"..."
I maintained a careful, calculated distance from Cindy as the silence settled between us. The spar had already started. Every muscle in my body was stretched tight like a wire under immense tension.
Just like me, Cindy appeared to be on her guard as well, matching my slow, deliberate movements with her own.
Her eyes were fixed onto mine, calculating and intense. It was highly probable that she assumed I was strong, given the formidable reputation of the Frostguard name. The original Vael certainly possessed that kind of terrifying power—but me? I was entirely sure that I didn’t. I was just an ordinary guy trying to pilot a sports car of a body I barely understood.
Anyway, the standoff persisted like that for a while.
But as if she had suddenly run completely out of patience—BAM!
Cindy violently kicked off the grass, initiating the fight by rushing straight toward me with explosive speed!
She moved so fast that she became a blurry streak in my vision. The sheer speed of her approach made my heart leap into my throat. However, based on the specific shape of her needle-like training weapon, my brain managed to register her intent in a fraction of a second. I figured that she would attempt to close the distance in a straight line, aiming for a singular, lethal thrust.
And so—TAP!
I planted my foot forward into the dirt. And focusing my mind entirely on the space between us—SHHHK~!
I made a pillar of ice emerge in front of me, creating an immediate shield to block any incoming frontal assaults!
CRACK!
The sound was sharp and deafening. Just as I had predicted; Cindy’s needle-like weapon violently collided with the pillar, piercing deeply into the dense ice structure I had just materialized!
She had been aiming directly at my chest with lethal accuracy. It was genuinely terrifying to witness his attack pierce through my ice, especially considering the fact that she was only wielding a wooden weapon meant for training.
But pushing those unnecessary thoughts out of my head, I immediately focused on controlling the ice pillar before me. All of a sudden—FWOOSH—!!!
Multitude of sharp, jagged ice spikes erupted from the surface of the pillar, surging outward to attack Cindy on the opposite side even though I couldn’t actually see her!
I had been planning this exact sequence of movements before the spar even begun. I studied the nature of her weapon before the fight and ran mental simulations in my head. I felt a rush of genuine satisfaction knowing that my theories were actually working in practice.
A small smile began to form on my face.
Though, that brief moment of victory vanished instantly when I realized that Cindy’s weapon was no longer embedded in the ice pillar.
"...!"
I whipped my head sharply toward my left, operating entirely on a desperate guess as to where she might have moved. Luckily, my instincts were correct—she was standing right there. However, her weapon was already drawn back into a flawless stance, completely prepared to thrust her weapon!
SWOOSH—!
Cindy drove her needle weapon forward with blinding speed, aiming a precise strike directly at my head.
’FUCK!’
I cursed loudly in my mind.
I desperately tried to raise my ice rapier to parry the incoming blow, but I was already late. Her needle-like weapon was going to connect before my own blade could even finish moving into position to deflect it.
But then, operating entirely on pure reflex that I had acquired from years of disciplined fencing training back on Earth—FWIP!
My body moved entirely on its own, tilting my head sharply to the side to avoid the trajectory of the strike! Cindy’s weapon cut through the empty air right beside my ear, and I could distinctly feel the sharp rush of displacement brushing against my cheek.
And to immediately follow up on my successful dodge—FWOOSH!
I extended my arm, countering with a sudden thrust of my own as I drove my ice rapier forward toward her torso! It was a desperate, unpolished maneuver thrown out out of pure instinct, hoping to nick her anywhere I could reach.
Bam—
But with ease, Cindy just jumped back, and my attack came short to reaching her.
I didn’t give up, I already thought of a follow up attack after retriving my weapon. Though, before I could even have the opportunity to do that...
Tap-
Cindy’s feet lightly touched the ground, re-establishing her balance in a split second. Then in the very next moment—
FWISH~!
She vanished from my line of sight entirely.
"Huh...?"
I didn’t even have time to react.
TWACK!
Everything went entirely black after that.
... ... ...
... ... ...
... ... ...
*****
"..."
I had no idea how much time had passed. But the moment my awareness slowly began to return to me, I opened my eyes.
"Ah! You’re finally awake!"
The very first sight that greeted my blurry vision was Cindy hovering over me. Looking at her up close like this, she really did look like a smaller, younger version of her older sister, Ahri. Her features were tight, and she looked visibly worried.
"Are you okay?"
She asked, her voice laced with genuine concern. I realized I was still spread out flat on the grass in the middle of the backyard.
"I’m fine... Ugh...?"
I managed to reply, groaning softly as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. A sharp, throbbing sting immediately flared up across my forehead.
Lifting my left hand to investigate the source of the pain, my fingers brushed against a massive bump.
With that physical evidence, I was easily able to reconstruct the sequence of events that had occurred right before I lost consciousness. It looked like the moment I missed my counterattack, Cindy had immediately capitalized on my extended posture, delivering a decisive blow that knocked me out cold. Based on the position of the swelling, it was clear she had targeted the exact center of my head, right where it would do the most damage.
’Terrifying...’
If she had been using a real weapon instead of a blunt wooden one, I would have been a corpse before I even hit the grass. In fact, given the sheer velocity of her movements, Cindy could probably kill a man with a wooden weapon if she actually intended to. I knew from the brief exchange we shared that she hadn’t even been using anywhere near the full extent of her true strength.
"Umm, how long was I out?"
I asked Cindy, turning my face toward her as I nursed my aching head.
"Over half an hour."
She answered, shifting her gaze away slightly as a look of embarrassment colored her face. I wasn’t entirely sure why she was feeling embarrassed about winning a match, though.
"I’m really sorry, I thought you would be able to dodge that."
She added quietly. It was obvious she was referring to that final strike that had completely ended the spar.
"You don’t need to apologize... You were just really strong."
I assured her, forcing a small, reassuring smile through the pain throbbing in my skull.
"Ah, Did Ahri look for us?"
I asked immediately after, a sudden wave of panic hitting me. She had no idea that the two of us were planning to have a combat spar today, so she would likely get incredibly worried or upset if she discovered one of us had sustained an injury under her watch.
’I can’t imagine her getting angry though.’
Our original plan had been to inform her about it, but we had avoided doing so today because she had been incredibly busy with chores inside the house earlier.
"She did, Sis called us for lunch not long ago... we should probably go."
Cindy informed me, gesturing toward the back door.
"But what do we tell her about that?"
She asked, pointing a slender finger directly at the massive swelling on my forehead.
"Umm, I’ll just tell her I got it while training."
I answered simply, shrugging it off. It wasn’t technically a lie, just a heavily altered version of the truth.
Cindy nodded her head in agreement. I braced my hands against the ground, preparing to stand up and accompany her back inside the house, but before I could even lift my weight off the grass—
"Erm, first... do something about that."
Cindy said, pointing a finger toward the space right beside me.
Feeling thoroughly confused, I twisted my torso around to look at the spot she was indicating. And there—
"What...?"
The ice pillar I had conjured to intercept Cindy’s initial assault was still standing perfectly intact, completely solid. Even my ice rapier was resting exactly where I had dropped it on the lawn!
They were both made of my mana, so when I passed out, I expected both of them to disappear like mists.
"Your mana density is really something else, I can’t damage the ice pillar completely. I have to use a skill just to pierce through it."
Cindy noted as I continued to stare at the frozen structures, my eyes widening in genuine disbelief.
It appeared that the ice elemental abilities of the Frostguard bloodline were far more potent than I originally thought. They don’t use their mana to materialize ice of them, they use mana to literally create and control ice itself.
’And Cindy said something about my mana...?’
I thought silently.
It seems like there’s more to Vael than what I read on his character sheet in the game.