[What are you laughing at?] Muramasa asked in confusion when he heard Divine laugh.
"Nothing. I just remembered a few things from the past." As he spoke, Divine's hands suddenly surged with strength, and he knocked Muramasa, who had yet to react, several steps back.
[The past?] Senba Gari's words made Muramasa lower his head and think back on his own past. But all those memories held was endless bloodshed.
The past of a proud, solitary samurai who wandered from place to place, fighting others wherever he went, only to grow weary in his heart and ultimately die a pathetic death in battle.
"Hey! Don't get distracted in the middle of a fight!"
The voice rang out. Immediately after, Divine's figure appeared in front of Muramasa, and the slightly distracted Muramasa was caught off guard and took Divine's slash head-on. Sparks burst from his chest along the path carved by the Flame Feather Blade, and Muramasa staggered back several more steps in pain.
[Ugh...] Muramasa reached out and touched the cut on his chest. Then he suddenly burst into laughter. [Heh heh... hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!]
The other man's somewhat eerie laughter sent a chill down Divine's spine.
Immediately after, Muramasa suddenly surged forward and charged in front of Divine, while Divine reacted swiftly, quickly raising his blade to block Muramasa's attack.
But in the next instant, Muramasa tilted his blade by the slightest angle. Divine's blade and Muramasa's blade crossed straight past each other, then landed solidly on each other's shoulders.
After that, neither of them dared to make a reckless move. After all, both of them now had a blade pressed against them.
"Looks like you're planning to trade wound for wound."
[Precisely.]
"Then let's see which of us is faster!"
—Shhk!!!
As he spoke, the two of them exerted strength