"Mm... What dense ode."
Ursula's eyes widened as she looked on. Sara and Orphia, who were
watching beside her, gulped. The villagers who had gathered out of curiosity
were in a similar state.
The answer Rio had come up with was simple, but not something anyone
could do. Even if a considerable amount of ode could be released, controlling
it was another matter completely. Condensing such a massive amount of ode
to cloak the body required a considerable display of control; it was no wonder
their audience was surprised.
"I see you weren't taking this seriously before, either," Uzuma said with
a grin.
"No, I was serious. Although I may not have been using my full power."
"I see. However, you still seem fairly far from your limit..." Uzuma
closed in on Rio as she spoke, swinging her spear.
"No, I'm having a fairly difficult time here." Rio received the attack
head-on. This time, he didn't lose to the battle of power.
"You can say that with a straight face? Ha!" Uzuma thrust her spear
forward wildly, but Rio moved his hand swiftly to intercept each move.
Their weapons clashed several times in quick succession; if they had
been using metal weapons, sparks would have been flying. Their exchange of
blows appeared to be a close contest, but Uzuma was slowly being pushed
back. While Rio hadn't moved a single step, Uzuma had been moving around
to attack from all angles. Eventually, Uzuma's breath grew short.
"Amazing. No matter how I attack you, it doesn't feel like I can land a
blow at all!" Uzuma stated happily, and in a stubborn attempt to make Rio
move, drove her spear up from a lower angle, putting all her might into one
thrust. Rio took half a step to the side and evaded it elegantly.
Then, he retaliated with a swinging slice at Uzuma. His sword was aimed
precisely at her body, stopping just barely before making direct contact.
Judging that the hit was one she certainly could not have dodged... "...I
admit defeat. Forgive me — I became too frenzied in the heat of the
moment." Briefly, her expression twisted with frustration, but she accepted her loss calmly and gave a polite bow.
"No, I had fun. I'd love to spar again some time."
"Yes, it would be a pleasure!" Rio offered her a hand, which Uzuma
shook immediately.
They seemed to have come to an understanding. The air of awkwardness
present from before the fight had dissipated, leaving relaxed expressions on
both of their faces. The spectators of their fierce battle watched in
dumbfounded amazement.
Meanwhile, Latifa puffed up her modest chest proudly.
"See? Arslan? Vera? I told you! Onii-chan is the strongest!"
"Y-Yeah. Rio really is amazing," Arslan replied to Latifa's words with a
dazed expression.
"S-Sara hasn't fought yet! My sister is strong!" Despite being shaken,
Vera boasted for her sister's sake with all her might and looked at Sara with
hopeful eyes.
V-Vera, don't raise their expectations! I've never even won against
Uzuma before! As she was on the receiving end of her little sister's pure
expectations, Sara broke out into an excessive sweat.
◇◇◇
Several days after the sparring match between Rio, Uzuma, and Sara...
Early in the morning, while the others were still asleep, Rio and Sara
sparred again. After she had tasted defeat at Rio's hands, Sara had asked Rio
to train her.
"Your movements are getting duller. Do you want to take a break?"
"I-I'm still... fine...! I want to at least land a scratch!"
Unlike Rio's calm breaths, Sara was panting harshly. Her tone was a
little rougher than usual too. Even then, she held her wooden knife and
attacked Rio.
"All the warriors of the village have wonderful physical abilities, but
their movements are inefficient. The same goes for you, Sara. You make too
many unnecessary movements." Rio dodged Sara's attack as he gave her
advice.
Perhaps it was because of their isolation deep within the forest, living
peacefully amongst their own kind, but the battle style of the village's
warriors were entirely specialized towards facing creatures of the natural world. Since they would never fight amongst themselves, the most practice
they got from fighting others like them was through practice matches.
Furthermore, since their individual physical abilities were so advanced, it
didn't require them to hone their combat techniques against other people.
That's why when it came to fighting others, their style was dauntless and
daring, to put it nicely... or reckless and foolhardy, to put it bluntly. Rather
than luring the opponent into lowering their guard, changing their attacking
pace to shake up the opponent, or relying on technical movements, they
preferred to fight with plain strength and speed.
That preference applied to Sara too.
"I-I know that!" Sara said, lunging to stab at Rio with a large swing.
Rio grabbed her hand easily, toppling her off-balance and throwing her to
the side. Sara flipped in the air and landed on the ground.
"For someone so calm, you're unexpectedly competitive," Rio said with
a small smile.
"Grrr! But... but... the battle isn't over yet... It's not over yet!" Sara was
bright red with frustration and a little bit of embarrassment. In order to brush
that off, she charged towards Rio again.
Suddenly —
"Good morning, you two. Do you mind if we join you, Rio?"
"Morning! I wanna do it too!"
A sleepy Alma and Latifa appeared. The two of them wanted to learn
from Rio's training as well, but neither were morning people, and often
showed up late like this. However, it was still early in the morning, so they
had plenty of time to practice before breakfast.
"I'll check the forms I taught you yesterday, so let's slowly go through
the movements."
They all poured their sweat into training until Orphia finished preparing
breakfast and came to call on them.
◇◇◇
After their morning practice, Rio and the others sat on deck chairs and
ate the sandwiches Orphia had prepared for breakfast.
"Ugh... I couldn't land a single hit on Rio again... Ah, this is delicious,"
Sara muttered with her head hung low, munching on her sandwich dejectedly.
Her wolf ears were drooping a little more than usual.
"Sara was defeated rather splendidly," Alma pointed out, making Sara's
wolf ears flick in response.
"A-Alma, you're not one to talk! You were in a similar position to me."
"I'm not as reckless as Sara."
"Ugh..."
Sara was in no place to object, having had Rio make similar observations
numerous times.
"I like Sara's direct way of approach. We'll work on fixing her habit of
getting too engrossed and making the same repetitive motions again and
again." Rio smiled faintly from where he sat before Sara, offering her words
of encouragement. Sara blinked blankly for a beat.
"Y-Yes... Please." She looked down, her cheeks reddening with
embarrassment. Taking the sandwich with two hands, she munched furiously
with her small mouth.
"Sara, your face is red," Alma said, looking at Sara's face apathetically
from where she sat beside her. Sara startled.
"W-Wha — That's not true!"
"You know that's not what he meant by 'like'!" Alma whispered in her
ear, low enough that Rio wouldn't hear it from where he sat across the table.
"I-Isn't that obvious?! W-What are you trying to imply?!" Sara's cheeks
reddened even more.
"Fufu, what are you talking about, Sara?" Orphia asked with an amused
smile; she was sitting on the other side of the table just beside Rio.
"O-Orphia, you're an elf! You could hear that clearly, couldn't you?!"
"Fufu, who knows? Right, Rio? Latifa?" Orphia said, looking at them for
their response.
Rio had been unable to hear their conversation midway, so he tilted his
head in confusion. But Latifa, who had been sitting between Rio and Sara on
the other side of the table, opened her mouth.
"You know, Sara actually—"
"L-Latifa!" Sara stood up in a panic, covering Latifa's mouth with a
hand.
"Mmph!"
"I-It's nothing, Rio! It's absolutely nothing!"
Rio nodded, overwhelmed by Sara's menacing look. "A-All right. But
Latifa looks like she's in pain, so please let go of her," Rio said, smiling
wryly.