Volume 2 Chapter 4: Surging waves
「Yup, nice weather」
Wearing the bird mask, Sonia stretched out her arms towards the sky and said so in a delighted manner.
While slightly hearing her alluring breathing that was concealed beneath the mask, I looked towards the sky too.
There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, having nothing to block it, the sun was shining as if it was saying that the stage was all for itself.
It might be because it was right after it had rained heavily, but I thought that it was shining more brightly than usual.
That being said…that’s right.
Now that the rain has stopped, there’s only one thing to do.
While turning towards the masked figure at a certain distance from me, I closed my eyes.
I took a small breath and got the feeling that I could smell something from the chilly atmosphere.
I slowly opened my eyes and casually turned around.
Below me, a small village was reflected in my eyes, because of the height of this place, it seemed quite small, but that also gave it a sense of elegance.
I didn’t grow tired of watching it. I thought of it as an illusion, but that was because it was like the ideal scenery for the current me. Even then, I averted my eyes and focused on Sonia again.
We were currently on a mountain surrounding Natoushia.
It was quite tall. Probably taller than Albak mountain? We were currently around halfway up.
If we exchanged blows to our hearts’ content, fighting in that village would have attracted too much attention.
When I asked if there was a place where we could fight…Sonia showed me this place.
It’s true that if it was here, there would be fewer people watching and there wouldn’t be any hindrances.
However, for some reason, the times I fight in mountains sure are high. Remembering my first fight with Chester during this life, I smiled a bit.
「I wonder if this place is really fine. I guess you don’t really mind it now, but I believe you won’t be able to move normally at this height」
I don’t know if she was able to see my smile or not, but Sonia said this to me in a worried tone.
Just as I had said previously, this place was a bit chilly and was at quite the height apart from Natoushia.
I believe I heard that the reason it’s chilly in the mountains is because the atmosphere is thinner there. Sonia’s anxiety might be because of that.
However…
「There’s no problem. I went to the mountain to train during my time at the Academy. I’m quite used to moving around high places」
The period of time since I was ten years old was short, but I did train in the mountain to hide it from the population.
I don’t really know how tall it was, but I believe it was relatively tall.
Since I’m already used to it, there’s no need to worry. After I informed her of that, Sonia’s mood changed.
「…I see. In that case, I’m glad」
Without looking at her face, one could clearly see that her voice has gotten lively.
Even though our circumstances might be different, we followed the same path.
From what I could deduce, it seems like Sonia usually goes to the mountain to train too.
It means we shared the same qualifications.
In that case…victory will be decided by our skill.
「Now that we don’t have anything to worry about, I’d like to get started immediately…」
「…Yup, I’m kind of getting restless too」
We both faced each other as if bait had been put in front of our eyes.
We were at our limits craving to fight.
「Let’s have a…」
「…fair duel」
We both took our stances.
Against my 「Flowing stream」 stance, Sonia took a relaxed stance, it was a stance without any openings.
With her elbow bent to the side of her chest, it was an impressive stance with her wrist hanging in a relaxed manner.
The degree of perfection was high and I expect she can link various movements from it.
However…this stance, it was probably not from a 「Martial art」. It was most likely something akin to a self-taught art.
…This is why I can’t get enough of formidable opponents that are unknown to me.
Will it be a strike? A throw? Or perhaps…magic?
I can’t help but look forward to what kind of moves will be unleashed from this stance.
「Martial arts, huh?」
「You say that, but you have quite the unusual stance…Sheryl, can you signal the start of the fight?」
「…Yup, got it」
I asked Sheryl, who we brought to observe the fight, to give us the signal.
When I did so, Sheryl picked up a stone from the ground.
「Once it lands on the ground, you start」
Her slender arms got closer to the ground.
To have the duel start once the stone hit the ground was a pretty good method and fair at that.
Like this, we will know the precise moment the fight will start.
The stone that was caught between her fingers was slowly released.
When looking at the multiple cracks in the rock that was dancing mid-air, it was easy to think that a terrible load had been put into it.
Even then, for it to be ordinarily dancing in the air means that Sheryl had remembered to hold back.
She was my friend, but also someone left to me by my friend from my previous life. After becoming aware of her growth, my mentality was replaced by that of a martial artist.
While feeling how the stone was slowly falling towards the ground, I felt as if Sonia’s bird mask was warping in delight.
There’s no way for a bird mask to have facial expressions, but most likely, the face under the mask is exactly what I’m thinking about.
It goes without saying, that I was smiling too right now.
…Now, fall quickly.
Even if I prayed silently, there’s no way the speed at which the stone was falling would change.
Even then, the fact that such a thought crossed my mind, meant that I couldn’t wait any longer.
I wonder what Sonia is thinking about? …Most likely, she’s sharing the same thoughts as me.
The stone hit the ground and made a dry sound, and the fight started.
「Brisk!」
The first thing to signal that we got tired of waiting, was Sonia’s magic.
From her arm imbued with wind magic power, a blade of wind was unleashed, as if it was a carnivore trying to cut its prey into pieces.
To be more precise, you couldn’t really call that magic.
Magic was a phenomenon invoked by linking words of power and reproducing them with magic power.
The act of assembling words is called a chant, but Sonia hadn’t chanted anything.
Therefore, this was not magic, but an offensive technique that changed the wind with magic power and transformed it into a claw.
It’s a technique that’s generally called 「Sorcery」.
While sorcery’s effect is inferior to that of magic it also has it advantages, it’s a simple method to take the first move like this.
At the same time, it also means that it has the disadvantage of being weaker than magic…but the blade of wind approaching in front of my eyes.
Its power was far higher than that of an unskilled mage.
「…Tsk」
To be more precise, this was a move that I thought would have a high chance of happening to start the battle.
However, its power was higher than I anticipated.
If it was just regular sorcery I thought I would be able to just ignore it, but if it’s like this, I have no other choice but to defend against it.
It’s not like it’d knock me out if I ate it, but as expected, I can’t just ignore it.
I see, we are less compatible than expected.
「Flowing stream」 is a stance that specialized in defense. Therefore, it won’t be broken from an ordinary attack.
Being a defensive stance, obviously, there are a multitude of ways to deal with magic and sorcery. I personally can boast about its defensive power being like that of an impregnable fortress.
However, that only applies to attacks I can catch.
Against long range attacks like this…quite frankly, there’s not a definite way to counter them.
In fights among fellow martial artist in my master’s country, it’s not like there’s few that assume their opponent won’t use long-range attacks, but that usually only amounts to things like throwing weapons or stones.
Therefore, the Shijima style…unexpectedly, didn’t have many means to fight opponents that were far away.
I feel that this part of it is a big challenge for me.
These Shijima techniques I inherited from my master. In order to become the strongest, long range attacks are a hurdle that I can’t avoid.
I pondered how to deal with the approaching blade of wind.
If I thought of it as sorcery…it was the same as holding a weapon.
The will I inherited from my master. It’s just to the extent of reinforcing my own body with the use of magic power.
In that case.
I can’t keep going like this.
Finding a small opening within the storm-like wind blade, I started to bend my body while gathering magic power on my hands.
By using that opening, I slipped out of the blade…and I closed my hands.
「He’s changing his stance…?」
While I got away from the blade of wind, Sonia let out a slightly suspicious voice.
She could sense that in an instant from my small movements, huh?
Being able to see something that the eyes can’t, it can also mean that she can use it to observe information.
Starting from my closed fists, I bent my knees and elbows even more. The image was, to turns my bones into iron.
While relaxing my body I set the core of my body straight, not to throw, but a stance that focused on blows.
From a stance that was like the flow of water…to a crushing stance like the advance of raging waves.
Like the strike of a large wave that builds up from a falling stream. I changed to the Shijima style stance 「Surging waves」.
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