Eli didn't mind the failure she just committed. She had long carried out countless attacks with the Blades yet her determination didn't falter even a little bit.
Her enemies may be much stronger than her, most of them had already even killed ruthlessly with their own hands. If she will not do everything to close the gap one step at a time, then she might as well hide in the cottage forever!
As such, she readjusted herself and cautiously observed Leon's movement. One hit just one hit! She can do this.
While she was observing, she felt like she was inside one of the countless anime and action movies she watched during her precious freetime. She was now in a pinch! She needed to do something!
Looking around her and analyzing the situation, she identified the things she had on hand.
She had a short sword that only had a length of 15 inches, the dust around and herself. She could not hide on trees because the sparing area was just a small open ground.
That's all she had on hand and she must use everything to the best of her abilities.
'Use everything at hand?' A thought suddenly appeared in her mind. A mischievous glint appeared on her deep black eyes, but she made sure to hide it in front of her opponent, Leon.
She lowered her stance and immediately charged at Leon, seemingly haphazardly.
Casually defending, Leon's eyes glinted with reprimand as he said, "You should never charge like that in a real battle."
But Eli didn't stop and instead put her weight forward in an attempt to tackle Leon.
The way she charged forward would surely injure herself! Everyone couldn't help but widen their eyes in alarm.
Seeing that Eli would definitely crash haphazardly towards him in a dangerous way, he used a little strength to dampen her momentum and direct her charge on the side to minimize the chances of injuring herself.
This caused Eli to fall on the ground.
However, at an angle no one could see, there was a smirk in her rosy lips, as she sneakily grabbed a little bit of dust from the hand that holds the short sword.
Not minding the fall, she braced herself again. Eli stretched out her hands to execute a frontal attack, directing Leon's attention towards the short sword.
Leon prepared to defend however he immediately saw that Eli didn't put strength on the attack - a feint!
He casually waived his hand to defend, but he was shocked to realize that the sword was no longer on Eli's hand.
The speed of the sword increased, fastly approaching in front of his eyes. It turns out that Eli actually did an extra move to flick her wrist and propel the short sword to be thrown like a spear to surprise Leon!
What made the attack more tricky was the little bit of dust that blurred his vision in a second.
Although a thrown short sword didn't really do much, the dust that came with it and the surprise of an opponent suddenly throwing their only weapon effectively distracted Leon and shocked the crowd.
How could Madame be so cunning and reckless at the same time?
Eli was not aware of this happening as she needed to use the few seconds of Leon's distraction to her advantage.
Maneuvering with her fast footwork she immediately went on Leon's blind side while swinging her hand on an elbow attack between Leon's shoulder and neck.
Her swift footwork actually made her suspend mid air making her body more flexible in executing the elbow attack. However, Leon's instinct for battle was still deeply ingrained to his bones that he managed to defend at the last second.
However, who knew that it was not Eli's target from the start?!
Eli, who was in the zone, could actually now see the movements slow in her vision.
As soon as she saw Leon raise his arm to defend, she used the remaining momentum mid air to lift her foot and strike the back of Leon's knees!
Bam!
As Leon had already lost his center of gravity in defending the elbow attack, he was not able to prepare the sneak attack prepared by Eli.
He felt a sudden strike at the back of his knees and immediately felt his feet lose strength to hold his upper body. His feet bent like a broken celery and he disgracefully fell on the ground!
His knees suddenly felt like they turned into jelly!
!!!
There was a dead silence in the air. Everyone couldn't react on time after witnessing how Leon was tricked into falling to his knees so suddenly!
With a smug look on her face Eli clapped away the dust in her hands and mischievously said, "I think that counts as my win?"
…
The Blades were actually speechless after seeing their master fall from Madame's trick. Of course they wanted to see their Master lose a round but not in this… funny way!
It was their first time seeing someone use that method to trick the opponent. However, as honorable warriors in the battlefield they would never even think of that kind of underhanded technique.
Even Leon was left dumbstruck by his sudden fall. He never thought that he would fall for such a trick! What a disgrace!
But seeing the proud look on Eli's face he could only feel helpless and hide his grievances in his heart. How embarrassing was this!
Little did they know that what Eli did was something that kids in the modern earth do almost on a daily basis to prank and pester their classmates.
When she was in elementary school, the boys in her class would go around and strike the back of the knees of their buddies and teasingly shout, "Oh no your legs are so weak!!! You didn't eat enough!"
Who would have known that she would actually use this childish prank to a sparring match with a renowned warlord?!
But who cares? She won anyway! Hmmf!
"Yes it's your win this round." Leon could only stiffly acknowledge her win. On the battlefield, no matter how underhanded the enemy is, if it makes them stay alive and win then it doesn't matter.
He dotingly rubbed Eli's head while saying with a gentle look, "Good job!"
"Yay!!!" Eli skipped like a happy kid while looking at the audience as if soliciting for praises.
"Good job Madame!"
"You did it!"
"Your hardwork (trick) paid well this time!'
The Blades could only follow their Master's lead and praised Eli accordingly. After the short celebration the training session was put on a wrap up after listening to Leon's instruction.
"Now that you more or less know how to attack, your training will now focus on strengthening your abilities to defend. Remember, when you are on the weaker side, you will never have a chance to turn the battle around, much less execute a single attack when you don't know how to defend and preserve your life at the crucial moment."
"Roger that!" Eli answered like an obedient little soldier with excitement in her eyes. Learning combat was completely new to her, and everything she learned made her eager to improve.
After the training session, Eli proceeded to bond with Little Han while Leon and Kayden waited for upcoming information about the entries in the capital.
As it was already announced that the clearing operations team would come back in a few days, Leon didn't announce his arrival officially. Only his Father Emperor and the Elders of the Forgeworn and Farauld families knew of his whereabouts.
During the past few days, he also coordinated with the Roaming Blades around town to look out for the tracking knight and Arabella's whereabouts. Now that they know who the target was, they had to plan ahead to sneakily eliminate the threat.
Without the tracking knight who could distinguish Elise's bodily scent, Eli would be safe as Arabella would not target her. However, they had to execute everything before the tracking knight recognized Eli.
Fortunately for them, it was already the last week of school as the winter break officially starts next week.
After explaining the situation to the two grandpas, Eli was no longer obligated to report and opted to stay within the Forgeworn estate for safety purposes.
Now the team only had more or less a week before the day of the winter banquet, where Eli would officially appear. By that time, they had to ensure that the tracking knight was already apprehended.
Leon was just about to create a message to raise an inquiry with the Roaming Blades when suddenly a notification coming from the other party beat him to it.
pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ "Master, target just entered the capital's premises!" The message read.
"I got it. Track him constantly. Prepare to set the trap." Leon replied. After sending the message Leon had a dangerous glint in his eyes. "No mercy."
"Roger that master!" The other party replied.
After reading the message, he calmly walked towards Kayden and the Blades to relay the information.
"We must eliminate him now!" Kayden could feel his blood boil after hearing the news.
"There's no use to being careless. We need to prepare in advance." Leon tried to calm Kayden down. He understood what he felt, however, they couldn't be careless.
But one thing is for sure, the tracking knight must be hunted down!
For Eli's safety.
For Elise's justice!
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