Chapter 260 Starlight As Bright As Day 3 (1/2)
As the match between Shin and Natasha was still ongoing, two brooding figures furrowed their brows the moment the young girl displayed her true might. Suji, who was widely considered to be the best weapon-type Spirit User in the freshmen year, was highly disturbed by how much Natasha had grown, and he posed a question to his partner.
”Dan… Are you capable of blocking that slash?”
”T-That… I'm not sure...” Danroy's voice slightly quivered as his throat contracted out of fear. Even though the obese youth claimed that he was uncertain, both Suji and he knew that Natasha's strike was sufficient to break through both their defences as if it were made of butter.
”Yet another emergent talent… How many more are you hiding, Imperius Academy?!” Suji's grip on his pants tightened while spectating the odd phenomenon. Ever since he entered the school, talents that were rarely seen in decades seemed to have been popping out one after another. Initially, Kanari and Suji shared a duopoly to the claim of best in the generation. Yet, now there were more than five prodigies that could potentially threaten Kanari's throne. ”Tsskkk, let's see how this plays out. The winner of this match would face us after all...”
”...” Hearing Suji's words, Danroy just kept silent. Although the sinewy youth didn't think too much before uttering that statement, as a long-time friend of his, Danroy could piece together his childhood friend's innermost thoughts.
'Suji… In your eyes, I'm probably not as worthy to fight you as compared to those two down there right?' Danroy pondered. Feeling a wave of despondency crash into his very soul, the obese youth dropped his head down wistfully. 'And you might be right… Against those two, I'm probably nothing...'
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The atmosphere in the stadium started to get more and more heated after Shin and Natasha's first exchange. Even though their movements were too swift for the naked eye, just spectating the particle effects and the aftermath of the split second bout made the audience's eyes glitter with wonder.
Through his earlier probe, Shin had learnt how dangerous it was to charge headfirst into the attacking range of Natasha's Starlight Katana. Even though his overall speed was much faster than the young girl's, Shin still couldn't evade that one quickdraw ability.
'I can't carelessly attack her! That one move is capable of ending me immediately!' Shin cautioned himself.
With Natasha on the defensive and Shin trying to find a potential weakness from afar, the two stared at one another for almost ten seconds without moving. In the heat of a battle such as this one, just one mistake would prove to be fatal. Thus, even though it looked like Shin was merely standing still, in his head, he was calculating the hundreds of potential outcomes.
'It looks like she's going to wait until I make the first move… Hmph! Did you really think that I will play into your game?!' Shin scoffed at Natasha's ignorance and summoned out three spheres of water. One of the water globes turned itself into eight rings that enveloped the black-haired youth, acting as a buffer for any rogue sword slashes that might end up in his area, while the other two turned into thousands of water droplets that floated in the air.
'Let's see how you handle this!!!' Throwing his hand down, Shin threw the thousands upon thousands of tiny water balls at the swordmaiden, creating a horizontal rain that was unaffected by gravity.
”*Celestial Aura!!!*.”
Instead of moving from her position, Natasha released the tremendous amounts of mana stored in her Starlight Katana and created a defensive field that easily evaporated the raindrops that entered her striking zone. With every disappearing water sphere, it seemed that Shin's long-ranged attempt had failed spectacularly, and just when the swordmaiden was feeling confident of her defence, a giant shadow darkened the sky above.
Sensing danger, Natasha immediately glanced upwards, ready to take on the oncoming threat. However, what greeted her was a torrential whirlpool, made out of a dense liquid that emulated the shape of the milky way, spinning rapidly above her head. Crashing down at an astonishing speed, there was no way that Natasha's Celestial Aura could evaporate that much water in time. Using her signature foot technique, Natasha left her Iaido stance and moved tens of metres away, evading the oncoming whirlpool.
Naturally, the onslaught was part of Shin's master plan to force the swordmaiden to leave her deadly quick draw stance, and now that her fastest attack was out of the picture, Shin jumped at a blinding speed. Her battle instincts tingling, Natasha pivoted her body in the direction of Shin's oncoming attack and the moment she saw a lean shadow speeding towards her, the swordmaiden swung her sword from her awkward position.
Caught off guard by her reflexes, Shin immediately coated himself with a glove of water and only barely managed to slap the blade away. Somersaulting once to regain her stance, Natasha swung horizontally through pure instinct, forcing her attacker to retreat once more using the Lightning Swallow Steps.
'Her movement speed is slow, but her sword is so damn quick!!!' Shin hollered out mentally. His speed was clearly superior to Natasha's, but he still couldn't find an opening to exploit.
On the other side of the arena, the Starlight Blade was evidently having some troubles composing herself as well. 'He broke my Iaido stance just like that?! Since when could he control water like that?!'
When Shin first came to the academy, he was cautious not to let any of his techniques leak. Thus, the student body only knew that he had promoted into the Spirit Core realm and had a knack for close-combat martial arts. Not many people knew that Shin could create and control water as he pleased, sending Natasha's plan of solely relying on her quick draw to disarray.
'I can't remain on the defensive! If he could continually generate gallons of water, I would just be a sitting duck!' Switching up her plans, Natasha changed into a different stance. Her Starlight Katana shone in a celestial light as she raised her sword up with both her hands firmly attached to the hilt.
”The First Waltz! Entering the Cosmos!” With a shout, Natasha sped forward, catching Shin off guard immediately. Moving in a beeline to confuse her enemy, the swordmaiden left afterimages of herself as she traversed the stage, showing off the full effect of her foot technique. Only after reaching five metres away from Shin, did the girl changed her stance to an offensive one.
Natasha's katana started to become illusory as the starlight it emitted obscured the boy's vision. Sending a slash at the boy's general direction, Natasha gritted her teeth as she felt her mana being drained from her body. A crescent energy blade shot out of the tip of her katana and sped forward at light speed, giving Shin no time to evade.
Forced into a corner, Shin sent his water sphere before him and defended against the energy blade. However, that wasn't enough. Immediately evaporating the water globe, Natasha's sword light flashed forward, thirsting for the sweet, succulent flesh that Shin possessed. As a last ditch effort to protect himself, Shin threw out three of his mana enhanced needles to mitigate the strike.
”*Bsssttt!!!*.” Echoes of his needles being evaporated into dust sounded in Shin's ears as the energy blade dissipated right before his eyes. His heart beating a thousand kilometres per second, Shin rubbed the cold sweat off his forehead, feeling relieved that he had escaped the Grim Reaper once more.
'That must be her second spiritual ability, Astral Slash!' Shin reached deep into the recesses of his memory to recall Natasha's spiritual abilities.
'Although it seems to be capable of slicing anything it comes into contact with, it looks like it has a certain range before it disappears. Perhaps ten metres?' Immediately analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the swordmaiden's new attack, Shin made a mental note to run whenever the signature starlight flows out of Natasha's katana.