Upon sensing the arrival of the sisters, Celus stopped and greeted them with a huge smile. Leah greeted Claire with a remark, "you are faster than I expected."
Claire didn't comment on it and just sat down in a corner to take a rest. Leah followed the same upon her uncle's advice.
After taking enough rest, Claire and Leah get to their positions. Meanwhile, Prince Celus found his way towards Syllia. In the first meeting, it was just a normal attraction, after sparring with her, attraction elevated to infatuation.
He fell for her so deeply that he didn't even mind her past relationship with his sister. The only goal for him in the upcoming days is to woo her.
"Instead of wasting time on sparring with me, you should have spent more time on physical training." Leah taunted her once again, trying to rile her up. She doesn't like the warrior's look in Claire's eyes.
However, her taunt failed as Claire took out a few skill cards and calmly opened her mouth. "I will for sure after giving everything I have got."
"Well, what are you waiting for then?" Leah summoned the Excalibur and gestured her to attack.
Claire glanced at the whole training field and then looked at the skill cards in her hand.
All of the skill cards are only three-star and have the same image on them, a plain golden floor.
Claire made the first move by throwing the first one right at her feet after activating it. "Skill card: Holy Ground"
The granite floor turned golden in color. After experiencing it the previous day, it wasn't a strange sight for Prince Celus. However, he didn't understand why Claire used it at the start. It's not like she was bleeding with injuries or experiencing fatigue.
On the other hand, Leah, who knew the effects of this skill card very well, remembered Claire's words and assumed that she was going to throw big attacks from the start.
It was at the moment Claire threw a second card to the side, followed by the third, fourth, etc…
Eventually, a lot of 10-meter-radius golden circular fields were spread all over the training field before Claire summoned her Arcana, sprouted her wings from the back, and dashed forward.
For a genius like Leah, it isn't difficult to realize Claire's plan. Three-star skill cards are easier to make than Five-star skill cards and also consume less soul power.
If the effects of lower and higher rank skill cards are the same, then, even if one were to compromise on the range, it is always recommended to use lower-ranked ones.
Still, she welcomed it and didn't bother to hinder her opponent's preparations as she wanted to crush Claire's hope of defeating her. It was only then, she could prove her dominance.
But, it's easier said than done even for Leah. Claire's fighting style was the same, straightforward and recklessly attacking without care about defending as she knew that nothing life-threatening can happen to her.
Of course, in a real battle, she wouldn't take such a risk but against Leah, it is another thing. Moreover, with her sister standing for her protection, she believed she could take advantage of the situation.
But, soon, she realized that she underestimated Leah far too much.
The battle lasted thirty minutes before Leah was forced to knock her out with an energy needle ambushing at her neck or more specifically at her vagus nerve.
After being unconscious for a minute, she woke up to find herself lying on the floor. Leah was sitting before her with a smile.
She remembered what happened before she became unconscious.
"Charging ahead and dealing everything with power doesn't always work, Claire. With the way you are now, you can never defeat me let alone our future enemy." Leah said to her.
Although it appeared like Leah is mocking her, on the inside, Leah herself was amazed at how she was forced to reveal three sealing techniques that she never used against an inferior opponent now.
Claire felt disappointed but then, she suddenly remembered Azzy's words of encouragement. Upon experiencing the extent of Leah's strength, she didn't feel that bad as the previous day.
She slowly stood on her feet, "Let's continue."
"Don't you understand?" Leah got irritated for a second before she controlled herself, remembering Syllia and Celus are also here. She calmly spoke to her, "It's pointless to continue."
"You don't need to worry about my well-being, Leah. Just follow your teacher's orders." Claire replied to her, brandishing her sword.
Leah realized that she didn't break her opponent's will yet, "Very well."
She jumped back and started to walk to create a sufficient distance and went into her opening stance. Claire poured soul energy into her sword and continued.
Their sparring lasted for eight hours. In these eight hours, Claire was knocked out 19 times. What's interesting is that the last match alone lasted more than 1 hour as Claire slowly got used to the gravity as well as her opponent's tactics.
On Day 3, Claire was knocked out 12 times. In anger, Leah was forced to reveal yet another variant of a sealing technique that suffocates the target's breathing by targeting the lungs.
It was kind of a cowardly tactic but Leah doesn't know other ways of defeating her without killing her. Claire didn't know that her opponent was still holding back a lot because she was worried that Claire will die if Leah goes all out. She only wanted to teach Claire a lesson, not kill her and make an enemy out of Azzy and draw a war between Camelot and Triastal.
Meanwhile, Claire's confidence received a huge boost after she compared it to the results of Day 1 and Day 2.
On Day 4, her attacks got even more straightforward and reckless but stronger and faster with her getting completely used to the gravity on the training field. In the end, she was knocked out only 7 times, boosting her confidence even more.
With Claire becoming faster and stronger, Leah felt pressured. She realized that her goal of teaching her a lesson seemed to be getting farther away if she continues to suppress her true strength. But she couldn't reveal it, definitely not in front of Syllia or Celus who are true experts.
On top of that, when she informed Claire's progress to her teacher in detail, the Supreme Realm expert only praised Claire further and even asked her whether she learned something.
Leah couldn't understand what her teacher was trying to say. After all, what could she learn from Claire?
Nothing. That's what she believed. In her mind, she was still treating Claire as an inferior opponent.
It was only on Day 6, Leah finally took Claire very seriously as she couldn't harm or knock her out even after sparring against her for three hours straight. Despite being weak in attack power, Claire had a huge advantage over Leah.
Claire is practically invincible in Holy Ground. Her instant recovery of injuries, soul power, and fatigue made her most difficult opponent for Leah who could only look for ways to knock her out.
When she wasn't able to do that, Leah put aside her pride and decided to suppress Claire's Arcana and spoke in a confident tone, "Kneel before the Queen." Instead of purple energy, a golden aura was emitted around her and the sword.
"Eh?" In the next second, her facial expression turned ugly.
Usually, any type or any rank of Arcana spirit that was of a lesser grade than Platinum grade will submit defeat before Excalibur because of the latter's authority. Platinum-grade Arcana spirits could resist it.
But, to her shock, the gold-grade sword didn't respond to her call.
"What the…" Leah was stunned to see that she was failed for the first time. That is against the opponent who she looked down upon.
Even more of a shock to her is that the ability itself didn't work rather than Claire's sword spirit is resisting Excalibur's authority.
When she enquired with the Excalibur, the latter just feigned ignorance and said that it might be an exception and it faced such things before too. Leah got an idea.
Once the daily sparring is over, Leah buried herself in the books. It was midnight and she was searching for something in the books that were preserved from the First Epoch.
What she was looking are the original adventures of Arthur Pendragon and Excalibur. Claire's instant recovery ability from injuries, golden wings, the Holy Ground, and lastly, the sword that neglects Excalibur's authority despite being a gold grade, every single thing pointed it towards something. All she needs is one piece of evidence to confirm her suspicions.
It was then she stumbled on a story. "This..." her eyes widened.
...
....
If you are not reading this at webnovel.com, then, sorry, the content you are reading is stolen. Please support the Author by reading at the original website. Thank you.
Original link: https://www.webnovel.com/book/my-soul-card-is-a-reaper_18853172005298305
This content is taken from free web nov𝒆l.com