Clovis and Aileen were standing in the arena. They ignored the deafening cheers around them.
Instead, they focused on the opponent in front of them.
"Is this situation going according to your plan? To think that you had no hesitation to allow yourself to lose in the group match."
"I thought you had already read it." Clovis closed his eyes.
"You thought?" Aileen squinted her eyes. She harrumphed, "Shouldn’t you say, ’You knew I wouldn’t read it until the match is over?’ or something?"
"No way. I’m not a prophet." Clovis chuckled.
"I’m wondering… do you predict yourself winning this battle?" Aileen asked.
"What do you think?" Clovis smiled.
Aileen squinted her eyes. Even though Clovis didn’t answer her question, his confident smile was enough for her. She said, "In that case, we will see whether you have the ability or not. I’m not going to hold back."
Clovis nodded.
After saying their pieces, both of them took a few steps back before nodding to the referee, showing that they were ready.
The referee signaled Shion to start the battle.
Shion excitedly announced, "The two participants are ready! I’m sure that all of you can’t wait anymore. Without further ado, let’s start the battle and witness the greatest battle in this competition. The dark horse, Clovis, vs the cold beauty, Aileen. Countdown!"
Clovis looked at Aileen with a solemn look. He was aware of what Aileen was capable of. He had seen her fight, but even he hadn’t seen her true ability.
Her weapons were also quite unique. She was also wielding two weapons. On her right hand was a short sword, the length was similar to Clovis’ short sword. On her left hand was a dagger. Considering the dagger was quite short, the sword must be there as a necessary weapon to reach a beast’s organ or something.
In addition, Aileen had Blood Affinity, which was the same as his. This battle would definitely become a battle of speed, but with a different fighting style.
That was why he couldn’t let his guard down.
"3."
"2."
"1."
"Match Start!"
This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
In that moment, Aileen rushed forward as if she were planning to close the distance between them.
"!!!" However, Clovis abruptly widened his eyes when Aileen’s figure suddenly disappeared. Aileen simply used the pillar to hide her entire body before disappearing into thin air.
Normally, Clovis would be convinced that Aileen was behind that pillar. However, he didn’t have any radar or good senses like Kanaria or Melody.
"Huu…" Clovis took a deep breath, trying to find Aileen. He didn’t even bother to move, considering the assassin would definitely come first.
After ten seconds, Clovis suddenly sucked a cold breath, sensing killing intent coming from behind.
Clovis turned around and put his sword in the front, trying to block the trajectory where he sensed she would hit.
However, at the last moment, he felt something else.
"!!!" Clovis twisted his body to the side. Even when Aileen was in front of him, he barely felt her presence. No, he even had a hard time looking at her. It was as if he was in an illusion.
"This is…" Before he realized it, he felt a sharp pain on his right side. Just for a moment, he could sense Aileen’s presence a bit more. In fact, he could see her passing him.
This was the first time he fought someone like this.
In that first exchange, Erwin couldn’t help but smile. "Interesting, isn’t it? Even when she is in front of you, you can’t even see her.
"There is a reason why Aileen is the face of a new generation. Despite being so famous, the moment she erases her presence, you won’t be able to even see her shadow."
Clovis certainly felt pressured after the first exchange. ’This is crazy. This is the first time I have fought someone like this. Can a beast actually hide themselves as well as her? The last time I saw her, she was behind a pillar in front of me. The next thing I realized, she was already behind me.’
The normal approach would only lead to his defeat. That was why he needed a new approach.
Clovis took a deep breath. Like earlier, he noticed her faint presence. However, she was coming from the side this time.
Clovis immediately turned around like earlier, putting his short sword in front of him. This looked like the same strategy, but when he sensed another threat coming, he hurriedly swung his long sword in that direction.
Clink!
He heard a clicking sound on the side. His eyes followed the sound, finding Aileen in the sword’s trajectory.
Aileen was overwhelmed easily due to the nature of her fighting style. Still, she managed to protect herself and launch herself toward the pillar before disappearing again.
’As expected, I can overpower her. Even though she can hide her presence, it’s not a magical ability like I expected from the book in Another World Mall. In that case, I can still deal with it.’
Clovis turned around and headed to the nearest pillar.
"Kh!" Clovis stomped the ground, swinging as hard as he could at this pillar.
It turned out thatin he was smashing the pillar. Whenever Aileen was trying to disappear, she used the pillar so that Clovis’ eyes didn’t see her anymore.
However, another strike suddenly hit him on the back.
"Tsk." Clovis clicked his tongue. He managed to tilt his upper body at the last second, but he still sensed her too late.
Clovis hurriedly moved to the second pillar.
’You’re not the only one thinking about this strategy.’ Aileen thought while approaching Clovis from the side.
When Clovis was about to strike the pillar, she approached him. Clovis would be too busy swinging at the pillar when she attacked him.
However, there was something different in this strike.
"Haaa!" Clovis shouted, releasing everything he had in this slash.
He crushed the pillar easily, but his sword didn’t stop yet. The swing continued on its trajectory.
It was Aileen’s turn to be shocked this time. The sword would definitely hit her, but it didn’t change the fact that most of the power behind that swing had been absorbed by the pillar.
Hence, she struck the sword multiple times. In the end, she was quite confident with her speed as well, so she tried to knock the sword back.
But that was actually a trick Clovis had in store.
The moment she was focused on the sword, Clovis spun even faster so that his short sword could reach her.
Clink!
Aileen was the one knocked back by all that power. This was what Clovis had been waiting for.
Now that he had located her, Clovis immediately rushed forth and swung his blade as fast as possible. He still believed that the number of his strikes was higher than hers. This way, he could overwhelm her even if he couldn’t see her clearly.
As he expected, a few clicking sounds echoed in the arena as Aileen was doing her best to parry all those strikes.
But those sounds abruptly stopped as they were followed by two strikes on his right arm and one strike on his chest.
"!!!" Clovis bit his lips, enduring the pain. Still, he was smiling. There was actually blood on both of his swords, meaning that he also managed to cut her.
When he turned around, he saw blood stains on the ground, leading to a pillar. On the one hand, he wanted to chase after her right away. On the other hand, an assassin like her would definitely be able to cover her tracks right after and not just foolishly stay behind that pillar.
In fact, she might be waiting for him to lower his guard by aiming for that pillar.
Clovis’ speculation was actually true. If he struck that pillar, he would have a few more injuries as Aileen was actually waiting for him in the pillar next to his target.
’She is different. She is not like the assassin from Eight Swords. I can finally understand why Erwin holds her in high regard. She might haven’t gone all out in the group match. No, should I say she underestimated Ragna? If she didn’t, she might be able to defeat Ragna in one go.’
’In terms of assassin, I feel like she is more talented than those two Tier 5 people that are trying to kill me.’
On the other hand, Aileen’s body trembled as she was a bit frustrated.
’Why didn’t you chase after me? Did he realize it?’ Aileen bit her lips. There were now a few wounds on her body as well. The more wounds she had, the more ineffective her technique became. ’As expected, he is not an ordinary man. However, what trump card does he still have in his sleeve?’
She was afraid that the trump card would take her down if she was not careful. So there was only one choice. She had to force Clovis reveal that trump card.
Both of them formulated a new battle plan in their minds after knowing a bit more about their enemy. The battle had just begun.