Chapter 752: Death Match VI: Ryo vs Marie

Editor: Tseirp

Ryo faced the Phantomkin Marie.

“I ran away from you back then, Marie-san.”

“Ran away?”

Marie looked puzzled.

“I’m a magician. So I don’t need to win with a sword… I convinced myself with those words and attacked your weapon instead.”

Ryo’s voice was not loud.

But it was a voice with conviction.

A completely unwavering voice.

“That was a mistake. I can admit it now. I ran away.”

He stated it clearly.

That’s right. Back then, Ryo had knocked the weapon from Marie’s hands and forced the fight into a magic battle.

Anger showed in Ryo’s eyes.

Anger at the choice he had made in the past.

Why had he chosen to run?

“Because I wasn’t confident I could win in a quickdraw duel.”

He admitted it.

He had no choice but to admit it.

He acknowledged the past and accepted the present.

“So this time you’re going to cross blades with me? You think you can beat me? With quickdraw arts?”

“I will win. No, I will win and move forward.”

Ryo looked directly at Marie and answered her question without hesitation.

“With those arms?”

At the end of Marie’s gaze were Ryo’s two arms, severed below the elbows.

“<Ice Create: Right Arm><Ice Create: Left Arm>”

As though answering Marie’s question, Ryo generated two arms of ice.

He had generated them the last time they fought in the Eastern Countries as well.

When he created the ice golem, he had already studied the mechanisms of the arms, including the fingers.

Moreover, these arms were more intricate than the ones he had made in the Eastern Countries.

Back then, he could not move each individual finger, but this time he could.

He had prepared them so that if he ever found himself in the same situation again, he could handle it better… Though he had never imagined he would find himself in the ‘same situation’ this soon.

“Water-attribute magic really is convenient. You made your right arm out of ice like that last time too, didn’t you? No, that’s not right. It’s not that water-attribute magic is amazing. Ryo is amazing. That was close. If I misjudge that again, I’ll have my head cut off.”

Marie raised her right cheek and twisted her mouth into a wry smile, her tone becoming somewhat sarcastic.

To Marie, Ryo was not an opponent she could defeat while holding back.

Ryo looked at Murasame and at the right arm still gripping it, both lying on the ground where they had been severed.

The next instant, Murasame, which the severed right hand had been holding, ‘flew’ into Ryo’s ice arm.

“What?”

Marie frowned.

She could not understand why the sword that had been lying on the ground had moved to Ryo on its own.

Marie was a reincarnated person.

She retained the memories of her time as an Earthling.

According to those memories, what had just happened was… just like psychokinesis.

Telekinesis, or perhaps psychic power?

There was magic in this world into which she had been reincarnated.

But psychokinesis… she did not think she had ever seen it here.

“If it’s a beloved sword with which I’ve formed a bond, something like this is possible.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it.”

Ryo stated it firmly, but Marie firmly denied it as well.

Without a doubt, Marie was connected heart-to-heart with her beloved blade, ‘Kotetsu,’ but she doubted Kotetsu could move like that.

“So it’s a type of water-attribute magic.”

Marie came to that conclusion.

And she was correct.

Ryo had surrounded Murasame’s hilt with a thin <Icicle Lance> and sent it flying toward himself… Once the trick was explained, that was all there was to it.

In fact, he had only just thought of it, tried it, and found that it worked…

After having both arms severed, even Ryo had been feeling dejected.

But the fact that he could come up with a playful idea like this meant that he had almost completely recovered.

“The arms that were cut off can be restored later with <Extra Heal>.”

That was how he had chosen to look at it.

If this were Earth, it would be a serious matter, but in ‘Phi,’ there was magic.

The reason he had sent Murasame flying was magic.

And what would restore his arms was magic.

Ryo was a magician who could use such magic.

But with Marie, he would settle things with a sword.

Of course, by crossing blades with quickdraw arts.

Even so, Ryo did not believe he could win by facing her completely head-on in a quickdraw duel relying on sword technique alone.

This time, he would not be attacking her weapon as he had before.

He would cross blades with her head-on.

With everything he had.

Putting in ‘all of his strength,’ Ryo would fight with everything he had.

Ryo’s partner was Murasame, a sword with a blade of ice.

Its shape was curved like an ordinary Japanese sword, so it should be reasonably well suited for quickdraw arts.

But there was one major problem.

That was the scabbard.

Quickdraw arts involve running the blade through the scabbard to increase its speed… Though that explanation might be difficult to understand.

Put simply, it corrects the movement of the arm as the sword is drawn.

That is what allows the movement flowing from the shoulder to the elbow to the wrist to make the tip of the sword trace a circle.

However, the scabbard Ryo had for Murasame was… a leather one meant to house Murasame’s hilt.

It was not something the blade could be drawn through while in its generated form.

So…

“<Ice Create: Scabbard>”

A fitting ice scabbard for Murasame, with its blade already generated, was created.

“As expected of a water-attribute magician.”

Marie praised him.

“You are a fire-attribute magician, aren’t you, Marie-san? Back then, I got crushed by something called Fusion Plasma.”

Ryo remembered.

When they fought in the Eastern Countries, even after he had blown away Marie’s Kotetsu, she had maneuvered behind Ryo, surrounded the area with a wall of flames to cut off his escape, and then layered a spell called <Fusion Plasma> on top of it.

Flames reaching several hundred million degrees.

If he were hit by something like that, even Ryo’s ice would be annihilated.

“Back then, I annihilated you together with the ice coffin you were inside… and yet you were still alive and cut off my head. What was that?”

“Uh… revealing the trick to someone I’m about to have a serious match with…”

“If Ryo tells me, I’ll show you some wonderful alchemy.”

“Alchemy?”

“Do you know about layered magic circles?”

“What is that?!”

Ryo immediately latched onto it.

Of course.

He had seen things like that in anime and manga, but at least in ‘Phi’, he had never seen anything like it.

Even Viscount Kenneth Hayward, renowned as that genius alchemist, had never used anything like that.

It had not been written in any of the books Ryo had read either… Not even in the ‘Black Book’ he had inherited from Hassan… Probably.

There were still some parts he did not fully understand, so he could not say for certain… but he was pretty sure there had been nothing like it.

“Let’s exchange information.”

“I, I suppose I have no choice…”

Ryo could not resist Marie’s words.

“It isn’t anything particularly special. The moment I was surrounded by a wall of flames, I escaped into the sky.”

“The sky? There was some light from the pair annihilation around you, but… I could see Ryo inside the ice coffin.”

“That was a fake I created with <Avatar>.”

“Avatar? A clone? Ah, I see.”

Marie nodded several times.

“When I released <Fusion Plasma>, you were already gone. And when everything was over, you descended from the sky and cut off my head…”

“Yes.”

“That’s amazing.”

“You can fly too, can’t you, Marie?”

Ryo remembered.

And he had confirmed it.

Just like back then, Marie was wearing ‘Flight Rings’ on both arms.

She probably had ‘Flight Rings’ on both feet as well.

Four in total!

Even using just one outside of Chuo Chuang consumed an extraordinary amount of magic power…

There was no doubt that when she charged in and severed Ryo’s right arm this time, she had used a Flight Ring.

From outside Ryo’s perception.

“It has nothing to do with using quickdraw arts.”

Marie stroked Kotetsu as she stated it firmly.

“It’s a technique of my sword.”

“More importantly, the alchemy. Tell me about those layered magic circles!”

“Hmm? After the battle is over.”

“Eh…”

“Huh?”

Ryo was left speechless, while Marie tilted her head.

“You said you’d tell me if I revealed my trick…”

“Yes, I will. After the battle is over.”

“No way…”

“Because there’s no way I can explain something like that while we’re in the middle of a battle, right?”

Marie had an expression that said it was only natural.

Come to think of it, that was obvious.

But…

“If I die…”

“Then you won’t be able to hear the explanation.”

“If you die…”

“I won’t die just from being cut by a sword.”

“What an unfair double standard.”

Marie answered with a smile, while Ryo grimaced.

At times like this,

he genuinely thought about how weak humans were.

“So that’s how it is. No problem, right?”

“…I suppose.”

Ryo remained dissatisfied, but he understood there was nothing he could do.

“Shall we?”

“Yes, let’s.”

Exchanging quickdraw arts… Unless it happened in manga or anime, such a situation normally would not arise.

Getting your sword to reach the opponent before theirs did… No, to put it more precisely, getting the tip of your sword to reach them first.

When quickdraw arts are analyzed physically, the tip of the sword is what travels the greatest distance.

With a finger flick, the moment the middle finger is released from the thumb, speed is imparted to the middle finger.

In the same way, the moment the tip of the sword completely clears the scabbard, speed is imparted to the tip of the sword.

A finger flick causes the middle finger to bend, while quickdraw arts cause the right arm to bend.

That awareness is important.

After struggling against Marie’s quickdraw arts in the Eastern Countries, Ryo himself had analyzed quickdraw arts several times.

He had analyzed them, but… he still could not reach Marie’s level.

He admitted it. He would admit it.

But he wanted to win.

He wanted to beat her head-on.

Then what should he do?

The answer Ryo arrived at…

Use <Water Jet Thruster> to increase every aspect of his speed and power in combat.

From Sera’s ‘Wind Mantle,’ a water-attribute magic version of ‘Wind Mantle’… called ‘Water Mantle’.

However, because it was nowhere near as refined as Sera’s, it was at best a ‘Simple Water Mantle’.

Ryo could imitate ‘Wind Mantle’ when it came to moving his body alone.

But what made Sera incredible was that she also used it for attacks and defense.

She could cast magic almost completely unconsciously.

Increasing the speed and power with which she swung her sword… Even that single task was extremely difficult to actually accomplish.

When swinging a sword, there are accelerations applied to the upper arm, the elbow, the fist, and so on… each producing a difference in speed.

The base of the shoulder and the fist travel different distances, right?

That is only natural because the arm traces an arc.

Everything required precise adjustment.

Among all of that, the most difficult parts were the wrist and the fist gripping the sword.

Those two locations were especially where the acceleration from <Water Jet Thruster> collided with the impact produced when the sword struck the opponent.

They were also the points where impacts from both directions overlapped.

Ryo did not think his wrist could withstand it with an ordinary arm.

That was because he still was not confident in achieving the kind of perfectly precise, ultra-fine control that Sera could perform.

But fortunately, Ryo’s arms were made of ice now… Yes, fortunately… He would deliberately put it that way.

It meant he could push them a little harder than normal.

Ryo had completely made up his mind.

Marie had also steadied her breathing.

The two spread their feet and lowered their centers of gravity.

They gently placed their right hands on their hilts, while their left hands gripped their scabbards.

The concentration of the two continued to rise.

The air grew heavy and sank.

The sounds disappeared.

The scenery disappeared.

Only oneself and the opponent remained.

Leaving behind the swords, the scabbards, and the arms, the bodies themselves disappeared as well.

Everything converged… and exploded apart at the same time.

Two streaks of light were unleashed.

Ryo’s right arm was severed.

Marie’s… head was severed.

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