-Hello, fans who love Nova Arena! I am caster Shinohara Kenichi of NJA. Right beside me is color commentator Ito Masanori, who was with Japanese Nova Arena from its earliest days.
-Hello, I'm Ito Masanori.
-I imagine a great many of you are wondering why we have taken the commentary for an Amateur League match rather than a Pro League one. But commentary can hardly be left out of a big match like this! The moment we heard the Demon and the Ninja had been matched, we came running!
-Right off the start it's the Ninja taking the distance first. His positioning is extremely impressive. It looks like movement that comes out of experience. He isn't hurrying.
-The Demon, by contrast, is playing passively and running a thorough probing phase. It's a choice not to clash recklessly from the opening!
-But if he does this, the pace can only keep running on the Ninja's terms.
Ssp.
The Ninja's curved blade drove in on a breath cut off sharply.
Go Tae-min raised his sword lightly and let the attack slide away. A stinging pain traveled into his palm.
'His raw strength is no joke.'
If he had been carelessly conditioned, that attack would have taken his head off along with the sword even though he blocked it.
CLANG!
In that instant the Ninja's curved blade bent its trajectory like a snake and came in at Go Tae-min's flank.
The Ninja had read the line of Go Tae-min's sword and corrected his angle of attack. And it wasn't an attack that ended at one.
Go Tae-min pulled back and concentrated on defense.
'Not just the physique. His technique is good too.'
It isn't the strong who survive; the ones who have survived long are strong. Go Tae-min had learned that truth to the bone over 10 years in the field.
His opponent was a fossil among fossils, a man who had rolled through 12,000 matches in the Amateur League alone.
Sword strokes following one after another closed on his windpipe.
The guy held the distance exactly, giving him no gap in which to attempt a counter.
Looking like he was coming in and then pulling out, looking like he was pulling out and then stabbing back in: the craft of a hunter, unmistakably.
Go Tae-min took the Ninja's attacks calmly and moved as though tracing a circle along the outer edge of the altar.
It wasn't that no timing for a counter came at all. But every time one did, his opponent withdrew first, or changed the trajectory of the attack outright.
It was as if he were anticipating how Go Tae-min would counter.
Go Tae-min snorted.
'Well, he's fought 12,000 matches, so in a way that's only natural.'
Fighting an opponent with a lot of experience is an extremely tricky business.
The solidity of never making a mistake is the baseline, and on top of it the sense for timing when to strike and when to withdraw is sharp enough to make your skin crawl.
The opponent in front of him was exactly that.
'Now he's even fishing.'
Pretending he couldn't help it, Go Tae-min slid his sword lightly into the opening the other man had shown.
At that the Ninja ignored the attack as if he had been waiting for it and stabbed in at the space between Go Tae-min's eyes.
The red line twisted violently across his retina, like a warning.
Give up flesh to take bone.
Again, movement you mostly see from an opponent with a lot of experience.
As though savoring the cold sensation grazing between his eyes, Go Tae-min bent his head slightly and let the trajectory pass him by.
A gap the width of a single sheet of paper.
The Ninja's curved blade only cut air it could never reach.
-The Demon, that was dangerous just now! Go in wrong there and he'd have retired on the spot!
-The difference in level is greater than I expected. This isn't a matter of the Demon being poor so much as the Ninja's craft being outstanding.
【Faint_of_Heart】 Wow.. this is the first time I've seen the Demon pushed back
└Undefeated promotion, looks like it'll be cut off with the last win to go?
└The opponent having to be the Ninja of all people is too much. He's the strongest in the Amateur League!
└It's already a problem now, and when you consider the Ninja has even more of an edge in a long fight, maybe the Demon has no chance.
└The Amateur League is more fun than I thought
【Grass_Cutter_Artisan】 I told you. The strongest amateur is the Ninja
└The Ninja is a guy who's rolled around in the amateurs alone for 5 years. His win rate at 4,000 matches was 40%, and yet now he's on the verge of promoting.
└What does that mean?
└It means in his last 8,000 matches he's only lost 1,100. That's the only way he can hit a 70% win rate
└He was an even crazier monster than I thought
└It's not that the Demon is weak, it's that the Ninja is too strong
CLING! CLAAANG! CLANG!
The Ninja bore in, aiming at chest, thigh and shoulder.
A cut. A thrust. Another cut.
Every single attack was spare and yet precise.
On top of that it was extremely smooth.
If it doesn't land, he withdraws it at once. If it's blocked, it flows naturally into the next attack.
Taking the sword and letting the cuts that followed slide off, Go Tae-min sank into thought.
CLAAANG!
The shock travelling up the blade left his arm tingling.
'And no unnecessary motion.'
CLANG!
A cut with its trajectory changed came in, and nimble footwork followed it immediately.
'Every single attack is extremely tricky.'
This wasn't simply the level of a man who had fought a lot.
This was a flow refined out of a great many combat experiences.
Polished movement, enough to make the name "Amateur League" meaningless.
He was indeed worth calling the strongest.
But the longer the airtight exchange went on, the deeper and calmer than usual Go Tae-min's breathing sank.
'Hold on, isn't his movement too mechanical?'
The red lines carved onto his retina were drawing a fixed pattern.
If at first he had struggled even to follow those trajectories, now he could roughly guess where the Ninja was going to aim before the red line was even drawn.
CLAAANG!
The moment he took the sword, the Ninja shoved him hard.
Go Tae-min's back was driven toward a broken stone column at the altar's edge.
-Ah...... that's a shame. More than 5 minutes have passed since the match began, and the Demon's proper counterattack still hasn't come.
-It's a somewhat frustrating flow given how high the expectations were. Was the pressure of that last win too heavy?
Go Tae-min let his body go with the Ninja's sword as it pushed him.
His feet slid back, and his back came closer to the stone wall at the altar's edge.
Riding the momentum, the Ninja drove one step deeper.
That was the moment.
SHHK—
"......!"
A left arm wrapped in black cloth shot into the sky.
The Ninja backed away with his eyes wide.
-Oh! What just happened there! The Ninja's left arm has been cut off!
-The instant he came inside his measure, the Demon pretended to be driven back and exposed an opening, then cut off the Ninja's left arm as he came in! A perfect counter!
Even with his left arm severed, the Ninja kept his eyes fixed on Go Tae-min and gathered his stance again.
Whatever his opponent did, Go Tae-min closed the distance at once and drove inside the Ninja's measure.
CLANG!
The Ninja barely prevented his heart from being run through and slipped into the darkness of the ruins where the moonlight didn't reach.
Go Tae-min followed him into that darkness without hesitation.
'The stage is laid out perfectly.'
Now it was time to decorate the highlight of this show.
***
SHHK!
First one short cut grazing low.
A light probing attack meant to break his balance.
Shff!
Then a thrust half a beat late, immediately after.
A blow meant to draw his eye.
Only then did the Ninja react.
The curved blade in his right hand drew a diagonal and came back at him.
'Hooked him.'
The red lines filling his field of view all pointed to a single place at once.
Go Tae-min tipped his upper body back slightly and twisted his sword. At the same time he planted his left foot and drove inside.
Blades grazed past each other with the sound of edge striking edge. A dull sensation traveled to his fingertips.
And then......
SHHK—
The moment the Ninja attempted his counter, Go Tae-min's sword opened up the Ninja's flank along a shorter trajectory.
-Oh! The Ninja just took a big one!
-The Demon was reading the timing of the counter perfectly! He let a flaw slip on purpose and cut precisely at the moment the other man came in. That's a truly textbook feint!
The Ninja fell back a step.
Go Tae-min kept pressing him, not closing the distance excessively but holding a measure from which he would never lose him.
The Ninja was strong, no question.
His judgment was good and his responses fast.
Movement refined by 12,000 real fights had no gaps in it.
But the skill he had built up was powerless in front of the answer sheet spread out before Go Tae-min's eyes.
'A machine with accumulated data isn't frightening anymore.'
Shff— Shff—
Go Tae-min's sword cut the empty air along the red lines, indifferently.
However the Ninja responded, his edge was already driving into the gap beyond it.
In the instant his opponent's breathing broke under that pressure, Go Tae-min dropped low and drove in deep.
The Ninja went into defense on reflex.
As if he had been waiting for exactly that moment—
SHHK!
A grisly sound spread out on the night air.
This time, from lower left to upper right, a great wound was carved into the Ninja's chest.
-That's a second critical wound! The Ninja has been cut badly once again!
-That attack was the same as before. He induced a reaction on purpose and aimed precisely at that moment! The Demon has taken the flow completely!
The commentary booth stirred.
But opposite to that, Go Tae-min's movement only grew calmer.
Sword strokes one after another drove the Ninja back.
That didn't mean he was doggedly clamping onto his opponent either.
He simply stacked wounds wherever the red lines were empty, gnawed away at his breathing, and pushed him step by step to the edge of the cliff.
CLANG!
The Ninja held on, barely, with his sword leveled in one hand.
But his center was already broken.
Go Tae-min closed one more step without letting up.
Instead of swinging his sword, he pushed his shoulder in and erased the space with his torso.
CRACK!
The Ninja's back struck the broken stone pillar.
That was the moment his room to run disappeared.
-Ah! He's been driven into a dead end! This is a crisis! There's no space left to retreat into!
-The biggest problem is that even in the darkness the Ninja isn't taking the initiative at all! Isn't this battlefield the type the Ninja likes best! And yet his usual sharp in-and-out, striking and pulling away, isn't appearing at all!
The Ninja clenched his teeth.
With only one arm he raised his sword and tried to force his center back under him.
But the tide had already tilted a long way.
Go Tae-min drifted like a ghost along the boundary line where the Ninja's point might or might not reach.
One step.
And then one more.
Taking the red trajectories drawn before his eyes as his signposts, he bound the Ninja's gaze and breathing at once from a measure a single sheet of paper outside what the man could cut.
-This is a truly remarkable sight! The Demon is showing himself to be more seasoned than the Ninja!
-Look, even now he doesn't go straight in. He's waiting for the moment the Ninja has no choice but to move.
The Ninja's shoulder twitched, very faintly.
The sign of a counter, one last attempt to take the flow back.
The Ninja's curved blade came in low.
'Took the bait.'
When you are driven onto the defensive, the moves available to you are few.
If concealment and distance control are both impossible, only one thing remains.
A single breakthrough with your life staked on it.
FWIP—!
The Ninja's body scattered into the darkness as if dissolving, and in the next moment drove into Go Tae-min's blind angle.
A final ambush that swallowed even the sound of debris underfoot!
But in Go Tae-min's eyes, a red line had been drawn vividly across the pitch-black darkness before the Ninja even appeared.
Go Tae-min twisted his body slightly along that line.
Like an action actor whose movement path was already fixed, he slid into the sliver of space where the curved blade cut through the air and past him.
And then—
SQUELCH!
-Ah......!
-The Demon dodged it! No, that wasn't a dodge-!
The last stroke the Ninja swung cut empty air.
Go Tae-min's sword, by contrast, ran precisely through his heart.
The body of the man in the face-wrap froze exactly where it was.
Eyes wide open, he couldn't move a single step further.
A moment later, when the sword was pulled out, a body that had endured 12,000 life-and-death fights collapsed without strength.
THUMP—
[You have defeated participant '3'.]
[Victory!]
The commentators shouted in excitement.
-It's over!
-Match over! The Demon has brought down the Ninja and...... in the end succeeds in the Amateur League's first undefeated promotion!
-Ah...... this is a moment we have waited for a very long time. Everyone, Japan finally has a talent who can aim at the Super League!
└Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
└Eh??????????
└Insane.. I've got chills
└To think I'm seeing this live
└Wow
└No sleep for me tonight
└I screamed
└Wow
└Wow
└Did anyone see him move at the end?
└Undefeated promotion!!!!!!!! It finally happened!!!!!!!
└The Ninja really lost..?
└Undefeated promotion!!!
└He was reading him completely
└It still makes no sense on a rewatch
└I've got chills
An enormous volume of comments poured into the streaming comment window.
It was a genuinely astonishing thing.
Every single person who had watched the match was going wild over a participant who had appeared barely a month ago.
And in a mere Amateur League match, at that.
[Participant No. 2,749]
[Record: 100 matches, 100 wins, 0 losses (Win rate: 100%)]
[Conditions satisfied, so a 'Pro License' is issued. Our sincere congratulations on becoming a warrior!]
[Pro League matches will proceed after a contract is concluded. Accordingly, please wait a moment.]
[The contract will be delivered in person by a Nova Arena employee at the earliest opportunity.]
[Should there be any further notice, we will inform you separately.]
The fallen man's body scattered slowly into a haze of light, and before long nothing but stillness settled over the ruins.
On the altar where the fight had ended, Go Tae-min stood under the pouring starlight.
100 matches, 100 wins, 0 losses.
And so, on a new battlefield as well, he had succeeded in carving his name into it.