In Mushoku Tensei with an A.I. Chip

An invisible force from Ghislaine's blindspot, dense as stone and fast as a whipcrack, slammed into her sternum in mid-air. It was as if a sledgehammer had materialized from nothing and struck her with the weight of a falling boulder. The air was forced out of her lungs in a strangled grunt. Her ribs screamed and her momentum collapsed. 

The Touki that she had focused into her sword too slow in withdrawing to protect her body from the expected, but still too quick to catch, counterattack.

The Air Hammer that struck Ghislaine thankfully also launched her away. She crashed into the ground like a ragdoll, skidding across scorched earth and loose stone, Touki flaring wildly as instinct fought to soften the impact. She rolled twice before regaining her faculties and leaping right into another Sword God stance. 

Her appearance was pitiful. Burns covered her calves and forearms, and a hole had been blasted on the front of her uniform, revealing her sternum that had abdominal muscles as though carved from stone yet a heavy, dark purple bruise was already rapidly forming. 

Even though it had only been less than a minute since the duel commenced, Ghislaine was already breathing heavily through the pain on her abdomen. Although she had not looked down on Luke from the beginning, she felt like her estimation of him was still not accurate. 

Rather than a 10 year old boy, he looked more like a monster to her. Like a dragon wrapped up by human skin and condensed into human form! He wore a polite, amiable smile, yet his eyes fixed on her not as an equal opponent, but as prey.

"I knew it…" She admitted with uneven breaths, "You're strong."

Unruffled and composed, Luke tilted his head in acknowledgement, "Thank you. You are also strong. I can see why Grant lost."

Away to the side of the arena, the Sword Saint Grant blinked away the tears in his eyes, "You're too mean, young master…"

"Hmph," Ghislaine snorted, "You can patronize me after you've won, not before." 

Luke laughed lightly, "My apologies… but, it's already over."

A sudden surge of mana flashed in Ghislaine's peripheral vision, but the warning came too late. Before she could fully comprehend the situation, she was already knee-deep in a pool of liquefied earth.

The transformation was alarming; Luke had infused the ground with so much mana that its consistency had shifted dramatically, becoming as viscous as water. The once firm surface now rippled and swayed like a disturbed pond, its muddy yet at the same time watery depths pulling her in.

Had that been the extent of it, Ghislaine might have still had the chance to react. With her agility, she could have pushed off from the solid perimeter surrounding the treacherous pool of watery mud. Yet, it wasn't just the pull of gravity she was contending with—an insidious suction force was gripping her, dragging her down into the mire with a relentless strength far surpassing the gentle tug of gravity.

Before she could respond, the Sword King found herself submerged up to her neck, with one arm only having three fingers visible above the surface, while the other arm, holding Hiramune, had only the forearm free from the sticky, pulling mud. There was nothing beneath her to step on to leap out, and the descent had been so rapid that she hadn't had time to use her enhanced strength to escape.

Luke quickly solidified the ground around her once she was deeply ensnared in his trap. In an instant, the terrain transformed from a watery mire to solid, hardened earth. The ground didn't just return to its usual firmness of packed soil or rock; it was further reinforced by Luke's mana, forming a barrier as hard as a thick layer of solid steel around Ghislaine.

"Grr!" Ghislaine grunted, her voice strained with exertion as she struggled desperately to free herself from the earthen straitjacket Luke had ensnared her in. Her muscles tensed and quivered, her body pouring all its energy into the futile attempt to escape, yet the unyielding earth held her fast. She pushed her Touki to the very brink, her inner energy pulsating with intensity, but still, she remained trapped.

Perhaps, had she enough space to swing an arm, the rock prison might not have been strong enough to contain her. Alas, her limbs were immobilized, each muscle locked in place, leaving her without the crucial leverage needed to break free from Luke's unrelenting grasp. The soil around her was like titanic boa, pressing in from all sides, a constricting embrace that left her powerless and breathless.

Her struggle to free herself remained futile until she realized Luke was standing right in front of her now, looking down at her with the same faint unperturbed and confident smile that remained on his face since the start of the duel. 

A sword of ice materialized in his hand, and then it was pointed directly at her forehead. 

"I think," He started, "this is considered my win, right?"

Ghislaine looked up, her eyes widened like saucers, filled with disbelief and an unsettling sense of awe. She was a Sword King, a title she had earned through years of relentless dedication. At age 10, she met the legendary Sword God Gal Farion, who had chosen her as his disciple. In just three years, she had ascended to the rank of Sword Saint, and six more years of rigorous training had seen her crowned as Sword King.

After her master basically chased her off the mountain, she became an adventurer, battling and killing countless monsters. Since departing from the Sword Sanctum, she had never faced an adversary who could best her—there just weren't that many King or Emperor-ranked warriors roaming the world. 

Yet today, she found herself at a crossroads of emotions, as a 10-year-old boy, wielding only magic in a close combat arena, had defeated her. The shock of her defeat clashed with a strange admiration for the boy's skills. Ghislaine, a woman who usually kept her thoughts and words to herself, now found it even harder to articulate the tumultuous feelings swirling within her.

And it hadn't been just a defeat. She felt… manhandled. Utterly overwhelmed by her opponent, reminiscent of her days training in the Sword Sanctum under the Sword God's tutelage. Indeed, the last time Ghislaine experienced such helplessness was before Gal Farion, who held the sixth rank among the Seven Great Powers.

Ghislaine took a moment to settle the roiling storm of emotions in her chest, closing her eyes and letting out a long breath deeply. When she opened them again, she could only manage a resigned smile.

"Alright, you got me."

With her admission, the hardened earth around her body not only loosened, she was even being lifted out of the muck like a platform was pushing her out. 

Calming green motes of light also began flowing into Ghislaine's wounds. The first and second degree burns faded away into smooth and unblemished skin, while the painful bruise on her sternum and cracked rib were also recovered to its previous state within seconds. 

"Good match." Luke's words of praise did little to soothe her damaged pride.

Grant recovered from his brief moment of shock at seeing a Sword King lose to his young master and cleared his throat as though wanting to declare Luke the winner, but paused as he realized such an announcement was probably not necessary.

"Ghislaine… lost…?" Philip sputtered out those words like they were poison in his mouth. He was in utter disbelief. Was he dreaming? A Sword King had just lost to a 10 year old boy. This couldn't be reality, could it?

And it hadn't even been a tough, spirited fight. The whole thing was over in under a minute. Within two exchanges, Luke had Ghislaine on the backfoot. And a third spell after that left her helpless at swordpoint. 

Sauros had been watching the match utterly transfixed. Every new move Luke revealed, the Boreas lord felt even more stunned. And now that he saw Ghislaine admitting defeat, his tense body finally relaxed in resignation. 

The Notos Greyrats really gave birth to a monster this time… 

But the resignation in his heart very quickly turned into elation. Luke had held up his end of the bargain—defeating Ghislaine and proving his strength to Eris, thus fulfilling her now not-so-unreasonable condition. 

The betrothal was just one step away from being set in stone! Though his granddaughter would not be his main wife, becoming the concubine of a future Lord Notos Greyrat with a seemingly limitless and glaringly bright future ahead of him was more than a consolation.

The prize of the duel, Eris Greyrat, was so astonished she couldn't even speak. Ghislaine was defeated? How was that even possible? Ghislaine was the strongest warrior in the world (to Eris), so naturally logic dictated that no one else could win against her. 

Even though Ghislaine never claimed to be the strongest, and she had occasionally mentioned her mentor the Sword God Gal Farion, it was inconceivable for Eris who had never met someone stronger than Ghislaine to imagine her ever losing. 

Despite the logically impossibility of such a thing, Eris had seen with her very own eyes the impossible made possible! And the guy who did it was just a year older than her. 

Eris had barely learned the basics of the Sword God style, technically she was an Elementary-ranked Sword God practitioners. But could she see herself not only defeating Ghislaine but dominating her with ease in just 1 year? 

Inconceivable. Incomprehensible. Eris looked at Luke as though it was the first time laying eyes on him, or rather, as though finally recognising just how utterly alien and otherworldly Luke Notos Greyrat really was. 

Then she remembered the purpose of the duel in the first place. As much as she wanted to shout out, 'Using magic's not fair! It only counts if you beat Ghislaine with a sword!', Eris couldn't bring herself to. And besides, she had an odd feeling that Luke probably could do so if he wanted to. It was difficult for her now to not relate Luke with turning impossibilities into falsehoods.

Does that mean… I am going to marry him when we're older? Eris realised. 

If someone had told her yesterday she was going to get a fiancé today, she would have laughed in their faces before punching them like she had seen her grandpa do so before. 

Normally, Eris would be furious if anyone tried to force her to do anything she didn't want to. Not even Sauros or her parents could force her to do anything she really didn't want to. 

She should have been enraged at the thought of being suddenly engaged to some guy, and not as his main wife either, but as a concubine! 

'I don't care who he is! So what if he's stronger than Ghislaine? I refuse to marry him!' This should have been her first response immediately upon seeing Ghislaine's defeat. 

Yet, a stray thought had suddenly intruded her mind. Isn't he… kinda cool?

It was a strange thought. An alien one. In her life, Eris had only really respected two people–her parents and grandfather didn't count. 

One was Edena, her etiquette teacher. One would have assumed that Eris couldn't give two shits about something as silly as noble etiquette, and they would've been right. But the always impeccably dressed and polite Edena never tried fighting Eris' fire with fire. She used her wit, poise, and precise but sharp tongue to verbally beat the willful and stubborn little lady into submission. 

Edena never needed to order nor command Eris to do something. Her instructions had always been framed as options, wrapped in an illusion of choice, flattery, irony or logic, which slowly made Eris feel like the rare slivers of approval or praise given when she did something right feel that much more deserved even when she was doing something she utterly hated. 

The second was Ghislaine. For not much reason aside from being the strongest person Eris had known. The Sword King had been present in her life ever since she could remember, and had always been a stalwart, reliable existence–a symbol of protection and pillar of strength that all her family members relied upon. 

Aside from these two women, and her family members, Eris barely tolerated the existence of the other servants in her home, and no need to mention anyone else in her age group. This was the first time someone her age had made such an impact in such a short time, a boy no less. It was not a mystery why Luke that had seemingly crash landed in her life like a meteor fascinated her so much. 

'Cool' was a description Eris used for the strong. Edena wasn't 'cool', she was just someone who could elegantly outmaneuver her while maintaining proper decorum at all times.

Ghislaine was cool, because no one else could beat her even when ten guards tried attacking her all at once. And she was definitely super cool when she effortlessly dealt with the bandits they encountered on the way to the Milbots region. 

And in conclusion… Luke was cool because he defeated the super cool Ghislaine. 

If we're married, can he teach me how to be as strong as he is?