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The three-meter-tall lightning idol glared with wide eyes. Its long blade descended with a landslide's tremors, the scorched smell of ozone spreading ahead of it.
-?!
Dragon pupils contracted sharply.
The enormous body contracted and transformed in a flash, taking on a muscular ** form.
The kanabo smashed out, wreathed in pitch-black flowing fire and invisible pressure. Over a hundred black trails poured down like a rainstorm, meeting that searing white edge head-on.
The collision never happened.
The incarnation of lightning dissolved into countless afterimages just before contact.
It was everywhere, yet nowhere to be found.
The kanabo tore through nothing but air and sparks of lightning, while the blade vibrating at high frequency had already pressed against the body covered in hard scales.
Sparks burst out, accompanied by the pungent smell of scorched flesh.
The light faded.
The silver-white armor remained spotless.
Wisps of black smoke seeped from between the scales on the burly body opposite.
The shift in the balance was as clear as an incision.
But to a mythical beast's regenerative powers, these superficial wounds were a matter of moments.
What had truly been exposed lay deeper.
"Inside that shell..."
As he turned, his gaze had settled into the cold sharpness unique to a battlefield veteran.
He had seen far too many tricks involving souls inhabiting other bodies.
"It's Rossi."
It was not a guess, but a certainty.
The rhythm of that swordsmanship, those habitual evasions, already bore the imprint of an old opponent.
A short laugh came from beneath the armor.
"Couldn't fool you after all."
Against an enemy who knew him inside out, disguise was futile to begin with.
"Then-"
The blade's tip rose, pointing at his opponent's chest.
"How do you intend to handle this?"
Above the ruins, Rossi controlled that body which