Chapter 300: Touka's Sword Intent and a Sword Technique Beyond Raikiri!
Boom—!
A violent storm and shockwave swept across the entire stage once again.
The teachers stationed around the arena to block the aftermath of the battle all found themselves silently cursing their luck.
No one had expected this year's Touka to be this powerful.
Not only had she made up for her weakness in movement, she could even unleash Raikiri, her sure-kill technique, three times in a row.
This breakthrough, which could only be described as a qualitative change, had already completely taken her beyond the level of a student.
With strength like this, even compared to the past champions of the Seven Star Sword Art Festival, the Seven Star Sword Kings, almost no one could say they were stronger than Touka except for a rare handful of monster-class fighters.
Unfortunately, the opponent she was facing right now was a true monster in every sense of the word.
Hard.
That was Touka's first impression after striking Luke.
What followed was doubt and confusion.
There was no doubt that she had hit Luke, but the feeling was nothing like cutting into a body. It felt more like her blade had been blocked by armor made of mana.
But Luke's mana capacity was only C-rank. How could he possibly block her Raikiri with nothing but mana protection?
However, she had no time to think about it further.
With her attack failing, Touka immediately shifted her footing and slid sideways, avoiding Luke's slash.
Luke had no intention of holding back either.
He did not even waste time retracting the starlight barrier he had just deployed.
The Starfall Sword in his hand traced an arc through the air and once again slashed toward Touka's chest.
Although Luke was using its Illusionary Form, which would not cause Touka any real physical injury, this strike carried his "cutting" ability.
As Touka was now, there was no way for her to defend against it.
Whether she tried to parry or block, Touka's Device would be cut apart along with her mana, just like what had once happened to Edelweiss.
The reason Luke had not used this ability earlier was because he wanted to witness Touka's full strength.
He wanted to witness the full power of Raikiri.
Otherwise, with his cutting ability, Touka would not even have been able to unleash her second strike.
But now, Luke was satisfied.
Touka's performance had far exceeded his expectations. After witnessing the stunning strike that was the third-stage Raikiri, Luke was already more than content with this match.
So he had no intention of dragging it out any longer.
With this strike, he planned to end the battle directly.
Because Touka's body was already in terrible condition.
Whether it was the initial Electromagnetic Propulsion or the later Shippu Jinrai she used to break free from Amakakeru-Ryū-no-Hirameki's restraint and increase the power of her sword technique, Touka had been paying for every move with damage to her own body.
Forcing her body to move, forcing her physical ability higher, even forcing the consecutive Raikiri technique itself—every step had gone against the natural operation of her body.
The girl had ignored her body's screams through sheer force of will, and only then had she finally managed to edge out half a move against Luke in his normal state.
That was already incredibly rare.
After all, even Ikki and Stella had yet to gain so much as half a move against Luke.
But Touka had done it.
Even though, in the end, her body could not bear the burden, and she had failed to shatter the prana barrier and harm Luke, she had still achieved it.
But the result was that, in this brief exchange, the girl's body had already been pushed to the verge of collapse by the ravages of lightning.
Even with the help of the mysterious power called magic, her current condition was no different from being heavily injured.
If this continued, Luke would not even need to do anything. Touka would die by her own hand first.
So, in order to prevent this brilliant swordsman from dying on this stage, Luke swung the Starfall Sword in his hand and slashed toward the girl without hesitation.
However, Touka saw through his intention.
Reverse Sight, a Noble Art that even surpassed Ikki's abnormal observation ability in some ways, helped her.
Before Luke even swung his sword, Touka had already predicted his movement.
However, even though she had foreseen the direction of his strike, her body had already reached its limit. It would be difficult for her to dodge Luke's attacks continuously.
Even so, the girl had no intention of giving up.
Even if her body could no longer move, she still had another way to move.
Golden lightning gathered beneath Touka's feet once again.
Then…
Boom—!
Thunder exploded.
Driven by electromagnetic force, Touka's entire body turned into a streak of lightning and pulled away from Luke at the last possible moment.
Luke, whose attack had missed, did not continue chasing her.
He stood where he was and raised his head, looking at the girl in the distance as she panted heavily.
"Do you still intend to continue?"
Luke did not pursue because he felt there was no need.
If this were a fight to the death against an enemy, of course he would never act this way. But in the end, this was only a match.
Besides, based on the current situation, it was not enough to make him so serious that he would refuse to leave his opponent even the slightest chance.
In fact, after using Electromagnetic Propulsion for the second time, whether Touka still had the strength to launch another attack was already questionable.
In Luke's eyes, the battle had already ended here.
Of course, he was willing to respect her choice.
If Touka truly disregarded her own life and charged at him again, Luke would also face her head-on without hesitation.
But…
"Are you going to stake your life on this one battle?"
After barely escaping Luke's slash, Touka half-knelt on the ground.
The intense pain and screams coming from every part of her body constantly reminded her that she no longer had the strength to fight.
Just as Luke thought, Touka no longer had the power to launch another charge.
She still had plenty of mana left, and her mind was sharper than ever.
But her body could not hold out anymore.
Two uses of Electromagnetic Propulsion, plus one Shippu Jinrai that surpassed her limits, had nearly paralyzed the girl's entire body.
Her legs were especially bad. Touka could even smell something faintly burned, and trying to take another step was already impossible.
She looked at Luke, completely unharmed.
Then she looked at the glowing starlight barrier flickering in front of him and bit her lip in frustration.
"Even after going this far, I still couldn't hurt him at all…"
Tasting the bitterness in her heart, Touka listened to Luke's question…
And smiled.
The girl smiled.
She smiled very happily.
Along with her laughter, a state appeared around her.
It was the same state they had once witnessed in Okutama.
Faint, but undeniably real.
It was the sword intent belonging to the swordsman named Todo Touka.
Seeing this, Luke was surprised at first.
But then he smiled as well.
"So my feeling wasn't wrong after all. Touka-senpai really is a true swordsman."
"But are you sure about this?"
"One careless mistake, and you'll die on this stage. Besides, you've already beaten me by one move. Wouldn't ending it here be good enough?"
"If you want to spar again in the future, I'll accompany you anytime."
Hearing Luke's obviously insincere words, Touka squeezed out the last bit of strength in her body and stood up.
Then she said to him,
"Don't give me that. That Amakakeru-Ryū-no-Hirameki just now wasn't your own sword technique at all."
"If I don't force out your sword technique, if I don't truly injure you, how could I possibly be satisfied with falling here?"
As she spoke, Touka raised her Device, Narukami, horizontally and aimed the tip of the blade toward Luke, taking her stance.
At the same time, lightning rose once again.
"With this next strike… I'll definitely reach you!"
…
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