Ch.7069. The Imperial Princess (13)

# 69. The Princess (13)

A brilliant, dreamlike light signifying awakening was radiating from Reina’s body.

I looked at that light and said:

“Congratulations, first of all.”

“Did you plan this…?”

“As I thought, you fall for provocation quite easily.”

It seemed her pride was quite hurt when I compared her to Reicle.

Reina asked me with a gloomy expression.

“But… that thing about having no potential… was that true?”

It seemed my earlier comment about her lacking potential had wounded her quite deeply.

“What? No, I just said that to make you angry.”

“Really!?”

“Did it hit a nerve?”

“…A little?”

She had clearly developed some insecurities just because her first awakening was delayed.

In reality, Reina was actually more talented than Reicle.

“Want to try using that skill?”

“Sure!”

Reina’s face brightened like that light from earlier as she pointed her sword at me.

Then she used the first unique skill she gained from her awakening.

[Lightning Flash].

-Crackle!-

Reina charged at me with insane speed like lightning and swung her sword.

I hurriedly tried to block that sword, but I was a bit too late.

-Clang! Slash!-

Her sword, swift as lightning, cut past my sword and sliced my arm.

As a result, my sword was knocked away somewhere, and red blood was flowing from my right arm with considerable pain.

While clutching my wounded area, I asked Reina who was marveling at her own speed.

“How is it? Using your unique skill for the first time?”

“It’s freaking awesome…”

Reina had a pure and happy face like a child who had just received a birthday present.

‘Of course it is.’

After only using skills like [Leap] rather than [Swift], she finally got to use [Lightning Flash], which could be considered an upgraded version of [Swift].

“You guys have been using such amazing things all this time?…”

“Well… something like that.”

“That’s so unfair…”

Reina pointed her sword at me again, seemingly about to use [Lightning Flash] once more.

So I picked up my sword with my still-intact left hand and prepared for her attack.

While Reina’s [Lightning Flash] was certainly fast, the truth was that she was still slower than me.

“Here I come!”

Reina used her skill again with an excited voice and approached me even faster than before.

‘Did she use [Swift] too? Seems she learned [Swift] when she awakened.’

It appeared she had learned [Swift] in addition to [Lightning Flash] when she awakened.

Thanks to both skills, Reina slashed at me with wind-like speed using her dramatically increased agility.

However.

“You’re certainly straightforward.”

Reina couldn’t control her speed and only charged straight ahead until she reached me.

Because of that, I could easily avoid her sword just by turning my body 90 degrees.

-Whoosh!-

While listening to that refreshing sound of her blade cutting through empty air, I kneed her exposed abdomen as she missed her attack.

“Agh!…”

Reina clutched her stomach and collapsed to the ground.

I asked Reina, who was dry heaving on the floor.

“Does it hurt?”

“H-how did you dodge? I even used [Swift]… Urgh!”

“You’re still slower than me.”

If the ranks of [Lightning Flash] and [Swift] increased, Reina’s instantaneous speed would be faster, but that wasn’t the case yet.

Both in terms of burst speed and sustained speed, I had a significant advantage.

‘Besides, [Lightning Flash] consumes a lot of mana.’

She was probably low on mana after using it twice in succession.

Seeing this, obtaining [Magician’s Heart] seemed like it had been a really good thing.

Even I wasn’t exactly overflowing with mana.

“I still lose…”

“Having skills really does make a difference. Now you just need to raise the ranks of [Lightning Flash] and [Swift] and prepare for your second awakening.”

Hearing my words, Reina stared blankly at my right arm and said:

“But… aren’t you in pain?”

“Probably similar to yours?”

“Mine hurts like hell.”

“Same here.”

Still, this level of injury was something I could endure.

Compared to when that assassin sliced me up before, this was nothing.

Reina, still collapsed on the ground and unable to get up, looked up at me and said:

“Can you finish this quickly? I want to rest…”

After nearly 10 hours since we started, it was incredibly exhausting.

I also wanted to end this quickly and rest like Reina, so I hurried to finish it.

“But you could just press that surrender button yourself.”

“That doesn’t feel right…”

I swung my sword at Reina, whose expression showed her pride wouldn’t allow her to surrender.

“Farewell.”

After confirming Reina’s elimination, I turned around and saw that the situation on the other side had also concluded, with her and Aelin running toward us.

She quickly ran to me and healed me with her holy power while asking:

“Are you okay?…”

“No… it hurts quite a bit.”

She burst into laughter at my excessively honest answer, and I whispered to her:

“But now it’s just our team and their team left, right?”

“That’s right, so what?”

That was certainly a relaxed response typical of her.

I could only admire that well-founded confidence coming from her abilities.

With an imposing appearance, she asked Aelin:

“Aelin, I told you, didn’t I? You can betray me anytime.”

Aelin was quite flustered by her attitude that seemed to say “try if you dare.”

“Um… honestly, I don’t think I’d stand a chance…”

“Then how about this?”

She used her [Ice Magic] to create a sword of ice that was neither too small nor too large.

Then she gripped that sword and pointed it at Aelin.

“I’ll fight you in close combat.”

“And me?”

“Albert can sit over there and rest comfortably.”

To be honest, I didn’t even feel like she would lose with just the penalty of close combat.

From the beginning, she wasn’t weak in close combat; she was just exceptionally strong in mid to long-range combat.

She had some proficiency with swords and spears, and quite a bit of experience in hand-to-hand combat.

‘There’s no way she’ll fall for such a half-hearted proposal…’

Just as I thought it was impossible, an unexpected answer flowed from Aelin’s mouth.

“Fine, that works.”

I thought she would just surrender, but Aelin accepted the proposal and immediately took out her staff.

As she suggested, I sat comfortably on a rock in the shade to watch the fight.

Shortly after I sat down, the battle began.

“I’ll go first.”

She used [Swift] to instantly approach the opposing team and slashed through the members of Team 11 one by one with her sword.

Her swordsmanship wasn’t as fast as mine, nor as precise as Reina’s, nor as fierce as Reicle’s punches.

However, there was a certain composure and beauty unique to her swordsmanship.

Like the flow of water, her swordsmanship struck them very smoothly.

-Slash! Cut!-

With her characteristically flexible movements, she avoided their attacks while naturally wounding them like flowing water.

Aelin, like the others, cast magic to stop her, but it was blocked by her sword.

‘That sword must count as magic.’

Since it was created with [Ice Magic] rather than summoned as a skill, it wasn’t classified as an item, so it didn’t increase her stats.

However, since the sword itself was [Ice Magic], it seemed capable of canceling out magic of lower ranks than her own.

“This looks quite difficult for you.”

Her threatening swordsmanship, contrasting with her smiling face, was enough to make them tremble.

She canceled out all their magic while gradually approaching Aelin.

“Come here.”

Aelin tried to escape, but it was almost impossible to flee from her, who could use [Swift] whenever the cooldown ended thanks to her superior mana capacity.

This was especially true for Aelin, whose only means of escape was running on foot.

Aelin said to her as she approached right in front of him:

“Wait! Can’t you just let me go this once… eek!”

She ignored those words and thrust her sword right in front of Aelin’s face.

The others seemed to want to help Aelin who was cornered, but having witnessed her overwhelming power, they didn’t dare to try.

Aelin had no choice but to surrender.

“I surrender… I surrender!”

Even after hearing those words of surrender, she didn’t lower her sword and just stared intently at Aelin’s watch.

Aelin understood that gaze and clicked his tongue.

“Tch! How unfortunate.”

Soon after, Aelin pressed the surrender button, and the members of Team 11 followed suit one by one.

I approached her as she quietly watched them pressing the button.

“That was definitely overwhelming. Does this mean we’re in first place?”

I checked the watch to see how many people were still surviving.

After the last person from Team 11 pressed the surrender button, the number of survivors dropped to 2, and the number of surviving teams to 1.

“Yes, we’re first. That was definitely a bit easy.”

As she said that, she looked at empty space, and soon a mysterious voice emanated from there.

-Congratulations! The winner of the 675th year midterm survival exam is Team 46, consisting of Elizabeth Michael and one other member.-

As soon as those words ended, she and I were teleported back to where we had started, and there, priests were using holy power to heal the injured.

“There are so many…”

And there were numerous people whom we had eliminated.

She and I headed to where our party members were receiving treatment.

When we arrived, our party members and professors, including Gloria, welcomed us.

“Congratulations on first place. As your homeroom teacher, I’m proud.”

Gloria congratulated us, but there were clearly some professors who weren’t pleased with our first-place finish.

And among those professors, the one with the most palpable magical energy said to Gloria:

“You didn’t do anything, did you?”

“…”

Gloria ignored those words and approached me, saying:

“You must be tired today, so go back to the dormitory and rest. The remaining hand-to-hand combat schedule will proceed next Monday after school. By the way, one of those third-year students voluntarily surrendered.”