United Cranes

"United Cranes"

Whoosh!

As the chilling flash of steel tore through the air and burst forth with a piercing whistle, the silver-white blade was already slashing at Azer with lightning speed.

It was an incredibly sharp strike, unleashed the instant Toudou Kirin closed in. It was unbelievably fast.

Charging straight at me from the very start?

Azer narrowed his eyes. As the thought flashed through his mind, his body moved naturally, raising the Black Furnace Magic Sword to meet the incoming Thousand Feather Cut.

However, just as the Black Furnace Magic Sword was about to clash with Thousand Feather Cut, Toudou Kirin withdrew her blade.

"Hah!"

Following the momentum of her strike, Toudou Kirin sharply twisted her wrist, swiftly pulling back the blade she had swung out. Then she spun, the blade sweeping in from another direction to slash at Azer's side.

"...!"

Azer's body moved naturally once again, narrowly evading the slash that came at him from the side.

But after the strike missed, Toudou Kirin twisted her footing and spun her body, sending the blade through an arc in midair. Its speed did not diminish, nor did its momentum scatter, as it continued slashing toward him.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...

The sounds of Thousand Feather Cut slicing through the air rang out one after another as silver-white flashes of steel relentlessly attacked Azer without the slightest pause.

It was a seamless chain of attacks, each strike flowing into the next with terrifying smoothness, leaving no room for reaction.

Azer tried to counter. Several times, he raised the Black Furnace Magic Sword to block Thousand Feather Cut's slashes, but whenever the two blades were about to collide, Toudou Kirin swiftly withdrew her sword, refusing to let it touch the Black Furnace Magic Sword. She then continued her swing along its momentum, slashing at Azer from another direction and forcing him to keep dodging.

At a glance, it looked as though Toudou Kirin were wielding countless swords, sending out countless flashes of steel as she continuously attacked Azer.

"Impressive!"

Azer evaded an upward reverse diagonal slash aimed at the school badge on his chest with a difficult maneuver, praising her as he rapidly retreated.

"Don't think you can run!"

As though she had become a different person, Toudou Kirin had none of her usual frailty. She boldly pursued Azer, clinging tightly to him and displaying extraordinary aggression as she unleashed incomparably fluid strikes from every direction.

One strike followed another, and then another. Toudou Kirin's slashes were not only fast, fierce, and precise, but each one flowed so smoothly that she could immediately link it to the next. There was no sign of stopping.

It gave Azer the feeling of gradually falling into a net, as though countless flashes of blades had surrounded him completely. He could not escape and could only struggle desperately until his strength ran out, until that silver-white blade severed his head.

"Here!"

Toudou Kirin's petite body leaped into the air and spun without end, making Thousand Feather Cut descend upon Azer like a spinning top, fierce and razor-sharp.

"Not that easily!"

Naturally, Azer would not sit still and await death. Seeing Toudou Kirin's slashes closing in as though they would never end, he finally stopped holding back. Countless motes of Star Dust rose from his body as astonishing Star Power ignited.

Yulis, seated in the first-class seats, immediately widened her eyes in surprise.

"What powerful Star Power!"

Beside her, Amagiri Ayato wore a grave expression.

He was a Star Vein Generation proud of possessing an exceptionally vast amount of Star Power.

In Amagiri Ayato's memory, he had never encountered anyone who could match him in terms of Star Power, not even his sister or anyone at Seidoukan Academy, including Page One's Twelve.

But today, he had seen someone who might be able to catch up to him in the sheer amount of Star Power.

"So he had this much Star Power?"

Even Claudia had not expected this, and an astonished expression appeared on her face.

Azer gathered an enormous amount of Star Power, concentrating it in his arm before directly raising it to block Toudou Kirin's slash.

Clang!

The next second, a metallic clash rang out from where Azer's arm met Thousand Feather Cut.

"What?"

Toudou Kirin was shaken.

Star Power could enhance a Star Vein Generation's offensive or defensive capabilities, with the effect being especially pronounced in terms of defense.

Yet Toudou Kirin had never seen anyone directly block one of her slashes with an arm like this.

Just how much Star Power had he used to accomplish that?

After all, she too was a Star Vein Generation, and Thousand Feather Cut was a famous blade even in history. Its sharpness was in no way inferior to any Huang-style Armament, perhaps even surpassing ordinary Huang-style Armaments.

A strike from someone like her should have been able to cut through even steel.

And now, it had been blocked by flesh...?

"Now isn't the time to zone out."

Azer's voice reached Toudou Kirin's ears, accompanied by a scorching slash from the Black Furnace Magic Sword.

"Ugh...!"

Toudou Kirin suddenly leaped backward, performing several somersaults in midair to evade the magic sword's strike.

However, Toudou Kirin did not feel happy in the slightest.

"...United Cranes has been broken."

Toudou Kirin's murmur made Azer reveal an intrigued expression.

"I see. So that was the Toudou Style's United Cranes?"

The Toudou Style was an extremely flourishing school of swordsmanship in this world.

It was a modern school founded during the late Edo period. Essentially, it was a specialized form of swordsmanship suited for one-on-one duels, renowned for being "like folding paper cranes."

A swordsman who used this style was like someone folding paper cranes during a duel, able to swing their sword continuously in precise sequences and unleash chained attacks that drove their enemy into a corner.

The Toudou Style's ultimate technique, United Cranes, embodied this essence. It used dozens of sword forms to create an infinite chain of attacks, said to have neither an end nor a limit. No matter how the opponent defended or dodged, it could keep producing moves, pursuing them with uninterrupted, seamless attacks until victory was achieved.

Because practitioners of the Toudou Style were spread throughout the world, quite a few people in Asterisk used its swordsmanship. But in truth, there was only one Toudou Style swordsman who had reached the realm of the ultimate technique, United Cranes.

That was the Toudou Style Swordsmanship Head Family's Daughter—Toudou Kirin.

"The Toudou Style has forty-nine forms of chained techniques. Combining them into a complete continuous attack is United Cranes."

Toudou Kirin's clear voice slowly rang out.

"By freely combining these forty-nine chained techniques, Toudou Style swordsmen can attack without stopping and swing their swords without stopping. They can also use subtle guidance through breathing, spacing, line of sight, and other details to seal off an opponent's counterattacks, create a suppressive situation, and deny them any chance to catch their breath until they are defeated."

In the previous Official Ranking Battle, the Dusk Deep Witch, who had ranked tenth, had been driven into a desperate situation by Toudou Kirin's relentless chain of strikes. She had nearly lost without even the strength to fight back.

"United Cranes has no end. Once you are caught in it, you can never break free. Even the Ranked First before me was the same."

Toudou Kirin showed admiration mixed with praise.

"Senior is the first person I've encountered who could break free from United Cranes, and in such an unexpected way..."

"As expected, Senior is very strong."

Toudou Kirin's heartfelt admiration made Azer spread his hands.

"That's only true of me now. If it had been the old me, I probably couldn't have done something like that."

Azer had to admit that.

Over the past month or so, Azer had completely absorbed all the Omni-Response Ore in the entire Underground Vault Claudia had originally provided.

Although it had become nearly impossible for ordinary Omni-Response Ore to further increase his strength afterward, that warehouse full of Omni-Response Ore had still completely transformed Azer. He was no longer an ordinary student whose abilities in every area ranked only around the middle of the academy and who could not even enter the Inscribed Sacrifice Book.

Now, in terms of physical ability, Azer would not lose to anyone in the academy.

As for Star Power, while he still could not compare to the exceptionally gifted Amagiri Ayato, the gap was certainly not great. In all of Seidoukan Academy, Amagiri Ayato was probably the only one who possessed more Star Power than him.

That was why Azer had dared to use his hand to block Toudou Kirin's blade after concentrating his Star Power.

If it had been in the past, he would never have dared to do that.

Of course, even this was already astonishing.