419 Chapter 419: Samurai (2/2)

Coughing out blood, I staggered to my feet, but Kufa tackled me, his katana swinging down to behead me. Unable to get away, I opted to deflect his wicked blade to the side, but he rammed a knee into my face, causing my head to snap back. My vision blacked out for a moment because of the impact, but I allowed my momentum to spin me back before I rolled away. Coughing, I retaliated with a cross cut and a blizzard of petals, but Kufa wisely retreated, making use of his speed to stay ahead of the pursuing petals.

I seized the opportunity to rise to my feet, making use of the time my spell bought me to recover. Wiping the blood from my face, I prepared to cast another wood spell, in hopes of ensaring Kufa or perhaps incapacitate him. Most likely I wouldn't be able to take him out like this, but at the very least I should be able to slow him down.

\”Hmm…?\”

Kufa's blue eyes glinted as he observed the air between us. With a single swing of his sword, he incinerated the space with a blue-black energy blast from his blade. Ignited pollen scattered throughout the air, slowly descending in a scene reminiscent of pyrotechnics.

\”That pollen spell is very annoying,\” he remarked indifferently, as if he had done nothing more than comment on the weather, or how he had just swatted a fly. \”I would hate to breathe in something like that.\”

\”I know what you mean,\” I admitted wearily and shook my head. \”Inhaling all that pollen is not good for health, especially if you have allergies. Hay fever is a pretty terrible thing to suffer from.\”

\”Uh…you do realize that you're the one casting all these pollen spells and throwing them at me, just so I can breathe them in and suffer internal injuries, right?\” A vein was twitching in Kufa's temple. \”So don't talk as if this has absolutely nothing to do with you.\”

\”Um…you do realize that you're the one swinging your katana everywhere in an attempt to attack me, right?\” I retorted, irritated. \”What exactly do you think I will do in response to your assault? Stand still and let you hit me without fighting back?\”

\”Honestly, a lot less talking and a lot more fighting…\”

I would have thrown both of my hands up in exasperation if I wasn't holding my swords. \”You're the one who started the conversation to begin with!\”

\”True,\” Kufa conceded as he unleashed another sword blast from his katana, forcing me to dive to the side. While I rolled to my feet, I swung my two swords and launched torrents of swirling, razor-sharp petals in his direction. Relying on his speed to weave through the blizzard of deadly petals while slicing a path through those he couldn't evade, he sneered in a voice full of disdain. \”But I didn't expect you to be immature enough to rise to my juvenile provocations.\”

I felt a vein twitch in my temple, but I suppressed my growing rage. Rather than bellow fruitlessly at someone who was a couple of decades younger than me, I decided to allow my swords to do the talking. However, just as I surpassed Miura in terms of swordsmanship during the previous match and thus was at a great advantage if I fought in close range, I would be outclassed if I engaged Kufa in melee combat. His swordsmanship was clearly superlative and surpassed mine by a mile.

\”Ugh…\”

Shuddering, I dodged another series of blasts from Kufa's merciless strokes, jumping this way and that to avoid getting cleaved apart. I still recalled how he pressured me immensely with his superior sword skills, literally driving me into a corner. I was practically seconds away from being carved apart by his katana, and if I hadn't retreated, I probably would have ended up as a bleeding mess right now.

Yup…there was no way in hell that I would willingly throw myself into close range combat with Kufa again…not at the moment, at least. He was too fast and too skilled for me. It was all I could do to keep up with him.

\”Hmph.\”

Unlike me, Kufa was eager to get stuck in. He was weaving through my storms of petals and closing in on me, where his katana would do the most damage. Instinctively, I summoned Taurus and had the gigantic bull crash down upon his position.

\”!!!\”

Kufa glanced up and barely managed to jump away in time before Taurus smashed into the spot where he occupied a millisecond ago. He swung his katana in reflex, but Taurus met his curved blade with his huge horns, and using his prodigious strength, he tossed the medium-sized Samurai aside. Kufa nimbly flipped himself up in midair and landed deftly on his feet, with a single hand thrown out to maintain his balance.

However, I wasn't going to allow him the time to recover.

\”Taurus, Aldebaran!\”

My Constellation spirit charged forward, flames billowing from his jaws and engulfing the area. Kufa stood his ground firmly, holding his katana with both hands before he cleaved the inferno apart. Even so, he was visibly scorched in certain areas, his skin blistering from the sheer heat.

Then Taurus struck him like a freight train. Kufa righted his sword up and parried the gigantic bull's horns, avoiding a messy death from being gored. The impact hurled him across the arena, but still he made use of his amazing agility to cartwheel about, planting his feet against the wall. The concrete cracked from the collision, but Kufa ignored the damage he had caused, instead bending his knees before he sprang from the crumbling surface to launch himself forward, to meet Taurus in combat.

The two of them clashed in the middle of the arena, horn against blade. With a single sweep of his sword, Kufa unleashed a massive blue-black wave of energy at pointblank range, cleaving my poor Constellation spirit in half.

As Taurus fell apart, dissipating into mana, Kufa landed on the ground and exhaled heavily. Before he could recover, I was already descending upon him, a cloud of deadly flower petals following me. With a determined yell, I enveloped him in a blizzard of frenzied flowers, each of them a blade sharp enough to cut through steel.

\”?!\”

It was useless. Kufa swung his sword and blasted the entire maelstrom of flowers apart in a single stroke, blue-black mana wreathing him like a demonic aura. Blood streamed down his face and arms, but he was otherwise still in one piece.

\”You were so close,\” he sneered. \”But too bad…you're just not good enough.\”