385 Chapter 385: Swords and Snow (1/2)

I cocked my head to the side and slammed Bai Ri against Cain's sword, barely escaping getting my neck slashed apart. The sharp edge of Cain's blade cut the skin, but it was a shallow graze. All I felt was a warm trickle, but I could ignore the slight bleeding and counterattacked with Hei Yue. Cain's eyes narrowed and he parried the black blade while kicking out at me.

\”Ugh…!\”

I managed to block his foot with a raised leg, but his attack still caused me to stumble back. Huffing, I slashed at him with Bai Ri – a desperate maneuver that bought me a little more time and forced him back. Cain flipped up to kick at my head after I deflected his sword to the side, but I succeeded in dodging that while replying with a kick of my own.

As we evaded each other's kicks, we whirled around and clashed, sparks flying as our swords crashed heavily against each other. Mana surged through our arms and blades before we sprang apart in a small detonation.

\”Huff…\”

Both of us were breathing heavily. I dropped down to a slight crouch, raising Bai Ri with my left hand while lowering Hei Yue with my right.

\”This posture…!\”

Cain couldn't help but gasp. I raised an eyebrow.

\”What about my posture?\”

\”Adorno's Thirteen Chained Strikes?! How do you know my move?! Did you just learn it from seeing me execute it once?! Impossible!\”

\”…what the fuck?!\”

I actually dropped my stance and straightened up to gap at him.

\”What Adorno's Thirteen Chained Strikes?! What the hell are you talking about!? Are you sure you aren't mistaking reality for Battle Frenzy?! Do you seriously expect me to rip off Wang Zhong or something?! I'm not some god-like Mary Sue protagonist who can immediately learn and perform a technique just from seeing it once, and use it perfectly against an opponent! Furthermore, don't tell me you think I'll start analyzing your techniques and somehow point out the flaws and imperfections in your moves?! I'm not an author who's deeply in love with his own protagonist to the extent I make him a genius at everything!\”

\”Wait, what? You're an author?!\”

\”Never mind.\” I dropped back to my stance again and got ready to attack. \”By the way, you're mistaking something. I'm not trying to copy your moves at all – I'm not some genius who can learn and copy other people's moves instantly from watching them use them once. I'm merely using the Miyamoto sword style that my dad taught me.\”

\”…oh, right. Miyamoto sword style. Indeed, I heard that there is a branch of the Miyamoto School that specializes in wielding two swords.\” Cain nodded in acknowledgement, and then parried my strikes with his sword. \”Sorry, I got a bit confused for a moment because I was trying to rip off Battle Frenzy.\”

\”Dude, that story is getting old now.\”

Sighing, I knocked Cain back while withdrawing a step to avoid getting cut by his blade. Alternating my attacks with my two swords, I held one back for defense while using the other proactively to attack. I took care to switch roles between the two swords, so as not to make my attacks and defense predictable.

Otherwise Cain would notice that I was favoring Hei Yue for attack and Bai Yue for defense, for example. And he would move to exploit that.

\”Again!\”

Cain was attacking me relentlessly now, his blade thrusting at me from multiple angles. It was almost as if I was facing a hail of a hundred blades, each of my opponeent's strike moving almost too quickly for me to follow.

\”Gah…!\”

I parried and deflected as best as I could, sustaining cuts and hits here and there. Even though he was successfully drawing blood, Cain was growing increasingly frustrated and impatient when he found himself unable to deliver that single decisive blow that would end the match.

Evidently he was not used to long matches, or battles of attrition. He had been winning most of his matches single-handedly or decisively, taking his opponents out in a relatively short time.

…or he had been defeated in an instant by far superior enemies.

I sensed a spike in Cain's mana as his attacks grew heavier and became faster. The blades were coming like a hurricane now, turning into a single blur that swirled like a raging maelstrom. Pulling back as far as I could while doing my best to keep Cain's sword at bay, I crossed both of my swords to weather his ferocious onslaught.

Determined to break through my crumbling defenses, Cain kicked off the ground and spun his body, almost turning into a human whirlwind.

\”Spiraling Charge!\” he yelled. His sword almost turned into a spinning drill, a move that would inevitably drill through whatever defense I might have.

Taking a deep breath, I paused whatever spell I was casting and switched to another one. Dropping my Bai Ri onto the ground, I raised my left hand and murmured an incantation.

\”I am the soul of my sword.\”

\”This is…\”

Cain realized something was amiss, but he was too committed to his attack to pull back now. Unable to halt his momentum, he decided to just plunge forward and smash through whatever I had planned with brute force.

\”Fear is my body, frost is my blood.\”

Unintimidated by Cain's fierce Spiralling Charge, I stood my ground and gathered azure mana into my left hand, holding it up. A faint silhouette shimmered into existence in front of me, its petals unfurling majestically.

Even though he knew I was up to something, Cain resolutely thrust his spinning sword forward to drill through the flickering figure of a gigantic snowflake.

My eyes narrowed as I completed my spell.

\”Snow Aegis.\”

\”!\”

Clang!

Cain's sword collided against my now fully materialized snowflake shield, the spinning blade attempting to drill through my icy defenses, but to no avail.

\”What?\”

Still spinning haplessly, Cain was stunned to see that his drilling sword had failed to penetrate my Snow Aegis. Gritting his teeth, he tried to regain his footing to increase the pressure behind his thrust, but he slipped and almost fell over.