As Kirei stepped on the ground, causing it to shatter, and just before his palms were about to strike, the long hair that reached Justeaze's waist moved on its own, unaffected by the wind. The hair passed through Justeaze's armpits, weaving into a complex pattern, creating a layered net that caught Kirei's hand.
The multi-layered net accurately captured Kirei's palm, but he had no intention of retracting his attack. Instead, Kirei gathered all his strength and continued to push forward with his palms. As long as this strike landed, it would be enough to determine the outcome. Regardless of how tight the net was, without the support of magic, it was just hair.
However, the "Facing the Sun Palm," which contained all of Kirei's strength, did not land. The moment his hands touched the net, he realized his mistake. Instead of the soft touch he had anticipated, he felt something as hard as steel. Not only the net, but the extended parts of the net and the silver hair were as straight as steel wires.
It was an unbreakable barrier that kept Kirei and Justeaze at a fixed distance of fifty centimeters.
Justeaze was a spiritual entity, and her ability to manifest a physical form was based on the Third Magic. Her hair, infused with magic, possessed strength and resilience that could rival the pseudo-Noble Phantasm "Thousand Hair Binding."
As Kirei pushed forward, Justeaze retreated, maintaining a distance of fifty centimeters. As time passed, the extended strands of the Thousand Hair Binding swiftly retracted.
Realizing the unfavorable situation, Kirei hesitated no more. He unleashed the accumulated force he had been gathering for a long time. If Justeaze continued to maintain this state, Kirei was certain that his strike would rip open her scalp.
Fortunately, Scáthach was by Justeaze's side and had already anticipated this possibility when Justeaze was developing her magecraft. She had incorporated an emergency mechanism into her hair. Once the hair received a certain level of impact, the solidification would be released.
Kirei's palm strike triggered this mechanism, causing Justeaze's hair net to loosen.
Although the "Facing the Sun Palm" had tremendous power, it only held meaning if it hit its target. The Type-Moon world did not have the concept of internal energy as depicted in martial arts novels. Even a grandmaster of Bajiquan like Li Shuwen, known as the "God Spear Li," couldn't necessarily harm someone from a distance of fifty centimeters with just his fist power, let alone someone like Kirei.
Aside from the cold wind brushing her face, Justeaze felt nothing. Kirei's fatal blow was thus neutralized.
At this moment, Justeaze's Thousand Hair Binding had returned. The four strands of whip-like hair split into dozens of thin strands, converging from all directions, forming a massive spiderweb.
However, Kirei was not a butterfly trapped in a web; he was a fearsome executor, a killing weapon. As soon as the spiderweb approached, Kirei drew three pairs of black keys. His arms couldn't reach Justeaze, but with the blade-like keys, he could easily pierce her at close range. With his wrist and finger strength, it was a simple task to penetrate her defense.
But how could Justeaze give him such an opportunity? As she rapidly retreated, she used her hair and the Thousand Hair Binding to reorganize her defensive formation. She successfully intercepted the six black keys, with the closest one being less than 10 centimeters away from her chest.
The black keys did not penetrate her. Justeaze was not surprised at all. After several rounds of fighting, Kirei had already witnessed the power of this mysterious woman from the Einzbern family. If this woman had participated in the first three Holy Grail Wars, the Einzbern family would not have suffered an early defeat.
While it would be good if the black keys could cause damage to the woman, if they couldn't, Kirei could take the opportunity while she reorganized her defensive net to escape the "spiderweb" and create distance.
Justeaze had no intention of letting go of Kirei. The "Thousand Hair Binding" underwent another transformation.
This time, all the threads controlled by Justeaze's right hand wove together into a long rope exceeding ten meters in length, with the flowing magical energy reaching an unprecedented height.
"Ever-changing Whip Thread!"
With a short incantation, the whip thread swept across a huge arc, carrying a terrifying gust of wind pressure as it swept through the 180-degree space in front of her.
With a crisp "crack," a centuries-old towering tree that was struck by the whip thread collapsed, proving that the power contained in the whip thread was no less than the full force of Kirei's punch.
But this was just the beginning. From start to finish, Justeaze never believed that Kirei would be hit by the whip thread. She only wanted to force him to dodge. Scáthach once said that no qualified warrior would easily leave the ground. Therefore, for Kirei to dodge this whip thread that was 80 centimeters off the ground, he could only lie down.
As Kirei lay down, Justeaze's follow-up attack began.
"Ever-changing Crossbow!"
The threads controlled by Justeaze's left hand divided and merged into more than ten strands, with each tip-enhanced by strengthening magic. With the support of magic, the strength and speed of the threads reached the standards of military crossbow arrows.
At the same time, the whip thread that was obstructed by the tree rapidly disintegrated and recombined into a crossbow, shooting at Kirei on the ground from the opposite direction.
The forward crossbow aimed at his vital points, while the reverse crossbow sealed off the space around him. Under such intense attacks, no warrior could survive, just like countless fierce generals in history who were shot to death by random arrows.
However, Kirei was not just a warrior; he was also a magus, specializing in body reinforcement magecraft just like Souichirou Kuzuki with Medea's help.
When he sensed the mortal threat, Kirei softly chanted the incantation taught by Tokiomi Tohsaka.
"Stark—Groß-Zwei—(Two—Reinforce—)"
With full-body reinforcement magecraft, although it only lasted a few seconds, it was enough to elevate all of Kirei's attributes to a level comparable to that of a Heroic Spirit.
Under the boost of reinforcement magecraft, Kirei used both his hands and feet to escape from Justeaze's deadly strike in an unimaginable posture. With astonishing momentum and speed, he rushed into her embrace and struck out with his hands, one in front and one behind, continuously attacking.
The Second of the Eight Extremities Fist's Eight Great Techniques—Left and Right Hard Open!
Unlike the "Facing the Sun Palm," the fists of "Left and Right Hard Open" followed different trajectories. Justeaze's long hair could block one fist, but not the second one. As long as one fist landed, the outcome would be certain.
Justeaze seemed to be stunned by Kirei's sudden attack, standing motionless in place, allowing his fists to penetrate her body, and even Kirei himself passed through her body.
Surprisingly, there was no resistance, no blood, and no sense of hitting anything.
"This is an illusion!"
Kirei felt a "thump" in his heart, but he remained calm. He pressed his tongue against his palate and focused his concentration, holding his breath. Illusions were different from other types of magecraft. The determining factor for their effectiveness was not the amount of magical energy but the strength of one's mental power. After twenty years of practicing the Eight Extremities Fist, Kirei had already forged his mind to be as hard as iron.
The scene before him blurred for a moment, and a sense of dislocation between reality and illusion began to invade his brain.
In a daze, Kirei saw Justeaze reorganizing her offensive from the opposite direction, and he saw Irisviel standing beside her, eyes closed, preparing to unleash boundary illusions. She had already recovered from the backlash of magic.
Dealing with Justeaze was already challenging for Kirei, and with Irisviel's assistance, the outcome became uncertain. Kirei quickly made a decision. He glanced deeply at the castle where Kiritsugu was and took advantage of the lingering effect of his reinforcement magecraft to retreat as quickly as possible.
Only after confirming that Kirei had left the inner boundary did Irisviel dispel the illusion. She opened her eyes and looked at the woman who looked almost identical to herself beside her, asking, "Should we pursue?"
Justeaze didn't respond, as if she hadn't heard Irisviel's question.
"Um...," Irisviel reached out her hand and waved it in front of Justeaze's eyes.
Justeaze snapped out of her daze and looked at Irisviel in confusion. Then she turned and ran as if she had seen something extremely terrifying. Her speed was not much slower than Kirei's.
Irisviel was left standing alone, bewildered.
"Did... I do something wrong?"
P.S.: Master Li's ultimate move, "Mighty Tiger Crawls the Mountain," is also one of the Eight Extremities Fist's Eight Great Techniques. In theory, someone who has mastered the Eight Extremities Fist should be proficient in these eight techniques. Master Li, with his eight consecutive strikes, is truly formidable.