Chapter 24: The Radiant Knight

In the end, it played out almost exactly like the original scenario: Maria and Justyna fighting against the Snowywheel K.C. I suspected it was the Corrupted and Withered Knight, as they likely saw Maria as a threat. The same could be said for me, as my opponent would probably be someone strong.

Regardless, I had already ordered Orga to fetch Margaret, so their rescue was only a matter of time. As I watched the fight, it was clear that Maria still lacked Margaret's experience, which was normal considering she hadn't focused on knight training until Margaret's exile. Even with her brief training, she showed talent, making it a pity that she tried so hard to mimic her older sister's fighting style.

While not inherently wrong, attempting to perfectly replicate Margaret's techniques was reckless. Margaret and Maria have different physiques; Margaret is more toned, while Maria is much slimmer, though she's likely started building muscle. Besides, their strengths lie in different areas.

Maria excels at engineering, which is to be expected. I wonder, though, why she barely utilizes her in-game methods, which revolve around inducing sleep and dealing damage to sleeping enemies. Now that I think about it, she possesses a special talent that allows charged-type characters to gain SP upon hitting enemies.

While this was incredibly useful for me in the game, I wonder how it translates to real life. From my vantage point, I could already see the battle turning one-sided. I wanted to intervene, but I noticed Orga approaching, so I held back. Margaret jumped from Orga's back, surprising me with the height of the leap. She swung her mace directly at the Corrupted Knight, forcing him to defend with his sword. Even then, he was pushed back as Margaret landed beside Maria.

The audience erupted in excitement, which was no surprise since Margaret was still famous as the Radiant Knight and the former winner of the 22nd Kazimierz Mayor. Many still remembered her. Interestingly, while the Margaret and Maria combo barely affected the annoying Corrupted and Withered Knight in the game, here they were equal to, if not more powerful than, the boss.

If I remember correctly, defeating one of the knights powered up the other. Early strategies typically involved either delaying both and killing them simultaneously or eliminating one before the other spawned. This is part of why I sometimes struggled with the game.

For example, Eyjafjalla, supposedly weakened by the effects of Originium, is the strongest caster in the game. While certain casters may excel in specific situations, she remains the most powerful overall, a position she has held since the game's release.

Even though Logos is considered the strongest caster in Rhodes Island's lore, he is among the strongest, but not at the very top. Returning my attention to the match, I realized it was only a matter of time before Margaret and Maria defeated their opponents. Margaret wore a serious expression and even took the time to heal Maria.

It was interesting to watch them fight. Margaret faced the corrupted knight while Maria went ahead to face the withered knight. Despite primarily using a bow, he was strong and held his own against Maria, not even attempting to create distance.

In fact, he even attacked Margaret while fighting Maria, demonstrating their experience. However, Maria defeated him when he let his guard down. With no one to disturb her, Margaret finished off the corrupted knight, and they finally won the match.

If I remember correctly, Maria decided to let Margaret take her place from this point on, which was fine with me. My opponent was the troublesome Dikaiopolis, the blood knight, whose blood art was quite annoying since he could create blood blades.

Still, if I remember correctly, he was a bit mad and wanted a real duel, even breaking the rules to go all out against Margaret. I wonder if he'll go all out with me. Well, time will tell. At least I have a good opponent now.

"You're not serious, are you?"

"Indeed. A fight needs to be entertaining, Umu."

I smelled the rose I created out of nowhere, but apparently, he already disliked me for not fighting seriously so far. To be fair, I didn't want to crush their dreams, but since they're a group of people who want to be knights, it's not fair of me to hold back.

"Umu, then will you show me your beauty, Blood Knight?"

"Here I come, Rose Knight."

Then, I saw him start to spawn his blood mist, which meant the entire arena was his stage now, since he could create blood blades from anywhere he liked. I struck them with Aestus Estus from the rose on my hand, leaving a trail of roses on my slash that made the other blood blades burst into flame upon contact.

"Umu, you're really serious. That is beautiful in its own way."

"I never thought I would be called beautiful by a girl whose beauty can rival the banshee race."

"They are indeed beautiful, Umu, but every fighter here has shown their bravery, and that is a beauty in itself."

I kept slashing, noticing he spawned even more blood blades and was now moving to face me. He was fast, as expected of the guy who gave Margaret a hard time, and he looked much scarier than his game counterpart. I deflected his sword and slashed at his side, but a blood blade blocked it as he aimed to slash my head, which I dodged to the side.

I was at a stalemate. Well, I could win with some arts, but where's the beauty in that? So, I decided to copy Kuchiki Byakuya's bankai, which basically turns all the floating roses into extensions of my blade, or rather, turns them into blades. Now the roses were glowing, and they began to shred all the blood blades.

The blood knight smartly moved away before any of my roses hit him. Unfortunately for him, my roses kept doubling, and it was only a matter of time before he ran out of places to hide in the arena. In a desperate attempt, he dashed toward the roses, hoping to defeat me before they overwhelmed him.

I had to reinforce myself with some arts in the end, which shows how powerful he was to make it to the final. I suspect this won't be his last, either, since this is just a preliminary match, and the main one is still to come.

I managed to win, but this new technique really came in handy. It's just an application of my skills, but I felt like he pushed me a bit too far. I almost broke the rules I set for myself; he was a seriously dangerous guy, which speaks to his power.

Now that Margaret is probably going to join the match—which was her aim all along—she's likely already claimed that spear. Even now, I remember how gorgeous she looked in that promotional video when she took it. I decided to hide and follow Margaret, and just as I hoped, she'd already changed her dress and was standing in front of a block of metal.

Inside this giant metal case is Margaret's weapon for the tournament: a sword staff that reinforces light-based arts. From what I remember in the story, it's a powerful weapon that allows her to spawn a spear of light to throw at people, though it's not quite as effective in gameplay.

She takes the sword staff. Given its length and the shape of the blade, I always thought it was a spear until I learned it was actually a sword staff, combining the properties of both. They're usually used to reinforce arts during melee combat since casters typically need time to formulate a spell before releasing it.

Though I've trained for it, it ultimately comes down to talent and hard work. You need to think of

arts as an extension of your own body, just like how other races use theirs. You need to know your body to control it, and if you know the arts like the back of your hand, the staff only speeds up the casting time.

It's not hard to craft a staff when you know the runes, but the difficult part is carving those runes into the staff to make it work. It's even more ridiculous with guns, and now I understand why there are so few gun users outside of the Sankta race: the manufacturing is troublesome, and you need a lot of compatibility with arts to even use one.

Speaking of guns, Jesica is one of the few who can use them, even though she's a scaredy-cat, which just shows how awesome she is. I'm already following Margaret, though. I think she'll help Sona, and while I do want to help the infected, now isn't the time. Besides, I still need to focus on the tournament.

There was no one to judge, only to watch. I watched as Margaret came to Sona's aid, who was in a pinch due to the Armorless Union's assault. They even resorted to dirty tactics like bombing the building, despite the infected still living there. What a despicable group.

A platinum arrow whizzed by, and Margaret knocked it off course. Her arts were so beautiful; I considered copying them, though I felt they would look different since my arts weren't light-based. Besides, I can't absorb anything from Margaret since she wasn't infected, and it was a lie that Kal'tsit even manipulated her data.

It's a pity, but wait... now that I think about it, Nightingale was infected, but did I absorb the originium from her? I've forgotten. I really need to start paying attention. Besides, with her special traits that allow her to lessen the effect of offensive arts on allies, I should probably try to copy it from her and, at the same time, cure her oripathy.

Now that I've seen how Margaret fights, I wonder what I should do. Maybe I should go say hi to Doktah. Besides, I need to see how others are doing. Wait, at this point in time, shouldn't Doctor be in the middle of dealing with those three groups?

Yeah, I should keep away from them until all of this is over. Somehow, I feel like he'll drag me into doing document work with him or keep him company. While that's fine, now isn't the time since I still need to focus on the Kazimierz Mayor.

Besides, Kal'tsit, Amiya, and Frostnova are with him, so he should be okay, though I hope they keep the night stuff in check, as it will affect Doctor's performance. Maybe I should discuss a plan with them. Besides, this all started because of me, so I need to take some responsibility for what I've done, but still, what should I do? I wonder...

Well, I should think of my next match since I'm officially in the Mayor's now. From what I see, I will probably see Margaret in the final if all goes to plan, but well, let's just see.

I still wonder if Platinum has met Gravel, since, if I remember correctly, they were supposed to fight. It's funny how they both show their affection for the Doctor in their own ways, which is cute from afar, but involvement changes your perspective.

Now that I think about it, weren't there always a lot of operators guarding and watching over the Doctor, constantly nearby? I'm starting to pity the Doctor.