Air filled her lungs, blood raced faster through her veins, and a concentrated power passed from her palm into her blade. Her perception spread silently like a spiderweb, searching for the opening that had to exist.
There was no turning back from this strike.
Her thoughts surged in no more than an instant.
Gion had already charged out alone, her soles scraping the ground with a sharp sound like tearing silk.
The long blade in her hand traced a cold blue arc as she slashed at the man's head.
At the same time, six jointed black shadows unfurled behind her back, stabbing at his throat, heart, and joints from both sides-as though seven swordsmen had attacked at once.
"Pointless."
Gamenio's figure swayed, becoming as elusive as a reflection beneath the water.
Every attack missed.
He clenched both fists. The power that had once belonged to a man at the pinnacle of the world gathered around his fists again, forming two violent masses of light that bore down on Gion.
A dull impact rang out.
Without the other person holding him back, Gion caught the masses of light with her blade, only for invisible tremors to slam viciously into her chest.
She turned her head, spitting scarlet onto her shoulder armor.
"How many more can you take?"
The next punch came extremely slowly.
Yet the moment Gamenio began the punch, his arms had already become a blur.
"Mirage Tower: Thousand Folds."
This was his own technique.
What looked like one punch was actually a hundred blows delivered in an instant.
Countless afterimages overlapped, instead fooling the eyes and creating an illusion of slowness.
Then light-light so brilliant it hurt the eyes-exploded in the air, stretching into countless interwoven trails.
Dense as hail and swift as meteors, they descended upon that