Sworded Affair-Chapter 239: The Coffin of Emma and Felix

Chapter 239: The Coffin of Emma and Felix

Emma wasn’t sure what Felix could do, besides the backstabbing and general treachery endemic to younger brothers across the globe. During her time as a guest of his dungeon, she’d fought various constructs, brought to life by his designs, but Felix had always remained a spectator in his role as Emperor, and Emperors, barring one particularly erratic individual, did not generally deign to enter the arena as combatants. He’d never even hinted at it, frankly, as every previous discussion involved two facets, his creations that populated the Academia as NPCs, and the humans who signed on as gladiators for his upcoming entertainment extravaganza.

Even so, it was clear that her brother hadn’t slacked off, even from the opening exchanges. Emma had a longer weapon, the advantage in height and reach, and a body of living armour. Felix matched her by being far too fast and agile, darting from side to side without ever taking both feet off the ground at once, moving more like an acrobat than a soldier. He never attempted to contest her swings, only angling to deflect and parry, using his gladius to brush her sword aside before going for a quick thrust. It didn’t work, because Emma could dismiss and resummon her blade near instantaneously, an advantage no Olympic fencer ever got, letting her reposition to block his attacks before they ever landed.

Five exchanges, using only swordplay and footwork, and it was clear that neither of them had an edge, which is when the magic came out. Emma feinted a clumsy swing at Felix’s head, one he easily ducked under, and summoned her Duplicate behind him for a backstab while he was already in motion. Her copy’s sword slid into his ribs, and got stuck there, just a Emma felt an unpleasant tug at the back of her mind, like someone was scraping a nail through her cranial nerve, and the Duplicate vanished.

[Contract Seal active: summoning disabled.]

Emma’s eyes narrowed, focusing on Felix’s chest, where a lingering stab wound bled purple miasma, a strange, gaseous emission that formed words and screaming faces as it vaporised at room temperature.

“It looks like your better half has vanished,” Felix taunted, not seeming to feel any pain. “Having performance issues?”

”You prepared this construct for me in particular,” Emma retorted. “Did I scare you that much?”

”Proper preparation is paramount,” her brother laughed, repeating a phrase their Dad loved. “It wasn’t easy, with your passive magic making me see nonsense whenever I looked directly at you, but there’s a lot that can be learned just by observing the impact you leave behind.” freēnovelkiss.com

That was bad news, Emma decided, because while her brother could be impulsive, he could also be surprisingly sharp when given time to plan, as evidenced by the fact that he was the driver behind most of their joint pranks, even the one that had landed her the job of cleaning old suits of armour, when all hell broke loose. This wasn’t a fight on equal terms, it was an ambush, one that she’d not been expecting. Emma pointed Epitaph at Felix, firing a beam of anima while simultaneously extending its length as fast as it could go, taking the gloves off and deploying multiple means of attack for the first time in the fight. She did so, expecting another quick dodge, only to be surprised when her brother matched Epitaph’s trajectory, and did the same, a beam of purple meeting red in a classic clash of shounen protagonists worldwide.

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Emma tried oversoul next, gambling on her willpower overcoming her capable but still younger brother. Felix just grinned and faded from view, and then both of them were gone. What happened next was hard to describe, but Emma found herself simultaneously staring out from a hundred different eyes, at every possible angle, much like the flies she’d read about for biology class. She returned to solidity, swaying and barely remaining upright, while Felix did the same, looking distinctly green.

”Okay, note to self,” he muttered. “Two applications of Oversoul don’t interact well.”

That, at least, told Emma what was going on, as did the fact that Felix was now visible to her System.

[Felix Knight (Dungeon Master)

Ernest Foyer - Level 27 Doppleganger.]

Emma had known, of course, that Felix wasn’t here in the flesh, but it still came as an unpleasant surprise that he could use the abilities of his borrowed body, because where else would the power to mimic her magic come from, if not a Doppleganger.

[Ephemera (Toggle: ON)

Null Zone (Toggle: ON)]

To confirm her suspicions, Emma drew upon both of her defensive trump cards, and sure enough, Felix joined her in ghosthood, and one plus one in this case equalled zero, as their blades had no trouble meeting, firing beams of energy past each other’s ears despite the supposed nullification of magic.

”These eyes see into the future,” Felix declared. “Anything that you do, I can do faster.”

That didn’t leave many options, Emma mused. She could try Angel of Extinction, but if Felix copied One With Everything as well, then both of them would survive, and her strongest spell wasted for the night. Her summons were still locked away, thanks to the first surprise of the bout, and none of her other abilities were equipped to defeat herself; that had never been much of a concern, for obvious reasons. Emma tried another beam from Epitaph, baiting yet another contest of magic, which Felix was happy to see.

[Qilin Horn withdrawn.]

Then, with her free hand, she pulled from Eden’s Echo, and lunged forward. Sure enough, Felix didn’t pull out a perfect replica of her dungeon loot; unfortunately, raw magic could mimic a shape easily enough, and he parried her horn with a shimmering outline of his own. That wasn’t ideal, but the speed at which this happened was important, as he’d barely gotten a view of the horn by the time his replica fully formed. This fulfilled the final condition that Emma was aiming for, confirming that his mimicry magic was at some level subconscious.

“You’re fast,” Emma remarked, keeping her tone even. “You’ll need it, to survive my next move. Behold, my strongest technique!”

Felix tensed, anticipating something big, even as Emma pulled out her secret weapon.

[Return (Cooldown: 24 Hours): Teleport Home. Cooldown resets when Home is in danger.]

Emma began to use the ability, then immediately changed her mind, cancelling it before she could return to Oxford. Felix, eager to beat her to the punch, did not, and vanished from the arena.

”Contestant Felix Knight has been disqualified by ring out! Emma Knight advances!”

[You have defeated Felix Knight in a disadvantageous battle.

500 XP gained.

Level Up!

Bonus Experience gained for defeating a Dungeon Master.

1000 XP gained.

Level Up!

Level 20 reached, calculating rewards…]