Anandra watched calmly as the nine blades swung toward his head. Time seemed to slow down as he predicted each of their trajectories.
During this split second, he deemed that six out of the nine blades were feints. Only three were real, but they were incredibly destructive.
Anandra coated his iron sword with mana and, in a swift and fluid motion, dodged the first real blade by tilting his body to the right, deflected the second with a downward strike, and parried the third. The first and second blades, which missed their targets, struck the ground, creating a twenty-meter-long and two-meter-deep fissure in the arena.
It was an absurdly powerful attack capable of cutting a carriage, along with the horse pulling it, in half. Still, despite seeing his attack deflected by Anandra, Captain Symon didn't lose focus and proceeded to dish out onslaughts, one after another.
The third style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Mana Vortex.
A second after 'Flowing Flower' struck the arena, Captain Marozzo quickly spun in place twice, creating a small vacuum of mana that sucked in his opponent, preventing him from moving for a full second— He tried to.
To Captain Symon's surprise, Anandra redirected all of the mana strengthening his body into his legs and leaped back, until he was out of range of the spell. Immediately after the mana vortex vanished, Anandra shot toward Captain Symon at a frightening speed. The moment he was within sword range with Captain Symon, Anandra redirected the mana from his legs toward the arm holding his sword and slashed at the captain.
Captain Symon jumped up, pulled his arm back, and the moment he landed, stabbed at Anandra several times. Anandra nimbly moved his head and body, evading each strike without any unnecessary movements.
What's this? This doesn't make sense, thought Captain Symon.
Based on how quickly Anandra managed to redirect the strengthening mana from one body part to another, it was apparent that he'd done this in battle several times before, even before this spar. It seemed absurd that he was so used to this technique, to the point that he was no longer suffering any recoil. He was so proficient in redirecting his body strengthening magic that he could even use it in real time in battle against someone like the captain.
Is he just enduring it?
Locking eyes with Anandra, Captain Symon inwardly shook his head.
No, those aren't the eyes of someone who's enduring their pain. This man… this technique is as simple as breathing to him. What a monster.
For the first time, Captain Symon realized why King Lark specifically requested he spar with his disciple. In order for Anandra to go all out, he needed an opponent who was his match.
Captain Symon grinned.
As the successor of Sword Saint Marozzo, it was only natural for him to be excited when he met a strong opponent.
Captain Symon strengthened his body with even more mana, pushing it to the utmost limit.
He couldn't redirect the mana in his body in a heartbeat like that monster, but he was certain he had a larger mana pool than him. Although it would end up tearing up his bones and muscles, Captain Symon decided to overload his body with body-strengthening magic. Combined with the techniques ingrained in him by his father at a young age, Captain Symon was confident of overwhelming his opponent.
Immediately after pushing his body to its limits, Captain Symon's stabs became faster, his slashes deadlier. His eyes predatory, he started performing Marozzo techniques one after another.
The first style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Twin Crescent Slash.
Two vertical strikes that nearly overlapped with each other shot toward Anandra. The golden-haired man redirected his mana to his feet and upper body, enabling him to quickly move to the left to dodge the first slash. He shifted his mana to his arm and swung his sword, parrying the second strike.
The second style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Spiral Pierce.
Mana spun around the tip of the captain's sword. He pulled his arm back, along with a portion of his upper body, and made a single stab toward Anandra.
Anandra realized that despite being a stab, the radius of the attack was massive. Instead of deflecting it, he redirected all of the mana in his body toward his feet and moved to the far right, evading the attack entirely. The Spiral Pierce struck the arena and carved another large fissure on the ground, sending slabs of broken tiles and dust flying about.
Even after Anandra easily countered his techniques, Captain Symon didn't stop. He immediately performed the next sequence of techniques of the Marozzo Swordsmanship.
Captain Symon was thrilled. He was exhilarated. How often could he find someone he could go all out in a fight with? For the first time in years, he could finally fight to his heart's content, without fear of killing his opponent!
The third style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Mana Vortex.
The same vortex of mana from before attempted to suck in Anandra.
The fourth style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Sword Claw.
A massive claw, created using three sword strikes, destroyed a third of the arena.
The fifth style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Flowing Flower.
After encountering it before, Anandra easily deflected the attacks of Flowing Flower.
The sixth style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Eight Cardinal Strikes.
The sixth style was an onslaught of attacks that came from the eight cardinal directions simultaneously. Each was imbued with mana, and carved out deep marks on the ground whenever they missed their target and struck the arena.
Until now, Anandra had managed to block Captain Symon's attacks using just the basic skills of the sword, honed to their utmost perfection. It left a bitter taste in the captain's mouth when he thought of how the Marozzo Sword was broken by simple movements of the sword. It seemed that in the end, a firm foundation of the sword was all one truly needed, after all.
I can't use it like my father yet, thought Captain Symon. But it should be possible to imitate it to a certain extent.
The seventh style of Marozzo Swordsmanship—Ethereal Sword.
A sword capable of cutting its opponent while ignoring the distance.
The strongest technique of Sword Saint Marozzo.
Captain Symon had seen his father use this sword to cut the flesh underneath the armor of his opponents, ignoring their defenses completely.
Once, he even saw his father cut a metallic giant lizard that appeared in their barony in one strike.
Captain Symon increased the distance between him and Anandra.
Using both hands, he held his sword above his head. His gaze fixed on his opponent.
After firming his resolve, Captain Symon swung down his sword.
The world seemed to have slowed down as everyone witnessed the translucent sword coming from above, slashing toward Anandra. It completely ignored the twenty-meter distance between the two. Anandra quickly raised his sword to block the attack, but to his surprise, the translucent blade passed through his iron sword without any resistance.
It's over, thought Captain Symon.
It was impossible to block this sword. The only way to survive the seventh style of Marozzo Swordsmanship was to evade the attack completely. Alas, it was too late to do that now.
Everyone expected the translucent sword to strike Anandra's body, activating Lark's protection spell in the process. But to their astonishment, an entirely different scenario occurred.
Anandra quickly redirected his mana to his legs, and moved back. At the same time, he redirected the mana to his arms and willed it to flow toward the tip of his sword.
M-Mana vortex?!
Captain Symon was stunned seeing a vortex of mana sucking in the ethereal sword, effectively halting it for a split second.
No… he modified the technique he saw me perform a while ago!
It wasn't an imitation, but a modification. Anandra combined the second style, Spiral Pierce, with the third style, Mana Vortex, enabling him to create a vortex of mana capable of halting the ethereal sword without spinning his body.
Not only did he manage to copy the technique, he modified it, combined it, and applied it to battle in real time.
No longer in the realm of a simple genius, Captain Symon realized that his opponent would later on go down in history as one of the world's greatest swordsmen.
After halting the ethereal sword, Anandra used this split-second opportunity to move to the side and completely evade the attack. Without stopping, Anandra raised his sword above his head. Captain Symon was horrified upon seeing that familiar stance.
"Sorry, but I'm borrowing the technique for a bit," said Anandra.
He swung his sword, and a similar translucent blade that completely ignored the distance between them shot toward Captain Symon at a frightening speed. The captain instinctively raised his sword to block it, only to realize that this was a sword capable of ignoring the opponent's defenses.
The ethereal sword went past his iron sword and struck the captain. A loud shattering sound was heard as the protection spell cast by Lark was broken.
Although Captain Symon didn't suffer any damage thanks to the protection spell, the feat shown by Anandra was more than enough to render him weak and lifeless. He dropped his sword, and fell on his knees.
That… that sword.
The ethereal sword performed by Anandra was much more than similar to the sword of Sword Saint Marozzo. It was much more precise, faster, and more powerful than Captain Symon's imitation.
Silence fell in the training ground.
No one could believe what they'd just witnessed.
King Lark's disciple copied the Sword Saint's technique after seeing it just once and used it to defeat the former captain of the Royal Knights.