This was his closest chance yet to reach the Seven Star Sword Art Festival championship. Step by step, he was truly closing the distance to the title, yet for so reason, he felt himself drifting further from the summit!
Could this year only end with a top-four finish?
An intense sense of crisis flooded Kurogane Ikki like a tidal wave.
The stretcher carried Kurogane Ikki away once more.
"Next up is the C Block finals!"
Touka Toudou took a deep breath.
An uncontrollable tension spread through her heart.
This round's opponent was far more terrifying than any before!
"It's alright. Believe in ."
Eiji looked over and squeezed her hand.
"Mhm, I've never once doubted you, junior!"
Touka gave a soft smile.
The tension in her heart gradually faded with the warmth transmitted through their joined hands.
Soon after, she left the spectator stands and headed toward the preparation room.
"Can Touka win?"
Though Renren Tomaru wasn't competing, she still felt nervous at this critical juncture.
With Kurogane Ikki advancing, Hagun Academy had now secured both the A and B Block slots.
As for D Block, they held extraordinary trust in Eiji, believing he would definitely defeat Amane Shinomiya and advance from that block.
If Touka could also advance from C Block, then Hagun Academy would sweep all four top spots this year!
"A clean sweep of the top four! Not even Bukyu Academy has achieved that!"
"Is our school surpassing all others this year?"
The cheer squads gathered together, growing increasingly excited.
Bukyu Academy had already been completely eliminated in the second round.
This year, Hagun Academy was the strongest!
"No, she can't win."
But a cold voice abruptly poured cold water on their excitent.
They imdiately fell silent, exchanging glances without saying a word.
If anyone else had said this, they would have brushed it off, confident in Touka's abilities.
But the person who happened to speak these words was precisely the one who understood Touka Toudou best.
The person saying "Touka Toudou can't win" was Eiji.
He simply sat there, yet seed to be the center of everyone's attention.
His words carried imnse credibility, and no one offered any rebuttal.
He should be the one who wanted Touka Toudou to win most of all.
Yet he asserted that Touka Toudou couldn't win.
What he was truly feeling now, nobody knew.
"Thank you for waiting, everyone! Next up is the second match of the third round! The C Block finals!"
The comntator's voice remained filled with passion as ever.
"This match features Hagun Academy's 〈Raikiri〉 Touka Toudou versus Akatsuki Academy's 〈Bloody da Vinci〉 Sara Bloodlily!"
In the combat arena.
Appearing opposite Touka Toudou was a girl with ssy golden hair, her alluring figure barely concealed by a paint-stained apron.
Even facing the famous Raikiri, her absent-minded, languid deanor showed no change whatsoever.
One of Akatsuki Academy's top three fighters, Sara Bloodlily.
She was precisely Touka Toudou's third-round opponent!
"Speaking of competitor Sara, though she's only a C-rank Blazer and seems relatively unknown, she easily cleared the first two rounds with her delicate physique. Also, she's the only competitor who makes genuinely worried this program might turn into 18 content..."
The audience nodded in unison.
That apron looked so easy to fall off!
Rather, most of the audience were eagerly anticipating that apron to drop! Because Sara's figure was truly alluring!
"Though that may be the case, we've also received anonymous reports suggesting that Sara is hiding her true abilities. It seems her 'Color Magic,' which manipulates the concept of colors, might not be her actual Blazer ability... What is the truth? I believe we should be able to see it clearly in this match."
"I think so too. Raikiri isn't an opponent that can be dealt with casually."
Needless to say, this anonymous report was also Kagami Kusakabe's handiwork.
Before the match began, driven by the thought of "if I can't take you down, I'll at least annoy you to death," she had leaked all of Akatsuki Academy's secrets to the committee.
On the field.
Touka paid no attention to any of the noise.
She filtered out all distractions, focusing her attention entirely on Sara alone.
Her Device had long since manifested, placed beside her in its sheathed form. Her hand rested on the scabbard, her entire body's strength coiled into a single strand.
In contrast, Sara still appeared absent-minded, as if she didn't take her opponent seriously at all.
"Both sides ready, begin the match!"
"Raikiri!"
The mont the match was declared to start.
Touka's eyes snapped open, veins bulging on her forehead, her expression turning fierce and ferocious.
Without hesitation, she unleashed Raikiri!
The ultimate move at supersonic speed!
Before the audience could even react, this strike had already pierced Sara head-on!
No!
"It's an illusion!"
Alarm bells rang loudly in Touka's mind!
The blade swept through Sara's body as if cutting through air, with no sensation of impact at all!
"Color Magic: Phantom White Foam."
Sara's figure appeared on the other side.
She held a palette in one hand and a brush in the other.
Unlike before, her ntal focus was now extrely concentrated, not a trace of laziness to be seen. The look she gave Touka even made her feel a slight stinging sensation!
"Such terrifying concentration! Such fast painting speed!"
Touka's mind was tense.
That level of concentration greatly astonished her.
She had always thought that phrases like "forgetting to eat and sleep" were sowhat exaggerated, but now she finally understood firsthand that there really were people like this in the world.
But even more shocking than her concentration was Sara's painting speed!
Despite her physical fitness being only F, with a body so weak it couldn't even compare to an ordinary person—reportedly even capable of fainting from a misstep on stairs—the hand she was painting with now was moving so fast it was impossible to see clearly!
"Raikiri!"
After one failed strike, Touka didn't hesitate to launch a second one!
By controlling the extension and retraction of her wrist through magnetic fields, she ford a double strike of Raikiri in an instant!
This was the very technique she had used to defeat her longti rival Yuudai Moroboshi last year!
"Swish!"
But.
This ti, her blade swept straight past Sara's side.
An accuracy problem?
Touka was stunned.
How could that be?
She had practiced Raikiri for years—how could she possibly miss her target?
"No, that is... a circular mark?"
Touka's gaze sharpened.
In front of her, a circular mark had appeared on the ground at so point.
Like a target in archery practice, it was a mark composed of multiple concentric circles.
"My blade actively moved toward this mark!"
This emblem is interfering with targeting accuracy, luring the enemy's attacks!
And during this ti!
"You're not an opponent I can defeat easily, so I'll give it my all."
Sara's right hand moved so fast it left afterimages in the air.
"This is my true ability—take this! Phantasmagoria: Tomahawk!"
Mid-air.
As she continued splashing ink, a massive cylinder abruptly took shape.
Touka's pupils instantly contracted!
BGM-109 cruise missile!
Commonly known as the "Tomahawk missile"!
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