Magical Atoner Lyrical Alicia

Twenty

Two teens faced each other. The taller redhead was wearing a simple tunic, belt, trousers and boots and gloves. The blonde wore a black swimsuit like garment, gloves and boots. They both carried swords with shimmering, holographic blades.

Alicia's glowing sword parried the warrior's attack, then she charged forward.

"Yipe" the redhead yelped as she tried to parry. She was a bit too slow, and Alicia's blade harmlessly passed through her middle.

"You're dead," Alicia noted cheerfully.

"I'm dead, dead, dead as a doornail," Galahad admitted cheerfully.

Alicia added warmly, "Good fight though."

"You're just being kind," Galahad said wryly, "but thank you anyway. I'm honoured to be eliminated by you."

"Whoo hoo!" Subaru cheered from where her and the family were watching from the sidelines.

Alicia, Yuchiro, Rachel and Subaru had checked into the Hotel Perilous (the name was a joke) and discovered that while it looked like a castle, it had all the modern conveniences. Including access to the planet's data network. So she looked up the 'Grand Tourney' Lance had mentioned, and found out they fought with tech similar to their Devices.

"Why not enter, then?" Subaru suggested.

"I don't want to mess up your holiday...," Alicia tried to refuse.

"It's only for three days," Yuchiro noted, "and only three if you get to the finals."

"And it's only the afternoons," Rachel noted. She smirked, "I can still drag Subaru around to all the museums."

"Moooooom," Subaru sighed and her mother laughed.

"I'll look into it," Alicia promised.

Applying to enter the contest was easy, the only requirement if you were a foreigner was that a local needed to recommend you. Almost as soon as she signalled her intent to enter, both Lance and Gawain both vouched for her.

Which was how Alicia ended up at the fairgrounds the next day, waving a sword around.

"Well done," Rachel smiled as Alicia trotted over to their seats at the side of the arena.

"Not really," Alicia waved it off, "as I've never competed here before, they put me in the bottom bracket. It was kind of unfair to them, really."

Subaru was honestly a bit surprised at how fierce and competitive Alicia was. YES, she knew Alicia was a fully trained mage and very combat capable, but she didn't show that side all that often. It was impressive... and kinda sexy, if she was honest.

"So you've cleared the beginners bracket?" Yuchiro asked, seeing that her name had moved up on the score board.

"I'm going up against the squires next," Alicia agreed, "and if I don't get eliminated, the Knights tomorrow. Should be fun."

"You have an interesting definition of fun," Subaru teased. As Alicia laughed she added, "Be careful out there."

"Will do," Alicia strode off.

"Be careful?" Rachel looked at Subaru in confusion.

"I noticed some of the fighters trying to hit each other with the solid hilts," Subaru explained.

"I keep forgetting the old knights weren't always good guys," Rachel admitted.

"So you're a offworlder?" the young man with black hair scoffed, "This'll be too easy."

"We'll see," Alicia smiled and introduced herself.

"Kay Uther," the man nodded. The two waited for the 'go' signal, then he charged.

Alicia braced herself for another wild swung, but he surprised her by rapidly shifting for a piercing strike towards her belly. She hopped backwards, glad that she was able to keep her feet, then studied him more warily.

"Nice," Alicia conceded.

Kay also nodded, "You recovered very well."

Alicia quickly realized that Kay was more skilled than the kids she had fought. He was also more a precise fighter, despite his huge muscles. He used a fencing style, along with the usual sword swings. It made for a interesting fight.

Kay, meanwhile, was having a harder time nailing down her fighting style. Which made sense... she had trained a bit on Mid, several years on El Hazzard, then along side modern Earth soldiers. It made for an odd combination.

As the fight progressed, Kay tried to resist getting frustrated. Except for the first attack, he hadn't even got close to hitting her. She seemed to gracefully dance away from his strikes. Worse, he realized she was faster than him... only his being on guard had saved him from slashing, high speed attacks.

Alicia took a steadying breath. She waited for him to move... just a little... then she swept forward. Before he could react, she batted his sword aside then swept down from his shoulder down across his chest.

"Ack!" Kay yelped.

"Winner, Testarossa!" a judge announced.

"Well done!" Kay declared cheerfully.

"Thank you," Alicia smiled. "That was a tough match."

"Wait until you reach the actual knights," Kay chuckled, "you're toast."

"We'll see," Alicia said.

The next journeyman was a brown haired young woman, carrying twin knives. "Hello, I'm Marian Greenwood," she smiled.

Alicia introduced herself, then took up a fighting stance.

"Big sister..." Marian looked at her with wide eyes, "I love you."

"WHAT." Alicia blinked.

Seizing the moment of surprise Marian slashed at Alicia with her blades, virtually 'cutting' one hand and nearly gutting her.

"Hey!" Alicia yelped even as she heard laughter among the fighters.

"She pulled that on me too!" Galahad called, watching from the stands.

"Alls fair in love and war," Marian grinned cheerfully.

Alicia shifted her grip one handed. "Ref! Are all bladed weapons allowed?" she called.

"As long as it can be carried without magical assistance," the ref replied.

"Bardiche. Scythe mode," Alicia ordered her device.

"Yes Sir," the device replied as it reconfigured to the huge battle scythe.

"Eeep," Marian eeped.

"NOW we get serious," Alicia purred, then attacked.

The next few minutes basically involved Marian running for her life. In her defence, she WAS actually agile enough to dodge awhile, but the final outcome was never really in doubt.

SWOOSH!

"That would probably count as a decapitation," the ref noted mildly. They then announced, "Winner, Testarossa!"

"Oh wow," Marian muttered, wide eyed.

"Good match," Alicia said a bit frostilly then strode away.

"I think I pissed her off," Marian admitted ruefully as she rubbed her still tingling neck.

"I told you toying with a maiden's pure heart was a bad idea," Galahad told her.

"I don't think you count as having a pure heart," Marian teased.

"Meanie," Galahad laughed.

"Ok, that was scary," Subaru told Alicia as she rejoined the family to watch the other matches, Alicia having officially advanced.

"Did your heart skip a beat at the love declaration?' Yuchiro added impishly.

"It did not!" Alicia protested, but she did blush a little.

"Was that your first declaration of love?" Rachel asked curiously.

"Argh..." Alicia blushed harder.

Subaru patted her arm reassuringly, "Someday, you'll get a declaration like that from someone who means it."

She was unaware of Rachel and Yuchiro exchanging an amused look behind her.

To be continued...

Notes: Character names are (mostly) from King Arthur. Marian is from Robin Hood. Will need to look up more names... also have to decide if the king is Saber, basically, or not.