The battle between Artoria and Ryu continued.
Ryu was the first to fire several Cursed Energy blasts at Artoria.
While Artoria dodged and parried the blasts, Ryu rushed straight toward her at his fastest speed, trying to seize the initiative.
Thanks to the extended length of her Holy Sword, Artoria's attack reached him even before Ryu's fist.
The Holy Sword swept horizontally, a move that could sweep away a thousand troops, slashing toward Ryu.
Seeing this, Ryu stomped his right foot down and braked sharply, narrowly avoiding being cut in half by the Holy Sword.
Immediately after, Artoria twisted her wrist, swung the Holy Sword back from behind her body, and brought it down in a powerful Forceful Split of Mount Hua from top to bottom.
The wide, sweeping strike carried enough force to cleave even large Cursed Spirits, crashing down violently and carving a long gash into the ground.
Ryu dodged by shifting to the side.
He crouched slightly, then pushed off with his left foot, moving more than a meter forward in an instant and appearing right in front of Artoria.
"Take this!"
Ryu threw an uppercut at Artoria.
Artoria tilted her head and easily dodged the punch.
Ryu was still much taller than Artoria.
Although he had lowered his stance to attack, Artoria herself had also leaned forward after using Forceful Split of Mount Hua.
As a result, the uppercut was slightly too high and was not difficult for her to evade.
Ryu clearly knew this, but he did not care.
Because he had successfully entered Artoria's sword range.
Normally, wide sweeping attacks meant swift and powerful offense, but they also created larger openings.
One punch, two punches, three punches. Ryu's attacks poured down relentlessly.
Artoria immediately raised her sword to parry.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Fists wrapped in Cursed Energy slammed repeatedly into the blade.
Artoria blocked every attack.
At the same time, Ryu's fists, even reinforced with Cursed Energy, still suffered minor cuts from the sharp edge of the Holy Sword.
Ryu's gaze sharpened.
His right fist, surging with Cursed Energy, smashed heavily into the Holy Sword.
Pfft.
The edge of the blade cut into Ryu's fist.
Artoria was also forced back slightly by the heavy blow.
A Cursed Energy blast instantly condensed above Ryu's head.
The blast shot straight toward Artoria's upper body.
Ryu knew that while the head was more lethal, it was also easier to dodge.
He had seen Artoria's terrifying combat awareness more than once. It was as if there was no fatal attack she could not evade.
So he chose her body instead, which was harder to avoid.
Artoria, still recoiling from Ryu's heavy punch, immediately flipped backward to dodge the Cursed Energy blast.
Ryu looked up at once and adjusted the direction of his cannon, splitting the blast into multiple streams that covered Artoria's entire body.
Artoria had just landed and clearly could not evade.
She adjusted her stance, swinging her sword from bottom to top. She either cut apart or deflected the blasts aimed at her abdomen, heart, and head, while using Mana Burst to reinforce her defense.
Boom.
A Cursed Energy blast struck Artoria.
Ryu did not stop, because he knew such small tricks were useless against her.
Strike while she was down and finish her off.
He began firing continuous barrages of Cursed Energy blasts at Artoria.
Explosions erupted nonstop at her position.
'The cannon feedback feels wrong.'
Just like a boxer's instinct for his punches, Ryu, who had spent his entire life with cannons, possessed his own cannon sense.
'The explosion sounds are getting louder. This feeling, it's like none of my shots are hitting her and they're all striking the ground…'
Ryu realized something was off.
Sure enough, in the next second, Artoria burst out from another direction.
Her blue and white armored dress was clearly damaged. The blue skirt was torn in several places by the blasts, and the silver-white armor bore dents and scratches.
But Artoria herself had not suffered any serious injuries.
That was the full result of Ryu's barrage.
At first, she had been hit by a few blasts because she had just landed and could not evade in time.
However, with her Magic Resistance and Mana Burst reinforcing her defense, the damage from these uncharged rapid-fire blasts was far from enough.
"Over here then? Come on!"
Ryu threw a punch at Artoria, while the cannon on his pompadour fired a Cursed Energy blast in perfect coordination.
The failure of his attacks did not make Ryu fearful.
On the contrary, it ignited his fighting spirit even further.
He was someone like Kashimo Hajime, who would challenge relentlessly even knowing he could not win.
A powerful individual who would stake his life on a single, all-out, exhilarating battle.
A famous quote from Hanma Baki once said that techniques were impure things, something only the weak needed to study.
Ryu had once shared similar thoughts.
Because he was born too late.
If he had been born twenty years earlier, Kashimo Hajime would not have been too old to travel far.
The two of them might have fought a battle of incomparable satisfaction.
Because of this, Ryu had never tasted defeat in his life, nor had he ever been truly "full" from a fight.
Naturally, the techniques of weaker opponents were nothing more than useless tricks in his eyes.
But at this moment, Ryu began to use the very techniques he had once looked down on.
After going all out, the impressive moves that weaker opponents had used against him in past battles began to surface one after another in his own hands.
Artoria's sword slashed toward Ryu's head.
Ryu sidestepped, then ducked and lunged forward, using the opening created when the Holy Sword could not be withdrawn immediately to slam a punch into Artoria's abdomen.
Artoria released the hilt with her left hand, retracting the sword using only her right.
At the same time, her left arm rose to guard her body.
Bang.
Ryu's fist struck Artoria's armor.
Both of them frowned at the same time. Clearly, the blow hurt both sides.
Artoria swung her sword with her right hand, slashing downward at Ryu.
Ryu maintained his low, lunging posture, shifting his feet continuously to dodge the strike.
At the same time, he circled to Artoria's side.
This was a move he had once seen from a man who loved boxing.
Constant movement, constant circling around the opponent.
It allowed one to avoid powerful frontal attacks while striking from the side.
That man, relying on strange footwork, had broken several of Ryu's ribs.
As Illaoi once said, preaching is useless. Broken bones are better textbooks.
Those broken ribs made Ryu remember that move forever.
And so, after circling to Artoria's side, Ryu drove a fierce punch into her ribs.
Moreover, he chose her right side.
Because Artoria had just swung her sword with her right hand and could not block in time.
If it had been her left side, she would have been able to raise her left arm to defend again.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)