419 Chapter 419: Samurai

I watched as Kufa Van Peer climbed up the stage and took his position opposite me. Looked like he was going to be my opponent this time.

\"Before we begin, do you mind if I ask a question?\"

Kufa watched me with narrowed eyes for a moment before he shrugged and nodded. \"Go ahead.\"

\"Did you watch Assassins Pride?\"

\"Come again?\" Kufa stared at me blankly for a few seconds before he scowled. \"What the hell are you talking about?!\"

\"An anime…well, it's based off a light novel, and also have a manga adaptation. Did you watch the anime adaptation of Assassins Pride, or read the light novel or manga version? It's about a young girl who supposedly can't use mana, and she gets a Samurai teacher who also happens to be a vampire and an assassin…\"

\"I've no idea what you're talking about,\" Kufa cut me off, annoyed. He glanced at the commentator. \"Let's not waste time and begin right away.\"

\"Lies,\" I accused. \"You're clearly a rip-off from the anime Assassins Pride…or should I say the light novel? Even your names are almost the same…\"

\"Can we please begin?\" Kufa growled impatiently. The commentator fumbled with his microphone and cleared his throat.

\"The fourth match between Jing Tian Academy and Saint Teresa Academy! Right now, Jing Tian Academy is leading 3-0, and they have chosen to stick with Richard Huang, who is taking part in his fourth consecutive match. Is he intending to pull a team-kill? Or will Saint Teresa Academy finally be able to turn things around?\"

There were excited murmurs from the crowd as the spectators discussed amongst themselves the most likely outcome of the match. There were quite a few avid fans of Kufa screaming his name and waving handmade banners and flags to demonstrate their passionate support. Kufa ignored them pointedly, but I could see why he was so popular. He was extremely handsome, had a very cool and aloof appearance, and wore a black jacket over his blue and silver uniform. For some reason, he reminded me of a dual-wielding black swordsman who was trapped in a virtual reality massive multiplayer online role-playing game about swords, a guy who at first got together with the most beautiful girl who was trapped in the game with him and ten thousand other players, and then the writer milked the series by writing a bunch of sequels that granted him an ever expanding harem…

Okay, I digress, but the point was that such cliché swordsmen in black were enormously popular with the masses, especially when they acted cool and emo and all that. I was sort of similar, except that I was plain and not handsome at all, and I wore glasses, which ruined everyone's image of me (just look at the number of comments at the side from readers demanding that I \"heal\" my eyes and get rid of my glasses, ugh, what a pain). And when I didn't turn out to be the splitting image or Kirito clone, some readers threw a tantrum.

Well, screw them.

\"We'll find out!\" the commentator had been going off on a tangent, describing several of Kufa's most recent victories an achievements, while leaving mine out. Not because he was biased against me, but because he already introduced me and mentioned my feats earlier when I first stepped onto the stage against Lute Dragoon. What, did you think this was another one of those stories where the whole world hated the main character, treated him as trash and found every sort of way to deride, insult or look down on him or something? \"Match begin!\"

\"Let's go ahead!\" someone screamed from the crowd. I swear, if I hear Japlish one more time, I'll seriously kick somebody.

Kufa didn't waste any time, however. He was alreay springing forward with a vengeance, his sword lashing out at incredible speed. I quickly drew both of my swords and parried his strike, but only just barely. The ground split beneath my feet from the sheer impact and my knees buckled.

However, Kufa wasn't going to let me off with just that. He mercilessly whirled around and delivered another strike that swung toward my neck. I parried that with Bai Ri, having adjusted and acclimatized to his speed. He then followed up with a kick from below that almost caught me in the crotch, but thankfully I evaded that, his foot skimming several millimeters away from my fron. The guy certainly had no qualms against playing dirty.

\"Why, you…!\"

Fortunately, I already had my chibi Green Dragon in play. Razor leaves and sharp petals trailed my blades as I launched my counterattack, each of them slicing toward Kufa like a deadly blade. The Samurai nimbly evaded my spells, his long, curved blade cutting a swathe through my scattered leaves and petals.

\"!!!\"

A silver flash almost cleaved deeply into my neck, but I fended it off with Bai Ri. I countered with Hei Yue and another storm of lethal petals, but Kufa moved far too quickly for me to get a read on his movements. He was always staying one step ahead, his blade streaking here and there to poke holes in my defense. I managed to survive without a scratch for now, but I knew my luck would eventually run out. With his relentless pace, it wouldn't be long before I slipped up and made a mistake. That was all it required, and I would sustain a wound.

Once the first injury appeared, it would mark the start of an avalanche of cuts and wounds that slowly wore me down. Even if each individual cut or seemingly minor injury was not, by themselves fatal, I would eventually weaken from the incessant bleeding and massive loss of blood, and the damage would accumulate past the breaking point.

Death by a thousand cuts. Not exactly a very pelasant scenario to imagine.

Huffing, I did my best to avoid getting injured. Taking a step back here and there, I withdrew to harden my defenses, and found myself getting pushed back. Kufa appeared to be accelerating, and his barrage of cuts cornered me. His blade was increasingly finding more purchase, seeking out the chinks in my armor and slowly getting past my swords and delving deeper with each stroke. There were a few times when the razor edge of his katana came dangerously close to tearing my skin open, but I always managed to fend it off by a hair's breadth.

Yup, I was doomed.

Spinning around, Kufa kicked me in the gut and threw me off balance. Even as I grunted, my opponent mercilessly brought his katana down from above, as if intending to cleave me in half. I crossed both of my swords to block his deadly stroke, but he twisted in midair and kicked me in the chest, sending me sprawling on my back. I rolled away before he could stab my face to the ground, and then lashed out with both of my swords, but a sweeping riposte knocked them aside.

\"?!\"

A blue-black energy blast leaped out from Kufa's sword and slammed into me, lifting me from the ground and hurling me bodily across the air. I crashed several meters away, rolling in a desperate and undignified manner – but my action was borne more out of shock and reflex than any conscious will on my part.

\"Ugh…\"

Coughing out blood, I staggered to my feet, but Kufa tackled me, his katana swinging down to behead me. Unable to get away, I opted to deflect his wicked blade to the side, but he rammed a knee into my face, causing my head to snap back. My vision blacked out for a moment because of the impact, but I allowed my momentum to spin me back before I rolled away. Coughing, I retaliated with a cross cut and a blizzard of petals, but Kufa wisely retreated, making use of his speed to stay ahead of the pursuing petals.

I seized the opportunity to rise to my feet, making use of the time my spell bought me to recover. Wiping the blood from my face, I prepared to cast another wood spell, in hopes of ensaring Kufa or perhaps incapacitate him. Most likely I wouldn't be able to take him out like this, but at the very least I should be able to slow him down.

\"Hmm…?\"

Kufa's blue eyes glinted as he observed the air between us. With a single swing of his sword, he incinerated the space with a blue-black energy blast from his blade. Ignited pollen scattered throughout the air, slowly descending in a scene reminiscent of pyrotechnics.

\"That pollen spell is very annoying,\" he remarked indifferently, as if he had done nothing more than comment on the weather, or how he had just swatted a fly. \"I would hate to breathe in something like that.\"

\"I know what you mean,\" I admitted wearily and shook my head. \"Inhaling all that pollen is not good for health, especially if you have allergies. Hay fever is a pretty terrible thing to suffer from.\"

\"Uh…you do realize that you're the one casting all these pollen spells and throwing them at me, just so I can breathe them in and suffer internal injuries, right?\" A vein was twitching in Kufa's temple. \"So don't talk as if this has absolutely nothing to do with you.\"

\"Um…you do realize that you're the one swinging your katana everywhere in an attempt to attack me, right?\" I retorted, irritated. \"What exactly do you think I will do in response to your assault? Stand still and let you hit me without fighting back?\"

\"Honestly, a lot less talking and a lot more fighting…\"

I would have thrown both of my hands up in exasperation if I wasn't holding my swords. \"You're the one who started the conversation to begin with!\"

\"True,\" Kufa conceded as he unleashed another sword blast from his katana, forcing me to dive to the side. While I rolled to my feet, I swung my two swords and launched torrents of swirling, razor-sharp petals in his direction. Relying on his speed to weave through the blizzard of deadly petals while slicing a path through those he couldn't evade, he sneered in a voice full of disdain. \"But I didn't expect you to be immature enough to rise to my juvenile provocations.\"

I felt a vein twitch in my temple, but I suppressed my growing rage. Rather than bellow fruitlessly at someone who was a couple of decades younger than me, I decided to allow my swords to do the talking. However, just as I surpassed Miura in terms of swordsmanship during the previous match and thus was at a great advantage if I fought in close range, I would be outclassed if I engaged Kufa in melee combat. His swordsmanship was clearly superlative and surpassed mine by a mile.

\"Ugh…\"

Shuddering, I dodged another series of blasts from Kufa's merciless strokes, jumping this way and that to avoid getting cleaved apart. I still recalled how he pressured me immensely with his superior sword skills, literally driving me into a corner. I was practically seconds away from being carved apart by his katana, and if I hadn't retreated, I probably would have ended up as a bleeding mess right now.

Yup…there was no way in hell that I would willingly throw myself into close range combat with Kufa again…not at the moment, at least. He was too fast and too skilled for me. It was all I could do to keep up with him.

\"Hmph.\"

Unlike me, Kufa was eager to get stuck in. He was weaving through my storms of petals and closing in on me, where his katana would do the most damage. Instinctively, I summoned Taurus and had the gigantic bull crash down upon his position.

\"!!!\"

Kufa glanced up and barely managed to jump away in time before Taurus smashed into the spot where he occupied a millisecond ago. He swung his katana in reflex, but Taurus met his curved blade with his huge horns, and using his prodigious strength, he tossed the medium-sized Samurai aside. Kufa nimbly flipped himself up in midair and landed deftly on his feet, with a single hand thrown out to maintain his balance.

However, I wasn't going to allow him the time to recover.

\"Taurus, Aldebaran!\"

My Constellation spirit charged forward, flames billowing from his jaws and engulfing the area. Kufa stood his ground firmly, holding his katana with both hands before he cleaved the inferno apart. Even so, he was visibly scorched in certain areas, his skin blistering from the sheer heat.

Then Taurus struck him like a freight train. Kufa righted his sword up and parried the gigantic bull's horns, avoiding a messy death from being gored. The impact hurled him across the arena, but still he made use of his amazing agility to cartwheel about, planting his feet against the wall. The concrete cracked from the collision, but Kufa ignored the damage he had caused, instead bending his knees before he sprang from the crumbling surface to launch himself forward, to meet Taurus in combat.

The two of them clashed in the middle of the arena, horn against blade. With a single sweep of his sword, Kufa unleashed a massive blue-black wave of energy at pointblank range, cleaving my poor Constellation spirit in half.

As Taurus fell apart, dissipating into mana, Kufa landed on the ground and exhaled heavily. Before he could recover, I was already descending upon him, a cloud of deadly flower petals following me. With a determined yell, I enveloped him in a blizzard of frenzied flowers, each of them a blade sharp enough to cut through steel.

\"?!\"

It was useless. Kufa swung his sword and blasted the entire maelstrom of flowers apart in a single stroke, blue-black mana wreathing him like a demonic aura. Blood streamed down his face and arms, but he was otherwise still in one piece.

\"You were so close,\" he sneered. \"But too bad…you're just not good enough.\"