Chapter 235: The Swordsmanship of 'Balance'
Clang—!
The clear sound of crossing blades rang out in a certain forest within the academy.
Stella gripped Laevateinn with both hands, using all her strength to try and overpower Luke.
Unfortunately, under the condition of restricting her use of magic, Stella's physical strength was worlds apart compared to Luke's.
Luke didn't even use both hands to grip his sword, and right when he was planning to forcefully push Stella away.
Ikki seized this moment of Luke exerting his force, suddenly appearing behind him!
The blade of Intetsu reflected a cold, icy gleam, slashing toward Luke's unguarded back without hesitation!
Bang—!
The sudden sneak attack was blocked by the prepared Luke using the scabbard in his left hand.
And at the exact same time Ikki's strike was blocked, Luke, who was originally standing between Ikki and Stella, suddenly disappeared.
His body dissipated on the spot just like a phantom.
With no time to be surprised by his disappearance, Ikki and Stella immediately felt an anomaly from behind them.
Immediately adjusting their postures, the two of them turned around to defend at almost the exact same time.
However, it was already too late!
Bang—!
Bang—!
The boy and the girl were each struck once by Luke with his scabbard.
Today's swordsmanship training concluded here.
The two identical Luke standing behind Stella and Ikki also turned back into phantoms and converged into one again.
This was a sword technique Luke had completed by replacing demonic energy with Prana and magic power: Koukan Ken: Rokkon Shojo Zan(Six Roots Purification Slash)!
Luke's three most proficient schools of swordsmanship at present had massive differences in their essence.
Hiten-Mitsurugi-Ryu was a standard, pure swordsmanship; Shigure-Soen-Ryu was an elemental swordsmanship that used the sword to drive energy.
And Dual-Life-Sword was a fantasy swordsmanship that used energy as its source.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch... That's why I'm saying this sword technique of yours is way too much of a cheat!"
"How could a human possibly suddenly disappear and then split into two?!"
"Is this really not the effect of your Ability???"
Stella complained with immense frustration while clutching her struck forehead.
"Unfortunately, this is indeed pure technique, not the effect of my Ability."
Luke walked over to Stella, smiled, and then reached out to pull the girl up from the ground.
At this time, Ikki next to them also spoke up, "This is indeed an application of technique."
Several days had already passed since the first day of school up until now.
Hagun Academy's curriculum schedule dictated that there were only classes in the morning, and the afternoon was entirely free time.
However, once the preparatory work for the representative selection matches was completed, the time for the selection matches would also be scheduled during the afternoon period.
After this period of sparring, Ikki had essentially figured out the operating principles of this extremely unscientific swordsmanship of Luke's.
Precisely because he figured it out, he was exceptionally shocked and gave up on mimicking this swordsmanship.
What shocked him was that this was his first time encountering a swordsmanship that couldn't be completely seen through one hundred percent simply by relying on observation.
But this wasn't the reason Ikki gave up on learning this swordsmanship.
Given Luke's personality, as long as Ikki asked, Luke would definitely teach him.
After all, for Luke, the more competitors there were, the better; the stronger they were, the better.
The real reason that made him give up on learning this swordsmanship was because he simply couldn't learn it.
"The core concept of this swordsmanship is balance. Energy and swordsmanship are both indispensable in this swordsmanship."
"There must be a unique method of using magic power within this swordsmanship. Precisely because I don't know that method, I also cannot understand the effects caused by this swordsmanship."
And this method of using magic power was exactly the part Ikki couldn't see through.
Moreover, even if he could see through it, he, who was extremely deficient in magic power, would still have no way to use it.
Luke did not refute his words.
Aside from ignoring the role of Prana due to being unaware of it, what Ikki said was essentially all correct.
Right at this moment, Luke's student handbook suddenly rang.
"It's finally going to start, huh, the selection matches."
Looking at the contents displayed on the handbook, Luke smiled slightly.
However, strictly speaking, he wasn't considered particularly happy.
Even though having a fight was always better than not having one, there weren't many opponents in this school who could interest Luke.
And it was clearly unlikely that he would run into these people right at the beginning of the selection matches.
"The selection matches... to be honest, I was quite looking forward to them at first... but now..."
Stella looked at Luke with a strange gaze.
At the same time, Ikki, standing next to her, also spoke with a bitter smile:
"Indeed, I really have no way of imagining what kind of peer could be stronger than Luke."
Having constantly sparred with Luke, Stella and Ikki could be said to be the people who understood his strength the most in this world right now.
"You two are exaggerating too much. Aren't there also strong people like the Student Council President?"
"As for insisting on peers, in the event that some student is hiding their strength or has some peculiar Ability, it's also possible."
"With this mindset of yours, be careful not to capsize in a ditch."
Seeing Stella and Ikki's state, Luke retorted a few sentences to them in annoyance.
"I understand the logic, but even so, I still can't really get fired up."
Actually, this couldn't be blamed on Stella and Ikki.
At the end of the day, it was still caused by Luke.
Stella and Ikki were both the type of people who understood their own strength very well.
They clearly knew where the upper and lower limits of their abilities lay.
Although they had only been training with Luke for less than half a month, both of them had experienced massive improvements in both their strength and their horizons.
The current Stella and Ikki were far stronger than they were in the original work.
The two of them, especially Ikki, had a degree of mastery over their own bodies that could essentially be said to have reached one hundred percent.
No matter how modest they were, they wouldn't think they would lose to ordinary students.
Compared to the immense pressure and tension when fighting Luke, a mere student-level selection match was truly hard pressed to affect Stella and Ikki anymore.
Luke also knew in his heart that it wasn't that they were slacking off, but rather that this state would naturally occur when looking back after one's own strength had improved.
Therefore, Luke didn't continue dwelling on this topic.
He looked at the information on the student handbook, then checked the date.
Suddenly thinking of something, he said out of the blue:
"How about we go for a stroll on the streets this weekend?"
"Eh?"
Hearing Luke's words, Stella was taken aback at first, but then immediately agreed.
"Speaking of which... ever since coming to this country, I still haven't gone out to see the streets."
"I want to go! I want to go!"
Although Luke's true purpose wasn't actually to go strolling, he didn't deny Stella's statement.
"A balance of work and rest is also a part of training. The selection matches are starting next week, so let's rest up a bit before then."
He said this out loud, but Luke certainly didn't think this way in his heart.
Because if he remembered correctly, this outing would encounter an interesting event.
To be honest, although sparring with Ikki and Stella was considered interesting, for now, the two's strength was still far from enough to make Luke truly thrilled.
'If I remember correctly, a Rebellion executive with the ability to absorb and reflect seems to appear this time.'
'Maybe there will be an unexpected harvest. I hope it can help me relieve my boredom...'
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