Heavy. It had never felt this heavy before.
When the blades on Tagitsuhime's arms drove upward from below, Hayashi could hardly believe it.
Seriously? She nearly knocked my Ice Blade out of alignment. Was her body really that terrifyingly strong...?
Hayashi used the force of the collision to leap backward, landing on the compacted sand and catching his breath.
The lingering force of their clashing blades still traveled up his arms and into his shoulders.
His arms trembled unnaturally.
"What's wrong, Lord Sage? Are you giving up?"
Hovering in midair while battling the frost whale, Ichikishimahime somehow still found time to glance down.
The enormous whale was struggling in Tagorihime's raging winds, too.
Its movements had slowed considerably.
"Not a chance!"
Hayashi raised one hand and waved it toward the whale. Pure natural energy poured into it once more. The whale swelled again, and the energy inside it flashed with dangerous currents of cold.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"Seriously, I only said a couple of things! Why are you coming down so hard on me?"
"You little brat!"
Ichikishimahime hurriedly picked up the pace of her evasive maneuvers, complaining to Hayashi below.
"Heh."
Hayashi rubbed the back of his head and chuckled casually. Then he looked ahead at Tagitsuhime, who stood on the compacted sand just as he did, and slowly raised his blade again.
"So, round two?"
Bang!
Before Hayashi finished speaking, their blades crashed together again.
This collision was even fiercer than the last. Where the Ice Blade locked against the blade of light, a visible ring of pressure exploded across the sand. The ground beneath both fighters sank at once, and the compacted sand shuddered, throwing up a fine cloud of dust!
Tagorihime's raging winds still roamed the canyon, but the sound of that strike drowned out even