Chapter 96 - . Five Great Powers and Thirteen Knights of the Oracle [3] (1/2)

96. Five Great Powers and Thirteen Knights of the Oracle [3]

I assumed Seigan no Kamae and looked straight at Dodriel.

He pointed the tip of his sword towards me, and put on a complicated smile mixed with love and hate.

(If I remember correctly, that sword is his soul dress…〈Shadow Ruler〉?)

Contrary to its plain appearance, its ability is incomparably powerful.

While stepping on the target’s shadow, it has the formidable power to disable all attacks from that opponent.

(…But I’m sure that’s not all.)

If that was everything, there’s no way Ria and Rose would fall behind.

He must have something more – an unknown power hidden.

(For the time being, avoid close combat, and examine his movement.)

And as I was working out a strategy,

「Ahaa… It’s nice to be staring at each other like this, but… Let’s clash with each other strongly and more and more and more violently!」

Dodriel closed the distance at once, saying something incomprehensible.

「Rain Style – Summer Rain!」

Rain-like thrusts which doesn’t allow the opponent to catch their breath.

However,

(I can see it!)

Each thrust could be seen clearly as though time itself had stopped.

I avoided the looming blade perfectly with minimal movement, and

「Eighth Sword – Yatagarasu!」

I returned a counterattack with eight slashes.

「Ahaha… That won’t work!」

Dodriel cut off three of the slashes and firmly stepped on my shadow in that gap.

At that moment, the remaining five slashes passed through Dodriel’s body.

「Kuh, the『Shadow World』, huh…」

His body was now in a different world due to the ability of〈Shadow Ruler〉.

When it comes to breaking this, I need to use World Judgement.

(…I’m sure even he is fully aware of that.)

And then,

「Ahaa! Of course, I’ll avoid your『World Judgement』!」

Dodriel, who read my thoughts, had an innocent smile plastered on his face.

「I suppose.」

He was a smart guy since the time at Gran Swordsmanship Academy.

The same technique will not work twice.

「Well then, I’m going to go on and on! Rain Style – Intense Rain!」

Diagonal Slash, Bamboo Split, Upwards Slash, Downwards Slash, Thrust – consecutive attacks overflowing with intent to kill was unleashed in succession.

「……」

I avoided those slashes by dodging, parrying, and defending with my sword

「Guh, don’t stop, don’t stop, go faster!」

With all his slashes being defended, Dodriel raised a loud cry and began to cut even more violently.

While defending his attacks, I felt a slightly uneasy feeling.

(…Why does he keep unleashing attacks which have a high number of hits?)

It somewhat… bothered me.

I went to the same swordsmanship academy as Dodriel for three years.

That’s why I know this guy to the basic level.

(He was someone who sought『beauty』in battles…)

It was unlike him to unleash consecutive attacks in succession.

And then,

「UOOOOOHHHH!」

Dodriel got fired up and swung down his sword from an overhead position.

「Naive!」

I sidestepped his overhead slash. His defenceless head was right before my reach.

I got you!

「Fifth Sword – World Judg–?!」

Right when I stepped in to unleashed World Judgement.

「…Ahaha.」Dodriel laughed.

It wasn’t a smile of madness. Rather a very intelligent smile.

(This is bad!)

I didn’t know what was bad though.

However, a large opening was being flaunted in front of me.

My sixth sense shouted that it was dangerous to exploit this.

When I decided to trust in my intuition and jumped back greatly, a maximum slash was fired from the shadow of my feet.

「Wha?!」

In response to the slash that rose to the heavens, I tried to avoid it by pulling back greatly. Resulting in a few locks of my hair being cut off. I avoided it by a hair’s breadth.

(T-That was dangerous…)

If I had unleashed World Judgement at that moment, I would be in two parts by now.

「What a pity… Only a little bit more! Ahahahahahahahahahaha!」

He opened his mouth wide and began to laugh holding his belly in his arms.

It seems that the complete devotion to consecutive attacks and the large overhead slash just now, was in preparation for this attack.

「Man, what a failure… Imagining the moment when Allen’s body becomes two… Mou, I can’t contain my happiness!」

Saying that, Dodriel hugged his body with both hands and writhed.

I ignored his provocations and eccentricities and asked a question.

「That attack just now… Did you “launch” the slash?」

Dodriel’s『place where he swung the sword』and『the place where the slash occurred』were completely different.

In other words, he launched the slash to『another place』.

「Correct, super correct answer…　It’s a remote slash ability of my〈Shadow Ruler〉!」

「Remote slash?」

「Un! I can launch a slash from『my shadow』to adjoining『other shadows』…Look, just like this–!」

And when Dodriel swung his sword – a sharp slash flew out of my shadow at my feet.

「Kuh!」

I immediately fired a side-sweep and countered the looming slash.

「It’s a good ability, isn’t it? And look, it’s cloudy today! Clouds have “shadows” too! Right now, this entire place is my domain! It’s like God is supporting me…」he opened his hands wide and said with a big smile.

「…You managed to pull out this much power from your soul dress.」

As expected of a genius swordsman I suppose…