"I have no interest in the weak. If the Crimson Princess isn't here, I'm not even willing to draw my sword. But, you must all fall here," Ouma said.
He spoke as if delivering a simple fact.
It was an attitude that looked down on creation itself. This absolute confidence stemmed from his immense bodily strength.
Ikki coughed, a harsh, ragged sound. "Noah, please, save Alice. Shizuku and I will hold back our brother for you. I'm begging you."
Using Intetsu as a crutch, Ikki forced his body to stand.
Only now had he managed to catch his breath. Ouma's kick had hit like a sledgehammer swinging into his chest, the sheer impact left his internal organs numb.
Noah considered the situation and, for the sake of the bigger picture, gave a nod.
He walked over to Alice, shifted Raven Feather into its illusion form, and delivered a punch to the skull.
The blunt force knocked Alice out on the spot.
Ikki's brow twitched at the sight of such rough treatment.
He knew Noah needed to render Alice unconscious, but wasn't that a bit extreme?
He couldn't have killed him, could he?
Noah severed the magic destroying the boy from within and deposited Alice beneath the shade of a nearby tree.
"You think you can hold me back?" Ouma looked at his younger brother, his tone cold with displeasure. "Let me see just how far you've come!"
The massive odachi swung!
...
"Gah—!"
Across the clearing, Utakata took the brunt of Amene's attack and collapsed into the dirt.
He couldn't understand why his magic had stopped working.
Noah, however, understood.
He fixed his gaze on the other man.
Their eyes met, and Amene spoke with utter contempt. "To think you have a causality-interference type on your side as well. But unfortunate for you, compared to mine, his fate is far too fragile."
Several silver swords pierced Utakata's flesh, taking him out of the fight in an instant.
This sight made Noah realize something crucial.
"Why are you all keeping your Devices in their illusion forms?"
He could feel genuine killing intent rolling off them.
It wasn't a bluff.
These people were attacking with the desire to kill, yet they were limiting themselves to illusion forms to deal concussive injuries.
It was a glaring contradiction.
Amene didn't attempt to hide the truth. "Our hands are tied. The sponsor said we cannot take any lives on Hagun Academy grounds."
"A sponsor, huh."
So, there was a mastermind pulling the strings behind this entire incident.
Since the attack began, the League had shown zero reaction. The school administration had taken zero action. Not even the standard police forces had arrived.
Beyond Amene's wish-granting ability, there had to be high-level official interference making this cover-up possible.
He also hadn't forgotten that these students were all recruits from the Rebellion, meaning that massive organization was entrenched in this affair.
The enemies standing in his line of sight were only a fraction of the true threat.
"Enough talking, Amane! Hey, Calamity, you're just stalling for time until the World Clock and the Yaksha Princess get back because you know the situation is against you!"
Yui dragged her saw-toothed blade across the earth, then leaped high into the air.
Gripping the hilt with both hands, she brought the massive weapon down!
Noah crossed his twin pitch-black greatswords, raising them to catch the kinetic strike with a heavy, reverberating sound.
"Gravity Magic."
"Whoa!" Yui flailed in a panic.
She found herself caught in a sudden state of weightlessness, unable to find her footing no matter how she twisted.
Noah drove raw power into his arms, using the crossed greatswords like a massive pair of scissors.
His intent was to shear both his opponent and her Device in two at the waist.
"Sphinx! Crush him!"
A deafening lion's roar echoed across the battlefield.
Noah felt an invisible restraint lock around his limbs, his forward momentum coming to a forced halt.
An instant later, he heard the whistle of displaced air closing in from behind. It was the lion and the girl riding upon its back.
"Yo, Futen! You owe me one!" the rider shouted, striking a dramatic pose.
Her rescue, however, earned zero gratitude.
Futen was Yui's title, and instead of offering thanks, she yelled in frustration.
"Shut up! I was about to use my reflection technique to finish him off! You just had to stick your nose in my fight!"
Watching the two girls ignore him to bicker, Noah unleashed his gravity magic to pin them down, and stripped the oxygen from their immediate space.
"Ah—"
Grasping for air, the two girls clutched their throats.
The ferocious lion collapsed to the dirt in suffocating agony.
Noah pivoted and swung his greatsword. Aiming at the gasping girl on the lion's back, the pitch-black blade, wreathed in distorted gravity, plummeted downward!
"Young Mistress!"
A woman in a maid outfit rushed into the fray.
Staring down the ferocious greatsword, she raised her bare arms, crossing them above her head.
Zing!
A strange feedback rattled up the hilt on impact.
There was no sensation of crushing bone, nor the resistance of parting flesh.
The blow had been stopped cold!
The heavy kinetic force sent the maid sliding several meters backward across the soil, but it failed to leave a single scratch on her fair skin.
Noah shifted his stance.
Yui attempting a blindside attack from behind, met an earth spear that erupted from the soil, piercing her cheek and abdomen.
Gripped by terror, she scrambled in retreat, only to have her legs ensnared by twin streams of water manifesting from the ether.
Noah manipulated the water whips with a flick of his wrist, slamming Yui into the earth with a bone-cracking sound.
Ignoring her, he brought his sword back around toward the beast and its rider.
Recognizing the mortal threat to its master, the lion roared.
Fighting through the crushing gravity and burning lungs, it forced itself upright and charged.
Slash!
The greatsword swept across the lion's face, splitting its left eye wide open and drawing a spray of crimson blood.
Blinded on one side, the beast stumbled backward, desperate to escape the blade's reach.
"Finley!" Watching her beloved pet bleed, the rider screamed its true name.
The maid lunged forward once more, this time leading with her bare fists. Her abilities functioned as absolute offense and absolute defense.
Underestimating a bare-knuckle strike from her would be a fatal mistake.
Noah kept his gaze steady. He leveled his greatsword at her from a distance, and dozens of compressed wind blades erupted, battering the maid without pause and halting her advance.
Even in one against four situation, Noah held the absolute advantage.
The spectacle was enough to draw Ouma's eye.
Amene released a breath. "To toy with them like this, gaining the upper hand without breaking a sweat... what a monster."
Noah paid the commentary no mind.
His crosshairs were fixed on the theatrical girl in front of him.
Rinna Kazamatsuri.
Through Appraisal, he confirmed the truth: both the lion and the impenetrable maid were products of her magic.
Her Device, the Subservient Collar, converted ordinary people and animals into makeshift Blazers.
Cut off the source, and the maid would revert to a civilian. The lion would lose its mana, becoming nothing more than an overgrown zoo animal.
To a trained Blazer, it would be no more dangerous than a stray dog.
"Young Mistress!" the maid cried out, unable to push through the storm of wind blades.
Rinna flinched, the mounting pressure getting to her.
Gritting her teeth, she clamped a hand over her right eyepatch. "Guh, I didn't want to use this. But to think you could push me this far... I have no choice but to unleash my true power!"
Noah hesitated.
His swing faltered for a fraction of a second.
Yet, Appraisal triggered no new warnings or hidden threats.
She was bluffing.
Rinna tore off the eyepatch, throwing a dramatic V-sign over her teary eyes. "Witness the power of my Twilight Demonic Eye!"
She tossed the fabric aside to reveal a red pupil—a perfect match to her left eye.
"They're exactly the same," Noah deadpanned.
Part of him felt a grudging respect for her dedication to the act while staring down a lethal blade.
She was willing to die for the aesthetic!
The problem was, in a world governed by actual magic, wasn't all this theatrical nonsense redundant?
This was supposed to be a hardened assassin from the underworld?
From the sidelines, the maid called out in dismay. "Young Mistress, you forgot your colored contacts this morning!"
A heavy silence hung over the battlefield.
Noah shifted his greatsword into its illusion form and brought it around in a sweeping arc.
Before the blade could connect, another figure materialized, blocking the path to Rinna with bare hands.
Clang!
The harsh ring of steel and the violent vibration rattling up Noah's arm made his eye twitch.
Through the dust, he saw a girl wearing nothing but a white apron.
She kept her slender arms raised, catching the greatsword dead in its tracks.
A forty-kilogram blade backed by hundreds of kilos of kinetic force, halted in an instant.
Noah narrowed his eyes to study her.
Unnerved by the intense unblinking stare, the girl snapped, "Pervert."
Noah blinked, his momentum stalling.
She was stunning—on par with Stella in terms of her figure and striking features—but he was activating his Truth seeker, not ogling her exposed curves!
----
Rakudai arc will end this week and mc will go back to danmachi world.