“You said you wanted one exchange, did you not?”
“That is so, for now. It is not of my own will, but... I also think this may not be so bad.”
“Well, is that so... Come then. I’ll give you the first move.”
“Gladly!”
Ah, damn it. I haven’t had any real combat for a while, so I’m not sure how well I can do. At least by yielding the initiative, I can make it possible to counterattack...
Kojiro advanced, swinging his sword. Just as I expected, he drew a circular sword path, and his long blade, over a meter in length, came in horizontally.
I lifted my sword, drawing up wave energy, and met his horizontal slash head-on. Perhaps a little surprised, Kojiro’s eyes widened slightly.
But as if it had nothing to do with that, another circular strike followed immediately. I answered in kind, sending out slash after slash and washing them all away.
[Frey style] [Sky-Splitting Slash - Red]
Kakakakaka! Sparks flew as dozens of exchanges were traded in a single breath.
...This isn’t really how this technique is supposed to be used. Normally it’s a chain attack meant to carve the opponent apart completely, but... well, if it works, it works. That’s Frey style for you.
The sword strikes continued, then suddenly stopped for an instant, as if his breathing had broken. A tenth of a second? No, even shorter than that. A truly tiny moment. But in combat, that can still be a long time. So he really has almost no real battle experience. If he’d seen more actual fighting, he wouldn’t have made a mistake like that. It doesn’t suit his swordsmanship. Taking advantage of that opening, I extended my left hand to catch the trajectory and thrust my right-hand sword in almost like a stab.
[Frey style] [Change]
[Charging Sword: Scatter]
The sword thrusting straight in was blocked only belatedly, as Kojiro swung his blade to intercept it. By this trajectory, it should have been stopped, but...
[Frey style]
[Three-Thousand Forest-Piercing Serpent]
I chained into [Three-Thousand Forest-Piercing Serpent] as it was. The sword’s trajectory bent at sharp angles several times, twisting in a subtle, unnatural way. Surprised, Kojiro’s eyes widened a little.
Clang!Tch.
“...Your reaction speed is disgustingly fast!”
Tsk. He blocked that? The thrust had turned into a slash, and he still stopped it by twisting his wrist and swinging his sword. His reflexes and split-second judgment are both monstrous. If he’d been lacking even one of those, that strike wouldn’t have stopped at a scratch on his neck—it would have split his carotid artery and esophagus clean through.
Still, that’s enough. Without retracting my sword, I thrust my right-hand blade in again.
“What?!”
Kojiro’s eyes widened again, and this time by a lot. Understandable. From a common-sense standpoint, this attack was absurd.
The secret was simple, but ridiculous. The answer was spatial regression. Instead of physically retracting the sword, I used spatial regression to return it to its middle stance, then thrust again.
Explosive acceleration through spatial distortion would be impossible with my current physical condition, but simply returning the sword to its middle stance through spatial distortion was still within reach.
I chained [Three-Thousand Forest-Piercing Serpent] again. This time I adapted it slightly, stopping at the point where the sword changed from a thrust into a slash. I needed to link into another technique, and if [Three-Thousand Forest-Piercing Serpent] kept going, there would be no opening.
[Frey style]
[White Flower Riot]
I swung the sword charged with wave energy and sent out a continuous barrage of slashes. It’s originally a technique meant for a special thrust, but...
Tskakakakak! Seriously? He’s washing all of that away too? No, wait. Looking at it now, his sword style itself is built so he can swing from any stance, isn’t it?
Tch. Even so, to deflect all of that means... has he recovered his breathing? Should I back off a little? Hm. That stings my pride a bit.
Clang! As Kojiro deflected the final slash I sent, he shifted to the offensive. Tsk. I can’t help it, but... it still hurts my pride a little. Even if I’m going to switch to defense, I want to land one good hit before I do. I blocked the incoming slash with my right-hand sword and, rather than resisting the force, let my body ride it.
When I loosened my grip, the sword was flung into the air. My body lifted and flew backward. I extended my left hand to plant it on the ground and stop my momentum, then twisted my leg and kicked at the guard of Kojiro’s sword.
“Kuh!”
Using the recoil from the kick to right myself again, I seized the sword spinning through the air with my left hand and swung it. Kojiro reacted just in time and blocked with his own blade. In less than five seconds, we exchanged dozens of blows.
Kakakakakaka! The two swords tangled and sparks flew. They tangled, and tangled again.
...Crack. Along with a sharp pain in my left hand, I heard a chilling sound. Did I crack a bone in my left hand? Tsk. The original Frey style really does put too much strain on the body.
“...Emergency treatment, begin.”
[Administering nanomachine type M]
The coat’s function activated, and with a stinging sensation, nanomachines were injected into my body. At the same time, its function as a mystic code also activated, and the coat began controlling the nanomachines to repair my bones.
Rather than repair, it was more like a field repair. It only restored me enough that I could keep fighting. The nanomachines infiltrated the cracks in my bones and replaced the fractured parts like a patch job.
“Ha!”
++++
Crack, crack.
As the battle dragged on and I repeatedly used techniques that forced excessive strain on my body, my bones kept breaking.
At least I was using the coat’s emergency treatment function to restore them enough to keep fighting, but the problem wasn’t just the bones. My muscle fibers were tearing continuously as well.
I was somehow keeping myself going with pure healing magecraft, but with this constant strain on my body, I’d hit my limit soon. In that case, I had no choice but to settle it now. I poured wave energy into my sword and swung vertically.
[Frey style]
[Colorless Sword: White Flower]
A massive vertical slash made of wave energy flew out.
“Hm!”
But as expected, Kojiro dodged it. Well, I’d deliberately sent it slowly enough that he could evade it. That was the point. The fact that he dodged it meant he had spent that much time doing so.
Taking advantage of the opening he created by evading my attack, I widened the distance. At the same time, I activated the sword’s gimmick.
[Sword, deploy]
The sword unfolded, changing from a longsword into the shape of a large cleaver. Because I had stuffed every bit of spare magical energy from the battle into the gravity device formation organ in my body, the surplus of gravity particles was at a fairly high level. With this much, I should be able to use that technique once.
I gripped the greatsword tightly. What I recalled was the swordsman of the knight order, the sword saint I had encountered only once during the sword examination. I pointed my sword at Kojiro and twisted my wrist to spin it.
The blade rotated around the hilt. At first it drew a small circle, then the circle took on the shape of a taiji and expanded its domain.
Wooooong—
A massive taiji form rose into the air. The black-and-white taiji pattern spun in the void and unleashed a slash so enormous it rivaled Heaven-Splitting Slash—truly enormous.
[Divine Sword Ultimate Technique]
[Unshaded World Taiji Slash]
不絢世界 太極陣 斬
Kuaaaa──!
Kojiro’s eyes widened. Well, of course they did. I’d just pulled off something this absurd with a single sword.
Given the power behind it, blocking would be impossible. Deflecting it would be impossible too. Even I, in my previous life at my peak, would have shaken my head if someone told me to deflect this. Well, at my peak I could have neutralized it with Heaven-Splitting Slash, but... that wouldn’t be possible for him.
So the choice left to him would naturally be evasion. In that case...
Ignoring the ache in my arm, I rotated my wrist and spun the sword once, then drew up wave energy in my legs as much as possible and pushed my footwork to its limit.
[Magic Clock]
As Kojiro leapt left to evade, I moved at high speed and thrust my left-hand sword in, packed with wave energy.
[Six Demons, One God]
[Fifth Demon: Magic Line]
Puhwaak!
Tsk. He reacted to that too? No, I went after him while he was evading the Divine Sword Ultimate Technique, and he still responded in time to knock the blade aside and deflect it before the wave energy packed into the sword could explode. Is that even human?
Crack, crack, crack.
My body had already been under severe strain, and now the cost of using another technique that put enormous pressure on my physical frame made the bones in my left arm snap one after another like dominoes. Ouch. That hurts.
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