Ryu dodged Marie's sword strike by taking a step back, but it was exactly what she had been waiting for.

Knowing that her sword wouldn't reach, she swung it sharply. An invisible air slash flew towards Ryu from the tip of her wooden sword.

Air Cutter

One of the skills that humans with the Swordsmanship class sometimes possess.

The reason Marie hadn't been discouraged by Ryu's attack was that she had also been hiding a skill. (She assumed that since she had a hidden skill, Ryu must have one too.)

An invisible air slash. This skill had led to Marie's victory many times before. Every opponent who had faced her after she unleashed this technique had been defeated. Marie's unwavering confidence was due to this skill.

But…

Ryu effortlessly dodged the air slash.

Marie (Impossible... How could he dodge an invisible slash?)

Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe he just happened to dodge it. She continued to unleash Air Cutters, one after another.

But Ryu dodged them all. He even swung his wooden sword sharply to deflect the fourth one.

This Air Cutter skill attack was similar to the Windcutter magic attack, but Windcutter was visible, while Air Cutter was almost invisible.

It had a smaller range and less power than Windcutter. It wouldn't have enough power to break through armor, but Marie could accurately target the gaps in armor.

There are always gaps in armor, especially around the joints. She aimed for those spots. If a human's joints or muscles were cut, they would lose the ability to move their limbs. And if an artery was cut, they would bleed to death if they didn't stop the bleeding immediately.

Moreover, the enemy in front of her wasn't wearing armor, only a cloth robe. She could target vital points like the eyes, neck, wrists, elbows, knees, and Achilles tendon, all of which could be disabled in a single blow.

Marie was planning to cut his carotid artery and end it. If you cut the carotid artery, you would die quickly if you didn't get treatment right away. She was going to demand his acceptance to be her slave in exchange for treating him.

Marie thought that even if Ryu was somewhat skilled, he was just a commoner after all, and she would finish him off without using her skills. But even if she had a hard time, she thought she would win using this skill.

But her trump card didn't work.

Marie, who hadn't lost her confidence even after being slammed into the wall, showed a look of panic for the first time.

Marie: "(How did he dodge the invisible slash)?!"

Ryu: "Well, I wonder why."

Marie: "Can you see it?"

Ryu: "No, I can't see it, but... intuition?"

Of course, it was thanks to his precognitive ability, but it wasn't entirely wrong to say that precognition was a kind of intuition.

Precognition becomes less accurate the further in the future it is, but Ryu's ability was specialized in predicting dangers that would befall him in the very near future, with almost a 100% accuracy rate.

Moreover, Ryu could read people's minds with his Divine Eye. It takes full effort to see deep into someone's mind, but unmasked killing intent is easy to read. (*)

There are ways to hide from being read. An 'Assassin' class individual might be skilled in concealing their killing intent to avoid being sensed. But normally, people don't even consider the need to hide, as they don't expect to be mind-read.

Of course, even if someone could hide their killing intent on the surface, they wouldn't be able to hide it from Ryu's Divine Eye if he used it to its full potential.

Precognition sometimes fails. Even if you read someone's mind, there might be unexpected accidents that lead to a different result than you expected. But using both of these abilities together eliminates most irregularities. It wasn't that difficult for him to dodge invisible attacks.

Marie, unable to do anything, stopped attacking because her invisible slashes were dodged every time.

Ryu saw this and said,

Ryu: "Well, I guess it's time for me to counterattack."

Ryu raised his sword high.

Marie braced herself, on guard.

In the next instant, there was a sound, 'bang', and Ryu's sword was thrust at her throat.

The sound was the sound of Ryu's sword striking Marie's sword-wielding hand. A parry followed by a thrust to the throat. The impact of the parry shattered the bone in her right thumb. A moment later, Marie's face contorted in pain, and her sword fell to the training ground floor.

It was a thrust stopped just before it hit her throat, but Ryu then stepped forward half a step and pressed his sword against her throat. This made Marie back off, clutching her arm and throat, coughing.

Ryu: "You would have been dead if I was serious."

Marie: "G-H-How... I couldn't see it..."

She had been able to see Ryu's initial attack, even if she couldn't react.

But she couldn't see this attack at all. She saw Ryu raise his sword, and in the next instant, she was struck in the arm and her throat was pierced.

Ryu's initial attack was a slower one, with a focus on weight. (That's why Marie could see it to some extent).

But this time, he focused on speed, not weight. It was a full-power swing, using Ryu's Dragonborn muscle strength at its maximum speed. The tip of his sword moved faster than the sound.

From Ryu's perspective, he had lightly swung it (though it was very fast), but the bone in Marie's hand couldn't withstand the impact of being struck by a rod traveling at supersonic speed.

It should be noted that Ryu hadn't used the acceleration magic, Speed Accelerator, at all until this point.

He had a feeling that relying too much on his powerful spacetime magic wasn't a good thing, so he was trying to fight with his own physical abilities and techniques as much as possible.

He had been reborn with a Dragonborn body that far surpassed humans, but he still felt that it was important to train his own physical abilities and improve his techniques. He believed that even if people start at different lines, they shouldn't neglect to improve themselves.

Since he had learned how to swing a sword from Sword Saint Reynard, Ryu had been practicing diligently whenever he had free time. In fact, his swordsmanship had improved considerably.

The combination of his improved swordsmanship and his Dragonborn strength (muscles the same size as humans, but 30 times stronger, and even more than 60 times stronger if trained) allowed him to reach a level where he could break the sound barrier with just his physical strength alone, without using acceleration.

Just like a supersonic rifle bullet is invisible to the naked eye, his sword swing was no longer something a normal swordsman could dodge, even if they knew it was coming.

It was at a level where simply swinging it down would be impossible to dodge for a normal swordsman.

— — — — — — — — — —

To be continued

The battle against Marie ends, but Betty steps up in her place?!

Don't miss the next episode!