Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: The Sorceress' Knights Tournament

Chapter 34

Caspian tried to glare at Julius, who stood several meters away, but he couldn't focus. His eyesight kept blurring out and distorting. He rubbed his chest, which felt constricted, as if something was compressing it.

"I hope you're ready, Sol," Julius said, a malicious grin spreading across his face. "I'm going to make you regret ever coming here!"

Caspian wasn't given time to retort as Julius bull-rushed him. He stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over his own two feet as his opponent tried to pierce him through the chest. Turning to present his profile, he sought to avoid the strike. It was all for naught. The sound of tearing fabric permeated the arena, and Caspian felt the sting of a blade cutting into his flesh. It was only a scratch, a mere nick, but it felt like fire on his skin.

"So, you can still dodge?" Julius murmured. "Very well. Let's see how you handle this!"

Julius thrust his blade at Caspian's face. The attack was so swift that he almost missed it. Barely ducking in time, Caspian felt the blade ruffling his hair. He tried to get back up in order to retaliate, but his legs chose that moment to give out. As he fell onto his backside, Caspian blinked his bleary eyes in time to see a foot soaring right for him. He was unable to dodge and took the kick head on.

Stars exploded in his vision as he was sent to the ground, tumbling backwards before coming to a stop on his back. The sky above him seemed to distort. Colors mixed together like streamers as everything was sucked towards the center of his vision. It left him with a sense of vertigo. He felt like vomiting.

"What are you doing on the ground, Sol? Come on, get up. I'm not finished humiliating you yet."

Caspian tried to stand up, but his arms weren't working. Neither were his legs, his back, his shoulders, or anything else. He couldn't even get his fingers to twitch. It was like his entire body had simply decided to shut down.

A large hand grabbed his hair in a vice grip and yanked him off the ground. Caspian would have screamed in pain, but a knee was suddenly rammed into his gut, and he lost the ability to so much as groan. A strangled gasp emerged from his lips. The hand let go of his hair. Caspian wrapped his arms around his stomach and fell forward, right into the waiting fist of his opponent.

He heard, as much as felt, his nose breaking under the assault. Warm liquid dripped down his nose and onto his lips. He fell backwards, landing on his back with a harsh thud. Not a second later more pain exploded in his side as a boot struck him with enough force to flip him over.

"What's the matter, Sol?" Julius kicked him in his unprotected side. Caspian tried not to scream. "Where did all that talk go?" Something struck Caspian across the back, making him gasp as his flesh was torn apart. "Well, no matter. This is where you belong. On the ground, writhing like a worm in front of your betters."

***

Elincia gripped the guardrail. Worry gnawed at her insides like scorpions squirming around in her stomach.

Down on the arena floor, Caspian tried to stand up and lunge at Julius, but he stumbled halfway through and ended up taking a powerful left hook from his opponent. Her heart clenched as her best friend was sent back to the ground, blood flying from his mouth.

"It seems that young man is having trouble," Lord Fuzen Taiga said. His words made Elinca grit her teeth .

"Indeed," she heard Lady Sylvia say from behind her. "It appears as though Caspian Ignis del Sol is not as talented as I was led to believe. That is disappointing."

How can she say that? Elincia wondered. She knew that Lady Sylvia was impartial in all things, but to say something like that about someone who she claimed her hopes were riding on was horrible.