A bolt clicked back behind her.
"SHIT."
The sniper instantly dropped her firearm, raised her hands, and obediently turned off the comms in her ear.
"Junior, I surrender." The sniper turned around. It was none other than Nono, formerly a member of Guderian's admissions team.
Standing before her was Lu Mingfei, holding a gun.
Chapter 45: Sword Fight
"Free Day allows surrenders?" Lu Mingfei asked, confused.
Nono raised her hands, still wearing that nonchalant expression. "Of course. Free Day is very free."
Lu Mingfei lowered the muzzle of his assault rifle.
Nono lowered her hands as well, stretching her shoulders and twisting her wrists. "Hanging out here for so long was driving me nuts."
This girl was indeed lazy and spoiled, an impression she had given Lu Mingfei back during the admissions group days.
"Did you cause all this smoke? I heard you can still use Word Spirits under the Vice Principal's Discipline?" Nono asked curiously, moving closer to Lu Mingfei and looking him up and down.
"Norma did it," Lu Mingfei replied.
"Norma is basically just a computer. There's always an operator behind the scenes, so don't be modest, Junior." Nono put on a speechless expression.
Lu Mingfei dropped the topic and asked, "How much do you know about Chu Zihang?"
Nono clearly hadn't expected Lu Mingfei to ask that. She snarked with annoyance, "My boyfriend's arch-nemesis? Couldn't you ask me about Caesar? If you want to ask about Chu Zihang, you should go find Susie."
"Who is Susie?" Lu Mingfei frowned.
"My roommate, Chu Zihang's secretary."
"You're her roommate, tell me what you know." Lu Mingfei obviously wasn't going to march into the smoke right now to hunt down a girl he'd never met.
Nono thought for a moment. "Caesar's opposite? When Caesar is soaking in a wine bath with Student Union officers, Chu Zihang is probably taking a cold shower after his daily training. He's a total ascetic. If I had to say, it's like he's chasing after something, which is why he spends every day living like it's the eve of a battlefield. The bigwigs in the Executive Department really like that about him, and a lot of people think he's the next Executive Department Director."
Lu Mingfei nodded thoughtfully.
Just then, Nono had unconsciously crept up to Lu Mingfei at an ambiguous distance. A silver flash crossed her lowered palm, and a compact silver revolver slid from her sleeve into her hand, raising the barrel with extreme speed.
The hammer had been cocked while she was massaging her wrist, and a bullet could fire out at any second.
Lu Mingfei locked eyes with her, his gaze completely tranquil.
Before Nono could pull the trigger, she felt a gust of wind hit her face, and a blurred flash flickered briefly in the air.
The revolver was sliced right along the part above her fingers, exposing its intricate internal machinery as a bullet slid from the cylinder onto the ground.
Lu Mingfei was holding Red Skies, and Nono hadn't even seen him draw his sword from its scabbard.
Before she could say another word, a Frigg Bullet exploded right against her forehead.
Caesar, who had already entered the Lionheart Society building, felt a premonition and looked out the smoke-veiled window. Through the earpiece, Nono had stopped responding several minutes ago; she had undoubtedly been taken out by Lu Mingfei.
"Tougher than I expected." The corners of Caesar's mouth curled up. "Chu Zihang doesn't have many people left either. This really is a three-way showdown now."
The smoke had almost entirely dissipated. Both sides had just erupted in a massive crossfire, consuming the vast majority of their fighting strength. Now, each side had only two or three squads left, staggered and hidden within their respective buildings.
"Chu Zihang, charge or close-quarters combat next? I imagine Lu Mingfei is hiding somewhere waiting." Caesar's mic hooked into the broadcasting system, his voice coming from all directions and echoing between the buildings.
"His Word Spirit is Time Zero. As long as he has enough bullets, numbers don't matter to him." Chu Zihang also spoke through the broadcast system, making public the intelligence sent by his Vice President.
"I see. Then let's end this in one wave, and the winner will deal with Lu Mingfei."
"Alright."
As the leaders reached a consensus, the hiding students changed tactics. Abandoning cover, nearly all of them emerged from behind pillars, windows, and corners-there were even two guys who had been playing dead among the "corpses" using the remaining smoke for cover. They obeyed the charge order. Hiding to snipe might win them the game, but it would shame their clubs. The Student Union and the Lionheart Society were fraternity-style societies, and these elites among elites took the honor of Free Day very seriously.
The sound of bullets tearing through the air rang out densely once more, and the residual smoke finally cleared away completely.
The number of standing participants in the game rapidly dwindled to single digits. With Caesar scoring a direct hit on a Lionheart Society member on the second floor, only he and Chu Zihang remained in the parking lot.
Both men looked in the same direction at once. During the gunfire just now, a third party's shooting had intervened and contributed the majority of the kills.
Lu Mingfei walked slowly out of the increasingly thin fog, carrying an assault rifle in one hand and the longsword Red Skies in the other.
When he first requested the smoke grenades, his intent had actually been to test out the club members under both Caesar and Chu Zihang. But after ambushing multiple student squads in a row within the smoke and finding that none of them could react in time-completely failing to provide any training effect-he simply decided to clear the board and return to his original intention.
The three of them sized each other up.
Lu Mingfei was the first to let go of the rifle, letting it drop to the ground as he switched to holding the sword with both hands. Caesar and Chu Zihang exchanged a glance, put away their respective firearms, and drew their sidearms. Chu Zihang held a Japanese long katana, while Caesar dual-wielded hunting knives.
"Who's first?" Lu Mingfei asked.
Caesar shrugged. "Chu Zihang and I will go first, otherwise people will say Cassell College seniors are bullying a junior..."
Lu Mingfei shook his head. "I mean which of you is fighting me first."
Caesar wiped the smiling expression off his face, exchanged a look with Chu Zihang, and stepped forward while Chu Zihang stepped back.
He removed the matching hood of his deep red combat uniform, letting his gold-bright hair cascade down. It framed a face like a Greek sculpture, complete with rare ice-blue eyes and an icy gaze.
"You're better than I expected, 'S' rank."
Lu Mingfei nodded and said faintly, "Thanks for the sword."
Caesar had never mentioned the matter from start to finish, and Lu Mingfei usually hadn't had a chance to run into him, so he had never thanked him.
"I just appreciate you." Caesar wore a nonchalant expression.
The two exchanged no further words. Separated by a distance of dozen meters, their gazes locked, and they charged forward in a sprint almost simultaneously.
Lu Mingfei's figure was so fast it blurred, even kicking up dust. As he leaped into the air, he raised his sword overhead with both hands and executed a single downward slash-at extreme speed.
Caesar was gripping the hilts of his hunting knife named Dictator with both hands, but he didn't even have time to raise them. In fact, the moment he took a single step, Lu Mingfei was already right in front of him.
Wind had no shape, but the clothes fluttering on Lu Mingfei's body under hard, trembling ripples, his flattened hair, and the storm raging around him all laid bare his blistering speed. He tore through the air, and the torn air became the wind. Within the domain of Kamaitachi, this sound was a sharp explosion-one Caesar had heard countless times before: the sound of a bullet fired from a muzzle.
Chapter 46: Conclusion
Ash of War: Lion's Claw.
The skill used by the Redmane Army who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with General Radahn. The user leaps forward, spinning while striking with their weapon-a downward slash of astonishing impact and imposing momentum. Due to insufficient attack range and weapon weight, Lu Mingfei replaced the winding-up rotation of the body with acceleration and a leap, turning the fluid sequence of motions into a purely executed second-stage downward slash.
The overwhelming momentum fell like thunder from the heavens.
Caesar felt as though a mountain were pressing down on him, and time itself slowed to a crawl. The adrenaline output in his body hit its peak, his thinking unprecedentedly active. The strained muscles in his arms, the sluggishness brought by the sheer weight of Dictator, and the pinprick-like faint stings of high-speed wind cutting across his cheeks-all these sensations were transmitted with absolute clarity to his excited cerebral cortex.
At the same time, his vision over-focused. Everything in his field of view except the blade edge of Red Skies faded into darkness, as if a mountain were truly about to crash down and blot out everything else.
Yet he actually had time for random thoughts, because his spirit had surpassed his physical reactions. Every step of his crossed-blade defensive posture was completely flawless-just too slow, so slow that every wisp of wind brushing against his arm was rendered in agonizing detail.
His soul seemed to float in a mystical space, observing himself from a God's-eye view.
What was this? It seemed like nothing else was left in the world except for him and the falling blade-silent, dark, empty.
This was death!
At that moment, pale gold flames suddenly ignited in the depths of Caesar's eyes, and his movements broke past his limits. An ear-squeaking friction came from his muscles and bones as the edge of Dictator fought through air resistance and forced itself upward.
Red Skies paused an inch above Dictator. The crossed defense formed by the two hunting knives had not yet fully formed, but it was far better than taking the blade straight to the face.
Lu Mingfei's movements stopped abruptly. The wind behind him seemed to react belatedly, launching a violent counterattack that savagely tore at Caesar's brilliant, golden hair.
"You pass." Lu Mingfei turned around without looking back and walked toward Chu Zihang.
His lesson for Caesar was "death." He had thought it would take a few bouts, but Caesar's comprehension was high, and merely facing Lu Mingfei's unreserved killing intent for a single instant had allowed him to break his limits. This genuinely surprised Lu Mingfei, who had only attained such comprehension through countless very real brushes with death.
Chu Zihang also removed his hood, revealing a mane of rebellious black hair that hadn't changed much from the photo on Shilan High School's wall of honor. To this day, Lu Mingfei's photo hung on that wall as well.
Chu Zihang had witnessed Lu Mingfei's terrifying explosive power. Unsure whether it was the Word Spirit Time Zero or something else-having only ever read descriptions of such a Word Spirit in technical documents-one thing was certain: Caesar hadn't been able to block that speed, and neither could he.
He assumed a defensive stance, unlike Caesar, who had exposed his weakness by attempting to counterattack.
Lu Mingfei did not unleash that extreme speed and brutal offense again. He walked slowly to a spot just a short distance in front of Chu Zihang and changed his sword stance.
The two exchanged no words. As Lu Mingfei's figure flickered, the battle began.
He violently surged in front of Chu Zihang, dropping his center of gravity to deliver a low, upward diagonal slash. It resembled the Kesa Cut in Japanese swordsmanship, but rather than striking from just one side, he swung the sword with both hands, drawing a crossed blockade with slashes from both flanks.
Chu Zihang could barely keep up with Lu Mingfei's speed. He used the counter-swordsmanship of Waterfowl Style to seize the initiative from behind, his diagonal strike colliding with Lu Mingfei's slash. Using the rebound force to cancel out momentum, he tried to slip into Lu Mingfei's undefended chest.
Yet Lu Mingfei was a fraction of a second faster than him. The speed of the second strike still surpassed his, forcing Chu Zihang to alter his slash trajectory and parry once more.
The force of the two collisions finally wrecked his footing, and he stumbled backward out of balance.
Lu Mingfei dropped his center of gravity again, shifting his legs from a forward stride to a bent, closed stance. The blade of Red Skies ran parallel to the ground as he rotated his body to wind up power, lashing out with a horizontal sweep while stepping forward once more to press into the space Chu Zihang had yielded.
Chu Zihang managed a ragged defense against the horizontal slash, but Lu Mingfei's mirrored, reverse upward double-diagonal slash arrived right on cue. Though the fluid momentum was no longer enough after executing five consecutive strikes in one breath-forcing him to switch his final swing to one-handed, which lowered the cutting power-the reach suddenly expanded.
Caught off guard and lacking follow-through strength, Chu Zihang had his combat uniform sliced open with a wound.
At the same time, Lu Mingfei raised his center of gravity, gripped the sword with both hands, and brought it down in a fierce downward slash. This was the true finale of this swordsmanship set.
Ash of War: Double Slash.
The skill of an exceptional swordsman: lowering the body to unleash consecutive crisscrossing slashes. This wasn't a single strike, but rather two diagonal slashes followed by a finisher. When released in succession, the offensive was like a howling storm. Lu Mingfei had used a variant of this swordsmanship to break the Dragon King's defense when fighting Constantine.
Chu Zihang held out longer than Caesar, which also had to do with Lu Mingfei intentionally controlling his own strength and speed. He constantly kept his strength a fraction greater than Chu Zihang's, and his speed a fraction faster, just enough to push this taut string to its absolute limit.
In Caesar's eyes, the moment the two made contact, they whipped up a tempest of flashing blades and flying sparks, the piercing sound of metal clashing enveloping the combatants.
Yet Chu Zihang was retreating step by step. Every single one of the endless sword techniques flowing from Lu Mingfei's hands turned Chu Zihang's attacks into defense, and his defense into retreat. The first person at Cassell College to experience this feeling had been Fingel.
Before he knew it, golden flames were burning in Chu Zihang's eyes. He grew focused, grew frigid.
Many years ago, a torrential downpour had washed away a boy's cowardice, and now those ashes were burning fiercely.
Chu Zihang felt as though he could genuinely hear the sound of heavy rain lashing against car windows, along with those whispering voices. In the rainy night he replayed in his mind every single night, he had imagined a final showdown with gods-perhaps it would feel just like this suffocation, engulfed by endless sword edges.
When the spear in the god's hand thrust out, it looked just like a golden meteor streaking across the sky!
His face turned pale, and his expression grew fierce. Yet Lu Mingfei's offensive came to an end.
Only then did Chu Zihang realize he had retreated all the way to a corner of the wall. He was drenched in sweat, his breathing as heavy as an ox's. His sword tip had nowhere left to retreat, and the blade of the Han Octagonal Sword rested right against his heart.
"This is your limit." Lu Mingfei locked eyes with him and withdrew his longsword.
With this, the battle was declared over.
Those two pieces of "fine iron" that Lu Mingfei had promised to forge for Angers would undoubtedly leave a deep impression from today's experience. This was the best kind of instruction Lu Mingfei felt he could offer without causing fatalities. There was no preaching, yet it was enough to change a few things.