
Honestly, somewhere in the middle of the fight I had completely forgotten I had even cut my own arm.
What ridiculous concentration….
“But isn’t this pretty?”
Forgetting for a moment that Cecilia couldn’t see, I held out the crystal armor mottled in blue and red as if showing it off.
I had never even imagined I could use my ability this way, yet I had pulled it off on the first try.
As expected, I’m a genius…?
What am I supposed to do if my overflowing talent makes everyone jealous?
I’m not ready to deal with that kind of reaction yet.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty. Now hurry up and let’s get to the infirmary.”
“Ah, wait a second.”
I had almost walked off and left the dagger behind.
Supported by Cecilia, I stood, then scurried over to where Kim Yeeun was standing and held the dagger out to her.
“Hic!”
Kim Yeeun and everyone around her flinched hard. I wondered why for a second, then realized—
“Aha. It’s because of this!”
I had left the leather sheath somewhere else.
“Just a sec!”
I snatched Kim Yeeun’s trembling hand, pressed the dagger into it, and dashed over to where the sheath lay.
I picked up the cute little leather sheath exactly where I had set it down earlier. By the time I returned to Kim Yeeun—
“Huh? Blood?”
The blade she was holding was covered in blood.
“Did someone get hurt?”
I asked in surprise. A girl who had been quietly watching from the side spoke up in a soft voice.
“That’s your blood.”
“Huh? My blood?”
She pointed at my wrist.
At some point the armor that had been sealing the wound had vanished, and blood was dripping steadily from the cut.
“You cut your own wrist.”
“Ah, right.”
We had literally just been talking about going to the infirmary because of this, and I had already forgotten again.
Apparently my concentration is so outstanding that the moment I focus on one thing, everything else slips right out of my head.
Being too amazing is also a problem, you know.
“So let’s get you to the infirmary already.”
Cecilia, who had somehow appeared behind me again, grabbed my shoulder and began dragging me toward the infirmary.