To seize the advantage, Senior Sister was bound to make the first move, closing the distance with Kurogane Shizuku and suppressing her in a field she was weak at, using her own strengths to take control of the battle's tempo.
And sure enough,
Not long after Ryoji finished speaking, Toudou Touka on the field lowered her knees and lunged forward in a headlong charge.
"So fast!"
"That's Shippū Jinrai!"
The twenty-meter gap vanished in an instant.
That speed was barely inferior to Ryoji's.
At this point, Ryoji's physical abilities had actually surpassed Senior Sister's, especially his leg strength and running speed. However, as a Lightning Warlock, Senior Sister could stimulate her muscles with lightning, achieving explosive bursts far beyond normal limits and attaining extraordinary, godlike speed.
"Freeze everything, Frozen Tundra!"
But Kurogane Shizuku had already anticipated this moment.
As her words fell, crystal-clear ice, pure and flawless, began forming at her feet.
The freezing spread even faster than Toudou Touka's charge. In the blink of an eye, it radiated outward, covering the entire hundred-meter battle ring.
One could not run at high speed on such a slick surface; doing so would inevitably result in slipping and losing control.
Forced to slow down, Toudou Touka fell right into Kurogane Shizuku's calculations. With a wave of her hand, three water bullets the size of basketballs shot forth in succession.
"Water Prison Bullets!"
Ordinary water cannon shots would burst into splashes upon hitting an opponent.
But Kurogane Shizuku was different. Her control over water was exquisite beyond measure, so much so that even upon impact, her water bullets retained their shape.
Thus, once a water bullet touched its target, it would immediately crawl over the opponent's face, blocking their airway. That was why it was called a Water Prison Bullet, and why she was known as the Deep-Sea Witch.
Up to now, every opponent faced with this combo had no choice but to suffocate and concede.
If only this combo could defeat her,
But suddenly, she saw the opposing girl spin like a top, effortlessly dodging all three water bullets, and then casually swing out a massive lightning slash.
"How can her reaction be that fast?!"
Kurogane Shizuku was shocked.
Having her move countered wasn't what surprised her, but the opponent's speed of reaction caught her completely off guard. There was no time to think further. Kurogane Shizuku hurriedly waved her hand, raising a thick water curtain several meters high to block the incoming lightning slash.
"She ignored attribute disadvantage?"
"Shizuku can create ultra-pure water with no impurities at all. Lightning doesn't actually counter her."
"So that's how it is."
Ryoji nodded in realization.
Water itself is an insulator; it conducts electricity only because of the impurities within it.
With Kurogane Shizuku's Magic Power Control reaching A-rank, she could create ultra-pure water free of impurities, naturally rendering lightning ineffective against it.
"But producing ultra-pure water isn't a simple process, right? Can she really keep fighting while maintaining that level of focus?"
"That's right…"
Which was why the attribute disadvantage was still extremely unfavorable for Kurogane Shizuku in the long run.
On the field, the massive lightning slash crashed into the water curtain, blasting one section apart, but failing to pierce through it completely. Toudou Touka said nothing, shutting out all distractions. Without a word, she swung her blade again, sending out a second, a third… lightning slash.
Dozens of lightning slashes fired off like machine-gun rounds. Amid the continuous thunderous explosions, chunks of the water curtain were blown apart one after another until it was completely shattered.
The distance between the two had now closed to just a few meters.
Toudou Touka sheathed her weapon, gripping the katana Narukami with both hands as violent lightning surged endlessly around her body.
That was the prelude to Raikiri!
This sight hooked everyone's hearts on the spot, necks craning forward, eyes fixed in anticipation.
But the slash never came.
An arm suddenly burst out from the ground, grabbing Touka's ankle and disrupting the opening of her draw-slash.
At the same time, a gigantic block of ice, over ten meters in both length and width, fell from the sky, slamming Toudou Touka beneath it amid the crowd's shocked gazes.
"Hah…"
Kurogane Shizuku breathed lightly, her expression finally relaxing.
At that moment, she had simultaneously carried out three separate controls, the water curtain, the water arm, and the ice block, and had successfully pinned Toudou Touka beneath the massive slab of ice.
In theory, anyone struck by such a huge block of ice falling from a great height should have been smashed to pieces.
Bang!
Kurogane Shizuku's nerves instantly tightened.
A gigantic blade mark appeared on the ice. Shortly afterward, the entire block shattered, and Toudou Touka emerged from within, completely unscathed.
As expected, the academy's strongest had already stepped beyond the realm of ordinary people!
Kurogane Shizuku's expression gradually grew grim.
"A-amazing! This is incredible! What a spectacular, high-level exchange of offense and defense! Even though I'm the commentator, I couldn't get a single word in during that entire sequence!"
"What's going on with that first-year student? She's actually evenly matched with the President?"
"Both of them are monsters! In any other year, either one could become a Seven Stars Sword King!"
In most cases, Seven Stars Sword Kings were only B-Rank Knights.
On rare occasions, a C-Rank Knight would take the title, while A-Rank Knights doing so were exceedingly rare.
Both fighters on the field were B-Rank Knights, standing at the pinnacle of Japan's Student Knights. No matter which of them became this year's Seven Stars Sword King, it wouldn't be surprising.
A battle of this caliber should normally take place in the finals of the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival, not in the selection matches of a single academy.
This clash sent waves of excitement through the hundreds of spectators in the venue.
"Evenly matched… huh?"
Ryoji muttered softly, then merely smiled without saying anything more.
"Don't tell me they're not?"
Stella looked at him in surprise.
"At first glance, it does look that way."
Kurogane Ikki's expression was extremely serious, one might even say tense.
"But so far, all of the fighting has been at long range."
Stella snapped back to her senses.
She had been so focused on Shizuku's situation that she hadn't noticed this detail.
That's right, up to now, Toudou Touka had never closed in on Kurogane Shizuku. She had been fighting entirely with lightning at long range, which should have been Shizuku's specialty.
Yet even in her own area of expertise, she hadn't gained the slightest advantage over Toudou Touka.
Admittedly, the exchange just now looked like a fifty–fifty split, but in reality, Toudou Touka still hadn't gotten serious.
A decisive gap had already been created in this match.
On the field,
Toudou Touka's expression turned cold and sharp.
Intense arcs of electricity surged from her body. The joule heat they released instantly vaporized the frozen tundra beneath her feet into steam.
A gentle breeze brushed past.
The very next second, her figure abruptly appeared right in front of Kurogane Shizuku, and she swung Narukami at her.
Kurogane Shizuku's heart nearly stopped, her pupils shrinking violently.
What, ?!
How did she cross dozens of meters in an instant, as if the entire process in between had been completely skipped?!
Kurogane Shizuku couldn't react at all.
(End of Chapter)
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