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Broken wings, my ass! I'm not broken-winged anymore!
Ryoji was burning with anger inside, but he still maintained a polite smile on his face, causing waves of girls' screams to erupt all around the arena.
Today, he was determined to tear off this nickname with a clean, overwhelming victory!
At the center of the arena…
Ryoji and the girl named Hagure Kikyō stood twenty meters apart. At the referee's signal, both revealed their respective Spiritual Items (Devices).
Compared to Hagure Botan, her elder sister was far more mature. She manifested a long spear nearly two meters in length and gripped it tightly, staring at Ryoji with a tense expression.
"Hagure Kikyō didn't forfeit?"
"She must be pretty confident."
Scattered discussions rose from the spectator stands.
"A spear user… I wonder what her ability is."
Ryoji tightened his grip on Vrring, his gaze fixed on the spear in Hagure Kikyō's hands.
"Match start!"
"...Let's go ahead!"
As the electronic female voice fell, the buzzer sounded loudly.
"Hah!"
Hagure Kikyō let out a low shout.
She thrust the spear straight toward Ryoji's chest.
There was no flashiness in her movements—they were crisp and efficient, clearly the result of countless repetitions. She truly lived up to her title as seventh-ranked in the academy.
Ryoji shifted sideways, evading the incoming spearhead, while raising his blade at the same time.
"Shua!"
But suddenly, the gleaming silver spear tip accelerated sharply.
Ryoji's vision blurred as afterimages streaked through the air, the spearhead chasing him relentlessly like a parasite clinging to bone.
"So it suddenly sped up that much?" Ryoji raised an eyebrow.
He abandoned his counterattack and held the blade vertically in front of him.
"Clang!"
With a sharp metallic ring, the spear tip was stopped dead.
"It was blocked?!" Hagure Kikyō was shocked.
That thrust had been her full-power strike, yet it was stopped so easily?
Her special ability was called 〈Instant Acceleration〉, capable of boosting her speed up to subsonic levels. With such Divine Speed, she had very few equals within Hagun Academy.
Because subsonic speed exceeded the limits of human visual processing, very few people could even catch sight of her spear tip. Blazers who relied on their eyes simply couldn't contend with her.
Yet the thrust she had just launched was dodged effortlessly through footwork alone, as if he had predicted the trajectory of her spear in advance.
He hadn't even been forced to activate his Blazer special ability.
"I refuse to believe this!"
Hagure Kikyō stiffened her neck and thrust her spear again and again in rapid succession.
She knew that Ryoji's special ability was actually quite effective against hers, but relying on the advantage of a long weapon, she was confident she wouldn't lose, and she was extremely unwilling to give in.
But what followed left her completely dumbfounded.
Faced with consecutive subsonic thrusts, the boy opposite her seemed to see through every one of her movements. His feet swayed left and right, hopping laterally again and again, dodging her attacks one by one.
From beginning to end, his eyes were locked onto her spear tip. No matter how fast it became, even leaving afterimages behind, it couldn't deceive his vision in the slightest.
"Clang!"
A blade flashed out shortly afterward.
With a piercing metallic sound, the silver katana seemed to carry its own targeting system, precisely catching the spear tip.
"What?!" Hagure Kikyō was startled.
How was that possible?
Catching a spear tip moving back and forth at such high speed from the front—there were only a handful of people in all of Hagun Academy who could pull that off!
Absolute Divine Speed could let someone become unreasonably fast, but because it was impossible to fully control such sudden acceleration, it should drastically reduce one's judgment ability.
The school forums had already thoroughly analyzed the Broken Wings Angel's special ability.
Powerful, yes, but extremely taxing on the body.
Yet the person in front of her was nothing like the one described online at all!
"Hah, ah!"
With a do-or-die resolve, Hagure Kikyō grit her teeth and unleashed her final barrage.
The spear tip left behind countless star-like points of light in midair, violent gusts whistling nonstop past the ears.
"Amazing! Contestant Hagure Kikyō has launched more than a dozen subsonic combo strikes through continuous acceleration! Watching this gives me, Tsukuyomi, chills all over, if even one strike can't be blocked, it's instant defeat! How will Angel-sama respond? According to the data, his physical endurance is average, and he shouldn't be good at dealing with chained attacks, w-w-what?!"
The commentator suddenly let out a shrill scream.
The entire audience erupted into an uproar.
Subsonic speed was indeed terrifying.
Even in the DanMachi world, one would need to reach at least Lv.5 to unleash attacks like this.
On the battlefield…
Facing the chained Divine Speed thrusts, Ryoji curled the corner of his mouth into a grin.
He completely abandoned the idea of dodging and raised his Spiritual Item (Device) high.
In the next instant, blade light surged forth like crashing waves, layer upon layer.
"Ding!"
"Clang!"
"Shing!"
Shockwaves traveled again and again from the spear tip into her arms.
That was proof that every single slash from her opponent had struck her spear tip with pinpoint accuracy.
The continuous vibrations piled up, quickly plunging her arms into paralysis.
"Bang!"
Amid another sharp sound…
An overwhelming force transmitted through the spear's shaft, violently jolting her arms. Her hands were shaken open uncontrollably, and in the blink of an eye, the spear was knocked flying away.
Within the rushing sound of wind, the final slash came like a bolt of lightning, landing steadily on her neck.
Hagure Kikyō stared at her now-empty hands, momentarily doubting her entire existence.
She had lost at the very thing she was most proud of, attack speed, and hadn't even managed to force out her opponent's special ability.
Am I… actually very weak?
"Are you okay?"
Seeing the girl standing there with her head lowered in a daze, Ryoji moved the Vrring blade away from her neck.
'Did I break her mentality?'
To be honest, Ryoji had a very clear understanding of his current strength. Unless he ran into something that directly countered him, like reflection-type abilities, he could be said to have very few rivals in ordinary circumstances.
Of course, he couldn't compare to true world-class monsters like the legal loli, but among Student Knights, he was basically a tiger charging into a pack of wolves.
The subsonic attacks that Hagure Kikyō had to go all out to produce were something he could already achieve through physical ability alone—honestly, it was a bit too bullying.
"Don't be too discouraged. After all, people like me are pretty rare in the human world."
Ryoji patted the girl on the shoulder.
It sounded like consolation, but it was actually pure bragging.
"Puchi!"
Yet the girl was amused by him instead, a radiant smile blooming on her face.
"I lost this match. I was actually quite confident at first, but I never expected to lose so completely… Angel-sama, please keep going and win all the way!"
Her eyes overflowed with intense affection.
"Victory and defeat are decided! The winner is Year 1, Class 1, contestant Nangou Ryoji!"
The announcer made the declaration at just the right time, triggering thunderous cheers throughout the arena.
"This level of strength is completely different from a month ago! What on earth happened? I, Tsukuyomi, am extremely curious!"
"Thanks for the good wishes. I'll work hard with your share included."
Ryoji smiled and nodded.
"…Aah… ah, I can't hold back anymore! Angel-sama is just too gentlemanly!"
Hagure Kikyō lunged forward with a moved expression, burying her face against Ryoji's chest and sniffing wildly.
"Damn thieving cat!"
"She actually took advantage of Angel-sama in the chaos!"
"Elder Sister, I'm cutting ties with you!"
Ryoji wore a gentle, sunny smile.
(End of Chapter)