Chapter 121 - Senior Holy Knight and Sunny Land [12] (1/2)

121. Senior Holy Knight and Sunny Land [12]

I maintained Seigan no Kamae and fixed my gaze on Rain, clad in a red『water robe』.

(…It’s similar.)

His Last Drop was very similar to Ria’s Dragon Soul and Idol’s Flying Thunder God.

The effect is most likely elevating『physical ability』and『soul dress output』.

「I’ll let you know in advance. I can’t hold back when I’m in this state.」

「Aa, of course.」

The match between swordsmen is a serious match.

I don’t want him to go easy on me, and neither will I.

The next moment, Rain, whom I kept in the center of my field of view, disappeared.

「Over here.」

I heard a cold voice from behind.

(Fast…!)

However,

「I can see you.」

I was able to catch his movement with my eyes, and I avoided the looming downward slash by side stepping to the right.

「Naive! Guardian Style – Forest Sword!」

Rain moved in a flowing motion, shifting from downward slash to a thrust.

(As expected, he went for that!)

As Rain moved as I expected, I unleashed the upward slash that I was ready with beforehand.

「HA!」

「What!?」

Meeting the perfectly timed counter, Rain’s arms bounced straight up.

Then, I shot a straight kick which contained my entire body weight at his defenseless torso.

「SEI!」

「Kuh…!」

As he tried to avoid a direct hit by twisting his body,

「Ka, ha…」

My foot sank deep into his side.

A huge body of more than two meters flew across the air.

(…I still managed to inflict substantial damage.)

Rain’s swordsmanship was true to the basics, that’s why his next move was so easy to read.

(I should take this opportunity and… press forward!)

And when I took forward bent posture,

「Not yet!」

He landed on the ground, and immediately counterattacked without faltering from pain.

「What!?」

An unexpected situation.

My body stiffened for a moment. Because of that, my evasion was late by a fraction of a second.

Rain exploited that slight opening with a thrust.

「Sora!」

「Kuh!」

A sharp pain ran in my left shoulder as I jumped back.

(What was that?)

My kick definitely landed hard on him.

(To stand up instantly after that… much less launching an immediate counter attack… is impossible…)

I observed Rain’s body while healing my injured left shoulder with darkness.

Then, I noticed a certain something.

His water robe was thicker on the side where my kick landed.

「I see… So, you can even use it in that way…」

Rain seems to have circulated the water towards one side and made a cushion to greatly reduce the damage.

As expected, one of the Thirteen Knights of the Oracle.

He seems to be perfectly using the power of soul dress.

「It’s a good『robe』that takes full advantage of the characteristics of water.」

「Fuu, it’s not as versatile as your『darkness』though…」

After that, our death struggle continued fiercely.

A clash between basics and basics.

We both knew the other party’s next move well.

「HAAAAAAAAAA!」

「NUOOOOOOH!」

The clashing of swords which contained all our might, scattered sparks even in the middle of a downpour.

「A-Amazing…」

「It’s too fast… I can barely follow it with my eyes.」

After receiving glances of hope from Ria and Rose, I increased my speed even further.

「Sakura Blossom One-Sword Style Secret Technique – Mirrored Sakura Slash!」

「Guardian Sword Secret Technique – Torus Sword!」

Eight slashes and an arc-like circular slash clashed, and disappeared.

「Kuh…」

「Nuu…」

Right now, our physical ability was completely even.

(Last Drop -『Ability that reduces lifespan』huh …)

It’s a really troublesome ability.

Rain’s arm strength, leg strength, and agility were all elevated greatly.

(But… I found one thing which seemed like a weak point.)

Since invoking Last Drop… For some reason, it’s all about『physical slashes』.

The ability of water he displayed until then, suddenly fell silent.

So I drew up a hypothesis.

(Perhaps… the only thing Last Drop can strengthen is pure『physical ability』?)

If every ability had been strengthened, like Idol’s Flying Thunder God, he would launch a more versatile attack.

In other words, if my inference is correct – excluding physical ability, my『soul dress output』 should still be superior!

I immediately raised the output of darkness to test the hypothesis.

「Dark Shadow!」