Eight Deaths
"Guhk!"
Raiden staggered back, clutching his face. The ties binding his hair had come undone, and the loose strands whipped around him like a madman's.
A groan tore out of him under pain so vicious it bordered on madness. He still had no idea what had just happened. How the bastard had gotten a blade to his throat. Why his face was screaming. Not a single piece of it made sense.
"What the hell did you do to me?!"
Raiden ground his teeth and lifted his head. Raon was still standing exactly where he had been, watching him.
"It's simple. I dodged your sword and hit you in the face."
He answered as calmly as if he were sitting down to a meal.
"Th-that's not what I—how did you even—"
"That's one."
Raon raised his index finger, answering something that had nothing to do with the question.
"What?"
"I told you you'd die eight times today. That one was the price for lying about a letter you never even sent."
"You son of a—"
Raiden's eyes flew so wide they looked ready to split. He wanted to tear Raon limb from limb on the spot.
"Eight times? Cut the crap! You're going to regret not finishing this duel just now for the rest of your life!"
Raiden roared and brought his chain-sword crashing down.
Aura-laden steel swept the surroundings like a typhoon. It was the Radiant Gale of the Crystal Chain Sword.
The chain-sword thrashed like a Kraken's tentacles, but Raon flowed through the Garam Footwork in unbroken sequence, slipping past every blade of sword energy that came pouring down.
Not a chance!
Raiden clenched his fist and whirled the chain-sword. The energy clinging to the blade surged like a wave, sealing off Raon's path.
I can't go for a one-shot kill. He still didn't know exactly what had happened. He couldn't afford to let his guard down. He had to hem the bastard in the way you'd drive a bug into a corner and crush it.
He used not just his wrist but his elbow and shoulder, putting the chain-sword's full length to work. From Raon's perspective, it would have looked as if a wall of steel and sword energy had risen right in front of his eyes.
"I'll fillet you right there!"
Raiden launched the tenth form of the Crystal Chain Sword: Scarlet Bloom Wall. A barrier of chain-sword blades, twisted like rose vines, surged toward Raon.
"Hnh."
Raon, who had been slipping the chain-sword aside with the Garam Footwork, turned and gave ground, retreating from the Scarlet Bloom Wall.
"Got you!"
The farther Raon retreated, the more the wall accelerated. The bastard was a rat in a jar now.
Raon, who had been giving ground in a straight line, spun in midair and kicked off the earth.
What the hell is he—
Charging straight into a wall of sword energy. The only word for it was insane.
"Hah—!"
Raiden's breath caught. The instant the Scarlet Bloom Wall reached its full extension, the bastard snuffed out like a candle.
"Damn it!"
He whipped his head around in a panic. Expecting Raon to appear on the right the way he had before, he dragged the chain-sword across.
He's not there?
But there was nothing on the right.
"It's the left."
The words had barely reached his ears when a hideous pain exploded through the left side of his face.
"Gyaaaaah!"
The impact that caved in his left cheekbone sent Raiden screaming, rolling across the ground. The pain wouldn't fade. His cheekbone had definitely collapsed.
"Aaaaagh!"
Raiden howled. He drove the aura-stiffened edge of his chain-sword into the ground and shoved himself upright.
"Wh-what did you just do...? You were right in front of me!"
"That's for spitting on the flowers my mother grew."
"You lunatic!"
His jaw trembled. Raon's eyes hadn't so much as flickered. The crazy bastard really seemed intent on collecting all eight debts, just as he'd said.
"You think this is how I go down?!"
Raiden fell back, drawing the aura from his dantian. This wasn't a game anymore. Duel or no duel, screw the rules—he was going to kill the bastard right here.
He flooded every mana circuit with the aura he'd drawn up and raised the chain-sword. Power streamed out in rivers, and his clothes snapped and fluttered without a breath of wind.
"I'll strip the flesh from your bones and kill you!"
Raiden thrust the rigid chain-sword. Lightning speed. In the space of a blink, it was at Raon's brow.
The instant Raon brought his sword down to defend, Raiden set his entire right arm vibrating. The violent tremor raced through the whole chain-sword, and the blade's trajectory—which had been stretched straight—bent like a coiling snake.
The secret art of the Crystal Chain Sword—a technique that shredded an enemy's entire body the way an eight-tentacled Kraken crushed the sea.
In the midst of a sharpness that split even the air, Raon did not retreat. His eyes lit, and he dropped his stance.
That bastard's doing it again!
Raiden clenched his teeth. Last time the guy had shown that look in his eyes, then vanished and appeared from the right and the left. He wasn't going to miss it this time.
"Kraaah!"
He poured every ounce of aura he'd raised into the Chain Burst Blade. A ballooning mass of condensed sword energy swept over Raon.
I can't let my guard down. He wasn't going to get hit three times like an idiot. Raon might punch through the wall of chain-sword blades, so he honed his senses to their absolute limit.
The Chain Burst Blade's crushing sword energy shaved the ground away like paper. But there was no sensation of cutting flesh. The bastard had vanished again.
"Where are you?!"
Raiden flung out his aura sense and pulled the chain-sword in to wall off his surroundings, covering left, right, and behind.
"It's the front."
But Raon's voice came from neither left nor right nor behind. It came from in front. Raiden tried to react. The other man's movement was faster.
Raon's fist, rising like a bolt of light, shattered Raiden's jaw.
"Gyaaaaah!"
Raiden screamed, clutching his jaw. It hurt. Worse than the slap to the face. Worse than the collapsed cheekbone. This was worse than both. His jawbone had fractured. The skin had split, and blood ran in a steady stream onto the floor.
"The third is for trampling the flowers my mother grew."
Raon stepped in toward Raiden, flicking the blood from his sword.
"I've read your entire sword. I don't even need to dodge anymore."
"Bullshit..."
Raiden lurched to his feet, white steam blasting from his mouth. Rage exploded through his skull—kill him, kill him—but he bit down on the inside of his cheek and forced it down.
It's a taunt. Just a taunt. His fingers were shaking. If he took another hit like that, he might black out. Lose here and he lost everything. He could not lose.
He set his entire dantian vibrating and flooded his body with aura. He wouldn't last long like this—but in this moment, he was stronger than he had ever been.
Despite the runaway surge of energy, he steadied his mind and unfolded the Crystal Chain Sword with cold precision. Sword energy faster, sharper, and more dazzling than anything before whipped through the space between them.
He can't dodge this.
The most precise sword energy he had ever produced flew at Raon.
Raon stepped into the Garam Footwork and walked into the wave of sword energy. This Crystal Chain Sword was on a different level from anything Raon had faced so far. The bastard was going to pay for that arrogance.
Die.
Just as the curved tip of the chain-sword drove for Raon's heart, Raon's blade rose on a diagonal.
The shock that slammed back through the chain-sword when it met Raon's blade was enough to make Raiden's arm buckle.
"Wh-what?!"
He'd been certain he would slip past Raon's sword and take the heart. Instead, his technique had been severed mid-form.
"Tch!"
Raiden launched the fourth form of the Crystal Chain Sword, pressing Raon. But the moment Raon brought his sword down, the chain-sword went slack as a snapped rubber band and bounced away.
"Hahp!"
He shouted and fired the Crystal Chain Sword again. But every time Raon so much as swung his blade, the forms snapped strand by strand, and the technique wouldn't connect.
"Th-that's impossible..."
The composure he'd barely managed to assemble shattered. The bastard really had read his entire Crystal Chain Sword, and was dismantling it piece by piece.
"I told you. I know your sword inside and out."
Raon knocked the chain-sword wide and surged in.
"G-get away!"
Raiden threw a left fist, but Raon slipped it with ease and smashed his sword across. Struck across the forehead with the flat of the blade, Raiden flew backward like a kicked ball.
"Gyaaaaah!"
The pain was so vicious that Raiden thrashed on the ground, clutching his forehead.
"Th-this isn't—!"
He was on the verge of passing out from the agony, but he chewed through his lip and forced himself up. This was no time to be lying down.
"This doesn't make any sense!"
Reading the Crystal Chain Sword in that short a time was impossible. No—it had to be impossible.
"The fourth is for hitting Helen."
Raon ignored him and walked forward at an unhurried pace.
This can't be happening!
Raiden gripped the hilt so hard it should have snapped, and raised the chain-sword.
"Hyaaaaah!"
He unfolded the Crystal Chain Sword's forms faster and sharper than ever. The chain-sword, loaded with fierce will, carved a dazzling trajectory as it crashed toward Raon. Speed, sharpness, power—all of it was on another level from before.
Raon, whether he noticed or not, didn't change his stride. He walked into the storm of chain-sword blades as lightly as if he were out for a stroll.
He drew his sword. A light, almost lazy stroke, as if shooing a fly—and the chain-sword lurched wildly. Every variation and flow Raiden had built up vanished in that one motion.
"Tch!"
Raiden didn't give up. He whipped the slackened chain-sword around and launched another of the Crystal Chain Sword's secret arts. Sword energy clinging to the blade poured down like rain.
Raon drew the Star-Linking Swordsmanship in a continuous line, straight into the rain of blades. It was an upward cut so light it defied description—and the secret art snapped. The chain-sword bounced away with a violent jerk.
"What—what is this?! What the hell are you doing?!"
Raiden's jaw chattered as he stumbled back. A secret art, broken by a single swing. He'd felt it happen, and he still couldn't believe it.
"This is wrong. This can't be happening!"
He clamped his shaking right hand with his left and brought the chain-sword down. The Crystal Chain Sword's second secret art, Burst Fang Slash, unfolded. Sword strikes as sharp and vicious as a beast's fangs lunged for Raon's heart and throat.
Raon stopped. There was no alarm in his eyes. He simply brought the raised sword down.
The descending cut, as unhesitating as a master's brushstroke, melted the Burst Fang Slash away. The sword energy died. The form was crushed. All of it, in a single swing.
"Ah..."
Raiden's breath left him in a thin rasp. Watching Raon walk in, erasing the Burst Fang Slash as he came, he felt his heart clench into a fist.
Star-Linking Swordsmanship. Garam Footwork. Swordsmanship and footwork that any swordsman on the continent would know—and he still couldn't break through. They were forms he recognized, and yet he couldn't see a way to stop them.
His breathing turned ragged. Every time Raon's sword moved, a chill crawled over his skin, as if he'd shoved his head into a predator's jaws.
"Stay back! Don't come any closer!"
He slashed with the chain-sword again, but Raon's blade knocked it aside and it buried itself in the ground. Having wiped away every last trace of sword energy, Raon stepped in, raised his sword, and smashed it across Raiden's cheek.
"Ghk!"
The pain, worse than before, stole the words from his mouth. His limbs convulsed. A sound that wasn't even a scream leaked out of him as he clutched his burst-open cheek.
The fire of rage in Raon's eyes still hadn't gone out.
From the first exchange to the last, the duel unfolded exactly as Raon intended.
Raiden, baited by the taunts, had unfolded a Crystal Chain Sword he had not yet fully mastered. Raon had answered with the Star-Linking Swordsmanship—a sword so familiar he could have performed it with his eyes closed.
If a swordsman who had learned an outstanding art but not yet perfected it fought a swordsman who had perfectly mastered an art everyone already knew—who would win?
Most people would pick the one with the superior technique. They would be wrong.
A swordsman who has learned an advanced art without completing it can produce strong, dazzling strikes, but he cannot produce the right strike for the moment. A swordsman who has perfectly mastered the basics, even if his lines are simple, can unfold the single most appropriate form that the instant demands.
At first, the one with the stronger art will seem to hold the advantage. Given time, the gap reverses. The one who has perfected the fundamentals takes the fight, piece by piece.
And the most important thing is not the swordsmanship. It is who is using it.
The man using the basics had mastered the Ring of Fire, and he had Judiel's intelligence in his pocket. That the man in question was Raon, and that he was beating Raiden one-sidedly, was only natural.
Raon watched Raiden push himself up, blood trailing off him in strings.
"N-not yet. It's not over. I-I can't lose. I won't..."
What lived in those eyes was a vicious killing intent—the malice of a man who would do anything, anything at all, to put the other in the ground.
"Kraaaaah!"
Raiden's aura erupted as if it had detonated. The air around him dyed itself a virulent green, and the ground began to tremble.
Raon felt murderous intent and sword energy vicious enough to split skin—and quieted his heart anyway, and raised his sword. Middle stance. The most basic posture, the blade held before the abdomen. Even before that crushing pressure, his sword did not tremble at all.
"Die!"
Raiden poured the exploded power into his chain-sword and brought it down.
The final form of the Crystal Chain Sword, hoarded and held back until this moment. A single blade became dozens in a fraction of an instant, screaming toward every vital point on Raon's body.
Inside a barrage of sword energy that no one could survive if even a single blade found its mark, Raon lifted his sword.
A movement so slow it was almost tedious, set against chain-sword steel stretching out like bolts of light. But neither the blade nor the look in Raon's eyes so much as wavered.
The instant that all-rending sword energy reached the tip of his nose, Raon brought his sword down.
It was neither slow nor fast, and it was not flashy. What it held was the true meaning of the sword.
As the name promised—stars joined as one—the forms linked together without the slightest gap, unfolding in a single natural flow.
The Grand Tempest that had seemed about to swallow Raon whole split apart before that vast, connecting current.
"Ah..."
Through the tearing waves of sword energy, Raiden's bloodshot eyes were visible. The look on his face had gone past panic into something like horror.
"Is that all?"
"I—I..."
"It'd be a problem if you gave up already."
Raon flicked the blood from his sword and walked toward him.