“Wh-What in the world just happened?! Kurogane clearly had the upper hand as he advanced, but he was suddenly bombarded! He’s been launched far away by a stab to the shoulder!”
“No way! Big Brother lost an advantage like that?!”
Shizuku lost her composure at the unexpected development. But next to her, Alice turned pale at a yet-more-unbelievable sight.
“Shizuku! Look at Intetsu!”
Practically screaming, she pointed out what she saw to Shizuku.
“N-No…!”
“I can’t believe my eyes! Kurogane’s Device, Intetsu, has been broken! It’s as if some giant beast took a bite out of it!” Indeed, a large chunk had been gouged out of the blade of Ikki’s Device—the crystallization of his very soul. “What could have caused this?! Unless something extreme happens, Devices typically never so much as bend, let alone break like that!”
The announcer was at a loss, but that was only natural. Blazer’s Devices were super-high-density crystallized magic. Iida had been doing play-by-play for Mage-Knight battles for quite some time, but he could count the amount of times a Device had been broken on one hand. Muroto, however, began to talk in an excited tone.
“No, there is actually one exception!”
“Really?”
“Yes! Take a look at the Seven Stars King’s Tiger King!”
All eyes in the venue gathered on Moroboshi. They noticed all at once that, without their realizing before, his spear had taken on a golden glow. Everyone present knew what that aura of gold meant, of course.
“A-Amazing! At some point, the Seven Stars King activated his Tiger’s Bite!”
Tiger’s Bite was Yuudai Moroboshi’s pride. It was also the strongest known anti-Blazer ability. The night before, it had effortlessly destroyed even the Gale Sword Emperor’s Kusanagi.
“But why would he use that right now? Kurogane wasn’t using a Noble Art, was he?” Iida then gasped as he came to a realization, and his expression warped with shock. “N-No way!”
“Now you know. Indeed, erasing a Noble Art just means erasing some sort of magic. A Blazer’s control over magic doesn’t only extend to their Noble Arts, though; their Device is also made of magic!
“In the year since Moroboshi became King, it seems he’s acquired some incredible strength. Until last year, his Tiger’s Bite was only powerful enough to erase Noble Arts, which are created using a portion of a Blazer’s magic. Yet this year, Tiger’s Bite has become able to tear apart even Devices themselves, the super-dense crystallized magic formed by the Blazer’s very soul!”
Even Touka, watching the battle from all the way over in Tokyo, choked in shock.
“That’s insane!”
“President, doesn’t this put Kurogane in quite the awful position?”
“‘Awful’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
As the Blazer’s soul, the shock to the senses resulting from a broken or shattered Device was liable to render its user unconscious. If Tiger’s Bite had the strength to chew through a Device, then crossing blades with Moroboshi was tantamount to offering up one’s heart and begging for death. Fortunately, the attack hadn’t been enough to shatter Intetsu’s blade entirely, but a second hit would not be so forgiving. Ikki could no longer use Intetsu to block Tiger King, and in losing that, he also lost his one way of fighting back against Comet.
There’s no weakness for him to take advantage of! Touka thought as a shiver ran up her spine.
It wasn’t just her, either. Kanata, who was watching the fight on the television with her, as well as Ikki’s other friends watching from inside the arena all shuddered at the sheer terror that was Tiger’s Bite. The only person who was different was Ikki, the man standing in the ring. He shuddered at Yuudai Moroboshi’s entire being.
He’s a behemoth of an opponent!
Tiger’s Bite was a frighteningly powerful ability. It and it alone would likely have been more than enough to conquer the Seven Stars. Even so, the knight that Ikki faced was choosing not to do just that. Instead of indulging in his overwhelming strength, he was attempting to meticulously apprehend Ikki. Every act since he’d first used Astral Trio had been mere foreshadowing.
First, he’d drawn Ikki in by using Astral Trio, following up with the weakness-nullifying Comet. At that point, perhaps Ikki would have thought he had no chance, that the weakness Moroboshi had displayed with Astral Trio was a trap to lure him into Comet, the true killer.
Ikki was also a strong warrior, however. He, a Rank F, had clawed his way up to the Seven Stars. He had quickly perceived that Comet was a mere physical technique, able to be deflected with ease rather than dodged. But in doing so, he had falsely led himself to believe that he had trumped his foe.
Everything had gone exactly according to Moroboshi’s plan. Comet wasn’t his trump card; it was never intended to be the move that would deal the finishing blow. Its only purpose had been as bait to lure Ikki into a situation where he would consistently strike Tiger King with Intetsu. The entirety of their battle had been for the sake of using Tiger’s Bite to exploit his fatal weakness—the fatal weakness present in all Blazers.
With strength like that, pretty much anyone else would be a lot more careless.
He utilized careful strategy to strike at the blind spots in his enemy’s consciousness, never falling to sloppiness. If it had taken Ikki even a moment longer to act on his fear that Tiger’s Bite could erase Devices in the same way it did Noble Arts, he would have lost both Intetsu and the match in one fell swoop.
“Darn shame. I was so close to devouring that little butter knife of yours.”
“Hrk…!”
Moroboshi’s panicked look was nowhere to be found. Instead, he smirked fearlessly as he looked down at Ikki, whose shoulder was leaking blood. Between that expression and his overwhelming strength, Ikki became certain of one thing: the man he was fighting, the Yuudai Moroboshi who seemed so heroic based on his appearance and way of speaking, was actually a chillingly wily opponent. Every one of his actions throughout their battle had served to drive Ikki into a corner, further lowering him into his grave while he had been busy searching for weaknesses. Moroboshi’s strategy had accounted for every minute detail.
He seems so far away… There was only about fifteen feet between the two of them, but to Ikki, his opponent was distant and hazy. So this is what the Seven Stars King is capable of!