As her brutal and vicious fighting approach continued to reappear in the tournaments, the press and public increasingly insisted on calling her by her new moniker.

"The Sword Devil has spilled more blood!"

​​

"Does the Sword Devil's bloodthirst know no bounds?"

"Just admit defeat in front of her! It's not worth losing your limbs!"

Each time she entered the arena, she always took every opponent a bit seriously. Even if they were clearly outmatched or mentally defeated, she was always wary of being fooled.

Underestimating a weak opponent might work 99 times out of a 100, but if Ketis happened to encounter a deceitful snake with a venomous bite, then she might suffer a preventable defeat.

This could never happen!

The future of the Swordmaidens rested on her shoulders. She could not afford to make any mistake, especially when the press had a penchant of amplifying every single mistake.

The losers in the Heavensword Association were either forgotten or lampooned. This was because the competition between swordsmen and sword schools was especially fierce.

Since it was illegal to duel to the death in this state, many powerful swordmasters and their networks focused instead on trying to pull down their rivals in other ways.

Being called a Sword Devil was just one of those tricks. It wasn't even an inventive name. Whoever came up with it clearly looked at the name of her mentor and made a lazy adjustment.

"Don't let the media pressure get to you, Miss Ketis." Fred Walinski told her as she tried to recover back at Angelique's villa. "They all want to get in your mind and disturb your confidence. The moment you start to doubt yourself, they've already achieved your goal. Just focus on winning. Nothing else. That is the only way you can prove the critics wrong."

While Ves might be able to brush off bad press like it was nothing, Ketis was less experienced in these kinds of situations. While she could live with being vilified, she constantly worried whether the Swordmaidens could bear the consequences.

"I thought it would be different. I haven't made any enemies as far as I know. I've been careful not to do or say anything that will implicate the Swordmaidens."

Fred smirked and crossed his arms. "Your battle prowess and your newly-acquired status is also threatening enough to rile up the more sensitive sword schools. Before, you were just a foreign swordswoman who didn't show enough strength to make it into the top 1000. Now that you have not only inherited the Annihilator Sword Style, but shown that you mastered it to a surprising extent, it's different. They see a competitor in you that can potentially squeeze into the top 100. "

The entry of another person into the top 100 inevitably meant that someone else must be pushed out. This was quite frightening especially since Ketis showed up from nowhere. Compared to known entities like the seeded competitors, no one knew how far she could go and how many people she could pull from their pedestals.

This made so many sword schools concerned that their stance towards the new head of the Annihilator Sword School was universally negative!

"How is the recruitment going lately? Is our intake being affected by the surge of bad press?"

The former leader of the sword school sighed. "I won't lie. Our school used to get thousands of inquiries when you first exhibited your sword style. However, once our rival sword schools started their counterattack, those inquiries dwindled even as you continued to steamroll your way through your opponents. Yesterday, we only received less than a hundred inquiries, and most of them are merely exploratory in nature."

Ketis pinned Fred with a glare. "I thought you said that everything would go better if I keep winning! Why are we going backwards?!"

"I did not lie. I just want to tell you that it will take some time for the trees we've planted to bear fruit. I don't predict our situation will turn around until you have defeated your first seeded competitor and reached the top 1000. You're still too new to the scene and your ability to contend against the best disciples of a sword school is still a mystery. You've merely been bullying the weak all of time. That's not actually that impressive."

Although Ketis did not feel confident in her current approach, Fred somehow managed to earn the trust of Sendra and Dise. Even though his identity in his home state was kind of embarrassing, he was a consummate insider and had a lot of old connections.

Together with the new staff he hired, Fred took care of a lot of background stuff so that Ketis could concentrate entirely on winning the next matches.

When Ketis met with Angelique Harcourt in order to get a second opinion, the Journeyman did not see any cause for alarm.

"You are an amazing swordswoman and mech designer. I am sure you will get the recognition you deserve as long as you persist in your current course. I have kept an eye on what your deputy director is doing. So far, he hasn't done anything that seems detrimental towards you. He's doing his best to lift the school from a rock bottom position. That is never easy."

Perhaps Ketis was too hard on Fred. The man might have behaved a bit improperly at first, but his motives were easy to understand. He just wanted to revive the Annihilator Sword School and make sure that his brother's legacy was not forgotten. That was a noble goal that didn't conflict with the goals of the Swordmaidens.

She was sure that Ves would have been able to obtain greater advantages if he was in her place. Yet he wasn't here this time and she needed to learn to solve her problems.

Though the pressure constantly made her want to stop and crawl back in her hole, she did not give in to it. She simply couldn't for the reasons she already mentioned.

She needed to step up. She needed to do more than just fight in the arena.

"Do you have any advice on what I can do to help my situation out?" Ketis earnestly asked.

"Oh, Ketis." Angelique approached and embraced her in a hug. "You should stop doubting yourself. No one is aware of it yet, but you're making history. There has never been a mech designer who is simultaneously a swordmaster in our state. The progress you have made since you have arrived is astounding. I have never seen a swordswoman learn a true sword style and become a sword initiate so quickly. The fact that you are also capable of designing complete swordsman mechs while accomplishing all of this is incredible."

Ketis didn't feel so special. While she took pride in the hard work she put into improving her mech design capabilities, she never really felt as if she deserved to master the Annihilator Sword Style to this extent.

Sharpie did all of the heavy lifting. Ketis still didn't buy into Venerable Trey Walinski's writings to this day even as she faithfully executed all of his empowered techniques in the arena.

This was a contradiction that increasingly bothered her! How could she act as if she had fully embodied the Annihilator Sword Style when she essentially cheated?

While it was addicting for her to break every barrier and become an unstoppable fighting machine, each victory grew increasingly more hollow.

It was too easy. She didn't work for it. She was a fraud.

As she continued to struggle with her doubts, she finally progressed far enough to face her first true challenge in the group tournament.

However, the opponent she had been matched with happened to be one of the top seeds of the tournament!

Ketis, Fred, Dise and Sendra immediately gathered together in an office once the organizers announced the latest series of matches.

Everyone's face grew serious as Fred activated a projection that displayed their next opponent.

"I don't know if our luck is bad or if someone exerted a lot of influence to tamper with the random matching procedure, but we are about to face one of the favorites to win the tournaments."

The team of five men and women all stood proudly in their light blue uniforms. Random cloud patterns adorned their clothes as the sword disciples all looked light enough to step into the air!

A sinking feeling emerged in Ketis' stomach.

"Each of our next opponents hail from the Cloudstrider Sword School. As you might have guessed, this school teaches a sword style that is heavily slanted towards mobility. The Cloudstrider Sword School only recruits the most swiftest and agile young talents and molds them into even faster warriors."

"How good are they, exactly?" Ketis asked.

"Four out of the five Cloudstriders ought to be inner disciples. They are only there to make up the numbers." Fred pointed at the white-haired man at the center. "The real threat is this fellow. Ivan Reid is not only the head disciple of his school, but also a formidable and mature sword initiate in his own right!"

Ivan Reid was 39 years old, but possessed a body that was considerably slimmer and shorter than that of the average male swordsman. In fact, even Ketis exceeded his height and bodyweight!

That did not cause her to look down on him, though. In fact, it was the opposite. Someone who was that light and short must have deliberately altered his growth pattern this way in order to increase his fit with his sword style!

Fred showed some footage of Ivan in action. While the matches he fought took place more than a year ago, it was still a good way to see what they could expect.

All three Swordmaidens in the room grew grave when they saw Ivan Reid in action.

The man stepped across the dueling ring as if his body weighed almost nothing. His opponent could never keep up and simply decided to stand in place in order to attack on approach.

While this was the correct decision to make, Ivan was simply too fast and elusive to get hit by any of the incoming strikes!

The head disciple slowly turned the match into a farce by performing constant hit-and-run attacks. His thin fencing sword rained down constant hits onto the opponent that steadily accumulated him points.

No matter what counterattack he faced, he was always able to step to the side and evade.

What astounded Ketis was that despite how much Ivan was running, he never seemed to tire!

"You're all swordswomen, so I am sure you can figure out why Mr. Reid is so formidable. The Cloudstrider Sword Style is one of the most trending mobility-oriented styles at the moment. While the style is not known for its explosive power, its elusiveness is incredibly frustrating to fight against. This goes double for power-oriented styles such as your own one. The odds are already against your favor even if you leave out Mr. Reid."

Neither the Swordmaiden Sword Style nor the Annihilator Sword Style would fare well against someone who excelled at dodging power attacks. While both styles incorporated a number of solutions against flighty opponents, it did not change the fact that the Swordmaidens were about to face their natural counter!

"What do we do?" Ketis asked. "We can't just roll over and let the Cloudstriders eliminate our best team from the group tournament."

Even though the Swordmaidens knew their chances in the following match weren't high, they were not resigned!

Venerable Dise was deep in thought for a while. "I haven't been idling around since I got here. I have been exchanging frequently with the local expert pilots. The tips I've received and the matches that I've witnessed have given me a lot of new ideas. Compared to the so-called true sword styles that have something special about them, our Swordmaiden Sword Style is too plain. I've been working for several weeks to correct that, and I think it is time for you to learn some new moves."

"Our match against the Cloudstriders begins a couple of days from now!" Ketis grew concerned. "Learning a powerful new move sounds great, but if they are as difficult as that of the other sword styles, we need months if not years to master it! We have way too little time!"

The expert pilot sighed. "You're right, but not completely. While I believe that your other sisters will probably have to struggle for years, you are different. You're a sword initiate, and one that has shown a remarkable penchant for learning new moves. If any Swordmaiden can master my new technique, it's you, Ketis."

For some reason, Venerable Dise was convinced that Ketis would be able to master her newly-invented empowered technique!