CH 124

Episode 124 – Reading Each Other’s Minds

“Since Byrne lost and seems to be in a state of shock, I’ll be the referee instead! But first… let’s play rock paper scissors to decide the pairings. As always, whoever wins the rock paper scissors will get a bye for the second round and go straight to the finals.” (Lyra)

At Lyra’s initiative, the three of us played rock paper scissors, and Porta ended up advancing straight to the finals. In order to fulfill my promise to him, I had to defeat Nina first. To be honest, among the members of [Iron Gear], I found that the one who was hardest to fight was Nina, so I was a little unsure of myself. But if I wanted to win the entire mock battle tournament and also fulfill Porta’s promise, I couldn’t afford to lose here.

“……Lewin. Let’s have a good fight.” (Nina)

“Yes. I’m going to do everything I can to win, Nina.” (Lewin)

“Let’s start the second round! Match start!” (Lyra)

Even though Lyra signaled the start of the match with such an energetic outburst, neither of us took a step forward. Nina’s approach was fundamentally focused on countering her opponent’s attacks. She was very faithful to this approach, which had very few openings, so I always found it quite tricky to break down.

A few moments passed with neither side taking a step forward, and I eventually got tired of waiting and started moving to close the gap. Initially, I had wanted to wait for Nina to attack, but I gave up on that when seeing no signs of her moving whatsoever.

Even when I got close enough for the tips of our swords to touch, Nina still didn’t move. If it were Lyra, she would have already begun an onslaught of attacks at this distance. This gap in their styles was extremely tough to get used to.

“Come on, you two!” Lyra, the referee, jeered impatiently as if she was getting tired of me and Nina standing there unmoving with the tips of our swords locked. I had wanted to wait and watch her for a bit longer since I was wary of her counters, but if I didn’t do anything, the game wouldn’t move forward at this rate. Contrary to her appearance, Nina was stubborn and hated losing, so she probably wouldn’t be moving first unless she absolutely had to.

After making up my mind, I exhaled a short breath and started my attack. When dealing with a passive or defensive opponent, the best way to deal with it was to find a way to throw off their timing. I wished that I could imitate Lyra’s unpredictable and audacious movement style which Nina was particularly weak against, but I didn’t have the judgment nor athletic ability to accomplish that. All I could do was watch out for her counters and her sharp, short swings while shifting the tempo of my attacks often to throw her off.

At one point, I switched from a slow attack to a top speed attack and saw out of the corner of my eye that Nina was slow to react and slightly lost her balance. But the moment I pushed the attack to take advantage of that opening, Nina, who I thought was supposed to be off-balance, lashed out with a powerful blow. I hastily ceased my attack movements, flicking my sword back into a guard with my wrist, barely managing to fend off Nina’s attack in the nick of time.

Yikes, that was way too close.

From the look on Nina’s face, I could tell that she was half frustrated, half amused that I was able to block that strike, and that movement that made it look like she was off-balance was simply a bait to lure me in.

…This was exactly why Nina was such a tough opponent. Even though I would intentionally throw in movements and attacks that messed with her timing, she was extremely good at using tactics that turned the tides of the battle in the blink of an eye. Also, because she had an excellent ability to compensate and correct her movements mid-fight, it was difficult to tell if the strategies I was using to try to throw her off were working or not. Against Nina, half of the battle was trying to read her moves. It was interesting because this fact made it feel different from a normal fight, but it was also what made it so hard to fight against her.

“….You were able to block that perfect blow? You’ve really gotten strong, Lewin.” (Nina)

“I just happened to be able to block it. I feel like you’re always taking me by surprise, Nina…” (Lewin)

After such a nail-biting back and forth trade of attacks, we exchanged some conversational banter back and forth, sharing a laugh. Nina felt the same way I did about this matter after all, which made me feel glad that it wasn’t a one-sided ‘conversation’.

I had a grin on my face, but I took a deep breath and brought my mind back to the matter at hand. I couldn’t let my guard down one bit when Nina was my opponent, otherwise I could be defeated before I even had a chance to react.

After regaining my composure, Nina and I resumed our contest of reading one another1.