In the winter open space.
Paul and Shirou stood at opposite ends of the yard. The weak sun cast long shadows of them on the ground.
Zenith, Rudeus, Sylphy, and Lilia stood nervously in the distance on the steps. They were all watching the fight closely, and concerned about the result.
"Honestly, Paul is such a grown man, why is he picking on a child?"
Zenith said, sounding annoyed. She clearly didn't want the fight to happen, and was worried Shirou would get hurt.
"Father should know his limits, they practice swordsmanship together often."
Rudeus tried to comfort his mother, while also watching the fight about to start.
"Who will win, Shirou or Paul?"
Sylphy was also quite nervous. "Even though brother is strong, Paul is an adult after all, it feels like it will be hard to win."
"Master Paul is just testing if Young Master Shirou has really mastered the advanced Sword God Style, so he shouldn't be using all his strength."
Lilia, as a maid, quietly said, showing she cared about who would win.
While the people around were reacting, Shirou and Paul stood about ten meters apart, each with their weapon.
Like usual sword practice, Paul and Shirou each took out a wooden practice sword, and took the same stance.
"Since it's to test if you've reached the advanced Sword God Style, I'll only use Sword God Style to fight you."
Paul held his sword with one hand, using the other to help, like the standard Sword God Style stance. This lets you quickly switch hands, and swing the sword in any direction with one hand.
Sword God Style means only using a sword to fight. It's all about attack, with no defense.
For Sword God Style users, attack is always the best defense.
The question they need to study is how to attack better.
Normally, most people just swing their swords straight. At most, they try to swing faster.
But even if the swing is fast, if it's straight, it's easy to dodge. So to actually hit, you need to swing from below, from the side, or even at an angle.
Swordsmen have to work hard to kill their opponents, using all sorts of ways to swing.
But those are just normal skills.
Not what Sword God Style is about.
For Sword God Style, you just swing purely, without any extra fancy skills. Just swing the fastest, and cut everything in half.
It's said that the first Sword God who created Sword God Style, Alphaleon, used his sword in ways beyond human imagination. He could swing his sword incredibly fast, and change its path while swinging, attacking from different directions with the same unbelievable speed.
The first Sword God's natural actions were slowly understood and cleaned up by later Sword Gods, finally becoming the Sword God Style we know today.
Swing with an empty mind, swing faster than sound, even to the point of a light-speed sword.
Speed beyond limits, that's the core of Sword God Style.
Later Sword Gods just copied the first Sword God, but most could only copy the skill, not fully recreate the first Sword God's spirit.
But even just copying, the later Sword Gods' skills were beyond humans. For a long time, the strongest humans were almost always Sword God Style users.
That's why Sword God Style became the strongest style in the world.
To become an advanced Sword God Style user, you need to swing a soundless sword, faster than sound. It's a swing that sound can't even catch up to, the peak of a single skill.
Without talent, you could spend your whole life and not make progress.
Shirou didn't have talent in Sword God Style, so Paul doubted he had really mastered the skill.
Under Paul's gaze, Shirou slowly took the same stance.
They both used Sword God Style. Paul was an advanced user, and Sword God Style is purely about speed. To beat someone else using Sword God Style, you need to match or beat their speed, or you'll instantly lose.
Shirou knew this. He took a breath and said, "Can we start?"
"Heh."
Paul smiled calmly at Shirou, and shook his head. "It already started."
As he spoke, Paul's aura changed, giving off a scary killing intent that even Rudeus could feel.
"Boom!"
The moment the killing intent came together, no, even before it came together, Paul moved. He disappeared like a blur, and appeared in front of Shirou without anyone seeing him move.
—Soundless Sword.
A swing faster than sound.
That's what was happening to Shirou.
Before Paul finished saying "It already started," even as he said it, his sword was already coming at Shirou, moving faster than the speed of sound!
Normal people couldn't deal with this.
Even advanced North God Style or Water God Style swordsmen couldn't handle the skills of an advanced Sword God Style swordsman.
Sword God Style is called the strongest because of this unfair skill.
"!!!"
Feeling the pressure, Shirou's face didn't change.
He was already very familiar with this skill, after seeing Paul use the Soundless Sword before.
If he predicted it right, he could even block the attack with simple defensive sword skills, without using the same skill.
But that's not what Paul wanted, or what Shirou wanted.
Sword God Style should be countered with Sword God Style.
That's what Shirou was aiming for!
"Clap!"
Feeling the wind of the sword about to hit him, the swing that sound couldn't catch up to, Shirou closed his eyes in this extreme situation.
Eyes are the most important thing for swordsmen, something they need to work hard to train. But Shirou gave up his eyes, the most important thing for seeing.
Was he giving up?
Most people thought that when they saw Shirou's move.
But Paul didn't think that.
The moment Shirou closed his eyes, Paul felt a surprising pressure that shouldn't come from a child that age.
"!!"
He didn't have time to react. Years as an adventurer made Paul grab his sword with both hands, lower his shoulders, lean forward, and swing the wooden sword with all his strength.
He didn't hold back, he went all out!
But—
"Clink,"
Shirou's sword clearly came later, but it caught up to Paul's sword. He blocked Paul's sword with perfect movement, even though he had his eyes closed, as if he could clearly feel the curve of Paul's swing. Then he made a second, quick double swing.
"Clap!"
"Clap!"
"Clap!"
On the snowy ground, two swordsmen fought at speeds that normal people couldn't see.
Each time the wooden swords hit, the sharp sound broke some of the snow, even shaking some snow off the roof.
"Bang!"
A louder smash rang out, and Paul and Shirou moved past each other, ending up at opposite ends of the battle area.
They both stopped moving. Shirou opened his eyes, and they looked at each other.
"Sigh..."
Paul sighed.
He looked clearly disappointed.
As other people wondered what he meant, Paul said, "I didn't expect you to really master the Soundless Sword. An advanced Sword God Style swordsman at only 11 years old. Even in the Sword Sanctuary, you'd be considered talented, Shirou."
Paul accepted Shirou's strength, meaning he really was an advanced Sword God Style swordsman.
But Shirou was very calm about this news that should have excited him, even too calm.
He quietly put away his wooden sword, and said sadly, "It's not talent, Paul. I don't have that talent. Everything I did was just a cheat for normal people."
"A cheat?"
Paul looked at Shirou in confusion.
Shirou replied:
"Practicing Sword God Style made me slowly realize what it was all about. Why could they swing so fast? Same body, same strength, why was Sword God Style different?"
"I thought about it for a long time, and finally figured it out. It's about giving up. Sword God Style isn't about attacking and not defending. It's about giving up defense completely. By getting rid of everything that affects the ultimate sword skills, they can swing the sword so fast that you can't see it."
"After I understood that, I found that my talent was too weak. Even giving up defense, I couldn't swing that fast. So I realized what I needed to do..."
"Shirou, you don't mean...?"
Paul was shocked. He understood from Shirou's words, and his fighting movements, what was happening.
Shirou answered without hesitation, "Yes, I gave up sight and hearing in the fight. Since the attack is already too fast to see or hear, I just don't need those senses. I focus all my attention on the swing, using this cheat method to do the Soundless Sword without talent."
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