What is “Queen’s Blade”…?
It’s a fighting competition every 4 years to decide the Queen that will rule the Continent. Any woman can participate as long as she’s 12 years or older. Throughout the Continent, beautiful warriors fight each other on a daily basis in preliminary battles, relayed to all the countries by means of crystal balls.
The story so far…
Aiming to participate in Queen’s Blade, Leina left her home on a journey to improve her fighting skills, and met a girl called Fio—the owner of the serenading blade “Sword of the Unicorn”—in the port city of Sheldan. Learning that the girl had escaped from the Infernal Temptress Airi, Leina decided to protect her out of her innate sense of justice.
On the way, despite being confused at the revelation that Fio was in fact a boy, she ended up making a contract with him to become the owner of the sword in the middle of a battle.
The two gradually deepened their bonds through the adventures at the Kahn Oasis of the desert and at the capital of the Continent, the City of Gainos.
However, while they were saving the elven forest from a crisis, a Devil Ring was fitted into the Sword of the Unicorn, and the curse of a “stake” was placed on Fio.
That appeared to be the handiwork of the Swamp Witch, who seemed to know Fio’s secret identity—that of the legendary mythical beast, the Great Unicorn. Leading to some frightening questions: Why? What does she aim to achieve?
Prologue: Seeking the Weapon from the Age of the Gods
An angel was flying over a forest where fresh, green leaves spread.
The green earth extended far even beyond the horizon. The large forest area that extended at the north of the Continent was shining in a youthful green, as if disregarding the current season.
A blue-haired angel advanced gracefully in the air, flapping her mismatched wings. They might not be what one would call angel wings, but their shape didn’t matter, since she flew due to the power granted to her by God.
“Huh. Seems to have recovered quite a bit, doesn't it?”
The angel muttered, surprised, stopping her flight momentarily.
The majestic forest spreading at her feet was the primeval grove known as the Elven Forest. Recently overrun by wraiths summoned by the Swamp Witch, the magical forest had obtained the magical power of the newly resurrected dryad, and regained the beautiful appearance it used to have.
“Is it around here?”
With a light flap of her wings, she slowly descended into the forest.
Branches intertwined in a complicated fashion, as if out of a labyrinth, blocked her way. However, for an angel who could fly freely in the sky, that was no skin off her back.
“Ah~, what a bother.”
Brushing away the branches, she gently flew towards the center of the forest.
She might be allowed to suddenly drop by the tree city in the center of the elven forest, but considering their exclusionism, she didn’t imagine they’d cooperate obediently.
As arrogantly as she acted towards humans, Nanael still needed to consider the suitable protocol when visiting elves. First of all was a wait-and-see approach.
“The Head Angel is a slave-driver, too.”
In the middle of her complaint, she suddenly came to a stop.
[Someone’s watching me. Full of hostility, even.]
“Celestial…”
She summoned her weapon in a whisper, so as not to be heard by her opponent.
With a faint glow, the saber appeared next to her. It had a wide and thick blade, though she never held it; she was of the opinion that an angel grasping a weapon made her look uncouth. Instead, she manipulated it at will by using telekinesis, part of God's power given to angels.
The summoned Celestial Saber stood still in the air, awaiting further instructions.
“There!”
At the same time she thought it, the weapon flew in the direction she was looking at.
“Early bird gets the worm!”, her order seemed to suggest.
*Sheen!*
[Got a good reaction.]
With the sound of hard things hitting each other, a small monkey with peach colored fur ran away.
“Him?”
[That small monkey looks familiar. I’m sure he was the monkey of the half-elf who got in my way when I tried to collect the Sword of the Unicorn back at the Kahn Oasis.]
“Who dares enter our forest?”
She heard a voice from all directions, while the trees rustled.
“Introduce yourself first before asking for somebody else’s name!”
Not letting it get to her, the angel sent her weapon towards the direction her intuition told her.
Cutting down and scattering the leaf trees, it flew towards its target.
*Woosh!*
Along with the sound of air being cut, the flying Celestial Saber was repelled.
“I’m Nowa, the Forest Keeper! I won’t allow you to go on any further!”
The half-elf who had repelled her attack with a rod took up a battle position on top of a big tree’s branch.
“The likes of a small monkey from the forest, trying to give orders to an Angel?”
Nanael scowled at the girl, as she drew back the Celestial Saber.
“Even if you’re an angel, as long as you don’t have permission from the council, Nowa won’t allow you to continue! If you still want to go on anyways…”
“Then I’ll have to defeat you, won't I!?”
She never bothered to wait for her opponent to finish, and released her weapon at the other’s blind spot.
“Kiih.”
Nowa heard the monkey’s cry and instinctively twisted her body to dodge.
“I don’t have the time to play around with you.”
Despite having avoided the surprise attack, the half-elf’s balance was completely broken, and she fell off the branch.
[At this height? Hardly anything she can shrug off.]
“Ok, that settles it!”
But, at the very moment Nanael intended to resume her flight ahead, fully convinced of her victory…
“Surprise attacks are unfair.”
She heard Nowa’s voice from an unexpected direction.
[Impossible!
That girl should have fallen with her little monkey. She shouldn’t have been able to come up so early—not unless she had wings as well, that is.]
After having attacked the orange girl, the Celestial Saber wouldn’t yet return to the angel’s hand. Besides, with the tree’s branches being so dense, Nanael’s biggest advantage—attacking from the air—couldn’t be used.
That was why Nowa had pretended to fall down, then skillfully used her rod to move herself out of the other’s sight.
“Or well, let me correct that.”
She pushed her staff straight at her foe.
“They’re not unfair. They’re a means to win.”
Nimbly dodging the attack, the blue-headed girl slid through the air towards the Celestial Saber.
Unlike the brunette, who had to jump from branch to branch, being able to freely move through the air meant she needed no footholds.
If it was about mere movement capabilities, not taking attacks into account, the moving speed of Nowa (with the geographical advantage) and Nanael (who flew through the air) was almost equal.
“This is the second time we meet, isn’t it? Should be fine if I beat you black and blue this time, then.”
With a composed smile, the angel avoided the other’s rod.
[As long as I keep dodging, I won’t lose.]
“Are you still aiming at the Sword of the Unicorn?”
The other asked, still not letting up on the attack.
“I’m not ‘aiming’ at it, I just came to get it back.”
Nanael answered, waiting for Nowa to come within the range of her weapon.
[Against these kinds of opponents, the most effective way to take away their fighting spirit is to make them realize the overwhelming difference between their status and yours.
As long as she admits defeat once, she won’t stick her nose in later on.]
“Celestial Saber! Break her weapon!”
The saber, still flying, started rotating, turning into a disk-like figure. Its rotating slash would immediately bisect what it touched.
However, Nowa’s dexterity with her staff exceeded the saber’s flight speed.
Before the saber could reach the rod, the half-elf’s weapon bent like a whip and struck at the angel’s arm.
“Hyauh!”
An intense pain ran through Nanael’s arm. If she hadn’t had armor on, that would have meant a broken arm.
[I blew it!]
If she hadn’t been moving the Celestial Saber with telekinesis, she’d have dropped it as well.
When Nowa saw the angel’s motions stiffening, she pointed the tip of her staff towards the airborne saber; she judged she could neutralize her foe if she could only snatch away her weapon.
“As if I’ll let you!”
The blue-haired girl promptly whirled up her weapon into the sky.
“Hyaah!”
Having lost the target of her attack, Nowa’s balance fell once again into disarray.
[Now!]
“Go, Celestial!”
Nanael swung her arm. In response, the saber swooped down towards Nowa: it was a deadly attack that added the fall speed to its rotational force.
“Kii! Ki-ki-kii!”
Lou hardened his fur and received the deadly blow.
“Not bad!”
Like in their past match, Nanael’s attacks were completely repelled by that small monkey. And that wasn’t all: he acted as Nowa’s extra set of eyes, making it impossible for surprise attacks from a blind spot to succeed.
[Seems like if I want to get the girl good, I’ll need to get rid of the pink monkey first.]
The most reliable way to bring down a monkey who could instantly harden its skin was to deal an attack strong enough he couldn’t take even when hardened. That way, even if he stopped the attack towards Nowa, the girl wouldn’t be able to just walk it off.
“It’s obvious what I have to do then!”
[I’ll crush the monkey with my Falling Star Kick!]
The angel soared up in the sky at once.
On the other hand, Nowa, after surviving the saber’s full-body blow thanks to her animal partner, used her staff skillfully to jump to another branch without falling to the ground.
“Thanks, Lou.”
When the monkey jumped onto her shoulder, as usual, the girl got quite a shock; his hair had been completely shaved off by the attack.
“Sorry…”
If the Celestial Blade had been able to cut his hair even when hardened, it only spoke of the weapon’s sharpness.
As she was about to start crying, the corner of her eye caught the figure of her captain, staring at her.
A red mantle rustled in the wind as she stood on the branch of a huge tree covered in green. The strongest warrior in the elven forest wouldn’t intervene in the fight, she was just watching in silence.
Her Captain was looking at her performance. That was enough to give her confidence in her victory.
“I’m sure that the weakness of Miss Angel was…”
Nowa remembered how they had fought her in the Khan Oasis.
“Lou, lend me your strength!”
After listening to her indications, the monkey stood on the tip of her staff.
“Falling Star Kiiick!”
The angel screamed, her body turning into a bluish meteor descending at the half-elf.
“Teyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Full of fighting spirit, the brunette pushed out her rod.
“Fool! Don’t think that the Falling Star Kick will keep going in a beeline forever!”
As soon as she said that, her attack’s trajectory changed slightly. Her defeat versus Cattleya back in Gainos had served as a lesson, and as the result of her improvements, now she could shift the landing point by up to 30 degrees without losing speed!
Nowa’s staff, having aimed at Nanael’s legs, only grazed the empty sky. And yet, a smile of satisfaction appeared on the half-elf’s face.
“What is it?”
The blue-haired girl couldn’t understand the other’s smile at having her attack dodged.
However, that was well within her foe’s plans.
“Now, Lou!”
Clinging to the tip of Nowa’s staff, as the monkey crossed paths with Nanael, he knocked down the small bottle hanging by her waist.
“Wha!?”
As she was busy reacting—an expression of surprise on her face—to the utterly unexpected attack, she crashed on the ground, the Holy Milk spilling everywhere.
“H-How could you!?”
“Misjudging the opponent’s competence is a step towards defeat, 0 points.”
A voice of a different elf than Nowa sounded in the ears of the astonished Nanael, bathed in Holy Milk.
“Go get it sorted out before I rate you again.”
The scathing words painted the angel’s face red in anger.
“W-Who are you!?”
She jumped up, scrambling to fix her posture; she couldn’t afford to simply stay down if a new enemy had appeared.
“The quality of the angels has also been in decline over the last few hundred years.”
“You’re not planning on saying your name, are you?”
Nanael turned her eyes towards where she heard the voice coming from.
An elven female warrior with a red hat and a cloak stood up straight at the edge of the ground curled up by the impact of her missed attack.
The golden hair, deep azure eyes, white skin and elongated ears drove the point home that she was a purebred elf.
“I'm Captain Alleyne, also known as the Combat Instructor.”
The elven warrior looked straight into her eyes as she introduced herself.
“Geh…”
Nanael couldn’t help frowning; the name of the elven warrior more than a thousand years old was also known through Heaven.
[Aaand an annoying foe just popped up.]
“Captain!”
Nowa descended with her monkey behind Alleyne.
“Now, Lady Angel. What did you want from our forest?”
The warrior then asked, clutching her war staff as if saying: ‘depending on your answer, I might strike you down on the spot’.
“I’m looking for a sacred treasure from Heaven. Its name is ‘Sword of the Unicorn’.”
The familiar name made Alleyne’s ears twitch.
“Stop hiding it and give it to me.”
“Unfortunately, that sacred treasure isn’t here. It’s in the middle of a journey with its owner.”
The captain answered honestly.
“Accurate information affects the outcome of the battle. Uncertain information is a shortcut to defeat. Still, if you take action you might have a chance to escape such defeat. About 15 points.”
“Eh, what’s this now? C’mon, I was made to come here for nothing! Is this bullying?”
More than a bit shocked, Nanael’s thoughts leaked from her mouth.
*Rumble* Thunder sounded from far away.
“Huh? How weird. There are no rain clouds.”
Nowa looked at the surrounding sky.
“Is it going to rain?”
“Tsk!”
The angel clicked her tongue and quickly flew up into the sky.
[If I’m careless, I could be struck by the Head Angel’s lightning.]
“Don’t forget! I’ll make sure you pay me back for this!”
As she looked up at the angel spewing her parting threats, Alleyne gently stroked the head of her disciple Nowa.
“Even if it’s an angel, we must not forgive those who trespass our territory. You did well; at this rate, you might become as strong as the many warriors in Queen’s Blade.”
Nowa broke into a smile, hearing rare words of praise from her Captain.
“Bad guys do evil with an angel’s face, as you say, Captain.”
“Indeed…”
The warrior smiled fondly at her words.
“Captain, that angel is also aiming at the Sword of the Unicorn.”
The Sword of the Unicorn, a serenading blade harboring an ancient miracle with a tremendous healing ability and able to drive away demons. Due to the efforts of the Swamp Witch’s leading force, the Sword had been cursed with the Devil Ring, making Leina and Fio head towards Fiend Island in order to remove the spell.
“Fio, are you okay? I hope you’re safe.”
“Hm… as long as they can undo the curse, they should be fine…”
Both teacher and student prayed for the safety of Fio and Leina—the forest’s saviors.
No comments:
Post a Comment