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There was a mountain pass outside Schwarzwald, an area called the Howling Ogre Ridge.

A river that sprouted from the continent’s central mountain range passed by there, and by going north along a cliffside path, one would reach a large circular rock formation shaped like a colosseum. A village of ogres, a species that looked largely like humans, except that they had horns, and large stocky bodies, had been established within that rock formation.

Today that village of demons was crowded by a large number of players though. Many of them were only curious onlookers, who would sit around the fighting arena and watch the actual challengers fight.

There were also players who specialized in being traders, whose sense of business was tingling so they set up shopping carts and tents a slight distance away, knowing this was a perfect opportunity. All in all it was a very festive environment, boisterous enough to make the ogre NPCs almost bothered by it.

All of that was for a specific reason. This was the location of an event that would grant the Advanced Weapon Skill required to wield a katana.

“Woah, there’s a long line already!”
“Yeah… Ryunosuke shared the info already. I expected there would be others here, but I didn’t think it’d be so crowded already.”

The journey to arrive there was quite an ordeal, so Crim thought many players would give up along the way. But the Katana Skill was enticing to so many players that such a crowd had already formed.

While the line was long, it was also moving surprisingly quickly. That was easy to understand though. Many players had arrived without the necessary strength, so they were being defeated one after another.

Hinagiku went to the end of the line to queue up.

“Okay then, I’ll be sitting on the outer area to watch you from a high spot.”
“Ah, a-alright…”

Hinagiku’s voice was stiff and nervous. It was hard to blame her though, as this was her opportunity to obtain the Katana Skill she yearned for so dearly.

“Hinagiku, your opponent is essentially a boss, it’ll probably be a tough fight.”
“Okay…”
“But! I’ve seen you fight, and I know that if you stay calm and do your best, you’ll definitely win. I guarantee it!”
“Okay… I’ll do my best!”

Crim’s pep talk seemed to work, as Hinagiku soon regained her energy and smiled happily. That reassured Crim, who nodded satisfied and let Hinagiku line up.

After parting ways with Hinagiku, Crim went to sit on the cliffside surrounding the arena, where she could watch the fights happening in the center.

As far as Crim could tell, the players were strong enough to reach this area, but not enough to go through the entire tournament. Some managed to reach the third, but they were all defeated there.

Eventually there was a really loud cheer from the curious onlookers. A cute young girl with fox ears and a fluffy tail had entered the arena. It was finally Hinagiku’s turn. That prompted Crim to lean forward and pay more attention, as she definitely did not want to miss anything.

“May I sit here?”

But another voice called to her.

Looking up, she noticed there was a young man standing next to her, someone with long silver hair and two horns, wearing a black coat. He also had two long swords draped over his back.

That sort of attire had become really popular in games because of an old famous anime, but it seemed strangely fitting for this young man, rather than appearing cliche.

Maybe it’s just his good posture, he’s standing up straight and the two swords don’t appear to weigh him down and actually give him a sense of power.

Crim’s thoughts were quickly derailing.

“Umm… May I sit…here?”
“Ah, sorry for that, please go ahead.”
“Thank you kindly.”

Saying that, he unfastened his swords and put them down before sitting a slight distance away from Crim. That showed he was likely not trying to flirt with Crim, making her sigh with relief internally.

“Is that your friend fighting now?”
“Mhm, she is…”
“Ohh, she’s actually pretty skilled.”

The young man sounded impressed, watching how Hinagiku had already defeated the first ogre.

Just like before, the first and second fighters were easily defeated by Hinagiku’s current skill level. The next one would be the issue. That would test the efficacy of Hinagiku’s training so far.

The young fox girl had defeated the first two ogres without breaking a sweat. Each victory netted her thunderous cheers from the audience, but then a new boss appeared in front of Hinagiku.

That was her third opponent, Sword Master: Ma-Tu from the Ya Clan. He was larger than the previous ogres, which paired with his black hair contrasted heavily against Hinagiku.

“This looks pretty similar as before. I wonder if she’ll get to defeat him?”

Around ten minutes had passed since the fight started. Everyone watched with bated breath as Hinagiku slowly eked out a lead.

The young man muttered that as he watched, but Crim shook her head.

“I wouldn’t be so sure just yet.”
“Huh…”

Hearing that, the silver haired young man raised an eyebrow with intrigue. As far as he could tell, that boss Ma-Tu had slightly higher stats than the previous contenders, but other than that was rather similar.

Hinagiku had also chipped away nearly half the boss’ health as well.

“The true fight is only about to start.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, it’s just that the boss changes his attack pattern entirely at half HP.”

Once the boss’ HP went down to half, it would start using its nine strike Secret Sword Art Kokonoe.

So far all the fighters had used a total of nine weapon arts, Rin, Pyou, Toh, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, and Zen. Kokonoe was a combination of all of them, chaining them together in quick succession.

It started with Rin, a ramming attack that allowed the fighter to quickly dash into its opponent with little initial movement. It could not cover long distances and also did not have much power though, so even if it hit Hinagiku, she could tank the damage.

The issue was that Rin could be canceled at any point and chained into a different attack. In this case, Pyou would follow, a two step attack with a diagonal and a horizontal slash occurring nearly at the same time.

If that was somehow evaded, Toh would follow, a 360 degree sweeping attack. The only way to escape that was by jumping away, but that was countered by Sha, a running Iaido attack.

That could target anyone in front and to the sides of the boss, so if one turned around to run away, it could lead to a devastating backstab. After that…

“…So in the end it’s a really tricky set of attacks to deal with.”
“I see. Dealing with that does sound like a really tricky balancing act, almost like crossing a tightrope.”
“Mhm… It seems she’ll be alright though.”

Just as Crim said, Hinagiku moved gracefully in the battlefield, almost like she was dancing to avoid every single slash of Ma-Tu’s katana. Seeing that young girl remain so calm under pressure also increased the cheers from the audience.

“Incredible…your friend is really talented. And no one has written any guides on how to deal with this fight the best yet.”
“Mhm, it was worth it to recreate the fight and let her train before coming here.”
“Oh..?”

The young man’s eyes quickly narrowed. Crim did not notice though, as her eyes were glued to the arena where the fight was reaching its climax.

“Wait, so you’re telling me you know this fight well enough to recreate it in training? I’m pretty sure there’s nowhere enough information for that out there, exactly how did you accomplish that?”
“Brurgh…”

Crim had been so focused on her pupil’s fight that the unexpected question made her groan like a bucket of ice had been emptied on her head.

Crap, it felt so good to praise Hinagiku’s skill that I spoke too much.

It was a bit too late to realize that, as all the words had already left her mouth.

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I just felt like talking to you for a bit, I didn’t mean to sound like I’m interrogating you.”

The young man said that while standing up, carefully patting away all the grass stuck to his clothes.

“You can tell me once we’ve faced off. I’m really looking forward to that day after all.”

He said with a light chuckle, which sounded rather courteous but seemed to conceal a type of ferocity as well. And with that, he left.

◇◇◇◇◇

“Ah, there you are!”

The young boy called out to his childhood friend, having found him after he suddenly ran off.

“Leon, can you at least feel some pity for leaving me behind all the time?”
“Hahah, sorry for that, Reinhard. I really do appreciate how you’re always keeping me company though.”
“I mean, I’m mostly doing this because your aunt asked. If my mom wasn’t friends with her I wouldn’t have gotten lumped together with you to end up like this.”
“Again, I’m really sorry.”

He tried his best to soothe his sulking friend, though it was true he felt indebted to Reinhard, who stayed by his side even with his frequent escapades.

“So what happened with that girl you wanted to see?”
“It’s hard to say, we didn’t get to talk a lot. Nothing really sprang out to me though, other than her good looks.”

Though it was clear that she was much more than just a cute girl.

“I still think it was worth it to come here though. Her friend is pretty good with a blade. It could’ve been dangerous if I didn’t know that.”

Just as he said that, an explosion of applause and cheering erupted in the audience, likely signaling the girl had just won the fight.

“Wait, was that for her then? She looked so small though.”
“I know, right? You might as well praise my discerning eye already.”
“Sure, sure…”

The silver haired young man grinned smugly while puffing his chest, but his friend only shrugged and sighed for a bit.

“Ahem, anyway… I’m really looking forward to the Temporary Guild Rank Seeding Battle Royale next week now.”
“Oh man… Now I feel bad for those girls for catching your eye. You’ve always had the habit of eating what you like first, so you’ll probably go crush them first too…”

The young blonde boy gloomily slumped his shoulders.

“Hahah, you know me well.”

The silver haired young man smiled happily, seemingly acting his age for the first time.