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Flash!
A dazzling light obscured his vision first.
There isn't a single person in the world capable of 'reacting' to the light-speed thrust.
It is something that cannot be avoided without predicting, not reacting, or gaining some kind of enlightening that goes beyond even that.
Fortunately, Mary had not fully mastered the 5th secret technique yet. Furthermore, even though it was executed too quickly without any preparatory movements, Jin was able to move his body despite being caught off guard.
He threw his body to the left.
The range of the light-speed thrust was not limited to a single point. It started as a point, spread in a fan shape, and then converged back into a point.
Therefore, even though Jin had moved significantly away from the trajectory of the chain sword viper, he still felt the sword energy passing close to his cheek and neck.
His hair stood on end.
'Is Tikan okay?'
Along with the sensation of hot blood running down his clothes, Jin quickly calculated in his head how to deal with the situation.
'It's too late to look behind, I need to counterattack first.'
He judged that the direction of the light-speed thrust was narrowly avoiding Tikan.
It is unlikely that his sister would have gone to the extent of disobeying their father's orders and risking becoming enemies with him by executing the light-speed thrust.
Swish!
Jin lowered his body, and leaped like an arrow and thrust his sword. The pale and sharp blade of Sigmund was reaching towards Mary's forehead.
She easily deflected her brother's thrust. Then, she burst into laughter as if very satisfied.
The ongoing clash between the siblings was a fast and dizzying spectacle with two streams of light reflecting and intertwining.
The spectators couldn't keep up with the movements of the flashing and dispersing sword energy that swiftly came back together.
"Wow! Dame Mary's incredible right from the first move! Eek! What's that, what's that! There's a hole in the sky above Tikan!"
Cosmos seemed to have taken on the role of not just a host but also a commentator.
The spectators followed his pointing fingers and gazed at the sky, where indeed a huge hole had opened in the clouds, and they couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.
The fact that a human could create such a phenomenon by swinging a sword once was beyond belief, even when seen with their own eyes.
Is this Runcandel...!
Everyone could only admire it like that. Not only the remarkable thrust that Mary executed but Jin, who dodged it and even counterattacked, looked like a monster.
Not only the crowd but also Jin's companions were thrilled and in awe of Mary's skills.
"To perform such a thrust while standing. Well, can we even call that a thrust? I think I understand why Sir Valkas asked me to bet money on Dame Mary."
Valkas smiled quietly in response to Kashmir's words.
'Cosmos is still talking without any problems, so it seems Tikan wasn't hit.'
Jin was relieved that his decision to immediately counterattack was indeed correct.
If he had hesitated even a bit or tried to check on Tikan first, he would have had to withstand the follow-up attacks with his posture compromised.
"Tsk, it is still far away from what father had executed. I polished it quite a bit, but..."
The anger quickly boiled inside Jin over at the sight of his sister licking her lips, but he barely suppressed it and made eye contact.
"You really came with the intention of killing me. My head almost disappeared."
"But you didn't die, did you? I knew you would naturally avoid it, hehe."
"...Didn't you first say that we should avoid big techniques?"
"Huhuhu, me? When?"
"No, you definitely..."
If you really think so, then recall what I said, the youngest."
-The rule is simple. You and I fight on the fleet. However, highly destructive techniques that excessively damage the fleet are strictly prohibited.
-Although we decided not to use mostly big techniques in this duel, this big sister will do her best.
Highly destructive techniques that excessively damage the fleet are strictly prohibited, big techniques are mostly sealed, but I will do my best...
In other words, it meant that any technique could be used as long as it didn't excessively damage the fleet.
'It was just a figure of speech, wasn't it.'
Thud!
Jin involuntarily ground his teeth.
Come to think of it, his first duel with Mary was like this too.
Back then, Mary had been wearing the shining armor, scattered top-tier mana bombs across the battlefield.
While he usually didn't fall for such wordplay or shallow tricks, it was strange how Jin always seemed to fall for this type of tricks when facing Mary.
"I understood what it meant."
"Oh, did you? It's fortunate that you finally get it. Come on, attack me again! Attack me! By the way, why didn't you activate your helmet?"
Mary spoke in an excited voice and pointed the tip of her sword at Jin's head.
"Ah, you mean Multa's rune?"
"Is that what it's called? Anyway, the black helmet. If you had used that, you probably wouldn't have been hurt this badly, you know."
"That's for the same reason you wore the eyepatch, elder sister."
Mary paused at Jin's response.
She hadn't worn the eyepatch because she lost an eye. She thought that if Jin couldn't use his magic sword secret technique or Plutonian Reign Sword, wouldn't it be okay for her to have this much of a handicap?
Mary believed that, despite Jin clearly being superior to her, she had an advantage in pure swordsmanship.
"Oh, is that so?"
"Think about it carefully, elder sister. We were evenly matched even in our first match. I was even afraid that you might die back then, so I pushed my limits. But should I really have to use such an artifact now?"
"It won't be too late to say that after you create a situation where you have to take off the eyepatch, youngest!"
The moment they finished speaking, Mary closed the distance once again. When Jin blinked and opened his eyes, the viper had already flown in front of his nose, blocking his vision.
Jin judged that it was a stab and raised his sword to block it, but the chain sword was extended and its path changed.
The chain sword that moved like a snake or whip was flying from all directions, making it hard to believe that it was an attack from just one person.
To the eyes of the spectators, Jin appeared to be completely trapped within the trajectory and afterimages of the viper. Every time the two of them stepped, the deck cracked, and splinters flew.
The pressure from the chain sword was getting heavier.
It was the result of Mary's entire body beginning to be stained with aura. It was a variation of the 7th decisive killing move of the Runcandel, a type of physical strengthening rather than a self-destruction move.
Runcandel 7th Decisive killing move
Volcano – Mary Runcandel
Mary had given her name to Volcano, thanks to none other than Chiron, who had given permission for it.
Jin had only seen Mary execute her Volcano once before. The form was somewhat different from then and now.
'This is a variation of the volcano that she used when she came to rescue the small beastmen and me from spectres. Maybe it's progressed since then, but it feels completely different.'
He had no time to dwell on it with gratitude.
Besides, there was no need to ask if it was okay to use such a powerful attack, given that it would surely destroy the fleet.
Kuh-!
As soon as the Volcano was executed and their sword clashed, Jin staggered backward, spitting up blood.
It was a strange sword.
Mary's volcano sword strike could be considered a sincere strike from a 10-star knight, but for some reason it did not cause any damage to anything other than Jin.
'Why isn't the shock escaping to the outside...?'
Mary's viper, stained with the aura of the volcano, only targeted Jin.
Even when Jin struck back with incredible force, the deck didn't even crack slightly.
As a result, to spectators, it looked like the siblings were just fooling around. They were engaged in an ordinary battle, except Jin seemed to be bent forward and vomiting blood each time the sword touched him.
Originally, this phenomenon was something extremely difficult for Jin to accept. The shock should have escaped to the outside, following the laws of nature, but it was firmly contained within his body.
"What is going on? It looks like a light attack, but Sir Jin is vomiting blood! It's a crisis for Sir Jin!"
Like the spectators, most of Tikan's companions couldn't understand what was happening. Even Kashmir, known as a ghost blade, had never seen such a type of sword.
"Oh, indeed. Valkas, your evaluation isn't that far off. Who would have thought that Mary Runcandel had already reached such a level. She has more delicate aspects than I thought. There weren't many people who could use that even in my time."
Murakan, who had lived for over three thousand years and had experienced Runcandel's heyday, immediately recognized what was going on.
"What's happening?"
"Well, hey, Cuicantelle. What was that called again? I haven't seen it in so long, so I can't remember."
"Temar is called Mind's Heat. It's a method mainly used by warriors rather than swordsmen."
"Oh, right. Mind's Heat, that was its name. It's a sword that causes only internal injuries, with no external shock. That is the reason why the kid suffers from ordinary attacks."
Clang, clang, clang!
Jin felt a terrible pain as if his internal organs were pierced by awls every time their swords clashed. Cold sweat filled his bristling hair.
First, there is a need to increase the distance.
There was no way Jin wouldn't have known that natural response. However, he couldn't use any techniques strong enough to push Mary away, and it wasn't easy with limited space.
'...she won't be able to maintain a volcano and keep wielding a sword like this. After all, the variation of Volcano is a technique that puts an enormous strain on her body.'
Jin realized that counting on this alone was a gamble and an impossible task. Mary already had the information about his magic spells, including the Flash cannon, so they could not buy him any time.
So, he had to finish it quickly.
And, in fact, that had been his plan from the beginning. Jin was somewhat flustered by the variables of the Light-speed thrust and the Volcano Sword.
He wasn't suited for a long battle in this confined space. Therefore, he selected the Plutonian Reign Sword first with a good reason.
Przzt...
Mary opened her mouth as the lightning energy radiating from the Plutonian Reign Sword began to cover Jin's entire body.
"Is it that technique you showed in the Garden of Swords? You're definitely going to get a disqualification loss with that. Or do you want to kill your big sister, regardless of victory or defeat?"
Jin nodded, and Mary let out a mocking laugh.