Princess's Struggle for Survival-Chapter 259: She Lost

Reneth watched as the smoke dispersed, and Lyra, still standing in place, made her heart tremble slightly, her brows subconsciously knitting together.

Has it really come to this point? Is it still necessary to persist?

Halfway through her thoughts, Reneth saw Lyra lower her raised sword hand, and just as she thought the other was about to concede, the latter merely brought the back of her hand close to her cheek, gently wiping away the bloodstain from the wound.

Feeling a moist sensation on the back of her hand, Lyra glanced sideways and saw the skin texture touched by the wound submerged in a crimson liquid, gradually becoming clear and discernible under the light.

Although she had suffered a minor external injury and her right arm had temporarily lost sensation, as a knight, her stamina was still abundant, and her mental energy was far from depleted.

The battle continued.

Her fingers caressed the hilt, softly chanting a spell, and the surface of the knight’s sword once again became coated with wind elemental particles.

Lyra watched the wind flowing along the blade, her mind slightly stirred, and her mental energy solidified, causing a brief external manifestation.

Seeing this, Astrid’s scarlet eyes flashed with a hint of surprise, but it quickly vanished.

Mental energy condensing into a solid form on a weapon’s surface was something only a Grand Knight could achieve.

Lyra’s current mental energy quality must already be very close to that level, and she would probably officially step into the grand knight level in another two or three months.

After a few more glances at the blade, Astrid’s gaze returned to the conspicuous wound on Lyra’s cheek, her deep red eyes fluttering slightly, a faint chill hidden within her pupils.

"Miss Astrid..." The rhythmic footsteps mixed with the scattered conversations of the audience, and Elise, who had returned to the scene, leaned down and spoke into Astrid’s ear at the right moment.

"I’ve got the item... Professor Elowen is also here..."

After hearing this, Astrid’s brows furrowed even tighter, and she raised her head to whisper a few words to Elise.

In the audience, many seniors who were already Sorcerer or Grand Knights also noticed the knight’s sword in Lyra’s hand.

They had initially been shocked by Reneth’s exceptional performance, but now, seeing the mental energy fluctuations covering Lyra’s blade through their elemental vision, their emotions became even more unsettled.

One was a freshman who had hidden her strength and disguised herself as a peak apprentice to enter Class B, and the other was a genius girl who practiced both physical and magical arts, on the verge of breaking through to Grand Knight.

By all appearances, they were both excellent candidates for Class S, yet one was in Class A and the other in Class B. Was there really such an abundance of geniuses this year?

On the dueling platform, Lyra once again charged towards Reneth at an extremely high speed, but this time, she chose not to cast too many enhancement spells, instead focusing her mental energy on physical reinforcement and combat techniques.

An experienced mage only needed to learn meditation, and then focus entirely on one-handed sword mastery.

Of course, Lyra wasn’t that extreme. Having learned from her previous lesson and knowing that Reneth had the ability to cast slowing spells and a series of negative buffs without physical contact, she applied a layer of arcane resistance before closing the distance to reduce the negative effects of weakening spells.

As expected, the moment Reneth saw Lyra trying to close in, she immediately chanted a spell, casting slowing and mental suppression on her opponent.

Under the effect of the resistance spell, this series of effects was reduced to less than half, and Lyra only paused slightly, her leg speed slowing a bit before she continued to charge forward with immense force, raising her sword to strike.

For a physically weak mage facing a knight in close combat, the fear of proximity was almost ingrained in their bones, let alone Reneth, who had little combat experience.

Although her mental energy reserve and strength had been forcibly boosted by the potion, her combat skills and psychological resilience were far inferior to Lyra, who often sparred with Elise.

Seeing the blade magnify before her eyes, Reneth panicked, instinctively raising her ice-armored arm to shield her vulnerable face, even the speed of her spellcasting slowing considerably as a result.

The blade fell, and two layers of ice shields shattered, followed by the ice armor covering her body.

However, due to the influence of the two negative spells earlier, the force of Lyra’s strike had slightly diminished, and the sword only carved a pale white notch in the ice on the girl’s arm, giving Reneth ample time to react.

"Flowing wind, please drive away the enemy trying to approach me," the girl chanted with a trembling voice.

The next second, the gem at the top of the staff shone brightly, and a strong wind centered around Reneth swept over Lyra’s entire body.

In that instant, the powerful suppression of an early Sorcerer against a Peak apprentice was fully revealed.

Lyra could feel all the wind elemental particles around her being seized by Reneth, and even if she forcibly chanted a wind spell of the same attribute, she couldn’t gain any reverse propulsion from these wind elemental particles.

This was the absolute dominance of a high-level mage over a weaker opponent, who couldn’t even gather enough elemental particles to cast a spell of the same type.

Gripping the hilt and using her legs to steady herself, Lyra tried to maintain her stance, but the howling wind between her fingers only grew fiercer.

In the third second of the wind circle’s appearance, Lyra finally lost control, her body wrapped in the strong wind and thrown back away from Reneth, the sword tip and boot heels scraping the floor tiles with a piercing sound.

Retreating Wind Field, a low-level Sorcerer’s spell, was one of a mage’s life-saving measures against an assassin’s close-quarters attack.

At higher levels, this wind field could not only repel enemies but also use tiny wind blades to cut the target, forming a killing field outside the eye of the storm.

The slender pink hair fluttered wildly behind her, then naturally fell onto her back.

Feeling the wind speed decrease, Lyra lowered her center of gravity again, focusing intently on Reneth, trying to discern her next attack from her movements.

Although her right arm still hadn’t recovered, she could still pose a threat to a glass cannon like Reneth in close combat.

That was enough. Lyra didn’t think Reneth could cast many more high-consumption spells like Retreating Wind Field.

As long as she ensured that Reneth’s mental energy consumption outpaced her physical stamina, she would surely achieve the final victory.

Reneth, watching Lyra calming her breathing, also realized this. Passive defense would never defeat her opponent.

Since she had managed to injure Lyra and temporarily disable one of her arms, she had the chance to completely incapacitate her.

Moreover, Reneth could feel the effects of the potion continuously diminishing.

Time was running out.

In the audience, Vorelter frowned tightly, his gaze fixed on the arena, quite surprised by Lyra’s performance today.

At this rate, Reneth might not be able to defeat Lyra after all.

Ultimately, her practical combat experience was too lacking. Even with strength far exceeding her current level, Reneth didn’t know how to utilize it, like a child who had just picked up a sword, with no technique, only relying on instinct to hack wildly.

It seemed necessary to activate the backup plan...

Vorelter looked around, his gaze sweeping over the packed audience in the dueling arena, his eyes narrowing slightly, a hint of malice flashing across his face.

With so many imperial nobles gathered here, as long as they witnessed the side effects of the mental energy potion manifesting on Reneth, even if Astrid had the imperial monthly journal as a weapon, it would be difficult to turn the tide of public opinion.

This was a dead end, a checkmate that the third princess couldn’t save Lyra’s reputation from, no matter what she did.

On the dueling platform, the battle continued. Reneth abandoned her previous caution, aside from the ice armor, she no longer wasted mental energy chanting defensive spells, instead unleashing her full firepower on Lyra.

Lightning Strike, Wind Blade, Bone Fire, Lightning Spear...

Lyra narrowly dodged a lightning spear, only to immediately sense a rustling sound to her right.

She shifted her body, and the whistling wind blade severed a few strands of hair, missing her waist by just two centimeters.

Although Reneth’s offensive desire was stronger than before, Lyra could sense that her spellcasting speed had slowed, and the mana delivered into the air had become somewhat erratic, with a noticeable sense of disorder. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Was she nearing her limit?

On the other hand, Reneth also knew that if she didn’t defeat Lyra now, she would have no chance left.

So she gritted her teeth against the ringing in her ears, fully releasing her mental energy, her voice becoming unusually hoarse.

"Earth that bears all, you are the second life of all things..."

"Great and noble fire element, I beseech your response, turn my foe into mere ashes..."

In an instant, the earth broke through the tiles at the bottom of the dueling platform, firmly binding Lyra’s legs.

A dozen meters away, two intertwined fire snakes took shape beside Reneth, the intense heat causing the air to rapidly expand, even distorting the refraction of light, creating an illusion of spatial distortion.

This is the end, Lyra...

She had sacrificed too much for this duel, so she absolutely couldn’t lose.

Watching Lyra quickly chant a light attribute spell to try and free herself from the bindings, Reneth’s expression gradually turned fierce, simultaneously controlling the fire spear formed by the fire snakes, aiming it at the pink-haired girl before her.

It’s too late. She had investigated Lyra beforehand; the latter’s affinity for light was poor, she couldn’t clear the mud so quickly.

The fire spear shot forth, aimed directly at Lyra’s usable left arm.

Just as everyone thought Lyra would lose from this strike, the girl used Holy Light Baptism to break free from the bindings.

Faced with the fire spear carrying scorching heat, she used all her strength to roll to the side, chanting a premeditated spell.

"Pure and flawless light element, please become a barrier, protect your most faithful believer."

As soon as the words were spoken, the fire spear that should have been unavoidable seemed to hit something, its temperature spontaneously deflecting away from Lyra.

Low-level Sorcerer’s spell, Prism.

Most of the audience watched the scene in the arena in disbelief, even some of the newly assigned S-class students turned their heads.

At this stage, both sides’ mental energy should be nearly depleted.

How could Lyra, with the mental energy reserve of a peak apprentice, cast such a high-consumption spell, especially with her poor light affinity, making it even more troublesome to cast.

Could she have also hidden her strength?

Reneth was momentarily stunned, then immediately saw a sword hanging by the pink hair, swiftly flying towards her.

Why did she dodge again... Couldn’t she just admit defeat...

If she lost this battle, Vorelter would definitely not let her off easily, and neither would her father, nor her family.

The resentment, anger, and helplessness in her heart all converged at this moment, turning into a destructive desire towards Lyra.

Reneth chanted the final spell of this duel, also the strike that would expend all her remaining mental energy.

A spiral-like gust of wind formed, lifting countless dust along its path, shooting straight towards Lyra’s legs.

Seeing this, Lyra, before the wind blade like a cutter could hit, forcefully plunged her knight’s sword into the ground.

The immense inertia spun her body almost a full circle, narrowly dodging the wind blade, and at the same time, using the momentum of her body’s swing to pull the sword out, bringing it down with tremendous force from the air, crashing towards Reneth.

Reneth, seeing the sword in the sky blocking the light, the pink-haired girl’s tightly pursed lips seemed to declare the end of this duel.

She lost.

The blade fell, and Lyra saw that the frost armor on Reneth’s body had thinned to a mere layer, the clothing beneath the ice soaked with melted water, clinging tightly to her body.

The duration of the ice armor had ended. With her current speed and strength, if the sword struck Reneth, the other would likely be severely injured or even killed.

In that split second, Lyra realized the consequences of this strike, but now it was too late to stop the force, only instinctively deflecting to the side.

The next moment, a sharp clashing sound rang out on the dueling platform.

The sword that should have slashed from Reneth’s shoulder to her chest instead struck the ground fiercely, splitting the tiles into two concave sections.

The village sword that had accompanied Lyra for over a year also completely broke in this strike, the sword tip flying off to who knows where.

It hurts... feels like my palm is split...

Lyra, injured by the recoil, even felt her heart tremble, her palm stained with blood, but she still used her willpower to grab the broken sword that could help her decide the outcome, quickly stood up, and tremblingly pressed the shattered blade against Reneth’s left chest.

For a moment, the scene was utterly silent.

Reneth looked down at the knight’s sword stopped before her, her eyes slightly dazed, then her body convulsed violently as if electrified, the veins on her arms bulging, her knees bending as she knelt on the ground.

"Reneth?" Lyra swallowed her throat, softly speaking.

She hadn’t hit the other, so why was it like this now?

Lyra looked at the noble lady who had lost her combat ability at such close range, her gaze somewhat confused, but soon, the physician responsible for post-battle treatment came on stage to tend to the injured Reneth.

Watching Reneth convulsing in the arena and Lyra standing upright beside her, Vorelter’s smile deepened, his fingers lightly tapping the seat.

"Her combat ability is indeed impressive, and she’s quite beautiful."

"What a pity."