Tiger bite 4

In a last ditch effort to stop Ikki in his tracks, Moroboshi once again unleashed Sanrensei. But it was no use. Having stolen Moroboshi's technique, Ikki could instantly read the trajectory of Sanrensei from the angle Moroboshi's elbows were set at and the shifting of his gaze.

Deflecting the first and the second strikes, he matched his timing with the prelude to the third—and stepped into range!

「With this Kurogane's got Moroboshi in his sights!」

Seeing the Seven Stars Sword King being hunted down, a cry went up through the stands.

「Run, Hoshiiii!」

But there was still one strike left in Sanrensei. Like Houkiboshi, it was a high-speed maneuver honed from untold amounts of repeated practice, the process of which was carved into the body and left no room for thought. Even if they wanted him to flee, he could not. His body moved to aim its last blow at Ikki's chest!

But Ikki had already seen this—Moroboshi's habits, his angle of attack, the spear's trajectory, all of it. He could not possibly miss striking this blow!

Once I deflect this last strike, I'll be in range! In one go, victory will be—

—But in that moment, a flash ran through his brain.

No, wait, this is bad—!

And then, something unbelievable happened in the ring. Ikki, who should have succeeded in his pursuit of Moroboshi, was pierced in the shoulder by Tora-Ou and knocked back out of his sword's reach.

「Whaaaaat!? What happened here? It was apparent to everyone that Kurogane's assault was about to succeed, but he was suddenly knocked back! Taking a hit to the shoulder, he was sent flying out of range in one go!」

"That's not possible! Onii-sama would never slip up in that situation!"

Shizuku was clearly flustered by this unexpected development. But beside her, Arisuin had gone pale as he witnessed something even more unbelievable.

"Shizuku! Look at Intetsu!"

As he cried out, Shizuku too saw that impossible sight.

"That… that can't be…!"

「This… what would you call it? Kurogane's Device, Intetsu, is broken! It's as though a huge beast just took a chunk out of it!」

Indeed, the crystallization of Ikki's soul, his blade Device Intetsu, had a large part of it sliced off.

「What happened? A Device shouldn't even bend, let alone break, but…!」

The commentator was again in confusion. This was only natural. A Device was constructed by crystallizing magic power with incredible density. Even after having broadcasted matches between knights for a long period of time, Iida could only count the number of times he had seen a Device break on one hand.

On the other hand Muroto, who was in charge of the analysis, was enthusiastic.

「No, there is an exception!」

「An… exception?」

「Yes. Please look closely at the Seven Stars Sword King's Tora-Ou!」

At Muroto's words, all eyes were on Moroboshi. And then everyone noticed. At some point, his spear had become clad in a golden aura.

Everyone knew what that aura was.

「This, this is! The Seven Stars Sword King had activated Tiger Bite at a certain point in the fight!」