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Tomoko gained a firm footing and slashed out at Lily after that!

“Oh?” Lily thought, “She’s avoiding the vitals, huh? It looks like there’s still some hope left, then.”

Lily swung her blade forward to block Tomoko’s slash with skilled and coordinated movements.

“Hoh. It seems like this big-breasted woman from the capital has some decent strength.” Inanoji raised his brows when he saw Lily’s movements. Lily’s blade pressed against Tomoko’s blade once the two clashed and a resolute desire to win ignited within the latter’s heart.

“She focuses well, too,” Lily concluded.

Tomoko and Lily took a step back and changed positions before they clashed again. However, Lily blocked Tomoko’s with ease and waited for the chance to strike back.

The two of them exchanged several strikes and Lily gained the advantage eventually.

“Oooohhhh! How awesome!” A few onmyōji students said with flushed cheeks. Although Lily had not gained a definitive advantage yet, her movements were pretty steady and looked cool.

Kiyoko’s mind was also filled with doubt. “What’s going on? I clearly sensed that she was on a higher power level than me just now, so it doesn’t make sense for her to just have this much of an advantage…”

Lily and Tomoko’s battle turned fierce, and they had exchanged over a dozen strikes by now. The beautiful and wonderful battle also enraptured the spectating students.

“Hold on. Why does it feel like Tomoko’s sword arts are better than before?”

“Yeah. I got the same feeling, too. She’s regaining the advantage a little with each successive strike and reducing the gap between her and the big-breasted girl!” A twenty-five year, thick-bearded old man commented.

The handsome and vicious-looking student’s—Fujiwara no Kai’s—eyes narrowed at this moment. “Don’t tell me she’s making huge progress via this battle?!”

“What?! Although battling is the best way to train, it’s impossible to progress so much within just a few strikes! It doesn’t make sense at all!” The underling beside him exclaimed with astonishment.

“She’s a genius for sure!”

“Only a genius can become progressively stronger within a battle and refine their sword arts on the spot!”

Fujiwara no Kai yelled out in astonishment. “I never thought we had such a talented swordswoman among the onmyōji students. How did I fail to notice this before? I must recommend her to my father no matter what!”

Kiyoko broke out in a sweat when saw Lily lose the advantage gradually and revealed a shocked expression.

Her voice pulsated along with the beats of her heart as she exclaimed, “N-No! Although Tomoko’s pretty good at the sword, she’s by no means a genius! The students have no idea about what they’re saying and don’t know how many times I’ve seen true swordmasters battle in the capital! Ms. Lily is the truly terrifying person here¹!”

Kiyoko shuddered as she watched Lily’s suppressed movements. “She’s matching Tomoko’s swordstyle on purpose and is using just some of her suppressed strength to guide and strengthen Tomoko! She’s inducing a significant improvement in Tomoko’s skills using her sword!”

“I can’t believe it! Just how is she doing this?” Kiyoko looked at Lily in disbelief as she could not figure out how she had induced an improvement in Tomoko’s skills.

“I never thought I’d get to see yet another transcendental genius in this lifetime!” Tomoko recalled a scene from the past and blushed hard as her breasts heaved up and down².

Lily and Tomoko’s stamina seemed to reach its limit after a dozen exchanges. Lily missed hitting Tomoko a moment later and ended up slicing at a branch. Tomoko seized this chance to strike at her immediately and brought her blade closer to Lily’s neck.

“It’s Tomoko’s win!” The onmyōji students exclaimed in unison.

However, the chopped off branch just happened to fall on Tomoko’s head and rendered her unconscious the next moment. The sword in Tomoko’s hand fell down with a whoosh while Lily sighed in relief while grabbing her bosom. She then stuck her tongue out and said coyly, “That was close.”

“Tch!” The onmyōji students clicked their tongues in displeasure when they saw this.

“T-Tomoko lost?”
“Hmph. This woman’s pretty strong if we factor in luck as one of the metrics, I suppose!” Fujiwara no Kai said thoughtfully.
“Forget it. It doesn’t matter how she achieved it as long as she has won. Just see how tired and sweaty she is.”
“Do you need my help with wiping off the sweat, Ms. Lily?” Inanoji said in a teasing tone.

Lily took out a hand towel and wrapped it around her forehead before she wiped her neck, which caused the male students to look at her with lecherous gazes.

She looked at the students once she was done wiping off the sweat and said, “Although I’ve run out of stamina because of the battle, the sunshine and breeze here is quite pleasant. It’s the perfect spot for me to train the sword, so I wonder if anyone else wishes to exchange pointers with me.”

“It’s not like we want to bully a tired woman like you!” Inanoji said, “We can continue another kind of battle deep within the woods later on if you want more!”

“Hahahahahaha!” Inanoji’s followers seemed amused by his frivolous joke.

Lily just smiled in disdain though. “Don’t tell me you men are cowardlier than Tomoko here? You’re that scared to face me, huh?”
“Who are you calling cowards now?! Stop kidding me, woman. I’ll teach you a lesson since you want one so much!”

The 190 cm tall Inanoji stepped forward. It was pretty rare for a man in the Heian period to have such a tall stature as only the pampered children of influential officials grew up so tall.

Inanoji had witnessed Lily’s sword just now and had seen how her battle with Tomoko had resulted in a draw. His sword skills and strength were far better than Tomoko’s, so he saw no reason to lose against Lily when she lacked the stamina to battle at full strength.

He did not challenge her because felt that there was no glory in defeating the exhausted Lily initially, but he never expected her to provoke him instead. He thought of teaching her a lesson and harassing her in the process for fun.

Inanoji drew out his nodachi and said, “Have you rested enough, Ms. Lily?”

“Yes,” Lily answered casually and returned the katana to its sheath.

“Hmm? You use the Iai Technique, huh? Are you looking to win by betting it all on one strike? How unfortunate that I saw through it, though. Hahaha.” Inanoji chuckled.

Kiyoko began trembling on the side at this moment, though. She was not worried about Lily at all and also had no intentions of stopping her. “She’s much stronger than I imagined!”

Kiyoko admitted this.

“Hah!” Inanoji charged at Lily following a loud shout while watching out for an Iai strike from her.

As he had predicted, Lily really executed an Iai strike with her katana.

He jumped back to dodge the strike since he knew it would come and laughed out loud. “Hahahaha! I told you that I saw through it, didn’t I?!”

Inanoji intended to counterattack after dodging her Iai strike, but Lily’s next move exceeded his predictions. He saw her throw her katana towards the sky and hold its sheath in her hand instead.

The katana spun in circles as it flew up high.

“Is she crazy? What the hell is she doing? Did the katana slip out of her hand or what? It doesn’t make sense for it to fly up so high even then.” Inanoji revealed a puzzled expression, but he did not ponder much on it when he saw Lily’s unguarded bosom and slashed at her again after raising his nodachi.

He did not intend to kill her and planned to use a move that shredded the opponent’s clothes into pieces using the sword energies released when the blade is stopped right above the opponent’s skin.

It was a move that he used on women often and had perfected it for combat use by practicing it on his maid several times.

“Hahahahahaha! You better admit defeat, or else I’ll shred all your clothes into pieces with my sword!”

Lily just stared at him with an icy gaze and struck his hand with the sheath in her hand at an incredible speed, leaving afterimages behind.

“Argh!” Inanoji screamed in pain as the nodachi flew out of his hands.

Lily then struck Inanoji on the head, chest, stomach and legs consecutively.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

The consecutive heavy strikes from the sheath struck him everywhere and made him stagger left and right. His face swelled up and his eyes rolled back, and he also struggled to maintain his footing.

Bam! Lily spun around and sent him flying with a strike to his face in the end.

Whoosh! He flew over all the onmyōji students and crashed into the distant woods, which ended up startling the birds in it.

Although it seemed as if all this had happened slowly, it had actually occurred in the span of just a few seconds. The onmyōji students all wore dumbfounded expressions because of this as they still had not figured out what had happened just now.

They failed to understand how someone who had battled Tomoko to a draw had beaten up Inanoji, who was stronger than Tomoko, so badly with just a sheath.

“She just used the sheath to beat him… Why did she throw up the katana, then?” Fujiwara no Kai commented.

The onmyōji students raised their heads and saw her katana spiral down while reflecting the sunlight.

Lily showed her back to the onmyōji students and extended her sheath out of her sleeve using her slender arm.

The spiraling katana entered the sheath perfectly with a click³ in the next moment and released a powerful radial energy wave which blew everyone except Tomoko and Kiyoko outside the platform.

“Does anyone else wish to battle me?”

Lily looked at the onmyōji students who had been blown down to the ground because of the energy wave.

“Consider it my loss if even a single one of you manages to stand up by nightfall,” Lily said in a gentle yet proud and celestial voice.

1. Robinxen: This girl is smart.
2. Robinxen: Of course author.
3. Robinxen: That was cool.