Chapter 8

Knight's Pride is the eighth chapter of the Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan manga.

Summary
Kirihara immediately uses his Area Invisibility, as the two commentators one being Nene, state that Kirihara used this technique in the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, and begins to fire his arrows at Ikki. Ikki, however, is able to block the arrow and use it to find Kirihara and try to attack him, however Kirihara is able to avoid getting hit by him. Kirihara then begins to mock Ikki, believing that the only thing able to win Mage-Knight battles are Noble Arts. Ikki refuses to believe such, sickening Kirihara as he mockingly accepts Ikki's challenge of knocking down all of his arrows, by shooting him in the knee, shocking Ikki who couldn't see it. Kirihara explains that his arrows can now be cloaked, by Area Invisibility, now losing the biggest weakness to the Area Invisibility.

Nagi is seen in the stand, along with Stella and Shizuku, thinking that the situation is bad. Shizuku, agreeing with Nagi, believes that Ikki's only way to track Kirihara is now gone, believing Kirihara's ability is very formidable. Stella, however, points out that Ikki has been acting weird from the start. Stella points out that the smarter choice for Ikki would have been to use Ittou Shura the moment the match started, as Ikki is at a disadvantage in a stamina battle, with a disappearing enemy. Nagi tells, that Ikki can't win, causing Stella to realize that Ikki was beating himself up mentally, as he is used to the verbal pain, causing Stella to become upset that she wasn't able to see it sooner.

Ikki is then seen, at the center of the ring, having been badly injured by Kirihara's arrows. The announcer, sitting beside Nene, begging Nene to stop the match, though she points out Ikki has refused to yield, believing that he might have a trump card. Kirihara, enjoying his torture of Ikki, begins to make a game out of Ikki's predicament, starting to call out where he is going to hit Ikki next, first hitting random body parts then hitting his internal organs shooting three arrows right into his abdominal area, causing Ikki to fall and cough up blood. Kirihara then laughs at Ikki's sorry state even mocking the fact that Ikki needs to win this match, and the seven sword art festival, in order to graduate to the next grade. The crowd had begun to worry about Kirihara's words, and Kirihara explains to the whole crowd that Ikki was the only one who needs to win in order to graduate, causing the crowd to also mock Ikki as well as laugh at him. The crowd even began to doubt Ikki's victory over Stella, believing that Ikki used his family connections to bribe the Vermillion Imperial Family into making their daughter lose to him.

With the situation being highly disadvantageous to him and the crowd against him, Ikki begins to doubt himself to the point where he nearly gives up, but before he does, Stella yells for the crowd to be quiet and encourages Ikki to not give up and keep fighting. Ikki then punches himself in the face and regains his lost confidence and believes he can beat Kirihara as he finally has someone who understands him. Ikki then gets up and prepares to fight against Kirihara one more time preparing on the final attack against him activating his Noble Art, Ittou Shura.

Characters

 * Ikki Kurogane
 * Shizuya Kirihara
 * Nene Saikyo
 * Nagi Arisuin
 * Shizuku Kurogane
 * Stella Vermillion
 * Manabe