Chapter 19: Anything?
Waking up Ireya continued practicing throughout the day, even then she didn't feel like she was making much progress.
By then end of the day, her understanding of the first step only improved by 1%, "From what I've understood so far, I have to make my path, but what does that even mean..."
Knock.
"Come in.", Raya came in silently.
She sat down on the floor and stared at Ireya, "What's wrong?"
"Sigh... Take this.", she took out a piece of paper from her ring and threw it.
She caught it and began reading, 'I, the third princess of Klerovixe, hereby challenge Ireya to a fight in the Martial Arena on the 23rd this month...
The message continued for a while longer then ended with a small provocation, 'You won't run will you?'
Ireya was quite confused, "Who is this?"
"Someone who thinks you'll be a threat to their wellbeing, they've passed it around to everyone within Ablution."
"But I've done nothing since I've come here, just sat around and practiced."
"Exactly, and during this time a rumor has spread saying that you're with Ray, the man who stands 132nd on the Minor Generational Ranking."
"Huh? But how do people even know about me?"
Raya sighed, "Do you remember the guy we met in the Technique Pavilion?"
Ireya didn't bother asking, that guy must be this Ray person. "And so this princess is jealous."
"Basically, it's up to you whether you want to fight her or not, you won't lose out on anything if you don't."
"I'll think about it."
Raya left soon after giving time for Ireya to think.
But after just a short minute she had already decided, "I'll fight her.", it wasn't to hold up her reputation or anything, but more so to use her as a practice tool.
The fight would be in 3 days so Ireya had more than enough time to practice.
---
"Hey, do you think this 'Ireya' will take up this fight?"
"Obviously! But who is she anyway?"
The other person shrugged, "No idea, I only know that Ray said that from now on he would be pursuing her, you know, the princess has been chasing him for god knows how long."
"When is it?"
"In three days!"
Similar conversations followed up all over the place, some were excited and some felt it was beneath them to watch two kids fight.
Within a restaurant sat a lady with a grim smile on her face, she wasn't too beautiful but she was quite strong, "I'm gonna teach that little bitch."
Another arrogant young lady responded to her, "Hmph, some slut, she thinks she can go after someone you are after?"
"We'll see what she's like in a few days."
The other lady nodded and continued eating.
---
Within her room, Ireya was currently in the middle of purifying the rest of her right arm.
Swoosh!
Energy blew all over her arm, she opened her eyes and smiled, "15% Ablution completed, I should reach 18% by the time the fight begins."
It had already been almost 3 days and the sun had started to come up, Ireya threw all the unnecessary thoughts out of her mind and continued purifying.
2 hours later she purified another 4% and reached 19% Ablution, satisfied with her achievement she took a nice bath and prepared herself mentally for the fight. This would be her first fight as a part of the Cultivators Alliance and would also be her first real fight against another human.
She tied her long hair into a ponytail and tucked her sword into her belt, she left the Swift Sword Pavilion alone and headed towards the Martial Arena.
20 minutes later she arrived before a vast area with many platforms with seats surrounding them, many had people fighting and crowds watching but one of them was especially crowded with people.
'There.', she stepped towards the platform in the distance and slowly approached.
The people around it finally saw her and split to give her room.
"Is that her?"
"Must be."
Ireya listened to their conversations as she stepped up the steps and entered the arena and waited in silence, her momentum building up silently.
The crowd went quiet, from the other side the crowd slowly split revealing a young lady in black robes, 'She's not wearing the normal robes.'
"Are you the one who challenged me?"
"Heh, it's your fault you went anywhere near my Ray.", the princess smirked.
"Did you hear her!"
"She called Ray hers!"
...
The crowd exploded into a bunch of chatter as they fantasized, some even went as far as to say that Ray had snuck Ireya in as a mistress.
"Tch, let's add a bet. Loser has to do whatever the other person wants them to, good enough for you?"
Ireya wasn't expecting anything special out of this fight but hearing this she suddenly had a good idea, her lips widened into a deep grin.
"Deal."
The princess's eyes brightened when she heard her agree.
An older gentleman came onto the stage, "I'll be the host for this fight, any problem with that?"
They both shook their head when they saw that he was wearing a token with the word 'Host' on it, this badge represented people who had the power to host fights in the Martial Arena.
He nodded, "Here are the rules, the first to fall out of the arena, lose consciousness or surrender loses. No killing is allowed, if one of you dies the other will be imprisoned for 20 years, understood?"
They both agreed to his terms, "Now declare your name, age, and cultivation before the fight begins just in case one of you has come up here unknowingly."
"You can go first.", Ireya said.
"Third Princess of Klerovixe, Klaire, 26 years of age and 85% of the way into Ablution."
"Your turn.", Klaire looked at Ireya.
"Got it, Ireya, 16 years of age and 19% of the way into Ablution."
Silence.
"19%? And only 16?!"
"How is that even fair!"
"Who cares whether it's fair, this makes it even more fun!"
...
Klaire smiled when she heard her introduction and then bowed.
The same lady she was with inside the restaurant came up to the arena and threw a spear onto the platform, Klaire caught it with one hand.
The host asked Ireya whether she was willing to continue with the fight but Ireya agreed without hesitation, she didn't fear this princess in the slightest. Plus she had a nice plan for her after she won.
When she thought about what she wanted to do she couldn't help but grin.
"What's with that grin you slut?", Klaire provoked Ireya.
"You will know after you lose.", she smiled even more after she said this.
She had an idea as to what this was after she arrived at the arena, this lady wasn't here to fight over that 'Ray' person, instead, she wanted to flaunt her strength by stepping on someone weaker than her.
'She's just jealous of the way I look, so she picked me.'
It was as simple as that, the chances of someone like Ray wanting someone that looked like this princess was almost nonexistent.
The host began talking, "Are you ready?"
Ireya pulled out her sword, pink light streaked across the sky as it was unsheathed.
Klaire licked her lips as she saw the sword
"Ready.", they both said at the same time.
"Fight!"
They both waited and watched each other, neither moving from their original stance.
But one of them had to give at some point, a few minutes later sweat began gathering on Klaire's forehead, 'How has she shown no openings?!'
She stopped stalling as she was beginning to fall behind and thrust her spear out at the only opening she could see, ice broke out around her spear cooling down the temperature of the arena.
Fragments of ice crystal spewed out towards Ireya.
"Second Move: Thirty Annihilates!", Ireya converged her energy and quickly formed thirty slices and combined them to form a symbol.
Screech!
The spear clashed with the symbol and was stopped for a second.
She followed behind the symbol and sliced towards her chest, Klaire rolled to the side canceling her move.
Her spear swept out and clashed with the incoming sword, Bam!, the two separated.
Klaire breathed in heavily, her eyes had a slight bit of shock within them. She hadn't expected someone with extremely low cultivation to almost beat her in a fight.
Ireya was quite worried currently, all of her moves were moves meant to kill. Because of this, she was quite restricted, 'I can still beat her though.'
Ireya watched as she breathed in heavily, an opening appeared every time she breathed out, that was the moment when she would strike.
Just as Klaire began breathing out...
Ireya shoved all of her energy into her feet and stepped out at full force.
"Shit!", Klaire quickly picked up her spear and tried countering the attack.
Crash!
Ireya's sword was slow by a heartbeat and ended up heating her spear instead of her chest, even so Klaire was heavily injured now, she took in Ireya's all-out attack with a half-assed defense. If Klaire was still fine after that then Ireya was willing to surrender in shock.
But just as she expected Klaire's hand was ripped and bleeding heavily, even her face was turning pale at the moment.
---
"How did she do that?"
"Didn't she say that she's only at 19% Ablution?"
"She must be lying then!"
...
The crowd continued rambling on and on, but while this was happening the fight between the two girls quickly began again.
---
Clang!
Ireya gave her no breathing time and attack over and over again pushing her closer and closer to the edge of the arena, if she couldn't use her Lonely Sword Technique then she would use pure skill instead.
Looking backward Klaire realized she didn't have much room left, 'I don't want to lose to this bitch!'
"Ahhhhh!!", Klaire broke into a wild frenzy and her power suddenly sparked.
"DIE!", her spear began shivering and screaming as she crashed it towards Ireya over and over again.
"Heh.", Ireya laughed a bit as she watched her, if she thought losing her temper would make her any stronger then she was wrong.
"First Move: One Sword.", her sword split into many sword shadows, 45 in total.
Each shadow pushed the frenzied Klaire further and further backward, by the time the 30th sword shadow hit her, Bang!
She went flying off the arena and into the crowd, they all moved to the side as she fell giving her room.
Ireya looked back down at her sword with a weird look in her eyes, 'She's actually quite strong, but this sword is extremely powerful, I didn't even realize till now as all I've used it for is to kill, never to fight properly against another human.'
Back down on the ground Klaire was heavily injured and breathing heavily, the eyes of the crowd caused her to flinch slightly.
Her clothes were in a mess, even then she wasn't willing to stay down for long. She quickly stood back up and fixed herself, even though she lost she wasn't willing to drop her pride.
The crowd admired her for her unwillingness to give up.
She then stepped back up onto the arena, standing before Ireya.
"Now will you do anything for me?", Ireya asked.
She bit her lip and nodded, her fists clenched.
Ireya's lips curled and then she spoke.
"Then strip."
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone