ch41-ch60 · 057-ch56

Chapter 56: Black Knight VS Green Knight

"Emerald Star Sword!"

Chartreuse swings the greatsword—crystallized from green light with a ferocious slash held high overhead.

Then, as it bears down on Rokuro's eyes, she brings it down with tremendous speed, as if it weighs nothing at all—despite being a massive blade that no woman's arms, no matter how trained, should be able to wield.

　　　Clang!

Sparks fly between them. The Black Knight deflects the greatsword with the claws that extend slightly from his gauntlets.

"Still not done!"

Chartreuse slashes upward with the downward-swinging sword in a tsubame-gaeshi maneuver.

But Rokuro reverses his stance and deflects it with the opposite gauntlet's claws, using the momentum to get behind Chartreuse.

"Who's going to defeat who, exactly?"

"Ugh!"

She immediately whirls around with a horizontal slash, but Rokuro has already put distance between them, calmly evading the blade tip.

『His movements are refined...!』

The Black Knight was supposed to have been inactive for years, yet just from his movements, he seemed even more skilled than when fighting the Demon King.

That was the fruit of Rokuro's fifteen years of effort. His eiyōso concentration is thin, so his power is inevitably inferior to when he was in Ceylo. To compensate for that, he trained in classical martial arts under Gou and polished his body control in preparation for emergencies.

"Surprised, aren't you? Did you think you could easily defeat me now that I'm like this?"

"...Your tendency to become aggressive under the Black Bird's influence hasn't changed, has it? Your techniques are masterful, yet your mind remains immature."

Chartreuse doesn't take Rokuro's bait—instead, she taunts him back.

"I am different. Even when in 'Unison,' I do not lose my cool. Among the Seven Knights, I have already surpassed you!"

While grasping the greatsword in her right hand, Chartreuse thrusts her left fist forward with a kiai. Her fist pressure becomes a blast wind, attacking Rokuro.

"!"

Instead of resisting the blast, Rokuro jumps backward, as if riding the wind. Even while jumping, he swings his right claws wide upward.

"Black Claw!"

Even if blown into the air and floating, naturally one's own shadow still exists on the ground.

Rokuro's shadow reflected on the ground stretched out long and reached Chartreuse's feet all at once.

"Hah!"

A black blade emerging from the shadow is stopped by the Emerald Star Sword. Chartreuse, who knows the Black Knight's abilities, has no reason not to be wary of the Black Claw.

But because she dealt with the Black Claw, she couldn't pursue and attack Rokuro who had been blown away.

At the edge of the Emerald Crystal Palace, Rokuro could be seen landing, kicking off a translucent green wall.

『The power to use shadows... still as troublesome as ever』

Rokuro, for his part, could feel the strength of the Green Knight's wind manipulation in his own body.

『Wind strong enough to seal my movements, is it. If I take a follow-up attack, that would be bad.』

If hit with air pressure that prevents moving freely, the skillful body control he'd trained so hard for would be halved in effectiveness. The Green Knight's ability could be called a natural enemy for Rokuro as he is now.

Chartreuse understood this herself, yet she didn't make the mistake of impatiently repeating attacks. That was because Rokuro still hadn't used his trump card.

"Rock, why won't you draw your sword? Do you plan to half-heartedly engage in a serious duel out of arrogance!"

"...If anyone's being arrogant, it's you. Do you think that's enough to make me draw my sword? ...For now, I can only say 'it's not necessary yet.'"

That was an even clearer provocation than before.

Of course, Chartreuse knew better, and she didn't have such a weak mentality as to get enraged by something like that.

But deliberately appearing to take the provocation, she closed the distance at super speed.

"Then I'll make it necessary!"

This time, she swings the greatsword down from the upper-right diagonal. It's a sword attack harder to deflect than a straight vertical slash.

"Ugh!"

Rokuro crosses both arms and stops the Comet Sword with the claws of both gauntlets.

But the sword is instantly pulled back, and this time it slashes in from the lower-right diagonal. It was a strategy of increasing the number of attacks rather than individual strike power.

Even so, Rokuro continues to parry the sword attacks with just his gauntlets. And——

"Black Claw!"

Dodging the greatsword with the claws of both hands, he attacks with a counter-like strike using the extending shadow.

But Chartreuse didn't stop her continuous slashes.

"Storm Phosphorus!"

A tornado-like wind appears, wrapping around Chartreuse's green armor.

　　　Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh! ...Whoooooooosssshhh...

The tornado and the Black Claw collide, canceling each other out.

In that time, since Chartreuse didn't use her greatsword for defense, she continued swinging the greatsword without hesitation.

Even so, Rokuro continued to deflect, block, and dodge the sword with just his gauntlet claws.

『How magnificent! Even compared to current Kingdom knights, it's top-class technique』

By wielding her sword herself, Chartreuse was gauging Rokuro's current strength. And she understood that he still had more than enough ability as one of the Seven Knights.

How much training did he accumulate to gain such sharp technique? Just imagining it, she even felt respect for him, enemy though he was.

"And yet... you, who could be called the mirror of knights for sparing no effort in training... why... why, why, WHY did you kill your close ally, the White Knight Satchio!?"

Before she knew it, her thoughts no longer stayed inside her heart but leapt from her throat as a scream.