Ikki vs Ouma round 2

He kicked off the floor to meet Ouma.

Of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to simply attack Ouma straight on like that.

He knew what kind of superhuman physical endurance and strength Ouma’s mad training had granted him.

Therefore-

“That’s…!”

Moroboshi, watching from the sides, noticed.

The instant Ikki entered the nodachi’s range, he changed his step, adding sudden changes to his speed.

Moroboshi knew that technique well.

Ikki used those movements to confuse his opponent’s vision and create afterimages.

It was the Shinkirou he spread around him.

And, according to Ikki’s plan, Ouma snapped at the afterimages.

With one breath he swung Ryuuzume down from above as if cutting bamboo, cutting Ikki in half.

However, he had cut an afterimage.

As a result, he exposed himself to a flank from the real Ikki.
[using Shinkirou afterimages on Ouma]
- vol 9
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With the low sound of two people colliding, Ikki’s body was pushed back and he stumbled backwards with his balance destroyed.

Ouma swooped down on Ikki like a raging fire.

Without giving Ikki any time to recover his stance, he fired off several slashes and stabs.

Fast.

It approached Moroboshi’s Sanrensei in speed.

Without taking a breath, he fired off 10, 20, an endless barrage of attacks.

Such astounding rotation-Shizuku recognized it.

“Kyokujitsu Isshin-ryuu, Retsu no kiwami Amatsukaze…[4]!”

“What the heck is that?”

“It’s a secret technique within the Kyokujitsu Isshin-ryuu style passed through the generations in the Kurogane family. It’s a continuous 108 strike combination.”

From the first strike to the 108th, everything from the angle and power of each strike was tuned for efficiency.

By repeating them over and over countless times and carving them to his very core, he was able to abolish all thoughts and bring out the fastest speed that his flesh and blood body could handle. It was meant to crush the opponent with an overwhelming number of strikes.

“There’s no better technique than this to defeat someone whose stance has been broken…!”

“But if I’m not mistaken, didn’t Ikki grow strong by stealing the techniques of others? In which case he should definitely know of a technique passed among the Kurogane, shouldn’t he?”

“…I don’t know. All of this talk is over my head. But… even if he does, with just that he can’t do anything about this assault.”

Just as Shizuku said, in the face of Ouma’s overwhelming speed, Ikki could not even bring Intetsu to face the attacks. He had to do everything he could just to dodge Ouma’s fierce onslaught. He definitely wouldn’t be able to turn the attack in this situation.

Bringing about such a situation was the point of Amatsukaze, after all.

With almost excessively optimized constant attacks, it held down the enemy, preventing them from taking any actions.

Now, Ikki was completely stuck in that situation.

That’s how it seemed, looking from outside.

However-

(He’s waiting for something…)

Even as Ikki was being overwhelmed by Ouma’s strikes, Touka Toudou saw a glint of cleverness in Ikki’s eyes.

He was being neither held down nor overwhelmed.

He was waiting for something.

That something was an opening in Amatsukaze.

No matter how much time had gone into developing such a technique, in the end, it was created by humans.

Creating something perfect was impossible.

And if it was anything short of perfect, Ikki’s penetrating insight wouldn’t miss it.

It wasn’t a first sighting either, especially since it was the Kurogane style, which he’d spent the most time watching.

“---”

Suddenly, a particularly sharp sound rang out, and the situation changed.

After that sound, the one who was thrown off balance was Ouma.

Ikki had pulled out his seventh secret sword, Raikou.

It was a technique with such speed that, before he had grasped what he’d stolen from Twin-Wings, he hadn’t been able to discern its swing by sight.

Worst One’s fastest strike had been further refined by Twin-Wings’ swordsmanship, and in the instant between Sword Emperor of Wind’s Amatsukaze’s fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth strike, Ikki cut in with a strike to Ryuuzume’s side, ruining the combination.

After he disrupted the combination, Ikki launched a full body attack at Ouma, whose stance had been broken.

[Breaks the seemingly perfect rush attack of Ouma at the 57th strike with Raikou and ES in tandem, breaking Ouma's balance]
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It was a slash with all his weight thrown behind it.

Moroboshi noticed something in that motion.

(The way he’s using his weight is just like the time he fought me.)

It was his sixth secret sword-Dokuga no Tachi.

Whether it strikes sword or armor, the opponent would be destroyed from within starting at the point of contact.

Using this technique, he could render Ouma’s steel body meaningless.

Not knowing that, Ouma took Ikki’s attack without blocking or dodging, accepting it with his tempered body.

His body was attacked from within as if it were a bag of water.

The shock that entered Ouma had nowhere to escape, and so it ran over his muscles, bones, and organs-

“Tenryuugusoku”

“…!”

The shock should have hit him, but Ouma looked like he didn’t even care.

Dokuga no Tachi had not failed.

The vibrations from his blade had definitely made it to Ouma.

However, Ouma had not been moved.

That was, in short, what made Ouma Kurogane a terror.

He had a force of will that transcended flesh.
[Hits Ouma with dokuga no tachi, showing that it can be done on the body directly and getting through Ouma's ludicrous durability]
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Aiming for his landing spot, Ouma swung Ryuuzume horizontally from where he was.

With the sharp sound of cutting through air, he released a vacuum blade.

It flew towards Ikki’s landing spot, with just the right trajectory to strike Ikki’s neck.

However, Ikki ended up deciding not to evade.

“Fu.”

Ikki took the impact of the landing by sinking into his knees, lowering his body.

He bent as far as he could, then released the energy coiled in his lower body.

With enough power to gouge the ring, he kicked the ground and thrust Intetsu’s tip at the incoming vacuum blade.

First secret sword-Saigeki.

Within Another One’s original sword techniques, it boasted the fastest charging speed and the strongest penetration. With that thrust, Ikki met the vacuum blade head on and destroyed it with all his strength, sending the force right back at Ouma like an arrow.

Ouma had tried to use Tenryuugusoku to form a gap and engage in long range combat, but Ikki’s speed completely destroyed that plan. He would unable to respond to Ikki charging back into range again with such timing-supposedly. However…!
[Ikki responds to Ouma's invisible vacuum blades in midair, cutting them apart with Saigeki and sending them back at Ouma]
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After breaking through the vacuum blade, Ikki would immediately return to sword distance.

Having read his opponent, he amassed his power and waited.

This was the worst development for Ikki.

Saigeki was an assault technique. He had put all of his power into the starting kick, as it was a technique that shot oneself like an arrow towards its target.

Therefore, once in the middle of Saigeki, it would not be possible to stop.

Ikki could now only move forwards.

As Ouma’s Amaterasu would win in reach and speed, Ryuuzume would behead Ikki before Ikki’s blade reached him.

However-

Ikki was not such a naive man as to be unable to improvise in a pinch.

“Wha…!?”

In the next moment, the spectators all widened their eyes in surprise.

In the instant Ouma fired Amaterasu, Ikki pointed Intetsu down and stabbed the tip into the ground.

As a result, Saigeki’s assault pitched forward, launching Ikki over Ouma’s head like a pole vaulter. He then kicked off the ceiling hard enough to break it, and once again charged at Ouma with Saigeki.

Amaterasu was a technique in which one devotes their all into one move’s speed.

That meant it left one vulnerable until it ended, leaving Ouma unable to avoid this Saigeki.

…Direct hit.

The close range Saigeki pierced Ouma’s wind armor, Tennryuugusoku, and Ikki’s sword dug in right above his collarbone.

That was by no means a random target.

Ikki had seen through Ouma’s muscle shape and density based on his movements, and attacked so as to slip through a gap.

He realized that without doing so, his offensive power would not be enough to pierce Ouma’s body.

His judgement was correct.

Even something like Touka using her Takemikazuchi was unable to cut Ouma. The only one who could damage him with a simple slash would probably be someone as powerful as Stella.
[Ikki hits his Saigeki into the ground and then instantly does another one bouncing off the roof to attack Ouma in a weak point of his body, the only spot where he'd be able to damage him]
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Ouma grabbed Ikki by the lapels before Ikki even landed on the floor, then threw him onto the ring with his full power.

“!!!”

Ikki’s body made a large, deep depression in the hard stone ring.

He just barely managed to use an ukemi, distributing the impact into the ring, but his stance was left in a terrible state, with one knee propping him up on the ground.
[Ikki's dumbass impact dispersion even works when he's judo slammed somehow]
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Ouma struck there, putting his full body weight into a downward swing.

Ikki also brought up Intetsu to bear.

Unfortunately, his stance was too poor.

With a position like that, there was no way he could take a blow with Ouma’s weight.

“Onii-samaaa!”

Ouma crushed Ikki along with Intetsu with his weighted blow.

But in the moment it seemed that would happen, something nobody could believe happened before their eyes.

Somehow, in the next moment, the one who was blown away was Ouma.

Ouma immediately gathered power in his toes, but couldn’t stop.

While scraping the surface of the ring, he moved backwards.

Even when he thrust Ryuuzume’s blade into the ground, he could not fully contain the force-

Not until he finally reached the side of the ring.

Ikki had certainly been at a disadvantage.

However, the one retreating had been Ouma.

The spectators outside the ring were all baffled by this turn of events.

“Wha, what was that just now?”

“I, I don’t know…”

Moroboshi and Touka knew they hadn’t mistaken the statuses of the combatants.

That only left them all the more confused.

The attack just now clearly far exceeded Ikki’s strength.

What had just happened before them?

Unable to understand even after pondering it, they could only stare intently at Ouma, who had been forced to the edge of the ring.

However, there was one person who understood what had just happened.

It was none other than the one who had been pushed back, Ouma himself.

He understood the trickery from the numbness in his arms, and glared irritatedly at Ikki.

“…Such trickery is just like you.”

“But you fell back, brother.”

“…”

“My swordsmanship does not seek to become powerful. It seeks to win. Therefore, I will do everything I can possible do to defeat my opponent. Even if my opponent is more powerful than me, I will win. Even if that seems like trickery to you, brother, it is the answer that I, the weakest one, came up with. That is Ikki Kurogane’s swordsmanship. I do not intend to apologize for it.

Ikki did not avert his gaze from Ouma’s scornful glare.
[Madoka against Ouma turned his own attack against him despite Ikki's balance being broken when he did it. Scale using the Arisuin kick and Ouma punting Stella out of the stadium]
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