140: Questions, Answers

Reid had thought there was no way the young man before him could evade that shot—the bullet fired from the fully charged tech pistol far surpassed ordinary firearms in both speed and power. But clearly, he was wrong. Completely wrong.

Just as Reid thought the man's body was leaning forward with his downward slash, leaving him unable to adjust his posture in an instant, the young man's blade spun half a turn in his hand at the moment it came down. The edge abruptly flipped, changing from a downward chop into an upward sweep.

This was not merely a change of moves, but the renowned reverse rising slash of swordsmanship, clean and decisive, without the slightest wasted motion.

Legend had it that the signature technique of Sasaki Kojiro, that half-fictional, half-real genius swordsman, Swallow Reversal, had been derived from this very kind of technique.

However, Lord Akechi had not used this move because he truly knew that legendary sword art. He had simply held back thirty percent of his strength during the slash. Before the momentum of his blade had fully spent itself, a flick of his wrist sent its edge rising against the flow.

A bullet fired by a fully charged tech pistol was not something the blade in Lord Akechi's hand could confront head-on.

Although this sword's material was enough to cut through ordinary pistol bullets, just as it had sliced apart the round from the Discard Pistol earlier—the bullet now had been accelerated to its limit by electromagnetic energy. Its speed and penetrating force were incomparable to before. Even if Lord Akechi's sword intercepted it precisely along its trajectory, that terrifying kinetic force would be enough to snap the blade before piercing straight through his body without losing momentum.

Lord Akechi understood that clearly.

He had never