Devil Knight of the Makai Order

Chapter 6: First Day part 2

  (Asta's p.o.v.)

  The sparring match between me and the elf girl, Leafa was about to start as the two of us were staring each other down. As I looked into her eyes, I could see pain in them, the pain of never being believed in. The Ki I sensed from her was full of curiosity. She wanted to know more about me and maybe more about herself, and personally, I wanted to know why I felt so drawn to her, and why I feel the way I do around her. It kept nagging at me since I first saw Leafa, and I just had to know.

  Rafael had apparently seen that Leafa and I were about to fight and said, "Well, this is definitely interesting. A sparring match between the new Makai Knight student and the top Makai Priest student in the combat course. I'll act as referee for this match." I was surprised and intrigued by that statement. I was about to have a bout with the best fighter among the Makai Priest students, and I was more interested in seeing what she could do. The instructor said as he raised his hand high, "This should go without saying, the match will continue until one of you surrenders or unable to continue. And be sure you do not injure or kill one another. Is that understood?" We both replied, "Yes sir!" He then said as he swung his arm down, "Then, Begin!!"

As soon as he said that, Leafa appeared in front of me with her sword ready for an upward slash. I couldn't sense her Ki to track her, but I was able to parry her attack on instinct and backed away. 'She's fast. It's just like when I fought Licht, she moves so fast it's like she melted into the air. But I've managed to improve quite a bit since then, so I'm not too helpless in this fight.' I thought. I put my left hand onto the blade of Demon Slayer and let the Anti-magic flow through me. Leafa didn't try to attack me as she wanted to know what I was doing. I commented on her opening attack, "You're pretty fast, Leafa. Before I came here, I actually fought another who could move that fast, and I couldn't overpower him even with back up. Just that one take showed me how incredible you really are. So, now I'm going to take this to the next level." The second after I said that, I had entered my black form, which surprised everyone present, even Rafael.

  (Leafa's p.o.v.)

  Much of Asta's right side had transformed. His right eye turned from green to red with a slit, his right arm was coated in a black mass, the right side of his ash blonde hair turn jet black and two horns grew from the side and top of his head, and a black, bat like wing sprouted from his right shoulder blade. 'This feeling, it's definitely not magic. And those horns, their weg. So, he's a Devil Host? I've never met one before.' I thought. "So you have a devil's power? Honestly, it's amazing the Order let you join, no offense." I said to him. He replied, "None taken, and my devil has no power over me and vice versa. He doesn't even have any interest in hurting humans despite his resentment towards the majority of the race. But, he does hate his own kind with a passion. Although that's a story for later. Let's continue the fight." Asta was right, we're in the middle of a match. So, we decided to continue fighting.

  Asta quickly flew towards me and performed a horizontal slash, but I blocked and followed up by attacking with a diagonal slash from his left shoulder to right hip. However, he parried the attack and countered with a thrust. I got out of the way and spun around land a horizontal slash of my own at his hip, but Asta flew up to dodge the attack. I chose to give chase, so I levitation Mado Arts lift me off the ground and Wind Magic to propel me towards him. Using both magic and Mado Arts in tandem isn't a skill many Makai Priests and Knights have, but I trained myself to the bone to master it.

  When I reached Asta I unleashed an upward diagonal slash, but he parried the strike. When he did, I felt the force of the blow and I knew if he hit me dead on, I would've ended up with a broken bone or two. 'He's got more strength than most humans, just how hard has he trained his body?' I thought, but I was brought out of my thoughts when Asta was about to unleash a counter attack. The following onslaught in the air was a continuous repeat of strike, dodge, weave, parry. There were a few times when we actually scratched each other, so are arms and torsos as superficial wounds after 2 minutes in. We backed away from each other and continued to float in the air, looking at one another, panting. I commented, "You're a lot stronger than most humans, physically. How long have you been honing your physical abilities, Asta?" He replied, "Since I was 4 years old. I wanted to prove that I could be the Wizard King despite having been born without any magic power at all. I refused to let others tell me what I can or can't be. So, I trained my body to the bone to compensate for what I didn't have. Then, when I got my grimoire, I was able to use Anti-magic, the power to nullify spells. That was when I was able to gain the strength to take the first step towards my goal." I thought, 'Anti-magic? So magic would be useless against him, he would've definitely been able to become Wizard King in Clover Kingdom if that was the case. Wait, if he wanted to be the Wizard King, then why is he here trying to become a Makai Knight?' Asta had just made me even more curious about him. And what he said about proving other wrong, that caught my attention the most.

  "You are probably the most interesting boy I've ever met." I said to him with a smile, which made him blush for some reason. I continued by saying, "What do you say we finish this with our next attack, but this time let's put everything we got into it?" The blush of his face quickly disappeared and he smile back while saying, "Bring it on! In fact, there's something I haven't tried in the past month, and I think now's the best time to use it." Asta held his sword with the tip of the blade point to the right, and I felt the power, which I assumed was his 'anti-magic' growing and started coating the weapon. I watched in awe as the blade of his sword become longer and wider. Asta then said,

  "Anti-magic: Demon Slayer Sword: Black Divider!"

  Black Divider was a fitting name, it looked like he could cleave through a fortress like a knife through a cake. Knowing this, I used reinforcement magic on my body to strengthen my overall defenses and put an enchantment on my sword with a Mado Art to try and counter the force of the upcoming blow. I realize that there was probably no point in doing all of that, but it was better than nothing. Seeing that the other was ready for one final clash, we charged at each other. Both of us performed a diagonal slash from the other's left shoulder to their right hip. As our blades collided with each, Asta's sword cut through mine easily. Once it broke my sword, Asta immediately undid his spell, returning his blade it's original length to prevent me from being cut in two accidentally. As such, the tip of the blade only grazed me across my torso, and cancelled out the magic I used to keep myself in the air, causing me to fall. I closed my eyes and braced for the impact, but, before I fell halfway to ground, I felt someone caught me in their arms. I opened my eyes to see that it was Asta who caught me while carrying me bridal style. 

  He looked at me and asked, "Are you alright?" I was kind of embarrassed being in that position and that our faces were so close. I stuttered as I answered, "Y-yeah, I'm alright." He smiled brightly and said, "I'm glad I cancelled Black Divider when I did, any later and I would've killed you. I certainly didn't want that to happen." I felt like me heart skipped a beat, at the sight of this smile. "Asta, you said earlier that you wanted to be the Wizard King, right?" I asked. He nodded and I asked the question that had been nagging me, "Then, why are you here trying to become a Makai Knight?" His face took on a sad expression and he said, "That's kinda a long story, I'll tell you after school is over for the day. Right now, we better get our wounds checked out, and you a change of clothes." I looked down to see that the clothes covering my torso were barely holding together by thin threads following the line of Asta's last strike. My face turned redder and quickly covered myself with my arms.

  I hadn't realized it earlier, but we were descending to the ground as we talked. By the time that I did, Asta's feet had already touched the ground. Once he landed, turned back to normal and he put me down while I still covered myself.

  (Asta's p.o.v.)

  I had just put Leafa back down as she used her arms to hold on to her damaged clothes. I said, "Sorry for ruining your clothes earlier." She replied with her face still red, "I-it's alright, things did get heated in that fight." "Heated, you say?" We turned to see that it was Liebe who said that with a mischievous look on his face. He continued, "Funny that you say 'heated' when Asta nearly stripped you half naked in public. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was planning-" I quickly cut him off and shouted, "DON'T YOU DARE!! DON'T EVEN GO THERE!!! I WASN'T PLANNING ANYTHING OF THE SORT!!!!!" He snickered and replied, "Whatever you say, but next wait until you two are alone in the bedroom." Leafa and I turned red and shouted, "SHUT THE HELL UP, LIEBE!!!!" At that point the whole class was laughing uncomfortably, including Liebe. 'Why do I have the feeling that Liebe is not going to stop teasing us?' I thought exasperated.

  (Rafael's p.o.v.)

  'I must say, a neophyte who barely knows anything about the ways of Makai learning to pick up Soul Metal so quickly is one thing, but to best one of the Academy's top students? That's something I never expected to see, especially when the neophyte is someone with no magic power and said top student is an elf. I can imagine the Watch Dogs will see fit to Knight this boy before he even graduates.' I thought as I mulled over what had happened up to that point. I said to the class, "Alright, enough with the levity, let's continue training!! And Leafa, you can go to your room and get a change of clothes." They all replied, "Yes sir!!" And the elf girl made her way back to her dorm room.