'Clang!'
Blocked, blocked?
Watching Texas instantly appear before him, Li Lin looked at the light sword grinding against the rapier in his hand, a bead of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
This was no longer a battle that could be decided by visual nerves or any experience; the actions were determined entirely by intuition. Looking at the figure before him with slightly red hair tips holding a light sword, Li Lin even briefly held his breath, feeling the oncoming gust of wind and the slightly scorching heat.
"Just getting started."
Texas's indifferent voice came through the wind. Li Lin subconsciously aimed the rapier behind him and swung back; a broken section of light plunged diagonally into the ground, still glowing faintly at the edge. Forcing Li Lin to shift his angle and take a step back.
But retreating meant tilting his posture and shifting his center of gravity. Li Lin immediately sensed dense, sharp pressure appearing around him again, subconsciously retreating several steps consecutively, forcefully interrupting a wave of attacks. The rapid consumption of stamina made him gasp involuntarily. Squinting at the battlefield littered with pillars of light, making it almost impossible to step, Li Lin took a deep breath, forced himself into a ready state, and warily sensed all movement around him.
"My combat style… generally speaking, is aimed at taking lives."
Texas's voice echoed from all directions.
"Traps, ambushes, vital point attacks; as long as it can effectively kill the enemy, I will do it. So what you see now is also one of my combat techniques. I can conceal my figure through certain means, creating a one-sided battlefield to engage in combat."
"Then I believe you and special forces soldiers must have a lot in common."
"I used to do similar work."
"Really couldn't tell, I thought you were some rich young lady."
Making sarcastic remarks , Li Lin looked at the battlefield filled with fragmented light and shadow before him, feeling somewhat headache-y.
Can't see.
Completely can't see.
It's as if vision is obscured through some ability.
'Current posture is wrong…'
Adjusting his stance, becoming increasingly concise and powerful like the sword masters in his memory, heart pounding, muscles in all four limbs exerting force, the surrounding world seemed to transform into a fiercely burning color.
'How can she turn invisible?'
Squinting at the chaotic maze of light and shadow around him, Li Lin's brain worked rapidly, constantly thinking of strategies.
That probably isn't invisibility, nor any secret technique, merely an illusion created by the interplay of vision and light/shadow.
Wielding light swords, with scattered fragments of light littering the ground, the overlapping light and shadow could easily create the illusion of disappearing on the battlefield. This technique, almost describable as face-to-face assassination, could even be called an art.
But how should I put it… he could sense it. As if guided by heaven, Li Lin felt like even if he closed his eyes, he would naturally know what to do.
'Here she comes!'
Right here!
Subconsciously swinging the rapier in his hand continuously towards a certain direction, casually stabbing towards his left rear, Texas, who had almost disappeared, instantly reappeared.
One light sword should have stabbed diagonally towards Li Lin's waist, but with that bizarrely angled sword strike, Texas's body seemed to dangerously collide with it intentionally. She could only forcefully retract the light sword, blocking the edge aimed almost precisely at her throat.
The sudden sense of danger even made the world before Li Lin's eyes abruptly turn red. Texas, with her fully reddened hair tips fluttering, appeared before him, bringing a look of pleasant surprise to Li Lin's sweat-drenched face. Without him needing to think much, the sudden burst of pressure was enough proof that Texas, in that instant, indeed had thoughts beyond a simple sparring match. According to normal logic, he should be considered to have passed now.
"How was it? I should be considered passable, right?"
"…Rather than sensitive senses, I think your current state should be called precognition."
Looking at the light precisely colliding with the tip of the rapier, Texas's face in the light and shadow became increasingly clear.
"You completely saw through several feints, and even blocked moves made on the spur of the moment. How far ahead can you predict? Three seconds? Five seconds?"
"W-Wait a minute? Didn't I pass?"
"Pass? Is there such a thing as 'passing' in combat?"
Unlike the difficult battle imagined, the Lupo girl didn't even stop chewing her Pocky, calmly watching Li Lin who was panting after just a few clashes. Light flowed in the depths of her eyes, seemingly estimating something, then she casually slashed a few times directly at Li Lin.
"Wh—"
Holy crap, isn't this supposed to be a test of self-defense methods? Novels aren't written like this!
Li Lin didn't even have time to react before being staggered back several steps by the immense force from Texas's casual slashes, his palm starting to tremble and go numb. Compared to the initially mysterious and ruthless combat style, these casual attacks now had trajectories even clearer to Li Lin's eyes. But even seeing and blocking them was completely useless.
Even the most skillful parry against Texas's ordinary frontal slashes vibrated Li Lin's body.
It was purely the interaction of force that made Li Lin tremble continuously.
And after casually slashing a few times, seeing Li Lin's legs starting to wobble , Texas, chewing Pocky, shook her head and turned to kick Li Lin directly. The speed was even reduced to a level ordinary people could react to, but the muscle soreness and body stiffness still left him with no means of evasion.
"As expected, your flaw is an absolute lack of physical constitution."
Watching Li Lin, who clearly reacted but whose stiff body simply couldn't keep up with the movement, only able to be kicked away by her into a pile of waste paper, Texas shook her head.
"I didn't even use much strength to suppress you… This isn't normal physical fitness. Your body is really too weak. Did you suffer from some kind of muscular atrophy, just recently cured?"
"You barely used any strength just now?"
"Of course. Combat isn't intentional beating."
Texas frowned, walked over to the pile of waste paper she had deliberately kicked him into, and pulled the life-doubting Li Lin out from the pile of cardboard.
While pulling him up, the Lupo girl deliberately reached out and squeezed Li Lin's muscles, wrists, and thighs. Feeling the soft touch, Texas's expression turned even gloomier under Li Lin's embarrassed look.
This is what years of being an otaku indoors builds up; indistinguishable from an ordinary person but essentially just a lump of muscle-less flesh. This made Texas's entire expression turn sour.
"You really don't have any muscle, nor any Originium Arts… Ten days, come here every night to train properly."
"So didn't I say from the beginning to let me train my body properly?"
Struggling out of the waste paper pile, Li Lin wiped the sweat from his face, gasped for a few breaths, and looked somewhat curiously at Texas who was starting to deactivate her light swords.
"By the way, Texas. I feel like your Originium Arts shouldn't just be used like this, right? I always feel you should have a stronger, or rather, more decisive way of using Originium Arts. Is it the type that can't be shown in front of me?"
"…You want to see?"
"Want to see."
"Then it's like this."
Texas stood in the center of the field of fragmented light and shadow, looked at Li Lin lying in the pile of waste paper, raised her hand high, and snapped her fingers.
"Originium Arts—Sword Rain."
"…"
"If you don't train your body in the future, this will be your end result."
This is the Myriad Sword Art (famous Xianxia technique).
Looking at the sword lights slowly rising from the ground all around, floating in mid-air, and the oppressive feeling coming from almost every part of his body, Li Lin expressionlessly dropped the rapier in his hand and raised his hands in surrender.