CLANG!
Two swords clashed, sending a sharp ripple through the air. The owners of the blades pressed against each other, straining to overpower the other through sheer force.
Benimaru narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, planting a heavy foot into the grassy slope beneath him. The uneven ground gave slightly under the pressure, but he held firm.
Fritz gritted his teeth as he felt himself being pushed back up the incline. “Tch!” He leapt backward, his twin swords spinning in his hands as the surrounding air began to swirl around them.
“Take this!” he shouted. The wind surged around him, turning a sharp shade of green as he unleashed a cross-shaped slash. “{Wind Cutter X}!”
Twin arcs of wind flew forward, slicing through the air in a glowing erald "X" toward the kijin.
Benimaru leaned forward, his blade flaring with heat as black flas erupted across its surface. In the sa breath, he countered with a single slash, sending out a burning arc of darkness.
The two attacks collided midair, resulting in a violent explosion that birthed a towering wall of black flas between them. The blast rolled across the hilltop, bending grass and scattering loose soil down the slope.
“Tough guy, are we?” Fritz said with a grin, spinning his swords even faster. The wind around them intensified, pulling blades of grass and oddly enough, glowing tiny lights around them.
Benimaru kept his eyes on his opponent but cast quick glances at the strange flickering lights rising from the hillside.
“Those are... lesser spirits... wind spirits,” he muttered.
“Got it in one,” Fritz confird, stabbing both swords into the ground. The wind spirits started rotating around them, glowing brighter with each passing second.
Benimaru narrowed his eyes again. He raised his hands, black embers flickering to life as he activated [Hell Flare], but the flas snuffed out almost imdiately.
“Anti-magic barrier?” he whispered.
“Now,” Fritz called out over the building wind, “I’m not as amazing as Hinata, who can conjure a Holy Field all by herself. I still need a helping hand, after all. It's a good thing I've got my buddies the wind spirits. How fortunate.”
Benimaru frowned. “So this is a Holy Field?” he asked, but already, he felt his body beginning to slow. His muscles responded sluggishly, dulled under the influence of the swirling air.
A powerful technique, he added under his breath.
“Unfortunately,” Fritz continued with a smirk, “I’m not quite there yet. This isn’t a {Holy Field}. What you’re feeling is sothing we call an {Anti-Monster Barrier}.”
“Anti-Monster?” Benimaru echoed as the wind solidified into a do around them, forming a translucent green shell that shimred slightly against the backdrop of the sloping hill. “A barrier that weakens monsters... But how is it different from a {Holy Field}?”
"It weakens monsters specifically, in exchange, it does literally nothing to anyone else,” Fritz said, his tone calm but edged with satisfaction. “Similar alone in that concept to a Holy Field, tailored for enemies like you.”
Benimaru looked unperturbed as black embers ford around his hand again, and just like last ti, it sputtered out... Before returning in a blaze. "Is that so?" He smirked although internally, his thoughts were worriso. 'It's costing over twenty tis as much to cast a simple {hell flare}. He has at a disadvantage.'
"Wanna find out?" Fritz grinned as he launched himself forward. 'Holy shit, this guy is no joke. He can still move within the barrier, even use his skills too. Why did I have to end up with a troubleso opponent? I'm pretty sure the others have it way easier than I do.'
---
Shion tilted her head just in ti as a red spear grazed her cheek. Instead of bleeding, the shallow wound glowed faintly orange.
She pressed her hand against her cheek and clicked her tongue. "Tch. A burning effect. Benimaru used to pull the sa tricks when we were kids." A mocking grin stretched across her face. "If that's the best you can do, Holy Saint, this won’t end well for you."
Walking across a stream, Garde stood on the bank, his expression hardening as he spun his spear with a swift, practiced motion.
"Trust ," he said. "You haven't seen anything yet."
Without warning, Garde leapt backward, landing gracefully in the center of the stream just as Shion’s massive sword ca crashing down, obliterating the spot where he'd stood monts earlier.
The sheer force of her strike sent water surging away, the stream pushed back for a heartbeat. Droplets, large and small, filled the air, suspended as if ti itself had slowed. In that frozen mont, the two warriors locked eyes.
Then ti snapped forward.
Both charged.
Garde lunged first, thrusting his spear forward. Flas erupted along its blade, taking the rough shape of a wolf snarling at its prey. Shion answered with a feral grin of her own and swung her sword straight into the heart of the fiery beast.
Their weapons collided...
BOOM!
...and the waters of the stream ca crashing back in, swallowing the battlefield in a thunderous surge.
From the mushroom cloud of steam created by the explosion, Garde was sent flying, folded over a blast of pressurized wind.
He skipped across the surface of the stream, bouncing a few tis before stabbing his spear into the ground to arrest his montum. No sooner had he co to a halt than Shion descended from the sky, swinging her massive sword.
Garde reacted instantly, raising his spear to block the incoming strike with a sharp clang of tal.
Suspended in the air from the force of the clash, Shion was slower to recover, while Garde regained his balance imdiately and thrust his spear in a rapid flurry. "Beast Fang!" he shouted.
Shion raised her sword to her center, desperately blocking the barrage of strikes pouring from the Saint, but the relentless assault overwheld her defenses, launching her backward and into the stream.
Gasping for breath as she spat water from her lungs, Shion staggered to her feet, panting heavily. "Almost there," she muttered, gripping her sword tighter. "I can feel it... sothing churning inside . Just a little more, and I'll be able to cut through that strange defense."
Garde's eyes widened slightly before a confident smile curved his lips. "So you noticed, huh?" The water around him began to steam and bubble as the temperature rose.
"It's called an Elental Armant, armor made specifically for us Saints. It lets us draw upon the full power of the spirit we're contracted to. It also creates a passive elental barrier. The more you try to cut , the more the barrier burns out of you. Combine that with my spear and my abilities, and I'm far beyond the reach of inferior creatures like you."
Shion chuckled, lifting her sword and resting it on her shoulder. "You fancy yourself superior? That's so ego. I'll be happy to shatter it!" Without another word, she charged forward, the water parting violently with every step.
Garde's expression darkened. Planting his spear firmly into the bedrock, he roared, "Wildfire Howl!"
A ring of fire erupted from the stream, rapidly expanding and growing hotter as it surged outward.
Without hesitation, Shion plunged straight into the flas.
---
"Gyaargh!" a crusader scread as she was sent flying by a blast of flas. Around her, chaos unfolded, fire-breathing Dragonewts swooped overhead, raining destruction on the stunned crusaders below.
Caught off guard by the sudden aerial assault, the crusaders scrambled to regroup, but without their captains, their formation was already starting to crumble.
Seizing the mont, Geld and his forces charged forward with a thunderous roar. The crusaders, now forced to defend themselves from both the ground and the sky, struggled to hold their lines.
"Dammit!" a crusader roared, leaping into the air. He grabbed a descending Dragonewt by the torso and dragged the creature down with sheer force. "Don't panic, n! We can handle this!" he barked, rallying his comrades.
As he raised his sword to finish off the fallen monster...
CLANG!
...His blade was stopped mid-strike by a thin, gleaming katana, held effortlessly by a white-haired Kijin. Hakurou.
"Pardon the interruption," Hakurou said, a faint, dark aura seeping from his body. His eyes glead with a deadly calm. "Will you grant this old man the honor of a duel?"
The crusader staggered back, narrowing his eyes. "Honor? For a monster? Don't make laugh!" he spat, raising his shield and pointing his sword with defiance.
Step. Step. Step.
Hakurou walked calmly past him, sheathing his katana with a soft click.
"Huh?" the crusader muttered, confused, until his shield suddenly shattered like brittle glass, and blood burst from a deep gash in his chest.
The crusader collapsed, his sword clattering uselessly to the ground.
Hakurou exhaled slowly, lifting his gaze toward the sky. "What's an old man to do to have a good fight around here?"
Floating high above the battlefield, his checkered cloak billowing in the wind, was Kanade.
"As if you're not proud about your students fighting Saints all by themselves, old man," Kanade said with a smirk. "Just look at that grin of yours."
Hakurou chuckled softly. "You might be right. Watching my students grow to such heights... it brings a long-forgotten warmth to this old heart of mine."
At that mont, a group of crusaders charged toward the Kijin, shouting battle cries.
"Now then," Hakurou murmured, drawing his katana in one smooth motion. His right eye darkened ominously, a chilling presence leaking from him. "Who exactly were you calling an old man?"
Before the crusaders could reach him, their montum faltered. One by one, they veered off course, parting around Hakurou without even engaging him, whether out of sheer terror or a sudden discovery of more preferable targets, no one would ever know.
High above, Kanade, observing the scene, felt a sudden prickling sensation at the back of his neck. A bead of cold sweat trickled down his temple.
"Okay, note to self," Kanade muttered, edging higher into the sky. "Never call him old again. I'm just... increasing my altitude to get a better view of the battlefield. Yep, that's all it is."
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