Chapter 167 Victory
They chose to hold the competition at the foot of the western City wall.
As for the spectators, in addition to Roland, there were also Iron Axe, Sir Pine, Brian and all the members of the Witch Alliance.
Plus, a fat pigeon who was squatting on the floor and looking upwards.
In order to avoid an incident where other people were accidently hit by bullets, everyone who wanted to follow the test had to board and sit on the wall. Furthermore, the two fighters, the Chief Knight Carter Landis and the extraordinary witch Ashes would both be fighting close to the wall.
Carter’s attire was no longer like the heavy knight armor he wore in the past, rather he now wore leather clothes which were easy to move in. He even had a custom-made holsters at his waist, giving him the opportunity to insert a revolver on both the left and right sides separately.
In addition there was also a knife fitted horizontal on his back, which could be used in the case of an emergency. But Roland knew, if Carter had to fall back to using the knife during the fight with an extraordinary, it would be better to just throw in the towel.
Ashes was still wearing the same dress as usual, a black robe covered her whole body while her black hair was tied into a ponytail, which was falling naturally down behind her. Seemingly completely ignoring that this would create an extra weakness for herself. The only difference with now was, that the clothes wrapped around her great sword had been uncovered, showing her dark brown blade, which reflected almost no light.
It was exactly like Roland had expected, the sword surface was totally uneven, completely unlike a well-forged weapon’s. And because of the lack of maintenance she had provided to her weapon, the weapon had already begun to rust at the places where pieces had been cut out of it.
When the two stepped on to the stage, Carter constantly adjusted their position, until they had a distance of around 15 meters between each other. At this distance, during his training he would have a more than 80% firing accuracy. Taking the two pistols out of his holsters, Carter checked for the last time whether there were any issues with the bullets or the barrel.
Roland had Echo mimic and amplify his voice, “The rules of the duel are very simple:
-You are not allowed to move before the starting signal!
-You can always throw in the towel!
– As long as one of you do not receive an instant-kill, Nana’s healing ability will be able to soon restored you to your original state!
Are there any questions left?”
After waiting for a moment and seeing that neither of them had anything to say, Roland went on and said, “When the bell rings, the duel will begin!”
Ashes silently sized up her opponent. As an extraordinary, most of the time, she just listened to her instincts when fighting. Furthermore, Tilly had also made it possible for her to take lessons from the best fencing masters in the palace, but she had always felt that these skills had only helped her in a minimal way.
Her opponent this time was the Prince’s Chief Knight, but contrary to his rank, he didn’t bear the common sword and shield, or spear equipment, he wasn’t even dressed in his usual armor. The weapons in his hands looked very strange, but according to its shape, it obviously couldn’t be regarded as a dagger or any other weapon related to the close fighting category. That meant that there was only one possibility left, it had to be similar to hand crossbows, which was a long-range striking weapon.
Against an extraordinary, crossbows were no threat at all, at least this was what she had learned on her own during a lot of fights. As long as it was a hand crossbows, she could even catch the flying arrows empty-handed. But when she looked at the Prince’s confident expression, she knew that the weapons in her opponent’s hands were more than likely not as simple a thing as an ordinary crossbow.
Her instincts told her, that she should close in to the knight as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the other side to release his external attack. Because of this plan, before the duel even started, Ashes thrust her sword into the ground, taking a pose that gave off no threat, but this was actually the most effective way for her to deal with an opponent using a crossbow.
At this moment, the crisp sound of a bell ringing could be heard coming from the direction of the wall.
Almost at the same time, Ashes firmly grasped the sword handle, putting all of her power into moving it forward. Throwing soil, grass, and even gravel into the sky with the wide side of her blade, letting it splash in the direction of the knight and forming a wall of sand between them.
The Chief Knight’s reaction was also very fast, releasing a burst of flame from the arms in his hands, accompanied by a huge roar. But Ashes didn’t see any arrows flying out of them, which means that he had either forgotten to install them or that they were coming too fast for her to see. Compared with the first option that would be considered an idiot mistake, Ashes thought that the latter option was much more likely.
Under the cover of the sand screen, Ashes started her sprint. Within the blink of an eye, the distance between the two of them was narrowed to half while the sand screen had still not yet completely landed on the ground. Most people would subconsciously try to avoid being covered by the flying dirt, so as long as she could interrupt the other side from continuing to shoot, Ashes has most likely already won.
But Carter did not move from his position, he completely disregarded the sand hitting his face, squinting his eyes together while constantly following the movement of the extraordinary with his weapons, once again pulling the triggers of his weapons and sending out another burst of flames and a roar. On a conditional reflex Ashes stepped to the side, but until now she had still not seen any arrows or any other projectiles coming at her, while the knight also didn’t show any movement of pulling any strings or having to prepare the next arrow.
This new weapon could probably be launched continuously, but since the first two consecutive shot have missed, the outcome has already been decided!
Closing the last ten steps in the blink of an eye, she had already appeared in front of the knight, holding her sword vertical, pressing her feet against the ground preparing to directly smash into the knight. Normally being hit by such an impact, her opponent would not die instantly, but it should still be enough to cause him to faint. Even if he were able to hold on with his strong battle will, the crushed bones in his chest would still make him completely lose the ability to fight.
In last breath before the moment of impact, Ashes could hear, for the third time, the bursting sound coming from the other side. Then a moment later, she felt as her sword was hit, followed by a crisp breaking sound and her right abdomen then suddenly becoming numb, it felt as if it had been severely grabbed by someone.
Almost at the same time, her whole body smashed into Carter’s chest, directly sending him into the air, making him draw an arc and then sliding over the ground.
Until now, she had such a strong battle-will that she was able to totally disregard her waist injury. But just then, as if she had gotten a hit to her head, a strong sense of dizziness suddenly came over her mind. She staggered two steps forward, nearly falling to the ground as if her extraordinary magic had directly poured out of her body like water from a broken flask, causing her limbs to become unbearable heavy.
Ashes had to use her sword to hold up her body, and the previous numb wound then started to turn into a searing pain, it felt as if a part of her waist was now missing. Looking down she could even see her own viscera spilling out. Biting her tongue, she kept herself from falling.
…
In Roland’s eyes, the whole process of the duel didn’t last much longer than four or five seconds. He saw how the extraordinary witch threw dirt towards Carter, while he started to launch his own assault. During the middle, Ashes once changed her direction but by then she had already severely collided with the Knight’s body. But within this short moment of time, Carter was still able to shot three rounds of bullets, which was beyond what Roland had thought would be possible.
Having to face the unusual fast approaching Ashes, I’m afraid even if I only had to follow the opponents movements closely, it would already have been awfully difficult for me to achieve, but he could not only follow her and aim but he was even able to shoot at her three times, fully proving that the title of Chief Knight wasn’t for show. The fact that the first two rounds had missed was totally normal, in fact, if Ashes had continued to use her speed and changed her direction, I’m afraid Carter shots would have never hit her.
The key part was in the third round, in the final five or six meters. During that part, Ashes was holding her great sword in front of her chest as a shield and had gone in a straight line for the impact.
If it was a crossbow or even heavy crossbow, even if they hit against her sword, they wouldn’t have caused any impact to an extraordinary. But the 12mm caliber ammunition together with the steel warheads at that distance would show an unparalleled power.
Roland then saw black fragments splattering into the air, soon followed by blood and gore. When Ashes finally stood firmly again, the Prince discovered that a large part of her waist was now gone, giving the impression as if there was a beast that had chewed out a large chunk of meat out of her. Her guts had also fallen out of her wound, and were hanging down the side of her body.
Looking at her sword he saw that the lower part of the great sword now had a bowl-shaped gap in it. Probably caused by when the bullet had gone through her sword, the unstable warhead and the broken-out pieces of her sword had hit into her waist, causing her such an immense wound.
Even while seriously injured, she had still not fainted. Only by purely relying on her extraordinary power could she still stand upright on the battlefield, showing off her terrible physical power. If it were the lead balls from before or only the bullet, I am afraid she could have just ignored them. Maggie was the first one who arrived at Ashes side. With a face full of anxiety, she tried to hold her friend up, but unfortunately, her figure was so short, that she could only grab Ashes around her legs.
Nana was also already rushing in the direction of Carter to treat him, while Roland instead quickly moved in front of Ashes.
Seeing him appear, it seems she had only waited for this moment.
“I won…” Finishing what she wanted to say, she didn’t even wait for Roland’s reaction, she instead fell straight against his shoulders.