Countless sword styles flowed from him as naturally as breathing—smooth, unforced, seamless.
As if every technique had been fully assimilated into his own.
From Eiji's swordsmanship—
Ikki couldn't find a single opening.
Theoretically, switching between different styles on the fly should cause disruptions in flow, reduced power, and inconsistency. But none of those rules applied to him.
Eiji didn't just replicate sword styles—he surpassed their original wielders.
And what was worse—
"He's evolving alongside me."
Ikki's face was tense.
Under Eiji's overwhelming pressure, he had been forced to evolve—and yet, that very evolution only fed Eiji's own growth.
Every improvement he made... was instantly copied and devoured.
Like a gluttonous beast, Eiji absorbed every shred of progress into himself.
"At this rate… I'll lose!"
A powerful sense of danger seized Ikki's heart.
He had simulated this matchup with Eiji countless times.
Faced with Eiji's "Absolute Godspeed"—an ability that nullified traditional swordsmanship—Ikki had developed what he believed was the only counter-strategy he could deploy.
But not like this.
Not in a back-and-forth duel.
If he couldn't seize the upper hand, that strategy was meaningless.
And right now—
He couldn't keep up.
Eiji's talent was simply too far beyond his.
It was an insurmountable gap—a gulf in natural aptitude.
If talent were a Russian nesting doll, then no matter how many layers Ikki uncovered, he'd still be inside Eiji's.
That was the kind of difference they had.
A difference in capacity that couldn't be bridged.
"If I keep going like this, I'll lose for sure."
Then—there was only one choice left.
The worst-case option.
Ikki took a deep breath and hardened his resolve.
"—Sixth Secret Sword: Poisonous Moth Long Sword!!"
He abandoned Raikou, raising his katana high—and in a flash, closed the distance.
Steel clashed.
In the instant their blades collided, a shockwave of force exploded through Eiji's blade and body.
Eiji instantly recognized the technique.
It resembled his own Demonic Light Flowing Blade—a technique that transmitted disruptive force through contact.
In a snap, he adjusted, ready to counter with the same method to cancel the power.
"—Ittou Shura!!"
But that was when—
Ikki's eyes flared wide, and he let out a fearsome roar.
"W-W-What a sudden Ittou Shura!! There was no warning at all!"
The commentator nearly jumped out of their seat.
Eiji's eyes went wide in shock.
The power surging from Ikki's blade exploded—ten times greater than before!
BOOM!!
Caught completely off guard, Eiji's guard shattered instantly.
With a deafening blast, a shadow shot through the arena, violently tumbling across the ground, bouncing off the floor like a ragdoll—
—and finally, like a cannonball, slammed into the arena fence.
In the center of the arena, Ikki stood tall, bathed in ice-blue magical light.
Raw power surged through his entire body.
The one who was blown away—
Was Eiji.
"He's been sent flying!! During the blade clash, Ikki suddenly unleashed Ittou Shura! Because of the sheer abruptness of the outburst, he exploited the single weakness of Absolute Godspeed! Now Eiji has been launched across the stage! Given the sheer force of that crash—could he be seriously injured?!"
"Angel-sama!!"
"That bastard! I'll never forgive him!"
From the crowd came an uproar of screams and condemnation.
"Kurogane has turned the tables! He now holds the advantage! Will Eiji be able to get back up? No—please, get up, Angel-sama!"
"…Cough… cough… Actually, this might not be a good move for Ikki."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Ittou Shura is a trump card that can only be used for one minute. Against someone like Eiji, Ikki absolutely shouldn't have used it first. Doing so puts him at a massive disadvantage. And Ikki knows that full well… yet he still activated it. Which can only mean one thing—
he has no other options left."
"I see!"
"The only question now is Eiji's current condition…"
The sharp commentary from the analyst table brought sudden realization to many of the "Fallen Angel" fans in the audience. The murmur of confusion turned into a wave of encouragement and cheers for Eiji.
"That last hit… surely left him seriously injured, right?"
Kurono murmured with a touch of doubt.
She wasn't a combat-type blazer—ninety percent of her strength lay in her Noble Art. Right now, she could no longer keep up with what was unfolding on the field.
"Not necessarily."
Nene suddenly chimed in.
Though she normally wouldn't understand a high-level match like this either, her calm and confident expression said otherwise—as if she had expected this all along.
"That brat isn't hurt at all."
Torajirou added with a grin, confirming her hunch.
Back in the battle zone—
A figure slowly rose from within a dark, dusty storage room at the edge of the arena.
Eiji stood up and casually rolled his shoulders.
Then, under the watchful gaze of thousands, he walked out of the ruins and returned to the arena as if nothing had happened.
At most, he had a bit of dust on him, and there was a small tear on his uniform.
"Unbelievable! What's going on?! Angel-sama—Eiji—he's completely unharmed! But he was slammed out of the arena just now!"
"That's exactly the problem…"
"Hm?"
"With Eiji's physical stats, there's no way he should've been launched that hard… cough, cough. More likely—he chose to fly back himself.
By using the impact with the ground to dissipate the force. The cracks in the floor support that theory."
The crowd's eyes widened.
Sure enough, at several spots where Eiji had bounced off the ground earlier, cracks and damage could be seen.
"It's similar to a technique in judo called ukemi, or breakfall. It's used to absorb damage by falling in a controlled way when thrown. He must have used something like that… cough."
"So that's what it was!"
Even Kurono—and thousands of spectators both live and watching on TV—finally understood.
Inside the arena—
Eiji returned with a calm and unbothered expression.
But his opponent, Ikki Kurogane, was anything but calm.
His face darkened, and the confident smile had been replaced by a bitter one.
There are no ring-out rules in a match between Blazers.
Even if you're blown clear out of the arena—or launched a thousand meters into the sky—it doesn't count as a loss.
Unless a fighter surrenders, breaks the rules, or loses consciousness, there are no other victory conditions.
Time limits and boundary rules are completely irrelevant.
Which meant that even though Eiji had been blown into a storage room outside the stage, he could still casually walk back and resume the match—completely unharmed.
All Ikki could do was give a bitter laugh.
***
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