Dura 12 Volume 12

Xiaoli showed a meaningful smile to Stella who pretended to be tough.

Immediately after, Stella felt something abnormal in her body and fell to her knees there.

(What the, my body is numb…)

Her whole body twitched and lost its function. The muscles became rigid.

An unexpected damage.

How did her wind abilities cause so much damage?

The power with which she melted the bedrock when she escaped from《Satan Fang》,

– Wh-what did you do…!?

It didn’t seem to be the ability of a wind user at all.

Stella showed bewilderment due to the inconsistency with the information she had beforehand.

On the other hand, Xiaoli,

– I’m not doing anything difficult. With my ability that controls《poison》, I just melted the ground using a soluble venom and sneaked behind you, then fired a poison that paralyzes your body by placing it on my spear-hand. A strong poison that makes elephants unable to move with one shot.

Yes, she revealed her power.

– Poison, you say…!?

– Wait a minute, if I remember correctly, it was said that 《Toutetsu》is a wind user, isn’t it!?

– … Certainly, I heard the same. … What is the meaning of this?

Not only Stella, but also Ascaride and Tatara who watched attentively the battle from a short distance showed bewilderment at this reveal of Xiaoli.

And Xiaoli,

– Kusu. Now, what are you going to do?

She showed an innocent smile like a child that enjoyed themselves with pranks,

– Anyhow, Stella-dono can’t move anymore. The victory of this duel will be mine!

She started running to Stella who fell to her knees and went after her mercilessly.

– S-so fast!

This speed left Tatara speechless.

A rushing speed that couldn’t be compared with the first rush.

However, that was natural.

Blue Dragon style《Ryuusei》was a way of walking that put emphasize on defense.

Xiaoli, who watched the finals of the《Seven Stars Sword Art Festival》near it, naturally knew the extent of Stella’s range.

She was an all-rounder who didn’t worry about any range, from super close to super long distances.

If she was at a short distance, she could always take the initiative.

She was prepared.

For Stella’s long range artillery.

But Stella could no longer move.

No counterattacks. No restraints. In that case, there was no need to be prepared.

Running through the shortest distance at a fast speed was the adequate now.

The way of walking for that was,

– Vermillion Bird style《Tenku》!!*

*TN: Roughly means Heaven’s Drive.
That speed was just like flying.

Xiaoli caught Stella in the range of her fists in the twinkling of an eye,

At that moment――the cracking sound of broken bones resounded dull in the mountain at night.

◆◇◆◇◆
Vermillion Bird style《Tenku》.

A way of walking in which one dashed endlessly and horizontally on the ground and faced the vector of acceleration done by kicks against the ground from a crouching start posture that pushed up the waist and thrust the limbs to the ground.

With that, Xiaoli tried to add a doubly-sure hit to Stella.

But Xiaoli saw the moment she jumped in her sword reach.

Stella’s broken knee. Her bent back. Her hanging bangs.

――A clever discernment went through the gaps of her red bangs.

(She’s not agitated…!?)

At that moment,

– Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa――――!!

The Stella that shouldn’t be able to move due to poison moved.

A mowing counter that raised her falling knees and that felt as if she slammed the ground with her whole body.

Xiaoli ended up keeping that speed without being wary of the counterattack.

Therefore, dodging this driving was impossible.

Still,

– ―――!

She read the attack sign she barely saw from the front of Stella’s bangs and stopped the technique in time; to sum it up in one word: amazing.