Chapter 101 Annual Tournament Finals Part-4
After healing Bay\'s Arcana, Dale backed off right away to save himself from potential danger.
Meanwhile, Claire didn\'t move from the spot. She just stood where she landed. In the meantime, her wings also disappeared.
"Snivy, go and help out Gideon. Mia, you are still on standby." Passing out an order, Claire gripped her sword tightly and looked at Zona who arrived before her with a divine sword imitation in her hands.
"Looks like you are waiting for me." Zona let out a comment as she brandished the sword. "Let\'s see how my sword fares against yours."
"An imitation cannot defeat an original," Claire replied, pointing the blade at her opponent.
"Well, that depends on the wielder, don\'t you think?" Zona wasn\'t offended and instead, she smiled while not taking her seriously at all.
"There\'s only one way to find out, then…" Pouring the soul energy into the divine sword, Claire charged forward and swung at Zona.
Zona parried her attacks, although was getting pushed back.
Claire, on the other hand, continued to attack aggressively giving her opponent, no room to attack.
*Cling* *Cling* *Cling*
Zona was smiling all along the way as she was successfully parrying Claire\'s attacks. "For a light attribute user, you are too fierce. It\'s really a surprise how you managed to break through to rank-5 with such personality."
"You are talking too much…" Claire swung the sword with all of her strength. Suddenly, Zona sidestepped and then, kicked into her right waist with her left leg.
An unexpected attack surprised Claire. As she was unable to defend it, she flew away for a couple of meters before she regained control over her body and landed on the ground while sliding a couple of meters.
"Captain…" Mia who was standing in the back with her Oaktree shouted.
Claire raised her hand, "don\'t move. Stick to the plan."
Zona glanced at Mia and then, at the oak tree. She wondered whether this girl was preparing for an ambush. "Well, it doesn\'t matter. The counter to that has long been ready."
She once again put her attention on Claire who once again charged towards her.
This time, she didn\'t give her the chance to attack. Zona also charged forward towards Claire. As their swords collided, both of them slide a couple of meters back.
Having no other choice, she decided to use her trump card. After recovering her soul power, Zona took out another skill card with four gold stars, which means it is another high/peak level skill card.
If Azzy would have seen it, he would have been shocked as he had never created a skill card with four gold stars to date. Only the rank-7s and high and peak-rank-6 experts with the best vision were able to capture the moment. A trace of surprise can be seen on the faces of the instructors from the other top academies.
As Zona poured the soul energy and activated the skill card, more than 95% of her soul power was absorbed by the skill card before it was unleashed.
"Behold my unique skill." The smile on Zona widened, "Activate, skill card: Clone."
Almost instantly, an exact identical copy of Zona and the heavy sword appeared beside her. Even the clone\'s soul rank is peak-four-star. After replenishing her soul power with a recovery card once again, Zona and her clone started their offense.
Looking at it, Azzy remembered his battle against the rank-6 assassin. Back then, his enemy also used a similar one.
However, that\'s a soul skill that can only be used again after a certain time passed. On other hand, this is a normal skill card that can be used many times as long as one has enough soul power.
What surprised Azzy the most is the fact that he wasn\'t able to figure out which one\'s the real and which\'s one the clone.
And it seemed like Claire was in the same position as she fell into disadvantage while fighting with both of them at the same time.
*Cling*
As Claire blocked Zona\'s attack, the clone slashed at Claire and a cut appeared on her arm. However, it was healed right away.
Zona\'s eyes were widened in surprise after watching a similar scene a few times. Her opponent\'s recovery rate was so powerful that any amount of injuries was being healed as if they didn\'t even happen in the first place.
She looked at Claire seriously and stated, "Your attribute seems to be very pure. You aren\'t just a simple descendant of the Royal family, aren\'t you? Are you perhaps a direct descendant? However, it irks me, even more, when I see people like you who get everything so easily…"
As a commoner who hailed from a lower-middle-class family, from childhood, Zona felt envious of those high-born nobles and Princes who can acquire their talent and Arcana spirits from their ancestors. They will have Imperial tutors from a young age. If they can\'t create a skill card, they can just buy it in the stores.
Even if they don\'t have the talent, they have too much money to spend their lives in luxury.
On the other hand, even with heaven-defying luck, a commoner like her with mediocre talent parents had no chance had to work hard day and night to get respect from others.
At a very young age, she understood that even if she has the strength to survive on her own, unless she doesn\'t possess authority, a person like her can\'t offend nobles or royalty.
So, she worked hard in both academics as well as in combat training.
Along with constantly winning the monthly tournaments and Annual tournaments for two consecutive years, she managed to keep a perfect score in academics.
By the end of grade-7, Zona finally managed to become Vice-President for the student council.
She felt proud that she managed to achieve it not by connections but through her own effort.
However, in the next year, when she saw Leo being directly nominated to the position of President without her approval, she realized that her current strength and authority aren\'t enough to subdue others.
Zona didn\'t give up. She swore to herself that one day, she will gain recognition from everyone.
From then, Zona started to become low-key, mainly focusing on academics on the outside while secretly attending lessons for Archery, sword, spear, etc…
To ward off others from approaching her, she started to date Lark in her final year. She knew that if it was someone else with a common background, these nobles that have a crush on her will resort to threats and bullying.
Even though the Sandrou family is a low ranking in nobility, they have a certain degree of influence in government. For example, Lark\'s paternal uncle is the Secretary of Defense.
So, for her, Lark, who is two years younger and weaker in strength, is a safe bet. Upon making him qualify for Champions League, she thought that she paid him back and no longer owes him.