Krill took a deep breath and sighed. He lowered his head, before picking it back up and raising one of his katana's and pointing it in Ryuma's direction. "Ya know. I'm kinda glad you got rid of em. They were holding me back. Much better to have this fight with just two duel wielders.
"Holding you back? I'm glad you see it that way. They were a nuisance to me," Ryuma said.
The two started walking circles around each other, holding up their katana's. Neither one showed any openings. The calm before the storm only raised tensions between the two combatant's and the audience watching them.
Ryuma thought about where he should try and break through his guard. It's like his defense went up when he didn't have the advantage of numbers. He should have taken that into account, but whatever. If his guard was up, the only thing to do was to break it down manually.
Ryuma dashed forward. At the same time, having the same thoughts, Krill also dashed forward. Their push off the ground was so hard, they glided over the arena as if they were floating across. Both duel wielders swung with their right hand, resulting in them clashing hard enough that sparks flew out.
They swung the left, forcing them to clash again. After the force parry, both started to swing wildly at each other. Swords clinging along the way, small cuts started appearing on their bodies. Shallow cuts getting through both of their defenses.
They stopped when both of their blades got locked up against the other in another deadlock. Truth be told, Ryuma forced them into a lock. He needed to think for a second. If they continued damaging each other like this, that would play to his advantage.
If the goal was to weaken him as much as he could before the next match, then it didn't matter how many hits he took. So long as Ryuma got damaged in the process, that would be enough.
Even with all the fodder gone, he was still at a disadvantage. There was no way he could trade a one for one, otherwise all that needed to happen would be his loss in the proceeding matches. So long as he got that, Krill was successful.
"Ya know something Ryuma. You're katanas always bothered me," Krill said.
They broke off and spun around each other only to clash again as they turned swinging their swords again.
"That sounds like a 'you' problem," Ryuma said.
They exchanged even more swings before breaking off and backing away from each other. They stared intently at the other, scoping out their opponent's next move.
"It was always strange to me. Duel Spirits were a rare enough trait to have amongst spirit wielders like us. Because of that, I thought I was always special. That was, until our introduction class when we first had to show what our spirits produced. If I recall, you went before me that day,"
Ryuma stopped and tried to think back to that day. Sure it was only three years ago, but the only thing he remembered that day was introducing his weapon, nothing out of the ordinary happened then.
"Please don't humor me with a 'You stole my spotlight' scenario," Ryuma said.
Krill pointed his sword at him again. "I'm not so petty for something like that. That isn't what bothered me," He lowered it again. "That day, when you materialized your weapon, something stood out to me. Something fundamental between my weapons, and yours,"
Ryuma looked down at his own weapons, then looked at Krill's. His was more curved in comparison to Krill's who were straighter. There wasn't much of a difference other than the shape and color. What was he getting at? It's not as if Spirit weapons were supposed to look the same in every way, even in cases where the weapons were the same as another's.
"It's the duality of your weapons colors that stood out to me the most. In shape, size, and color, my weapons are the same with zero details different,"
Not only Ryuma, but the rest of the class, as well as the High Edict, now that this oddity was pointed out, noticed it as well. The vast majority of people didn't have Duel Spirit Weapons, and the rarity didn't allow for many people to notice insignificant things like this. Ryuma however, had the opposite problem. He always had these as his spirit weapons and didn't think to question why they appeared in distinct colors. He thought it was normal. Something so out in the open and in front of everybody's face, was missed because it was so small and unnoticeable.
"I went to read many books on the nature of Duel Spirit Weapons. I found none that mentioned different colors. I asked my grandma about it, and she told me that a Duel Weapon with Duel Colors doesn't exist. Which made me think… There's something off with your spirit,"
Ryuma stared downward toward the ground. So Krill was the perfect guy in this scenario to see this. Everybody else was missing that comparison component. His weapons were in fact, an oddity.
"That's why, I got to beat you today," Krill got into stance again. "I have to prove that those weapons are nothing special, and that hard work and talent is what makes the order,"
"You're right though. Hard work and talent is what makes the order," Ryuma crouched just like Krill did.
Just like before, the two launched themselves at the other. The clangs were louder. The sparks were brighter and bigger. Krill was striking harder and faster. Ryuma had to take a step back. He was being pushed back. Ryuma had to admit, Krill was a better fighter than he'd initially thought. Still… he was relying on pure power and physique.
But the main component to two similar fighters no matter how one looked at it, was technique. Ryuma started making minimal movements. Instead of clashing against him, it was better to lead him into the flow of his pace. It took more energy to swing and miss than it did to get blocked. Ryuma did this until Krill showed signs of slowing down.
With perfect movements, the exact moment he showed an opening, Ryuma swung his katana upward, and slashed him across the chest.
Because no spirit energy was added to it, the cut was shallow to the extent that there wasn't even any blood flow. Instead, it left a red line
Krill backed off immediately. He took deep, heavy breaths to try and get his stamina back. Ryuma just stood there and let him. In his mind, the match was said and done. Even if the cut was shallow, losing blood usually caused one to lose stamina far quicker. Without the stamina, Krill had no path to victory.
Still… it was amusing to see his tenacity. If nothing else, Ryuma respected that. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to remember Krill and his spirit weapon. Who knows what he'd become in the future?
"Not yet… I'm not done," Krill lunged at him.
This time, Ryuma didn't even bother to get in a defensive stance. He just effortlessly dodged him. "Krill… I appreciate you telling me that,"
Ryuma twirled around him, slicing in various parts of his body before jabbing his sword with one final thrust. The boy flew back, bouncing off the ground of the arena before finally flying off the platform and hitting the outside. He clutched his chest in pain. Ryuma didn't want to hit him that hard, but he had to give his opponent the respect he deserved.
"Are we… are we going to pass?" Skepticism and worry started to foment amongst the crowd. There were only two waves left and Ryuma blew through three of them with barely any damage on, and the least bit of fatigue felt.
"This isn't looking good guys. We'll have to decide who the final four will be. Whoever isn't in that group, will be going out next," Diaga said.
Wen tapped his shoulder. A crease popped onto his forehead. "Toga. You should know Ryuma best. How likely is he to beat all of us?"
Toga cupped his chin with his fingers in deep thought. "I'm going to be honest. His chances are higher than you'd think, but it still should be fairly low. We train a lot together, and there are rare instances where I'll pull off a win. Given that much, even if he made it to the end with perfect health intact, he must deal with the version of me that has allies,"
"Then, we should be fine right?" Binzo asked.
Toga was still in deep thought.
"Then the answer is simple. Toga will have to be put last, and the best of the best need to be with him," Wen said.
"That covers the both of us. But who should our fourth person be?" Diaga asked.
"Don't worry about that. I think I got a pretty good idea who I want our fourth person to be," Toga said.
Ryuma was sitting down in the arena cross legged with his eyes closed. If they wanted to come up with a game plan let, them. This was the moment for him to rest up any energy he could get.
He opened his eyes after sensing five energies walking onto the arena. Two of them were the remaining white dragons that followed Binzo's group Frez and Shio. But the three people that was out there is what took him off. It was Binzo himself, Talo, and Nuna.
If that were the group he must fight now, then the only four left…
He shot a look over at the final four after this fight. Toga, Diaga, and Wen was a definite… But why go with Clara?
If they were to have kept going with the weakest score, to the highest, then Nuna should have been in the final four. Even if not her… They went with Clara.
He shook his head and refocused his attention back on the current group. He'll have to worry about that after this.
The group right here wasn't anything to scoff at either. He had to make sure, that this lineup right here didn't take him out, because getting out of it unscathed, was something even he didn't see himself doing so easy.