“Alright. As I’ve mentioned before, the duel is 300 seconds. There are no special rules; both combatants are allowed to use their own limbs to attack the opponent. Both of you, clear enough?” Eliot asked the boys.
“Yes, Sir!” both Sigulf and his opponent, Arthfael, answered.
“Good! Now, your oaths!”
Sigulf took a deep breath. ‘I’m not used with knightly matters like this, but… Gotta try.’
“We, the Duelists from Atlantic—“ both of them begin reciting. “Swore to abide by the rules, respect the judge’s decision, and fight with all of our might, in honor of our opponent, and for the glory of one own self!” both Sigulf and Arthfael finished their oaths.
“Now, summon your True Arms!”
Arthfael began chanting, “From the depths of the enchanted lake, rising to cleave through all steel… Brought us your promised victory! Sword of the King, Caledfwlch!”
A sword adorned with gold soon materialized in Arthfael’s hands.
As for Sigulf, he changed his stance and crossed his arms, forming an X in front of his chest. Icy blue aura appeared around him, and much to everyone surprise, it’s as if the whole room’s temperature goes down.
“What’s going on here!?” one of the mobs yelled in surprise.
Water-vapors appeared as Sigulf began chanting, “Hunt… Slay… Be victorious! Break free from your bindings and run wild—! FENRIR!!”
As soon as his True Arms materialized, Sigulf cut through the air, while the aura fades away and the temperature returns to normal. In his hands is a pair of steel bearded axe. Its grip is wrapped in leather, while the shaft and the blade are adorned with a carving of what appeared to be a wolf’s head.
‘So full of theatrics. Just like you, Vigdis.’ Eliot thought.
“We meet again, Hrimgard.” Arthfael suddenly talked. “However, this would be the first time we go against each other. And I have no intentions to lose here.”
‘Just as I thought.’ Sigulf mentally noted. ‘Seems I did saw him during the exams.’
“En garde!” Eliot exclaimed, to which both Sigulf and Arthfael got into combat stance.
“Begin!”
At Eliot’s cue, Arthael dashed forward… while Sigulf is unmoving.
“Sig-kun!? What is he trying to pull!?” Yuu wondered aloud.
The blonde boy jumped and raised his sword. “Am I too fast for you? In any case, the first strike is mine!!”
Arthfael brought his Caledfwlch down and struck Sigulf.
“Battle point, down by 20%.” Sigulf’s indicator announced.
However, Arthfael realized that Sigulf is only slightly flinching. Looking up, his eyes met with Sigulf’s.
“What the—“
Without saying a word, Sigulf swung his left axe and scored a clean hit. He continued with his right and knocked Arthfael away.
“Ugh…!!”
“Battle point, down by 30%.”
Arthfael stood up once more while Sigulf is slowly closing on him.
‘His eyes just then…’ the blonde boy thought. ‘It’s not normal…! It’s less human and more of a beast!’
“You…” Arthfael growled with fury. “Are you toying with me!?” he charged towards Sigulf once more.
“No.” Sigulf replied as he evaded Arthfael’s attack. “I was trying what my master used to do. Seems it didn’t work, though.”
‘I see. With her current condition, going offensive with such speed would be detrimental. It’s such a pity, Vigdis…’ Eliot thought with a somewhat sad expression.
“Didn’t work…? Then how about you…” Arthfael said as he lunged forward. “Fight with your own style!?”
Arthfael launched a series of attacks, which every one of them got evaded by Sigulf.
“Seems so. Master would be pissed if she saw me.”
Sigulf took a leap backwards and changed his stance, to a slightly-hunching, primal-looking one.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about…!” Arthfael said, readying his stance.
“Here I go.”
Sigulf dashed… and seemingly vanished.
‘So fast!’ Arthfael thought. ‘But this pattern… His presence… I’ve read it!’
“Ther—“
As Arthfael prepared to swing backwards, however, Sigulf is closing on from his front.
“W, what!? Is it a feint!?” Arthfael yelled in disbelief.
‘Ah, the classic feint.’ Eliot thought. ‘With speed like that, you could easily make a 50-50 situation out of it.’
“Gotcha.”
One, two, three… Four clean strikes landed on Arthfael, with the last one knocked him away.
“Gahh!!”
“Battle points, down by 60%. 10% remaining.” Arthfael’s indicator announced.
‘What… What’s wrong with this guy!?’ he thought while standing up once more.
Sigulf said nothing as he returned to his combat stance and slowly advancing towards Arthfael.
“A, are you kidding me!?” one of crowds expressed his disbelief. “He just toyed a knight like that!”
“Tch…! I have no other choice, then…!” Arthfael said while he raised the Caledfwlch in front of him. The sword begins to emit a golden glow, which seems to be extending the blade’s reach.
‘I see…’ Sigulf mentally noted. ‘You are not allowed to fight below 100%. However, anything above that is permitted. Things just got interesting, it seems.’
“This is it…!” Arthfael exclaimed. “With this…! I’M TAKING YOU DOWN!!”
Faster than before, Arthfael charged towards Sigulf, attempting a horizontal slash. Sigulf jumped in time to evade it. However, Arthfael quickly brakes, changed trajectory, and jumped towards Sigulf, with the Caledfwlch raised.
“Now I got you!!”
‘He got much faster after all…!’ Sigulf thought.
“Tch…!”
Sigulf quickly spun his body and swung his Fenrir upwards, clashing with Arthfael’s blade. Sparks fly as the two True Arms deadlocked.
“Grrh…!!”
“Khh…!!”
Slowly, the Caledfwlch began to overpower the Fenrir, making Sigulf struggle to keep his footing.
“Just… A bit… More…!” Arthfael grunted, keeping his pressure.
“Gh…!”
“Go, Penndreic! Make that lowborn knows his place!” one of the spectators suddenly shouted, earning him some stares of ire.
“What will you do now, Sig-kun?” Yuu wondered.
‘People like that still exist, huh…’ he mused, while struggling to push the Caledfwlch away. ‘I can’t lose here… Then—‘
“Limiter: Laedingr, release.” Sigulf announced.
“What are you— !?”
Suddenly, the Fenrir glows pale blue, and it begins to push Caledfwlch back.
“No way!? He kept something like this!?” Arthfael yelled in disbelief.
The sparks intensified as Fenrir overpowers the Caledfwlch even more.
“No! I mustn’t lose! For—“
“Back off.”
“!?”
Clang!
Losing its golden glow, the Caledfwlch was thrown into the air. With nothing to defend himself, and faced with Sigulf and his rising axes, Arthfael can only mutter,
“Damn it…!”
Sigulf brought down his Fenrir, knocking his opponent away.
“Battle point 0%. Cannot continue duel.” Arthfael’s indicator announced.
“That’s enough!” Eliot exclaimed. “Duel’s over! Winner, Sigulf Hrimgard!”
The room exploded into a mix of cheering and commotion. Yuu simply sighed out of relief. While Alba, from her corner, smirked with her arms crossed.
“It’s way more interesting like this.” She said.
As for the others…
“Oi, oi…!” Walter said. “We have another like Amakawa here? Damn, can’t let them steal my spotlight.”
“Hmm… A bit brutish, but not half bad.” Carmen commented.
“Hmph… I’ll be fine as long I don’t get hit.” Ilma said.
As both True Arms dematerialized, Sigulf walked towards Arthfael. He then hunched over and offered his hand.
Arthfael looked perplexed at first, but then he took his hand and gets up.
“Huh… Seems like I lost really badly this time…” Arthfael said.
“Now,” Eliot exclaimed. “Give our combatants a round of applause!”
The whole classroom applauded as both of them proceeds to shake each other’s hand.
“Next time I won’t lose.” Arthfael said.
“Likewise.” Sigulf replied.
“Both combatants, you may now return to your place.”
With Eliot’s cue, the two parted and returns to join the rest of the class.
“Congratulations, Sig-kun.” Yuu said as he approached him. “Nice fight.”
“Mm, thanks.” Sigulf responded as he passed by Yuu.
“Sig-kun?”
As Sigulf keep walking closer, Minato finally noticed Sigulf’s presence.
“Eh…?”
Sigulf shot him an icy glare wordlessly, while continuing his way to the back of the room. Yuu chased after him.
“Ooh!? Is that supposed to be a declaration of rivalry!?” Walter commented.
“You think so?” Minato asked him.
“…what’s his problem?” Eurypha added, sounding annoyed.
Meanwhile, Eliot watched them from afar.
‘First Amakawa, and now him. It’s still the early days, yet they already made such an impression. Let’s see for how long this can keep up.’
———
Meanwhile, on 2nd-year’s area, after school…
“Did you hear!? The heir of Penndreic got thrashed in a duel!”
“You’re lying! Who did it!?”
“That’s the problem! We never even heard of his dynasty!”
Some 2nd-years, who appear to be members of the upper class, are in commotion. Not far from there, Celina and Chelsea decided to listen.
“What’s his name again?” one of the crowds asked.
“If I recall correctly, it was Sigulf Hrimgard.” Another answered.
“Sigulf Hrimgard…” Celina mumbled.
‘Could it be him?’
“Cel? What’s wrong?” Chelsea asked her best friend.
“I have a bad feeling about this…”
———
Little did Sigulf know that this victory he considered small, is simply the beginning of things to come. Indeed, his journey is still far from over. The path of ulfhedinn is a long one…
———
Prologue “2117: Einvígi á Atlantic”, end.
Continued on Chapter 1.
I liked having a normal protag T.T
His cold shoulder to minato threw me for a loop. Didn't seem like him, he was nice to everyone so far after all. I also love fenrir, and it's nice to have uncommon weapons such as axes appear. If Sig is going to be a rival character i hope he is like a cold wolf character, tough and fierce XD
Minato is the nice guy archetype, so I can't have Sigulf being nice too. Though, I also try not to write him as overly edgy and dark.
Fenrir, axes, and ice are deliberate motifs, to emphasize the Norse-ness; glad that you liked them.
So far Sig is being nice though. He doesnt talk much but he isnt cold or rude except for that weird cold shoulder to minato and his response to the rude nobles. Lindy seems more taciturn. Though i suppose he might actually appear cold to his surroundings if he has a fierce look all the time without meaning to
Right, that's admittedly another problem too. He's supposed to look that cold, even though he's most likely thinking about dinner. I didn't put too much emphasis on it.
They talk way too much in a fight, and who care about the crowd reactions? Is this writing similar to cheesy shounen Japanese anime? Or is this a yelling competition? If this is the standard for duels for the rest of the story, I don't think this is for me.
Thank you for commenting.
Admittedly, yes, the duels are more shounen (and eroge)-based than actual/real ones.
Hopefully I can tone it (and the crowd reactions too) down later on.
I feel that you glossed over some things because you intended this to be a kinda short prologue for readers to get through, but I think the past few chapters could have been expanded to be its own arc.
Thank you for the comments and feedback.
I do hope that someday I could go back and tidy up the earlier chapters (not to say the current ones are that much better, but yeah). I do admit that back then (and most likely even now) I'm still struggling about the pacing.
Celina's mainly based off... Well, Celia from Walkure Romanze (OK, that's pretty shameless of me), with bits of Silveria (Unionism Quartet) thrown. And not so much in terms of personality, but appearance-wise, also elements of Cecilia (IS), Celistia (Bahamut) and Claudia (Asterisk). There's a pattern here obviously.
The mob/rival feel also troubled me; I wanted him to be the rival-type without being a jerk/edgy, but due to the awkward pace (and my writing), it didn't came up well. I hope I can give better details for the upcoming chapters.
@HokuouTenrou I think what you could have done is to make him interact with the MC substantially from the get go. And have some of his monologues be centered around how he feels about the MC.
The blonde appearance, I think I get. However, those didn't get into my mind much because I didn't see her as the "big warrior type" like Celistia. But now that you mentioned it...
I haven't watched Walkure Romance, so I didn't pick that up
The prologue ends here, and I think that you rushed things a bit. With the progression and all, I would have preferred a more detailed writing. I think it's mainly because you brush past a lot of events and descriptions with a simple sentence.
As for the fight, I think it's fine. You still do a lot of head-hopping the past couple of chapters, but it didn't bother me that much.
Somehow Cel reminded me of Mayumi from Mahouka. I don't know of the inspiration is her, but she's the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to student council presidents with status and a friendly personality.
Hoping to see more of Fenrir's powers. I wonder what the first main arc would be about.
And yeah, the comments are right that Sigulf did feel like a mob character more than the rival character in a series like this.
Thanks for the chapter
God the aria was corny as f*ck. Too chunni for me
Had the feeling from the first chapters that Sigulf was more or less what a "normal person" in a shounen story would be like, which I found funny and interesting. Pity he now seems to fall in line with the rest of the typical shounen-troop.
Thank you for the comment.
My intention was to write him less as a normal person, and more like the rival character in a shounen series.
Though unfortunately, I probably didn't convey that too well either.
I think you went too normal for a rival character, the way you've introduced him makes him feel like a mob.
I did, unfortunately.
That part was supposedly him being snarky/smartass-ish, but I guess he came off as too 'normal'.
Hopefully not so much now.
@HokuouTenrou Bit of a drastic shift from a mob mentality to animosity towards the MC Amakawa though. I mean, unless I missed something, Amakawa doesn't seem to have done anything to antagonise Siggy.
@Synthelione Was it him glaring? I tried to have him being a bit competitive back then
@HokuouTenrou Wait when was that the case?
@Synthelione I'm a bit confused here lol
I thought you were referring to Sigulf's animosity towards Minato?
@HokuouTenrou yea i was asking about when Kinato glared at Sigulf
@Synthelione It's supposed to be the other way around (Sigulf at Minato), but I guess it didn't came out clear.