The man in front of him was holding a sword, but the way he carried himself made it look like it weighed nothing at all.
The sword probably just feels like an extension of his body.
Zara slid his feet in a clockwise motion while measuring the best moment to strike.
The man slashed twice at Zara, the sword making less noise than would be expected as it cut through the air. Zara dodged the sword without ceasing his clockwise movement by simply angling his body.
He had an opportunity to counter by slashing at the man during each of those two attacks. But if he had gone for it, the man likely would have moved out of the way and landed a blow on Zara.
Zara swung his sword up from the bottom left of his body. The man dodged by taking a half step back. Zara then spun to the right, accelerating into a cutting strike. The man leaped out of the way; then, before landing, he twisted his body in the air and used centrifugal force to slash down diagonally from the left.
Zara’s sword was still caught in the air to the right, leaving the left side of his body defenseless. He dodged by intentionally falling backward onto the ground. The man’s sword brushed lightly against Zara’s body as it cut through the air.
Zara then used centrifugal force to lift himself back up. They struck at each other once more with their swords.
That was close. If he hadn’t reversed his clockwise movement at the last second to throw off his opponent’s spacing, he would’ve been sliced open.
The man wasn’t out of breath, but his chest was visibly heaving. If there was one thing Zara had over his opponent, it was youth. The longer the battle raged, the greater his chance of victory would become.
Zara suddenly realized something. Not too long ago, he had felt fear at the prospect of being injured by simple ice wolves, but now, against an opponent of this caliber, he was fighting with joy. One blow could mean losing a limb or even his life. His chances of victory were fairly low, yet still, he felt no fear.
What was the reason for that? Was the thrill of the battle eclipsing his fear? Was it because unlike the ice wolves, if he lost, it would be to a prestigious opponent?
The man once again slashed downward from his shoulder. Zara dodged to the left and thrusted the tip of his sword at the man’s face. The man cut off the attack by swinging his sword upward from right to left, tracing the exact opposite direction of his last strike. Zara used his sword to knock his opponent’s blade off its trajectory, then took a step back. The man also took a half step back.
That was an incredible move.
Zara had dodged the first strike, but the man slashed his sword back up in the opposite direction without delay. That was a move he had never seen before.
He understood what happened. The man’s center of gravity initially traveled downward along with the sword, but then, like a ball bouncing off the ground, he suddenly accelerated upward. That move had been burned into Zara’s mind.
If I do the same thing, I can pull off that attack, too.
A duel is a fight between two people, but in a way, it is also a fight between their moves. As the duel progresses, each of the opponents’ moves is communicated to the other person.
Just then, there was a move that Zara wanted to identify, and there was surely a move that Jarr Dol Baza wanted to identify as well. Those moves would be exposed as soon as they used them, and then they would belong to their opponent. As their moves were communicated to their opponent, they would have to refine them, polish them, and grow them.
Show me all your moves. Dance to your heart’s content. Then expose all your moves right before my eyes.
The young swordsman and the elderly Divine Blade continued to trade blows.
Zara slashed his sword down vertically from the left and then from the right in quick succession, and the man dodged each strike with very little time to react. The man spun to charge into Zara’s space, but when Zara held his ground, the man had no choice but to abandon the attack. Immediately after that, Zara moved his sword behind his back to the right and tried to strike at a distance from which it would be impossible to avoid, but the man used his sword hand to strike Zara’s arm and throw off his attack power.
They continued to exchange moves. Then, as he gave himself entirely to the fight, Zara recalled a scene in a section of his clear mind.
Barrast was using a brutish war hammer, as usual. At first Zara scoffed at him for thinking he could take on a sword with a weapon that was limited to such simple motions, but Barrast proved able to use the hammer in an infinite variety of ways by making effective use of the head, handle, grip, or all three at once, depending on the time and situation. Barrast switched back and forth between attack and defense so quickly and freely that Zara couldn’t keep up, which limited his sword’s movement. The war hammer was way too strong for Zara to even think about trying to block any blows. Zara eventually came to think that swords were a difficult-to-handle weapon and that they had no chance against a hammer.
Barrast would occasionally strike his sword and break it. One day, when Zara had his sword broken repeatedly, he said that the hammer was unfair. Barrast stared at him with a look of confusion and then burst out laughing. He said he would use a sword, too.
They then both fought using longswords, and Barrast broke Zara’s sword almost instantly. He then said it’s not about the weapon but rather the technique.
Here it is!
He saw it on the man’s blade a third of the way up from the hilt.
An opportunity. One that an ordinary swordsman would not have registered.
In the blink of an eye, Zara pierced his blade accurately through that point on the man’s sword. The blade broke with a shrill sound and went soaring through the air.
“MATCH.”
The disembodied voice announced the end of the duel.
It was over. He had won.
“That was very impressive,” the Divine Blade said.
“Thank you very much,” Zara responded, bowing his head.
He suddenly noticed something.
I didn’t use a single skill during that fight.
“Is something wrong? You’re making a strange face.”
“No. I just noticed that I didn’t use any skills during our duel. I was wondering why.”
“Honestly, I was thinking the same thing.”
The Divine Blade laughed. Zara laughed, too.
The four sacred beasts around them appeared to be laughing as well.