Erza did not attack immediately.
She simply stood there, the tip of her sword slightly lowered, her shoulders, wrists, and breathing revealing no direction for her next move.
Lin Yuan used his spatial perception to scan her from head to toe.
It's useless.
His senses could tell him how far apart they were and where the sword was positioned, but they couldn't tell him how Erza was about to strike.
"Are we still going to fight?" Natsu urged from the side.
"Shut up," Lin Yuan said.
Before she finished speaking, Erza was already in front of her.
The wooden sword slashed diagonally. Lin Yuan parried with his own sword, and as soon as the sound of the collision rang out, Erza's sword slid along the spine of his blade towards his wrist.
Lin Yuan immediately sheathed his sword.
The black and silver silhouette shrank into a short blade, avoiding the suppression. He turned around as he retreated, the short blade stabbing towards Erza from her side. The entire movement was without any unnecessary slashes, nor did he temporarily extend it to chase the target.
Erza blocked with her sword.
Lin Yuan did not exert any more force; the blade tip touched her and then retracted, simultaneously folding his feet and flashing to her left.
The sword slashed out again.
Snap!
Erza blocked with her backhand, the force on the wooden sword even greater than before. Lin Yuan's hand went numb, but he used the collision to bring the sword back in front of him, leaving no opening.
"Finally, it doesn't feel like I'm holding a stick that won't break," Erza said.
"You compliment people in a similar way to Mira."
"I'll be more direct," Mira chimed in, sitting under the eaves. "You acted like you were holding a very long fire poker the last few times."
Lin Yuan did not turn around.
Because Erza's sword was already thrusting towards them from her blind spot.
His spatial awareness detected the position of the sword tip, but he deliberately turned his shoulder to the right. Erza ignored this obvious feint and her sword stance remained unchanged.
I couldn't fool her after all.
Lin Yuan abandoned his disguise and held his short blade horizontally in front of him, accurately blocking the wooden sword. He did not retreat, but instead took half a step towards Erza's embrace.
Short blades are suitable for close-quarters combat, but that doesn't mean they must be used for attack.
The two swords were too close together for either of them to swing fully. Lin Yuan's left fist struck Erza's shoulder, and the distance in front of his fist suddenly disappeared.
Erza dodged to the side, her knee simultaneously striking his abdomen.
Lin Yuan raised his leg to block, using the momentum to retreat. His short blade reverted to a medium sword, and he swept it out the instant the two regained distance.
Erza did not block the attack head-on for the first time.
She ducked to avoid the sword's edge, and when she looked up, her expression had changed.
"Good."
A golden True Magic circle unfolded beneath her feet.
A flash of light, and her everyday clothes transformed into lightweight training armor. The wooden sword in her hand was replaced by two shorter, blunt swords, which she held in her left and right hands.
Natsu immediately stood up. " Erza Requip her outfit!"
Lin Yuan, however, did not see this as good news.
The next moment, two sword shadows approached simultaneously.
Lin Yuan pressed down on his central sword with his left sword, while his right sword aimed straight for his shoulder. Lin Yuan shortened his Boundary-Severing Blade, twisted his wrist to avoid the suppression, and was about to break the distance when Erza had already stepped into the position he was about to appear in.
A blunt sword swept across.
Lin Yuan could only cancel his movement and duck to avoid it. Another sword followed closely behind, blocking the direction he could get up.
The two swords left him no complete opening for attack.
Lin Yuan retreated three steps in succession, then suddenly unfolded the sword into a long saber. Its black and silver outline stretched across the backyard, forcing Erza to stop her pursuit.
The long sword slashed down.
Erza crossed her twin swords, accurately clamping them between the middle of the blades. Lin Yuan didn't press down further; instead, he deliberately withdrew his force before the collision.
The long sword instantly retracted into a short blade.
The two swords, having lost contact, crossed in the middle, creating a brief opening in Erza's chest. Lin Yuan stepped in, his short blade piercing straight into the center of her armor.
The distance, angle, and landing point are all correct.
Erza spun around at the last moment. Her right hand, with a blunt sword, grazed the short blade and deflected it, while her left hand, with the hilt of her sword, struck Lin Yuan in the chest.
Bang!
Lin Yuan staggered back several steps, nearly dropping the wooden sword from his hand.
Before he could even regain his footing, Erza had already caught up to him. With her twin swords positioned above and below, she blocked his counterattack and retreat.
Lin Yuan instinctively wanted to fold space and leave, but stopped halfway through the action.
He slid a step to the side, using his sword to deflect the first blunt sword from below. Facing the second sword that followed, he did not hastily swing it, but instead pulled the blade back to his chest.
Snap!
The two swords clashed head-on.
The immense force sent him and his sword flying. Lin Yuan rolled on the ground and came to a stop on his back at Mira's feet.
Mira looked down at him. "You held on for quite a while this time."
In the end, we still lost.
Losing to Erza isn't shameful.
"That's not what you said last time."
"You weren't the one who lost last time."
Lin Yuan felt there was something wrong with that statement; Erza had already deactivated her Requip.
She walked up to Lin Yuan and extended her hand.
"Your footwork is chaotic, and your grip on the sword is not steady enough. When facing continuous attacks, you still rely on spatial teleportation to escape. That feint just now was so obvious that even Natsu might not have fallen for it."
Erza continued, "But you know when to use a short blade and when to increase your attack range. After being blocked, you start thinking about the next strike, instead of just thinking about increasing the power."
Lin Yuan took her hand and stood up from the ground.
"So?"
So that concludes the basics.
Erza picked up the wooden sword and handed it back to him.
"You're still a long way from being a true swordsman. But—"
She glanced at the black and silver outline still surrounding the wooden sword.
"Now you can hold a sword."