Chapter 736

The day of the championship battle has finally arrived.

Fran is walking down the aisle leading to the stage with an excited look on her face.

『Fran, how are you feeling?』

（Nn. Great, I don't feel tired at all.）

『Nice. Urushi?』

（Woof woof!）

She seemed to have recovered almost completely from the hard fought battles. I'm in good shape, and Urushi is too, so I'm sure we'll be able to give it our all in the finals.

『But I didn't expect to the third place match to get canceled……』

（Nn. Disappointing.）

The third-place match is gone now that both Diaz and Neidhart have withdrawn from the tournament.

The reason they gave was that they were mentally drained.

The physical body can recover, but not so much the mind. Diaz was getting old, and Neidhart had died a shocking death after a fierce battle. It was not surprising that they were still worn out.

But I'm not buying it. Are either of them the kind of guy to abstain just because of that? I'm pretty sure they would rather push themselves to fight……

But the decision has already been made. There's nothing we can do about it now.

『Let's double check our strategy. We won't use Potential Release or Skilltaker. Our first move will be teleportation. Are we good?』

（Nn. Hilt is strong. We'll go all out from the start.）

『Urushi, we'll be counting on you from the beginning this time.』

（Grr!）

Judging by what we've seen from her in the previous fights, Hilt is not a combat maniac. However, as the heir to the Dimitris school, she tends to allow her opponent to make first move.

Her pride in her strength as well as the weight of the Dimitris Style name is probably what drives her to do so. That's what we're going to exploit.

『Come one, come all! Ladies and gentlemen! At long last, the fiercest competitors for the finals have revealed themselves! The strongest rank B adventurer! The strongest girl! The strongest black cat! It's the Black Lightning Princess Fran! She has given us plenty of surprises this year, but what about in the finals?』

Fran stepped onto the stage to the cheers of the eagerly awaiting audience. Her eyes were on Hilt, who had just appeared from the opposite aisle.

『Whoa! Now both players have entered! The heir to the Dimitris school and rank A adventurer! The biggest contender for this year's tournament, Hiltoria of the 'Piercing Fist', is on the stage!』

Seems like the crowd cheered both equally? Hilt was a celebrity to begin with, and Fran had been gaining fans over the last year.

I guess both have their own dedicated fanbase.

「……I'll be taking home the win today.」

「No, I'll win.」

Hilt's whole body is overflowing with fighting spirit. It is only natural, since her entire future is at stake.

The position of master of the Dimitris style… doesn't seem to be her main concern, huh?

It has to be Colbert, like I thought. She is clearly in love with him, and if she becomes the master, she will have the right to name him as her fiance.

Personally, I'd love to cheer her on there, but that can't happen. After all, the championship is at stake.

『Fran, Hilt isn't at full power.』

（Really?）

『Yeah, her stats are slightly decreased. I think she's still recovering from the Neidhart match.』

（I see……）

The same happened to Fran after the Diaz fight. The wear and tear from the heavy blood loss and the recoil of her techniques could not be fully recovered in two days.

（I… see…）

Normally this would have been a good opportunity, but not so much for Fran. She was truly disappointed. Did I accidentally lower her motivation before the fight?

『But that doesn't change the fact that she is still stronger than us. This is a formidable foe either way, am I wrong?』

（Nn!）

Good. She seems to have regained her motivation right away.

『Will the young tiger's fangs crush the successor to the strongest? Or, will the fist of the beautiful martial artist drill through the fierce challenger? Right here, right now, the top will be decided!』

Fran, who has already awakened, brings me up to an overhead stance. Hilt takes her stance as well.

「Brilliant Lightning Rush.」

「……Garuda.」

Then they both muttered at the same time. Garuda? Must be a Dimitris-style art. Since she used it at this timing, it should be a technique more suited for support than an attack.

『Now then! Let the finals… begin!』

Immediately after the start, I used Short Jump.

Our goal was to use Heavenly Judgment immediately after teleporting, but Hilt was already gone by the time our teleport went through.

After a split second, Fran felt a presence behind her and dived to the side.

Woosh!

A mass of magical energy ripped through the air and flew past Fran's body.

Almost at the same time, Hilt approached us at a tremendous speed. She was moving much faster than we thought she would, probably close to the maximum speed she showed the other day against Neidhart.

I can see that she was releasing magic power from the soles of her feet to accelerate rapidly. That seemed to be the effect of the Garuda technique.

Fran still had her back to Hilt, but there was no need for us to panic.

「Hah!」

「Black Lightning Roll!」

Fran activated Black Lightning Roll right when Hilt's attack was about to connect. She appeared right behind Hilt with lightning speed, and performed an Sheathes of Wind to return the favor.

However, it was repelled by an invisible hand, Hilt's magical arms. Her aim was not only to defend, but also to throw Fran off balance by deflecting her blow.

Normally, Hilt would have manipulated the momentum to destabilize Fran's stance, exposing an opening. But I had anticipated this.

After I supported Fran's body with telekinesis, Hilt immediately gave up her counterattack and jumped away.

「Grr!?」

Urushi's surprise attack also failed. He could not make any attempt to get the drop on her from the shadows, as Hilt was dashing around at high speeds almost without stopping.

I bet she has been analyzing the results of the previous matches and decided that this is was best strategy to prevent our surprise attacks using teleportation.

Certainly, if Hilt keeps moving at that speed, she will be able to escape due to the delay of the teleportation. In fact, she may even be able to take advantage of our lag.

「Urushi. Surprise attacks won't work, switch to magic.」

「Grr!」

（Master, use magic to pin her, and keep watch for invisible attacks.）

『Alright.』

It's still early in the game, but it looks like neither of us can take full control of the match.