Blade Over Magic

Xander Vs Sparrow II

Xander only had time to hold up his sword before Sparrow collided with him

This time, this time, he couldn’t simply ignore the force of the attack as his entire body got sent flying.

However, he couldn’t even get far as an invisible force took hold of him, halting him midair, only for him to get smashed into the ground, creating a large dust cloud and sending chunks of rock everywhere.

’Incredibly fast, and that’s not all.’ Xander’s vision was filled with afterimages of Sparrow as she literally ran circles around him. He poured all his focus into defending, but despite that, small cuts were appearing on his body with each collision.

’She’s manually controlling her body with the Telekinesis, so she’s able to change the trajectory of her strikes on a whim, making her difficult to predict.’ He faced an overwhelming assault from all sides, and before he could catch his bearings, all the debris caused by their collisions rose and descended on him, stirring up even more explosions and dust.

Xander emerged from the dust, his shirt torn in numerous places, and he looked up just to see a throwing knife inches away from his eye, another one behind his neck, and Sparrow herself attacking from below, her sword aimed for his ribs.

Xander’s pupils dilated.

BOOM

Another loud explosion sounded, stirring up another wave up dust. But this time, Sparrow was the one to emerge from it, her sword held in her front as she kept her stance low.

Her eyes narrowed as the dust cleared, and Xander stood there, relatively unharmed besides another cut on his neck that he was currently fussing over because he was sure he evaded it.

’... Crazy.’ She recalled the scene that just occurred.

Right as her attacks were about to land, Xander actually let go of his sword! And while moving his head to avoid the two throwing knives, he used his bare palms to strike at her wrists which held her swords, causing her jabs to miss. And the dust was caused by him stomping the ground, showing this while he had immense finesse, his raw strength was not to be scoffed at.

After grumbling, Xander looked up at her and pointed out.

”Just so you know, holding a sword in a reverse grip is objectively dumb. It limits your reach and makes it easier to react to your attacks, because you have to telegraph more.” His words made Sparrow’s mind go blank.

’... Is he actually...?’ Before she could dwell on the insanity that was Xander correcting her fighting style mid battle, she heard him... breathe.

It wasn’t loud per se, yet she heard it clearly coming from Xander as he stored away his longsword and took out another one from his spatial storage, and when Sparrow saw it, it frowned.

’That’s... a sword?’ But it didn’t look like any sword she’d ever seen.

It was bent, curving gently backward like a crescent moon, as if the blacksmith had ruined it in the forge. Only one side possessed an edge which had been polished to a terrifying mirror-like degree, while a smoky, wave pattern rippled across the metal.

The guard looked like a joke. Not a proper iron crossbar to catch an enemy’s strike, but just a flat, black disk barely wider than a fist. Even the handle was strange, wrapped in white animal-skin and bound by diamonds of black silk. It felt light, fast, and completely odd.

Naturally, this was a Katana, but Sparrow didn’t know that. Or anyone spectating, for that matter.

As for the stance Xander took, it was even stranger.

He seemed to enter a kneeling position where he sat on the back of his knees. It looked almost relaxed, and yet his spine was straight, his body coiled like a spring, shoulders dropped, and weight distributed evenly over his heels.

He sheathed the sword, only to use his thumb to subtly push against the sword guard, silently unlinking the blade.

Xander had entered the Seiza stance used by Japanese swordsmen on earth.

Of course, Sparrow did not know this. To her, the entire sequence seemed strange, but no matter how much she tried to figure it out, she couldn’t.

And yet, the feeling of danger never faded. If anything, it intensified. And that just pissed her off even more.

Why wasn’t he using that strange vibration technique he used earlier in the fight? Why wasn’t he using any of his other techniques? Why wasn’t he using the sword she saw him use all the time?

She thought back to all the times she watched him. The moments she discreetly observed him training Bodhi, and how confidently he pointed out errors in the way their team’s best swordsman fought.

How when he trained by himself, his movements seemed strange and foreign, yet there was an odd sense of beauty in them.

The diligence someone his age shouldn’t have. The intelligence, experience, and strategic mindset. All of it in a 17 year old who appeared far too calm for his own good.

Every time he did something, she found her understanding of him become increasingly insufficient. She wanted to understand, but the difference in how they thought was evident.

And now, they had been given a punishment that was no different from suicide in most cases, and he hadn’t even been bothered. If anything, he seemed like that was the appropriate response. She didn’t get it. And that infuriating.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed her Overclocking to the limit.

It was a dangerous technique she developed herself. Using her force magic (which Xander incorrectly termed as Telekinesis), she forced her bodily functions to perform beyond their normal capacity.

That is to say, at the moment, she was manually forcing her heart to beat faster, her lungs to expand further, blood to flow quicker, muscles to contract tighter, and so on. It was extremely dangerous, as not only did it put her under immense strain, but if she made even a slight mistake, everything would collapse, and the backlash would be horrific.

Ordinarily, she only used at maximum capacity when she was in an extremely dangerous situation. But now?

’Show me. Show me where your confidence comes from.’ She thought as she leaned forward, the muscles in her legs bulging as she coiled like a spring.

The blue markings on her body blazed, and in her eyes, her vision seemed to tunnel due to the extreme speed she moved at.

And move she did.

But as she kicked off the ground, there was no explosion behind her, nor was any excess dust stirred up. Which just went on to show that she wasn’t just throwing mana around, but her mana and strength control was also incredible, and it raised the potency of her attacks to another level entirely.

’Sparrow, you are an incredible fighter.’ Xander thought as she appeared in front of him in an instant, and similarly, he drew his sword with an exhale.

It all happened in a flash, and before anyone could react, Sparrow was already behind Xander, her body coming to an abrupt stop.

Something fell from the air and landed on the ground. It was the top half of a sword, one of Sparrows, the part that had been separated still glowing red.

A cut appeared on Xander’s forehead, and blood dripped down to his chin. But despite this, he calmly sheathed his sword.

Sparrow sighed and looked down, watching as blood began to soak her armor from the long gashes that stretched from her hip to her collarbone.

’What a monster...’ Her vision blurred before she collapsed, but before she hit the ground, vines emerged and caught her.

Xander stood and turned to see Sparrow’s squad standing near her unconscious form, Nash using his magic to perform emergency treatment on her, while the rest looked at him with a mix of caution and begrudging respect.

”She’s worried about you, you know?” Ragna grunted out, his hands resting on his axes, and Xander was silent for a moment, then he smiled.

”I guessed as much.” Seeing this, Ragna just sighed.

”You do you, kid. Just don’t get into too much trouble.” He paused, then barked a laugh. ”Who am I kidding? You’re a trouble magnet at this point. Just don’t die, that sounds more realistic.” Xander chuckled at that.

”I’ll try my best.” With that, the Lunatics went away while Xander walked towards his own group which had been waiting for him, none of them surprised by the result.

The crowd of soldiers parted for them as they walked.

’You’re weirdly inconsistent in how you fight, because I could have sworn you used Mana Breathing pretty early when you fought against Ragna, and you barely got the edge over him, granted, none of you went all out. And now you managed to deal with Sparrow, who was going all out, while barely using it, or most of your techniques for that matter.’ Falael raised a brow. Xander was about to reply, but Aubrey spoke first.

’It’s not inconsistent, we’ve all just gotten that much stronger since we got here.’ She said simply.

’What she said.’ Xander agreed. Even though it had only been some days, the Xander now could not be compared to the Xander that just arrived at Landor, which spoke volumes of their rate of growth. It was astounding, really.

’Let’s just hope it’s gonna be enough for what’s coming.’ Curtis mumbled.

’Aw, scared, puppy?’ At that, Curtis just looked at Falael, then he raised his hand and touched their neck.

’Gah! Cold!’

’Hehe...’