"It wasn't anything spectacular. I'm still in training too," Rio responded
with uncomfortable modesty.
"Umm, Rio. What do you think about sparring with me once? I always
see you swinging your sword alone early in the morning and late at night, so I
wanted to try fighting you," Sara requested in a humble manner.
"Onii-chan, do your best!"
"You too, sister! This is the perfect chance to show everyone who the
strongest is!"
Latifa and Vera cheered before Rio could even get a word in. Evidently,
they had already decided that Rio and Sara's match was set in stone.
Or rather, they were just happy to have an excuse to get out of more
studying.
"Then, shall we?" Rio wasn't brazen enough to betray the pure
expectations of two young girls.
"Yes please!" Sara nodded happily.
After that, Uzuma took to the air and brought their training weapons
back.
News of their match spread before they knew it. Before long, a small
crowd had gathered, making their sparring session more like a mini event of
sorts. They drew straws to decide who would be sparring together first — the
result was Rio and Uzuma. Once they had settled on the rule of limiting spirit
arts to the use of body enhancement only, Rio picked up his longsword and
stood across the square from Uzuma, who gripped her short spear tightly.
Sara would be their referee.
"Begin!"
The match finally began, and Uzuma charged at Rio the instant the signal
was given. The propulsionary force of her wings sent her shooting forward
like an arrow. Her incredible speed closed the gap in the blink of an eye, and
she released a sharp jab towards Rio as though to test him.
Rio saw through the jab easily, using the minimum amount of movement
to shift his body and evade it.
"Oooh!" the spectators cheered.
Meanwhile, Uzuma continued to launch an avalanche of stabbing attacks
towards Rio, who parried them efficiently with his refined movements. A
surprised expression flashed across Uzuma's face, and she widened the
distance between them. Then, she took on a lower stance and readied her
spear, charging forward with her body held close to the ground to aim at Rio's chest from below. Rio received the attack head-on, but Uzuma tried to
brute-force her spear through his defenses. Once Rio's body had been lifted
up, she focused more strength into her arms and stepped forward firmly,
flapping her wings to blow him fully into the air.
I see her crazy strength hasn't changed, Rio thought as he flew through
the air, impressed by Uzuma's physical strength.
Of course, Rio had strengthened his own body with spirit arts too, but
there was a vast difference in the basic fundamental build of a human and a
werebeast. That difference was all the more emphasized when their bodies
were enhanced with spirit arts.
"Hah!" With a powerful yell, Uzuma flew into the air and launched a
follow-up attack on Rio. She aimed at Rio's limbs in mid air, stabbing her
spear four times in one breath with precision.
Rio twisted his arms and legs around his body to evade them by a hair's
breadth. Then, before Uzuma could withdraw her extended spear, he grabbed
the pole with his left hand and pulled her towards him instead.
Rio swung his longsword horizontally, aiming for Uzuma's torso. Uzuma
immediately let go of the spear and flapped her wings upwards, positioning
herself just out of reach of Rio's sword.
With his left hand, Rio readjusted his grip on the spear and swung it at
Uzuma above him, but the tip of spear uselessly cut through empty space. It
would be difficult to catch her in the air.
The two landed back on the ground, maintaining their distance — until
Uzuma charged at Rio once more. Rio casually tossed the spear towards
Uzuma.
"Kuh!"
Uzuma's specialized weapon was voluntarily returned to her before she
could steal it back, slowing her reaction by a fraction. In the time she took to
hurriedly catch the spear, Rio spied an opening and charged forward.
Oh, how the tables had turned.
Uzuma tried to back away to regain her balance, but Rio closed in so she
couldn't escape, now so close to her that she couldn't freely swing her spear.
He weaved through the gaps of her defenses sharply, slashing his sword.
"Guh..."
Uzuma was at a disadvantage. Overwhelmed by the factors working
against her, she only barely managed to block Rio's attack, forgoing her own
to do so. If Rio had been swinging a real sword, she would have been covered in countless wounds already.
Rio thrust at Uzuma's momentary opening with massive force, swinging
his sword in his strongest hit yet. The spear was blown away, causing Uzuma
to stumble back from the recoil. She leapt after the spear, catching it midair.
"...I acknowledge that your abilities are worthy of a warrior. It seems I
must take this seriously." Uzuma's aura suddenly changed as she landed on
the ground.
A chill ran down Rio's spine. It was like looking into the eyes of a
starving beast.
In the next instant, Uzuma had closed the distance between them and
aimed a harsh thrust at Rio's body. The suffocating pressure made Rio step to
the side immediately. At the same time, though, he could feel a bad presence
flanking him, so he stepped backwards next.
Moments later, Uzuma's spear passed through where Rio had just been
with the sound of air being ripped through.
"Huh, well done evading that. Let's see if you can dodge this!" Uzuma
said in delight as she firmly stepped forward and swung her spear with all her
might.
So heavy!
Rio had tried to receive the attack with his sword, but he felt the
difference in their physical strength, and had to jump back to negate the
power of the spear.
"Isn't this a bit too much for a sparring match?" Rio said with a wry
smile, but he seemed to be having fun.
"You'll have to forgive me! I haven't encountered an opponent this
worthy in the last few months!" Uzuma yelled with a ferocious smile. It
seemed as though Uzuma was a bit of a battle junkie... That thought made the
corner of Rio's mouth curl up faintly. He certainly wasn't one to talk. It was
nice to have a simple and straightforward fight like this sometimes, where
neither opponent was overthinking things. At the very least, Rio could feel
himself getting heated by being able to spar with someone who he could face
with all his might.
That being said, while he wasn't losing in technical ability, as a
werebeast, Uzuma was far in the lead in terms of physical ability. At this rate,
the fight would slowly become one-sided.
He had to even the playing field.
With that decision, Rio released a huge amount of ode from within his body. Then, he condensed it, and poured all of it into his physical
enhancement. In using physical enhancement through spirit arts, physical
ability was raised in proportion to the layer of ode cloaked around the body,
so if his base strength was lower than a werebeast, all he had to do was
strengthen his spirit arts enhancement... that was Rio's thinking, at least.