The Art Of Sword

The day of the Second Round has finally come.

Today the only people that are watching the match are all of the losers from Round One (That want to see) and some of the high-rank people of the clan.

A few minutes before Sunz vs Grace round start. Snow starts to fall around the whole area, covering the seats and replacing the dirt and stone ground with a thick layer of snow.

Sunz said to Grace: Isn’t that a bit overkill?

Grace's response: What…! I’m just going all out.

Sunz: Looks like I’ll have to make sure we are on equal footing.

Grace: Ready?

Sunz: Of course I am!

Grace: Let’s go!

While Sunz and Grace start walking on the field, Sogae starts announcing.

Sogae: Sorry to everyone about the sudden change in the weather but the fight must go on.

“Now introduce on to the battlefield. Grace and Sunz!”

Another conversation just started during Sunz and Grace introduction.

Soju: Hey! Look like everyone is here. (The people from the meeting he means.) Did the match start yet?

Jun: Sogae is introducing this round contestants.

Soju: Lucky that we aren’t that late. I’m so tired!

Jun: Wow, for a guy who just got a meltdown last night. Narae did an excellent job draining you dry and calming you down.

Narae said to Jun: With him, it's kinda simple. Wanna know how I did it?

Soju “Ok, Ladies! Don’t talk about that in front of the kid.” Then the person sitting next to Jihu caught his attention.

“Who is this kid? He isn’t part of our clan.”

Jihu: Oh! This is Yama. He’s from another clan and recently join my friend group.

Soju: Ah! The genius that innovates their clan. Nice to meet you, kid! Want to join our clan?

Yama: Well I did try but I lost in the first round.

Soju: You may not get as many perks as winning the tournament but the two clans can still be partners.

Jihu: Well about that! He did agree to help our clan during the war with the condition that we offer them shelter and resources to rebuild after the war.

Soju said to Jihu and Yama “It looks like I’m not needed anymore.”

Then he goes to Jun and Narae to vent: How can these kids do my job better than I do?

Jun: Well they are kids and they are the clan's future so of course they’re going communicate with each other easier than you trying to talk with other elders.

Narae: But at least you enjoy your job, right?

Soju: Of course! Now let’s see who is fighting against each other today.

Soju take a look at both Sunz and Grace. Then report back what he saw in both of them to the girls.

Soju: Did Elder Nam really think of having that girl back in the clan?

Jun: It’s not his decision. That girl came back to the clan begging him to let her fix what in the past and allow her family back in the clan.

Soju: Had he told you what really happened that night? Or is it still the same?

Jun: He never reveal what happened that night. Anytime anyone asks about that he just said “ All we can do is keep watching until the truth reveals itself.”

Soju: Even though he is the one who knows the truth all along. But how was she begging, was it all fake or her true feeling?

Jun: Everything she said was true but she didn’t know what her parents did and they did not tell her to beg for forgiveness. It was all on her own account.

Soju: What if she really did win this tournament? What is Elder Nam's thought about it?

Jun: If she wins. Her family is allowed to join the clan but we’ll keep a close eye on her parents.

Soju sighed: At least he had a plan.

Narae: So what about her opponent?

Soju: Wu Sunz. So this is the duel elements kid. He has no other connection except his parent, Jihu, Class Rep, Yama, Laikan, Grimm, and other unknown entities.

Jun: Unknown entities?

Soju: Like his parents “Nickname” displayed as “Mom”, and “Dad” because I had never seen them before. But these entities have no “Nickname”, no silhouette.

Narae: I guess our vacation is over!

Soju: There is still another funny piece of information that I didn’t tell you two.

Narae and Jun: What is it?

Soju: You know that those two down there are dating.

Narae and Jun: WHAT!

Now back to Sunz and Grace, both having their hand on their weapon waiting for Sogae to start the battle.

Sogae “3…2…1…Start!” and disappear from the field.

Right after the count down Grace snap her finger, turning the layer of snow into ice.

The battlefield goes from sinking every step you take to an ice skating arena.

Grace's shoes turn into ice skating shoes and rush at Sunz with her rapier aiming to deliver some light attack.

Sunz can clearly see all of the attacks that Grace is going to hit him with, and he manages to block her first wave of attack.

But due to the slippery terrain and Grace's aggressive speed cause him to lose balance. But lucky enough he didn’t receive any direct hit but some grazes from Grace’s weapon.

Sunz thinks (Ok then! didn’t think that the change in terrain would cause me this much trouble. I need to take care of it first before wanting to get any hit on her.)

Sunz tries to keep up with Grace's speed by using his lighting dash but only to keep a distance away from her.

Grace: Oh come on! Attack me and stop running away.

Sunz respone: It’s call strategy.

Grace: Fine! If you like to keep distant then I’ll attack you in different ways.

Grace then uses her ability to attack Sunz with icicles from a distance.

Sunz (She can do that too. And there are too many so I can’t predict their movement.)

Sunz changes his movement from running away to attacking Grace head-on. He keeps his body low, dash once with the Lightning element and immediately switch to Water element.

Grace stops her icicles attack, ready her rapier to fight Sunz head-on. But Sunz did something she didn’t expect.

Sunz intentionally falls to the ground in the middle of his attack, catching Grace off guard and knocking her to the floor with him.

(Like a bowling ball rolling toward a pin and knocking it down.)

Sun then stabs his sword into the ice to stop himself from sliding further away.

After being knocked to the floor, Grace immediately stand up. But this time she is very pissed at Sunz.

Grace glared at him and said: You disappoint me! I thought you have more potential than that… I’ll finish the match right now!

Sunz stand up and said: Let’s see!

After he said that a huge snowstorm appear blowing in his direction. Sunz readies his sword, trying to stand his ground but keeps being pushed back by the wind.

The heavy snowstorm blocked Sunz’s vision making him lose track of Grace. Slowly he is forced to rely only on his hearing. In between the sound of the wind and the sound of his windbreaker flapping, he can hear Grace skating around him.

Then the skating sound starts getting louder… and he takes his chance to swing in the direction he thinks the sound was coming from.

But he misses leaving himself defenseless and Grace strike him from behind. The strike leaves a diagonal cut from the bottom to the top of his back. Not only did she successfully attack him, but she also remove his windbreaker.

Grace: You know, I could have struck you in your organs and taken the win for myself. But I want to see what other thing you can do. So that strike was only a warning!

Sunz right now doesn’t care about what Grace just said or the damage she just did to him.

He just said, “Give me my windbreaker back!”

Grace held up the head of the windbreaker with one of her hands and said “This must be important to you!”, “You definitely will be more serious if something happens to it!”

And she cut off the head of the windbreaker.