The Iron Maiden

Part 16

Raiden adjusted his breathing as he continued to lock eyes with the person in front of him

His opponent in front of him, which was surrounded by glowing blue orbs, was no easy adversary. As the Captain of the Rosenblade knights, he must possess the attitude for it and its strength. And this strength was something that Raiden know well

Raiden's potential with the sword was nothing to scoff at. At the young age of eight, he had already learned most of the Rosenblade swordplay stances, which was considered one of the hardest to master. And the year after that, he had started on his victory spree against all of the knights that he had challenged

But be that as it may, his talent was still no match against the others that had accumulated the experience to combat it. Excluding Lia, the ones that he wasn't confident on beating yet in the manor were his mother, his father, their resident librarian, and the captain

"Hooo..."

Raiden inhaled as much air as he possibly could and stepped his feet forward, and his opponent responded in kind by moving backward

'I get the first strike eh...'

 This wasn't exactly their first rodeo. Due to Raiden's skill with the sword, only a handful could even manage to train with him, and those people were usually assigned back to the city to stay guard. So Titus would usually make time to train him

And out of the times that they had trained, they had unconsciously begun to signal each other sometimes through body language and cues

"Heh...so be it!"

Raiden focused the mana in his body to enhance his strength. Both of them were using swords, but Titus's weapon was more like a claymore, so if he enhanced his strength as well, then Raiden would be at a disadvantage, so he had to expend quite a lot of mana from the get-go

He could feel his muscles getting stronger and his legs getting lighter. He shifted into one of the family sword stances and screamed

"Let's go!"

"Hehe, you sure are lively today!"

Raiden closed the distance between them in an instant and brought his sword overhead. Titus quickly adjusted his position blocked it with his arm that seemed to be crystallized with ice, however...

"Sucker..."

"Eh?!"

His mana which was scattered around quickly began gathering at his sword. the flames that were bursting forth were so strong and wild that it made the one in Lia's duel look cute in comparison

"Urk!"

Titus had no choice but to received the full blow of his attack, He knew that it wasn't the brightest idea out there, but it's only natural that blunders get paid dearly

The force caused by Raiden's enhanced strength and magic caused an explosion, which launched him backwards

"Guh..."

Titus struggled as he kept his balance with his claymore. After which,he turned to Raiden with a wide smile and chuckled

"What a surprise...you usually don't make an opening act as flashy as this"

"Well..."

Raiden brought his sword from the ground and pointed it at his opponent 

"Let's just say I wanna end this continuous draws in our match"

"Oh, dear...Come on my lord, you didn't mind when our previous bouts ended in a draw so why now?... Oh, wait...I get it..."

"I know what you're thinking, and it's wrong"