The Demon King's Hero Of Light 10 Chapter 10 The Winner Of The Competition

Sliding the rib bone into her belt, she reached for her favorite weapons. Two rapiers that had sharp blades she had painstakingly cared for over the past couple of years. She checked them over carefully to make sure they had not been damaged while away from her, and nodded when she found them untouched.

"Balo is a tough character. I've seen him fight before," said Frederik, watching her belt the sheaths to her sides.

"I have as well," said Seifer, watching Balo strut over to his spot on the field.

Balo had multiple horns growing out of his head, and Aella turned to scrutinize him for a moment. Two horns grew back over the top of his head, while the rest grew from around his face, curving in to protect it. His bright red skin rippled with muscles that spoke of hours and hours of training, yet Aella could tell they didn't hinder his speed and movement as some of her other opponents had. As he snarled at her, she could see he had long sharp teeth with black gums. His black eyes glared at her, challenging her from across the arena.

"They've used magic on all of you, to limit the pain you can feel," she mentioned as he swung his long black broadsword.

She'd never seen a black sword before, and imagined there was something special about it. This was probably the person they wanted to be king, despite there being one other opponent after him.

"They did," said Frederik with a nod.

She could see golden lines running along the sword he wielded as she moved to her spot, and a golden eye on the guard.

The gong sounded and they both moved cautiously to the center of the arena. Swinging her swords fast, she struck at him, to see how he responded, and was rewarded with him blocking each swing flawlessly. The crowd was silent as they watched with bated breath. Backing away from him, she noted that she didn't recognize his stance. This would be the first opponent where she didn't know what his moves would be.

Changing her stance to one she hadn't used yet today, she went to attack again, swinging at both his chest and his legs. Strangely enough he was able to respond, blocking the blow to his chest and jumping to evade the swing to his legs. Keeping the frown off her face, she backed away again.

Choosing yet another stance, Aella watched as Balo changed his stance as well. Stalking around him, she decided to attack using a different form, and was rewarded with him moving to block the wrong swing, yet correcting in time to dodge her blows. A small nick on his arm reflected her victory, and he gritted his teeth to show his annoyance.

As she circled him again, looking for another opening, Aella suddenly spied the eye on the sword moving. It was watching her every step. Pausing for a split second in surprise, he charged at her, and she had to jump away, rolling to evade his second and third blow. Knocking his sword to the side, she got a closer look at the eye on the sword. It seemed to glare at her in annoyance before they broke away from each other.

The sword was alive! She knew magic could do a lot of things, but it had never occurred to her that a weapon would be able to fight her instead of just her opponent. As she circled him, she watched the sword more and more, trying to figure it out, and decided that it was telling him what her moves would be. She had to figure out a way to nullify its ability.
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Swinging her swords in an 'X' formation, then changing quickly to a move from a different form, she attacked him. Balo had to step backwards to keep up with her, and even though it was obvious he was struggling, he still managed to block or dodge each of her hits. Jumping back after several minutes, they sized each other up again, circling to catch their breath.

Changing up her moves confused the sword, but it was still able to keep up with her. She had to do something to block its vision.

Running at him, she stopped just short of actually engaging him, and kicked up a cloud of dust, obscuring his vision, before darting to his weak left side, and swinging with both swords. She grinned for only a moment, as she felt her swords dig deep, before jumping away and dodging around behind him. With the cloud settling around them, she attacked again, sinking her blades into his right side, and then jumping over his swing at her legs.

As Aella backed away, preparing to do the same thing again, she paused in disbelief. The wounds she had inflicted on his arms and legs were closing up before her eyes. Black lines ran from his hands that held the sword to the gashes, pulling them together and sealing them. He grinned at her, taking the same stance as before.

So, not only could the sword determine her moves, it could heal him as well. And with the magic the counselors had used on him prior to the fight, he didn't feel the pain from her cuts. She was almost certain he was the one they wanted to be king, and the sword with its magical abilities confirmed it. The guy still standing on the sidelines looked like he was going to be sick to his stomach as he watched the guy heal as well.

"Magic weapons is illegal!" cried one of the two counselors, jumping to his feet.

"The fight has already started, and we will not call it," declared the obvious leader of the other counselors, making sure he was out of reach of any of the crowd.

Running her moves through her head, she circled around him, blocking and dodging his attacks while she tried to figure out how to beat him. Just before he grew annoyed with her lack of attacking, she dodged his blow, and immediately responded, catching both him and the sword off guard.

She swung her sword at his leg, as he was landing on it, so he didn't have time to dodge her blow, cutting deep into the calf. Rewarded with his leg buckling, she didn't hesitate and give him time to react. Jumping into the air, she stabbed at his face, as if to perform a killing blow through his eye, and he raised the sword high, to block her.

The black lines were streaking towards his leg, from the sword that was high in the air, knocking one of her swords away, and she could see the look of surprise in the eye on the sword as her second sword struck his gut, penetrating deep and coming out his back. Landing in a crouch, she grabbed the rib bone from her belt and flipped backwards, flinging the bone at his face.

There were too many things going on for the sword to be able to react to them all. The bone struck Balo square in his gaping mouth, as he had opened it to scream at her. Das.h.i.+ng forward, she grasped her remaining sword with both hands and using all of her strength, she brought it down against the blade of his sword, breaking both swords at their guards.

Backing away from him quickly, she still held the shattered handle of her sword as the crowd went crazy. She ignored them, because he stiffened and began to scream.

Black arcs of lightning rose along the shattered sword, flinging out at her, which she danced back away from, and finally landed on him. The crowd stilled as the horror of what they were watching dawned on them. Balo clawed at his face and chest and finally the air as his skin began to shrink against his muscled frame. Then his muscles began to atrophy, shriveling away against his bones. The shards of the sword rose into the air, held together by the black arcs of magic, and as he fell to his knees, the sword healed itself.

If Aella hadn't seen him still breathing, she would have thought Balo dead. There was next to nothing left of him than skin and bones. Just trying to breath seemed to be all the energy he had.

"That weapon is cursed!" cried one of the spectators, setting off a chain reaction.

There was no doubt in anyone's mind, things were going to get very ugly, very fast. The counselors had to act fast. The last guy was on his knees, shaking his head at Aella, his battle axe several feet away, where he had thrown it.

"The winner is Aella the Peerless and Unrivaled!" called the announcer quickly, calming the crowd only a little. "With the forfeiture of Ulrik the Commanding, Aella is the winner of our compet.i.tion! All hail our new king!"

The crowd stopped their angry shouts and began to cheer. Aella looked around in disbelief. She had thought they were loud before, but this time, it seemed their voices were amplified.

A healer approached Balo carefully, but when he tried to touch him, and arc of black magic darted out and began to suck the life from him. It didn't stop until the poor demon was laying on the ground as a husk of skin and bones. Balo was healed enough to climb to his feet, but swayed for a moment. None of the other healers were willing to approach him. He glared at Aella, and lurched towards her, reaching out to grasp at her.

An arrow sped out of nowhere, burying itself into the eye of the sword, causing an unholy screech to resound as the black arcs of lightning exploded outwards. Aella dodged them, darting to the weapons cart that was closest to her, and hid behind it. Some of the counselors that hated her weren't so lucky, as they were reduced to ashes the moment the arcs. .h.i.t them. With a resounding explosion, the sword and Balo disappeared into a thick black cloud laced with golden sparkles.