She Becomes The Hero In Another World 119 She Spars With Sir Drago Part 1

Once more, their swords clashed, but neither drew the advantage. Both Robin and Sir Drago grinned. This was going to be fun.

------------

Jasmine was suspicious. It seemed that half of her pursuers were suddenly gone. She felt that they were gathering somewhere to give her a nasty surprise later on. Hopefully, her preparations had not been noticed.

Naturally, she soon retreated up to the fifth floor, attempting to gain distance from the perceived threat. Pa.s.sing by a window, Jasmine noticed something happening in the courtyard below.

She paused to glance down, only to see Robin going up against the general in a spar. Her mouth turned downwards as she muttered.

"What is that idiot doing!"

"I heard something over here!" One of the guards called nearby.

Jasmine could only sigh before hurrying off to hide again.

-------

Prince Christian was watching from the side, but in reality, he was using the castle greenery as a hub to extend his search for Jasmine. At the beginning, it seemed like Jasmine had used magic in a variety of places, as there were still traces of her mana signature.

But then Christian remembered a certain incident in his past, and sweat began to gather on his back. It seemed that Jasmine truly was p.i.s.sed. If his suspicions were correct...

Christian glanced at Prince Wilbur, a shred of pity in his eyes. It was only a shred, though. This proud prince really had brought this upon himself. He turned his eyes back to the fight as he continued searching for traces of Jasmine through the grapevine.

---------

Robin was having fun. While her strength was naturally less than Sir Drago's, considering age and physique, she was able to balance out against him using highly skilled redirection techniques.

To be honest, she had practiced these skills the most, trying to even out the distance between her and her older brother. What use was great power if it could not land accurately? Thus, the power would be diffused around, and to the side. The more strikes she redirected, the more it seemed like there was an impregnable bubble around Robin.

Of course, those strikes she could clearly not redirect, she avoided with light steps. She was actually using two different techniques together. The aikido-like sword where the opponent's strength becomes your own was used for defense and counter attack. The light airy footsteps were used for dodging like a feather in the breeze.

Christian noticed that Robin's sword style was somewhat different from when she was dealing with the orcs or the a.s.sa.s.sins. It seemed more skilled. There was none of the inc.u.mbent sharp swiftness of when she dispatched the orcs. Neither did she use cheap brawling techniques or incapacitating jabs that he saw when she fought the a.s.sa.s.sins. But, despite all of this, Robin was still holding her own.

Of course, if Robin knew what Christian was thinking, she would have snorted. Obviously, she was acting like a prince right now. Cheap moves, while they would win, would not be accepted by the opponent.

More importantly, if she used the hero's incredibly sharp blade to cut through Sir Drago's blade, things would be over in a moment. Right now, as she was buying time, cutting the spar short early was the epitome of foolishness. Lastly, it had been a while since her last formal spar. She was having fun exercising her skills, as the carriage had become a bit stuffy after a long journey.

In all this time, it seemed neither had gained advantage over the other. It was mainly Sir Drago attacking, and Robin dodging and counter-attacking. But, then again, if one disregarded the counter-attacks, Robin hadn't performed a single attack during the entire spar. Thus, it seemed that Robin was on the losing end.

But Robin and Christian both knew that if she attacked for real, the spar might end very quickly. The courtyard cobblestones were already mostly shattered by Sir Drago's great might.But, despite Sir Drago's great strength, he still could not hit Robin.

But Sir Drago was not willing to let things continue as they were. He was feeling unsatisfied by Robin's light avoidance, as if she did not take the spar seriously. She even began to hum a tune to herself as she fought. Finally, his temper reached its point.

"Feh! How can you call yourself a man if you use such a cowardly way of swordplay? Where did the rampant slaughtering blade you used get to!? I want to fight you at your best! Put away your mercy and fight me for real!"

Robin sidestepped as Sir Drago swung his blade, and missed.

"Well, I would, but it seemed you were not willing to use your own full strength, so I obliged as well to match you." She replied easily. "I give sincerity to the sincere."

This surprised Sir Drago, who suddenly laughed.

"How could you tell?" He asked.

"I would expect nothing less of someone who claims to be my equal." She replied.

"Fair enough." Sir Drago said as he stepped back. "I suppose that was a good warm-up. Now it's time for me to get serious."

"Eh?" Christian was startled. The entire match had seemed fairly serious already, though? The swordplay displayed was more than enough to be considered at the level of a knight general. Now each side claimed that it was a simple warm up?

Then...what would the serious swordplay look like? Christian was distracted from his searching for Jasmine as his curiosity got the better of him. He watched the two as they stood on opposite ends of the courtyard, each gripping their swords.

They stood there, neither one moving an inch as they stared each other down.

"Why are they not moving?" Christian wondered aloud.

"No, they are already fighting." Prince Wilbur said, pointing things out. "As experts, they are determining which course of action to take. Which way the opponent may move, or how they will react, using the data collected beforehand to come up with both a flawless defense, and an invincible offense: that is what expert sword play is..."

Christian looked at Prince Wilbur, surprised at his uncharacteristic insight-

"But of course, Sir Drago will win anyways." Wilbur finished, which caused Christian to put away all good thoughts about Prince Wilbur's character. It was obvious that he was a slimy snake trying to rile him up. But, Christian felt angry that Wilbur disregarded Robin so quickly, so he decided to play along.

"No way! Robin will definitely win! He's a hundred times better than your Sir Drago!" Christian snorted.

"You must not know Sir Drago then." Prince Wilbur glared at Christian. Inwardly, Wilbur was laughing. It seemed someone had taken the bait.

"That's my line! You know nothing about how amazing Robin is!" Christian glared right back.

"In that case, how about we make a bet?" Prince Wilbur asked slyly in the heat of the moment.

"That's fine with me!" Christian crossed his arms, confidently. So, this was what he had been aiming for. "What are the conditions?"

"Winner gets to claim one favor from the other, that they absolutely can't go against. The favor is limited to commands that are not life threatening." Wilbur said with a smirk. This way, he could claim two rewards with one win, and both princes would have their hands tied.

"Deal!" Christian shook hands with Prince Wilbur.

Then Prince Wilbur turned to the match. "Hurry up and finish the match, General! You can't stand around all day!" He cheered

for Sir Drago.

"What! Those are my lines! Don't show any mercy, Robin! Show that Drago person whose the true swordsman here!" Christian called out, cheering for Robin.

Both Robin and Sir Drago paused, feeling annoyed and embarra.s.sed due to their shameless cheerleaders. Robin internally rolled her eyes at Christian. If she did that, then what about the plan of rescuing Jasmine? She also suspected that Christian wasn't doing his job...

Although Robin didn't look in Christian's direction, he felt a cold shudder run down his back. He quickly returned to searching for Jasmine, all while calling out cheers to Robin.

Soon enough, both Robin and Sir Drago leapt into action...