Ooh, she really is fast. Much faster than she was in her fight with Gandolph. The number and ferocity of her strikes were commendable. Plus, the wind assisting her was actually quite troublesome. Heh heh, trying to blind me by kicking up sand, are you? Using tricks like this suggests you’ve got plenty of real combat experience.
“You’re kidding me...”
One hundred and thirty-three hits consisting of kicks, punches, and invisible wind strikes. I blocked all of them. Tohaulow was smiling even through her surprise, so viciously she was like a beast thirsting for blood.
“I can go all out, right? You won’t die, right? Right?”
I nodded. This was a reward for hyping up the tournament, after all. Of course I would take her full strength.
“Wait.” Sauzan put a stop to the blue fox’s excitement to continue.
“Cut it out already or I’ll knock your lights out first.” Tohaulow was in a state of uncontrollable passion. Beastkin always had a very strong combat instinct.
“I’m not stopping you. I’m joining you.”
Sauzan raised his right hand, and then swung it down. With a golden flash of lightning, a sword appeared. This was clearly also a sacred weapon. It was a regular broadsword enhanced with holy lightning.
“I’ve come to the same conclusion as you, Toha. We can’t leave this child be. We have to figure out who she is—it’s our responsibility as those qualified to become Heroes.”
Yeah, let’s just...pretend I didn’t hear anything.
“I’m glad you’ve found the desire to fight. I was afraid you were going to act as some pretty statue forever. May I confirm something before we begin?”
Neither of them responded verbally, but I took their gazes as a yes.
“Is it bad for me to break those weapons of yours?” As in, would they return to normal if I broke or damaged them in any way? Just like how attuned weapons could be resummoned in a mended state.
“You don’t need to worry about that. They won’t break so easily,” Sauzan reassured.
“No, hang on, Sauzan.” Except this time, Tohaulow was the one to stop that train of thought. “I think there’s a chance she could... You ever hear of someone’s Divine Technique breaking?”
“Nope. But they’re weapons bestowed by the gods. They can’t break.”
“But what if they did? We couldn’t just laugh that off. Can we even repair these things?”
“They can’t break.”
“But what if they can?! You’re usually so careful, but you can get stubborn over the weirdest things! If it’s a risk we can avoid, then we should minimize it as much as possible, you greedy glutton! If you like me, then listen to me!”
Okay, okay, quit your squabbling.
“I get it. I’ll be careful not to break them.”
Surprisingly, they weren’t quite a duo in a battle, but they were still strong when they fought together. Tohaulow consistently engaged in extremely close range while Sauzan slipped attacks in slight gaps that wouldn’t get in her way. Sometimes, wind would fly at me from unexpected angles and at unexpected times. It was rather frustrating.
And then, there were the electric strikes. Those weren’t so much of an issue—I just blocked them with chi.
Lightning was fast. Usually, lightning users were the ones you had to take out as quickly as possible. But the goal of this fight wasn’t really to take my opponents out, so that didn’t matter here.
“Heh heh.”
Regardless, they were good. Fighting just one of them would’ve been boring, but taking them both on at once was kind of fun. Those moments where it was dangerous to let my guard down were exciting. They were decent as a team, but it would admittedly have been a bit more fun if they had been more used to fighting alongside each other. I would’ve loved to see some risky combo moves that could potentially lead to them taking the other out if they messed up, but that was asking a bit too much from them right now.
Their sacred weapons appeared to be fortifying their bodies, so their strength now was entirely different from what they’d shown during the tournament. Had they shown their true strength, they would’ve blown through the whole thing. I could understand why they’d chosen to limit themselves, and why Sauzan had said they weren’t supposed to use these abilities against humans. Though it wasn’t as if they’d have been allowed to use these weapons in the tournament anyway—they were pretty lethal.
Personally, it was because these weapons were so strong that they should use them more. You had to get the experience of using powerful moves a lot in order to get used to them. While it was fine to reserve them for the times it really mattered, training and actual experience were very different. If they let themselves use it in real battle more, they’d be able to control it better without having to restrict themselves entirely.
I could tell they were both starting to feel the pressure the longer the exchange of blows went.
I see now. They have a time limit because of how strong these weapons make them. That was fairly similar to my students. I wasn’t sure if it was because these two weren’t used to their sacred weapons or if it was because the energy each one consumed was that severe. Well, there was no such thing as power that was simply convenient—there was always a price.
“Sauzan! Now!”
“You got it!”
It seemed they were about to do something. As I watched with excitement...Tohaulow suddenly disappeared.
Oh my, this has to be the fastest attack of the day. Even I can’t see it.
But I could sense her presence. She was above me.
A heavy wind came crashing down, pushing me into the ground as if to seal my movements. Tohaulow took advantage of that tailwind to aim a kick, her heel coming down toward me.
Yup. She’s fast. Looks like quite a heavy kick too. Even made me look up. I can sense Sauzan coming at me from below.
They were coming at me with such satisfying intent to kill.
Wonderful.
I was glad I’d asked for this spar. If they were willing to come at me with their full strength, then maybe it was only right for me to give them a show of my own.
“Huh?!”
This was something I wanted to teach Gandolph one day. I blocked Sauzan’s horizontal slash with my left arm. The blade sank into the skin—but only a little. Blades severed limbs by sliding, but you could halt its movement by gripping them with the flesh it cut into.
Remember this well. There is flesh that you cannot cut in this world.