“Yeah. That’s why if you attack the same way you’d strike an upright enemy, you won’t hit him. You have to account for the difference in reach. But since we don’t normally train for that, you’d just have to guess. And even then, it probably wouldn’t matter if you went up against an average opponent. But landing a hit would be nearly impossible with someone who’s got moves like Ragi.”
“Gramps is amazing,” Alto said, sounding impressed.
“But the option you’d want to avoid the most is swinging down from overhead.”
“Why’s that?”
“’Cause if you miss, you’ll end up hitting the ground instead. Then you can’t follow up with another attack right away, which will create an opening for your opponent. Worst-case scenario, your sword could even get stuck in the ground, and then it’d be all over.”
“Oh, I get it. I thought swinging upward was bad because if you missed, you could get countered from below and lose your sword… But I guess swinging down is even worse.”
“Sure is. So your only choices left are either to thrust or cut horizontally. But the strike zone is so small with a thrust that it’d be hard to connect. So a sweeping strike is the best approach. Oh, and just so you know—if you’re on horseback, the distance to the ground is even greater, making it that much harder to land a horizontal sweep.”
“I get it. Because you’re really high up on a horse.”
Alto was thinking about his own experiences, so he hadn’t seemed to realize it yet, but I suspected this stance was how Ragi had once earned the nickname Knightslayer.
“But if that stance is so strong, how come everybody doesn’t use it?” the young boy asked.
“Well, it’d be impossible to manage all the blind spots that come from having such a low sight line without Ragi’s dragon’s protection.”
From this point on, he wasn’t fighting to try to impress anyone. He was trying to win.
But why? Did his fighting spirit as a warrior somehow get rekindled after all this time?
“Master! Gramps! You can do it!” Alto called out, his voice high and bright.
The moment he shouted, Ragi broke out into a run. Setsuna leaped forward as well. They charged at each other head-on, planning to trade blows at a speed impossible to evade.
Just then, I saw Setsuna’s right hand move. He was faster.
He can’t block that!
I thought for sure his sword would pierce Ragi’s right shoulder. But the instant before it made contact, Ragi grabbed the blade with both hands, leapt forward, and twisted in midair. Setsuna tried to kill his own momentum, but Ragi flipped over his head, twisted in a half turn, and landed. By the time Setsuna looked back at him, Ragi had already gauged his movements perfectly and leaped into the air once again.
Ragi’s right heel came down mid-somersault, aiming for Setsuna’s left collarbone. Setsuna raised his small shield to dampen the impact.
Next came Ragi’s left heel, targeting Setsuna’s other side. Setsuna dropped his sword and brought up his right arm to block the blow.
But he wasn’t done yet.
Ragi braced both feet against Setsuna’s defenses and used his core strength to wrench his body upright. He clenched both hands together, then drove them down toward Setsuna’s head with all the power he had left. A sound like shattering glass rippled out in waves. Ragi pushed himself away as the sound reverberated around them. Setsuna calmly bent down like nothing had happened and picked up his fallen sword, along with something else from the ground.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break your precious earring,” Ragi said.
“Please don’t worry about it. I didn’t think it could break from an impact that strong, either. And I can fix it,” Setsuna replied, tucking the earring into his coat.
“Still…” Ragi looked at him, his face clouded with regret.
I didn’t know what was going on, so I asked Alto if he knew the backstory. He said that Setsuna’s earring was a charm that defended against physical attacks and a keepsake from his brother.
“Master asked if Gramps wanted him to take it off earlier, but Gramps said he wanted to face Master the same way he always fights, so he left it on.”
Neither had expected the earring to break. Ragi looked incredibly apologetic, but Setsuna’s expression was composed.
“My brother loved this sort of thing, so I actually think it’d make him very happy. It’s all right, really,” Setsuna insisted.
Eventually, Ragi’s face softened into a smile.
“More importantly,” Setsuna said, changing the topic, “what was that technique of yours just now? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It doesn’t have a name,” Ragi said. “It never had need of one. You only name a technique when you intend to pass it on to someone else, and none of my skills were created for that purpose. So it’s remained nameless.”
“Right. That makes sense. My brother used to say, ‘It sounds cooler if you name it,’ and he’d come up with all sorts of names. He said it was so you could shout them before you struck.”
“Why would you do that?” Ragi asked.
“He said it makes the fight more exciting.”
“He sounds like an interesting man. I would’ve liked to have met him.” I could tell Ragi was trying to hide a smile.
“I wish you could’ve, too. So at least let me show you this.” Setsuna shifted into a different stance with all his weight on his back foot. He lifted his small shield in front of the tip of his sword, hiding the blade from view.
“I don’t like just taking hits without repaying them in kind. So I’ll return the favor with my Gathering Clouds attack.”
“You know, you’re no better than your brother,” Ragi said with an amused chuckle. He began to circle Setsuna, who slowly pivoted on his rear foot to keep his sword aimed at his opponent.
Ragi completed the circle and seemed to give up on finding an opening.
“…”
He suddenly reversed direction, stepping in to close the distance. At the same time, Setsuna twisted his left arm, rotating the small shield to be parallel to the ground. He thrust his sword forward through the opening, slicing an arc diagonally through the air.
And that wasn’t all. Setsuna simultaneously flicked his shield forward, throwing it low and to the left.
Now that Ragi’s escape routes to the left and above were both cut off, he leapt to the right. A follow-up strike was waiting for him there—a sweeping slash. Ragi realized he couldn’t dodge this one and raised the bracer on his right arm to block the blow.
A dull clang rang out, and he was blown back, landing face up on the ground.