“Come forth, Intetsu!”

As the buzzer sounded, Ikki Kurogane let out a low chant, summoning his Device.

It was a standard Japanese katana, but its appearance was anything but ordinary. The entire weapon was pitch black, save for the blade edge, which gleamed with a cold, silvery light.

Although its shape was simple, one could feel the extraordinary nature of the sword named Intetsu.

“Sure enough, you are a born swordsman,” Roy said, looking at the blade in Ikki’s hands.

A Device is, to a certain extent, the embodiment of a person’s soul. Looking at Intetsu, Roy felt that Ikki himself was a sword given human form.

Ikki took a deep breath, gripping Intetsu tightly. His eyes locked onto Roy.

Roy’s stance appeared loose, seemingly full of openings. However, Ikki knew better. The way Roy held his sword was not that of a beginner. Ikki could feel that the moment Roy swung his sword, it would be a terrifying, lethal attack.

‘I can’t act rashly.’

This was Ikki’s judgment, born from the honed intuition of a warrior.

“Aren’t you going to attack?” Roy asked, looking at the motionless boy. He smiled slightly. “Then allow me.”

Roy moved.

He launched the first attack, closing the distance instantly. A bright arc cut through the air, slashing toward Ikki.

CLANG!

Ikki didn’t try to overpower Roy. He met the slash with his blade, bent his knees, leaned his body forward, and angled Intetsu horizontally.

“Deflecting force?”

Roy could feel the power of his sword being siphoned away. He didn’t retract his blade; instead, he slightly increased the downward pressure.

Grind…

The sound of metal grinding against metal echoed.

“Did you notice?” Ikki admitted, a strained smile appearing on his face. “You and I have a massive gap in physical strength, Roy. If I took your slash head-on, it would drain too much of my stamina. The only way to handle you is to use this.”

He knew the power gap between himself and Roy at a glance. When Kurono described Roy as a monster, Ikki had prepared himself for exactly this.

“This is my Third Secret Sword: Madoka!”

Ikki shouted. He twisted his wrists, and his blade shook violently.

Roy suddenly felt a powerful force erupting from Intetsu, a force almost identical to the one he had just exerted.

Ikki had circulated the kinetic energy of Roy’s slash through his body, looping it like a circle, and reflected it back completely as a counter-attack.

Roy adjusted his posture, allowing Ascalon to be bounced off by the reflected force, and took a step back to avoid Ikki’s follow-up.

Roy easily saw through the mechanics of the move.

“A very clever technique,” Roy said with great interest. “You called it the Third Secret Sword. That implies a First and a Second. Show them to me.”

“With pleasure!”

Excitement burned in Ikki’s eyes—the thrill of facing a master swordsman who understood his art. “Then, allow me to teach you my sword style, Roy!”

“Roy… you’re holding back quite a bit,” Kurono, watching from the sidelines, sighed.

She knew very well that in the opening exchange, Roy could have unleashed a slash that Ikki wouldn’t have been able to react to. After all, she had experienced it herself yesterday, two slashes in a single instant.

It was impossible to guard against.

Thinking of this, Kurono unconsciously touched her waist. Even though the injury was healed, the phantom pain lingered.

“Seventh Secret Sword: Raikou!”

Ikki shouted, rushing toward Roy. This time, he took the initiative.

This Secret Sword lacked the complex mechanics of Madoka. It had only one characteristic:

Speed.

Just like its name.

The attacks were like flashes of electricity. Every strike of the Seventh Secret Sword exceeded the speed of sound, moving faster than the naked eye could track.

The sound of swords colliding was a continuous ring. Roy parried every slash Ikki threw at him without giving an inch.

“Sure enough, Raikou couldn’t create an opening against you,” Ikki said, not disappointed in the slightest. The excited smile on his face remained.

Raikou was a technique of pure speed. But against Roy, whose reflexes were fast enough to suppress Kurono’s time manipulation, normal supersonic speed was nothing special.

“First Secret Sword: Saigeki!”

In the middle of the high-speed exchange, Ikki suddenly changed his stance.

Facing the piercing tip of Intetsu, Roy tilted Ascalon, using the broad side of the blade to block the thrust.

CLANG!

The strike, which seemed capable of piercing the atmosphere, slammed into Roy’s sword, making an ear-piercing screech.

Roy felt the force at the point of impact far exceed the previous slashes. It felt like being hit by a speeding train.

That single thrust demonstrated Ikki’s level.

Transitioning from the high speed slashing of Raikou to the heavy, concentrated thrust of Saigeki without any loss of momentum was incredibly difficult. Ikki had concentrated all his body’s power into a single point for the strongest physical penetration attack.

It sounds simple, but executing it while maintaining the velocity from Raikou required god like body control. At such a short distance, among all the swordsmen Roy had met, only Ikki Kurogane could achieve this level of fluidity.

Sword control was no longer a technique for Ikki; it was an instinct.

“Sixth Secret Sword: Dokuga-no-tachi!”

In the close-quarters clinch following the impact, Ikki unleashed another Secret Sword almost instantly.

—

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