When I get back from behind the stage, the white hall has more empty space than before.
One class is missing from this room.
The twins are giving me that worried face.
“What happened?” whispering to the twins.
“Quinne’s mother said that she need to talk to them in private.” Mari replies.
“That’s why the whole students of class D already get back to their classroom.” Mana continues.
Their answer only makes me put on a confused face.
“That’s not necessary, right? Why would she do that?” asking them once again.
The twins only respond by shaking their head and hands, a sign that they have no idea.
Pinching the bridge of my nose.
Let out a small sigh.
“Let me talk to her for a sec.” I say while getting up from my seat.
At the same time I get up from my seat, the Narrator comes back on the stage to announce the match.
Because of that, there’s no way that I can’t leave this hall.
All of the participants' names were already called to go on the stage.
The cheering starts again from the other students.
Colombain and Mr. Sneg are already on the stage now.
The others come back to their seats.
But when Quinne passes by in front of our seat, she gives us that smirk.
What is wrong with her? It’s not our competition.
Not long after they enter the stage, the narrator announces to let the match begin and it only has eight rounds..
The bell rings and the two participants start to get closer to the opponent.
The cheering becomes louder than before once they lay the first punch into each other's faces.
Personally, I don’t know much about boxing rules but I know the basics of it.
From those punches, each of them got a point.
My point of view, Colombain is moving well over the place.
On the other hand, Mr. Sneg is dodging and defending himself.
But in this case, Colombain successfully get him with some good shots to the body and a couple of his lower hand, where Mr. Sneg uses it to defend.
Mr. Sneg still gets a few chances to punch him back but not as big as Colombain did before.
Colombain’s movement speed is fast and his punches also.
Times up for the first round and Colombain win this round.
When they want to separate from the corner of stage, Mr. Sneg puts his smirk on.
“That’s all you got?” He says.
The anger on Colombain face starts showing up again.
At this one minute, Quinne comes to Mr. Sneg place.
She looks like whispering something to him and he responds with a nod.
One minute passes, Quinne backs to her seat, and the participants are closing the distance again.
Again, when Quinne on her way back to her seat, she looks at me again with the same face.
Did she plan something?
The second round comes and Colombain still doing the same thing as before.
He gets faster moves and punches Mr. Sneg.
This time also he finally can get a good shot right into his face.
Second round result is the same as the first one, Colombain wins this round.
But still, that smug face on Mr. Sneg doesn’t even fade away from him and that’s make Colombain still full of anger on his face.
The third round where it begins to make changes than before.
Mr. Sneg finds his way to counter Colombain attacks.
At this moment, I just realize that Colombain always doing the same movements since the beginning of this match.
That’s why it will be easy for Mr. Sneg to learn his moves and figure out how to fight him back.
Never expecting that he would have such a strategy before.
From this round, Colombain gets more hit than before.
From my perspective, Mr. Sneg is strong both in how he moves and hits the opponent.
So this is why he chose this match, huh?
Mana and Mari start getting worried about Colombain conditions, it’s getting worse.
Final round arrives and both of them look very tired now.
They close the distance slowly because I’m sure that both of their legs are almost giving up right now.
“Heh. Look at you. I already gave you two rounds to win against me.” Mr. Sneg starts mocking Colombain.
Colombain doesn’t give any responses.
He’s too tired at this moment.
“Weak.” Mr. Sneg continues, then punches his face.
Colombain dodges but I think Mr. Sneg already predicted where he’s going to move.
As a result, Mr. Sneg gets a great shot at Colombain left ribs.
That makes him bent over because of the pain and leaves himself open.
Mr. Sneg uses this chance to punch his left face and his chin.
These punches make Colombain knockdown in a second.
Eight counts start to begin from the ref.
The result is that Mr. Sneg wins this boxing match.
Take a look over class C seats, Brugière and Léger faces are terrified from this view.
They quickly run to Colombain to help him to get into the infirmary.
For Mr. Sneg, he gets help from the embassy's staff.
Ahh.. I can’t leave right now.. The contest is still going..
“Alright everyone! What a fight we just watched, right?!” The narrator comes back to take over the stage.
Cheering starts again from the students.
“And with that settled, Class B will be in second place! Congra..”
Someone interrupts the narrator's announcement.
It’s a woman's voice, yet a very familiar annoying voice, Quinne.
“Hello Sir?!” She says with a loud voice “If I’m not mistaken that our scores will be four right? Isn’t it still the same as the other class that has four scores too?”
She didn’t mention the name of the class.
She just wants to say it in a sarcastic way.
“Umm.. but that won't be..” The narrator gets cut off once again by the other woman’s voice.
It’s her mother this time.
“Excellent thought, dear.” She says “As the head of the academic embassy, I need to make it fair for both sides. Not being greedy.”
She looks at me when she says the last sentence.
That's a sarcastic sentence to me because I didn’t protest like Quinne before.
The room becomes so quiet again just because of her presence.
“How do you want to settle this, young lady?” Her mother asks her.
“Because the boys just do a non academic activity, I would like to do the same.” Quinne replies.
Ahh.. I see..
“Very well. What kind of match do you want this to be?” Her mother asks her once again.
Quinne looks at me with the same face as before.
She’s waiting for this moment..
“I would like to have it as a fencing match.” She finally gives her answer to her mother.
She knows..
“Fencing it is then. Please prepare this room to be a fencing stage.” She gives back the microphone again and leaves the stage.
She predicted this from the very first beginning..
“Okay. For the participants, please proceed to get ready behind the stage. Thank you.” The narrator says.
Quinne and her friend get up first from their seats then we follow them to the preparation room.
In the preparation room, Mana and Mari look so worried about this match.
“Ahh.. why does Quinne always has that kind of opportunity?” Mari says in a frustrating voice.
“Well she must have prepared something with her mother before.” Mari replies.
Both of them feel really frustrated because of how Quinne and her mother act before while I’m busy checking the fencing equipment.
“Are you sure about this Vil? Want me to face her this time?” Mari offers herself.
“It’s fine, Mari. I know the basics of it.” responding to Mari's offer.
“We’re worried because you never had a fencing match before, Vil. And.. we’re also worried if you..” Mana says with a worried tone.
“Yes. I know the consequences if I lose this match. But I also know the consequences as a Valter.” replying to Mana with a firm tone.
Something comes through my mind about these quizzes and matches.
Feels like a puzzle for me.
Mari sighs from her seat out of her frustration.
“Is it really just a coincidence?” still with the same frustrated tone.
Now I just realize that Quinne at the very first beginning of this event, she wasn't as competitive as before.
As far as I know her, whenever we’re having a competition she is always very ambitious and frustrated when she loses against me.
But this time, she didn’t show her frustration before, only smirking.
Our scores are always so close to each other.
“She already predicted this.” I say in my mind.
But I didn’t realize that just come through my mouth
Both of them automatically look at me with confused faces.
“What do you mean, Vil? She predicted all of this?” Mari asks.
“I just realized that she wasn’t giving her best from the very first beginning.”
Mari and Mana respond like they just noticed it now too.
“Actually, I realized it too. When she didn’t get mad that she lost against us. She only put on her poker face.” Mana says.
“Or maybe she already planned it before with her mother?” Mari guesses.
“Well.. any possibilities can be. But as a Valter, I need to face it even though I don’t have any preparation. Only my instinct this time.” I reply while wearing my equipment set.
Not long after I finish preparing myself, the sound of knocking the door comes.
Mana opens up the door and meets the embassy’s staff.
“Sorry if I’m interrupting. I just want to let the participant know that two minutes left for the call to get on the stage.” she says.
“Okay, thank you miss for letting us know.” Mana replies.
With that the staff nods and takes her leave.
“We can only wish you good luck, Vil” Mari says and pats my shoulder.
“Yes, Vil. We believe you can do this.” Mana continues.
Then they give me a warm hug before they go back to their seats.
Once again I need to make sure the equipment is safe.
“Mask. Check. Body wires. Check. and..
“Ekhem.” that familiar girl voice.
Quinne is leaning at the door with that smirk.
“You look nervous. Where’s your confidence as a Queen?” sarcastic as always.
Just ignoring her, I didn’t even look back or give any response to her.
The sound of her walks comes closer to where I stand right now.
“Don’t worry Queen. You’re the best of everything, right?” She says then hits lightly on my shoulder with her mask.
After she leaves the room, finally I look back to the door where she just left before.
Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Yea.. you got this Vilheimina Valter. Let that instinct of yours lead the way..
Right at the time, the narrator calls my name while I walk to get on stage.
Quinne is also already on the stage.
Both of us are closing the distance to shake hands before the match begins then we go back to our positions.
The staff help us to hook the back end of the body wire to the electrical scoring box and latch the front end to the Epee.
When all of the equipment is ready, the ref puts the testing equipment near us and picks up the remote for the scoring box.
Based on what this sword looks like, I think it’s degen, the most difficult one.
The target for this kind of sword is all over the body.
Anything that gets poke from it will get the point.
The ref tells us that we need to do a guard test, where Quinne and I are testing each other's guard by gently giving a poke and the grounding of the guard.
After we are done testing the guard, the ref leads us to give salute to the audience, ref, and the opponent.
The ref starts giving us the commands to get ready for the match.
“On guard!”
Getting into the position ready to fight.
“Pre!”
Tighten the grip.
“Ale!”
With the last commands, the match begins.
Quinne advances quickly.
Try to dodge it as fast as possible but she already got the point.
First point is for Quinne.
The second one, Quinne once again advances faster than before.
Forward, forward, almost pushing me to the edge of the stage.
One again, Quinne gets a point.
Aghh.. I think my arms didn’t recover fully too..
It still hurts a little bit if I move my arms too fast.
Take a deep breath for a moment to calm myself and keep focus.
Again, Quinne always goes forward so quickly.
She doesn’t have mercy on her opponent.
But this time, I already learned her moves from before.
Finally I can get two points from this round.
Unfortunately, Quinne gets another three points and she becomes the winner for this round.
Glancing over at the scoreboard, 2-5.
Three points away from her.
From what I observed before, I think I can get more points if I aim at her feet.
Checking my arm's condition, only slightly hurt if I grip tighter on the grip.
This should be enough for just one match.
The second round begins now.
Quinne advances quickly once again but this time I manage to dodge it.
Step back a little then I can get a chance to hit her feet.
The one who gets the first point in this round is me.
Yes! I think I got this!
The next score is for me once again.
But this time, I guess Quinne notices it already.
She changes her moves this time.
Not really as aggressive as before when she advanced.
She also pays more attention to her feet.
As always, she’s really fast noticing something like this.
Need to look for other angles to get a chance!
The other difference from her moves is that she also aims for my arms.
Wearing the guard won’t really affect the wound but I need to at least move my arms to dodge or defend from it.
Aside from that, if I don’t move my arms much, Quinne will notice it for sure.
She's a perfectionist like me, of course she will know that there’s something wrong with arms later on.
But these wounds won’t stop me from giving my best to win this match.
At the fourth point, Quinne aggressively aims and tries to hit my arms.
From her moves, I need to protect and dodge my arms from her attacks.
Even though I already pay much attention to cover my arm, she still can find the angle to get a poke.
This time she gets the chance to give me a deep poke right at where my wound is, on my right arm.
Even though the guard already protects it, it feels like the sword just gets through into it.
It really hurts my right arm and I only grimace silently from it.
Should hide this from Quinne.
Get yourself together, Vil! Just one more point this round!
It’s getting hard for me to raise the sword steadily.
Although it’s a little bit shaky than before, I manage to raise my sword.
Quinne mustn’t notice it because if she notices it, she will be more aggressive to aim for my right arm.
Almost at the end of the round, I finally found the right angle to counter attack.
Yes! I got it!
The last point is for me and the match ends as I’m the winner.
The scoreboard shows the points, 7-9
Two more points then I will be equal with her.
Take a glance over Quinne place.
Seems like she’s already tired too.
But there’s a problem for me right now.
My arms feel heavier than at the beginning of the first round.
Aghh.. my arms.. Why is it so hurt to move them now..?
Still trying my best to hide my pain from her.
Last round begins but Quinne attacks still as aggressive as the second round.
Even though she’s still aggressive, her movement doesn’t have any differences from before.
Despite that, Quinne loses her attention to how she needs to step back again.
That’s why I get so many chances to hit her feet.
Three points for me at the beginning of this round.
Why is she still so fast..? Aghh come one my arms..
Feel a lot more heavier that it become so hard to keep the sword steady
Right now, my right arm feels shaky.
At this moment, I realize that Quinne is already aiming just my right arm.
On the other hand, Quinne still can give me no mercy attacks.
Because of that, she really pushes me into my limit that I can barely dodge or defend it anymore.
Also when she gives me a poke, she really uses so much strength into it.
She gets two points from it and fortunately I get a chance to get one point.
The points now should be equal, 11-11.
But I feel like my right arm is bleeding again.
My right arm almost feels numb from this match.
It’s getting hard even just to catch my breath because of this pain.
30 seconds left to decide who's going to win this match.. Will my arm make for it..?
Based on how Quinne looks, she must be very tired too.
She literally aggressively attacks me in this whole match.
Those movements should drain a lot of her stamina.
Neither of us want to make the first move.
I guess Quinne is already too tired to move aggressively like before.
Then finally I decide to just make the first move to attack her.
It's a very risky decision if I could say.
This will depend on faith which one is fast enough to get the first poke.
A very simple and basic movement to attack the opponent.
It’s just a straight poke to her as fast as I can.
Quinne successfully dodges it and she tries to counter attack.
But I already predicted that she will aim my right arm.
That's why I’m closing the distance with her.
With this close distance she is unable to hit my right arm.
Her targets will be my body and my feet.
Quinne tries to poke me on my right shoulder because that is the closest to her sword right now.
Not today..
This risky movement actually is already planned in my brain.
Even though I only know the basics about fencing attacks, at least I can predict how my opponent moves.
That’s why I already predicted that she will aim for my right shoulder.
Because of that I can smoothly dodge it and get a chance to hit her feet.
The students break out the silence in this room with their cheering.
The intense atmosphere is already gone for now.
Scoreboard changes into 12-11.
The round ends as well with this fencing match.
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