Vol 1 Skill 2

"My sword style isn't so simple that you can see through it easily!"

"…No, I already got it."

In an instant, the flow of the battle turned. Only five minutes had passed since the start of the match when Ikki Kurogane began to attack for the first time.

It might've seemed like a suicidal action at first glance. In a head-on clash between swordsmen, what could he do with just honed technique against an opponent with that much offensive force? He could only fall before such scorching firepower. It should've been inevitable, but―

"Kuh!"

But Stella was the one who retreated. Ikki was pushing Stella back with his weapon. How? The method lay with the sun-like orbit Intetsu was tracing. It was, in fact, Stella's Imperial Arts.

"Impossible…! How can you be using it?"

As she asked, something flashed through Stella's mind.

"You don't mean, you copied my style during these exchanges!?"

"Something like that. I've been despised ever since I was a child, so no one ever taught me, and all I could do was watch others and steal their styles. That's why I'm quite good at these kinds of tactics. I can grasp most sword techniques with only a minute of trading blows."

Swordsmanship describes its own knowledge, style describes its own history, and breathing describes its own principle. If one followed the branches and leaves of a sword style and arrived down at the root, then it wouldn't be hard to grasp that style's techniques and combinations, or its approach in facing different situations. This was what Ikki was saying.

"And if I can understand the style that far, I can also create techniques that outperform my opponent's."

What was the ultimate way to surpass an opponent's sword style? Simply correct all the flaws of that style to create a more perfect one, and the new would be plainly superior to the old. The new style would account for all the old style's faults, and even compensate for its weaknesses. It would eclipse its precursor in every offensive and defensive situation.

"Creating that sword style in the middle of battle is my technique, Blade Steal[7]. Because Stella-san's techniques were so well-engrained, it took me two minutes to steal it and thirty seconds to surpass it. But now I have a solid grasp, so I'll also be attacking from here on."