Sword Art Online 13: Alicization Dividing Part 13

Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Commander Bercouli.

was a mighty skil that lived up to its name, shooting forth or back a long distance of ten mel with ridiculous vigor. A preemptive attack was effectively secured if it was activated when the enemy took the first step to shorten the gap.

A fresh vertical wrinkle engraved itself upon the man's brows when he saw Eugeo, tension released from his body and his sword placed on his right shoulder.

"Now that's one uncommon stance, boy. ...You don't happen to practice the Continual Sword, do you?"

The moment he heard that subdued question, Eugeo drew a sharp breath.

To be specific, the Sonic Leap Eugeo was going to execute was a single-hit secret move. However, it was the same as the consecutive hit skills at the core of the Aincrad style, in terms of how they did not exist in the styles pa.s.sed down in the Human World. As expected, this man was no average person, to see through that from a single stance.

However, even if he had guessed that Eugeo used consecutive hit skills, he shouldn't be able to perceive the boundaries of the Aincrad style. As long as the man hadn't fought Kirito before he had lost his memory.

"...How does it matter even if I use the consecutive hit skills?"

Upon replying in a low voice, the man snorted.

"Nah, there were just some among those darkness knights in the Dark Territory who use the Continual Sword too, and I fought them loads of times. Those aren't really good memories...

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after all, those of us on this side can't use any of those fancy fluid skil s at all, ya know?"

"...Are you asking me to fight with a traditional style?"

"No, no, whether it's the Continual Sword or whatever else, I don't care what it is, go ahead. I'm not saying this is to compensate for that or anything, but I'll be starting with my trump card too."

After twisting one side of his lips into a grin, the man thrust up the longsword, wielded straight in his right hand, even higher.

Eugeo's breath was taken away once more immediately after.

The weathered grey blade vibrated like a heat haze. He thought it was due to the steam flowing through the large bath, but no matter how hard he squinted, he could only perceive it as the longsword itself losing its solidity.

-Could it be that that sword is already in its full control state?

He frantical y pondered while in the stance for the secret move.

He might had only been taught the "armament ful control art" by the mysterious sage, Cardinal, recently, but he had already gained a relatively good understanding over this secret art through the multiple cases of actual combat.

It resemble secret moves in how it granted the sword a stronger strength, but in the end, the ful control art was a sacred art, so that made an incantation necessary. As such, that permitted momentarily maintaining a standby state in between

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chanting the main body of the art and activating it with the ending line, "enhance armament", like normal sacred arts.

The amount of time the activation standby state for sacred arts can be maintained was influenced by the user's character and experience. Eugeo could maintain it for several minutes if he closed his mouth and focused his mind, but Kirito had shown he could hold the art while conversing with that astounding concentration he had at times like this.

He stil had no idea what sort of skil the ful control art of the giant man before him was, but it was evident he was quite an expert, simply judging from how he could hold a long conversation during the activation standby state. In comparison, Eugeo had no time to start chanting the art now and one way or another, the ice roses art could not exhibit its true abilities in this s.p.a.ce fil ed with hot water.

In that case, he had only one path. He could only hit the man with Sonic Leap in the gap created by him executing a secret move-or activating his ful control art, and conclude the battle.

The opponent should be expecting Eugeo's attack to be a consecutive hit skill, so it was unlikely he could react to a leaping attack at extremely high speed.

Determined, Eugeo put al of his focus into his two eyes and observed the entirely of the man.

The distance was approximately eight mel.

The Norkia style, as well as the school above it, the High Norkia style, had no skil that could reach from this range. So, if the man intended to swing his sword from the position he stood at without moving, the "trump card" he mentioned must be a armament ful control art along the lines of extending his slash's

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reach. He would have to evade that somehow and end this with a single counterattack.

As Eugeo envisioned, the man continued standing in that spot and slowly held the sword, kept vertical with his right arm, aloft.

His mouth lost its smile and released a roar that shook the entire large bath.

"I am the commander of the integrity knights-Bercouli Synthesis One!!"

Where have I heard of that name-that thought flashed through his mind for an instant, but Eugeo discarded his idle thoughts and focused entirely on discerning the enemy's skill.

A heavy thud roared out, the man who named himself as the knight commander stamped his left foot onto the marble pavement. The surrounding steam scattered away at once.

Those burly waist, chest, shoulders, and arms turned in a dreadful and rapid, yet composed movement. The sword raised straight first fell to the right, then swung horizontal y. Eugeo felt it to be the ultimate form of the sword skills pa.s.sed down among the traditional styles. A motion that could only be realized through training over an extensive stretch of time, both formless and perfected.

However, all traditional sword skil s possessed a common weakness. As a consequence of the "form" being far too grand, the attack's trajectory becomes predictable. By the time the knight commander's sword began to slice apart the white vapor horizontally, Eugeo had already jumped forth, towards the left.

That should be enough to narrowly evade any offense the sword had launched in its full control state, whatever it could have been.

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The air quivered near his right ear. But he felt neither pain nor impact.

-I dodged it!

a.s.sured of that, Eugeo activated the secret move, Sonic Leap, on his next step.

"O... oooh!"

His sword wore a green radiance tinged with yellow at his shout. His entire self accelerated, pushed by an unseen force, and Eugeo became a gust of wind, charging towards the knight commander who had swung his sword.

Behind him, the air pressure from the sword that he previously dodged hit the door to the large bath and let out a loud- No.

Nothing rang out. He couldn't sense the slightest vibration.

Was the slash that the knight commander should have launched really that fast? Or perhaps it vanished before reaching the door behind?

Impossible. If that was true, the armament ful control art of the knight commander, the man who should be stronger than Deusolbert and Fanatio, would be inferior to even Eldrie's ful control art, despite how he had only became a knight a mere one month ago. Eldrie's "Frost Scale Whip" attack was as quick as lightning, reaching as far as several ten mel.

That couldn't be possible. In that case, was the knight commander's skill not a far-range type of attack? But in actual fact, Eugeo hadn't received a single bit of damage.

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If that was the case, the man had only executed a practice swing? A display of form, no different from what the students performed during the Sword Mastery Academy's examinations.

-Is he making a fool out of me?

-Or perhaps he thought he could scare off some kid who's stil attending school with just a single practice swing?

The core of his head burned up the instant he felt that.

He was slow to notice, as a result.

There was something directly in front of the man who just swung his sword, in Eugeo's path as he rushed forward while leaving behind a line of light from the secret move. A transparent fluctuation horizontal y cut through the air. Much like the heat haze that enveloped the man's sword right before he began that slash.

-That spot's... where his practice swing cut through earlier...

A profound chill ran down his back. Although he instinctively attempted to interrupt his charge, a secret move couldn't be stopped that easily once activated. He drew back his sword and sc.r.a.pped his right foot against the floor, but his speed merely fell slightly and- Eugeo's body immediately came into contact with the heat haze that remained in midair.

A scorching hot impact surged through his left breast to his right armpit. Eugeo was blown away like an old rag flapping in a squal , swung around several times as he fluttered in the air. A large quant.i.ty of blood drew a spiral as they flowed out from the deep injury carved in his chest.