Faced with the dazzling onslaught of killing blows, Haschwalth still did not move.
He even withdrew his finger, letting his hands hang naturally at his sides.
He simply watched the incoming afterimages and flashing blades, their cold metallic gleam reflected in his azure eyes.
Then he spoke softly. His voice was quiet, yet it cut clearly through the howling chains and the din of the rain:
"You've used far too much of your 'good fortune.'"
"Now it's time to repay it with 'misfortune.'"
The instant his words fell-
Crack!
The chain of a sickle held by one of the afterimages snapped without warning.
It had not been severed by any outside force.
Instead, at the very peak of the swing, a metal link at the joint broke on its own, weakened by years of neglect and corrosion from the rain!
The broken chain sent the sickle blade spinning toward another afterimage.
Thwack!
Caught completely off guard, the afterimage took his own broken sickle blade squarely in the calf, blood spraying out.
"Urgh!" Hanzō grunted, his assault faltering.
But that was only the beginning.
When another afterimage landed, the rock beneath his feet seemed solid, yet its interior "just happened" to fracture and collapse the instant his foot touched down!
"What?!" The afterimage, who was also part of Hanzō's true body, lost his footing and balance.
He tumbled away in a miserable heap and slammed into a nearby stone pillar.
The sickle swung by the third afterimage was just about to touch the hem of Haschwalth's clothes.
The deadly poison coating its blade "just happened" to undergo a curious change from the rain washing over it and the shifting humidity, dissipating prematurely.
The poisonous fumes blew back at the afterimage, making him cough violently as tears streamed down his face.
The