Karatena watched from her lofty vantage point while Alex had slipped in among the men, shouting upbeat encouragements. Joanne puffed out her cheeks and jerked her chin at me as if to say, “Hurry up and get on with it, already.” I really wished she wouldn’t.
Whip strode toward me with a pure, guileless smile. The moment she entered a certain range, she sank in and closed the distance with a flash-step-like lunge, bringing a diagonal cut down from my shoulder in a classic kesa slash.
I turned her strike aside, letting her blade slide harmlessly along my sword’s length.
Before I could draw back for a counter, her second sword came screaming in; I dodged it again by the width of a sheet of paper, and her twin blades plowed into the ground, throwing up snow.
Even as I saw them bury themselves, Whip was already using that momentum, shifting smoothly into a kicking motion.
I planted the sole of my foot against her thigh, pinning her leg and stopping the kick before it could even begin.
The momentum swung in my favor. With Whip’s eyes flying wide, I drove my sword in with everything I had, aiming straight for her carotid artery.
The inescapable blade reached the girl’s skin—and stopped.
The point that should have punched clean through her slender white throat struck something hard and alien beneath the surface and went no further.
“Ngh…!?”
A metallic ring echoed from under Whip’s skin. Numbness shot up my right elbow.
It was the carapace of the parasite she’d implanted, Milk-chan, the bug tucked inside her flesh.
The instant that realization flashed through my mind, something slammed into the side of my head and I went flying.
Sparks burst in the corners of my vision. A high-pitched ringing swallowed the world. As Whip finished the follow-through of her roundhouse kick, one hand pressed to her neck, the cheering, jeering men of the Northeastern Branch came back into focus behind her.
With a strangely calm part of my mind, I zeroed in on her throat. There was a small puncture there, and beneath it, black and glossy chitin glinted faintly through the hole.
She’s got a centipede-type parasite buried in there. The carapace has seams. All I have to do is hit those.
On a whim, I glanced over toward Joanne, and for some reason, she was absolutely, murderously furious.
Her eyes were blown wide open, and she was biting her lip hard enough that blood trailed from the corner of her mouth. She wasn’t looking at me. Her gaze was locked, without question, on Whip Funny Task.
Hey now, you beat the crap out of me too, you know, I thought, a bit dumbfounded. Apparently, she was the type who couldn’t tolerate watching someone else hurt me.
“Kill her.” Her low command slid between the gusts like a curse. I drew a deep breath under the weight of it.
“Maybe I should get a little serious on this next one,” Whip chirped. She didn’t even finish the sentence before she moved. No human should have been capable of that kind of acceleration.
She was on me in an instant, like she’d flash-stepped. Her body creaked and groaned with a harsh, grinding noise, like it was screaming about its own limits. Wearing an expression that said she was already certain of victory, she brought both swords down.
This wasn’t a speed I couldn’t track. Not after taking Joanne’s attacks head-on all week.
My awareness kicked into overdrive. The world warped at the edges.
Searing heat surged through my entire body, burning away every restraint that had been shackling my flesh.
I deliberately released my brain’s limiter and stepped into the realm of monsters.
Whip loomed right in front of me, face twisted into a look that said she fully intended to kill me.
Calling this “just training” is a joke, I thought, even as I moved to meet her.
I checked my footing, fixing my awareness on the twin blades cutting into my range from both upper diagonals. I could track their paths down to the millimeter. I saw them clearly. The only question left was whether my body could keep up.
Rough stone pressed against my back. Nowhere left to run.
All right, come on. Lady Luck, smile on me just this once.
As Whip’s twin swords swept in toward both my shoulders, I twisted my torso. I bent my knees, drawing myself in as far as I could, adjusting my position so that when the blades completed their arc, they’d strike the rock face behind me.
I couldn’t bend any further. A heartbeat before the real blades would have met my torso, the absurdly low stance I’d forced myself into finally paid off.
The slashes she’d unleashed mid-charge kissed the stone before they could touch me.
Driven by Whip’s completely unhinged raw power, her weapons snapped clean in half at the center. The broken fragments of steel spun through the air, and the shortened swords only managed to slice my clothes open.
Facing the wide, gaping opening she’d left, I drew my arm back in a deliberate, almost theatrical motion.
I drove my blade straight through the gap in her exoskeletal armor, punching into her slender neck.
A roar of cheers went up from the assembled men.
And then… the one kissing the dirt… was me.
“Ghh—!?”
What the—?
Something had hit me from outside my awareness. My body spasmed as I forced myself upright, only to realize the sword in my right hand was missing a chunk of its blade.
It hadn’t been deflected by the chitin hidden in Whip’s throat. A massive parasite was peeking out of her mouth.
So, while I was busy exploiting the host’s opening, the real threat slipped in a surprise attack on its own…
My blood smeared along the glossy black body of the insect told the story of what had just happened.
A whip-like blow, relying purely on mass and momentum. That wasn’t a human way of fighting. It was insane.
My forehead felt strangely cold. My vision washed over in red. My consciousness was fraying at the edges.
With both my fighting spirit and awareness shaved down to the bare minimum, I understood I was at my limits, and still, I kicked off the snowy ground.
“You’re still coming at me!? I was sure you were completely done for!” Whip shouted.
Both our swords were wrecked beyond recognition. On paper, Whip had the advantage. She still had that parasite as a living weapon.
Doesn’t matter.
With my jaw throbbing and my consciousness threatening to blink out, I charged straight in.
Seeing my unnatural charge, Whip drew back her half-broken sword and the parasite, readying both. She greeted me with a grotesque three-blade style—two swords and one living weapon.
It was only because I’d crawled through so many killing fields that my split-second reactions and decisions had been honed to a razor edge.
I sprinted across the snow, factoring in every quirk of the twin blades I’d crossed with until now and the new variable: that parasite.
Whatever happens after, I’ll deal with it then. Right now, I just need to beat this insect-person down with everything I’ve got and rip as much information out of her as I can.
We passed each other in a single heartbeat.
Two clear notes rang out. Whip’s twin swords flew into the air.
And then, both of us dropped to our knees at the same time.
A rustle of tension ran through the crowd. As the onlookers held their breath, we both pitched forward and collapsed into the snow.
The clash between executive candidates had reached its conclusion. The result was a draw.
“No waaay… Don’t tell me you actually aimed for the gaps in the carapace…?”