The silver blade, glinting with cold light, turned into a silver afterimage, splitting the air faster than the eye could follow, carrying a sharp whistle of wind as it slashed at the owner of the bright red longsword.
Revis swept up a backhand cut, knocking aside the lightning-fast slash coming at her, only to be met right away by several more strikes that seemed to swing out all at once, forcing her to leap back and raise her sword to guard, blocking the silver slashes amid a string of crisp clashes.
Sparks scattered through the air, the silver flash of the saber and the red flash of the longsword colliding at hair's-breadth speed, so that the two figures, one gold and one red, crossed just as fast through the green flesh wall passage, one attacking, one retreating, the fight fierce beyond words.
Another violent slash. Ais's strike sent Revis, who had raised her sword to guard, flying hard, her feet scraping the ground as she was driven back a long way.
Feeling the hand holding her sword go faintly numb from the immense force, Revis's face turned livid.
"How did you get this strong...?!"
Revis shouted in disbelief.
The Ais before her right now felt like a completely different person from the one of ten days ago.
Back then, even when Ais unleashed the "wind" Magic, she couldn't pose much of a threat, and Revis had even felt she was handling her with room to spare. Yet the Ais now had beaten her back without even using "wind."
Strength, speed, technique, reaction, agility... none of it was on the same level as ten days ago.
This was no longer a simple boost, but the entire person evolving from the inside out.
Could it be...
"Did you Rank Up? Aria!"
Revis finally realized it, and let out a furious roar.
She kicked off the ground and, carrying an emotion she'd never shown before, shot forward like a bullet, slashing her sword at Ais's head.
Ais likewise raised her silver blade high and rushed forward, meeting the attack instead of defending, swinging out a heavy slash to meet Revis's sword.
The silver blade and the red longsword first clashed head-on, grinding out fierce sparks, then collided and crossed madly with unstoppable speed, bursting out dazzling flashes of steel.
Facing Revis's fierce, merciless assault like a wild beast, Ais met it head-on without giving an inch, her slashes turning into crossing flashes of steel that poured forward like a storm, until Revis began to struggle to keep up.
That layer upon layer of continuous attacks, Revis could handle at first with her powerful skill, but soon she wasn't quite able to keep pace, and let several of the flashes slip through.
The first flash to slip through cut across Revis's face, leaving a stark red wound on it, reflected in Revis's sharply narrowed eyes.
The flashes that followed landed one after another on Revis's arm, thigh, side, and shoulder, cutting open one wound after another that oozed blood.
"Aria!"
Revis's face twisted as she screamed in rage, her wounded thigh turning into a whipping blur that lashed out with her fury, striking Ais's raised arm.
The mighty force exploded, and Ais was knocked back a distance by the blow, but the next second she stamped forward hard, gripping her sword in both hands and chopping down in a rage, sending the silver saber tracing a great arc through the air like a waning moon as it cut at Revis's body.
The keen blade sliced open Revis's body, drawing a wide splash of blood.
Revis leaped back at the last possible instant, dodging the great slash, but the front of her body was still caught by the edge of Desperate, opening a wound about two centimeters long that streamed blood outward.
"How is this possible...!?"
Revis paid no mind to the stinging pain in her chest, unable to believe she could be overpowered by Ais like this.
To that, the spectating Leo had only one thing he wanted to say.
"And how could you possibly know how much Ais put in to beat you?"
Leo wasn't surprised in the least, and instead felt Ais's dominant showing was only to be expected.
"Aria...!"
Revis's rage-filled eyes glared at Ais, only to be met by Ais's calm composure.
"I'll say it again, I'm not Aria." Ais said. "But you have to tell me, why you... or rather, why you people know that name."
"What is that green jeweled fetus?"
"And what are you all planning to do here?"
Ais's questions, one after another, only made Revis angrier.
"You think you've already won?" Revis lowered her body, seething with fury. "Don't look down on me!"
Revis lunged, moving like a bolting hare, closing the distance to Ais in the blink of an eye.
She first swung her longsword, the blow landing on the silver blade Ais raised to parry, then her other hand blasted out like a cannon shell, knocking Desperate off course, while her feet turned into an endless string of whipping blurs, lashing at Ais again and again, showing off overwhelming physical strength.
Her way of fighting was still just like back in Rivira on Floor 18, ferocious in a way that didn't seem like an adventurer, more like a monster gone mad.
The longsword was only her claws, and her fists and feet were weapons all the same.
Now a slash, now fists and feet: sword-light shot through with the blur of fists, the blur of fists shot through with whipping kicks, the whipping kicks flowing back into slashes, the assault fiercer than raging fire.
This assault, even set against her own self of ten days ago, was considerably stronger.
In other words, the strength Revis showed right now was even greater than when she'd fought Ais and Leo back in Rivira on Floor 18.
Set the Ais of back then against this assault, and even using the "wind" Magic she'd likely have been unable to hold it off, crushed in short order, brought down as Revis's defeated opponent.
But the Ais of today had long since utterly transformed in the miracle called "Rank Up," no longer to be spoken of in the same breath.
And so, facing Revis's assault, fierce as fire, Ais had her longsword knocked off course again and again, yet always managed to pull her beloved sword back and meet it before the attacks could land.
Revis attacked wildly, treating her fists and feet as weapons no different from her longsword, and Ais responded by using her body as an axis, dodging or countering through spins, sidesteps, and back-leaps, making the silver flashes of steel seem to come from all directions as she blocked Revis's longsword and blows again and again.
Of course, Ais used her fists and feet too, and when Revis's stance broke she would suddenly kick out at her, even managing to land a few kicks at times, forcing Revis to pull back.
With overwhelming Status and skill, Ais drove back this humanoid beast, and it reminded everyone watching that this swordswoman had a second title as well: War Princess.
"Leave this to me."
Ais spoke without turning her head as she pressed Revis.
"You go help Asfi and the others."
Hearing that, Leo, who'd been watching the whole time, also felt there was no chance for him to be of use here, so he nodded.
"My share included, pay her back good and proper."
Leaving those words behind, Leo stretched out his hand again toward the flesh wall.
A brilliant meteor abruptly struck the green flesh wall, and a staggering explosion bloomed across it, shattering the wall.
Thick smoke poured out, and a huge gap appeared in the flesh wall at once, letting the cries of alarm from the other side carry through.
"Asfi! The wall's broken!"
"Is it the Sword Princess and Leo Eligos?!"
"That Magic... that's Leo Eligos's!"
The Hermes Familia people kept shouting over, and along with it came wave after wave of grating cries.
Clearly, things weren't peaceful over there.
Leo turned at once, meaning to charge through the flesh wall and get to the passage on the other side.
"Don't even think about it!"
Seeing this, Revis instantly exploded with power, driving Ais back with a punch and rushing toward Leo.
"Die!"
Full of savagery, Revis swung her sword in a vicious thrust, her whole body darting at Leo like a bolt of red lightning, so fast that even Ais couldn't keep up.
She meant to kill Leo first, then go all out against Ais, absolutely refusing to let Leo escape alone.
After all, ten days ago she'd declared she would kill this adventurer no matter what.
Ais was her target, and Leo was her target too, which was exactly why she'd deliberately separated these two from the Hermes Familia people, all so she could finish them off.
As it looked now, taking down Ais wouldn't be easy, so in that case she'd deal with this eyesore of an adventurer first.
Compared to Ais, who'd already risen to Lv.6, this adventurer who was Lv.4 at most, she only needed to bring out her full strength and she'd surely take him down without trouble.
The Revis charging in with that killing intent was met by Leo abruptly turning, advancing instead of retreating.
As the black longsword slashed in like a streak of black light, Revis's vicious thrust, turned to red lightning, was split apart by a single downward cut.
Leo's whole body turned into an afterimage, closing in in an instant, and drove a hard punch into the completely unprepared Revis.
Amid the loud, muffled impact, Revis was blasted flying by Leo's punch, slamming into the green flesh wall and smashing it apart.
Revis was utterly dazed.
Leo didn't so much as spare her a glance, as if this person no longer had any right to warrant a proper look from him. After knocking her flying with one punch, he charged without turning back into the healing green flesh wall, managing to squeeze through before it fully repaired itself, and reached the other side.
"Stop right there!"
Revis finally came to her senses, and letting out a roar as if unable to accept this fact, rose to give chase.
Several silver slashes came whistling through the air, cutting off Revis's path and forcing her to twist aside in an awkward dodge.
"Your opponent... is me."
Ais stood before Revis with sword in hand, declaring it.
"Bastard!"
Revis's wounded pride had goaded her nearly to the point of losing control.
"Then I'll finish you off first, and go kill him after!"
Revis had turned completely into a raging beast.
Ais charged in without a sound, clashing with Revis as she raised her red sword.
And so, the fierce battle erupted.
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