* * *


I knew it was you.

　The final round. My challenger was exactly what I expected.

I'm really happy for you. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be able to face my senpai again. ...... Oh, it's a dream come true.

　Raspberry Bell.

　He was once a world ranker who was once ranked 128th highest in the world as "Framboise I".

　But don't judge him, or even her, by that ranking alone. A special mention should be made of his performance in the Battle of Issenza in Mevion. Raz's sword-wielding style is unique. The reason for this is that the large sword was "considered weak". Despite this, Raz had even won a few tournaments. That's simply because he's extremely strong. Regardless of whether she used a large sword or anything else, she was consistently strong.


　However, in this world, in this game, it was a different story.

　In Mevion, her growth type was the 'heavy knight type', but now she was a 'support type'.


''A great sword?''
Not enough. There's not enough firepower to go around. There's nothing I can do.

　I was curious, so I asked her about it. Of course, she apparently understands the current situation very well.


　Yes. You can't win against me if you're using a large sword.

　Of course, even with a long sword, or a dagger.

　The status is too different between me, who has raised various other skills, and her, who is a supportive type and has probably only raised her swordsmanship, is too different. In fact, it's so different that it's impossible to compete.


　But I wasn't particularly worried about it.

　I could see it in Raz's expression. As the start of the match approaches, it gradually becomes a straight face.


　...... She's serious. I'm serious, I'm going to come to win.

　Then I'll be relieved to stand on the receiving end.


"Well,
I think you've got a trick up your sleeve.
Well, there's no point in hiding things from your partner, right?

　Just as they finished bowing to each other and held their swords, Raspberry Belle revealed her trump card (...).

　It's the sword she took out.

　I'm the usual mithril longsword.
　Raspberry Belle can be found at ......


Ew.


　I couldn't help myself.

　The pitch-black, single-edged sword she held. What if that was.


'Black Fal or...'


　Yes, faltion. It's also black.

　There are two types of this weapon, white and black. Each has its own characteristics, the white one specializes in criticality, and the black one specializes in ...... knockback (・・・・・・).


　At one time, this "Black Fal" was popular in the Ikusenza battle.

　It was so popular that a set trail of Black Fal vs. Black Fal was maintained.

　That's how troublesome and powerful the weapon was.

　Why was it so troublesome? The reason was because of its "breakthrough performance", as long as it was specialized for knockback up to the sixth level, even a simple "Infantry Swordsmanship" could trigger the knockback effect. This would be activated even if the opponent defended against it.

　Being unable to defend against attacks properly was an element that could completely overturn the conventional wisdom of single flash fights.

　As a result, more than 80% of the contestants started using Black Fal, and it became more of a "Black Fal battle" than a flash battle.

　However, a fad is something that will always go out of style one day.

The "Black Fal Vaccine", a must-win strategy against Black Fal, was widely recognized by the contestants, and there was no longer any need to use Black Fal at all.

　This was an extremely well-developed fixed point, and it was ideal for beginners because it was easy to implement with practice. Because of its ease of use, even novices, such as those participating in the title fight for the first time, began to learn it, and eventually the blackfalcon disappeared from the ichibenza matches.

　There's only one thing you need to prepare for with the Blackfal vaccine. Rapier (・・・・).

　The rapier, which has the fastest attacking motion and the lowest defensive effect among swords, is the Blackfal's natural enemy, so to speak. Because of its low defensive effect, simply blocking Black Fal's attacks will cause an oversized (...) knockback.
　In fact, if you start preparing the Dragon King Kenjutsu from the moment you are blown away, you can activate the Dragon King Kenjutsu no matter how hard Blackfal's side struggles. In other words, this is a technique that uses the oversized knockback as a backstep. The secret is that you can prepare for the Dragon King almost at the same time as the opponent starts to harden after using the skill.
　By always fighting ahead with quick attack motions while preparing such traps, Black Fal would be completely helpless.


　In those days, every contestant always had one rapier in their inventory. And everyone knew that, which is why they didn't try to bring out the Black Fal.

　Of course, there were those who tried to get it out at this point in time, but the more advanced you were ...... the more advanced you were, the less you would allow your opponent to switch weapons. It was an unchanging common sense to end it without giving them time to do so.


''Oh dear, so that's how it is.''

　I'd forgotten all about it.

　I don't have a rapier now.
　Which means I can't use the Blackfalfa vaccine, you know?


I knew it. I know you don't have it. I know you don't dare use a weapon like that.

　You're right. If I use a strong weapon on top of this, it would be real, really boring. So I'm going to be a mithril longsword for a while.


　But, yeah, ...... without a rapier, you're going to be dealing with Black Fal.

　...... No, no, it's fun. You're right, let's do that.


"Raz.
What's going on?
We're going with the thirty-one team.
......


　Thirty-one moves - Before the discovery of the Black Fal Vaccine, this was the mainstay of the game against Black Fal.

　The objective of this system was to create a situation in which the players could take advantage of the first move in the first 31 moves, by attacking and defending against the black falcon as far as possible, while taking the black falcon as the rear.

　The style of the game is to aim for 51:49 rather than 100:0 while steadily and steadily earning points. It's very low-key, but it's worth it.


　...... The fact that the Black Fal of Raz has been enhanced six levels. This must be the cooperation of Yukari. Did he send salt to the enemy?　Talk about stupid, Yukari doesn't have that personality. Maybe she was doing me a favor and made that one six levels stronger. She's just the best. So, we're going to have to enjoy ourselves to the fullest.


Start.

　I start running at the same time as the referee calls out.

　My first move is the "Angular Giving Sword Art".

　Now, I'm looking forward to seeing which of the thirty-two moves Raz will make.



　　* * * *.



　Finally, the matchup for the One-Spotza has begun.

　...... But.

　Second and Raspberry Belle, there was not a single person in this hall who could understand even one part of what the two of them were doing.


　Even that rave was extremely confused.

　He desperately pondered the meaning of each move, the long, long battle between the two of them unfolding in front of him.


　Why did the Second now swing the Silver General out to the front left of Raspberry Belle while pulling his right leg?
　Why did Raspberry Bell now cancel the infantry once and then activate the infantry again?
　Why did the second now prepare the incense car and cancel once when it should have been received by the gold general, and then focus on evasion?
　Why did Raspberry Bell now choose the combination of Silver General and Gui Ma when he could probably push through with his flying car?

　Why, why, why?
　I don't know one answer.

　The two men's moves were far too advanced.

　Perhaps even the seemingly meaningless movements of their hands, feet and gaze have unimaginable deep meaning and efficacy - and that much is to be expected.

　But I don't understand that, which is the key.


　Eventually, Rave has come to some extent to guess the characteristics of the black sword used by Raspberry Bell, but he still doesn't understand the meaning of the two men's movements.

　No, there is no longer time to think about it.

　It's not just a matter of time before you'll be able to get your hands on a new one.

　However, the two players were calm and collected. On the other hand, all the people watching the game were so heated that they could not think straight.

　Everyone's eyes were glued to the longest battle since the second appeared on the scene to the Battle of the Single Flash Zodiac.

　Even if they couldn't understand what the two of them were doing at all, the only thing they could tell with certainty was the fact that they were doing 'something tremendous'.


'Come on, why are you coming!'

　When the thirty-first move, the Silver General Sword Art was released with a thrust into Raspberry Bell's right shoulder, the second uttered that with a big smile.

　Finally, the shape clearly moved.

　Immediately afterwards, Raspberry Bell chose - 《Infantry Sword Art》.


''Do, ya!


　It was a blow so ridiculous that it could even be described as a superb technique.


　Normally, the second side should have the upper hand in the thirty-first move. Against that Second's too sharp thrust, Raspberry Bell, even sharper, pushes the black falcon into the side of the Mithril Longsword with a vertical thrust.


　--Koton,. It hits gently.

　The Silver General passes an inch from Raspberry Bell's right ear, and then ......



What?


　The second knocked back loudly, making a strange noise.


　This was the power of the Black Fal and the decisive move that Raspberry Bell was prepared to make (...).


　The form reversed at once.

　For a long time, Raspberry-Bell had expected the second player to play the thirty-one move against her with the black fal.

　On the thirty-twoth move, she threw her own warmed-up research into the air.

　The decisive move to defeat the thirty-one move group, so to speak.


　It was perfect. The choice of weapons, the expectation that the second would forget about the rapier, the thoroughness with which he had not revealed his hand before arriving at this point, the timing at which he should throw this research out there, and the mastery of an absurdly difficult technique. Everything was perfect.


"Morota de sempai!

　A knockback second is quickly chased down.

　A ruthless chase. I'm not going to be the only one who has been in a position to do that.


　...... This flying wheel swordsmanship, the second one, is impossible to duck or prevent.

　It is inevitably too close to duck. Even if you try to prevent it by bumping something, the collision of the Mithril Longsword and Black Falchon will trigger the knockback effect again.

　If you want to buy time, you'll still have to prevent it, but if you keep preventing it, your down value will surely build up eventually, and eventually you'll go down and receive the Dragon King Sword Technique by Raspberry Bell's Great Sword, and the game is set.


　There's no escape.

　In other words, it's ...... a dead end.



　　* * * *



　Oh, now Senpai and I are fighting in a way that only we know, in a way that only the two of us can understand.

　This is the best. What a happy time this is.

　I don't care if we die now.
　...... No, I'm not going to die, though.


You can't get rid of it.

　I hope you're pleased, sempai.


　The move that broke the 31-team clan - the new 32-team.

　I'm sure Senpai was blind.


　There was the Black Fal vaccine, and only a curious person like Mosa would study the Black Fal 31-team.


"All right, sempai!


　Yeah, yeah, the best time is already over.

　It really was like a dream come true.


　The flying swordsmanship of the chase. We couldn't duck or dodge this one.

　It was a dead end. At this point, even the world's best player couldn't do anything about it.


　I'm sure they can't defend against it. You can't defend yourself, I'm sure you can't defend yourself.









　--What, you're laughing at me, this guy ......!




Oh.


　I forgot to go to .............

　That's the kind of person Sempai is.


　We used to say that a genius is someone who wants to win more than anyone else.

　...... That's right, sempai. There's more to it than that, isn't there?


　The person who wants to win more than anyone else, but who never wants to lose, but who can transcend immediate victory and defeat, and entertain himself, his opponents, and everyone watching, is a real man (・・・・・).


　.............

　Maybe, Senpai, you've been keeping me company .......


　We've still got a lot more to do.

　I've been obsessed with winning.


　Sigh.
　Sigh, I love it. I really like you .......



　　* * * *




　I was seriously surprised.

　After the thirty-one move group, it was Raz's thirty-twoth move. ''There's no such infantry! I almost shouted out loud, but the voice that came out of my mouth as quickly as it came out of mine, pathetically, was, "Oh, yeah! The sound was like the sound of a dirty bird's chirping.

　But indeed, if he could do this kind of 《Infantry Sword Art》, then this thirty-twoth move would be viable.

　Truly amazing!　It's a wonderfour!　It was an ultra-C-class technique that went way beyond my expectations.



　So let's end with the new thirty-three moves (・・・・・・).



'Ah.'


　This time Raz let out a pitiful voice.


　While she is preparing to swing down from the upper right hand corner, I began preparing the "Silver General Sword Art" from the upper left hand corner to match it.

　The swords are lined up parallel to each other.


　Now, here's the trick.

　If you clash swords with swords, the collision will be judged and you will fall prey to knockback.

　However, if the swords do not collide, there will be no collision and the player will be knocked down.

　So, what should you do?


　The story is simple.


　It is almost impossible to do so, but if certain conditions are met, it is possible.

　That's ......


Here's the thing.


　The timing of the activation of the same line of skills within 0.02 seconds before and after the opponent's skill activation must be matched, and the speed and direction of the sword swing must also be matched to some extent.

　As you can see from Mevion's system, other than swinging in the air or colliding with each other, there is a form of offsetting between attacks. This offsetting, which exists not only in [Magic] but also in [Archery] and [Swordsmanship], does not actually produce a collision decision.

　However, this is quite difficult. It's a very difficult technique, but ...... I have about a 90% success rate.

　I'm in a collapsed position after a knockback, 90%.

　I've practiced it to death.

　When it comes down to it, there's no harm in getting your body moving. That's why I swung my sword over and over again, assuming all kinds of patterns such as vs. black fal, vs. rapier, vs. big sword, vs. dagger, etc.

　He had been practicing for years, predicting the timing of his opponent's skill activation from the timing and approach speed, sometimes triggering the activation with a feint, and then going to match the skill activation with a bang, for this day and time that would come one day.

　Raz wouldn't have missed this offsetting. In fact, for the entire thirty-one moves, they had been carefully and skillfully preparing for each other to avoid a set-off.

　However, I'm sure that I left out this moment, the thirty-third move, out of consideration.

　I understand the reason for this. It's common sense (...). It's common sense that "you don't aim to offset after a knockback. The reason is simple: there's no way it's going to succeed. It's said to have a 50% chance of success, and it's impossible to succeed in a counterattack while you're out of shape.

　...... and everyone thinks it's common sense. That's where the opportunity lies, and we can prepare a move that will allow us to pick up victory.
　The world's best is to be prepared for it, no matter how many years it takes.

　New 33 moves. The initiative is always mine. To be honest, I'm not afraid of Black Fal, rapier or no rapier.


''Ah, ugh!''

　The hardening time after the Flying Wheel Sword Art and the Silver General Sword Art. Naturally, the latter is shorter.

　Hence, in this situation, I could hit Raz's heart with the Silver General Swordsmanship and Guillermo Swordsmanship complex.

　A vital point of attack. A critical strike.
　If there is a status difference between me and Raz, this is ...... a fatal wound.


　Ah, the best time is over.


"--That's it!　Winner, Second Firth Test Flashza!


　The defense works.

　I'm the flashpoint for the summer.