Chapter 472: Twin-Wings Sword Style vs. Twin-Wings Sword Style!
Slash—!
Blood sprayed through the air!
Only moments after the match began, Luke's blade had already broken through Ikki's defense!
But the match was not over!
At the critical instant, Ikki decisively dismissed his Device, Intetsu, and threw himself backward as Luke's sword came down.
Naturally, he could not avoid the strike completely.
A deep sword wound appeared across Ikki's chest.
With his extremely low mana reserves, Ikki never wasted mana forming defensive armor in battle, so the wound was far from shallow.
But this was already the best possible outcome.
After making a serious mistake and falling into a dead end, Ikki decisively accepted an injury in exchange for preserving his Device.
More importantly—Avoiding Severing meant Luke had wasted a large amount of mana.
With only C-rank mana reserves available, Luke could use Severing only a limited number of times.
Once his mana was sufficiently depleted, the gap between them would shrink even further.
The wound was serious, but Ikki's powerful physique meant it was not enough to hinder his movements.
If anything, the exchange had increased his chances of victory.
A protagonist favored by fate could never be underestimated!
And if anyone thought Ikki had simply retreated, traded an injury for Luke's mana consumption, and accepted that as the end of this exchange—They were completely wrong!
The battle was still going!
Ikki paid no attention to the wound across his chest.
A single mistake meant nothing.
It could not shake the fighting spirit burning within his heart.
His right foot slammed into the ground.
The body that had been sliding backward came to an abrupt halt.
Luke had just completed his downward slash and had yet to recover his stance.
Ikki saw the opening.
His speed instantly rose to its absolute limit as he launched a ferocious counterattack!
"Seventh Secret Sword—Raikou!"
This was the most frequently used of Ikki's Seven Secret Swords.
A godspeed sword technique that pushed his speed to the extreme!
And this strike—Was completely silent!
Not a single trace of power was wasted.
There was not one unnecessary motion.
That technique was unmistakably—The Twin-Wings Sword Style!
This was no miraculous flash of inspiration.
Over the past several days, Ikki had repeated the technique thousands upon thousands of times until it was carved deep into his body.
This was the effort Ikki had poured into preparing to face Luke!
F-rank.
A level of talent regarded as so inferior that it fell outside the norm.
With nothing more than that, Ikki intended to challenge his idol, Kurogane Ryouma—And his goal, Luke Ashburn!
No matter how faint the hope—No matter how tiny his chances—Ikki would turn that possibility into reality!
His blade became a streak of light and shot toward Luke with lightning speed.
Then—
Clang—!
The piercing crash of colliding blades erupted alongside a violent shockwave that swept across the entire arena!
Luke blocked Ikki's counterattack with Ser-Veresta.
Without the slightest pause, he swung Starfall Sword in his right hand immediately afterward.
In a single instant, Luke switched into dual-wielding.
The transition was so smooth and fast that many spectators thought their eyes had deceived them.
It looked almost as though the sword in Luke's hand had simply split into two.
Clang—!
Luke's counterattack was blocked as well!
Ikki had not stopped using the Seventh Secret Sword, Raikou.
No—"Stopped using" was not the right way to describe it.
Ikki had integrated Raikou into every single movement.
He was continuously applying the sword technique to every strike!
And this time, the Seventh Secret Sword was not the only technique he incorporated.
He had also fused in the principle of his Third Secret Sword, Madoka.
Ikki never met Luke's attacks head-on.
Each time their blades touched, Ikki immediately yielded.
He circulated only the amount of force his body could endure through himself, then converted that borrowed power into momentum for his next strike.
Clang—!
Clang, clang, clang, clang—!
The sound of colliding swords became almost continuous!
By combining the Twin-Wings Sword Style with his Third and Seventh Secret Swords—Ikki had finally earned the right to stand on the same stage as Luke!
Their relentless sword exchange left the audience completely captivated.
But something else shocked them even more.
Kurogane Ikki—Could also use the Twin-Wings Sword Style!
...
"T-Twin-Wings Sword Style…"
"It's the Twin-Wings Sword Style again?!"
Commentator Iida felt as though his entire worldview was collapsing.
Twin-Wings Edelweiss was universally acknowledged as the summit of this world.
Publicly, she was the strongest person alive.
And the signature technique she took pride in was the Twin-Wings Sword Style.
Or perhaps more accurately—Beyond the Twin-Wings Sword Style, the world knew practically nothing about how Edelweiss fought.
It was not because Edelweiss lacked other techniques.
Nor was she deliberately hiding them.
The simple truth was that once Edelweiss used the Twin-Wings Sword Style, it was already enough to defeat every threat the world could place before her.
Yet this peerless sword art, practically regarded as an ultimate technique beyond mortal reach—Had now been reproduced by three different people in a single Seven Star Sword Art Festival.
Admittedly, one of those three had reproduced it through a Blazer ability rather than genuinely learning the swordsmanship.
But even that was astonishing enough.
Had the Twin-Wings Sword Style somehow become cheap?
Or was Iida simply falling behind the times?
For a professional commentator from the League's KOK circuit, the situation was enough to make him question everything he knew.
He instinctively turned toward the elderly man beside him and asked in a trembling voice,
"K-K-K-Kurogane Ikki is really using the Twin-Wings Sword Style?!"
At that moment, Iida desperately hoped his eyesight had simply failed him.
He almost wished the authoritative veteran Blazer beside him would scold him for making such a ridiculous mistake.
Unfortunately—His hopes were crushed.
Kaieda was staring at the battle with the same shock.
After hearing Iida's question, the old man finally recovered and answered with an expression filled with complicated emotion, as though the younger generation had already swept his era away.
"That's right."
"It truly is the Twin-Wings Sword Style!"
Hearing that confirmation, Iida nearly blacked out.
Kaieda, however, did not notice his partner's condition.
His entire attention had been captured by the battle.
Perhaps because the question had opened the floodgates, the old man began explaining while still marveling at what he saw.
"It isn't merely a question of using the Twin-Wings Sword Style."
"Those two have completely made it their own!"
"This goes far beyond simply learning the technique or being able to perform it."
"Kurogane Ikki has even fused it into his own swordsmanship."
"Without doing that, there's no way he could fight Luke at this level."
"I've heard rumors about Kurogane Ikki's Blade Steal before."
"But I never imagined it could reach this degree."
"To think he could even reproduce the Twin-Wings Sword Style…"
"No."
Kaieda slowly shook his head.
"This can no longer be called imitation."
"It should be called learning."
"But what shocks me even more is Luke…"
"Heh."
"At this point, even someone like me should probably address him properly as Sword Emperor."
Kaieda gave a slightly self-deprecating laugh.
He had once stood as the League's number one.
Even in old age, his combat strength remained terrifying.
But when it came purely to swordsmanship and technique—
Looking at the figure on the stage who continued to suppress Ikki—Even Kaieda could not help feeling inferior.
…
…
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