Side Story 4: The Isolated Island 03

The training grounds turned out to be way larger than I expected, and there, we saw two men engaged in an intense battle.

The younger man using a katana had his pink hair tied into a Japanese-style topknot. Meanwhile, the black-haired older man wielded a jitte in each hand.

At first glance, the young man seemed to have the advantage. He kept up the pressure, unleashing a series of slashes that forced the old man on the defensive, allowing no room for a counterattack.

But upon closer inspection of the old man’s techniques, I realized that wasn’t the case. His skillful usage of the jitte allowed him to parry the younger man’s blade with ease.

The young man was decently strong too, but the old man blocked or deflected every single hit while barely moving from the spot.

It definitely helped that his jitte were made out of orichalcum, though I’m sure his skills played a bigger role.

The young man continued the furious assault, desperate to break through the old man’s defenses. Meanwhile, the old man seemed calm and unfazed, maintaining a mental advantage as well.

「Dammit…!」

「What’s wrong? Your swings are getting sloppy! I can’t believe such a feeble attack came from the One Blade school of the Ouka Style!」

「Shut up…!!!」

「Too weak! See?」

「…!」

The old man seemed to have been waiting for his opponent to make a careless swing brought on by fatigue and impatience. He caught the sword with the jitte in his left hand and gave it a slight twist.

With the hook of the jitte clamped around his katana, the young man was locked in place. His wrist had been pinned at an unnatural angle, making it difficult to exert additional strength.

He was forced with the decision of trying to pull his katana out or abandoning his weapon, which caused a moment of hesitation. The old man didn’t miss that opening.

「Here!」

「Gah!」

The old man thrust the jitte in his right hand into the young man’s shoulder.

The jitte was originally a weapon meant to subdue opponents without injuring them. They have no blades and their tips are dulled.

However, the people of this world possessed superhuman strength. An expert like him could surely inflict lethal injuries.

The jitte smashed through the layer of mana shielding the young man, shattering his shoulder bone with a sickening crunch.

Despite the considerable impact, the young man did not get sent flying backwards. This was probably due to a combination of him bracing himself on the ground, as well as the old man’s technique concentrating all the force solely on the shoulder.

Either way, the young man was at an overwhelming disadvantage with his dominant right shoulder broken. And yet, there was no sign of resignation on his face. If anything, he seemed to have resolved himself to continue, causing his aura to grow in pressure.

「Urooooooooogh!」

「Hmm?!」

What happened next surprised me. The young man suddenly let out a shout alongside a wave of mana, sent directly at the old man.

This seemed like a last ditch effort to surprise the old man and create an opening. I watched to see how he would deal with it, but the old man didn’t even attempt to dodge. He simply took the wave of mana head-on.

This was not due to being caught off guard. He had immediately realized that the mana was nothing more than a distraction and decided it wasn’t worth dodging.

And he was right. The wave of mana simply brushed across the old man’s face, unable to break the thin shield of mana protecting him. It was probably about as effective as a strong breeze.

「Hmph. Penetrating Strike.」

「Gah…!」

The old man thrust his jitte at his opponent’s chin, knocking him unconscious.

「Oh? Seems like we have more spectators now.」

「Genba! I told you to stop the promotion matches this week! Good grief! More importantly, treat Ouri’s injuries! You’re up, Sen! Give him first aid and throw him in one of the rooms when you’re done!」

「Y-Yes, sir.」

Gekkou shouted at one of the girls, who rushed over to the young man, Ouri, with teary eyes. She must be a healer.

「You don’t want me to heal him?」

「With those injuries, I believe Sen should be sufficient.」

I took a quick glance at the collapsed man, but he didn’t seem to suffering from a concussion or missing any limbs. As Gekkou said, he’ll make a full recovery under the care of an average-level healer. Fran’s assistance was not necessary.

「Come on, I know what I’m doing.」

「No, you don’t, Genba! If you had a brain, you wouldn’t have accepted the promotion match in the first place!」

「Oh shut up. Have you seen how bad the young ones are nowadays? The moment they hit a wall and stop improving, they completely lose sight of their path.」

Genba explained himself while shrugging his shoulders. Apparently, he deliberately accepted the promotion match in order to teach Ouri a lesson.

「I won, of course, but the difference in strength shouldn’t be wide enough to make it this one-sided. The problem was his state of mind. He’s just too immature. If he can overcome that, then he’ll make it through to the next level.」

「Then just tell him that directly.」

「As if he’d listen to me. Besides, not like he’s my disciple. I’m not obligated to guide him on every little thing.」

「Then why did you accept the promotion match?」

「He kept provoking me, so I decided that he needed punishment!」

Genba said that last part with an embarrassed look on his face. Do we really need an old man tsundere? It’s pretty clear he wanted to teach Ouri.

「I knew that Ouri was getting impatient, but why did he suddenly jump all the way to a promotion match?」

「Well, because he found out that young lady over there was coming to the island, of course.」

「Nn? Me?」

「Yeah. Anyone can tell with one glance. Black Lightning Princess-dono, you’re pretty strong!」

「Nn.」

「Only the top rankers get to spar with the Black Lightning Princess, right? Apparently, he thought that he could break through his limits by facing off against a Rank S adventurer. That’s why he got impatient and rushed to raise his rank.」

Ah, I see how it is. If he hit a wall in his growth, I could understand him being desperate to spar with someone strong like Fran. That makes sense for a martial artist.

「Is his rank low?」

「I think Ouri was around Rank 47 or so? By the way, I’m Rank 20.」

Rank 47 seems pretty impressive for someone so young. Actually, since we set the limit at fifty, he already has the right to participate.

「Well, he is a descendant of Ouka-sama, so I guess he’s trying to live up to the expectations.」

「Ouka?」

「Ouka-sama is a legendary figure from this island, as well as the founder of Ouka Style Swordsmanship, which was recognized by the gods.」

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