The localized gale howling around Roro Nora was just a glimpse of her true strength.
In an instant, Roro's hands blurred.
"Twin Heavens: Storm!"
Within a precise, five-meter circular radius centering on her body, the atmosphere tore itself to ribbons. Her arms dissolved into a seamless, overlapping blur as she struck the empty air non-stop, feeding kinetic violence into the vortex until the invisible vacuum currents began to hum with a blinding silver light.
It was a domain of absolute dismemberment. Anything that entered it would be minced into dust before it could even touch her skin. But not only was this technique deadly, the churning wall of pressurized silver air and whipping dust completely removed any and all visibility of her from the outside.
She was a ghost inside a blender.
She dropped her center of gravity, her red eyes locking onto the unmoving silhouette of the boy in the white cape through the shifting veil of wind.
Flash Step!
With a tremendous, physics-defying burst of speed, Roro vanished from her starting position. The whirling sphere of razor-sharp air followed her trajectory instantly, tearing across the arena floor like a rogue hurricane, and swallowed Moretsuna whole.
In less than a millisecond, the air in front of the man violently imploded. Roro materialized out of thin air within the blinding vortex, the roaring, whistling chaos of her five-meter blade domain descending upon him like the jaw of a leviathan. Her dual katanas were already mid-swing, fueled by the terrifying momentum of her launch, aimed to cross perfectly at his throat.
"AHAHAHAHAHA YOU'RE DEAD!" she screamed, a feral, ecstatic grin ripping across her face.
———
Back in the stands, the high-ranking nobles still didn't seem to appreciate or get what was actually happening on the sands below. They sipped their expensive wine, casually fanning themselves.
"Ah, Lord Toyotomi, are you interested in Senior Roro? Her reputation as a wild storm is quite fitting for her martial arts," one elder chuckled, adjusting his silks.
"That poor upstart commoner was unlucky with his first opponent, right?", One chimed.
"She is a bit too wild, but I must say that House Nora is quite a respected family, and are masters of the Twin Heavens style," another noble added, nodding sagely. "Fortunately, Lord, I have direct connections if you want an close meeting with her, hohoho..."
Hideyoshi didn't answer them.
His face was completely hardened, his teeth gritted so tightly the bone in his jaw flexed. His eyes were twitching and moving at a manic pace, his focus entirely locked down on the arena, desperately trying to follow each high-speed movement being made.
Creak...
The thick marble railing literally groaned and cracked under the sudden, immense stress of his tightening grip.
What on earth just happened?! Hideyoshi thought, his heart hammering against his ribs.
Down below, the unthinkable had occurred.
As the silver, spherical domain of the Heavenly Bladestorm consumed Merun, the expected explosion of blood and shredded fabric never came.
Instead, immediately after that brutal, blinding exchange, a loud CLANG was heard and Roro Nora violently bounced backward, retreating several paces to reset her stance and looking surprised.
As the dust settled around Merun, he was standing in the exact same spot he had started in. His flowing white cloak had clearly taken the brunt of the kinetic damage, shredded and frayed at the edges, but his body underneath didn't look like it had been damaged one single bit.
Hideyoshi's mind raced in a panic.
Surely he didn't just use up all his energy to defend that one strike?! Foolish brother, that was just the beginning! You can't just tank a Senior's opening salvo!
———
Roro's boots skidded across the stone as she backed away, her breathing suddenly tight.
It doesn't make sense.
How he had defended... it still wasn't clear to her. Her blades had felt like they struck... armor? where on earth did that come from? Another unnerving thing was the man's stare. Through the glowing green lens of his high-tech eye-piece, his dark eyes remained completely calm, tracking her as if he were plotting something.
That's it, I'm definitely destroying your toy!
Try to defend against this! she sneered internally, her panic instantly twisting back into an manic surge of excitement.
She activated her Martial Heart.
The air around her turned suffocatingly hot as her veins shone a beautiful gold as her heart gave her the strength of a true Martial Senior. As a hyper-offensive martial artist, Roro specialized in absolute lethality through a domain that dealt agonizing, passive shredding damage to anyone nearby, while she seamlessly drifted in and out to pierce vital points with her dual steel.
"Twin Heavens: Hail!"
She crouched, her muscles coiling like overwound springs. Then, she exploded forward with a tremendous acceleration that completely put her previous charge to shame. It was so blindingly fast that to the spectator stands, it looked as though she had literally teleported to the exact opposite side of the stadium.
CLANG!
She clashed with Merun in the dead center, her blades striking at a microscopic angle, before her momentum carried her instantly to the far edge of the arena diameter. A millisecond later, she turned on a dime and fired herself back.
CLANG!
She was spinning like a top, a relentless, ricocheting bullet of silver light. She would leap forward from one end of the stadium, smash against Merun's defenses in the center, and instantly end up on the exact opposite side of the arena, only to repeat the process. Over and over. Dozens, hundreds of times in a seamless loop of violent, unyielding friction.
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The deafening, machine-gun ring of steel hitting steel echoed through the rafters. The crowd in the lower realms couldn't even see her body anymore; all they could comprehend was a geometric star-pattern of silver lines constantly intersecting at the small boy in the middle.
Even the nobles in the VIP box were growing bored of the visual blur. "Ah, it seems it will be over soon," the noble beside Hideyoshi sighed, smoothing his robes. "Why don't you take a seat, Lord Hideyoshi? We can order some light food while we wait for the next match—"
Hideyoshi finally snapped. He side-eyed the noble gentleman with a sudden, suffocating intensity—a flash of pure, unadulterated killing intent that made the temperature in the booth drop to zero.
"Please be quiet and allow me to watch this match."
The noble's words caught in his throat. The sheer aura radiating off the young Toyotomi heir made the man collapse back into his seat, instantly drenched in a cold sweat. "A-Ah... y-yes, my Lord! Please do watch! Please!"
"Thank you," Hideyoshi said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, icy tone.
He quickly tore his eyes back to the sand, the overwhelming intensity fading back into frantic worry. Looking down at the ring, the noble's words weren't entirely wrong from an outsider's perspective; it truly did look entirely one-sided. Merun was a stationary target being battered by a hurricane.
There was a reason Senior Roro Nora was called Gifu's Hail of Blades, Gifu's Storm. She was undoubtedly the fastest technical martial artist the clan had. Her dual blades were striking exclusively at his most vital points with every single high-speed pass—his throat, his eyes, his heart, his arteries.
He had sparred with her several times and it took him his absolute all; relying on strategy and technique to be on an even playing field. Each session took much of his mental strength from all the micro decision making he had to make.
What Hideyoshi couldn't understand, what was driving his tactical mind crazy, was how his little brother was still standing?
He wasn't dodging nor was he even trying to strike back. So... he's relying on his newfound defensive martial arts?
It was working quite well, but from the looks of it, it requires him to be stationary—such a glaring and exploitable weakness!
What is your plan, Merun?! Hideyoshi screamed in his own mind, his fists shaking.
You have to do something, or she's going to find a gap and bleed you dry!
Hideyoshi stared down at the blinding cage of silver steel enclosing his little brother. His mind spun as he tried to think of possible winning scenarios for Merun.
More than that... what kind of hellish training did Master Iaiashin put him through to turn him into a Martial Senior? If Merun had truly reached this realm at eleven years old, he wasn't just a prodigy—he was a once-in-a-lifetime, mythical genius that defied the natural laws of Gaia.
He recalled his Master's assessment: Merun possessed a legendary and fabled physique known as the Tyrant Strength Body!
Could it be true after all?
Still, being passive and only utilizing a defensive technique could only last so long against Gifu's Storm. Eventually, he would be worn down. The pressure was mounting, and Hideyoshi's restraint completely snapped.
Something clicked.
Wait... Martial Senior?
Leaning halfway over the shattered marble railing, he did the absolute unthinkable for a high-ranking Toyotomi heir. He roared into the open air of the coliseum:
"USE YOUR MARTIAL HEART!"