A bloodied figure shot out of the dust like an arrow. He seized the Captain-Commander’s wrist, then twisted through the air at an impossible angle.
Two heavily muscled legs locked around the Captain-Commander’s neck and chest while Luke wrenched the wrist he had seized straight back.
Even Yoruichi looked startled as she watched. She had never expected a brute like Luke to know a move like that. It was a flawless armbar.
The Captain-Commander remained standing, utterly unmoved. He merely tilted his head and looked at Luke. "Interesting, boy. If your Spiritual Pressure were equal to this old man’s, you would have already won."
But before the Captain-Commander could continue with a "however," Luke released the armbar, landed, and resumed his stance.
"Oh? What does that mean?"
The Captain-Commander looked at Luke curiously.
Battle intent boiled in Luke’s eyes as he grinned. "That kind of fighting isn’t my style. And if you hadn’t let go of my leg, I wouldn’t have been able to counterattack in the first place."
When you grabbed an opponent and smashed them into the ground with that kind of savage tactic, the optimal move—assuming you could knock them out of the fight—was to let go at the moment of impact. Otherwise, the recoil would affect you as well.
But the Captain-Commander clearly did not care about recoil. He also had perfect control over his strength and had calculated that the blow would not kill Luke. Strictly speaking, there had been no reason for him to let go.
The instant Luke had been caught, he had already lost. The Captain-Commander had released him only because he felt the fight was basically over and wanted to check Luke’s injuries. That armbar had carried more than a hint of a surprise attack.
The Captain-Commander burst into laughter. "Boy, this old man is starting to like you."
Blood streamed from Luke’s head, dyeing his bare upper body red. It ran like rivulets through the grooves of his muscles. Yet combined with those blazing eyes, it did not make him look miserable.
It made him look like an Asura.
"You still want to face this old man head-on?"
The Captain-Commander asked as he raised his fists into a fighting stance.
Luke took a deep breath. His heart hammered, pumping blood and strength into every corner of his body. He had guarded in time earlier, but his head had still taken a brutal hit.
His entire body was soaked in blood, yet he had never felt more awake. Facing the strongest Soul Reaper, he could truly feel that he was alive.
"Of course. Let’s begin round two."
Approval flashed in the Captain-Commander’s eyes. In the next instant, both men vanished.
Footsteps pounded continuously across the dojo floor. Heavy impacts echoed through the air as fists and kicks collided.
Their Flash Step was too fast, their exchanges too rapid. Most of the first-year students could not see what was happening at all. They could only make out two blurs weaving through the dojo and hear the air shudder with every clash.
"He’s keeping up with the Captain-Commander..."
Yoruichi spoke in disbelief. She knew Luke’s level better than anyone, which was precisely why she was so shocked. Whether it was Flash Step speed or Hakuda skill, Luke should have been completely overwhelmed by the Captain-Commander.
But unlike their initial exchange, Luke was now not only blocking the Captain-Commander’s attacks perfectly—he was even finding openings to counterattack.
Had he grown stronger again in that brief span of time?
Aizen watched the sparring match with a grave expression as well. He had expected the Captain-Commander to crush Luke one-sidedly. Yet aside from being caught off guard at the beginning, Luke now seemed to be gradually adapting.
He called it adaptation because his eye was sharper than Yoruichi’s, and his analytical ability stronger. Aizen did not believe Luke’s Hakuda techniques had undergone some explosive leap in such a short time.
Luke had simply adapted to the Captain-Commander’s ferocious offense, making better choices in every split-second exchange.
That was why, despite being outclassed in Hakuda technique, Luke had not been instantly defeated.
Luke... just where is your limit?
Boom!
Amid an explosive crash, a figure flew across the dojo and slammed into the wall. This time, the wall visibly caved inward.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward it. Luke’s bare upper body slid down the damaged wall before he collapsed onto the floor.
This time, he truly could not get back up.
In the end, he could not overcome two thousand years of combat experience and Hakuda skill at its absolute peak. During their sustained exchange, the Captain-Commander had found an opening and crushed him with a single strike.
Aizen hurried over and helped Luke up. Meanwhile, the Captain-Commander slowly lowered his stance and glanced down at his own heart.
For one brief instant, that boy had actually touched it. But before his power could fully transmit through the strike, he had been sent flying.
The Captain-Commander walked aside, picked up his haori, and draped it over himself again. With his back to Luke, he said, "Use your Kaidō to heal up. This old man will return tomorrow and the day after."
Luke had been reflecting on his shortcomings in the fight, but his eyes lit up at those words. He was not discouraged by losing the sparring match. Nor did he think being defeated was only natural just because his opponent was an ancient monster who had lived for thousands of years.
He would have more chances to challenge the pinnacle of the Soul Reapers.
Nothing could have excited him more.
...
"Sosuke, what do you think I need to do to beat the Captain-Commander?"
That evening, Luke sat on his bed, deep in thought.
Aizen was speechless. "Luke, aren’t you getting a little full of yourself? That’s the Captain-Commander—the strongest Soul Reaper of the past two thousand years."
In Aizen’s view, the Captain-Commander’s Hakuda skill was on an entirely different level from Luke’s. And during their fight, the Captain-Commander’s Flash Step had been far faster as well.
Frankly, Aizen had already been stunned that Luke could last as long as he did in the second round. Yet this guy was actually thinking about defeating the Captain-Commander.
"Sosuke, haven’t you heard the saying?"
"What saying?"
"A Soul Reaper who doesn’t want to surpass the Captain-Commander isn’t a good Soul Reaper."
Luke said it with a perfectly serious expression.
"I know you want to keep improving in Hakuda, but surpassing the Captain-Commander isn’t realistic."
Aizen analyzed the matter calmly. "It isn’t that I think you lack the talent for battle, Luke. It’s that there is a fundamental difference between you and the Captain-Commander."
"What difference? Combat experience?"
"That is part of it. But more importantly, even if the Captain-Commander lowers his Spiritual Pressure to train you, his perception and neural reaction speed are still on an entirely different level from yours."
Luke suddenly understood.
Right. He had not considered that.
Spiritual Pressure could be restrained to a lower level, but the powerful physique, vision, reflexes, and every other benefit forged through years of Spiritual Pressure strengthening could not simply be erased.
Put simply, the Captain-Commander was like an expert with more than a hundred points in every stat, suppressing his raw power to spar with Luke. The advantages granted by those stats had not disappeared.
To the Captain-Commander, Luke’s movements probably looked like they were in slow motion. Strictly speaking, this was not a sparring match between equals at all.
Even setting skill aside, the Captain-Commander’s advantages were utterly overwhelming.
"I see..."
Luke said he understood. Then, under Aizen’s strange stare, he added, "But doesn’t that make it more of a challenge?"
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