"Bad idea, right? I'm no match for you right now."
After all, I had never learned any swordsmanship. My previous frantic swings with the short sword relied purely on speed, and I might as well have just kicked with my feet.
"I will control my strength, I only ask that you give Betelgeuse a demonstration. The rules of the match are very simple, whichever blade touches the other person first wins."
Even if I had to give a demonstration, I couldn't imagine any possibility of me winning against Alpha...
However, Betelgeuse was watching me, and surrendering before even making a move would make me look small to her.
"I'll try."
As I said that, Azura drove those dogs away from me. I imitated Alpha's stance and gripped the wooden sword with both hands, but she was clearly waiting for me to attack first.
Rushing in recklessly like Betelgeuse definitely wouldn't work...
"I'm coming."
Huh?!
Perhaps because I hadn't moved for so long, Alpha kicked off the ground sharply. She raised her wooden sword high with one hand and brought it down with the momentum of a brown bear's paw strike.
Hey! What happened to controlling your strength?
There was no way to parry this strike. Forget the wooden sword, even I would be chopped in half.
Wait...
From a rules perspective, a broken wooden sword still counts as a wooden sword, right?
Instead of dodging, I simply held the wooden sword horizontally to block. But Alpha's strike was completely unstoppable, and my wooden sword shattered into pieces at the top, just as I expected...
Yet I hadn't used any actual force myself. The moment the wooden sword was smashed to pieces, I used that momentum to throw myself backward, landing flat on the ground in a sprawling starfish shape.
"That