Dura 13

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.
He boldly threw out his chest, having nothing he felt ashamed about.
Ikki’s pose made Ouma think.