Amelia and Ophelia: The Former Grand Duchess and Saintess.

BAM!

“Ugh!”

THUD

BAM!

“Ugh!”

THUD

“Hup!”

BAM!

“Ugh!” 

THUD

“HAIIE!” 

BAMMM!

THUD

As the last of the beginner students were dealt with and shuffled off to the side, Hikari and Hiroshi were left stunned, to them, she was nothing but remarkable, by this point in the tower, the challenger would usually be tired from fighting a lot of students and their master in quick succession. But the person who was standing before them, looking as if she did not break a sweat or had any trouble at all, was the successor of their aging king. 

“I take it, it’s your turn Master Hikari” Ophelia asked as she turned to the still-sitting kitsune on the stage. 

“Right, it is” Hikari promptly replied, sparing a glance at her twin brother who was holding an object called an ‘icepack’ by Ophelia to his left eye. A small reminder from the floor below. 

Rising from her seiza position and leaping from the stage, she landed right in front of Ophelia, before taking a few steps back, 

“Before we start, would you like to do this with your brother?” Ophelia asked as she saw that Hikari was still looking at her brother

“I…yes, I would prefer facing you alongside my twin, but seeing that you gave him a beating. I doubt he is a condition to fight” Hikari hesitantly answered, her glance still shifting between her opponent and her brother. 

“You would be right sis” Hiroshi answered her as he waved at them from the slides. 

“Well, in that light. I am tempted to go easy on-

“No! No need for that Miss Ophelia, I intend to meet your strength head-on, so please. Do not pity me” Hikari cried, her voice filled with determination. 

“I see. If that is how you feel, then prepare yourself. You will end up like your students” Ophelia said with a smirk

“If the Goddess wills it then I will, but we shall see” Hikari replied as her eyes narrowed 

With a bow, both of them entered fighting stances, Hikari slowly shifting her feet as she slowly inched forward and circled her opponent, with Ophelia simply following her with her eyes, showing signs of no movement, still unmoving even when Hikari positioned herself behind her opponent. 

‘She just made a mistake’ Hikari thought as she readied herself, being regarded as one of the fastest of the masters in the tower, she was confident she could at least land a hit. 

“Hup!” 

BAM!

PAK!

{!}

“HAIIE!” 

BOOM!

CRUNCH!

SMASH!

THUD!

*GASP*

Hikari lunged at her opponent, her knife-hand strike that soared through the air was aimed at the unprotected neck of Ophelia, or at least that is what it looked like. Surprise appeared on her face when in a blur of movement, she saw that her strike was now off to the side, blocked by Ophelia’s left forearm, before glimpsing an already wound-up right fist that hit her dead center of the chest before she could block, the impact sending her flying back and smashing into a nearby pillar, before hitting the ground. 

“Ughh…” Hikari moaned as she tried to stand up, her body riddled with pain, 

“Well. that’s that I suppose” Ophelia said as she walked over to the downed kitsune, extending her hand out, 

“Unbelievable, to think that you could quickly reorient yourself, block and send me flying in a matter of moments, I truly have been bested” Hikari remarked as she stood up, the pain still searing, making her sit back down. 

“Well. I have fought faster monsters since I was a child and to be fair you were pretty fast” 

“I am happy that you recognized at least that” 

“Well. I am off to the next floor. I will see you all when it is over” Ophelia said as she bowed to everyone in the room, before following behind Yamato who began ascending to the next floor. 

And as they disappeared up the staircase, Hiroshi moved over to his sister's side, a grin on his face 

“Did you know your impact on the pillar could be felt throughout the tower?” Hiroshi asked 

{!}

“Really?” Hikari asked, stunned by his words

“Yeah. I felt it and then I got a telepathic call from Sakura on the ground floor, she felt the entire tower shake for a bit, and she even heard that loud ‘SMASH’” 

“Oh my, by all accounts, I should be dead, or at least mortally wounded or unconscious” Hikari remarked

“Well, I like to believe that she made sure it hurt, but not kill you outright” 

“Obviously, to think that Lady Yamato tried to fight a being with such monster strength and the precision to control it. I have no idea what the other tribes were thinking” 

“Right?! But, Lady Yamato explained it all last time no? Saying that having the backing of that beast in the mountains will silence all of them” 

“Th DIVINE Beast, yes, I remember. Now help me up, I feel that I cracked something when I hit the pillar” 

“Alright” 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“To think the entire tower would shake from that impact” 

“Yeah. I may have forgotten to hold back, Hikari was about to die from that punch, thankfully I was able to cast <Regeneration> on her immediately the moment she went flying, otherwise…”

Ophelia had a regretful expression as they stopped midway up the staircase, Yamato turned around and looked down at her, 

“You needn’t worry, I believe no one noticed anyways, although I will ask that you keep your power in check, I see greatness in the strength you possess Miss Ophelia, but I would hate it if that strength was to be turned on the people you will soon rule over and protect” Yamato voiced 

“Yeah. your right, I am deeply sorry for almost ending a life” Ophelia apologized sincerely

“It is alright Miss Ophelia, I believe we all make mistakes, we just have to make up or prevent them. Now let’s continue shall we? We still have a lot of youths to pacify” Yamato joked 

“Heh. alright, I will limit my power, try my best to send them all down in one hit” 

As they reached the fourth floor, Ophelia was surprised that there was no sight of Master Kenji, but there was an increased number of students, each of them with white dōgi’s but instead of the white belts from before, each of the young students had a blackbelt. Most of them were armed with different weapons, from swords to daggers to naginata’s and even tessen’s, with only a bare few being unarmed. 

“Where is Kenji?” Yamato asked the students, her expression confused

“Master is on the sixth floor” one of the students answered

“And why is that?” 

“Master Kenji, Master Satoshi and Master Ryuji wanted to face the successor themselves. They ordered us to face her first, leaving the sixth floor left for the three of them” another student answered

“Address her as “Her Highness” or Miss Ophelia. You do not just call her ‘The Successor’ understood?”

“Yes Lady Yamato. My deepest apologies” the student said as he bowed his head

Sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose, Yamato looked very displeased and annoyed. Looking at Ophelia who was very relaxed and calm

“I am sorry Miss Ophelia, the three of them usually follow everyone else but this time I am not sure why they went against the usual tradition. I am very much tempted to beat them up and drag them back down and let them lead their respective classes, but judging by your expression you don’t find that as a problem?” 

“No problem here Miss Yamato, I like it when people try to spice things up a bit, I’m fine with facing those three on the sixth floor” Ophelia replied a smirk on her face

“That is if you can get past us” another one of the students voiced, with Yamato snapping her head in the direction of the voice

“Don’t worry Miss Yamato, I will discipline them personally. Heck I don’t even need a weapon, you know that right?” Ophelia smiled as she nudged Yamato with her elbow. 

“Oh! Right, right. I will enjoy the show then Miss Ophelia, have fun. And please, keep a watch on your strength” Yamato replied as the image of her being sent crashing into several strong trees resurfaced, her annoyed expression turning into a grin.

Ophelia stepped onto the mat and moved towards the students, who then immediately surrounded her, all of them in fighting stances and their weapons aimed at the lone challenger, all of them determined to defeat her and crave their battle frenzy, 

Taking a deep breath and still closing her eyes, Ophelia slowly entered her fighting stance, her mind calm and collected, ready for them to lunge at her with all they had. 

“Hup!”

SLASH!

SWING!

THRUST! 

GRAB!

{!}

SMASH!

FWING!

SMACK! 

“AAAGHR!” 

THUD! 

Suddenly, three students came at her from different sides, one wielding a sword that resembled a katana, another wielding a tessen and the last wielding a naginata. With quick reactions, she easily dodged the incoming attacks, before quickly grabbing the naginata, and then using the momentum to land a backhand fist on the cheek of the student, sending them down. The sight of one of them going down so easily to one blow stunned the two who still in attack range, shocked to see their comrade so easily felled. 

“Anyone else?” Ophelia asked as she broke the naginata in half and tossed the pieces away, before looking at Yamato who had a wince on her face at the sight of the weapon being broken

“Sorry, too far” she remarked as she waltzed over to the stunned students and picked up the pieces, before using magic to repair the weapon. Making the students even more confused 

Brandishing the naginata with a smile, Ophelia entered her fighting stance again, a gleam in her eye that accompanied the smirk on her face. 

“Let’s continue then” 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Hup!”

SMACK!

WACK!

BAM!

THUD!

THUD!

THUD!

“Haa…that is the last of them” Ophelia remarked as she stood in the center of the mass of students, all of them moaning and groaning as they clutched their bodies, 

“Now that both floors have been cleared there is only one left” Yamato remarked as she stood up and dusted off her robes. 

The past fifteen minutes were spent clearing the two floors filled with students, full of dodging, parrying and countering each attack that was thrown Ophelia’s way. The two floors that once had proud and arrogant students now held only defeated ones that could not believe they had lost so badly, with all of them having been downed in one blow, with many having visible bruises on their body parts not covered by their dōgi. Those being the ones who doubted their challenger and arrogantly called her out, they had very visible signs of their injury, either on random parts of their face such as their cheeks, forehead, chin, or nose from a backhanded fist, or even their neck from a knife-hand chop. 

“Well. they fight well, I will give them that” Ophelia remarked as she bowed towards the downed students before following Yamato up the stairs again. 

“They will be delighted to hear that from you, I think” 

Entering the sixth floor, both of them were treated to the sight of the three masters in seiza positions on the mat, none of them on the stage. 

“Kenji, Satoshi and Ryuji” Yamato uttered as she laid eyes on them, crossing her arms 

“Forgive my fellow masters please Lady Yamato, I was the one who came up with the idea of the three of us facing her alone” Ryuji voiced as he and his fellow masters bowed, his deep voice filled with sincerity 

“And why did you think that?” Yamato asked, looking down at them

“It was because I believed that having the heir to the throne challenge three masters at once would cement to our students that she was far above them, and thus remove any negative thoughts and doubts they had” 

“Ah. you want your students who still believe that they could have one if they only did this or that see they truly were beaten by someone truly above their skill level” 

“Yes Lady Yamato, exactly. I know for a fact that the students under us even though beaten, continue to look at the victor with doubts, still believing that they had a chance. I want to rob them of this view to allow them to see with clear and unbiased eyes that there truly is someone above all. And hopefully mellow them out, or if they still want to reach that height. Help nurture them further” Ryuji continued, his light voice filling the room 

“Hmm…I see your reasonings, if this were the masters from the floor above or below the intermediate classes I would be furious. But knowing that the intermediate classes are where most of said problematic battle-hungry youth is, I am inclined to forgive you for going against the traditional way we handle challengers” 

“Thank you Lady Yamato” Ryuji finished as the three of them did a few more bows in respect. 

After another few moments of silence and the three of them getting to their feet, Yamato turned to Ophelia with a smile

“Are you ready?” 

“Yeah. I am, I respect their goal to try and help their students. I applaud those teachers who do their best for their students” 

“Hmm. anyway, whenever your ready to start, I wish you the best of luck” 

“Thank you Miss Yamato” 

But before they began, the students from the floors below began to fill the sides of the room, all of them sitting down and their focus on the match that was about to go down. 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Stepping onto the dojo mat, Ophelie locked eyes with the three masters, a smirk on her face as they brandished their weapons, Kenji brought out a naginata, Satoshi a kusarigama (which was a small scythe that had a chain attached to it that ended in another small scythe) and Ryuji a katana. 

The three of them inched forward as Ophelia slowly walked towards the center of the mat, her eyes closed as she calmed herself down, 

CRIIIIING!

SHING!

THURST!

Suddenly, all three of them attacked. Satoshi attacked first, throwing his kusarigama at her from behind, with Ryuji following up by dashing forward and unleashing an overhead slash, and Kenji finishing with a thrust from behind as well. 

As this happened, Ophelia slowly closed her eyes, her time perception and reaction speed ramping up as she saw everything move in slow motion, simply twisting her torso to the right to dodge Kenji’s thrust, she then grabbed the kusarigama that was still flying by her, wrapping the chain around her arm to block Ryuji’s overhead strike, then using the blade of the kusarigama to hack off the head of the naginata in one swift motion. 

But before they could react to what she had done, she immediately, grabbed the naginata head that was still falling to the floor, enchanted it, and chucked it at Satoshi, making sure it just misses his chest but snared on the clothes that would pin him to the wall, then hitting Kenji with a backhanded fist across his face that would send him flying and finally getting closer to Ryuji and landing two straight punches to his gut and a palm strike to his chin that too would send him flying. 

Finishing off by just standing from where she began to move, Ophelia simply smiled as everything began to speed up again, happy with her work. 

“AAAGH!”

“DAAAGH!”

“FUUUUUU!” 

*GASP* 

To everyone watching, and to the three masters, all they saw was a blur before they felt immense pain, with Kenji crumbling to the intense pain on his cheek, Satoshi not being able to do anything as he was suddenly rocketed to the pillar and pinned to it, the impact sending pain throughout his body and Ryuji feeling his torso suddenly shoot out pain before flying away as his chin also shot out pain, sending him flying a few feet before crashing onto the stage. 

 “Hmm. could have used a bit less” Ophelia remarked as she looked at her opponents, 

She then shifted her eyes toward the students watching and saw that many of them were in shock, others in disbelief, and others had no expression at all. Using her subtle magic spell [Emotion Reader] she saw that everyone, despite their expressions. Were all shocked and understandably in disbelief as their masters who they believed were only below those in the higher floors, one’s that had given them all tough times and none of them being able to be beaten, were all so easily beaten by a figure they could not even see move. 

“All right. Now for the final two” Ophelia continued as she bowed to all of them and followed Yamato up the stairs to the final two floors, 

The students watched as the heir of Olertin continued up the tower, their feelings being dominated by amazement that someone of such power existed outside of their tribe, someone that eclipsed all of them and made each and every one of them that believed they were hardened warriors, all but children and mindless toddlers. 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Now to the last two floors” Yamato voiced as they ascended the stairs, anticipation in her voice 

“Anything you can tell me about them?” Ophelia asked 

“Well. The advanced classes are the toughest one’s we have. Those who have graduated from the intermediate classes are taught how to use magic and refine what they have learned from the pervious two classes. The standards are pretty high so only a few people are present in classes. The magic taught is mostly offensive magic, we really don’t have any special defensive magic so that could be of use to you” 

“Huh. how many people are there per class?” 

“Well. this time around there is only five in the advanced classes. Three of them are under Aya, while Koga and Iga are under Emi” 

‘Huh. well, not surprising since they seem to be Yamato’s right and left hand’ Ophelia thought as she pictured the brother and sister earlier. 

“Anyways, please. Show them what true magic is like” Yamato asked with a smile 

“You don’t want to me tone it back?” Ophelia asked, a surprised expression on her face 

“Well. No not really. The advanced class and the Kurosawa twins were the one’s that joked about me losing, so this is a little personal for me. Hehehe” 

“Heh. I see what you mean. Very well then, I will show them magical might” 

“That is very much appreciated Miss Ophelia”

 

A/N: Hello! thanks you once again for reading and I hope you enjoyed this! The side stories involving Ophelia are soon coming to an end for now, with about 3 or 4 left. I am thankful to see that people enjoy this content and I plan to finish this series. anyways, I am thankful to you for reading and enjoying what I write, enjoy your day and stay safe!