Rubble showered down as Hayashi burst out of the rock wall, his blade sweeping toward Tagitsuhime's serpent head with bone-chilling cold!
"Have you lost your temper too, Lord Sage?"
Having shed her solemn demeanor, Tagitsuhime solidified the pearly blades of light on her arms once more. This time, both combatants were driven by the same anger.
The next instant, their blades locked. Rather than contest her strength, Hayashi swiftly pulled his blade back and retreated, then abruptly opened his mouth.
"Sage Art: Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere!"
Ordinarily, Vacuum Sphere fired swift balls of wind at the opponent. But the wind spheres Hayashi spat out swelled violently the moment they met the outside air.
"Inorganic Reincarnation!"
As the wind spheres closed in on Tagitsuhime, Hayashi manipulated them again, making every sphere larger and more powerful.
Under the control of his Sage Art, twenty or thirty cannonball-like Vacuum Spheres abruptly piled together, then exploded against Tagitsuhime's body!
Wind compressed to its limit detonated within that tiny space. Azure blades of air slashed wildly along the blast, shaving a thick layer off even the sand beneath Tagitsuhime's feet.
One explosion thundered over another, drowning out both the wind and the roar of the tides in the canyon.
Amid the gale came the sound of flesh bursting.
Squelch, squelch.
But the sound soon vanished. The pearly blades on Tagitsuhime's arms broke through Hayashi's Vacuum Spheres, and she charged out from the other side!
Her blades cleaved the dust cloud in two as she shot straight through it, even faster than before the explosions.
But clear wounds now marked her arms.
Blood even dripped from them.
"Even a sage isn't indestructible!"
Hayashi shouted, urging White Whale to support him from above.
The next instant, a boundless torrent of frost stopped Tagitsuhime's headlong charge cold. That