Chapter 234 The Last Day Of Work For Two Teachers
When the Fencing Professor managed to canalize the feeling he craved, he frowned and shouted:
"<Hanafuda>!"
At that point, Kira's aura gained color, shape, and density, taking on a reddish hue and an almost liquid appearance, and immediately exploded before Luke could hit the man's face.
As he was suddenly thrown backward, Luke manipulated the <Yggdrasil> in mid-air to make the roots soften his fall. Still, Luke was hurt a bit by falling on the roots, because the branches of this tree were especially tough.
"Arghh! I guess that was dumb to try to be aggressive while I'm totally at a disadvantage." Luke said to himself while he stood up in pain. 'Since I'm out of options, I'll have to use the roots, but that will weaken Vinigo's prison.'
He looked at Vinigo and saw that the old man was wearing a pained expression and was eagerly trying to get loose, even though some blood was already dripping down the corners of his mouth.
Then, Luke turned his focus to Kira, who was motionless for some reason.
The Rare Class Gene Skill called <Hanafuda> was like a double-edged knife. Because it offered forty-eight powerful types of attacks and defenses, but it drained the user's energy, and Kira knew that if he overdid it, he would probably die, so he always took some time between one attack and another.
So as soon as he got his breath back, he looked back at Luke, who had some scratches on his skin, which Kira couldn't tell if he had caused. 'He's strong; I have to be careful.' Kira thought.
When Kira's eyes found Luke's eyes, they both knew that neither of them had given up that easily.
Kira began to run toward Luke, who just waited for him to get close enough. The moment Kira crossed the three-meter line, Luke crossed his arms like an X, catching his opponent's attention. This arm position was only a feint to get Kira's attention because Luke's real movement was under both of their feet.
Unexpectedly, roots emerged from within the roof, startling Kira. He thought Luke's Skill was just to summon a tree, not literally control it. Besides, these roots weren't intending to trap him but to attack him.
"<Hanafuda>!" Kira shouted again, and so the same red aura from before cloaked the blade of his Katana, which he skillfully used to slash the roots.
Kira's sword movements were simply sensational because he not only cut them off at the base, but moved the sword so quickly that it turned the roots into small pieces. Luke had never seen someone wield a sword so naturally, like it was part of his own body. This made Luke excited about the battle rather than fearful.
So, they both fought for almost five minutes after that. The half-wolf was attacking and defending with the roots of the <Yggdrasil> while looking closely at how Kira used his Katana, slowly learning about his techniques.
Luke's intention wasn't just to find a way to counter Kira but also to try to copy later.
The half-wolf soon realized that Kira's techniques weren't that powerful, but had fixed fundamentals that made his movements smoother and more natural. In other words, Kira was so familiar with the handling of this Katana that it seemed to have become an extension of his body, which was only possible with many years of practice.
However, what really seemed to make Kira's attacks and defenses so powerful was the Gene Skill <Hanafuda>. This ability allowed its user to attack and defend in the most adverse situations with an almost supernatural manipulation of aura, which certainly became an obstacle for Luke, who was unable to advance and was becoming increasingly exhausted.
The only good news was that Kira was also getting slower over time, and that between one attack and another, he almost always delayed the next attack on purpose to catch his breath.
At one point, Luke sent several branches of the tree attacking the black-haired man, who stood still and managed to break each of these long wooden structures. Then Kira advanced by spinning his Katana and cutting all the roots that defended Luke, but the further he advanced, the more numerous those roots became.
For this reason, he jumped back, returning to square one.
By now, Kira had realized that he couldn't defeat the half-wolf, and that he was arrogant for speculating that he could seriously hurt him. Gasping, he thought:
'This guy is a real beast. How the hell am I going to penetrate his defense? My supreme skill can only press him, but I can't even really touch him. Did I do wrong to come here? No, it was Namor's order; I had no choice.'
Kira was holding the handle of his Katana with hands soaked with sweat and his legs trembling with fatigue. He was really close to his limit, and now he was thinking that it was a complete waste to have used the element of surprise that was the <Pacifier of Paths> early on, because it proved useless.
Luke, obstinate to win, sent a joint wave of roots and branches of the <Yggdrasil> to attack Kira as soon as he caught his breath. The roots went under the tiles to surprise him, and the branches went high up as decoys.
At this point, Kira braced his feet on the ground and positioned the Katana in front of his body so that he could defend himself against the branches.
However, as the fragments of the gigantic tree advanced toward the Fencing Professor, Luke felt the vibrations of the shingles of someone's touch. He looked to his left and saw Namor leaning over the roof with great effort. The building was about four levels high, so it certainly wasn't an easy task to climb it.
"Hey, you two! Stop it!" Namor cried out.
At that moment, Luke braked the advance of his sharp-edged branches that were heading toward Kira, who sighed with relief at the sight of the vice-principal. The branches stopped practically in front of Kira's face, so that their points shone in front of his green eyes.
Since this time Namor was without glasses, Luke could see in his eyes that he was being frank.
"There's no reason for you two to fight!" Namor continued to say, and applied a little more strength to finally get his entire body up onto the roof.
Then he looked at Vinigo, who was stuck in the trunk of the <Yggdrasil> and said:
"Vinigo, you are banished from your position as Professor of Alchemy at the Oukiwa Academy of Nobles and will be imprisoned for the crimes of Corruption, Treason, Injury, Human Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, Oath Breaking, Abuse of Authority, Inappropriate Use of Alchemy, Kidnapping, Murder, Concealment of a Corpse, Private Imprisonment, and for using Human Guinea Pigs... I have the displeasure of once having called you a partner."
At that point, Kira fell to his knees on the ground, dropping his Katana too. "So, you have been right all this time?" He asked Luke a rhetorical question, not believing that he actually avidly defended such a cruel criminal.