CH 108

Episode 108 – Mock Battle

As the distance between the two of us slowly decreased, I remained fully alert, watching to see if Kirty would make any movements… but she just smiled tauntingly and showed no signs of moving whatsoever. Apparently, she seemed to be waiting for me to make the first move.

In that case, I just had to give it my best shot. Stepping into range to allow my sword to reach, I unleashed the overhead slash that I recently had been practicing relentlessly. It was common for people to be reluctant to go all out against another human, but since I had faith that Kirty would be fine, I put my entire strength behind the blow. It was an overhead slash with the perfect step-in and the perfect execution, just like how I had done in all of my practice swings. My strength was being completely transmitted to the wooden sword without any waste as the overhead slash rushed towards Kirty.

―But without even moving a single step, Kirty stopped the blow as if she didn’t even feel a thing. Our swords had locked momentarily, and then she pushed me backwards, causing me to lose balance and stumble backwards slightly.

……It was totally strange. That overhead slash should have had my full power behind it, but I couldn’t feel any impact in my hands from that blow. It was as if I struck a piece of heavy cloth, as the force of the blow was completely absorbed. Thinking about it, the strength behind that push was also so astonishingly powerful. It was hard to believe that she could push me back that far with zero wind-up distance beforehand.

Just from trading that one blow, the difference in power I had perceived between us was so overwhelming that the intense fighting spirit I had just a moment ago was on the verge of breaking.

“Lewin, what’s wrong? That power was nothing to scoff at. Keep it coming!” (Kirty)

As I was shrinking back a little, Kirty responded with words of encouragement. There was such a disparity in ability that it was hard to even call it a fight, but… I wanted to try to get at least one hit in. Fortunately, Kirty wasn’t making any moves to attack me, so with that handicap I should be able to have somewhat of a chance.

Anyway, I had to use my head to figure out how to deal a blow to Kirty. Various strategies began popping into my head.

If I were to use the Magical Grass and Bomb Grass combo, I could possibly create an opening… I didn’t want to resort to sneaky tactics, but I couldn’t think of a strategy to fight her head on. For now, I switched my strategy to try and use my movements to create an opening. Even if I stopped and thought about it for an entire lifetime, I probably still wouldn’t be able to come up with a way to land a hit on Kirty.

With that in mind, I dashed straight up to Kirty. Once I arrived right next to her, I stopped and quickly rotated to get behind her. Aiming to land a strike from her rear, I swung my wooden sword, but Kirty responded precisely to my movements, taking a half-step back before parrying the blow.

I took several tens of steps for that attack, but Kirty dealt with it by only taking a single step. I could clearly feel the difference in footwork and defensive body maneuvers as well.

“The movements weren’t bad, but the swing was too weak. No matter what position you’re in, it’ll be pointless if you aren’t able to put your full strength into the blow.” (Kirty)

Kirty immediately followed up with helpful advice. I was grateful for the advice, but… I was moving in order to try to take her by surprise, and yet she still had enough leeway to teach me, huh?

I needed to attack faster and sharper, otherwise I would never be able to land a hit on her. At the very least, I wanted to be able to deliver strikes that would make it hard for her to give advice at the same time. My goals were getting smaller and smaller, but after deciding to set this as my objective for the time being, I resumed my attacks.

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A feint to the right, followed by a downward diagonal slash from the right. The moment it gets intercepted, switch grips and slash upwards.

This didn’t work either, huh? From there, I flowed into a half turn, dipped into her blind spot, and performed the fifth thrust from a blind spot in this one match.

…Damn, it didn’t work again.

For a while, I had been trying many different maneuvers and patterns of attack, but none of them resulted in a blow. I had managed to achieve my objective of making her unable to advise while defending, but judging by her expression, she wasn’t actually being pressured all that much. There was still the handicap, too. My current aim was to try to land a hit with the sole move that I had confidence in, the overhead slash.

Whether it was the diagonal cut, the sweeping slash, or the uppercut slash… I didn’t have enough proficiency in any of them to land a blow with them. Among the techniques I had at hand, since the overhead slash was the only technique that I had confidence in, the only method I had available to me was to bet it all on this final blow. The first overhead slash I used against her was stopped perfectly, but, if I could catch her off guard first, I would possibly be able to land a blow with the overhead slash.

After missing a thrust, I quickly ducked downwards and threw out a sweeping slash towards her legs. She then dodged it, and I switched into a diagonal slash to match the timing of her dodge, but… she had managed to easily evade it with a nimble back step.

Just a little bit more… The opportunity for an overhead slash should be taking shape any second now…

After she dodged the downwards diagonal slash, I took a big step in and carved upwards. After that, I again ducked into her blind spot and aimed another thrust from that position for the sixth time today.

Except… this time, the thrust from the blind spot was a bait. I was ducking low in order to take advantage of an opening in Kirty’s defense. At the same time that I thrusted my sword out towards her, I immediately moved diagonally from her blind spot so I would end up behind her. Sure enough, she was predicting the thrust to come flying from her blind spot, so she wasn’t able to catch sight of me moving from one blind spot to the other, creating a momentary gap in her defenses. I wasn’t going to miss this chance.

Having swung around to her rear already, I immediately rebounded to my standing position and aimed a well-practiced overhead slash towards Kirty, who was currently showing an opening. But… even though I had unleashed that overhead slash with all my might from behind her, Kirty immediately dropped to a lower stance, turned around, and blocked it.

If only my movements were smoother when I straightened up from the crouching position… If only I had taken another half step of distance and struck from above at the perfect distance…

There were still so many points for me to reflect on, but unlike the first strike where it felt like the force of my strike was completely absorbed… the clashing of our wooden swords resounded with a metallic clang, echoing through the brisk morning air.