Prana Beyond His Predictions! - Anime: Infinite Swordsman! (Danmachi+Asterisk War+Rakudai)

Chapter 471: Prana Beyond His Predictions!

Luke smiled.

And it was a genuinely delighted smile.

Of course he knew about Ikki's Perfect Vision.

He also knew just how difficult that ability was to counter.

Luke had never bothered hiding anything from Ikki, and this was the result.

But seeing through something was ultimately still just seeing through it.

Perfect Vision certainly gave Ikki an enormous advantage.

To some extent, it had even narrowed the gap between them.

Especially when it came to speed!

But something like this only made Luke even more excited.

If Ikki could not even accomplish this much, Luke would have been deeply disappointed.

More importantly—Narrowing the gap did not mean the gap had disappeared.

Especially in areas that simply could not be compensated for!

Luke tightened both hands around Starfall Sword as the mana throughout his body began to boil.

Without Sword Sheath of Tranquility supporting him, he could no longer reinforce himself with mana exceeding the normal A-rank level.

But even C-rank mana was worlds apart from Ikki's reserves.

And when it came to physical ability—Luke possessed an absolute, unshakable advantage!

Strength.

That was a gap even Perfect Vision could not erase!

Facing Ikki's full-force upward thrust, Luke did not hesitate for even an instant.

He smashed his sword straight back down!

Clang—!

Boom—!

The two deafening sounds erupted almost simultaneously!

The instant their blades collided with a thunderous metallic crash, Ikki was hammered straight back into the ground.

...

Only moments after the match began, Luke and Ikki's breathtaking exchange of offense and defense had already stunned the entire audience.

Compared with Luke and Stella's semifinal, the current battle could hardly be called intense.

Yet it displayed an entirely different kind of brilliance.

If Luke and Stella's fight had been a collision of overwhelming violence—A brutal battle where blood and flesh flew with every exchange—Then Luke and Ikki's battle was a contest of pure technique.

An exquisite clash filled with hidden mysteries in every move.

One was overwhelmingly spectacular.

The other kept everyone on the edge of their seats.

Before the final began, many people supported Ikki.

But very few genuinely believed he could win.

A great number of spectators had not even thought he was qualified to fight Luke.

Anyone who watched both semifinals understood how enormous the difference in level had been.

Ikki versus Touka would have been a rare battle worthy of deciding the Seven Stars Sword King in almost any previous year.

But compared with Luke versus Stella…

Simply placing the two matches side by side already felt inappropriate.

One was a battle at the pinnacle of student competition, perhaps even reaching professional standards.

The other had been a world-class life-or-death clash.

They were not remotely on the same level.

But now—The spectators realized they had been wrong.

A swordsman capable of trading techniques with Luke like this could never be compared with an ordinary professional Mage-Knight.

At this very moment, Kurogane Ikki—The lowest-rated F-rank Blazer—Truly shocked everyone.

...

Yet compared with the audience's amazement and appreciation, Ikki himself felt nothing but bitterness.

His feet were planted firmly on the stage while Intetsu desperately held back Starfall Sword.

And upon closer inspection—Ikki's entire body was slowly sinking.

Yes.

Sinking.

Under Luke's terrifying strength, the newly repaired and reinforced arena was already failing again.

Ikki and the ground beneath him had both been driven below the original surface level.

And as Luke continued applying pressure, they were still sinking deeper.

Luke and Stella might have appeared evenly matched when trading blows.

But replace either one of them with someone else, and that overwhelming force would probably crush them instantly.

Ikki was only barely enduring it by desperately using his Third Secret Sword, Madoka.

The price was that the ground he used to redirect Luke's force could no longer withstand the pressure and had begun collapsing beneath him.

Logically, Ikki should never have fallen into such a passive position after completely reading Luke.

If he wanted to avoid the Void-Viewing Sword · Six Roots Purification Slash earlier, he absolutely could have.

Which meant—Ikki had deliberately created this situation.

'But this is ridiculous!'

'Can C-rank mana really reinforce his body this much?!'

If Ikki wanted to defeat Luke, clashes between their blades were unavoidable.

Perfect Vision could not change that.

It only allowed Ikki's reactions to compensate for Luke's speed.

It did not actually make Ikki faster than him.

There was no way Ikki could evade every single one of Luke's attacks.

So early in the battle, while Luke was not yet going all out and before he started using that mysterious ability capable of cutting through other people's weapons—Ikki needed to test a direct clash.

Only then could he fully understand the limit of Luke's current strength and develop a way to deal with it.

There was little wrong with Ikki's reasoning.

If Luke could only reinforce himself with C-rank mana, then no matter how monstrous his base physique was, Ikki should have been able to contend with him through Madoka's force-redirection.

Ikki's F-rank mana reserves were indeed pitiful.

But they were not nonexistent.

Having spent his entire life achieving maximum results with minimum power, even opponents with C-rank or B-rank mana did not intimidate him.

He had even identified Severing—A hidden trump card Luke had never openly revealed before—From the previous semifinal.

Unlike Stella, Ikki could not simply reform his Device after it was cut apart.

So he had prepared more than one strategy specifically to deal with it.

What Ikki never expected—Was for Luke's physical power to exceed even his highest prediction.

The moment he read Luke's sword trajectory and shifted from his First Secret Sword, Saigeki, into his Third Secret Sword, Madoka, to counter it—Ikki discovered something terrifying.

He could not redirect all of Luke's force!

The instant Starfall Sword collided with Intetsu, an enormous surge of monstrous strength traveled through the blade.

Ikki was immediately smashed back into the ground and pinned there.

Cold sweat appeared across his forehead.

At this point, Ikki no longer had the luxury of wondering why.

He needed every bit of his concentration for one thing—Finding a way out of this dead end!

Just as Ikki had expected—Luke held high expectations for him.

But on the stage of the Seven Star Sword Art Festival final, Luke had absolutely no intention of going easy.

Mana boiled throughout his body.

Blue fragments of starlight surrounded Luke as he mobilized his Prana.

With both energies reinforcing him, Luke used strength far beyond Ikki's expectations to pin him firmly against the ground.

Then—Mana flashed.

A considerable portion of Luke's reserves instantly poured into Starfall Sword, activating the special ability of his Device.

Without the slightest hesitation—Luke unleashed Severing against Intetsu!

If this strike succeeded—The final would end right here, without any suspense.

…

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Chapter 471 - Prana Beyond His Predictions!