Chapter 8

The arena was dead silent. All eyes were transfixed on the Kirin and its rider. The Kirin was exuding a level of magnificence that would put even the birdbrain to shame. Atop the noble and dignified creature, Seir was looking stately. He was wearing his best aristocratic attire and had his family crest emblazoned on just about everything. Despite definitely looking the part of a royal, I had no idea how he planned to fight in that get up...

Seir leapt off the Kirin’s back with a “hup” and landed on his feet with a thud. He began to gently stroke the beast’s head.

“Thanks for getting me here so quickly Kirin-chan, tell Obaasan that I said hello when you get back ahaha.”

The Kirin nestled against his hand, it then turned, bowed at Shiro and galloped into the air and out of sight. We watched as its majestic figure disappeared into the gleaming sky and then, we all turned our attention toward Seir. Baako was the first to speak.

“That was a nice entrance there Prince Seir. I’ll be waiting in the centre of the battlefield. Sabrina, there’s no need for the pre match negotiations.”

“R-right!”

With that, Baako turned his horse around and rode to the centre of the battlefield. He arrived, dismounted and sent his horse away. He stood stoic, akrafena in hand.

“I-it looks like Baako Kimaris is all business today folks! How will Prince Seir respond? Will he send Kuro out? Or will he finally take to the stage himself? I for one, am hoping for the latter!”

The crowd finally broke its silence and a buzz finally returned to the arena. Baako was easily able to refocus attention away from Seir’s entrance and regain control of the pace. This guy was as dangerous as expected…

“Psst, pssst, Kuro, Kuro come here, KURO!”

“I-I can hear you fine! I’m only a few feet away…”

Seir was waving at me to come closer, despite being within speaking distance. I took a deep breath and got closer to him.

“Ahaha, what did you think about my entrance?”

“Huh? Haven’t you got more important things to worry about right now!?”

“Oh? Don’t worry about Baako for now ahaha.”

“...”

“I need you to do something for me Kuro.”

“What’s that?”

“...Strip.”

“B-be serious!”

“Ahaha, just take all your fighting gear off, I wanna send a message to everyone here that you won’t be fighting today.”

“Are you sure about this Seir? The amount of face you'd lose, if I do that and have to step in later anyway, it would be…”

Before I finished, Seir gave me a look that reminded me of something that I’d long since forgotten. I shook my head side to side in reluctance and unwillingly powered down.

“W-what’s this!? It seems that Kuro has put away his trusty overcoat and is walking back toward Prince Seir’s other vassals. It’s official ladies and gentlemen! We are finally going to have a true clash of the titans! Now that Kuro has learnt his place and…”

“W-would you just lay off me for once!?”

I waved my hand in frustration at Sitri, who responded with a “hmph” and made my way back to Shiro and the others.

“Hyahahahahaha, this will be interesting.”

“Hmph, let’s see what this Prince Seir can do.”

The geezer and Alessia were fully focused and were preparing to analyse and criticise Seir’s abilities.

Seir made his way to the centre and unbuttoned the front of his formal overcoat. He then put his hands in his pockets and stared down at Baako. Sitri proceeded to initiate the defensive overlay, to ensure that the battle wouldn’t spill out into the surrounding spectators stands and activated the A/V set up to ensure that everyone could see and hear what Seir and Baako were saying. I had read in the newspaper that they upgraded everything after our battle with the Astaroth House, because DTV received numerous complaints, due to the loss of picture, during the final few moments of that match.

“I Sabrina Sitri, official overseer for today’s Summit clash, formally announce the start of this matchup…”

Seconds after Sitri finished, Baako rocketed toward Seir. I could hear the wind crack as he made his way toward Seir with his outstretched akrafena. Baako landed a few inches away from Seir and was about to deliver the slash that resulted in complete defeat for many vassals that were sent in to face him by other households.

His blade cut the wind and was about to slice through Seir’s torso. However, right before the blade made contact, Seir clumsily spun out of its reach.

“Phew, whoa, that was close, ahaha.”

“...”

As quickly as Baako appeared before Seir, he retreated. This was his style. His ability to make short yet devastating raids on his opponents and then to retreat with the same level of speed, made him a tough adversary. I had thought that he was using a familiar when he executed this, however, I was wrong. This was purely his skill alone, his acute speed and cutting ability was terrifying.

“Hyahahahaha, now that is how you use a blade, I wonder what’s faster, my Qiang or this boy’s Akrafena?”

“...”

Alessia didn’t say anything, but the look on her face said it all. Even she had doubts about whether she’d have been able to avoid or deflect Baako’s slice.

“That’s 1 Baako, you usually end battles in less than 10 slashes right? You have 9 left ahaha.”

“Hiding behind empty words as usual are we, let’s see what you say after this!”

Baako dashed toward Seir again, he delivered the same air cutting slash, but this time the speed and power behind it had increased. Seir, avoided it by a hairsbreadth again and the wind pressure created from the attack, crashed into the defensive barrier that surrounded the battlefield, almost destroying it.

This time, Baako did not retreat. Instead he used the ball of his foot to reposition himself and deliver another slash at Seir. Seir dodged it again. Baako began to deliver a series of wind shattering attacks, however, was still not able to reach Seir with any of them.

“2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7…”

Seir was nonchalantly counting Baako’s calamitous slashes. Come to think of it, we were all so focused on Baako’s prowess, that we failed to notice how easily Seir was avoiding Baako’s attacks.

“I can’t tell if Prince Seir is strong or just lucky. Is evasion the limit of your lord’s abilities?”

“I-I, don’t know.”

“You mean to tell me that you followed this guy all the way here, without knowing the full extent of his abilities?”

“Y-yeah, so?”

Alessia shook her head in disappointment and returned her attention to the battle. Despite what she said, it’s not like I didn’t know Seir was strong. I just didn’t know the true extent of his abilities because we never really went up against each other.

“That’s 10 Baako, ahaha.”

Seir avoided Baako’s 10th slash and Baako made some space between them. Seir took his hands out of his pockets and began to stretch and yawn.

“*yawn* that was a nice little warm up, ahaha. I think I’ll make a play now, what say you Baako?”

“...”

Baako, continued to stare down Seir expressionlessly and we all waited curiously to see how Seir was going to attack.