So fast...but I can read it.
The launched gear flew toward Sansui at a shocking speed. However, the buildup had been far too long, and the moment of release was easy to anticipate. With time to spare, Sansui moved to evade it.
But as the gear closed in on him, it suddenly flashed. Blades of light unfolded around the gear. The instant he saw that, Sansui lost his composure for the first time. He attempted a wide evasion with Flash Step, but it was too late. The glowing blades—just barely—reached him.
“So I couldn’t completely avoid it...”
The gear, still wrapped in blades, flew off into the distance, but on Sansui’s chest, where he now stood clear of its trajectory, ran a long, thin line. As a mere greeting at the moment of first contact, Sansui had been wounded.
“The fact that the void blade only grazed you...means you saw through the solid ring and waited until the last possible moment to evade.”
Seeing this, Lloyd did not rejoice at having injured an Immortal; he merely confirmed the result.
“I see. I thought it was just a gear, but it was a ground spinner.”
For Sansui, bleeding in battle—let alone being grazed by an enemy’s attack—was something he had never experienced in his long life as an Immortal. Yet he did not lower his gaze to the wound. He simply kept his eyes on Lloyd.
Lloyd’s expression gradually clouded. No—he began to look dissatisfied.
“Do you know about Divine Ginseng?”
“Yes, I do. My master can make it, but I am too inexperienced to do so myself.”
Strangely enough, Lloyd seemed displeased that the wound he had inflicted was not healing.
“Why didn’t you eat it beforehand? If you had, a wound like that would have healed already.”
Sansui understood Lloyd’s displeasure. This fight was hardly normal. One side was armed with noble treasures, physically enhanced with Divine Ginseng and the like, and supported by the Consecrated Maidens. And yet the other side carried nothing but a wooden sword, relying only on a Golden Balm to strengthen his body. By no measure could this ever be called an even match.
Don’t underestimate me. Don’t look down on me. Fight with your utmost strength—that was what Lloyd was saying. Sansui understood that, he truly did. But it was not his way.
“Words are unnecessary. I will let the result speak for itself.”
With the flesh of his chest still yet split open, Sansui stepped forward once more. There was no smile on his face. With deadly seriousness, he confronted his opponent and took grim enjoyment in a battle where neither side could afford to hold back.
“Yes... You’re right.”
Lloyd had no room to let his guard down either.
His Flash Step is too fast... Even Lord Fukei needed several seconds before activation, but this Immortal didn’t need even an instant. So this is the disciple of the rampaging god...
There were Tengu in this village who could use Flash Step as well. However, Fukei, who had visited here before, had been several levels faster than them. And Sansui’s Flash Step surpassed even Fukei’s.
But given his age, he can’t have devoted time to training much else. Unlike Lord Fukei, he won’t have limitless recovery, nor will he be able to freely manipulate heaven and earth. Flash Step—that’s what I need to watch out for.
Sansui, at the same time, was also considering as he moved back into position.
Now then, what should I do?
Ultimately, Sansui’s way of fighting was to close in and strike, and he was extremely ill-suited to opponents he could not approach. Moreover, considering that his opponent had eaten Divine Ginseng and was wearing defensive noble treasures, it would take many solid hits to land anything decisive.
A tough opponent, that is certain...
Landing even a single blow would be difficult, and closing the distance itself was hard. And yet he would have to deliver multiple effective strikes against such an enemy. As he walked calmly forward, Sansui simulated move upon move of offense and defense in his mind.
Meanwhile, Lloyd’s mind was also hard at work constructing his own strategy for winning.
Mirror Spin Barrage is the fastest technique in the Rapid Iron Style... The fact that he read it so quickly means that any other straightforward technique I use will be avoided as well.
Landing a hit was going to be just as difficult for Lloyd. He held the advantage in that one clean hit could decide the match, but the only person who had ever managed to land such a hit on Sansui was Suiboku himself.
I’ll solidify my defense, press the attack, and cut off his retreat. I won’t leave him any room to maneuver!
“Void Blade, dual blade spin!”
One gear had already been fired, which left seven remaining. Lloyd left the five defensive gears as they were and converted the two rotating ones into offensive use, blades of light unfolding from them as he sent them darting erratically around the field.
“Here I come!”
Maintaining that formation, Lloyd burst into a full sprint. He closed the distance in one rush toward the calmly advancing Sansui.
“Hahhhh!”
He deftly manipulated the two outer gears, using them aggressively to strike. There was no need for Sansui to speculate how much cutting power they possessed; what mattered was the trajectory of the attacks. Because they were launched with clear intent, it was possible to see and read them.
“Quicken Self.”
He increased his speed and slipped past the two attacking gears, forcing his way into the gap between them and the ring of five defensive gears. However—
“Quicken Belt.”
The moment Lloyd confirmed that Sansui had used Quicken Self, he activated Quicken Belt as well.
Now our perceived speeds are even... He won’t catch me by surprise!
Just as Lloyd thought that would suffice, Sansui accelerated even further.
“Ki Wave: Quivering Feet.”
On top of Quicken Self, he layered the speed of force release. By powerfully kicking off the ground, he violently propelled his own body forward. The high-difficulty maneuver, one that allowed for little complex motion, was executed by Sansui with complete composure—right within his opponent’s guard.
Sansui vanished from Lloyd’s field of vision. At the same time, a series of dull, rapid sounds echoed, and vibrations traveled up through the ground. It was obvious that Sansui was doing something outside Lloyd’s sight.
Stay calm... As long as I maintain the solid ring I’ve assigned to defense, I won’t take a hit.
If Lloyd had been inexperienced, losing sight of Sansui would have shaken him. He might even have repositioned the defensive gears deployed around him. But Lloyd remained calm. Keeping his defenses where they were, he adjusted his stance and surveyed his surroundings.
Sansui was there, within his sight. He was still close by.
Foolish—he’s still lingering between the offensive and defensive rings! No matter how much the gears block my vision, a man can’t simply hide there!
He searched for me without panicking—impressive composure, Sansui thought. But...the instant he finds me, his attention will inevitably narrow!
Lloyd moved to shift the gears to block off Sansui’s escape route. If he did that, it would be checkmate, allowing him to end the match with a controlled stop just short of a decisive blow.
At that moment, something struck Lloyd on the head.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that something dropped onto him.
“Eh?!”
Naturally, it was an attack brought about by Sansui’s technique.
“World Manipulation: Mountain Throwing.”
It was a technique that lightened an object once touched, causing it to float, and then made it heavy again at the caster’s will. When Sansui had moved with Quivering Feet, he’d kicked up the soil beneath his feet and left it suspended in midair. The instant Lloyd caught sight of Sansui, he caused it to fall directly onto Lloyd’s head.
The amount of earth was no more than could be scooped up with both hands, and the weight was nothing extraordinary. Even so, the surprise strike to the head disrupted Lloyd’s delicate control of the gears. Their speed dulled, their rotation slowed, and gaps opened throughout their formation.
This is bad!
In the momentary darkness of his obscured vision, Lloyd chose the best possible action. Abandoning precise control, he deployed void blades from the gears around himself, using them to forcibly fill the gaps that had opened in the formation. Defense came first. He intended to weather the time until his formation recovered by turtling up.
I’ll endure this!
Just as I thought he would, Sansui thought.
At that instant, he swung his wooden sword.
“Ki Blade: Prayer Beads.”
It was an attributeless spell that bound anything it touched. Sansui used it to pick up a small stone from the ground with his wooden sword as it passed, and as he completed the swing, he released the technique and fired the stone off. Through the disordered gears and the void blades extending from them—gaps no human body could pass—it threaded through and struck the top of Lloyd’s foot.
“Wha—?”
Still reeling from the rain of dirt over his head, Lloyd looked down at his foot, which had suffered nothing more than a small injury.
Exactly as Sansui intended, Lloyd erased Sansui from his own field of vision.
“Feather Step.”
Sansui did not miss the opening. In an instant, he leaped into the air, lightening his own body and dropping inside the cage of gears. Had Lloyd been watching Sansui, he could have intercepted him easily. But Lloyd, having glanced down even for a moment, could not.
“Leaden Step.”
Increasing his own weight, Sansui brought his wooden sword down in a crushing blow. As repayment for the blood Sansui had shed, he delivered a merciless strike.
It robbed Lloyd of consciousness—if only for an instant.
The Rapid Iron Style’s defense is indeed formidable, but it is a defense founded on skill, one that only functions when the practitioner is in perfect condition. Disrupting it is not difficult. Even so, the real fight begins now.
He had found a way to deal with the Rapid Iron Style, and a way to deal with Lloyd. But the battle was far from decided. Above all else, most of the noble treasures created by Cel had barely come into play. It was unthinkable that an Immortal who had lived through endless ages would fail to anticipate the possibility of an opponent breaking into close range.
“Harden Self.”
Having landed a decisive blow and briefly taken away Lloyd’s consciousness, Sansui chose defense rather than pressing the attack.
I don’t know what’s coming, but I’ll take it head-on for now!