Illusion of Integrity

Understanding Limits

It's finally Riss's turn to enter the arena, sadly, Zaga has the same time of match with her. She can't observe his battling style. When she enters the arena, mockery can be heard everywhere. And of course, it's about her choice of weapon.

["Wow so much cheers for us."]

"Ignore them, just a bunch of kids yelling."

["Heeeeeeeee.."]

She walks to the center of the arena. There, she meets a spear wielding guy that seems to be thinking about something.

"A swordswoman? That's rare, usually people will pick spears instead of swords."

"Do you have a problem?"

"No, actually this is my first time, so it will be a good experience for me." With that, he readies himself.

"I see." Riss is a bit surprised by her opponent's response. He doesn't mock her at all and even takes it as an opportunity to strengthen himself. Riss takes a stance after that to ready herself.

"Are you both ready?" The judge asks, and replied by their nods. "Go!"

Suddenly her opponent leaps forward and thrust his spear without slowing down at all. She has no choice but to be caught in surprise and evades sideway. But just before Riss gets a hold for herself, another attack is launched by her opponent, "[Lightning Spear"]

["Damn! Here it comes!"]

"No time!"

"[Zero Point]" Riss unleashes her single point attack towards her opponent attack. With her momentum, she loses so much power in that attack and it gets her knocked back several more meters.

["His level is higher than yours, you are losing in term of power, let's find another way!"]

"No, just let me do it!"

["..."]

Her opponent just smirks at her. It seems that he finally found her weakness. Without stopping he keeps barraging her with the same type of attack and it makes Riss keep getting knocked back again and again by the same attack pattern.

"Match ends! Out of bounds!" The judge yells.

["Ehhhh!?"]

"Ehhhh!?"

["Sigh..."]

"..."

Her opponent lowers his stance and smiles at her, "Good match, thanks."

Riss goes speechless with that. It's her first time fighting with boundaries after all. She completely forgot about that. "Thanks for the guidance."

And with her loss, the audience mockery can be heard once again. It pisses her so much that she has to walk away with burning face. The fact that a bunch of kids are mocking her is unacceptable. If she can, she will unleash her true power right there and shut their mouth.

["No girl, no you don't"]

"I know."

She chooses to just walks away in silence and exits the gym. Just after she goes outside, Zaga catches up with a surprised face, "What happened? What's with the hurry?"

"Not your business." She stops for a second and then continues her walk.It leaves Zaga speechless.

***** In the Inn *****

"Hahahahahahaha! Of course you will lose like that! That's hilarious!" Maha laughs loudly.

"Is there anyone that won't piss me off today?"

"Sorry sorry, my bad. Anyway, I will give you an example. If there are 2 persons, one with a spear and one with a sword. Both of them s***h at the same time. Who's gonna win?"

"I don't know?"

"The spear will win if they both has the same ability. Spear has more momentum because of it's length, adds the weight on it, it gets heavier, and with the spear user has a higher level like you facing him, there is no way you can win." Maha laughs again and covers his face with both hands.

"Then what's the point of learning swordmanship?"

"Ahhhhhhh." He finally understands the problem. "Swords has more variation of attack and defense compared to spears. It has more flexibility and speed even though it loses in term of raw brute force. That's why you don't force your power with sword. For spears instead, they win in term of range, but loses a lot of defensive capabilities. It's really hard to block with a spear you know. And their attack patterns are simpler, either stab or s***h. And that means, you use your sword wrongly."

"So how can I win against people like that?"

"It's simple, you don't block, you don't fight back. You deflect their attack and counter."

"Can you show me?"

"Again with the copycat?"

"Is there another way?"

"Sigh.. fine let's go."

With that, the rest of her days are spent learning on how to deflect properly. She finally understands the Queen version of s***h, Deflection Domain. It's an absurd skill with unbreakable defense that deflects anything inside her attack radius as long as her speed and MP allows it. The fact that only her stats are lowered and not his HP and MP, this is becomes a monstrosity. Finally, she gains her confidence back. And just like that, days passes by, her next match is here.

Today, she will be fighting before Zaga. She waves at him and Zaga just replies with a smile and says, "Do your best."

Again, the mockery is everywhere. She tries her best to calm herself. Rainbow riss just persuades her to ignore them completely. But sadly, her opponent is not an open minded person.

"Eh? The famous weirdo! This will be easy!"

It totally pisses her off, again, a kid mocks her. No matter what she does, she can't calm herself down.

["Prove it to him."]

"I will."

"You won't be using weapon?" Riss asks her opponent.

"I don't need it." He stretches his body, completely ignores her.

"You will regret it." Riss says.

"Are you ready?" The judge asks, and again, both of them reply with nods.

Weird enough, instead of shortens their distance, her opponent leaps backward and flies in the air. Without saying a word, he casts a barrage of magic balls at her without giving any openings.

With a surprised face, Riss reflexively activates her Deflection Domain but even though her sword moves to deflect the incoming attacks, the magic just passes through completely and hits her. It knocks her backwards again and again.

["Not this again, pour your magic into your sword!"]

This time she listens to Rainbow Riss and finally she is able to deflects the attack. But instead of stopping, her opponent keeps barraging her and leaves her completely speechless.

["In term of mana, you will win."]

"But this is not how I wanted to win!"

Again and again, she just stands there deflecting all of the barrage. With the passing time, Riss is completely annoyed by it and finally loses her composure, "Arrrrgghhhh this is annoying! [Cross s***h]."

She completely leaves her guard wide open. This causes her to get hit by the magic. But instead of her skill hits, the opponent evades it completely. An attack done with improper stance will lose it's essence. Her body is slammed back towards the wall of the gym. Just before she hits the wall, two persons catches her and bring her to a safe location. She is unscathed.

"Match ends! Out of bounds!"

"Why! Just why!"

["You go rest now!"]

Rainbow Riss forcefully takes over. She can feel that Black Riss is really pissed off. Nothing can be said, they have lost completely in the most pathetic way. If she lets Black Riss outside longer, no one knows what she will do.

With hurry, she walks towards the exit of the gym when Zaga stops her midway, "Wait!"

"What?"

"You shouldn't have let your guard down."

"That's not the proper words to say right now." Her words leaves Zaga speechless again.

Such moment is not the time for a debate. She needs some time for herself. She needs someone that supports her, not scolds her.