Kazuya wanted to make again, but he was stopped by the referees. He was obediently pushed aside. But Haruka realized her situation, she grabbed her bamboo sword, stood up, and shouted in a fit of rage, "How... How dare you insult me?"
It was her first time being this pose in front of so many people, and the laughter from the audience felt like mockery, deeply injuring her self-esteem.
Kazuya, resuming a stance favorable for exerting force, "Those who insult others will be insulted in return. Haven't you said that, Sakura?"
"You jerk!" Haruka was momentarily at a loss for words, shaking with anger. Holding her bamboo sword, she rushed forward and shouted indignantly, "You just know to plot. What kind of man are you?"
Kazuya set traps and used feints throughout, making her feel intellectually suppressed and unable to exert her strength. This situation even more infuriating than being turned into a frog.
Kazuya didn't activate [Anticipation] again. He hadn't mastered the skill since he acquired it not long ago, and each usage felt like a blunt hit to his head, causing him discomfort. Moreover, it consumed too much vitality. He had only used it as a precaution in case Haruka became serious just now, but now she seemed to have lost her composure and rationality, so he render it unnecessary.
He blocked Haruka's diagonal slash with the non-sharp side of his bamboo sword, pressing it against her. He said, "I just don't want to take advantage of my strength to bully you."
However, to his surprise, he couldn't push Haruka back despite exerting force twice. Since practicing [Ancient Swordsmanship], his strength had exceeded that of an average adult. Even so, he couldn't overpower this petite girl. The result was unexpected, as men were generally expected to have an advantage in strength over women.
Their bamboo swords were pressed against each other. Haruka also tried to push Kazuya aside and take the opportunity to strike back and save face. But she couldn't move him too. Her eyes rolled, and suddenly, she raised her short leg and kicked Kazuya on the side of his knee.
Kicking was strictly prohibited in kendo competitions, and Kazuya didn't anticipate her intentionally violating the rules. Caught off guard, he leaned to one side, losing some strength. Seizing the opportunity, Haruka pushed him back a few steps, causing him to lose balance. She raised her bamboo sword and swung it toward his head, angrily yelling, "Today, I won't be satisfied until I chop off your head!"
"White side violates the rules, red side get points!"
Haruka's kicking was penalized by the referees. They raised the flag to award Kazuya points. However, Haruka seemingly ignored it. She continued its relentless attack with her bamboo sword.
Although Kazuya might not have engaged in as many combat sessions as Haruka, he had experienced many situations in Meditative Battles and developed an instict of defending. Even losing his balance didn't panic him. Facing Haruka's frenzied attacks, he managed to block all of them and even forced her back with a counter thrust.
Yuma rushed forward to stop Haruka from her unruly behavior. However, in her enraged state, she didn't care about the ongoing match. She nearly sent him tumbling with a push of her hand. Holding her bamboo sword, she prepared to attack Kazuya again.
Taking advantage of the temporary respite, Kazuya repositioned himself, "Who's really playing dirty here? Sakura, are you willing to lose your dignity?"
The audience started expressing discontent, and murmurs of "How despicable" could be heard. Particularly among the female students, some were anxiously clasping their hands in front of their chests, seemingly more worried about Kazuya being secretly harmed.
Haruka, already furious, now faced disapproval from the audience. She turned her head and shouted, "Shut up!"
The scene fell silent momentarily, but then the students in Class B, united in their animosity and booed her. Students in Class A, originally neutral, followed suit. Even some students from her own Class C turned against her.
Haruka mentally blacklisted about 80% of the students from the three classes and turned back towards Kazuya, "I'm not playing dirty! I practice the Sasaki Ittoryu, and using my feet is part of the technique!"
Kazuya slowly approached, holding his sword, "So, are we having a real duel now?"
Haruka chose to stand her ground, holding her sword in a defensive position. She declared, "Of course!"
She knew that if she continued to be bound by the rules of kendo competition, she wouldn't have a chance. So she decided to ignore the rules and aim for victory through swordsmanship alone. Real swordsmanship techniques often incorporated martial arts moves, including kicks, charges, and hand strikes, which were prohibited in official kendo competitions. She believed Kazuya probably lacked experience in dealing with these unconventional techniques.
As Kazuya came at Haruka with a strike, she once again used Kiriotoshi. After breaking through, she lunged forward, aiming a feigned strike at Kazuya's chest while extending her foot to hook his ankle to disrupt his balance.
The style of a life-and-death struggle usually wasn't elegant, and Haruka's current appearance was more like a turtle poking its feet out. This move looked like dirty tricks to the untrained eye, and the jeering from the audience grew louder. However, she didn't care. For her now, winning was more important than anything else.
She thought Kazuya would be thrown into chaos, but he effortlessly sidestepped her feeble feigned strike. Ignoring her leg, he suddenly inserted his hand between her hands, gripping her sword handle and twisting it away.
"Disarming? Yagyu Shinkageryu?" Haruka was stunned. She exerted force with both hands, attempting to hold onto the sword handle, but eventually, she couldn't resist the laws of physics. Under the lever action, her hands stung, and her bamboo sword was pried away. Yagyu Shinkageryu, with its core principle of "win by not being killed", included many techniques for disarming an opponent.
Although Haruka managed to hook Kazuya, causing him to lose some footing, her bamboo sword had been taken away, leaving her unable to counterattack. Kazuya wasted no time and launched a series of slashes and thrusts. Haruka had to use her forearm to protect her face, retreating step by step. In the end, she lost her balance, and in a state of panic, she had to roll away to escape from Kazuya's attack range.
Haruka was genuinely anfry. After rolling a distance away, she got up and noticed a bamboo sword left by the kendo teacher on the side of the arena. She rushed over to pick it up and jumped around intending to avoid Kazuya's attacks. When she looked up, she couldn't find Kazuya. He was standing at a distance, holding two bamboo swords, and watching her as if she were a monkey performing.
Feeling even more embarrassed, Haruka breath heavily and didn't know what to do. If it were a real sword fight, she would have already suffered more than ten cuts. However, she still couldn't accept it. Once again, she roared in anger and raised the bamboo sword to attack Kazuya.
Unexpectedly, Kazuya had the active effect [Dual Weapon Grip]. With one sword on offense and the other on defense, Haruka's attempts to approach him were met with a couple of evasive moves. She was unable to touch even the hem of his clothes and retreated frustratedly again. In disbelief, she said, "You... You... You're not using Yagyu Shinkageryu? It's Nitenichi!"
Kazuya threw away one of the bamboo swords, "No, I just read some books and practiced casually. I don't belong to any school."
"Impossible!" Haruka thought Kazuya was deceiving her, growing even more infuriated. This gigolo turned out to be so despicable: he practiced ancient swordsmanship and hid his true school. It lacked the honor of a true swordsman!
Controlling the bamboo sword in his hand, Kazuya kept it spinning, gradually approaching her, "Sakura, if you can take a detour when you see me from now on, I'll spare you today. How about that?"
Haruka shouted angrily, "In your dreams!" Although she shouted that way, she felt a bit regretful at once. Standing there hesitating, she couldn't decide whether to defend or to launch an attack.
Kazuya took a small sliding step and slashed again, "Then Don't blame me for not being merciful!"
Hearing Kazuya's voice, Haruka suddenly realized that she couldn't be afraid. Being afraid was the real defeat! But as she watched Kazuya's approaching figure, she felt his momentum was irresistible, as if her defeat had already been determined, and there was no way to avoid it!
However, she was unwilling to accept defeat, absolutely unwilling! Haruka suddenly roared loudly, like an angry little tiger being shot in the buttocks. With all her strength, she temporarily dispelled the darkness in her heart. Facing Kazuya's slash, she countered with a strike, blade against blade.
Kazuya danced around her agilely, moving forward and backward, fast but not pressing the attack directly on her. The target of his strikes was her bamboo sword. Every time Haruka struck, Kazuya deflected her, leaving her frustrated to the point of wanting to vomit blood.
Haruka's horizontal strike was once again deflected by Kazuya, but this time he used only one hand and couldn't regain control of the bamboo sword. Just as Haruka felt delighted and tried to rotate the sword handle with all her strength to change the direction of the bamboo sword, Kazuya took advantage of the opportunity when both sides were vulnerable. He suddenly closed in, and with a swift motion, his hand struck her face through the mask, causing her to stagger back a few steps.
Having taken a punch to the face and not fully recovered from the shock, Haruka faced another slash from Kazuya. She desperately diverted the strike to the side, attempting to rush behind Kazuya. But Kazuya executed a diagonal jump, kicking her in the buttocks and sending her tumbling to the ground.
Haruka struggled to get up but felt even more unsettled. Gasping for breath, she could only gaze angrily at Kazuya. Her mind was in turmoil, filled with confusion. Was this Anmaryu? No, maybe Taihosharyu?
Anmaryu was an eccentric school that aimed not to kill the opponent immediately but to first break the opponent's weapon, rendering them defenseless before delivering the final strike. But this school had been hated deeply in the past because the weapon was too expensive at that time. Taihosharyu was even stranger. While being a swordsmanship school, it involved a lot of monkey-like jumping around, with punches and kicks more prevalent than sword techniques. being a martial art, it involved wielding blades and ultimately relying on the sword to kill the opponent.
Haruka couldn't comprehend it, "What the hell are you!?"
The audience was also bewildered. It didn't look like a exhibition match anymore. Why were they throwing punches and kicks? Weren't these two supposed to be kendo clubmates? Was it the charm of kendo?
The referees from Classes A and C wanted to stop the this match, but Yūma was enjoying himself and had no intention of ending the match after seeing Kazuya's overwhelming performance, . If not for the fact that there were more than eighty classmates watching, he would have taken up a bamboo sword himself and joined in beating Haruka.
Ignoring Haruka's question, Kazuya delivered a decisive overhead slash with a slight jump, .
In an instant, Haruka dared not draw her sword. Missing the timing, she could only raise her bamboo sword over her head to block the downward strike. Subsequently, a horizontal strike should follow. In traditional swordsmanship, defending were meant for attacking. But her offensive spirit had been completely worn down by consecutive failures, and her body was somewhat stiff. She inadvertently took a step back and didn't counterattack.
Kazuya ignorde the gazes of the other people. His consecutive strikes became heavier and faster, one more powerful than the last. In the end, he pressed Haruka's bamboo sword directly above her head.
Haruka had no way out. Already short and with short arms, once she lost the initiative to attack and dared not approach the opponent actively, she could only passively endure the beating. But she had a bottom line. She absolutely refused to admit defeat. Despite being beaten so badly, she gritted her teeth, her eyes reddening.
Kazuya's heavy strike was once again imminent. Her arms were already sore and numb, and even her defense could no longer be maintained. Kazuya showed no mercy and shouted for the first time with a fierce gaze, "Die!"
His bamboo sword retracted and then stabbed out forcefully. The force was so great that it sent her rolling away. In the end, she lay face down on the floor.