Ivan Reid was strong!
Although Ketis and the other Swordmaidens had already developed an expectation based on previous battle footage, the head disciple of the Cloudstrider Sword School was much faster than they anticipated!
The huge amount of progress he made since last year was immense! The speed he exhibited at the start was so astounding that it was certain that he had not just refined his sprinting technique, but also undergone substantial augmentation!
After eliminating Commander Sendra from the competition right off the bat, Ivan did stop his stride. He exuded absolute confidence as he neatly stepped back from the furious counter attacks of adjacent Swordmaidens.
Ketis did not make the mistake of tunnel visioning on Ivan. This was still a group match so she had to maintain constant awareness of what Ivan’s team mates were doing.
However, when she observed the other four Cloudstriders, she saw to her utter disbelief that they sat down on the arena floor while letting go of their slender swords.
They were mocking the Swordmaidens!
They were openly saying that Ivan alone was enough to defeat an entire team!
“This is too much!”
Previous encounters between teams that boasted a strong individual swordsman was that the generals would fight against generals while the soldiers squared off against their own kind.
In essence, neither side bothered to employ any brilliant maneuvers or clever tactics. They tacitly turned the group matches from a contest of teamwork into a contest of individual prowess.
While part of this had to do with the desire of strong swordsmen to test their mettle against their rivals, the main reason was that the main combatants were simply too strong!
If both of them were sword initiates, then they could easily butcher each other’s rank-and-file teammates with ease.
Rather than waste time on cleaning up each other’s grunts, it was much more preferable for the sword initiates to seek each other out right away!
Since the match commenced, Ketis had already adopted a defensive stance in order to await Ivan’s first move.
The fact that he completely disregarded her and came after Commander Sendra took everyone by surprise!
However, the audience quickly cheered for Ivan even if he blatantly broke the unspoken rules!
“Go ahead, Cloudstrider! Clean up the trash before you beat up the Sword Devil!”
“I knew these Swordmaidens were pathetic, but I didn’t expect them to fold this quickly.”
“Leave the Sword Devil for last and make it hurt!”
Ketis ignored the ramblings of the crowd and tried to focus on capturing Ivan’s movement. The sword initiate had rapidly faded back after completing his frontal assassination.
The remaining four Swordmaidens had become utterly serious! The fact that none of them had been able to react in time to stop Ivan meant that they faced a greater horror than they ever imagined.
“Steady, sisters.” Ketis tried to take over from Commander Sendra. “Ivan is fast, but not to the point where we can’t react. Now that we know what he’s capable of, we won’t get caught off-guard again.”
What she said was technically true, but it was still a question whether the Swordmaidens could react in time.
The most astounding part of all of this was that all five Swordmaidens in the team had eaten a lot of candy beforehand! Their strength, endurance and other physical parameters had reached an insanely high level.
However, for all of the advantages bestowed by the candies that Ves had given out, they were not particularly focused or coherent!
One candy straightforwardly increased someone’s strength. Another candy directly made someone tougher.
While the increase in basic attributes was useful, there was no way to exert more control over the direction of the physical improvement.
Another obvious shortcoming was that the Swordmaidens didn’t receive any candy that directly increased their speed!
Sure, one candy was able to increase their dexterity, but only a couple of people like Ketis got it. While it helped a bit with increasing her reaction time, it ultimately did not provide a boost to her mobility!
Even though the Swordmaidens were not burdened by the need to guard against the other four Cloudstrider disciples, they still didn’t relax. Ivan Reid was already fast and skilled enough to threaten all of them at once!
After leisurely circling around a bit, Ivan abruptly turned inwards and charged forth yet again!
“He’s coming!”
“Get ready!”
Although Ivan approached just as fast as before, the Swordmaidens were mentally prepared this time. They not only formed a solid formation, but also began to swing their greatswords in time to cover every dangerous approach!
Even Ketis swung her saber in a wide sweep that would certainly pose a serious threat to Ivan if he strayed in her direction.
However, Ivan did not wish to tangle with her at first. He approached the opposite side and somehow managed to evade every greatsword coming in his way before rapidly moving away.
“I’m out!”
Ketis barely caught how Ivan slammed the tip of his fencing sword against the chest of another Swordmaiden!
Although the Cloudstriders weren’t known for their power moves, speed was a powerful amplifier.
Against opponents who weren’t able to block his charge attacks, one hit was enough to eliminate an opponent from the tournament!
In the next minute, the remaining Swordmaidens tried their best to land a hit on Ivan, but the sword initiative contemptuously mocked their failed attempts as he used his prodigious momentum to eliminate them one by one!
“Hahaha!” Ivan tauntingly laughed. “Do you see the difference between rabble like you and refined swordsmen like us? You can forget about touching me! I have made greater attainments in my Breeze Stride than ever before! Only the swordmasters that I look up to are faster!”
Ketis had witnessed enough attack passes from Ivan to understand that there was some sort of pattern behind his stride. The fact that it had a special name only confirmed her suspicion.
The problem she had was that it shouldn’t make sense!
As a mech designer, Ketis was well-versed in the optimal ways that humans and humanoid mechs were able to move. The mech industry had long developed several sets of movement patterns that were optimized for walking, jogging, sprinting, evasion and other movement actions.
Although she didn’t study too deeply into this field, she was pretty sure that there were lots of inefficient aspects about Ivan’s specific stride!
However, these oddities didn’t seem to affect Ivan. His considerable physical augmentation and shorter-than-average stature helped a lot, but that shouldn’t be the entire story.
She slightly shook her head. There was no point in trying to decipher Ivan’s illogical movement technique. She just needed to take it into account and prepare to fend him off next!
“Sharpie. Please help me out.”
Swish swish.
Her living sword intent knew that the situation was quite bad this time. It vibrated in her mind while changing to annihilation mode.
Once Sharpie changed its coat, Ketis began to feel the urge to chase after Ivan and annihilate his precious legs. She wanted to see how this Cloudstrider could still outpace her after he had lost the basis of his speed!
Ketis snarled. She couldn’t listen to this stupid impulse. Mindless destruction wouldn’t avail her in this match, especially when Ivan was more than agile enough to evade her empowered attacks with ease.
The only way she even had a chance of touching him was to let him take the initiative to attack!
Only when he did the opposite of avoiding him would she be able to reverse this situation!
Ivan wasn’t in a hurry to attack, though. He smirked and deliberately relaxed his posture. In any case, he was distant enough that Ketis had no way of landing a hit on him before he could respond.
“Your teammates are weaker than I expected. While I can respect their decision to take greatswords into the field, they are idiots if they think that large and heavy weapons will take them further in this tournament. Pursuing power to its extreme never works! You need to achieve balance. Most sword styles advocate this as the only way you can defeat any opponent is to combine both power and finesse.”
Ketis was getting tired of this fellow’s frequent insults. “How we fight is none of your business. We trained to fight against monsters and mechs, not take part in duels where killing isn’t allowed. No one talks as much as you on an actual battlefield. If you have spilled blood and fought against hordes of enemies who wish to spill your blood in return, you would know better than to turn a fight into a game!”
She keenly sensed that Ivan Reid and the rest of the Cloudstriders weren’t blooded warriors. To be sure, that did not make them weak. They drilled so much and mastered the Cloudstrider Sword Style to such an impressive extent that they could outfight pretty much every veteran!
What Ketis was actually aiming for was trying to poke at one of his psychological weaknesses. A true swordsman always dreamt of achieving glory in battle. The fact that Ketis had several battles to her name while the majority of sword initiates in the peaceful Heavensword Association never fought a battle to the death was a glaring discrepancy!
Ivan no longer had a playful smile on his face. “Oh, you’ve angered me, woman. I was willing to be somewhat merciful with you on account of your ignorance, but I will not allow you to impinge on my honor!”
Before Ketis could make a snarky response, Ivan utilized his Breeze Steps to dart forward at a slightly oblique angle!
The confusing steps, the slightly off-center angle and the unexpected timing of his approach caught Ketis slightly off-guard!
Still Shiva already began to swing in order to block Ivan’s approach. She had managed to respond fast enough to ensure that her new saber would likely be able to cut through Ivan’s fencing sword if the man insisted on pressing his attack.
She expected him to back off. The Cloudstrider Sword Style was known for its hit-and-run attacks. Its practitioners possessed plenty of endurance and could keep gnawing at their opponents for a long time.
Yet to her utter surprise, Ivan did not stop or alter his trajectory in any way. His fencing sword swiped forward at rapid speed as if it was about to offer itself up to be chopped by Ketis’ annihilation blade!
CLANG!
Sparks flew and a small explosion of different lights briefly spread from the sword collision.
Ketis widened her eyes. Ivan managed to block her unstoppable attack!
“My Wind Slice can fend off all of your attacks no matter how much you empower it! Your annihilation trick can’t work if it goes against the wind!”
He ran around and began to charge at Ketis again! When Shiva got blocked by Ivan’s sword yet again, she knew that her greatest reliance was much more constrained this time.
There was no way for her to cut her opponent’s weapon unless she banked on tiring him out!
While it wasn’t impossible for her to win this confrontation, she could no longer rely on a lazy solution.
She needed to outfight Ivan the old-fashioned way!
Yet as Ivan made his fifth attack run against her, Shiva didn’t encounter the physical resistance that she expected.
Alarms immediately rang inside her head. “Not good!”
It turned out that Ivan had swung his empowered sword a moment earlier! Even though his weapon didn’t come close to hitting her, the strange blue corona that surrounded his blade traveled on and passed through her guard!
She awkwardly threw herself to the ground in order to evade the strange energy attack, but a part of it nonetheless clipped her side!
Although the arena’s energy shield managed to block the swift attack, she nonetheless saw that her opponent gained more points!
When attacks weren’t deemed fatal, they awarded points. If the match took long enough for both sides to remain standing, then the winner would inevitably be the one who scored the highest.
Somehow, Ketis didn’t think that Ivan would let this match run out of time.
“It’s a pity the arena strengthened its energy shields in response to your frequent butchery. No matter. If a breeze can’t defeat you, then a hurricane will!”
Different from last time, Ivan charged head-on this time! The momentum he picked up was so ferocious that the air around him grew violent!
Clang!
Shiva slipped from Ketis’ grasp and flew into the air!
