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The girl whose strike had missed seemed unable to recover in time. She could only watch that cold gleam descend-blood was about to spill!
"Charge Step!"
The armored fighter, still hesitating over whether to hold back, saw a blur.
The little girl who should have been beneath his blade suddenly shot forward like a ghost. The Naginata merely brushed past her shoulder as it fell. As its shaft struck her shoulder with a dull thud, a sudden chill swept through his own waist and abdomen.
"That hurts like hell!"
Agony exploded through her shoulder blade, gnawing deeper along her bones.
The blade she had thrust out lodged between his metal plates, barely penetrating his flesh.
An ordinary child would already have collapsed.
But Ulti's bent legs abruptly straightened, their backward curve launching her entire body forward, a stone-blue hue showing beneath her clothes.
"Again!"
Her roar split the air, mingled with the taste of rust.
The long blade twisted free of the gap in his armor, dragging out sticky flecks of blood, then slashed down again.
Against an armored enemy, slashing was foolish-unless the blade could sever steel and cleave iron.
But the impacts had already become an unbroken barrage: clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Unlike the earlier evasive bout, this was nothing but a head-on clash.
The long blade swung like a heavy hammer, while the gladiator nicknamed "Iron Barrel"
became iron on an anvil, retreating a step with every blow.
At last-
Clang!
As sparks flew, the Naginata spun from his numb hands.
The cracking that followed was the mournful cry of shattering armor plates.
The triangular edge punched through his breastplate, pounding the flesh beneath into pulp.
His body tilted, and one knee slammed into the ground.
"Cough... I yield."
The dull crack of breaking ribs mingled