「Wh-whaaaaaat?! Having taken direct hits from both the King's Charge and the Sweeping Centipede, Stella was hurled from the ring! On the count of eight, she leisurely returns to the ring - and, and...beyond her uniform being torn up in several places, she hasn't a scratch on her! What on earth is this?!」
Her unharmed state threw both the commentator and the audience alike into uproarious confusion.
But Yui, who had attacked her, already knew what the reason was.
Earlier, when her horizontal sweep had swept into Stella's stomach, she had not felt it tear into her flesh at all. Sweeping Centipede's revolving blades had sliced open her uniform, but had failed to eat into her skin.
Why?
The reason was 'magical power'.
Earlier, in the battle between the Worst One and the Seven Stars Sword King, Moroboshi Yuudai had ensorceled an armor made of his own mana to use as a barrier against impacts. The power of such barriers was dependent on the amount of mana its user possessed.
Crimson Princess Stella Vermillion's mana pool could be considered among the best in the entire world.
Thus the barrier that she subconsciously erected about herself was far from ordinary, strong enough to allow her to take full-blooded blows from Yui and Rinna head-on and yet cancel out all the damage she should have taken.
Stella had realized this, and as such had stopped dodging conscientiously. She did not feel the need to.
This truth wounded Yui's pride deeply.
"You bastard...just how much did you look down on me, playing along like that…"
"Don't make such a scary face," Stella said unapologetically, "this couldn't be helped. After all, my opponent up till yesterday was the strongest knight in the Pan-Pacific region."
In all honesty, Stella was not the sort to intentionally humiliate her opponent.
They were simply on different planes.
After all, the one training Stella this whole week had been one of the strongest people in the world, the Yaksha Princess, a Gravity User who boasted such outrageous offensive power that she could pull a meteorite from beyond the atmosphere at two times escape velocity.
Thus, no matter how she tried she could not feel any sense of danger against this opponent, and because she could feel any danger it became tiresome to evade each and every attack.
When Kurono said that the fault lay with Saikyou, this was what she had meant.
This was, however, but one of the reasons.
Stella had another important reason for not resisting and allowing Yui to hit her.
"Moreover, I wanted to confirm something before going on the offensive."
"Confirm something?"
"Yes. I wanted to see what level of knights you are."
She could not leave this step out. After all-
"If I were to unleash my full strength thoughtlessly, you could all die."
"Tch…!"
Yes. Stella understood. She understood the extent of her strength.
If wielded against humans, her ability was nothing short of somewhat gratuitous brutality, to the point where reducing human life to ash was a thing of ease. So she had to be aware of the opponent she had to fight at all times, taking care so as to not burn them to death, even if they were a hated enemy who had hurt her friends.
"Akatsuki owes us some revenge, and I won't rest till I've gotten it. I don't intend to kill you."
She felt less than at peace with this, but above that-
"But...that's because I don't see the value in doing that for you. You would indiscriminately display your intent to kill to anyone, but there is only one person in this world that I would value fighting as a knight, one opponent that I would give my all against."
There was only one such man so special, who could inspire such feeling and passion in Stella that she would forsake noblesse-oblige and fight him at her full strength.
"That's why I sought to ascertain your strength, be sure of your level - so I can know 'how far I must go to break you without killing you'."
By this point, she had grasped the gist of it.
If she put herself into third gear, she could probably just about accommodate them. Keeping this in mind, she finally materialized her Device, Laevateinn.
"I'm going to attack from here on out."
In an instant, a heat wave billowed out around her, warping the very air. It was an overwhelming presence, as though the summer sun had drew near to the earth - the presence of a knight far from ordinary.
But Yui was unafraid.
"Interestin'...Come at me then, if you've got the stuff!"
With a roar, she kicked off the ground with all her might and attacked Stella for the third time, not caring that her attack had failed to make any dent on Stella.
Had her blood run too hot, making her forget that fact?
No.
She was well-trained. Born a killer. She had learned how to keep a cool head amid heated emotions. She was certainly surprised that her clean hit had done no damage. But a Blazer's world was full of those who played against common logic. To find a Blazer who could not be harmed by direct attacks was not rare. She herself belonged to that category of Blazers, after all.
There were ways around it. This, she already understood.
My blade can't do it, but yours is a different story, ain't it?!
In that case, she only needed to reflect it. Her arrogance, her attack, the uncommon magical might that powered that attack - all of them.
Even one such as the Crimson Princess could not emerge unscathed after having her full strength reflected back at her.
Her arms would certainly be rendered unusable, and once she was wounded to that extent then Yui could take care of her at her own leisure.
For that to happen, she had to allow Stella to attack first.
Thus, Yui forged ahead straight as an arrow, baiting out that full-power attack.
"Then, I'll help myself."
In response to her scheme, Stella met her directly, advancing to close the distance between them with Laevateinn brandished in her right hand as she aimed a diagonal downward slash for Yui's shoulder.
This reaction was exactly as Yui had thought.
If this slash was bounced back by Total Reflect, Stella would get a taste of her own medicine.
But right at that moment when she was about to activate Total Reflect-
Ah-?
-she smelled a rat. Her years of experience as a killer warned her that something was off.
Since Sweeping Centipede itself could deal no damage, Yui aimed to use Total Reflect to compensate. That should have been obvious.
Then why was Stella still wielding her sword to cut, like a fool?
It was a trap - that was the only possible reason.
Listening closely, the sound of the blade as it whistled through the air was too soft.
That slash had speed, but there was no strength behind it.
And from the first, Stella's weapon was a greatsword. To wield it in only one hand was by itself already odd.
No damage would be done even if she reflected this; it would push her back at the very most.
The right side is just a feint. The real strike comes from the left-!
With keen eye and swift mind Yui perceived all this with precision, that within the shadow of the falling blade a cocked fist laid in wait.
Stella likely had this plan in mind: when Yui used Total Reflect on that downward racing blade, it would knock her right side back, and in tandem her left flank would be thrust forward, sending her left fist into Yui's side at speeds beyond her ability to react.
It was a plan that had even taken her abilities and their effects into account.
And it's a good one, but that don't mean jack if I've caught on to it!
The tables had turned from the moment she had noticed the trap. The hunter was now the hunted.
To this end, Yui played Stella's script right to the hilt. The instant their blades met, she projected her Reflecting barrier from her body, distorting the vector of Stella's strike and repelling her.
And in that same moment, Stella moved exactly as Yui had anticipated.
Using the opening that had been created by the Reflection of her blade, she unleashed her surprise attack, her hidden ace: a liver shot.
Her opponent, lured by that opening, had put her full strength into that punch. Seizing the moment, Yui reactivated Total Reflect.
That was a blow that had borrowed both Stella's strength and the rotational force she had redirected from the initial Reflection on her right side to give more power to her strike from the left.
From this surely her fist, even her entire arm, would be shattered.
Having committed for the opening, Stella could not retract her fist either.
Having seen through it all, her opponent dancing in the palm of her hand, Yui's lips quirked upward in dark amusement.
'Gyari-!'
With the sound of flesh and bone breaking-
"Gah...hak-!"
Stella's left fist -that fist that should have been reflected- burrowed deep into Yui's side.
"And that's one down."