Remembrance Over Solitude

Chapter 5: Can you even call this a battle?

The night had passed and it was now 12:00 in the afternoon. On the way to my destination, I racked my brains on battle strategies to finally beat Master Childe in a duel.

Truthfully, I wasn't truly confident in myself since my skills in battle couldn't compare to his. The more I thought about it the more irritated I got, he looks like he's almost the same age as me, yet he's had more experience.

'What training could he have gone through to be better at me?' I thought. But I was snapped out of my thoughts when I realized I had finally come to the right place.

There he was, sitting on a tall rock in the sun. He was fixated on a flower that fell from a tree nearby. But as soon as he felt my presence, he completely disregarded it and flicked it away.

"Finally, you're here. It's not good to make your superiors wait, you know?" As if on reflex, I bowed my head and uttered,"I apologize Master Childe. You just so happened to come earlier than me."

He waved his hand as a gesture to stop bowing. "Enough of that, let us prepare for battle." He said with a confident smile.

I summoned my scythe and got in position. On cue, he lunged towards me with his blade and attempted to slice at me but I managed to block his attack and push him back.

Using the staff of my scythe as support, I boosted myself in the air and lunged at him in the air. He narrowly dodged and swung at my neck.

I quickly summoned an ice vine which knocked one of the blades out of his hand. I landed in the distance and started sprinting while running my blade on the ground.

Master Childe took aim and fired shots of hydro attempting to hit me. But I was faster, I summoned a wall of ice vines that sprouted up and aimed straight at him.

"Nice trick. But that won't work against me." He cockily said. He summoned a giant spear and swung at the vines, breaking of the ends of the vines and blunting them.

'Now's my chance!" I ran up the vines and jumped into the air. Gathering the ice particles in the air, I summoned another ice vine. But this was larger than the rest of them. It came hurdling towards Master Childe at a great speed. He had no time to Dodge.

Dust started to form from the impact. I landed on the ground and rushed to where Master Childe was. There he lay in a small crater created by the force of the ice vine. He was slightly wounded from the thorns that spiked out of the vine. Small cuts could visibly be seen on his arms.

Taking this opportunity, I stamped the heel of my boot on his chest and pointed my scythe at his neck. The same as he did on that day.

The both of us were breathing heavily for air. "I won this time, 'Master' Childe." I smiled in a Coy manner.

Suddenly, he let out a loud laugh. "Why are you laughing? What's funny about this?"I questioned skepticaly in case he had another trick up his sleeve.

"Lower your scythe first. I already lost fair and sqaure." I did as he said and stepped away from him. He slowly sat up and let out a groan of pain.

"Did you really have to step on me? That hurt a lot." He said clutching the part where I stamped. "Never give your opponent a chance to strike is what Master Pantalone says." I repeated from memory. That man had drilled me on this so many times it was practically burnt into my brain.

Then, Master Childe gave another one of his 'charming' smiles and told me, "you really did improve from that time. Compared to that time,your attack method was more calculated. " he praised

"I am honoured to be praised by a Harbinger such as yourself, Master Childe." I put away my weapon and walked towards him. "You were also less clumsy, good job on fixing that." He reminded. 'Of course he would say that.' I thought.