Cracks began to appear from where the sword stabbed as it kept spreading and purple light was lighting up from them as if it was about to explode.

A huge shockwave made Akane feel like she was about to be blown away but it was only one blast; she managed to hold on. Some unfortunate person near the fighting was caught off guard and stumbled into a spell then got eliminated.

"Take this! [Grief of the Sinner]!"

Sawaki raised his sword, it was glowing purple as if it had just absorbed the light coming from the cracks, there was an eerie atmosphere and anyone who came close felt like their souls were being seen through.

Sawaki slashed diagonally twice to make a cross, it looked like [Dark Cut] but was many times larger and had an aura of death around it. Maybe it was everyone's imagination; but howls of souls could be heard when he slashed down.

Akane's pupils contracted and only one thought on her mind was left; to flee.

Everyone who was positioned behind Akane had already knelt down from fear. If anyone on the stage right now was asked if what's the scariest thing they've seen, everyone except Yoko would answer it was this event. Yoko was more scared when Kai's powers went out of control and made him look like a true demon.

Everyone in the stage who had looked at that attack had stopped moving; except Yoko.

 "This is bad!"

Yoko instantly leaped towards Akane to try and save her. The attack had the power of E-class, fifth step. It had the same power as Kai who had not even reached F-class when he lost himself.

But how could Yoko reach her in time? The attack was already released and it was only a few meters away from Akane.

"Akane, do everything you can to get to me!"

Yoko's voice shocked Akane back into reality.

"[Fast Movement], [Double Cast], [Double Cast]!"

She yelled and made a leap towards Yoko.

Yoko used [Fast Movement] as well and stretched out her hand.

"Akane!"

"Yoko!"

Their hands intertwined and Yoko pulled Akane towards her. The move narrowly missed Akane but directly hit everyone behind her. Everything that was hit with the attack got slashed and there was quite a bit of blood. But there were surprisingly no fatal wounds, looks like he held back. At least fifteen people were eliminated because of injuries and disqualification.

That was on the border of the rules.

"Tch. So you managed to dodge it?"

Akane was breathing quite heavily, her legs were quite exhausted. [Fast Movement] was increasing one's speed by two. This was not without consequences; it increased the load on the legs by double the amount. Akane used [Double Cast] twice which made it go with eight times the speed; before that, she had used [Double Cast] once.

Since the start of this competition, she had done this a total of three times now. The problem was that she had never done this before, her body can't take it. [Fast Movement] was only a temporary solution to increase speed; it didn't grow along with her body. If she wanted to make it so that she can improve her speed twice without strain, she'd have to change the technique itself.

If Kai had gotten this technique, he'd probably think of ways to change it with the help of Reo.

"Don't worry, Akane. Just rest for the upcoming battles, that move right there removed more than a tenth of the original number. I'm certain that there are only a bit more than seventy people left."

"Alright, I'll leave it to you."

Akane sat down as Yoko faced the two opponents in front of them. Nobody dared to interfere with the battle because they were all scared of Sawaki. The spearman's back was drenched in cold sweat as he realized how lucky he was to have gotten Sawaki as an ally.

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"You're the one who dodged my strike even when you weren't facing me. Your intuition must be quite sharp or you're doing something special."

Yoko responded to Sawaki with silence, she couldn't afford to be distracted when facing Sawaki. Yoko was certain that if she didn't defeat Sawaki now, he'd end up winning the competition.

"But still, you two are quite frightening. Eight years old and can already stand up to me? I'm turning fifteen this year and was considered a prodigy but the power you guys can produce and the skills you wield at such a young age make me feel like a joke. That's the only reason I'm targeting you, petty jealousy."

Sawaki came clean which made the spearman's eye twitch. The five of them had teamed up because they felt that Akane and Yoko were the biggest threats, but if they knew that Sawaki was the biggest threat; they'd probably team up against him.

"I'll let you make the first move."

Sawaki stabbed the sword into the floor. It would require more time but would make the counterattack even stronger.

The spearman held the spear behind him.

Yoko charged forward and held the daggers at the side.

The spearman launched forward and spun himself and the spear multiple times before he reached Yoko.

The spearman went for an overhead strike but Yoko curved the direction with one of her daggers and the other dagger stabbed into the spearman's shoulder.

"Guh..."

The spearman retreated and held his arm holding the spear. 

"Her movements are strange..."

The spearman narrowed his eyes. Sawaki's eyes were wide open as he observed Yoko's movements.

"Something changed with her eyes."

Sawaki furrowed his brows, just what was happening?

With her new skill, it only took Yoko a few minutes to beat the spearman and headed straight for Sawaki.

"Good observation."

Yoko whispered as she moved past his side. Sawaki's eyes contracted as he didn't realize that she had just gone through.

"Impossible!"

He suddenly slashed at the left but Yoko was already on the other side and kicked him. He stumbled forward a bit but quickly regained his footing then brandished his sword towards Yoko.

The secret to Yoko's new skill was peripheral vision. It is an important skill to have to be a top rate athlete, the need to be able to grasp your surroundings. This world, Gaia did not have enough science to progress and so nobody knows what peripheral vision is. But, that doesn't mean people can't use it.

Yoko managed to get this skill when she was facing Kenta, she had not noticed it until the now. When she fought with Kenta, she could see his movements even if she wasn't facing forward. But when she fought here, she had to focus on what was in front of her; this baffled her but after some more fighting, she managed to figure out the trick.

This is an invaluable skill to have when fighting against many people at the same time. Since she could figure it out, if she could improve it; that would be terrifying.

"Don't underestimate the eyes of a swordsman!"

Sawaki roared and charged forward.

He raised his arms and slashed down; Yoko dodged and he adjusted his aim. He slashed from the floor; diagonally.

Yoko used her daggers to redirect the sword but it had more power than she imagined and she was knocked back.

"Even if your eyes become clearer, it doesn't improve your body's actual strength!"

That's right, even if she could track each adn every one of his movements; it would all be for naught if she didn't have enough power to back up her moves.

"You're correct, but..."

Yoko somersaulted towards him and kicked his hands that were holding the sword. One of his eyes closed and the sword was flung away.

"...you've weakened a lot from using that move. I'd say you don't even have thirty percent of your original power."

"So what?! Thirty percent is more than enough to take care of small fry like you!"

"A true swordsman mustn't let his way of the sword waver."

Yoko whispered as she once more passed through his side and kicked the other side.

"Gah!"

He was flung to the side but used the sword to hold on to the floor.

"I'll defeat you!"

Sawaki charged forward and sliced multiple times and used [Dark Cut] each time.

Yoko dodged each and every move that he used. He sliced over fifty times and Yoko dodged over fifty times.

"You're just weakening yourself more and more."

"HAAAAAA!"

Sawaki slashed more and more.

"[Grief of the Sinner]!"

Sawaki spat out blood and repeated his earlier move. It had nowhere near the power of before.

"Weak!"

Yoko yelled and used another skill.

"[Twin Shadow Assault]!"

Yoko spun multiple times in mid-air as a dark outline glowed from her daggers. It sliced [Grief of the Sinner] apart and headed straight for Sawaki.

"You lose."

"Gah!"

Sawaki vomited blood as his chest became lacerated with Yoko's daggers. The wounds turned dark and Sawaki faded into unconsciousness.

She kicked him into the outside to eliminate him once and for all and went to the side of Akane.

"You won."

Akane smiled.

"I did, but it was only because you forced him to use that skill of his. I wonder what provoked him to do so; it should be used as a last resort because it took at least seventy percent of his power."

"I have no idea, but he's quite stupid to do that."

Akane giggled and Yoko smiled in amusement.

Yoko looked at her surroundings and realized that nobody was coming near them. Her eyes travelled to the one side of the arena and saw ten people teaming up.

"That's going to be trouble."

The ten people were knocking people out left and right, even the unsuspecting ones that were looking at Yoko's match.

There were roughly only forty people left. They took advantage of the situation and eliminated the dumbfounded ones as fast as possible; it was cowardly but it worked.

"Let's rest until someone attacks us."

"Nn."