It felt as if the overall outcome of the battle had already been decided. The disparity in ability between us and our opponents was simply too great. No matter what they did, there was no plausible means by which they could make a comeback, and they were well aware of that fact. That being said, they also seemed to know running away would be hopeless, and so they stood against us for lack of any better option.
Paulownia Tokinen took to the front next, choosing a target and squaring off against her. She held in both hands an enormous sword made from the wood of a paulownia tree. However, she wasn’t standing in any sort of fighting stance. At a glance, she looked to be perfectly relaxed and unguarded.
“I’m Tokinen, the treasurer. Nice duelin’ with you,” said Tokinen. Her mother was a color of dragon other than red, and she spoke in a distinctive manner I assumed came from that side of the family. Her blackish hair was likely on account of her ancestry as well.
“What, coming at me with a weapon?! You coward! If you want a duel, then duel me with your fists!” Tokinen’s opponent shouted. She seemed terrified to take on an armed member of the student council.
It occurred to me that red dragons very rarely used weapons on the whole. Direct attacks using our own bodies were generally faster, which probably played a factor in that preference, of course.
“Coward, am I? Well, I happen to be pretty weak, so usin’ this is the best choice I’ve got. Never been good at breathin’ fire, either, so how ’bout you think of that as a fair trade, eh?”
“You can’t breathe fire? What sorta sorry excuse for a dragon are you? Maybe I can beat you after all,” Tokinen’s opponent spat.
When faced with a moment of crisis, people tend to leap to reassuring conclusions in order to stabilize their state of mind. Tokinen’s opponent seemed to have done just that, and chose to open the battle by breathing a burst of flame in Tokinen’s direction. It was a rather impressive fireball—as one would expect from one of the eldest upperclassmen at the academy—with heat to spare, and enough reach that one could easily call it a long-ranged attack.
Those flames, however, were split in half. Tokinen had cleaved them in two with a single thrust of her blade, splitting the stream to either side of her. That, it seemed, was her way of dodging the flames, and by the time her opponent realized something was wrong, Tokinen’s sword had slammed straight into her gut.
“Aaaaaaaaaugh! I can’t stoooooooooooop!!!”
The delinquent dragon was sent flying into the distance at an incredible speed, and didn’t return. Tokinen’s thrust had been powerful enough to bash through even the thickest of castle gates in a single strike, so that wasn’t much of a surprise.
“Went a bit hard on that one, huh? I’m weak ’n frail, so I’m s’pposed to carry a battering ram ’round with me for self-defense. Can’t exactly walk ’round with one of those every day, though, so I made it into a sword instead,” Tokinen said as she returned her blade to its sheath—or rather, to the tube-like case she carried it in.
Her sword hadn’t been made to cut, or even to bludgeon. It had been made to destroy anything she swung it at. The fact she’d sent her opponent flying was, in a sense, her way of showing mercy. If Tokinen had gone for the knees instead, they—and the bones surrounding them—would have been completely pulverized, dragon or not.
“Well, that was even easier than winning the treasurer spot in the election,” said Tokinen. “Gotten better at holding back since then, too, so her bones’re probably mostly in one piece. Couple fractures, maybe. Can’t win ’em all,” Tokinen said with a faint chuckle as she gazed out in the direction her foe had disappeared in.
✦ ✦ ✦
All right, then. I believe that makes it my turn…though of course, it looks like our remaining enemies have long since lost the will to fight.
“Oh no… Why do I have to go up against the girl who beat the ultimate student council president, of all people…?”
She was, of course, referring to the former student council president—my sister—rather than the current one. It seemed her absence was just as grave of an issue for the academy as I’d feared. The majority of our students simply couldn’t conceptualize anyone being the president other than Leila. Even I associated the word “president” with her so strongly, I referred to the current president as “Miss Sadie” rather than invoking her title.
Sadie seemed less than pleased to hear the word applied to herself, as well. She didn’t wish to be compared to her predecessor, but the fact was Leila’s face sprang to mind the moment the word was spoken. There was no helping it. It would take time—a lot of it—before she could be freed from that curse, and until then, pointless bouts with feckless troublemakers like these would simply be a fact of life.
It struck me Sadie couldn’t bring herself to take pride in her position as president, and if everyone else perceived that, it was no surprise they would take the president’s instability as a sign her subordinates—and thus, the whole organization—would be petty and weak. That would damage Sadie’s self-confidence in turn, forming the beginnings of a vicious cycle…but that, at least, was a problem we could solve. It was a trial our new student council was capable of overcoming so long as I did my part to help.
“I’m afraid to say you had already lost the moment you chose to engage in reckless flying,” I said to the delinquent I’d been paired up with. “No one who truly believed in their own strength would ever do such a thing. They wouldn’t need to. Your acts have declared to the world that you have succumbed to your own inferiority complex. Speaking as one who has been the subject of your harassment, I found myself more inclined to pity you than be irritated by you. There is nothing for me to gain through fighting you.”
“S-so then…you’ll let me off the hook…?” said the delinquent. She thought she was saved, and the tension began to drain from her expression ever so slightly.
“No, I will not! Regardless of whether or not I’ll gain anything from this battle, it is my duty as the student council’s secretary to see it through! I will forge your weak and frail spirit into something stronger with my own two fists! Now—come at me!”
Unfortunately for you, it’s very important I teach you a lesson you won’t forget about your own powerlessness! You’ll only be able to grow after learning and acknowledging who you are right now!
“Oh, to hell with this! If I’m going down, I’m getting one good hit in first!” the delinquent yelled. She transformed into her draconic form and launched herself forward, seeking to crush me under her massive bulk.
“An admirable mindset!” I shouted in reply.
I could have assumed my full form as well, but chose not to, instead leaping into the air with all my might—and slamming my fist directly into her enormous, draconic face. It was a simple, perfectly straightforward attack, and a method of fighting I had learned through my battle with my sister.
I had no need for cheap tricks or strategies. Frankly, I wasn’t suited for them. When I fought, I would throw all my strength into a head-on clash with my opponent. If I proved mightier, I would win, and if my opponent was mightier, they would defeat me. Whatever the outcome, I would be satisfied.
“How’re you…this…strong…?” the delinquent muttered in disbelief before slowly collapsing to the ground.
“It was a pleasure to spar with you,” I said, giving my fallen foe a polite bow.