Yuta was the first to break the stalemate.
In an instant, his figure was already tearing across the clearing at surprising speed, sword in hand, heading straight for Kyoto’s flag.
Kamo barely saw him pass like a shadow.
“He’s fast…” he muttered.
Yuta covered the distance in a matter of two seconds and reached for the flagpole.
Then, the sharp sound of two hands clapping echoed throughout the clearing.
CLAP!
Todo appeared directly in front of the flag, taking the spot where Yuta had been, while Yuta reappeared several meters away, exactly where Todo had been standing a moment earlier.
Yuta stopped abruptly and widened his eyes slightly, surprised by the sudden change.
“Swapping positions?”
Todo turned toward him with a huge grin.
At last, he had the special-grade sorcerer he’d been so eager to fight right in front of him.
However, before taking a fighting stance, he raised one hand.
“Before we get serious, Okkotsu, answer me one thing.”
“What kind of women do you like?”
Yuta blinked nervously, looking uneasy.
The question seemed to throw him off even more than being teleported had.
“I guess…
strong women.
With assertive personalities.”
Todo’s smile began to disappear.
“Is that all?”
“Well, if you mean physical traits…
I like legs.”
“Legs…?”
For a moment, Todo seemed to regain all the excitement he’d just lost.
“Yeah,” Yuta confirmed.
“Though I’d say that’s secondary.
I care a lot more about her being strong and having a personality I like.”
“…”
Todo slowly lowered his gaze.
His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked.
Cursed energy began to stir around his body.
“For one moment, Okkotsu…
I thought there was still hope for you.”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN LEGS ARE SECONDARY?!”
His shout echoed through the trees.
Everyone else watched from several meters away, unsure what to say, but none of them were about to miss the chance to witness this, so without exchanging a word, they silently agreed to a temporary truce until this historic conversation was over.
Yuta, meanwhile, slowly began to draw his katana.
“What a disappointment, Okkotsu!” Todo finally took a fighting stance, an aggressive grin spreading across his face.
“A special grade with such boring tastes!”
“I’ll have to beat some better taste into you!”
Todo shot toward him and, without any further warning, threw a punch straight at Yuta’s face.
Yuta drew his katana in one fluid motion, but instead of turning the blade toward Todo, he twisted his wrist and used the back of the blade to block the strike.
CLANG!
The cursed-energy-reinforced fist collided with the steel, and the impact sent vibrations through both sorcerers, forcing them to anchor themselves to the ground to keep from being blown backward.
In Yuta’s mind:
Don’t hurt anyone more than necessary.
After all, this is still a competition between students.
Several meters away, the rest of the students had started fighting as well.
Reina stepped forward.
Around her, the talismans she had previously scattered throughout that part of the forest began reacting to the flow of her cursed energy, rising from the ground.
“Cursed Technique…”
“Paper Army!”
The talismans unfolded until they formed around twenty humanoid figures made of paper, which were actually shikigami.
Compact soldiers armed with staffs, large and solid enough to form actual battle lines.
Within seconds, they arranged themselves into a perfectly ordered formation in front of Reina.
Reina extended a hand toward Sayaka.
“Advance!”
Sayaka, however, didn’t retreat.
Instead, she planted one foot firmly on the ground and extended a hand toward the earth.
“Shingo (Traffic Light).”
A red line appeared on the ground between her and Reina, cutting across the battlefield like a border.
At the same time, a strange shikigami resembling a traffic-light pole manifested behind Sayaka, several eyes open along its metallic structure.
RED.
The moment the paper soldiers crossed the line, they all stopped.
Reina frowned and tried to move forward, but her body refused to obey.
She tried to step backward and discovered that she couldn’t do that either.
She was completely immobilized.
The technique, however, came at a price.
Sayaka couldn’t leave her position either as long as she kept the traffic light on red.
She watched the frozen paper army in front of her for a few seconds and clicked her tongue.
“I guess this is the best I can do for now.
As long as I stay here, at least we take one of them out of the fight.”
Reina stared at her helplessly from the other side of the line.
The two of them had become trapped in a stalemate.
If Sayaka deactivated her technique, the Paper Army would immediately descend upon her.
If she maintained it, Sayaka wouldn’t be able to advance toward the flag.
…
From above, Momo watched the confrontation.
“I’ve got this.”
She leaned forward and dove, spinning her broom with precision as she gathered cursed energy.
“Wind Scythe!”
A violent cutting gust came down from the side and slammed directly into Sayaka.
The traffic light’s red glow flickered, and the line keeping Reina immobilized vanished instantly.
Sayaka was sent flying several meters before crashing into the trunk of a tree, knocking her unconscious.
The only problem was that Momo hadn’t exactly been careful with the angle of her attack.
The gust also struck the Paper Army, destroying and scattering all of the soldiers.
Reina watched her shikigami fly apart before looking up at Momo in disbelief.
“Hey…
you hit my shikigami too.”
Farther north, Kamo drew his bow with absolute concentration.
The blood coating the tips of his arrows began to react.
He released the string, sending several arrows flying toward Hakari.
Their trajectories curved through the air from different angles, converging on him at the same time.
Hakari didn’t even try to dodge.
He shattered the first with a punch, deflected the second with his forearm, and let the third strike his cursed-energy-coated shoulder without so much as flinching.
Kamo narrowed his eyes.
His cursed energy is rough…
like a spiked bat.
Hakari charged, visibly thrilled.
The distance between them vanished so quickly that Kamo was immediately forced to resort to…
“Flowing Red Scale.”
His pulse deliberately accelerated.
Red lines appeared around his right eye as he manipulated his own blood to drastically increase his body’s physical performance and reaction speed.
Kamo managed to block Hakari’s punch with both arms.
BOOM!
The ground gave way beneath his feet from the force of the impact.
Even so, Kamo took advantage of the close range.
He pulled out an arrow and fired it at practically point-blank range.
CRACK!
Hakari broke it with a headbutt.
“What…?”
Before Kamo could get away, two train doors materialized on either side of him, trapping him between them.
Hakari charged straight in through the opening and drove a brutal blow into his torso.
Kamo was sent flying several meters before crashing into the ground.
“What…
the hell…?” he coughed, spitting out some blood.
Kamo managed to get back to his feet and threw one of the containers of blood he’d prepared into the air.
“Slicing Exorcism!”
The blood burst from the container and compressed into a serrated disc that began spinning at tremendous speed.
Hakari tilted his head aside just in time, and the saw skimmed across his face, slicing through a few strands of hair and leaving a cut on his cheek before burying itself in a tree behind him.
Hakari touched his cheek and burst out laughing.
“Now this is fun…
don’t you think, descendant of the Kamo clan?”
…
Yuta appeared behind Todo and swung his katana horizontally. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Todo bent backward with unexpected flexibility for someone his size, allowing the blade to pass mere centimeters from his face.
As he straightened back up, he exchanged a quick glance with Momo, who was flying several meters above the battlefield.
They didn’t need to say anything.
Momo abruptly changed direction and dove straight toward Todo, spinning her broom as she gathered cursed energy.
The gust shot directly toward him.
Yuta frowned.
Is she attacking her own teammate?
CLAP!
At the last possible instant, Todo and Yuta swapped positions.
Yuta appeared exactly where Todo had been standing.
His eyes widened in surprise, and he was forced to take the wind attack head-on.
Yuta dug his feet into the ground until he finally managed to stop himself.
He looked up at the two of them, immediately understanding what they’d just done.
“They work really well together…” he admitted.
“They’re very good.”
Momo was already preparing another attack while Todo advanced toward him.
Yuta decided not to give them the chance to repeat the trick.
He extended one hand, and a small megaphone materialized in it.
At the same time, circular markings appeared around his mouth and across his tongue.
Todo’s eyes widened slightly as he recognized them.
“DON’T MOVE!!”
The command thundered across the clearing, infused with cursed energy.
Todo and Momo’s bodies froze instantly.
Yuta leaped several meters toward Momo and, reinforcing his body with cursed energy, turned his katana and struck her hard with the back of the blade.
BAM!
Momo was knocked off her broom and fell unconscious onto the grass.
Yuta landed near her and quickly checked that she had a pulse and was all right.
“I’m sorry…”
Todo regained control of his body.
The smile had disappeared from his face.
His eyes were fixed on the markings around Yuta’s mouth.
“Okkotsu…
how do you have the Inumaki clan’s technique?”
In another section of the battlefield, Suzuki opened a small container of powdered sugar and poured it into his mouth.
“Cursed Technique: Sugar Rush.”
His muscles tensed, his cursed energy became far more explosive, and his speed suddenly increased.
He charged.
Fushimi didn’t retreat.
He raised both fists in front of his face, taking a high boxing guard while performing a brief sequence of movements with his hands.
“Secret Technique…
Simple Domain…”
The terrain beneath their feet changed.
A square area six meters across replaced the forest floor, transforming into a blue canvas.
Four posts rose from the corners, and several ropes stretched between them, enclosing both fighters inside a small boxing ring.
“The Ring.”
“As long as we’re inside, we can only fight under boxing rules.”
Suzuki immediately tested one of the sides, but an invisible force repelled him the moment he tried to pass through the ropes.
“So that’s how it’s going to be.”
Fueled by the sugar, he charged with brutal force and threw a straight right.
Fushimi blocked it with both arms and immediately answered with a hook to the liver.
THUD!
Suzuki’s breath burst from his lungs as his torso folded slightly.
Fushimi took advantage of the opening and stepped in with a jab aimed directly at his jaw, but Suzuki reacted desperately and thrust his head forward.
The punch connected squarely with his forehead.
CRACK!
Suzuki staggered backward, visibly dazed by the blow.
Fushimi hadn’t come out unscathed either.
He took a couple of steps back and opened his hand with difficulty; several bones had fractured.
The two stared at each other from opposite ends of the ring, breathing heavily.
Neither had fallen yet…
By that point, Momo and Sayaka were already out of the fight, while Reina, having lost her shikigami, had been rendered practically useless.
As for Nagi…
Chronostasis and help more people find it!