When these words reached her ears, what caught Kurono's attention were Hoshiharu's aggressive black pupils.
His eyes seemed capable of piercing through all illusions and pointing directly at the essence. When you were under his gaze, you got the illusion of being directly illuminated by a demon mirror, as if all shortcomings and falsehoods were visible.
In front of him, a student challenged her to a duel.
In that duel, the young man also displayed unimaginable swordsmanship and extraordinary insight.
But comparatively, the man only surprised her, while Hoshiharu's eyes terrified her, as if no strategy could be hidden from those eyes.
In this world, there are people like that.
Their eyes have unparalleled oppressive power, their bodies have an absolute realm that cannot be violated, and they possess unimaginable traits that go beyond common sense. The strongest among them can even break through the limitations of physical laws and surpass human realms.
Such people are called – Swordsman.
"...Funny, no one has said that to me in years."
Kurono suppressed a slight doubt in her heart and brought a proud smile to her face.
"If you can do it, just try!"
She made up her mind and began to take action.
If she didn't show her true intentions, she might really lose to this kid, or if she indeed lost to a new student, then her prestige as the new director would be gone before it even started.
As proof, she extended her right hand, and under the wave of pitch-black magical light, a pitch-black pistol appeared in her hand.
Device—Propator.
The pistol-type device was also the medium through which she could exert her Noble Arts.
With her ability to control time, she could accelerate, decelerate, or even stop the entire target's time indefinitely. As long as her bullets could hit the opponent, she could be assured of victory.
It was with this superpower that she was able to achieve the global rank of third at the age of 20!
But the premise is... her bullets need to hit the target.
Opposite her.
Hoshiharu gathered all his strength and performed the simplest thrusting motion in swordsmanship.
Then, he didn't make any unnecessary reactions and just gently closed his eyes.
He shut down all external senses such as vision, hearing, and touch. At this moment, he indeed lost all worldly senses. Not to mention the opponent's reactions, he couldn't even feel the sound of the wind.
With extremely strong mental concentration, he entrusted all his senses to his sixth sense.
The sixth sense.
In other words, it was instinct, or it could be said – intuition.
Then, at a certain moment—
Hoshiharu fully obeyed his instincts, kicked the ground with his right foot, and his whole body instantly floated into the air.
The next second, Kurono raised her finger and pulled the trigger.
NO.
She failed to flick her finger.
*CLANG*
At this moment, the world seemed to have lost its color and turned into a space consisting of black and white.
A sharp scream that pierced the atmosphere came from that beautiful sword.
"—Lightning Flint!"
In a daze, Kurono seemed to hear such a whisper.
A silver light flashed.
With unmatched speed and tremendous momentum, the thing passed through her body in less than the blink of an eye.
*BOOM*
Immediately afterward, a massive wave of air surged, sweeping across the entire battle circle, and even rushing towards the distant auditorium. A great roar echoed throughout the training ground!
The terrifying loud noise and movement startled everyone present.
Including Kurono and Touka, everyone was shocked.
No one expected that Hoshiharu's attack would cause such an earth-shattering reaction after the decisive strike was made. It was like a flat thunder exploding in their ears, wiping out everyone's consciousness.
It was incredible to the extreme and extremely shocking.
Three seconds later.
The strong wind on the field subsided and became peaceful again.
"Gulp!"
Among the audience, the sound of swallowing was clearly heard.
"...Hey, what just happened?"
A trembling voice reached the ears.
"...You will know just by looking at the field."
Someone answered in a vague tone.
In the battle circle.
The two people who were fighting had disappeared from the field.
Kurono appeared outside the battle circle and crashed into the iron isolation board. She was stuck deep within the isolation board. Most of the area near her was gone and smashed by the enormous shockwave.
In the middle of her chest, there was a long sword shining with a rippling light.
The blade of the sword was deeply embedded in her chest and inserted into the iron isolation board behind her. Only the hilt of the sword remained outside, held by a black-haired man.
After a while, Kurono slowly regained her consciousness.
At that moment, it was as if she had been hit head-on by a high-speed train, shattered to pieces in an instant. She couldn't even help but release the Device in her hand, and she had no time to pull the trigger.
And this was merely a byproduct of Hoshiharu's Noble Arts.
"Is it not... Conceptual Interference System, but Causation Interference System?"
Kurono slumped against the wall, exhausted, feeling the pitiful state she was in, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Only after being directly hit by this sword did she truly understand the true nature of Hoshiharu's Blazer special ability.
It wasn't something simple like controlling speed.
His power completely exceeded theirs.
If her guess was correct, then his power might be—
Certainly faster than his opponent.
The faster his opponent, the faster he goes!
If you're stronger, I'll be stronger, and no matter how strong you are, I'll always be stronger.
At that moment, Hoshiharu used this ability to make her the object of transcendence, so he had absolute speed to surpass her reaction limit in one strike!
——Lightning Flint.
The true ultimate attack!
In this world, only a handful of people could block this technique.
At least she failed.
Kurono smiled bitterly and shook her head.
As a result, as the new director, her authority was essentially destroyed.
However, she also looked forward to it.
How the new disciple from the God of War with such a strong ability would compete in Hagun Academy, or even in the annual competition involving Knight Students from all over the country – Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival.
Despite being hit by the Device, Kurono's chest was not injured at all, but all the strength in her body seemed to have been drained, and she was extremely exhausted.
"Where did the blood come from?"
Suddenly, a pool of red blood appeared at the corner of her eye, causing her to fall silent and look at the boy in her arms.
Then her pupils shrank.
The boy in her arms had already lost consciousness.
The muscles throughout his body were peeled off, many bones broken, and a large number of blood vessels under his skin ruptured. Blood stained all his clothes and soaked the ground.
"Isn't this almost near death!?"