Roxy blinked.
"…So… can he… use magic?"
Hearing this, Rudy's serious expression suddenly relaxed, as if he had found some solace. He chuckled.
"Fortunately, he's completely clueless when it comes to magic… If Alan had a talent for magic too, wouldn't he be clinging to you as his teacher? That would be too dangerous for me!"
"Ah, I see…"
Roxy let out a sigh of relief, not quite grasping what Rudy meant by "dangerous." She turned her head to look at the two in the yard, a faint smile on her lips.
Rudy looked at Roxy's expression, feeling that something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Beside them, Sylphie was blinking, secretly glancing at Roxy before her eyelashes fluttered as she too turned to look at Alan.
In the courtyard, Alan and Paul had finished their warm-ups.
Alan and Paul stood about three meters apart. Compared to the relaxed way he held his sword when facing Rudy, today, against another swordsman, Paul, he adopted a posture of full readiness.
He stood in a low stance, his legs firmly planted, holding the sword with both hands, the blade resting on his back, extremely close to his right shoulder.
Paul, on the other hand, held his sword casually as he looked at Alan.
"Ready? I'm coming, okay?"
Alan took a deep breath, his pupils suddenly contracting. The nascent Dragon Saint Battle Aura core in his abdomen compressed, sending a surge of his original battle aura coursing through his body.
He "sensed" the dust motes slowly drifting before him and smiled.
"Ready. Let's begin."
The moment he finished speaking, the blade of Paul's sword was already at his left shoulder, far from the range of Alan's own sword!
The Soundless Tachi!
In the next instant, the two passed each other.
Paul stumbled, turning his head in surprise.
Alan's feet remained firmly planted on the ground.
He didn't even turn around. With his back still to Paul, he simply tilted his head to meet Paul's gaze. His posture, which had the sword resting on his right shoulder, had only slightly changed. He had moved his sword hand from the side of his head to the front of his body.
The hilt of his sword was now "coincidentally" right above his left shoulder.
"Did he miss?!" Zenith's exclamation came from the side.
Paul's expression turned serious. He casually answered the question Zenith had asked on behalf of everyone.
"…He didn't miss."
He squinted at the sword hilt hovering above Alan's left shoulder. The feedback he had felt from his blade in that split second was still fresh in his mind.
He had definitely hit him.
But it had no effect.
Alan's response had been too "perfect."
He had "perfectly" shifted his sword's position, "perfectly" placed the hilt above his left shoulder, "perfectly" intercepted the tip of his own sword, and "perfectly" deflected the blade.
It was perfect, without a single flaw.
Not a single wasted motion.
It was like… a steadfast rock in a rushing stream—solid, with no openings.
—
Paul stared at Alan for a long time before asking.
"Aren't you going to turn around?"
Alan kept his head tilted towards him, returning the sword to its position on his right shoulder.
"No need. This stance is enough to handle attacks from any angle. Of course, that's assuming I can 'sense' them. I was lucky enough to sense your Soundless Tachi just now."
Paul smiled.
"A secret technique born from the perfect fusion of extreme perception and the Water God Style's—Flow—secret art, huh? What if I were faster? Could I cut you before you sense my swing?"
Alan squinted and smiled.
"You can try, sir."
Paul let out a chuckle that drifted on the wind. The next moment, he was at Alan's side.
His sword was already less than half a meter from Alan's brow.
But Alan's hand had moved in sync with his body; he had already brought the flat of his blade before his own brow.
For a brief moment, Paul's and Alan's gazes met.
With a sharp 'clang!', the tip of Paul's sword was deflected aside by Alan. This strike was also "coincidentally" diverted by Alan's Flow technique.
But a smile blossomed on Paul's face.
He let go of his sword, allowing the blade to slip from his grasp in front of Alan's eyes. At the same time, Paul's roundhouse kick was already closing in on Alan's chest!
A feint!
His earlier words about being faster were also a misdirection to make Alan think he would attack with the Sword God Style!
From the very beginning, he had intended to abandon his sword, using the seemingly swift thrust as a feint, and staking everything on the kick from his lower body!
But even so, Paul's plan failed.
Alan shifted his blade again. Just as Paul's kick was about to land on his chest, he used the hilt of his sword to just graze Paul's foot, using the Flow technique to apply a deflecting force and send the kick past his ribs.
In that instant, Paul's eyes, meeting Alan's, flashed with a brilliant light. He pushed off hard with his planted leg, using the momentum from his kick and the deflecting force of the Flow technique to accelerate. He caught his sword, which he had just let go of behind Alan, and with his kicking foot now firmly on the ground, a new force traveled from the ground to his waist. He twisted and swung his sword at Alan's back!
Another move after the kick!
Alan hadn't even had time to turn around!
Seeing his blade about to strike Alan's back, a hint of joy appeared in Paul's eyes.
'This Soundless Tachi is the fastest I can execute. He hasn't even turned around… I've won! How can this be?!!'
Just then, Alan's shoulders dropped.
A phantom-like thin blade swept back from over his shoulder, precisely striking the edge of Paul's sword.
A faint scraping sound vibrated in the air, creating ripples in the space between them under Paul's astonished gaze.
With a loud bang, the sword was sent flying by the tip of Alan's blade. It whistled past Paul's ear, spinning through the air, piercing the ripples, and embedding itself in a nearby tree with a sharp hum.
Zenith and the others all turned their heads to look at the sword in the tree, then back at Alan and Paul, their faces filled with confusion.
To them, with their normal dynamic vision unsupported by battle aura, the two had moved too fast. It looked as if they had just suddenly closed in on each other, and then amidst a flash of blades, their bodies twitched erratically as if dancing. Before anyone could even figure out what kind of dance they were doing, Paul's sword had flown off and stuck into a tree.
It looked like they were just playing around.
Paul blinked in astonishment, looking from his sword, now dejectedly stuck in the tree, to Alan, who had lowered his shoulders and was now looking at him with a teasing expression. He was speechless for a long moment.
Seeing Paul in a daze, Alan straightened up, sheathed his sword, and waved a hand in front of Paul's face, teasing.
"You really like using the North God Style, don't you, sir."
Paul had already snapped out of it. He looked at his hand awkwardly, as if still unable to accept how he had been disarmed in an instant by the Flow technique, even after two hidden moves.
But he was still stubborn.
"Uh… that was strategy. By the way, your secret technique is quite impressive… a practically impenetrable defense. No weaknesses at all. If an opponent doesn't have overwhelming power to crush you, it would be extremely difficult to harm you."
Then, he added, somewhat puzzled and exasperated.
"This technique is a perfect Water God Style skill! What more inspiration do you need for an epiphany? Are you trying to deflect my sword and then cut off my head in the same move?!"
Alan blinked and immediately replied.
"What else?"
Paul stared at Alan's serious expression, stunned.
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