Chapter 365: Speed Vs Strength

As I stared down the Hippogriff in the distance, I raised the hilt of my sword to chest level, causing an illusory sword identical to Hokori to float directly to its right; tilting my blade, I began to slash my sword in all directions around, though I slowly continued to increase my speed, causing Hokori to just be seen as a mere blur that enveloped my body. However, within that blur made up of a swiftly moving blade was an illusory sword that, although it was merely an illusion, only I knew it was one; the opponent before me wouldn't be able to tell the difference before it was too late.

Narrowed my eyes at my opponent, I waited for her to lunge at me with her impressive speed, and once she finished observing my technique, I saw her wings slightly twitch just as she took a step forward, only for her to turn into a blur of speed; even though I was ready and fully expecting her to come, her speed was just too much, and by the time I finally reacted, she was already about to near me. Increasing the speed of my attacks while using the Fairy Sword Dance technique, the silverish blur that surrounded my body became more evident; not even a moment later, my opponent had flown right past me, prompting me to click my tongue as I felt a pang spread out from my arm.

Slowing down my numerous attacks, I glanced at my arm, only to spot a gash that had stopped at my muscles; somehow, even while attacking so many times so quickly, she was still able to wound me, which, in all honestly, impressed me though I was mostly annoyed with myself. While it's true I was holding back, it wasn't by a lot, yet my opponent still injured me, and it was a prick at my pride, something I wouldn't forgive so easily.

However, while I was injured, so was she; gracefully moving my feet in specific patterns, I turned around and gazed at my opponent, who was mostly fine except for the gash across her leg, which would've made me smirk if we hadn't traded during the clash.

"Tsk, annoying." Muttered Elif with a slight frown as he gazed at the Hippogriff while the blur of his speeding sword returned to its previous intensity.

While still performing the Fair Sword Dance, I pushed off the ground and used Elven Body Flicker, allowing me to speedily approach my opponent. I've been able to use both for quite some time, and it was nothing special to me, but I didn't use it often; only when I'm sparring against Illumia do I ever use it.

My attempt to approach my opponent was quite a failure; she was far faster than me, and my movement technique hardly even seemed to close the gap in my eyes, although, to be fair, my movement technique shined the most during a large-scale battle, which from Illumia's words, was far scarier and deadlier than a one-on-one battle could ever be.

Even though my opponent was faster and was able to always evade me, her whole purpose was to defeat me, so she never stayed running for long and would attack every now and then, turning into a blur while lunging at me from various angles. Though the same always occurred, we'd trade blows, with her taking far more damage than me since she greatly lacked attack power, though she made up for that with her speed.

Clicking my tongue once more, I glanced at the shallow gash across my stomach before looking up, eyeing my opponent, who was laced with numerous bloody gashes; granted, none of them were fatal, but it was apparent I held the upper hand, and I would eventually win, though it wasn't a win I'd enjoy claiming.

However, before my eyes, she raised her wings into the air before her tips touched each other, prompting a powerful bluish glow to emit off her body, only for it to condense around just her feathery wings, though the glow was significantly denser than before. Furrowing my brows at the sudden change, I lowered myself to the ground, taking away a direction she could attack me from, and stared at her, awaiting her next move, yet what happened next was shocking, to say the least.

One second, she was standing there, and then the next moment, there was another gash on my left side; moving on pure instinct, I turned around and increased the intensity of my technique to my limit, causing Hokori's blurring blade to form a silverish sphere around my body as the sound of air constantly slicing through wind echoed within the white room.

Narrowing my eyes, I focused intently on my opponent as I swung my blade as fast as I could, yet, just like before, I didn't see her move; she simply stood there, and then one second later, she was in a different spot while a new injury appeared on my body.

'Are you telling me she wasn't using a movement technique until now?' Thought Elif with widened eyes as he clutched his wounded body with one hand while his other was swiftly dancing around himself.

Clicking my tongue at how absurd this was, I was suddenly attacked once more; her wing sliced through one of the many already present gashes on my body, further deepening the wound, causing me to inwardly wince as I glanced at her, yet to my surprise, I noticed no new wounds upon her body.

'Oh, this is just great.' Thought Elif with a scowl as he stared at the Hippogriff, who vanished, her speed so powerful it might as well be she teleported.

Feeling yet another one of my wounds deepen, I stopped moving and focused entirely on my technique, trying to hit her a few more times to see if she was merely lucky, but after the third one, where she once again deepened an already present wound, there was no point in continuing this; the fact she could pinpoint where to attack while evading all of my sword slashes, including the illusory one, was more than to prove to me my technique wasn't enough.

Now that she held the advantage, it was obvious she would continue with her onslaught of attacks, which constantly furthered the extent of my injuries; they weren't life-threatening yet, but it was merely a matter of time, and given her speed, it wasn't much time.

Trying one of the couple ideas I had to defeat her, I coated Hokori in a dense, ethereal, purple flaming aura, causing the silverish sphere my blurring blade made to become purple instead; with the two techniques combined, I waited for the next time she attacked before retaliating.

'Now.' Mused Elif as he felt pain spread across his back, prompting him to shift his body in the direction the Hippogriff flew.

Expelling a significant amount of Qi from my sword in the form of hundreds, if not thousands, of heavenly scars barely the length of Hokori; the numerous sword waves blanketed that entire side of the room, and if my opponent was over there, even with her speed, it meant nothing if she couldn't find a gap to escape the wall of Heavenly scars.

Unfortunately, when I felt another sharp pain appear on my thigh, I clicked my tongue; I was too slow in my attacks.

'Well, since blocking an entire wall didn't work, how about the entire room? I've got more than enough Qi for that.' Thought Elif with a faint smirk as he attacked again, launching tens of thousands of heavenly scars in quick succession that resembled a river of purple aura.

Several seconds passed, and although I hadn't killed my opponent, I was no longer attacked, which meant my idea was working; several more seconds later, I suddenly sighed in relief while my movements slowed down along with my constant wave of Heavenly scar came to a halt.

Lowering Hokori, I blew the streak of purple hair out of my face and glanced at my opponent, who was cleanly bisected in the corner of the room; watching her figure slowly dissipate, I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I reflected upon the battle, ignoring the comfortable sensation that spread through my body as I was healed and refilled with Qi.

"As fast as she was, she lacked greatly in attack power, and as for her defensive capabilities, well, the fact she died to such a weak Heavenly Scar says it all. She's sort of similar to me in that regard how she specializes in on specific category of battle, though unlike her, I focus mainly on attacking." Remarked Elif lightly with a thoughtful expression as he rubbed his chin, only to shake his head.

I had to hand it to her; she was a rather impressive opponent, nearly on par with the likes of Lucifer, Cordelia, and that lizard Tiamat; as for Aurora, I've never fought him, so I can't accurately gauge the extent of his strength. However, while the battle was challenging, if we had both taken this fight seriously from the beginning, I wouldn't even have been half as injured as I was; though if we weren't fighting in an enclosed room but instead in the open sky, I will admit, the way I defeated her wouldn't have worked.

"Tch, I can already imagine Illumia is going to give me hell during our next spring session; she probably won't even listen to my explanation either." Muttered Elif in annoyance as he folded his arms and grumbled under his breath while awaiting his twenty-fourth opponent.