Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

*BAM!*

"Huh...?" Rowan uttered dumbly, unable to understand what just happened.

The instant the referee gave the start signal, the princess charged at him.

Following his training, Rowan stepped in and slashed with his sword, aiming to end the match in a single, decisive stroke.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan, until his opponent suddenly vanished.

His slash, which he had timed and aimed perfectly, sliced through nothing but air while Christina disappeared from his sight.

Before he could figure out what happened, something flashed before Rowan’s eyes, and then... he found himself lying on his back, staring up at the sky.

As he lay there, stunned, a dull ache pulsed from his nose, causing him to groan, reach up, and touch his face, a decision he immediately regretted.

"Gah! My nose! It’s broken!" The 18-year-old boy shouted, trying to stop the blood from pouring down his face, only to brush his nose again, causing another sharp, shooting burst of pain.

"Get up," Christina, who could easily have ended the match then and there, ordered coldly as she withdrew her bloodied fist.

Realizing he had just been made a fool of, Rowan scrambled to his feet and glared angrily at the younger girl before him, clenching his sword tightly as he roared, "I was trying to be polite, but since you can’t appreciate kindness, I’ll have to teach you a lesson instead!"

With a completely indifferent expression, Christina lifted her hand and beckoned with her fingers, silently taunting the dead man before her.

.....

What followed could hardly be called a ’match’.

Despite his flippant behaviour which might suggest otherwise, Rowan was no weakling. His swordsmanship was clean and sharp, obviously the result of years of training and dedicated instruction from powerful masters. His foundation was also solid and his strength was well honed, but how could he possibly compare to Christina?

Before the disaster in Redwood Town, Christina trained every day in the Royal Palace under the best instructors in the kingdom. She also had near unlimited access to the best cultivation resources thanks to status and astonishing Innate Talent.

To top it all off, the Twelfth Princess had always been hard-working and dedicated, never slacking when it came to her lessons.

That Christina was already more than what a regular talent like Rowan could hope to handle.

Even if one discounted Christina’s true strength, she still would have outclassed Rowan had she really been in the Third Step Core Formation Realm.

A few months ago, though, Christina met an anomaly like Lucas, became Sworn Sisters with Eris, the bravest girl she had ever met, became a True Disciple of Celestina Balfour, fought against a real Beast Tide, watched others sacrifice themselves so she could live, and survived through multiple life-threatening crises.

The amount Christina had grown and matured over the last 4 months was mind-boggling, and her dedication to growing stronger had multiplied several times over as a result.

To truly push her limits, Christina now regularly sparred with Spirit Initiate Realm Cultivators and Fifth Order Snow Spirit Foxes.

Although these masters held back quite a bit, at the princess’ request, they still used at least twice as much strength as an average Tenth Step Sea Establishment Realm Practitioner.

This often resulted in Christina losing or even being injured, but whenever she was asked if it was too much, she insisted on continuing this brutal training regime.

At the same time, the strongest and most skilled swordsmen in the South East Province hammered their techniques into Christina’s body, drilling her until she collapsed from exhaustion.

All that, coupled with her astonishing Innate Talent, would have been more than enough to create an unparalleled warrior, but Christina still wasn’t satisfied.

After her first ’fight’ with Lucas, Christina realized she had been depending too much on her sword while neglecting her hand-to-hand combat skills.

To that end, she asked her Master to teach her how to fight bare-handed.

Celestina specialized in using the spear and bow, but she was also highly skilled at using almost every kind of weapon, including her own body, so she had no trouble teaching Christina how to punch, kick, and grapple.

However, when her Third Disciple made this request, Celestina’s first instinct was actually to bring Lucas in.

Hand-to-hand combat wasn’t very well developed in the Rockwell Kingdom, but her First Disciple had comprehensive knowledge of a variety of unarmed martial and combat arts.

Lucas wasn’t a prodigy when it came to fighting, but when it came to teaching, his skills were top-notch, so when his Master requested he act as an instructor for his Junior Sister, he had no reason to refuse.

From then on, whenever he had time, Lucas would teach unarmed martial arts to Christina, Eris, and basically anyone else who was free to join them whether they were young children like Toby or old masters like Allina.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the current Christina could hold her own against a newly promoted Low-Rank Spirit Initiate for a short time even if she lost her primary weapon, so fighting against a Sixth Step Core Formation Realm boy was no challenge at all, even when holding back the bulk of her strength.

No matter how fast Rowan’s sword thrusts were, they weren’t nearly as fast as her Uncle Samuel’s great sword.

No matter how powerful Rowan’s slashes were, they paled in comparison to the power behind her Aunt Allina’s hammer.

No matter how heavy Rowan’s punches were, how could they compare to the weight behind her Master’s fists?

Using just enough force to not cripple the arrogant young master, Christina aimed to inflict as much pain as possible.

Her opponent had boldly declared he would ’teach her a lesson’, so she saw no reason to not respond in kind.

Before long, Rowan looked more like a mad beast than a trained human warrior, swinging his arms wildly and lunging about in a desperate display.

On the other hand, Christina’s movements were swift, clean, and precise, like she was performing a beautiful dance. It would have been an enchanting sight, were it not for all the blood and screams.

Within 30 moves, she had forced him to drop his sword...

Within 50, she had dislocated one of his arms...

Within 80, she had fractured 4 of his ribs...

Within 100, she had disabled one of his legs...

10 minutes later, Rowan was sprawled out on the stage, whimpering in pain.

He was bruised, battered, and bleeding all over with at least a dozen different fractured bones and so many strained muscles he couldn’t even stand up on his own.

Looking down at her handiwork, Christina flashed a beautiful smile and nodded, seemingly quite pleased with herself.

Never once had she drawn her sword, finding it wholly unnecessary to use a weapon to deal with such a weakling.

For a fool like Rowan, the fist techniques her Senior Brother taught her were more than enough.

Although it was obvious by this point, Allina still had to make it official and loudly announced, "Winner, Christina Rockwell!"