[45] Flickering Light and Passing Shadows!

The air was shattered, transformed into endless waves of turbulence that swept through the entire open square like a storm.

"Ugh!"

The sonic boom occurred right in the center of the dozen or so soldiers. The intense storm forced them to adjust their stance, gripping the ground tightly with their lower bodies.

But in doing so, they had no time to shoot.

The distance between Eiji and Bishou was only about twenty meters. With his physical strength and the strong wind, he could accelerate and cover that distance in just two seconds.

Within those two seconds, the soldiers wouldn't have time to re-aim.

"No shots fired?"

But those few seconds were enough for Bishou to react.

In his judgment, Princess Stella was severely countered by him, and Eiji posed the greatest threat in the entire area. So, his attention had been focused on Eiji.

Although the "sonic bomb" attack had indeed caught him off guard, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Eiji hadn't fired a bullet that could absolutely surpass his speed. Instead, Eiji had actively charged at him.

This guy lied! He doesn't have that kind of ability at all!

This thought flashed through Bishou's mind.

Buzz—!

Immediately after, he saw a long sword, shimmering with rippling water-like, dazzling yet gentle silver light, appear in the opponent's hand.

"A swordsman—hahaha! How foolish!"

Bishou's confidence surged.

After witnessing the Crimson Princess's defeat earlier, this guy still didn't learn his lesson and dared to use a cold weapon like a sword to slash at him. How reckless!

Indeed, his reflection was an active ability. To reflect an opponent's attack, he needed to react in time. But a slash coming straight at him, with a speed far from what he had imagined, would be effortless to block—

Ten meters.

Three meters.

One meter.

Bishou confidently extended his left hand, the ruby ring on his middle finger emitting an ominous glow.

He could already imagine the scene after his victory.

"—Flickering Light and Passing Shadows!"

In the blink of an eye, the opponent had closed the distance, murmuring something barely audible.

"Huh?"

Bishou suddenly froze.

Because Eiji did nothing. He just held his sword and brushed past him.

No, it wasn't exactly nothing. His sword seemed to tremble slightly, and there was a strange sound effect, but other than that, there was no other movement.

"Trying to attack from behind? Not a chance—huh?"

Bishou was about to turn around.

Slash!

Suddenly, a clean, precise cut appeared on his left wrist. The hand wearing the ring, influenced by gravity, fell from his wrist.

A torrent of crimson blood sprayed from the severed wrist, drawing a mesmerizing arc in the air and staining the ground.

"What just happened?"

For a moment, Bishou couldn't even process what had occurred.

—To activate his reflection ability, he needed to see the opponent's attack.

But in that instant, his senses seemed to malfunction. His consciousness blurred for a moment, as if he had zoned out. Then, his left hand was inexplicably severed.

"My hand... my hand—!"

After a brief moment of shock, intense pain surged through him.

Bishou's face twisted, the tattoos on his face contorting into a grimace. Clutching his severed left wrist, he let out a piercing scream.

"Phew..."

Eiji passed by, came to a stop, and took a slight breath.

The ancient breathing technique for physical burst sounded useful, but in essence, it was a method of channeling all the accumulated energy in the body into a single explosive moment.

It was like opening a valve as wide as possible, using up all the stamina in one go, sacrificing combat duration for a single explosive round.

Eiji moved behind Bishou, intending to use him as a hostage to deter the terrorists.

—Whoosh!

But when he turned to look, under the dancing flames, the soldiers fell one after another.

With the hostages no longer a concern, Princess Stella was wreaking havoc. Using the Lævateinn in its fantasy form, she knocked out all dozen or so soldiers.

"Such a carry from my teammate."

Under the protection of her Empress Dress, bullets were meaningless to Stella.

But for him, they were a serious problem, especially when facing multiple attackers. His ability was at a significant disadvantage in such situations.

Because he could only set one target at a time, Absolute GodSpeed was the ultimate one-on-one skill, but it was terrible for group fights.

Eiji shrugged, then slashed at Bishou's back, who was still wailing in pain.

He had switched his device to its Illusionary form in time, and with a single slash, he drained all of Bishou's stamina, causing him to faint on the spot. Only the blood continued to spurt dramatically from his wrist.

At this rate, if they didn't stop the bleeding, he would die from blood loss in less than twenty minutes.

"Stella, Shizuku, Eiji, are you all okay?"

It wasn't until all the terrorists were subdued that Ikki's figure appeared from the third-floor staircase. He leaped down, landing steadily on the square tiles over ten meters below.

"Ikki, you're too late!"

Stella immediately shot him an angry glare. "If Eiji hadn't shown up earlier, what would I have done if I really had to take off my clothes?"

"Sorry, sorry. I actually wanted to rush out earlier, but Alice stopped me..."

Seeing the princess's anger mixed with a strong sense of grievance, Ikki quickly apologized.

"Sorry, it's all my fault. But in that situation, we had to prioritize the bigger picture."

Alice walked down the stairs, clasping his hands together in apology to the glaring Stella, bowing repeatedly like he was praying to a Buddha.

In that situation, their appearance might have provoked the terrorists, endangering the hostages.

When Eiji had stepped forward, those hiding in the shadows were also startled. But they hadn't expected him to bluff his way through so effectively, which was beyond their expectations.

"Besides, we did make some gains!"

Alice snapped his fingers, and under everyone's gaze, a pool of dark shadow emerged from the ground.

From the shadowy, ink-like world, one figure after another emerged, stacked like a totem pole. They were all dressed in black, wearing gas masks—clearly terrorists, but now all unconscious.

"My ability is shadow manipulation. I'm great at sneak attacks, so I teamed up with Ikki to take out all the remaining terrorists hiding around."

He said with a smile.

Including the Blazer Bishou, a total of twenty-eight terrorists were subdued by the efforts of the student knights.

"Ah!"

"You guys, let go of Bishou-sama, or else this hostage will—"

Thud!

With a crisp impact, a black iron fan struck the neck of the last terrorist hiding among the crowd from behind. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed like a broken doll.

"Good job, but you celebrated too early. You must never let your guard down until the very end."

Nene retracted her iron fan, smiling as she addressed the group.

Correction.

A total of twenty-nine terrorists were subdued by the efforts of the student knights and their teacher. Nene had a fun time slacking off.

***

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